I let out a shuddering breath, my left hand releasing its vice grip on my sword as I roll off my imposter. It struggles against the blade in its chest, lodged just a centimetre or two just shy of the hilt. Its mangled right hand weakly gropes for the blade handle. I shakily draw another piece of my shield with my right hand, wincing as broken fingers brush across the surface. It takes me a few moments to fuse it to my wrist instead, and I finish the job my sword began.
The creature growls, looking at me with consternation. Its face is mangled, nose blown off, skin flaking off and clumps of hair just torn off the scalp. “We spent a lot of time making ourselves what we were, it was so difficult to find someone with your shade of hair.” Its voice is raspy, harsh, no longer anything like mine. I cough, lying on the ground for a moment longer.
[Need you to hold your guts in.] Page says. [He did a bloody number on everything below your diaphragm.] I wince, I can feel the warmth as blood seeps through my wounds, pooling on the ground beneath me. I can smell more than just blood in my stomach. [Good thing we can deal with sepsis.] Page remarks sarcastically. I press down on my wounds, using the armour to tighten around what I can. My breath hisses through my teeth as the pain threatens to overwhelm me.
“… through solid stone.” I only catch the last words from the homunculi, so absorbed in my own pain. “Hah, so we failed, still, we achieved quite a bit, wouldn’t I say?” Its voice mocking, taunting. I prop myself onto my left arm, bright white bursting into my vision as I nearly fall over again. Everything hurts. My right arm, from the detonation. My back, from the cuts. My nose, broken. My chest… Once I’m sat up I reach over to my nose with my left hand. I grit my teeth. Crack. The world goes dark once more.
When I regain consciousness I find myself lying on my left side, blood crusted on my face and back. [You really need to try not falling unconscious next to your enemies.] Page remarks. [It’s been trying incessantly to push itself upright. Mind cutting off their legs so they don’t have a chance?] I sit up, turning to look at the homunculi. It snarls in frustration at me.
“I should just quietly bleed to death in my sleep.” Its voice drips with venom. I clip another piece of the shield onto my wrist, then begin to saw at its legs, renewing the blade as it dulls. It struggles against me, kicking and snarling, but it’s soon done. “What am I?” It snarls. “All these abilities, strengths. How long have I hid them?” It demands. I ignore it, throwing the severed limbs aside as I regard it.
“Your master was the Artificer from Ignas.” I say, matter-of-fact. “The Animus mage I let go.” My eyes narrow. “What was your purpose? Why were you hunting us?” I snarl.
It lets a bark of laughter out, then gives me a vicious smile. “Ah adversary, it’s always been about me, the others were just… collateral.” It sneers. “Azarint breathed his last shivering on the ground as we painted our message. Pain wasn’t enough to keep him awake, but alchemists have long had brews to keep one… centred.” Its grin grows wider. “Frejr enjoyed the benefits of those… When we…” I slam an elbow into the side of its head, wincing as the force jolts up my right arm. “Hah. We hit Frejr harder than that. It’s an art to control our blows not to kill, it was exciting to work on someone with her constitution. Perhaps the magic in her armour hardened her as well?” It mused.
I grab it by the collar, throttling it for a moment as bile rises in my throat. Pain lances through my stomach, and I stop, taking a breath. I press my left hand against its chest, shifting it and lightly gripping the creature’s soul. Its smile freezes. “A year ago when we fought your creator, he used a homunculi to act as a decoy.” I say, my voice low. “No one else in our group but me realized this, I played along, and once they had left I told him to leave, to live. To stop desecrating the memory of his family and friends.” It opens its mouth, and my grip tightens slightly, stalling it.
“He was already so far along then, maybe not in making autonomous creations that can think, no, nothing like you.” I say, my voice dropping to a low growl as I say it. “His creations though, had memory, had thought structures far more complex than anything I would ever see. I remember thinking it was beautiful, incredible… and thinking that it’d be useful to know.” Its eyes narrow, soul shifting between a few different shades.
“Let me explain to you what’s going to happen next.” My voice is icy, my finger brushing over the aether surrounding its soul. “I’m going to tear you open, and unravel your memory, from this moment, all the way to when you started this journey, all the way back to where he can be found. Along the way, your thoughts, your identity, your sick, twisted mind, all will be torn at bit, by, bit. And once I have what I want? I will leave you to die the slow death of thought that comes with having a truly broken soul.” My fingers dig deeply into the aether, and in the background, I can hear it scream.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
I’ll spare you the details of its memory. All you need to know is that it didn’t lie. I felt their blood on my hands, their desperate pleading as they begged me to stop. Qent’s fear, Azarint’s feelings of betrayal, Frejr’s crumbling stoicism, Numen’s anguish… Numen’s fury at my actions, its actions. This creature had watched me for half a year, mimicking my body language, how I spoke, how I fought, how I would play with my dagger when just standing around… It was surreal, like watching someone take over my body. They really believed it was me, all the way to the end. And all those people it killed, just so it could have the right shade of hair. I threw up by one of the walls, refusing to let the creature see me weak, even as its mind failed it.
[You shouldn’t have experienced it like that.] Page says. I shake my head, head bowed. I needed to know. I think back. [It was just you punishing yourself!] Page protests, its voice… distraught? I should’ve killed him back then. All this… my fault. I kneel down besides Numen, cradling her body in my arms. Tears spill from my eyes, and I clutch her close, feeling all my wounds flare up in pain at once as I lean my head into hers. I’m so sorry. So sorry.
I bury her by one of the long rotted buildings, a simple marker formed of worked stone, all her things I bury with her. I take the creature’s sword, unable to remove mine from the stone. Sel is at the gates when I return, the guards watching as I listlessly trudge over. “They’re dead.” I say simply, letting out a hollow laugh. I must’ve looked terrible, for she hesitantly reached out to place a hand on my shoulder. I pause, it felt… reassuring, but if she knew why this had all happened… I shake my head. “It’s not over yet.” I say softly, taking the Aesor and heading towards the stables.
The ride is long and painful, each jostle of the horse sending new and exciting flavours of pain through my body. A familiar feeling tugs at me as I near my destination, and I pull the roan into a slow circle. The pull faces away from my destination, close to it, but at an angle. I give a dry laugh. Now? Really? Some kind of sign I should just let go? I shake my head, turning back to my path. No, no matter what, he must pay. I thought to myself. I could feel Page’s discomfort as I continued, but they didn’t say a word.
His new home was just a little off from the town he used to live in. I suppose in the end he couldn’t stay away, not from it, not from us. I head to the workshop, Delving to see his soul within, two swipes of the molecular blade cuts the lock on the door, and I push it open. He stands over a workbench, writing something onto a set of parchment, but pauses as my sword unsheathes.
As he turns around his eyes fall onto my naked blade and he pales. “Oh gods.” His voice pitches high, and I lunge, closing the distance between us. My wounds slow me, and he dodges aside. He raises his arms, raising a wall of earth between us. I activate the Aesor, passing it through the wall and kicking it down to find him huddled on the ground, retching.
“Did you really believe there’d be no consequences for releasing that creature onto me. Did you really believe I’d be so easily dispatched?” I snarl. “I let you live, and instead you create a creature to hunt us down.” I step forward, kicking him onto his ass and deactivating the Aesor, plunging the sword into his stomach. “You almost succeeded, but you’ll suffer the consequences soon enough.” As I prepare to strike again I hear a voice cry out behind me. A child, with a pair of violet eyes, watches me from the doorway. The mage tackles me from behind as I turn, knocking me to the ground.
[Don’t get distracted.] Page admonishes. [Death waits for the slightest lapse in concentration.]
“Run!” He screams at the child, a light fog forming around us as he casts. I knock him off, rolling to my feet, but a pair of rock pillars rises to crush my right hand, the pain forcing me to release the Aesor. I activate Sense, feeling him running away from me. I take a step to my left, then stab behind me, shifting the blade into his path. He gasps, and I twist the blade, withdrawing it as I move over to him.
The fog is already clearing when I grab him by the throat, pulling him to me. I reach to grab his soul, but stop as I see his face. His eyes are wide with terror, the same kind of expression they made near the end, as it… A wave of revulsion rises in me, and I push him onto the ground, my blade seeks his heart, then his throat. More mercy than he deserves.
The child I saw just now had run off, their soul nowhere to be found. Not that I would have chased them down, they were innocent, only him, it was only him I wanted dead. I lean against the wall, looking at his corpse with a sense of grim satisfaction. I toss the sword onto his corpse, I no longer wanted it, just holding it gave me bad memories, and turn to leave. Outside, I give the horse a slap, spurring it to return home on its own. Let the others wonder what happened to the Masked, I could no longer bring myself to care.
The portal was just a few hundred steps or so away from where I began. I roll the Aesor in my hand, before letting out a sigh and tucking it into my armour. Into the breach. I think to myself sarcastically, reaching out to the portal.