All was lost.
If the fool thought he could still claim something from this disaster he was welcome to but Hestia had no desire to die today.
She had missed an important variable and it had cost her greatly. The Crown rumbled furiously as she retreated but its will to conquer was not going to get Hestia killed. The Belt kept the Crown’s desires at bay, the will to survive overpowering the aggressive wants of the Crown and Sword.
The Spear has been claimed.
Spitting the bitter taste out of her mouth, Hestia sliced the labyrinth wall with the Sword as she reached it, opening a passage closer to her realm. She needed to regroup and count her losses. Her upper lip twitched in rage as she stormed through the labyrinth.
Hestia burned with pride and that bonfire of pride had been smothered by this loss. She had alienated Shade and likely lost the four she had sent to Allusia. While the quartet was of little importance and the loss of Mania almost a boon, having her resources taken while getting nothing in return was a slight that Hestia would not forgive.
As she tore through the underground maze of Jaia, Hestia cast herself forth into the dreams of the sleepers above. She turned every pleasant embrace in the dark into a terrified scramble to escape a nightmare. No one in Jaia would get a peaceful night's sleep until Hestia’s mood improved. The majaal queen would remind the rest of the races why they feared the dark for so long.
Vengeance planned and enforced, Hestia continued plotting her next dozen moves as she escaped back to the indomitable towers of Halaas. The palatial towers dominated the sky of her controlled lands and she very much wanted to be back. From there she could think.
From there she could regain control.
————————
Shin Boh Tahn was stunned but stubborn. He punched through the wall of the skeletal tower with ease, as he could have done at any point if the demon queen had not kept him so occupied.
The Whip and Sceptre were screaming in his mind, louder than he had heard them in decades. He had spent so long pointedly ignoring the cries of his soul relics that he hardly understood their garbled whining any more. They sounded as though they were trying to explain something to him, though he did not care for the lesson right now.
The Spear was right before his eyes.
It could shift the scales completely. He would not need his nephew any longer. Shin Boh Tahn wanted nothing more or less than complete control over everything he saw, the Spear had been his path to that possibility.
Now it was in the hands of a youth who looked so green around the ears that the pope was almost giddy. The broken Oblax Claré lay bleeding and crushed against the wall. Shin Boh Tahn was noticed by the heap of a man, who, despite the pain and damage to his body, actually smiled when he saw the pope.
It was grotesque and Boh Tahn had no time for it. He ignored the man’s pleas for aid and began storing up the power of his soul relics inside of himself. He could spare none for a useless failure as it was not just the wielder of the Spear to contend with. Shin Boh Tahn looked hungrily deeper into the room. The yellow majaal on the floor was dead or unconscious. His attention was directed at the three people still standing.
Had he seen the boy and girl before? Wasn’t the boy larger and the girl smaller? It didn’t matter. The Spear clutched in the hand of a youth like him should be no more difficult to remove than a stolen fruit from a child. Wary of the pitch-dark majaal, the pope of the church of the empty god sized up the situation and decided to choose violence.
It was often the simplest way to get what you want.
———————
Although Dan had been watching most of what occurred, there was a much more serious strain on his faculties than he realised. He had dissociated from the combat, from the situation entirely, right up until he burst from the floor of the catacomb like an excited chick. Shade and Fa Lian ran up to him and asked him a dozen questions that he didn’t have answers to and he was still working out what to say about Guan Yo Shen.
All in all, Dan was feeling overwhelmed.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I can help with that, if you like.
No, Dan replied in his head, you’re the problem.
I am the Spear, I am not the Problem.
Not THE Problem… Never mind.
Requiring an impressive force of will, Dan shoved the Spear’s overpowering essence out of his mind. Dan was kicking himself for not doing some research into the soul relics and their histories, though the information was likely to be sparse. He had never heard anything about them carrying a will of their own, simply that they were powerful weapons.
“Can you hear me?”
With his eyes firmly shut, Dan nodded that he could hear Fa Lian’s voice. “Good,” she said, “I’m right here next to you. Are you going to be okay?” With an expertly crafted calming presence, Fa Lian instantly brought Dan back to himself. He was able to take stock of how he felt and separate his own mind from that of the Spear.
He felt like a failure.
Holding the greatest weapon in the world in his grasp, he still had not been able to save Guan Yo Shen. Now Dan had to face his sister and explain that her brother was not going to come back. How? Dan had never dealt with death before, certainly not bereavement.
As luck would have it, the wall exploded right as Dan was about to struggle for some words to say.
Dan recognised the burly man as the pope, whom he had clashed with outside. The man had been torturous and cruel and he was now staring dumbly at the Spear in Dan’s grip. As though something tangible had been created, a rope binding the two men, Dan felt a weight on his back.
The Whip and Sceptre challenge us, wielder.
The Spear’s voice was becoming clearer in Dan’s mind, taking up less of his faculties to bear the brunt of its attention. He hadn’t needed the confirmation but he readied himself to continue fighting all the same.
As part of that preparation, Dan poured energy into Fa Lian and Shade’s wounds. She had shrugged it off unnoticed but small gouges had been eviscerated from Fa Lian’s legs and arms which Dan was happy to see close. The poisonous mana was dispelled around Shade’s arm and shoulder, the majaal prince gratefully rolling his arm in thanks.
“He’s coming to kill me,” Dan told the others calmly, “and I’m not going to let him.”
“Well that’s good,” Fa Lian said as she stepped next to him. She formed the wings of dragon scale at her back, taking a few to coat her fingers and give her claws. She became more fearsome looking with each fight and Dan was beginning to struggle to look away. “If he killed you, then I’d have to kill him and it would become a whole fued. Better to end it here.”
“I agree with the Lady Guan. This man has proven himself a pest. Shall we attack on three?”
Dan’s heart swelled at the support from Shade and Fa Lian. He took a deep breath, even as he felt Shin Boh Tahn start to gather energy of his own. “Thank you,” Dan said, smiling, “you really are incredible. Both of you.”
He turned to face Shin Boh Tahn.
The Pope may wield an additional soul relic but Dan couldn’t help feeling that the odds were in his favour. He wouldn’t trade Fa Lian or Shade for any weapon or boon.
Go.
Dan’s desire was pushed by the Spear and he shot forward. There would be a massive amount that Dan needed to learn about his new weapon but for now he knew enough. Point the sharp end at your enemy. Shin Boh Tahn met Dan’s charge and, with incredible strength and decades worth of experience, turned him to the side.
Dan punched through the wall of the tower, treating the labyrinthite wall as nothing more than slate. For a moment he was confused by the displaced feeling his new speed had caused within him. Dan had seen similar from Fa Lian and one again his admiration for her grew. She had experienced even half the inertia he just had and still been able to fight with the skill she showed.
He did not want to be outdone.
With a whoop, Dan leapt into the air. He cleared more than half the height of the colossal bone tower before reaching his perogeé and beginning to fall. Telling the Spear in his hand that it was time, Dan pushed the weapon forward into the air. Like being shot from a cannon, Dan fired forward, smashing through the layers of the tower with no more effort than slicing through a cake.
His manasight had not once left Shin Boh Tahn. The man had turned to face the incoming Fa Lian and Shade. Even with Dan’s ridiculous speed, they were only a step behind. Shade fell through the air above the pope, slashing down with his sword, while Fa Lian swooped low and brought an uppercut to the fore.
A flash of magical power, golden and pure, lit up the space from the Sceptre’s head. Both Shade and Fa Lian were sent flying back as though struck, each of them skidding to a halt some distance away.
As though he had planned the timing himself, Dan slammed into the ancient warrior’s back. The force of their collision pushed the man’s face into the hard floor of bone and Dan continued the press, dragging him over the sharp cracks before spinning him around once and launching the now screaming pope into a wall.
He did not crash through, though, his body meeting the incredibly hard labyrinthite with a smacking sound. Before Dan could follow up himself, Fa Lian whistled past Dan’s shoulder and dropkicked the stationary form even harder into the wall. Shade appeared in front of Dan and shouted “throw me!”
Dan understood what Shade wanted immediately. Before the majaal’s feet even hit the ground, Dan was using the shaft of the Spear to meet Shade’s feet. With the butt planted, the shaft bent under Shade’s weight. For an alarming moment, Dan saw the Spear snap in his mind’s eye but the shaft straightened itself out, sending Shade directly at Shin Boh Tahn like an arrow.
Raze struck true, piercing the man and actually pinning him to wall. Shade tumbled through the air before having his wrist caught by Fa Lian who tossed him less dramatically to the ground. Shade landed on his feet and they looked at the handiwork of their combination.
The very wall had been cratered, cracked and punctured by the force of their attack. Shin Boh Tahn himself was soundlessly gasping, all the air forced from his one still working lung. Dan took no joy in seeing the damage wrought but there was satisfaction in seeing the man brought low.
At least, for a few sweet moments.
With a gasp, the pope finally gathered enough breath to scream out in pain. He growled at them from his spot above, an incredibly angry and heretical art piece. Dan smothered a laugh and tensed his muscles. His legs, torso, arms and neck all became one straight line as Dan prepared to throw the Spear directly through Shin Boh Tahn. The very instant before Dan’s arm snapped forward to release the Spear, however, the pope acted.
The Sceptre screamed with a chorus of anguish and desperation as power flared within it. The resulting blast of force was so powerful that the bone tower in its entirety was blown to pieces. The sound of its scattered fall must have been heard in all the corners of the world, a boom from the labyrinth which would terrify the continent.
It, at least, deafened the three of Dan, Fa Lian and Shade.
A hand grabbed Dan’s throat before he could recover. “Let’s take this somewhere more private, shall we?” With no more warning than the raspy suggestion in Dan’s ear, he felt the world lurch and everything disappeared once more.