There was little time to waste. We collected the newly crafted and modified items from Numig, and he briefly explained what they did. The vessel meant to hold the jinn was made from the same golden metal, similar to my claws. I asked him what the metal was and why he used it to make the vessel.
"Purified tagoniam," he explained. "The greatest natural ore for conducting and storing arcane energy. Since I don't know the kind of magic to make a proper vessel, tagoniam was the best substitute."
Tagoniam. As the name of the metal rang in my head, another name boiled up from my subconscious. Eversharp. The golden blade that was in my room at the castle. Images of me holding Eversharp past me. Memories of slaying beasts and armies were almost clear as if I was there, but I shook my head lest I drowned in the past.
"Do you know if my claws are made of this tagoniam?" I asked Numig with my claws stretched out.
"That's what the rumors say."
"Rumors?"
"What I mean is while it's clear that your claws are tagoniam, no one knows how your claws came to be in such a state. You are the only living thing with tagoniam laced in their body."
I thought back to when I could cut through the force field in the pyramid. I must have disrupted the spell as I applied pressure to the barrier. It was something I had to consider moving forward.
Raya's tonfa blades could now deal additional fire damage and shoot fire when the hilts touched each other. Additionally, one of the clips for Mindplay's gun was enchanted to make any bullet stored inside explode once it hit its target.
Before we left for the mountaintop, Mindplay gathered Raya, Harqu, and me to discuss the battle strategy.
"We can assume that the storm that hit the city needed a lot of power to maintain for half a day. Whoever is behind this will be weakened by that, meaning they will be less likely to pull off a similar trick. Silver, you will be our opener. Our target has been fighting Elementalist nonstop, so he may need more time to be ready for someone like you to run through his defenses. Remember: don't aim to kill. The rest of us will keep Harqu safe until the boss is weakened, whereas he will use his powers to seal the jinn."
"We still don't know if it is a jinn," Harqu protested.
"Not with 100% certainty, but I will bet it is. The amount of power needed to perform this level of destruction is beyond what a normal Elementalist can do, and if there were many people behind this, someone would have noticed."
"Is this how you solve every mystery?" I asked.
"It's just how I think about things. Regardless of what we find up top, we shouldn't have to change the plan too much, but if it isn't a jinn, I need all hands on deck."
BD reverted to her rideable size but reiterated to everyone that the cold would put her in a hibernation state. At the very least, we would have to find another way down the mountain when the fighting was over. At worst, we were down one fighter.
A part of me had at least a strong guess that reptiles didn't shiver. I couldn't have told you why.
Not only was BD as cold as an arctic ice block, but our mental link almost made me feel colder than I actually felt. It would take some time for her to regain sufficient heat if she was just taking mine.
Either way, BD managed to push through until we reached the top of the mountain. At our vantage point, we could see multiple ice spikes surrounding a throne on top of a three-layered pedestal. The ice spikes held a person inside, and black-blue tubes flowed like water attached to their bases and snaked their way to the throne. The tubes almost looked like veins as they pulsed with magic. Upon closer inspection of the ice spikes, all Elementalists, including Declán and his team, were inside.
The throne looked metallic and could hold two humans comfortably, but the one sitting on the throne fit perfectly on the seat. He was a humanoid figure with ice-blue skin that reflected any light that shined on him. He was no taller than 12 feet tall and was built like a wrestler. Four boar-like tusks jutted out of his mouth and were sharply polished. His fingernails were black like the Elementalist's, and his eyes were empty except for small balls of blue lights that followed us as we moved.
This was the peak of an elemental's potential. This was a jinn.
As soon as we landed atop the mountain, BD transformed into a small lizard and stuffed herself in my hoodie. It didn't take her long to fall asleep, but she was latched onto me like a brace.
Every movement the jinn made sounded like icebergs running into each other. The jinn's voice echoed like an avalanche in the distance.
"I thought I was thorough," said the jinn. "I destroyed your cities, defeated your champions, and still you send more my way."
"Perhaps you should have done more research," said Mindplay.
Not wanting to waste more time talking to the jinn, I transformed into my half-wolf form and ran towards the jinn. The jinn only moved a hand upward as a wall of ice separated him from me. In reaction to the wall coming up, I thought back to when I cut a hole in the barrier under the pyramid. My claws ripped into the ice wall like it was paper. Although my momentum was slowed by the impact, the jinn remained sitting on his throne in wide eye shock. This gave me an opening to stab him in the chest.
The jinn let out a scream with a disgusting look of pain on his face. This must have been the first time the jinn felt pain.
JINNS DON'T HAVE INTERNAL ORGANS. HOWEVER, EVERY TIME THEY TAKE DAMAGE, THEIR BODIES START TO UNRAVEL, MAKING THEM WEAKER UNTIL THEY COMPLETELY DISSIPATE.
But then, the jinn grabbed my arm. His hand was the coldest thing I felt since being on the mountain. I was horrified when I realized the jinn was encasing me in ice.
"I don't know what you are, but your power is exactly what I need," He cackled.
Frost started to cover me, making my movements stiff. The jinn pushed me away using his magic, declogging my claws from his body. He finished by trapping me in an ice spike.
I was paralyzed. I couldn't breathe or blink my eyes, yet strangely, I wasn't suffocating, nor did I feel cold. I couldn't feel anything.
Mindplay was taught from an early age never to fall in love with one plan. No matter how foolproof a plan was, something random would always be the reason the plan failed. However, Mindplay felt blindsided by how fast Silver was taken out of the fight. He should have considered that Silver was just as susceptible to certain magics, like how he was put to sleep back in the rainforest. But all was not lost.
As the jinn turned his head to the rest of the group with his wound still open, Harqu stepped in front of Mindplay and Raya. His vessel began to glow bright orange as his body began to emit fire. In a blink of orange light, his body changed. His long hair had turned into a blazing fire, with a tail that had a flame sprouting from his backside. His eyes were white embers. The snow around him melted into steam.
"Another jinn?" the jinn asked in surprise. "What more tricks do you have in store?" The jinn sounded genuinely curious. Taking out Silver boosted his confidence, making him think the rest of the group weren't threats.
Seconds before the jinn could make an attack, Mindplay sent out his new plan to everyone, including Silver and BD, since their minds were miraculously still active.
Raya, free Silver, and BD. Harqu and I will cover Raya. Once Silver is out, revert back to the original plan.
As the new plan was being sent to everyone, an ice spear big enough to skewer everyone if it managed to find a mark formed over the jinn's head. As the weapon grew, the jinn flipped a switch on the throne, and LED lights lit up the chair from the bottom. When the spear was thrown via the jinn's magic, the metal cords connecting to the frozen prisoners pulsated as if power was being taken from the ice coffins to be stored on the throne.
Raya ran towards Silver while Harqu materialized two floating arms of wood and fire. They were almost as big as the Elementalist, and he used one of them to punch the ice spear and effortlessly crush it to snow. Harqu took the chance to go straight for the jinn, using his magic to fly faster than Raya could run.
However, Mindplay noticed that the jinn's wound was gone, and the creature wasn't as concerned over the human ball of fire racing towards him. The jinn made a crushing motion with one of his hands, and two ice golems formed between Harqu and the jinn. Both held javelins with points on both sides. They were slender and agile, avoiding Harqu's attacks despite the Elementalist's incredible speed. To make matters worse, they didn't melt like the snow when they got close to Harqu. The Elementalist was caught off guard when one of the spears managed to puncture his skin.
While still keeping his eyes on the ice golems, the jinn raised another hand toward Raya. Minplay sent a psychic message to Raya just as the jinn flicked his fingers. Ice spikes sprouted from Raya's feet like geysers. Despite maneuvering around the worst of the attack, thanks to Mindplay, many of the ice spikes were able to cut the huntress. Her blood was streaked on the ice, but due to the cold, she wasn't bleeding. Nevertheless, Raya had found herself trapped.
With Raya immobile and Harqu preoccupied, the jinn raised his hand above his head while watching the golems fight Harqu. The hand was steady as clouds started to form above everyone's heads. He was calling for a storm. Mindplay knew they would be powerless to defeat the jinn once the storm began.
Mindplay focused on the throne. It clearly gave the jinn its power by draining the magical energy of the captured Elementalist. It was like a machine drawing power from multiple batteries.
A machine.
He was still determining at first, but Mindplay was sure that the throne's design was partly mechanical. Even if part of it ran off of magic, Mindplay was sure he could shut it down, but because it wasn't wholly mechanical, he had to touch it to have complete influence. Even though the jinn was distracted, Mindplay was sure he would be spotted and promptly killed.
Harqu, Mindplay projected, tries to destroy the ice encasing the other Elementalist. I'll give you an opening.
Mindplay aimed his gun at the ground where Harqu was fighting. The shockwave from the bullet's impact should separate Harqu from the golems. Mindplay assumed there was no point in aiming for the golems directly if the Elementalist struggled to land a hit. Harqu's resistance to fire and a heads-up from Mindplay should mitigate any damage he would receive.
Minplay shot twice, and two explosions followed soon after. Harqu could use the floating firearms to block the impact, which pushed him backward toward the frozen Elementalist. The golem's legs cracked, but they still didn't melt.
Meanwhile, Raya slowly found a way out of the ice spikes. Once out, she activated her weapons and coated them in fire. It didn't take long for her to start slowly hacking at the ice that imprisoned Silver.
The jinn stopped conjuring the storm and looked split on who to take out as the highest priority. Harqu was approaching the other Elementalist, and Raya attempted to free Silver. All the while, Mindplay had revealed himself to be a potential threat with his weapon.
Eventually, the jinn focused on Mindplay, and one of the golems turned toward Mindplay and threw a javelin at him. The javelin went clean through his arm, numbing the nerves so fast that Mindplay couldn't feel it. Even though Mindplay couldn't feel any pain at the time, the javelin was stuck to the ground, leaving the PI unable to move.
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Then, the jinn dismissed the current golems only to summon four more around Raya. They started to attack her, forcing the huntress to fight for her life. With Raya and Mindplay immobilized, the jinn flew towards Harqu while creating ball hammers in each hand. The balls were the size of the jinn's torso.
Harqu, look out! Mindplay projected as the pain started to creep up his arm.
Harqu could block the jinn's attack with his floating arms, but the impact sent him flying away from the frozen Elementalist. The jinn didn't let up. The jinn allowed the weight of the hammers to swing him around like a wrecking ball. Each time Harqu blocked with his fire arms, chunks would fly off and sizzle in the snow. Harqu retaliated by sending fire bolts at the jinn, but the jinn used the hammers to block the attacks. Like the golems before, the hammer didn't melt.
Mindplay fought against the pain so that he didn't black out. Raya took care of one of the golems by using her tonfa's new ability to create a flamethrower. They weren't as fire-resistant as they were before, so Raya was able to cut them down with her enchanted weapons. It helped that the golems weren't able to hit her. She could easily dodge each of their attacks, but strangely, her hair had turned black. She wasn't moving fast so much as it was hard to keep track of her. It was like she could turn herself into a blurry image whenever an attack would land. Mindplay couldn't understand it. Regardless of how it worked, it allowed her to defeat all the golems.
Mindplay breathed a sigh of relief and could confirm a theory about one of the jinn's abilities. As long as he is looking at one or more of his ice creations, they won't melt and, potentially, won't break. When the golem cracked, there was a moment where the jinn's line of sight was broken by the explosion. Perhaps that was why he was able to beat every Elementalist, and he looked so shocked when Silver effortlessly broke the wall of ice.
All the more reason for Raya to free Silver.
Except Raya wasn't moving.
Her enemies were defeated, but the huntress didn't go back to melting the ice Silver was in. Her hair changed from black to red and back to white in a random cycle. Her mind radiated the feeling of conflict… With herself. Unique voices were arguing in her head, trying to decide if this fight was worth Raya's life. Even when Mindplay tried to interject, all he was doing was adding to the noise.
With few options to get Raya's attention, Mindplay shot at the base of the ice that encased Silver. The explosions left deep dents in the ice, and the sound snapped Raya out of her trance and quieted the voices in her head. Now Mindplay could speak to her.
Raya! Get Silver out of the ice!
Raya looked at Mindplay with concern but knew that helping Mindplay would not turn the tables in the fight. As she went to finish her task, Mindplay noticed that her hair was red instead of white.
Of course, the explosion got the attention of the jinn, but it was too late. Mindplay to the opportunity to shoot at the jinn in his bewildered state, landing three hits before becoming obscured by smoke. The jinn dispersed the smoke as he flew straight for Mindplay.
At that moment, Raya could break the ice around Silver.
The ice fell off me like rocks rolling down a landslide. I took a deep breath, feeling the stinging cold air fill my lungs. The air was stained with the smell of blood from Raya and Mindplay. I turned to see Raya, her face painted red and her hair almost matching the color. Mindplay's arm was impaled by a long, pointy piece of ice. His skin was pale and slowly losing color. I couldn't see Harqu after a quick look around the battlefield. BD was unconscious and unresponsive, but she wasn't in danger.
Couldn't say the same for the jinn who was approaching Mindplay.
I allowed memories of days I've never lived to wash over me as I reached out for the needed ones. Five golden claws materialized on both sides of me, as long as my torso. They moved when my fingers moved. I could feel the sharpness of my golden teeth in my elongated jaw.
I ran straight for the jinn. When I moved, so did my spectral claws. I reached the jinn just as he was about to crush Mindplay. The jinn changed his attention to me in a split second and raised one of his ball hammer weapons to block my hands as I reached out to swing at him. The hammer stopped my hand, but my physical claws cracked the hammers, and the spectral claws flew through the jinn's back in reaction.
As the jinn screamed, I ripped the hammer I was grasping out of his hand. I then threw the hammer back at the jinn, but he was able to move out of the way. He created an ice dome around me and Mindplay as he returned to his throne.
Even without Mindplay's mental update, it was clear that he would have an advantage if the jinn sat on the throne.
Silver. Mindplay's voice clearly resonated in my head. I need a clear path to that throne. Keep the jinn--
Before he could finish, I turned to grab him while also freeing him from the ice spear. I returned to the ice dome and attached my spectral claws to my hands. The combined strength of the spectral claws with my physical claws was enough to break through the ice dome.
"How is this possible?" asked the jinn as I brought Mindplay to the foot of the throne. "I have laid low the Elementalist scourge with my own power. Even with the power of another jinn, I have remained undefeated by an Elementalist. So, who are you to take me back a step in my plans?"
I looked up at the jinn, and with words that were not my own, I replied, "I am Silver, the Magi Hunter. You really should have known that."
The jinn disappeared into the snow, but he didn't go far. I sensed where he would end up and sent my spectral claw exactly where he appeared. Each cut I landed on him created more wounds that leaked cold mist. The jinn tried to freeze me solid again, but I could cancel his spell with my spectral claws.
I couldn't get cocky. Past experiences showed me that some spells can be too big or fast to counter. If I was caught off guard, I could be frozen again.
Although that was the least of my worries. There was a moment in the fight when the jinn slipped by me, rowing snow in my eyes. He took the chance to attack Mindplay, who was still attempting to power down the throne. Harqu was able to ward the jinn off, and he stayed by Mindplay's side in case the jinn could get past me again.
However, as the fight drew on, I had to stop damaging the jinn. If he had taken enough damage to where he would disperse, we would have lost him until more jinn had been reformed from his remains. I had to wait for Mindplay to deactivate the throne because if Harqu and I focused on sealing the jinn, he could pull a trick to harm Mindplay to distract us. While we were saving our friends, the jinn would use the throne to power himself up again.
The jinn realized a similar thing. His toothy smile was confirmation.
"You can't destroy me," the jinn mocked as I stopped attacking him, "But I don't have that restriction." The jinn raised his right hand, causing a storm cloud to form above him. As the clouds grew, his left hand and leg dissolved into powered snow, starting from the tips of his fingers and toes. Since he couldn't get to his throne, he needed to sacrifice his body to power a more potent spell.
However, when the jinn's arm fell off, my vision focused on him, but he was replaced by Shadow Fang, who was lying in a pool of blood. I was no longer standing on a snow-covered mountain, and the cold ground was replaced with warm grass. The smell of copper was heavier and came from the Shadow Fang I saw before me. I was gripping the golden sword I saw hanging in my room in the castle. I had just used it to cut off Shadow Fang's arm.
"Don't think this is over, Shadow Fang!" I yelled.
Silver, that's not Shadow Fang. Mindplay tried to separate Silver from his past memories, but he wasn't listening. Mindplay could force the memory back into Silver's subconscious, but he needed to focus on deactivating the throne so that the jinn had no means to power himself up.
Mindplay quickly turned his projecting thoughts to Raya, who had taken a knee after releasing Silver. Her hair was back to being white. Stop Silver! Harqu might have been the better option, but he was expending too much power to fight the jinn. If the Elemenalist becomes too weak, they would have no hope of adequately sealing the jinn. However, was Raya equipped to deal with the power known as Silver's Cry? He had to hope that the huntress didn't live this long if she didn't have any alternative tricks.
Raya didn't hesitate to go after Silver. Just as he rushed the jinn with his claws outstretched, Raya kicked Silver in the face and sent him skipping across the snow. The jinn temporarily stopped casting his spell in shock.
Silver quickly got back up, now sending his spectral claws at Raya. His eyes showed no signs of recognizing Raya, now viewing her as an accomplice to who he thought was Shadow Fang.
Raya's hair turned black, and she narrowly dodged the attacks while running towards Silver. The spectral claws sunk into the ground behind Raya, and he was pulled towards them, readying a slash on Raya. Raya ducked under Silver's flying body, and her hair turned red as Silver landed, sending a flurry of claw attacks on her.
Her tonfas were ablaze, and she did everything she could to avoid being beaten by the relentless onslaught.
Realizing he was still in danger, the jinn cast his spell again. Sounds of thunder became audible from above, threatening to cause an avalanche.
"Silver, stop this!" said Raya, yelling over the increasing sounds of impending destruction. "You need to focus on what's important!"
Raya's movements started to slow down to the point that Silver was able to find an opening. He grabbed her neck and slammed her down to the ground, causing all of the snow and ice to be buffered away.
As Silver raised his free hand, five spectral claws attached to each of his fingers. With what sounded like a satisfying click, the hand came down with terrifying speed but was quickly stopped by Raya, whose hair was white.
Raya struggled to keep the claw at bay. Every inch she lost was one step closer to her final rest. Her last failure.
She could get out of this.
She wasn't going to die here. Raya wasn't able to kill Silver, but if she could just throw him off the mountain--
She looked up at Silver. Past the glistening gold teeth and the maw that held them were eyes that did not belong to a monster. They didn't belong to a mad beast. These were the eyes of a vengeful spirit perhaps as old as she was. They showed the unsatisfied thirst for justice and vengeance of a man who had seen his fair share of loss.
She knew this look well.
"I know what it's like to lose," she said, struggling to breathe. "I know--I know how easy it is to become a monster. But you can't--"
Raya reared her legs, ready to kick Silver off of her. Once she did, her hair became an even mix of red and white. Silver landed on his feet effortlessly.
Mindplay watched as Raya got off the ground. He was almost done with deactivating the throne as a wave of dread began to wash over him. Like Silver, the Raya they all came to know began to slip into her subconscious, only to be replaced with something much more feral. Raya's hair was now evenly split between black, red, and white, and her teeth had become shaper. Her eye pupils were overlaid with different animals: a goat, a cat, and a snake.
Raya and Silver began to size each other up as if two beasts were meeting each other for the first time. Another thunderclap shook the sky, causing Silver and Raya to turn towards the jinn. The jinn flinched, and Mindplay felt his heart jump into his throat as Raya and Silver roared at the jinn as if to create their own thunder.
If those two attacked the jinn, there was no doubt it would be destroyed instantly, scattering his consciousness to the wind. Mindplay sped up, deactivating the throne just as Raya and Silver made their way to the jinn.
Then, a click rang in Mindplay's head, and the lights on the throne slowly dimmed.
"Harqu, seal the jinn!" Mindplay commanded as he reached out to the minds of Raya and Silver. Mindplay couldn't remember the last time he tried to dive into two minds simultaneously. It was like trying to defuse two bombs at the same time.
Harqu returned to his original look, ripped the empty vessel off his hip, ran towards the jinn, and began chanting. The jinn stopped casting his spell and started to squirm as if ropes bound him. Harqu stumbled on his words as if he was being tugged around by the jinn despite no visible connection between them.
Meanwhile, Mindplay could stop Silver and Raya, but calming them down was a different issue. All he'd have to do was find a happy or comforting memory that could take them out of their rampage, but it couldn't have been any memory. A quick glance at a random point in someone's life might show them smiling without a care in the world, only for the next scene to contain a bitter tragedy. Unfortunately, Mindplay was running out of energy. Black spots appeared in his vision like a hoard of fireflies at night. Before he blacked out, Mindplay grabbed the first good-feeling memory from his targets and ripped them to the forefront of their minds.
Without warning, Mindplay, Raya, and Silver screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Raya and Mindplay lay motionless, but Silver was on one knee. The jinn's laugh was as loud as the thunder. He had stopped struggling and was continuing his spell. Ice stalactite formed in the sky and hovered as if waiting for the command to fall.
"I am eternal!" the jinn screamed to the heavens. "I have felled every advisory that has marched towards my seat of power." The jinn looked down at Harqu, smiling with sharp teeth that shined like polished glass. "And you will join the rest…"
The jinn tried to move his arm down but found it held in place by three gold spectral claws.
I held up three fingers towards the jinn. With the spectral claws hooked into the jinn's arm, I made them yank the elemental down until he crashed into the ground. His concentration on the spell was broken, as evidenced by the storm clouds fading and the ice dissolving into snow. I ran to the jinn breathlessly and used my other hand to hold him down by putting my weight on his back.
Harqu began to chant faster and more concisely as the jinn screamed curses at us. Whenever the jinn felt like he would slip through my fingers via teleportation, I dug my claws slightly deeper into his back.
Magical binds became visible around the jinn. Arcane circles formed a disconnected tube between the jinn and the vessel as Harqu's vessel began to glow hot orange. The jinn reached out his remaining arm to pull me off him, but he had used too much energy. He tried to summon more ice golems to attack Harqu, but I used my remaining fingers to cut them down.
Finally, the jinn began to be sucked into the vessel. I let him go and watched as the powerful elemental got reduced to a compacted prisoner of a house ornament.
The jinn's cursing was replaced by still silence.
Harqu released the most enormous sigh of relief that I ever heard in years.
"We did it. We did it!!" Harqu quickly lowered his voice, remembering we were on the top of a mountain. At the same time, he looked around to see Raya and Mindplay on the ground and the Elementalist, still encased in ice.
Before he could say anything, I laid out a plan that I came up with. "Harqu," I said commandingly, "Free the Elementalist and take the vessel to Riyou. It looked like the jinn was drawing power from them, so they should surely be alive. In the meantime, I need to get Raya and Mindplay to receive medical attention, but I might need to take them to a special doctor."
Harqu looked confused when I mentioned "special doctor," but it didn't take long for his eyes to widen with realization. "Are you sure? Can't you think of anywhere else to take them?"
"BD is in hibernation mode, and the dwarves aren't known for their medical expertise. Besides, there are secrets my friends have that I would like to keep hidden. Harqu, open the Gate to Sanctuary."