Kaden activated [Split Second] and brought Remembrance’s axe head down on one of the Adventurers. They were the biggest threat and would recover the fastest from the shock. Kaden dropped Trinity behind the [Mage] and the [Healer].
[Split Second] let him dodge a chain made of pure lightning that one of the Adventurers swung. The [Healer] screamed as Trinity’s blind head closed over her, while the bone head continued to bash the [Mage] face to face. It wasn’t going well for the [Mage’s] face.
Before he could follow up with killing blows to the [Swordsman], a wall of stone rose up to smash Kaden back, leaving his face bloody. [Split Second] hadn’t helped at all with that, so Kaden willed Trinity to go after the fourth Adventurer, who must be a multi-class.
[Mana Drain] let him push [Split Second] and bring down Remembrance in a series of mutilating strikes. Brutal Blows and Crippling strikes rained down.
Trinity screamed with rage as a net of thorns grew around her, and Kaden pulled her back into his soul, dumping mana into [Moment of Speed] to close on the [Summoner] who’d cast it, a guard.
Kaden caught the man by the arm and activated [Moment of Speed] to ram him forward, smashing into the viewing wall.
You have inflicted 400 points smashing damage on the wall.
You have broken your ram.
Spideweb cracks grew out from the impact, and the illusion that covered the wall flickered.
Oberix stood with abject horror in their eyes, their mouth open.
*Behind you* Ashi sent.
[Split Second] failed again as a the wall of stone smashed Kaden, throwing him back into the wall. He cast Portal and leaped through, coming out behind the [Mage] and casting [Remove Hand], which was less spell and more effect of using a War Hammer.
[Mana Drain] refilled his mana—right as something dug into his calf.
[Thorn Cage].
Kaden looked everywhere for the [Summoner], knowing it was too late. He unleashed Trinity on the surviving Adventurer, who drew a sword just before Kaden hit him with [Mana Drain]. Only when mana stopped draining and blood began spurting from Trinity’s bites did Kaden stop.
The [Thorn Cage] worked its way relentlessly up his legs as Kaden became an near incarnation of battle. The [Falcrow] swooped in to claw at eyes and harrass, while Kaden and Trinity ganged up on the surviving Adventurer.
The [Swordsman’s] Dodge skill let him avoid blow after blow, but Kaden remembered fighting the incarnation of the Rat God. [Dodge] had a limited number of triggers before cooldown and when—there! Remembrance struck the man’s back, throwing him forward into Trinity’s snake head bite.
Then Trinity’s blind head roared.
Her opaque eyes began to glow golden, the same color as the light Suridev radiated, and beams of light swept out, raking across the room. Revealing a [Rogue/Summoner] in [Stealth].
Trinity screamed with rage and charged to ram the [Rogue], knocking him out of stealth and into fleeing employees.
Kaden would have helped but he had his own battle. Even a wounded [Swordsman] could still use [Crippling Strikes], and now Kaden had to be careful, fighting defensively as the desperate man went all-out.
[Split Second] told him to move right, but the man’s skill still drove his blade into Kaden’s stomach.
Kaden banished Remembrance and gripped the [Swordsman]’s arm so he couldn’t remove the sword. With the other hand, he drew the Levicon Blade and cut the man’s throat until his head lolled back.
Putting the sword into Inventory removed it from his gut, but now the [Thorn Cage] was up to his thigh. Every movement broke spines in his muscles.
A crowd set on Trinity, daggers and clubs and chairs as their weapons.
Kaden pulled her into his soul so [Resilient Constitution] wouldn’t fail.
He offered no mercy.
He accepted no plea.
With every blow, status effects spread. Bleed, Slow, Confusion, even one enemy turned to stone—and shortly thereafter, turned to shrapnel that left others screaming.
And as the [Thorn Cage] reached his chest, Kaden finally had an idea he should have had to start.[Soul Binding] reached out, taming the [Thorn Cage] and drawing it inside him.
You have tamed a Beast (Thornling).
Remembrance was a challenge weapon and would offer him no strength for a battle against weak level twenties. He didn’t need its strength. His own was far greater and with every moment, another body fell. Some fought. Some kneeled, begging, and others he chased to the bitter bloody end.
The room smelled of charred flesh, some of it Kaden’s, some the [Fire Mage] whose arms he’d broken and slammed into the puddle of fire he conjured. Broken weapons lay scattered across the floor, some driven through bodies, some still clasp by hands taken from their owners.
When the room lay silent, he summoned Trinity. “Anyone else here?”
Her eyes glowed as she scanned, then she roared in triumph and bit the head off one of the corpses.
“I’m calling a vote,” Kaden said, spitting out blood. “I vote that Oberix releases Sevin and surrenders.”
Your vote has concluded.
Your vote is unanimous.
His strength failed him, and Kaden was forced to kneel, leaning against Trinity, as a wail of terror rose outside. Dannae held Oberix by the throat, and she’d opened a rift to Mortis’s domain.
“Hold.” Ashi spoke with authority. “I bring a message from the Fate Weavers. Oberix’s fate was to be consumed by the Blight. But she has broken free of that.”
At this, the broker smiled.
“So another Fate has been woven to protect the many. She will be possessed until oblivion by one of power and used as a weapon against the Blight. The Cataclysm will not happen today, not while Fate Weavers stand guard.” Ashi bowed.
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Serta’s spirit floated from behind Ashi, closer and closer. Oberix struggled, yes, but the spirit descended on them, wrapping Oberix’s flesh.
The rift closed, and Oberix’ possessed body stood, walking awkardly away.
Ashi intoned a spell, and the shattered crystal wall separating her from Kaden blew inward. She leaped over the remaining shards and drew a healing potion from Inventory.
Kaden didn’t mind the wounds or the blood.
What he minded were the bodies, so many of them smashed beyond resurrection. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Even the choices we do not wish to make are still ours, and the burden to make them comes with the power to do so. This was the edge of a Cataclysm. Oberix planned to break the weave of fate and escape. The Blight would consume all while the Necromancers focused on Diggus.” Ashi prompted him to drink the potion.
“Sara and Eve?”
“The battle to protect Fate Weavers was fierce. They are in Omnor guarding the weavers.” Ashi drew something from Inventory. [Fate Breaker]. “Oberix could not touch it once the vote was complete. It burned her hand when she tried to strike with it.”
Kaden took it. “Dannae, I need something.”
One of her lumbering giants cleared the crystal shards for her to join him. “You brought me more bones?”
“Resurrect them. The ones that can be.” He surveyed the carnage. “For the ones who can’t…is there an offering to Mortis I should make?”
“None that would change his decrees,” Dannae said. “You were glorious. A whirlwind of destruction, like the fist of Mortis himself. If that’s what a [Beast Master] is like at tier two, you will be terrifying at fifty. I can’t wait to see what kind of [Nemesis] the system unleashes. I mean, I don’t want to be anywhere near it, but I’d like to watch it level cities from a distance.”
Her skeletons began to gather corpses, stacking them in different piles.
Kaden didn’t even want to loot them. “Let’s get Sara and Eve. Let’s go home. I have something to do.”
###
When he arrived at the farmhouse, it was a simple thing to send the [FalCrow] to Mr. Dervish. A simpler thing to carry Trella’s corpse to the Far Portal. Eve’s face was still streaked with blood, and Sara had practically made a skirt from the wands hooked to her belt, but the party went together, through the Far Portal.
Night had fallen on Verona, but Kaden wasn’t afraid of robbers or [Thieves]. One guard caught his eye and then found somewhere—anywhere—else to look as they headed toward Beast Control. A single bay stood open for them to enter.
In the doorway stood a [Shadow Blade] woman. Aunt Triss.
“You’re ready to do this?”
He nodded. “How did you know?”
“Dervish sent word. How do you plan to break the binding?” Triss asked.
He patted the knife in his belt.
Beast Control was always loud, but as he made his way through, the Beasts grew silent. They stopped trumpeting, stopped growling, and shrank away from Kaden as he passed.
“You’re scaring them,” Sara said quietly, putting a hand on his arm.
Kaden wasn’t intentionally using [Beast Soul] but right now, his focus was absolute. His determination was like the World Boss, Levicon.
Mr. Dervish stood outside the summoning room door, wearing scarred battle armor and his usual green crystal in the empty eye socket. “Kaden. I was busy. But this is worth making time.”
Kaden gave him a nod as he handed over [Fate Breaker]. “I was told I never use this on the binding. But I realized it’s not me using it.”
Mr. Dervish studied the blade, then opened the door. “Jackie, they’re here.”
Mistress Scylla stood inside the circle, which was already adjusted to show soul bindings. “You say you have a way to destroy the binding. If that happens, Trella will be offered a chance. An opportunity so rare I know of exactly three. The choice to dual-class as a [Liberator].”
Kaden didn’t care about that. “Eve?”
Eve set down Vip and activated [Life Exchange].
Trella convulsed in Kaden’s arms, gave a short cry, and then went limp. Fear gripped him like Mortis’s claw in his stomach, until her eyes fluttered and she raised her head. “Did I?”
“No.” Kaden gently set her down on the stone and kneeled beside her. “Destroy the binding.”
Fate Breaker flashed in Mr. Dervishe’s hands, and the red bond between them screamed, then withered into flashes of light that drifted away like embers on the wind. Another strike, and another, over and over Mr. Dervish attempted to cut it. Then he stepped back. “We need drainers. It’s regenerating off their mana.”
Mistress Scylla dispatched a messenger bird. “The mana drain process is incredibly painful. I have something that will help. Euphorium is the venom of a [Cave Mimic], a creature who pretends to be a cave. The venom makes its victims unable to sense they are being digested.”
Kaden gladly accepted the drop on his tongue.
Hard to Kill has granted you a new resistance: Resist Euphoria
A wide grin spread across Trella’s face, and she lay back. “I dreamed of you.”
“Is it just her mana, or is it mine?” Kaden asked. “I can drain hers and use mine.”
“You’re awfully coherent for Euphorium,” Mistress Scylla said.
Kaden activated [Mana Drain] and drained away Trella’s mana. She didn’t even flinch or react, and Kaden knew it was sheer agony. Then he activate [Relive the Moment] and [Moment of Speed], using it to burst around the summoning circle.
“Both of you, take this.” Mr. Dervish drew two potions, electric blue liquid that raced up the sides of the vial. “Treadle refined it from [Kalarak] essence. We’re not sure what to call it, but it’s damn near impossible to keep in the vial.”
Kaden helped Trella drink hers.
Then downed his in a straight chug.
The extreme need to be free hit him like a runaway wagon. His hands didn’t tremble, he couldn’t help clawing at the edges of the circle. Hurling himself against the circle. [Moment of Speed] almost made him fast enough to pass the barrier.
“Jackie, you use the knife. I’m going to break that binding free, you carve the threads off.” Mr. Dervish drew a binding and frayed it into a whip.
The world lit up red in pain as he struck. The whip went through Kaden and came out glistening with his blood over and over. Each strike removed a fiber of the red mesh that covered Kaden.
Mistress Scylla sliced, not at the main binding but at each fiber. “Keep going. More! Get these here!”
Agony came in waves, and Kaden surrendered to the need deep in his soul to break free, using [Moment of Speed] over and over. Portal would probably have worked, but this wasn’t a conscious act, but a primal drive born of the Kalaraks.
“Almost there!” Mr. Dervish shouted.
The world went quiet.
Pain no longer danced along Kaden’s nerves, though his limbs trembled with energy. The stone floor was sticky wet and his arms wouldn’t move.
“Trella, wake up. Focus for just a moment. I need you to accept the prompt,” Mistress Scylla said. “Do that, and you will be able to get your revenge on every [Slaver]. You’ll be free to hunt down those who corrupt the System. Excellent, you can rest now.”
Kaden finally had enough coherence to check his health. It sat at twenty five and ticked upward—then a rush of healing hit him. Eve’s [Life Transfusion] swept through him like warm wind. He pushed himself to his knees, then wiped crusted blood from his face.
White lines covered Trella’s face from the lashing, and there was no sign of intelligence. She rested in the Euphorium. Something had changed, though.
When [Identify] finally worked, it left him shocked.
Her class now showed [Shadow Blade] (22) and [Liberator] (1). “What did she do?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, she needs to heal mentally as much as physically,” Mistress Scylla said. “[Liberator] is an antithesis to the [Slaver] class. It only gains levels as she breaks the bonds of [Slavers].”
Kaden picked Trella up. “It’s time to go home. Mr. Dervish, Mistress Scylla, thank you. What happens to Treadle?”
“I ain’t decided yet. He’s destroyed a few cities. He’s caused a few plauges. Unleashed more monsters than I can count but this? This was different.” Mr. Dervish rubbed his chin. “No matter what he meant to do, he created something that could have unleashed another [Slaver].”
“His fate will not be yours to decide if I have any say. We waste time here,” Ashi said. “Let us rest at home.”
Kaden accepted [Fate Breaker] from Mistress Scylla. His hands still tingled and his knees threatened to give out. “How long will the Kalarak essence stay in me?”
“Ain’t going to be long,” Mr. Dervish said. “It don’t like being trapped in you any more than it likes being trapped anywhere else. Euphorium’s short acting. I give it an hour at most.”
“Slightly less. There’s an antidote, but no reason to use it.” Mistress Scylla opened the door to the Summoning room. “I’ll escort you to the Guild. In a few days, I’ll need you to come to town. James can forge tokens, I’ll answer questions Trella may have. Her secondary class won’t show to anyone she doesn’t trust implicitly. Don’t tell anyone.”
Kaden didn’t need to be told that.
Minutes later, he stepped through the FarPortal at the Guild and emerged at the holding. The crisp night air held the promise of snow, and Kaden didn’t mind. It would be good to rest. Good to relax.
Trella stirred lifting her head. Her eyes focused, truly focused. “Level twenty eight? How long was I dead? I swear, if you make Centurion before me, I’m going to kill you.”
Kaden had never been happier.