As the golden flames leveled the front of Svend’s manor, I lost my connection with the undead girl. I could not see the effect of the explosion on Sebastion but I doubt it did much. For as strong as the flames were, compared to the blows Sebastion had shrugged off while fighting Svend, the golden fire was still weak.
My true goal was the poison contained within the girl’s stomach. While I had taught Sebastion and Lucia a great many things about their innate talents and domains, poison was never included in those lessons. I never wanted them to follow in my footsteps in that area.
While Sebastion might have learned much in the past fifty years since my death, Carian flowers could only be found in Tressa. While common there, it was not something Sebastion would know how to deal with. He could use his domain to protect him from the poison but the more he did so, the more energy the poison would devour.
This first explosion was the most important. From this point forward, Sebastion would be more cautious. With how close the undead girl had been, a great deal of the poison should have come into contact with Sebastion’s domain. I could only hope that it would be enough.
A few minutes after losing contact with the undead girl, a figure stepped down into the freezing catacombs. I could not help but chuckle at the smoke rising from his clothes. There were no new injuries visible but it was clear the explosion had caught him off guard even more than I expected.
Sebastion paused as he saw the endless rows of corpses that lined the catacomb. For a moment, I worried that he might turn around and find an alternative way to draw me out but, in the end, a familiar stubborn pride drove him to walk deeper into the catacombs.
The very first step Sebastion took, there was a snap from a nearly imperceivable string. Three spears shot from the wall, stabbing towards Sebastion. The crack of wood echoed through the catacombs as the spears shattered against an invisible barrier before even getting close.
Sebastion scowled in contempt as his domain blasted away the remains of the trap. “Really, Aurielle? Is this the best you could come up with? I expected more.”
Sebastion did not even make it two more steps before another trap triggered. Darts coated in a poisonous substance fell from the ceiling. Once again, the makeshift trap did not get anywhere close to Sebastion. The darts shattered into splinters with a single thought before falling to the ground harmlessly.
However, it was at this time that the corpse closest to the door moved. His jaw clenched down on the crystal in his mouth and an explosion of golden flames shook the catacombs. Once again, Sebastion was caught in the blast as a poisonous smoke filled the space.
A burst of feminine laughter echoed through the catacombs. A voice that had not been heard in the realm in over fifty years. It was my voice, or at least it had been a long time ago. It took days for Esben to get the pitch right since he had never heard that version of me speak before but with some trial and error with his shapeshifting, we eventually got the voice close enough that even I could not find any flaw. Through the use of glyphs my dad designed, there was not a single place in the catacombs the voice did not reach.
“Poor little Sebastion, always so confident in your power even when it fails you time and time again. I warned you, no power is absolute and yet you never listened. Because of your overconfidence, Lucia died. She sacrificed herself to save you because of your stubborn refusal to accept a simple truth. You are weak.”
“Silence!” Sebastion shouted as brilliant light filled the catacombs. Rock and stone melted under the fierce heat. Traps were destroyed in a flash and corpses were cremated into ash. Sebastian’s outburst extended even farther than I expected, destroying one of the undead I prepared ahead of time.
Still, the disembodied voice did not stop speaking. “I had hoped that Lucia’s death would teach you a lesson. That you would learn from your mistakes and carry on her will. I was wrong. Lucia’s sacrifice was wasted on you.”
Sebastion did not reply to Esben’s taunts this time as he marched forward with a grim bloodlust. Light continuously radiated in every direction as Sebastion completely ignored the labyrinth I had prepared for him. When he reached the first wall, he did not turn to follow the past but simply pointed at it. A blast of brilliant light obliterated the stone and cleared a path forward for him. Breaking through the catacombs this way was overkill as he could have accomplished the same thing with just his domain. It was clear that the speech I prepared was getting under his skin. Not that taking the direct route helped Sebastion in any way, it was not a straight path to get to the end of the maze where the dragon's room waited. If Sebastion wanted to waste his energy blasting apart stone, I was more than happy to let him.
Sebastion tore his way through wall after wall as the voice continued to speak. “Lucia would be so heartbroken if she could see you now. You wasted everything she gave you. The kingdom that was to be hers has shattered into a shadow of its former self. The friends she held so dear, pushed away while your true enemies poison the land. Corruption, bandits, and Demonkin run rampant as you hide away in my former palace. You became everything she once stood against, everything she hated.”
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Sebastion’s step faltered as his light dimmed slightly but that hesitation only lasted for a single moment before the light flared even brighter than before. “You have no right to judge me!” Sebastion shouted furiously, “Do you think it was easy? I was forced to clean up the mess you left behind. I unified the houses of the councilors you murdered, built an army from nothing to protect the people, and forged new alliances with the Thirteen Divisions. I was the one who brought peace back to this land! I am the hero of the people!”
Laughter once again echoed through the labyrinth and I relayed to Esben what he should say. “Lucia was a hero. You… You are nothing more than a child playing savior. The only thing you ever accomplished was killing me. Everything else? Anyone could have accomplished that with your power. All you did was the barest minimum. You never strived to help anyone. You never tried to make this land more prosperous. You never tried to bring smiles to the faces of your people. You never tried… So, disappointing…”
Sebastion roared in rage as he smashed through another wall. The light he radiated destroyed any traps before he even got close. The corpses that lined the walls were all cooked into charcoal in seconds. I tried detonating one undead before it could no longer move but Sebastian was still too far away at the time for there to be much of any effect.
“Enough of this game! Show yourself Aurielle!” Sebastion shouted.
“Why would I do that?” the disembodied voice replied with a little laugh, “I let you kill me last time. Even that accomplishment is something that was handed to you. Now that I have returned, I have no intention of making things so easy for you.”
“You cannot hide from me forever.”
“Oh, but that is where you are wrong, my little Sebastion. I absolutely can hide from you forever. You have never seen my new face. All I have to do is blend in as a simple civilian and you will never be able to find me. That is the beauty of my talent. I never have to actually act personally unless I want to. Over time I can create an endless army of undead that would whittle away at your kingdom until nothing remained, all from the comfort of my home. Eventually, the numbers would overwhelm even your talent and you would die, unable to do anything to me. I have done so countless times before against realms far stronger than this one. Even if you did find me, all I would have to do is kill myself and within a few years, a new undead army will rise up just as powerful as the last. Death means nothing to me. Not that any of it matters, Envy’s invasion will wipe out this realm soon enough without my help. Which leaves the question, why are you here Sebastion? What are you hoping to accomplish?”
Sebastion appeared to have calmed down slightly as the light around him disappeared. Through a nearby undead, I could see him clench his fist before taking a deep breath. “As you have said, this realm will never be at peace so long as you run free. You will face justice for your countless crimes in the dungeons you once ruled. As for Envy, I will kill him myself.”
From my hiding place, I legitimately laughed as I heard Sebastion’s reply through the undead. For better or worse, Sebastion had not changed at all in the fifty years we had been apart. Unfortunately, that stubborn confidence would not help against Envy. He should know that. I could not help but be curious now about what Sebastion might have planned.
“Ignoring the fact that the Thirteenth Division would never allow my incarceration, you have faced Envy before. You know his power. I have seen nothing in the Novus Kingdom capable of combating a Demon of his strength.”
“Then you did not look very hard,” Sebastion replied with an annoyed huff, “You might be right, I am not a very good king. I never cared for the crown but that does not mean I spent the past fifty years doing nothing. I knew Envy would return one day. I have spent every waking moment since preparing for my revenge.”
I fell silent as Sebastion continued to blast his way through the walls of the labyrinth. His emotions were slightly more under control now and he was no longer radiating light in every direction. This allowed the nearby traps to trigger and even one of my undead to detonate near Sebastion with some effect. None of them hurt Sebastion of course but it did force Sebastion to react as his annoyance at the labyrinth built up.
“Is a life focused only on revenge really what Lucia would have wanted for you?” I finally conveyed after several minutes of silence.
This time it was Sebastion’s turn to laugh as his innate talent blasted through several walls simultaneously with a single wave of his hand. “Since when did you become so sentimental? You of all people should understand my desire, or did you think I did not know of how you slaughtered the entire Corvus family?”
I could not think of a good reply as I once again fell silent. He was right, of course. I was hardly one to lecture others about revenge. For now, I did not need to say anything else to rile Sebastion up. He was burning through energy at a speed even greater than my best-case scenario as he blasted through the walls trying to find me. Driven by either anger or pain, Sebastion held nothing back as he tore through the maze I set up with ease.
Even with that determination though, it still took almost two full hours before Sebastion finally found the end of the labyrinth where the corpse of the dragon waited. Standing next to the dragon was a beautiful undead woman. A vibrant green flame danced across her hand less than a finger’s width from the creature’s scales.
Even Sebastion’s face went pale as his gaze fell on the giant scaled beast. The undead woman smiled as I took direct control of her body.
“Congratulations on completing my game, Sebastion. Unfortunately for you, my real body is not actually here. Instead, I will let you pick a prize for playing along. Option one, you leave here and we settle our grudge after Envy has been dealt with, or option two, I bring this little critter back to life and we both get to see how much power a dragon retains as an undead.”