Tresk stalked the halls of the king’s palace, sticking to the shadows to remain out of sight. Alex waddled close behind. This wasn’t a suicide mission, though. They had a way out of things got dicey. She only needed one hit on the critter to be happy. A single slash to apply the Venom effect. That way, if he got away, there was potential for death.
“Looks clear,” Alex said, craning her neck around another corner. A sacred-looking palace guard fled, not bothering to engage the pair.
“Let’s make this clean, Alex,” Tresk grumbled. “Theo has about ten minutes.”
“The city is moving much faster,” Alex said, poking her head around another corner. “No throne in there.”
“Yeah, they were saving some juice for the last stretch. Would’ve been smarter to stay at range and bombard us.”
Tresk cursed under her breath. The city had already covered half the distance to Broken Tusk by the time they arrived. Avoiding fire from the defensive emplacements on the city was hard enough, but finding the king was another problem entirely. Now they had to find the damned throne room? COME ON!
“That’s the wrong way!” King Hanan’s raspy voice called out from behind them. “Come! Quickly!”
“King gonna get himself killed,” Tresk muttered, turning and emerging from the shadows. She nodded at Hanan and fell in line behind him. At least he had a weapon.
“Where the hell is Fenian!?” Tresk shouted into Theo’s mind.
“I don’t know. The city is getting awfully close, Tresk,” Theo said.
“Yap yap yap. I’m on it!”
Tresk felt the doubt flood through her connection with Theo. He wasn’t as good as her at reading minds within the Tara’hek. But one didn’t need a connection like theirs to know that things were grim. The Harbinger Lite had outplayed them, even when they had the upper hand. The marshling wouldn’t blame anyone involved. This was just an unpleasant situation. But nothing solved problems better than poison!
Hanan paused outside of an ornately decorated pair of double doors. He looked back at Tresk, swallowing hard. “He is powerful.”
“We’re not here to kill him immediately,” Tresk said. “We gotta throw him off for just a moment. Just enough time for my backup to get here.”
Hanan nodded, grasping the handle and opening the door. He held his spear at the ready, leading with it as he entered the throne room. Tresk followed suit, holstering her daggers only long enough to crack her knuckles.
“Ah. There you are.” A voice flowed from the throne. A dark figure sat upon it, fifty paces away. It sucked in the light around it, flickering on the spot. “I was wondering when—”
Tresk entered the shadows, emerging next to the creature and driving both daggers home. The creature gasped as she twisted, then vanished again, appearing in the hall. “No time for a monologue! We gotta go!”
“What!?” King Hanan shouted, skittering along the ground. He glanced over his shoulder for only a moment, face stained with fear. “I thought you were gonna kill him!”
The throne room filled with flaming vines that wrapped around the entity, binding it in place.
“Nope! We’re the backup plan. Waiting for the other plan!”
“Oh, gods!” Hanan screamed, kicking hard against the ground as he fled from his own throne room.
All members of the attack party were thrown to the side, tumbling as Qavell itself listed dangerously.
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Theo tasted copper in his mouth as Qavell slammed into his barrier. The city tilted forward, towers glancing against the dark bubble of magic to crumble into the ocean below. The ground under his feet gained an indentation, roughly the shape of his bubble. His world was a blur of agony.
“Hold firm, Theo,” Xol’sa said, closing his eyes and channeling some spell.
Theo watched as his barrier was reinforced, only in the parts where Qavell had impacted. Xol’sa was adding his magic to the mix, infusing the Toru’aun spell with extra-planar power. This was the peak of magery. Not the tricks the alchemist had used to achieve his goals, but raw power. He could tell what the mage was doing, and didn’t like the implications. It was a backup plan. If the barrier fell, part of the city would pass through a portal. The effect would be disasterous.
“Hold firm,” Zarali encouraged, passing her healing magic over the alchemist.
A giant frog shot through the air, slamming into the city and exploding in a fountain of goo. “Chaos magic, baby!” Bilgrob shouted. A giant snake followed next.
Before Theo knew it, what few elves from House Wavecrest that had dabbled in magic were reinforcing his barrier. The army had assembled, marching out onto the field to face down an entire floating city. No abilities, potions, or reinforcements would help Theo maintain the bubble. But with everyone coming out to help, the weight felt lighter.
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“This isn’t a plan!” Hanan shouted, following Tresk through the streets of Qavell.
“I have a goose! This is a perfect plan!” Tresk shouted back, cackling as they approached the outer wall of the city.
People were panicking, darting in every direction to find cover. The city forced itself against the barrier, but could not get through. Tresk could feel the entity honing in on her, dashing through the streets with inhuman speed. But her Dreamer’s Core told a different story. While the entity didn’t go against any laws enforced by the core, it whispered information. It was a weak echo of the real deal, barely able to keep its form on the mortal plane.
Buildings crumbled around them as the group ran for the wall. Tresk ran up steps four at a time as Alex flew to the battlements. The barrier buzzed in her ears, grinding against the wall like stone on stone. Theo’s willpower was absolute. So long as he kept his mind focused, the city wouldn’t break through until the spell expired. She knew he was smart enough to infuse it with all his tricks.
“This is a good spot,” Tresk said with a nod. “The barrier might flicker, so be ready to be sent on your ass!”
“Oh, gods!” Hanan shouted, hitting the ground and covering his head.
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The entity tore through the city, its darkened form flickering out in every direction as though it was already breaking apart. The Venom might have been working on that, but Tresk wouldn’t risk it. She pulled a potion from the Tara’hek inventory and considered it for a moment.
“Stop the city, Hanan,” Tresk said, popping the top to the Holy infused Potion of Berserk. “We’ll need to chase after him after the first hit, Alex.”
“I’m ready to go!” Alex said, honking like crazy.
“I am the Worldmender! The Worldbreaker!” the thing shouted.
“Sure, buddy.”
Tresk stepped through the shadows after quaffing the potion, aiming her palm-strike carefully. She recalled what happened when Theo tested the potion. The barrier flickered as Tresk, Alex, and Theo all assumed her as a vessel. Her palm made contact in a full-force strike, angled just right. The Worldbreaker flew through the air, the ground cracking under the force of the blow. He ricochetted off of a building and was sent tumbling far into the distance.
“Let’s go, baby!” Tresk said, mounting Alex.
“This is harder than you would think,” Tresk said, Theo speaking through her.
“Honk!” Tresk said, giving pursuit to the tumbling entity.
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Fenian cleaned the dirt from under his fingernails. Working on a pirate’s ship was bad enough, but did it have to be so dirty. He looked down at the rags he wore, shaking his head. The first thing he would do after getting his carriage back was to find some decent clothes in Bantein. After that, he would make a trip to Partopour to visit the bathhouses, where young maidens would scrub him clean until he couldn’t smell the stink of pirates any longer.
The three-masted ship had been a worthy steed, though. The winds had changed over the past few days, blowing them on a steady course that made the ship groan. They were approaching the horn south of Broken Tusk, passing by a chain of islands to the south. Even at this distance, Fenian could feel the magic seeping into the air. One had an interesting taste, and he couldn’t recognize it.
“Almost there, my fellow pirates!” Fenian said, slapping one dirty elf on the back. “Then you’ll get that gold I promised you.”
“We better had,” one pirate grumbled. “Or it's your head.”
“Oh, it’s not about the plunder within the alliance, dear pirate. It’s about the plunder we took along the way!”
The pirates grumbled, but knew he was right. They had cut a path across the waves, stealing what they could along the way. It was the only way Fenian could keep them motivated to move so quickly. Pirates were like that, though. Unless they had something shiny to chase, they were hopelessly lost.
A pulse of power rocked the ship back slightly, drawing concerned looks from the pirates. Fenian chuckled. “Oh, it does do that sometimes.”
The ship moved around the corner, providing Fenian with his first look at a barrier. “That’s… interesting,” he said.
The barrier was too big. There shouldn’t have been a mortal alive with the ability to produce it. Khahar might have swung it, but that was a stretch. Even more, there was an entire city slammed against it. Fenian ran his fingers through his tangled hair, ignoring the places where it caught. Theo had made more progress than he expected. There was a battle somewhere. His Herald’s Core was screaming out to join it. But he didn’t have the authority. He needed to see the entity before he could activate the core.
“Damn. This is frustrating. Catch more wind, lads,” Fenian said.
“You know how to work the sails,” a drunken pirate said.
Fenian grumbled, adjusting the angle of the sails and letting more line out in the rigging. The ship lurched forward under their feet, sending a few pirates tumbling to the ground. If he squinted enough, he could almost see a fight happening beyond the city. It was hard to see through the shadowy barrier, though. The magic that rolled off of the combatants was hard to discern. A mixture of Tero’gal’s flavor with something else he couldn’t place. A white shape moved up from the fray, hovering in the air and shooting a ball of fire downward. Then he spotted it and a system message appeared.
[Herald’s Duty]
Unknown entity sighted!
You have laid eyes on an entity that isn’t registered with the system. This entity violates several laws under the protection of the Herald. It will remain highlighted in your vision until it is eliminated.
The restrictions on your Herald’s Core have been removed. You are free to act in your capacity as this world’s Herald to eliminate the enemy.
“Oh, finally,” Fenian groaned. “Just pull into the port. I’ll meet you there.”
“Where are you going?” a pirate asked.
Fenian stepped over the boat’s edge, hovering and keeping pace with it. “Oh, where else? To slay a god.”
Fenian stopped moving alongside the boat, watching as it sailed off into the distance. Once it was far enough away, he jumped. The force of the action sent the water of the ocean fanning out in all directions, revealing the seafloor below. In an instant, both swords were, slashing in a wide arc to slam against the Worldbreaker’s defenses. The Herald hovered there, winking at Tresk and Alex. The marshling and goose were battered, but they would live.
“Let me take it from here, sweet marshling,” Fenian said, blowing her a kiss.
“My hero,” Tresk groaned. Alex honked, diving to avoid the coming battle.
“Now, let’s see,” Fenian said, looking at his twin rapiers. The Worldbreaker was still sailing into the distance, about to slam into the mountain range along the coast. “Small sword is good. Big sword is better!”
Fenian swiped Uz’Xulven’s sword through the air. The path it traced was made manifest as a massive blade, larger than the city of Qavell. It slashed through the air, slicing through the Worldbreaker and digging into the mountain. The entire thing fell into the ocean in one great heap, creating waves higher than the walls at Broken Tusk.
“And more for good measure,” Fenian chuckled to himself, pushing off against nothing and diving in for a thrust.
The Worldbreaker dove to the side, the strike narrowly missing. The ocean removed itself from the strike, leaving behind a molten fissure the size of a city.
“Slippery little bastard,” Fenian laughed.
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Theo trembled under the weight of the city, sweat pouring down his face. He couldn’t see Fenian’s battle with the entity, only the arcing strikes from his sword. The creature had violated the rules that disallowed otherworldly entities from messing with the mortal plane. That had unlocked Fenian’s core, allowing him to go all-out. Each strike was powerful enough to level entire mountain ranges, tearing up the ranges east of Gronro-Dir and those further north.
Without warning, the pressure brought by Qavell ceased. Chunks of rocks exploded from the foundation, sailing into the ocean below as the city fell. Theo couldn’t hold the barrier any longer. He fell to his knees, watching as the city slammed into the ocean. As expected, the wave came shortly after.
Theo held onto consciousness as several potions were shoved into his mouth.
“Here she comes!” Ziz shouted, frantic to reinforce the weak points in the wall.
The wave slammed against the barrier, knocking it over in an instant. Seawater washed up onto the beach, knocking everyone gathered over. But the wall had done its job. Most of the energy in the wave had been dispersed, resulting in a gentle roll over the beach. The alchemist fell onto his back, allowing the warm water to soak him through. His guardians held his head up, ensuring he wouldn’t drown in what little water washed over him. When the wash settled down, Ziz didn’t hesitate to start the bridge. Even with Fenian fighting, sending more mountains into the sea, he got to work.
“Rest, brother,” Zarali said, cradling Theo’s head.
“You haven’t called me that in forever.”
“Not by blood, maybe,” Zarali said, her glowing eyes lingering on the battle in the distance. “But a brother all the same.”
“What am I?” Tresk said, falling from Alex’s back as she fell to the ground. “Chopped liver?!”
The connection formed by the Holy Berserk Potion had faded. Theo was left feeling drained from both the barrier he maintained and the connection, but they were getting better at sharing a body. It was like multitasking on steroids. He drew steady breaths, comfortable knowing that Fenian was taking care of things.
“Did you get him, Tresk?” Theo asked.
“Stabbed him a few times,” Tresk said, pushing herself to a seated position. “I knew Fenian was near, and that I had to get the bad dude away from the city. Did the only thing I could think of.”
“Smart, Tresk,” Theo said, letting out another shaking breath. She left out how she knew. Her Dreamer’s Core sang when it detected Fenian nearby. Better to leave stuff like that out.
“Leave the rest to us,” Aarok said, stepping into view with Alise by his side. “We’ll scour the city and save those that need it.”
“Don’t kill Hanan,” Tresk said. “He’s a big baby.”