Chapter 58 – A Roar of Fury

After Caine’s words, Adam could feel the shift in the people around him. Emily eyed him with caution in her eyes, and she distanced herself a bit from him. Changing her stance to be ready for an attack.

Oliver’s mind clearly worked overtime as his eyes swivelled from Caine to Adam and back to Caine.

Adam recalled how alone he used to be. Before he was embraced by the warmth of his dear friends. And how he’d felt after the War, when he’d lost them again. A shiver ran down his spine. “I’ve missed you, all three of you. Ever since the War of the Prophet, I thought I couldn’t come back. But for those years, the only thing I truly wanted was to turn everything back to normal.”

Adam looked up with tears in his eyes at Oliver, Emily, and even Caine. “To laugh together, make fun of each other. To go for nights out. To play boardgames, like we did back in our secret hideout, do you remember?” He halted for a moment to catch his breath. “When I received Oliver’s letter to get back together, I was so… happy, I’d…” He laughed and shook his head incredulously. “For what would I plan all of this? Power? To win a war I’m not even fighting in?”

Adam looked at Oliver and Emily. “I know I’m not perfect. But all I wanted was for us to escape the Realm. To survive together and save my family that Caine stole. After all we’ve gone through, would you let Caine talk us into fighting each other? After he ordered the Thalers, Roots, Shepherds and everyone to capture or kill us? You saw how he—”

“And blah, blah, blah!” Desdemona said, raising her sword. “All this talk isn’t going to help. I don’t care who you all believe, but Adam is mine.” With a shrieking noise, she embedded the tip of her sword in the tiles on the ground. She raised her one hand in front of her chest with outstretched fingers. The challenge of a warrior.

“May the man you used to be rest in peace, Adam,” Caine said monotonously, his eyes boring into Adam with bitter resolve as he made the same gesture as Desdemona.

Ain’t this the perfect timing to not have weapons on me. Adam sighed and returned the gesture. He swallowed and looked at Oliver to his right. Oliver’s eyes swivelled back and forth between Caine and Adam but rested upon Adam’s and smiled. “Aves knows you aren’t perfect, you stubborn mule. But I believe you, buddy. I said I’d be with you until the end, and I’ll keep that promise.” He stepped beside Adam and made the gesture as well.

Something almost seemed to break inside Adam, but he kept it together. Always my good friend, despite our different views and opinions. He smiled in gratitude at Oliver and then forced himself to look at Emily.

Emily and Adam looked each other in the eyes. Her expression was hard and icy, but clearly her mind was racing just like Adam’s. He looked at her without flinching. See that I’m speaking the truth. See that you can trust me.

In the deep pools of Emily’s eyes, he saw anger, pain, sadness, and confusion above all. In that regard, it was like looking into a mirror. The wound of her lie throbbed, but underneath it all lay their shared past. And how they had helped each other through the realm.

Emily looked back at Caine, and a veil of anger swept over her face before she stepped beside Adam to the left. “Don’t make me regret this.” She returned the gesture of a challenge to Caine.

“Likewise,” Adam said, suppressing a relieved smile. “I’ve got your back.” Just don’t stab me in mine.

Caine’s eyes swivelled to Emily and Oliver with a frown of disappointment. Too bad your tricks didn’t work, asshole.

For a moment, the five combatants stood there in silence. The air around them turned cold as Oliver, Emily, and Caine gathered Oquira. However, Adam’s muscles were warmed by the Inner Fire that rushed through his veins. Sinister heat that radiated from Desdemona singed his skin from the right.

It was deathly silent on the Grand Square of Ziecherhein. Adam wondered when the last time was that Oliver, Emily, Caine and himself had come together at this place. How they must’ve laughed and had fun at the cosy spot in their trusty city. Now, they and Desdemona made the gesture of a challenge. Where did it go wrong? How did we end up like this?

Desdemona was the first to move. Quick as lightning, she kicked up her sword and vaulted at Adam, hissing her war cry. She bared her teeth like a lion and pointed her sword straight at Adam’s chest.

Adam bolted forward. Quick as a fox, he ducked beneath her stab and barrelled into her legs with his shoulder. Thrown off balance, Desdemona grunted when she hit the ground and rolled over.

Shackles of Ironglass flew towards him, and Adam jumped to the right to dodge at the last moment. From the corner of his eye, he saw how Caine controlled eight of his Ironglass chains. He swirled several around to fend off daggers of Marrow that Emily was flinging at him.

When Adam eyed Desdemona again, she had stood up already and hissed in fury. She conjured three translucent scorpion’s tails, one out of her arm, on out of the stump underneath her other shoulder, and out of her snarling mouth. The Invocations of savage, orange energy surged towards Adam, Emily, and Oliver.

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Adam quickly rolled aside to dodge the one aimed at him. From Adam’s left, Caine fired his next attack: a chain of Ironglass staffs. The staffs were covered with Marrow serrations at the sides and connected to each other with joints at the ends.

Adam jumped aside to dodge the barbed tip of Caine’s construct, but Desdemona’s scorpion tail surged towards him from the right. Beset from all sides, Adam elbowed the tail out of his way and valiantly tried to ignore the burning pain all over his arm. He ducked and rolled before the staffs of Caine’s Invocation could encircle him and he dashed behind the burial pole of Doren the Tranquil. There was no time to look at the heroic woodcarvings of Doren’s life before both Invocations hit the column. Lacquered wood splintered and the ashes of the man who had founded the country spewed out. Adam grabbed a chunk of wood and sprinted from behind the ruined column.

To Adam’s left, Oliver let out a roar, his face scrunched up in concentration. He fired his silver orbs of Shrike, compressed with Gaolom, which shredded through both Desdemona’s and Caine’s Invocations. But while the tail dissipated, the staffs that made up Caine’s chain simply disconnected from each other. At a wave of Caine’s hands, the staffs independently changed direction and shot towards Oliver.

Adam ran towards Desdemona, who was fighting Emily in a savage melee. Despite Emily’s mastery of her long halberd, Desdemona’s assault was simply overwhelming. Laughing like a bloodthirsty hyena, Desdemona kicked, vaulted, and slashed in wild abandon, driving Emily back.

Adam leapt at Desdemona, raising his right fist. She locked eyes with him for just a moment and adjusted her stance to counter. However, before he hit her, he threw the chunk of wood with his left hand. She widened her eyes in surprise and nimbly deflected it with her blade. However, when she blocked Adam’s kick that came right after, she was thrown just a tad off balance.

Emily screamed as she swung her halberd. Although Desdemona nimbly stepped aside, the razor-sharp Marrow barely managed to nick her side. Moreover, on the backswing, Emily hit Desdemona full in the face with the blunt end. Adam punched, but Desdemona ducked and he hit nothing but air. Coming in low, Desdemona stabbed at Emily, who was able to deflect the blade but stumbled back by the brutal force of the impact.

Before Adam knew it, Desdemona’s blade neared his neck. He grabbed the hilt, twisted the blade away, and bent forward for a headbutt, just as she did the same. The impact hit him like a charging rhinoceros; his vision blacked out for a moment and he felt the shock travel down his spine. Hardened skulls still touching, they snarled at each other in the fury of combat. Adam grunted, feeling the veins in his neck bulge in the effort to struggle for the blade. He was secretly amazed by how her one arm was able to compete with both of his.

Emily charged from behind Desdemona’s back. She swung a Marrow dagger with her right hand, but Adam saw she also had one hidden in her left sleeve. What if Emily stabs me? She is a Pendulum after all. In a split second, Adam felt his rage for her lie flare up again.

Emily’s first dagger neared, but Desdemona twisted her body, kicked, and blocked the knife with the hidden blade on her boot. Adam’s opportunity was right there; he could step in and strike the back of Desdemona’s head. However, that would mean coming within Emily’s range. Having no time to think, Adam went for the slower, safer option of a sideways kick. Agile as a mongoose, Desdemona ducked and rolled away, twisting her blade from Adam’s grip and dodging both of their attacks.

Damn! Adam tried to grab her again, but the moment was gone. With a deft series of jumps and somersaults, she even dodged Emily’s furious blast of Shrike.

Oliver ran next to them as finished up conjuring his Owl of Blades. “Get them through the spiral, to the Node!” he hissed softly. “I have an idea!”

Adam nodded and charged at Caine, who stood about thirty feet from the spiral. Caine raised his hands; nine diamond-shaped surfaces of Ironglass appeared around him, each with a razor-sharp edge of Marrow. Two of them shot forward to Adam, spinning as they flew.

Adam jumped and twisted in the air, briefly seeing his reflection in the diamond’s surface before he shattered it with a punch. He ducked right before the second could take off his head and continued running.

Several feet behind him, Emily threw a Shrike bomb. However, Caine effortlessly made his Invocation slide together and form a shield that protected him from the blast and Marrow shrapnel.

How can I get close? By the whistling sound behind him, Adam knew one of Caine’s razor-sharp Invocations was spinning through the air towards him. To his left, Oliver’s Owl of Blades dodged one of Desdemona’s scorpion tails in mid-air.

“Some help would be mightily appreciated!” Adam screamed as he ran.

The Owl of Blades flapped its wings and shot right towards Adam, its Ironglass and Marrow legs extended. Oh sure! Let it rip my head off! Wait… Before two diamonds from Caine could hit Adam, he jumped up and grabbed the terribly cold surface of the Owl’s legs. The owl swooped up in a wide arch, evading Caine’s razor-sharp Invocations and flying towards Caine.

Caine snarled in frustration as Emily threw volley after volley of Marrow daggers, forcing him to use multiple diamonds in defence. Until Desdemona charged her from the side.

Adam released the paws of Oliver’s Owl of Blades and soared straight towards Caine.

Caine raised an eyebrow and scoffed, making the diamonds in front of him spin. If Adam dared to get close, he’d be turned into mincemeat.

But things weren’t the same as when they’d fought in Caine’s mansion. Adam felt all the wounds he’d endured in the Realm, heard Catherine’s furious battle cry, and saw how Caine shielded Eric—memories of all Caine had done to him flashed before his mind’s eye. Adam’s rage built up to titanic amounts and Inner Fire converged at his throat.

“Gur Asaar,” hissed his heart.

Adam fell, mere feet away from the spinning diamonds, and he roared like the Ancestor Himself. He roared with all his frustration, all his anger, and all his fury for Caine’s brutal betrayal.

Caine’s eyes widened. In an instant, he tried to shift the diamonds to form a shield but barely succeeded before the shock wave of hatred was on him. His makeshift shield was blown apart and he flew back, carried aloft by the impact. And he fell, right into the spiral. His body glowed up in green before it dissolved in the strange light.

Adam laughed wildly in grim satisfaction and dove after him, hoping Oliver had a good plan indeed to return to the Node. Scrunching up his face, Adam focused with all his might to stay awake when he entered the spiral. All his senses blacked out one by one. Come on, come on, I’ve done this before...