[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 278 – Fated Strife

Talmuuz, Granserpent of the North, peered into the polished archaic mirror that the Granserpents used to spy on the surrounding environs.

“The grimal and the lamia must have patched things up after their recent spat,” he remarked thoughtfully.

An Immortal, hands clasped behind his back, stood stoically nearby. There was always one of the blasted Immortals around when the city was attacked. Despite being elevated to the status of Granserpent, one of the strongest and most capable fighters in the Empire’s defense, he still sometimes felt like the Immortals were there to keep an eye on him.

“Bring out the red and green supplies for the troops,” Talmuuz started to say. He paused when he saw something strange in the marching lines of monsters. “Hold.”

It was hard to make out, but there were small forms walking in the hulking shadows of the grimal. “Red and green and black,” Talmuuz said with a shiver. “They have puppets.”

The Immortal nodded and made a series of gestures, unlocking the Empire’s deep reserves of imperial goods so that Her citizens could defend Her.

Gods above, Talmuuz hated puppets. They were once the Empire’s pride and joy. They had been touted as the Empire’s saving grace. Gone would be the days of adventurers and citizens putting their lives on the line to defend the twinned cities. That dream ended when the Fifth Fleet, bearing a full quarter of the puppets intended for a secret assault on the lamia, was sunk off the southern coast.

With such new toys, the lamia quickly mastered their use and even managed to make crude imitations. What they possessed was dramatically altered to suit their wicked ways, and the lamia were always hungry to seek out new pieces to repair their grim helpers.

If they were committing so many puppets to the battle, things were dire indeed.

Talmuuz was never one to call for aid when he could accomplish a task alone, but this assembly unnerved even him. “Call the other Granserpents.”

***

Burly, bipedal grimals crawled out of the Empire’s rivers. The fresh water of the Eian River flowed over their overlapping scales. Scales that were as hard as silversteel and could regenerate given enough time.

As if that wasn’t enough, the skeletal Risen marched from catacombs hidden deep in the mountains. The lamia slithered from the distant shipwrecks, making the longest trek of all, with their puppets hidden within the ranks of their vile alliance.

Together, they amassed into a horrid army that foretold the twinned cities’ doom. For so many kinds of monsters to align under one hateful alliance was unprecedented in this Age.

It was plain how such an unlikely thing was possible. A two-headed grimal carried the brilliant power of the Lumanot in his chest. It swayed the hearts of many. Even monsters.

It would have taken the Emperor and Empress together in their prime to fend off such a nightmarish assault.

Kel’brek had been wounded severely by one of the dreaded Immortals of the empire. That wound, a sucking hole in his chest that would never fully heal, had been the perfect receptacle for the holy relic. The Lumanot.

Hidden within his armor and close to Kel’brek’s heart, the Lumanot kept him at full fighting strength decades after the day he should have died. With the Lumanot’s power, he had slain the Immortal that had wounded him so grievously, but it was not enough.

It was never enough.

So close to the empire, Kel’brek could feel the twinned song of the Lumanots calling to one another. The piece in his chest thrummed with power, directing him to his prize.

The imperials wouldn’t know what hit them until it was too late.

“Soon we will have our vengeance, brother,” Kel’s left head hissed.

Brek answered with a throaty chuckle. “Then two Lumanots we shall have!”

Brek quickly quietened when the sound of slithering reached his ears. Kel’brek turned as one to regard the tall, stately lamia approaching. With a nod of both heads, his honor guard let her through without issue.

K’thran was a survivor of the worst slaughter to ever befall the lamia. It was said an entire army of Immortals had snuck up on their lair and put them all to the sword.

All but K’thran and her human thrall.

Kel’brek had his doubts as to the truth of K’thran’s statements, but the woman had risen to great heights following the sudden power vacuum amongst the serpentine race.

A delicate silver chain joined K’thran’s wrist to the collar on her thrall’s neck. Kept alive through unnatural means, the man looked like he had once been a sailor, judging by his tanned and leathery skin. However, he had been partially changed. Enough at least to extend his life, judging by the thin triple slits on either side of his neck.

Unlike the fish that Kel’brek loved to eat, he knew that those gills were not meant for water. They fluttered sickeningly, drawing in mana to rejuvenate and empower their host.

“Humans,” Kel spat. “They will do anything for an hour more of life,” Brek agreed.

“But most useful!” K’thran said, giving a slight tug on the leash.

Her thrall looked at his feet and shuffled to keep up.

“He looks as if he is about to turn to dust,” Kel’brek said.

The empire, traitorous and vile, was not stupid. They would never allow a monster to get within the enclave that held their Lumanot. It was a trap of the highest degree, with the final and most deadly of all being a trap that killed monsters but spared men.

With enough monsters, Kel’brek could overload the enchantment and enter unharmed.

That was the problem.

Even if he marched every single creature under his command to the gate, the time it would take to burn out the enchantment would be more than enough for the Immortals to come out in force. And that would be if the Granserpents didn’t suspect and pivot their forces.

No, while it was possible to overload the enchantment, it was much better to subvert it altogether.

The old man looked up with watery eyes that burned with hatred at the spires and domes of the empire.

“You will have your sweet revenge,” K’thran hissed to her pet human. She even stroked his gray lank hair like a favored pet. “We will repay them a thousandfold for the Wavedancer. And then you will have your just reward.”

Kel’brek shrugged. “See to it that he survives. His role is key. Unless you wish to meet more Immortals.”

K’thran slithered up to her full height, an impressive 9-feet-tall. Instead of hair, she had a sleek cobra hood that extended out in anger as she looked him right in the eyes. “I care not what you do with the rest of the treasure, but that Lumanot is mine. With it, I will rebuild the Sunken Kingdom, one imperial ship at a time!”

Despite himself, Kel’brek felt a tingle of fear. With an overwhelming force of will, he managed to crush it into nothingness, but such was the power of K’thran’s enchanting prowess that even Kel’brek had been momentarily spellbound.

“Our deal remains,” Kel’brek said. Both crocodilian heads turned to look at each other with a special grin. They had promised much to gain this alliance.

All the sweeter to betray them in the end when Kel’brek became the first creature to hold the power of two Lumanots!

***

Sam surveyed the raging battle below. True to his suspicions, the army of monsters attacking the twinned cities had brought another Lumanot’s power in order to steal the Empire’s.

He would have considered that the Lumanots belonged to the Empire, but he knew better than that. The Lumanots rightfully belonged to the Worldshard’s paragons.

It was because people and monsters stole the precious artifacts that all of this was happening.

He had never seen so many kinds of monsters fighting on the same side. The opalescent streams of energy threading through the air seemed like a sign of a Lumanot at work.

He assumed the monsters were using it to force them all under one side, whereas the Empire didn’t have to use theirs to compel.

It didn’t matter. The result was the same. Whether he was up against an army of lamia, or this mixture, Sam still needed both those Lumanots.

Sam’s battle lust called him down into the fray where he could lay about him with his greatswords. It was difficult to resist the siren song of combat. Contending with some of those crocodile-like monsters would be incredibly fun.

“This way,” Zahif said, ducking through an arch and disappearing down a side alley.

Sam hurried after the old man, reaching up to Komachi perched on his shoulder to pet her reassuringly, though he knew he was doing it more for himself.

It wasn’t just the sound of battle below, but the knowledge that people would die without him and his cat there to help.

Not as if the whole of the Empire is suddenly relying on me, Sam chided himself. They were resisting incursions long before I came here.

Still, it hurt to know that he was essentially abandoning the battle. Even if it was in order to win the war.

They came out onto a balcony that overlooked one of the shielded quads with red light running through its crystalline veins. The roar of a great bear split the air as Zarishna rode into the fray with abandon. Her new arm worked smoothly as she threw enchanted bottles of poison and explosions at the enemy, buying time for those adventurers who had found themselves surrounded.

The Scarlet Lotus was out in full force, shaping the battle alongside all four Granserpents. Sam had always heard that only in the direst situations did all Granserpents come out to fight.

None of this matters if you can’t get the Lumanots, he reminded himself. You’ve seen the darkness that awaits. The emptiness.

“We gotta do this,” Komachi said, determined. “For all of ‘em.”

Sam steeled himself and turned away from the din of battle.

Zahif led him down a warren of back alleys and side streets that Sam had no hope of navigating on his own. Every time he swore they were at a dead end, the old man found a new path to follow until the sound of battle faded away entirely.

Down and down they went until Sam was sure they were several levels below the streets of Al Dhorna.

Zahif stopped at a decorative manhole and motioned toward it. “Time to put those muscles to use.”

Sam bent down and tugged at the seal of the Empire embossed on the heavy metal lid. To his utmost surprise, it didn’t budge.

He dropped into a low squat and tugged with all of his might, a Tin aura flaring around his body that lit up the dark passage. Just as Sam was about to pour everything he had into the effort, he heard a faint clink and the cover came free.

Overbalanced, Sam nearly fell on his rear before he managed to stabilize himself thanks to his heightened Agility. Zahif was already moving down the slippery iron rungs. “Come along now,” he called from below.

Deep in the bowels of the Empire, they found another door. Torches burning with green fire were spaced every dozen feet, providing a dim but unsettling light that made shadows stretch toward them menacingly.

Komachi swiped one of the torches. Sam figured they were so far past not messing with the timeline that it wouldn’t matter.

“For a moment, I thought you were leading me on a wild goose chase,” Sam told him. He looked up at the door, which stood nearly 30-feet-tall, and took up the entire passage.

Komachi hopped down from Sam’s shoulder and padded along the stone in front of the door, looking for an entrance.

Zahif dropped to one knee in front of the cat, startling her.

“Machi?” she asked curiously.

“I have a gift for you, stinky kitty,” Zahif said with love and affection. “Should you feel the need to be…what was it you used to say, ‘extra spicy’? Then you need only follow these instructions.”

Komachi watched in awe as Zahif took out a bundle of faded, yellowing papers loosely bound together in a leather cover. It looked like a manual that had been perused many times.

Sam watched as Komachi immediately opened the book to the first page and began reading.

“What’s that?” Sam asked, leaning over to have a peek.

The manual was handwritten with little drawings off to the side to better illustrate the techniques it was imparting.

“A very powerful manual, something that is a perfect fit for Komachi,” Zahif explained, straightening.

Komachi yowled with glee. “I just learned a Forbidden Technique!”

Snatching up the manual and placing it in her secret marsupial pouch, Komachi scampered up Zahif and meowed loudly and happily right in his face.

She tried grooming his fluffy white eyebrows, giving him a perpetual look of surprise.

Zahif patted her affectionately and gave her a hug. “Such a good cat you are. Keep Sam out of trouble, won’t you?”

“Machi will do it!”

“What did you learn?” Sam asked. He was beginning to have a bad feeling about this.

“A BM Technique!” Komachi explained.

“...A what?”

“BM,” she repeated. Just to accentuate the point, Komachi got up on her hind legs and, with one paw, pointed sharply down.

[BM: Point Down]

The air around her grew heavy, dark, and deeply oppressive for a second before returning to normal.

“Bad…manners?” Sam asked helplessly, sincerely hoping it wasn’t the other BM.

“Burema Mansa,” Zahif explained. “I tried to see if you could learn it, but it was clearly incompatible. However, Komachi showed very high compatibility. It is hardly a surprise.”

“Because Machi is so sassy!” she cried, shaking her rump and tail in loop-the-loops.

“That’s right, stinky kitty,” Zahif said, patting her once more.

“That’s Bad Manners,” Sam explained, recognizing the motion.

“It is very clearly Burema Mansa,” Zahif insisted, though he seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face.

“I’ve seen that–” Sam stopped himself. “You know what? Nevermind. What’s it do?”

“Makes people maaaaad,” Komachi said, sounding especially smug. “Probably mahnsters too!”

“I have heard ancient tales from a far-off place that, in extreme conditions, it can inflict a debilitating status effect called ‘malding’,” Zahif explained, “though I must confess I do not know what that is.”

Sam looked from Zahif to Komachi. “You have to be joking.”

Zahif folded his arms. “It is a very ancient and powerful training manual.”

Suddenly Komachi adopted a very straight face. One Zahif mimicked flawlessly.

It was hard not to pinch the bridge of his nose. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sam felt like he was being wound up.

In the end, he decided to let Zahif have one last prank if that was what his heart desired. It wasn’t as if Komachi could get into any more trouble. Now that he had [Cover], she would simply direct all that ire onto him.

His new armor was going to take a beating.

Zahif took out a small pendant from between the folds of his robes and placed it in Sam’s palm. “This will permit you inside. Wear it at all times. There will be a ladder and a series of catwalks after. Keep going up and taking every left path you can. Once you reach the Lumanot, do not remove it from the plinth. The moment you do, the entire Imperial Army will know.”

Sam looked at the pendant, then at Zahif. “You’re not coming?”

He smiled and shook his head. “When this door is opened, the Immortals will be alerted. I’ll do my best to slow them down, so don’t go sightseeing!”

Slipping the pendant over his head, Sam shook Zahif’s forearm and said his final farewell to the young boy that had become a legend in truth. “I hope one day I can live up to the legacy you have left in your wake.”

Zahif only smiled. “How the tale twists and turns. I once thought the very same thing.”