[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 232 – The Empire of Alzahan

The Empress turned to face him. Judging by the surprised expression, she hadn’t been sure he would help her.

After all, it wasn’t his world.

As far as he saw it, it didn’t matter whose world it was anymore. He was just as trapped. And he didn’t particularly like the prospect of abandoning an entire world. So long as he could do something about it.

His kingdom was built on Honor. And this, if he managed to pull it off, would be a great source of Honor.

It’s so weird to think like that, Sam thought. Like I’m an actual king, somebody important.

He probably would never get used to it.

She lifted a dark gauntlet and gestured to one of the many platforms. “These ruins were here long before my people came to be,” Zarishna told him. “They were called the Proving Grounds. Meant for Paragons and Paragons alone. That, I suspect, is the only reason you were able to find this place in your wayward flailing.”

“I belong here! I’m totally a Paragon too,” Komachi said, looking between them nervously. “One hundo percent.”

“But there is another purpose to these ruins,” she explained, casting a doubting glance at Komachi. “Once, long ago, they held tremendous power. Housed within the pinnacle of each remnant was the power to banish the Emptiness. They were our most sacred relics, and they were protected with everything we had. However, over the centuries, they were stolen, broken, or otherwise vanished from their vaults of safekeeping.”

Sam was about to ask why they didn’t keep them in the Proving Grounds if they were only accessible to Paragons. That would have significantly limited their vulnerability.

It wasn’t that he deigned to lecture the Empress of a nation, but he couldn’t always turn off that tactical side of his brain. Why were they even moved in the first place?

“Because they posed too great a danger,” Zarishna said aloud. It was only then that Sam realized he had spoken his thoughts. The Empress did not seem bothered by his question. In fact, she seemed to anticipate it. “Though only Paragons may come here, they are not often seen. Even in a single generation, there are perhaps one or two if your nation is strong enough. Less than a dozen across an entire Worldshard every 100 years or so.”

Sam caught on. “And you couldn’t always be sure the Imperial Court would be the ones with the key to the castle, so to speak.”

Zarishna eyed him curiously. “Quite so. A commoner, perhaps with a good heart, perhaps not, might be able to come in here and do with the Lumanot as they please. Even if they did have the Empire’s best interests at heart, they might accidentally destroy an entire province with such power.”

“And this Lumanot is some sort of power source?” Sam asked.

“Just so.”

Sam scratched at the stubble on his face. “But if this is the Proving grounds, and it is meant to test the mettle of the Paragons that…” Sam stared at the Empress, realization dawning. She lacked the good graces to look even remotely ashamed. “You stole them!”

“They were ours,” she stated simply.

“If the Proving Grounds are meant to test Paragons, and these Lumanots were housed at the top of every remnant, then that sounds a whole lot like the Paragons were meant to receive them as a reward to me.”

“They belonged to the Empire,” she told him sharply. “You would not allow some ruffian to come into your home and enter a back room to do with as they pleased, would you? Even invaders from other Shards attempted to steal them. The land, the sea, even the sky within our borders belongs to the Empire.”

Sam frowned. “Now, because your precious Empire decided to take the rewards for Paragons away and ended up losing them, you want me to go get them again. Is that right?”

“Yes,” the Empress said, without showing a hint that she saw the irony in all of it.

“And what will you do with them once they are returned?” he asked.

“Nothing,” the Empress said. “They are my last hope. I do not pretend to understand their power or what they can do when joined together again, but every last hint I have gleaned from that fateful day takes me back here. To the Proving Grounds, and to the remnants themselves that once housed the Lumanots.”

Komachi scratched her belly. “Hold up, what will the Lumanot do? They’ll save the Empire from…” She jabbed a paw at the windows peering into nothingness.

“The Emptiness, yes,” the Empress said.

“The same things that attacked Earth and Islegard?” This time, Komachi looked up at Sam for confirmation. “That means this Shard can defend against the Empty.”

Sam shrugged. “Didn’t ours defend against it as well? If it couldn’t repel it after the battle of Shard’s End, I don’t see how we’d still be standing here. I certainly didn’t destroy it. I don’t know if you can kill something like that.”

“You were there,” Komachi pointed out, as if that made all the difference. “You and–”

The Empress’ gray eyes widened. “You fought the Emptiness?”

“Yeah, he did!” Komachi said gleefully. “That’s how he got dat Void mana. Stole it right from an Apocalypse Class guy!”

“Oh, the experiments that could be run,” the Empress said, all without realizing whatsoever how creepy that sounded. “The knowledge that could be gained. The Living Weapons that could be made!”

Sam lifted his hand, wreathing it in silver-black flames of Void mana. Both as proof of his deed and in defense. He didn’t like the Empress’ unsettling words.

Instead, she seemed intrigued. In that way, she was a little bit too much like his Queen.

Of course, I’d get somebody disturbingly like Raiko.

Weirdly enough, that made him feel a tiny bit more optimistic about this whole ordeal. She figured out how to deal with the apocalypse by empowering him.

Why couldn’t the Empress, too?

“Any of these?” Sam asked, gesturing widely to the various platforms. He counted five in total, six if he included the one they came in on.

“Unfortunately, no,” the Empress told him. She strolled to the nearest one. “The Phantod Sea Remnants,” she explained. “This is the only one I can power at the moment. With the Lumanot in place, I should be able to draw upon its power and open up other portals. For now, this is where you must start.”

Sam looked at her, then at the platform. “I couldn’t help but notice you said ‘you’...”

“That is correct.” Zarishna removed a silver bracelet from the hilt of one of the curved scimitars at her waist. “Without the Lumanots, someone must operate the nexus core while delving is commenced. Without an operator, a delver–that is to say, you–would be lost at a 98% failure rate. It is essentially a suicide mission with no hope of retrieval or rescue. If the Lumanot was still there anchoring it in place…” She lifted her palms to the ceiling and shrugged.

Sam nodded grimly. “Alone it is then.” He stepped up to the platform. “I’m ready.”

“Where are you going? You…think you’re ready?” The Empress asked in astonishment.

“Is that not why you brought me here?”

“Machi?” his cat inquired.

“Well, yes. To climb the Remnants.” Zarishna took a deep, steadying breath. “Let me emphasize something crucial. The Remnants are Paragon Proving Grounds. They are tests for Paragons. Not training. Let me say it again: Not. Training. And you need training.”

“I thought that’s what the assembler was for, to see if I’m ready.” Sam had always jumped from one problem to the next. He hardly ever had time to train outside the scant few minutes in the very first days when he was lost or trapped more often than not.

Once Sil’mara was formed, there was too much going on.

“Fighting and utterly demolishing an assembler, while absolutely impressive, was only to show me what you were capable of, Samuel Hunter.” She clasped her shaking hands together. One of her gray eyes started to twitch.

“Machi…” his cat said nervously.

“You confessed to me that you are new to–I can only assume–power. The means to acquire strength,” Zarishna continued. “And now, with your utter unfamiliarity with what training actually is, leads me to believe you’ve had a complete lack of opportunities for such. For you to have any chance, please, allow me to formally train you in whatever way you wish.”

“I’ve had training,” Sam told her. “Admittedly…it was on a world without mana, so maybe that doesn’t count.”

He did find that the forms he was taught did not translate very well to this world full of magic. It had taken him a few knocks before he realized it was like tying an arm behind his back with how limiting it was.

Sam frowned at the memories. If he clung to the teachings he picked up from HEMA, he would have died trying to stick to a simple zornhau stance against a monster with more limbs than him.

“A world without mana,” Zarishna said, horrified. She searched his face, trying to determine if he was lying. What she found troubled her even more. “A true nightmare. One I would not wish upon my worst enemy, and I have plenty of those. I can hardly imagine what you learned there can compare to the challenges and opportunities before you now.”

“It has taken some time to unlearn the habits, both good and bad, while adapting what might be saved,” he explained. “Do you know swordsmanship?” He glanced at her hip.

There were many swords there. Mostly scimitars. One of them was a longsword. Another had an unusually thick hilt, like it should belong to a much bigger weapon.

She stared at him, and blinked rapidly, like he just asked her a rather asinine question. Her expression reminded him awfully of a certain perplexed Earth meme.

Sam pulled out his newly acquired greatsword with all its various gears, cogs, and sharp-toothed sprockets. “One like this, I mean.”

Zarishna cleared her throat, composing herself. “Yes, I most certainly know swordsmanship. Empress is not a fancy, pointless title. I am a world-renowned teacher and trainer. One of my Masteries lies in swordsmanship. While I cannot wield colossal greatswords, a talent only War Incarnates ever possess, I am more than capable of training you in your weapon of choice.”

She looked away for a moment. A look of pain passed over her features. “Of course, if the Emperor were here, he would be even better suited.”

“You two didn’t start out as King and Queen…did you?” Sam couldn’t help but ask.

Komachi meowed excitedly at this.

Zarishna looked at him incredulously. “Lowly Kings and Queens? Never. He was the Emperor, and I was an Imperial Alchemist. He saw the potential within me, and nurtured it long before we found other…connections.”

At least they’re probably not some future versions of myself and Raiko, Sam thought with some measure of relief.

You never could be too sure with time travel.

“So…training,” Sam said, looking anywhere but at Zarishna.

The Empress motioned to a clear area near the pillars and the darkness beyond. “I have already seen you fight with your Void powers. Show me what you can do without them.”

“What, right here?” Sam asked, standing in the proper spot. “Against what?”

The Empress grinned at him. “Why, me, of course!” She took out a curved scimitar with an ornate handle worked into the shape of a hissing serpent bearing rubies for eyes.

Sam laughed and took out his gargantuan sword. Next to his greatsword, her scimitar looked like a toothpick. “Against that? Are you sure?”

“If you hit me just once, I’ll give you that.” She pointed to a spot behind Sam.

Arrayed in what Sam could only think of as an altar, was the most glorious greatsword he had ever seen. It was roughly the size of a proper Hawaiian longboard, but decked out in so many glowing runes and sparkling ensorcelled gems that the whole thing looked like a special effect technician’s wet dream.

There was also an uncomfortably ornate suit of armor, as well as several personal mementos that made no sense to Sam. But it was clear what the Empress was wagering.

“No countering wager?” Sam asked.

“None,” the Empress confirmed. “Because there isn’t any need. If I struck you, I might kill you. Even without using Beast Magic.”

Sam grinned and readied himself, sword out and at the ready in a modified longpoint guard.

This was going to be easy.