[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 218 – Just When Things Were Calming Down

Sam stared in shock at the creatures before him.

One by one, the dullahans rose to their full height, towering above everyone else in the room. Even Sam’s new Tin-enhanced height looked small compared to them.

Fully repaired and restored, they didn’t quite sparkle, but they had a glow of power and health all their own that rivaled any living creature made of flesh and blood.

The dullahans, now restored, looked at one another. They grasped hands, touched each other’s renewed breastplates, even tested out their new joints by jumping in place.

Though they had no direct voices, they resembled a group of excited kids.

Sam couldn’t help but look on with pride as he drew Raiko and the others out of the workshop to give the dullahans some time alone with their new bodies.

There would be time to work later, but for now, Sam wanted the dullahans to enjoy what they had so long been denied.

He looked over at Raiko, and his heart sank. She looked about two seconds from passing out. Pulling her arm up and over his neck to support her, he grinned at her weary features. “Let’s get you some rest.”

***

Matt watched them go, shaking his head.

Kai looked over. “You do not approve?”

“It’s not that,” Matt told him. “I mean…look at what they just did. They made a small strike force of magical suits of armor, and instead of letting themselves be celebrated and paraded about, they act like it was nothing. Like they were watering the plants.”

Lenal stepped up beside the two. “Perhaps, for them, it is.” When the others looked at her, she elaborated, “They are Incarnates. What is possible for them is nigh limitless. They do not understand or perceive barriers and limitations in the same way as we do. I suspect this was just something they thought was ‘right’ and that was it. They will be moving on to something more with nary a glance back, I imagine.”

Matt and Kai’s reactions diverged. Matt’s eyes brightened, whereas Kai turned serious and grave.

“What do you think that’ll be then?” Matt asked. “The next thing, I mean.” He glanced over towards the castle. “Hope it’s that. Would be nice to have some sturdy living quarters.”

Kai folded his bulky arms. He had that solemn look on his face again. The one that always spelled trouble for Matt. “Without Sam and Raiko, our demigod monarchs, we would have perished in the Maelstrom, wouldn’t we?”

“More than likely,” Lenal said, smiling sadly. “Chances are, I never would have been rescued either. I would have shared the same grim fate of the Aker Academy’s apprentices.”

Kai placed a comforting hand on Lenal’s shoulder.

Bal’daz approached them, looking rather sheepish. “I do not mean to eavesdrop, but without the Incarnates, I never would have escaped Grish’nal and been accepted for what I am.”

“You mean–” Lenal started.

“A filthy builder mage,” Bal’daz said with a shiver.

“Oookay, moving on!” Matt began. It was hard to tell if Bal’daz even had the sense to be embarrassed. “I’m not trying to belittle what you went through, Lenal. Seriously, I did clean up duty with Raiko, but…”

Kai shot him a warning look.

Matt shoved his hands in his pockets, resisting the urge to get on the defensive. “What’s the use of dwelling on what could have been? We should focus on what actually has happened. All those things turned out okay, didn’t they? Both Sam and Raiko are here. This–” Matt spread his arms wide and motioned to the greater whole of Sil’mara. “–is our present circumstance.”

“There’s a reason why I bring this up,” Kai said, going back to stony-face-mode. “What’s next? How do we deal with the Maelstrom itself?”

“Don’t know,” Matt said. “It’s a force of nature. How can any one person do something about that? If I was an idiot, I would say we could try nuking it, but…y’know.” He could practically see what Lenal and Kai were about to say. “I’m not,” he added quickly to head them off.

“That remains to be seen,” Kai said, though he had a gleam in his eye. “The Maelstrom is kept at bay for now, thanks to our Incarnates, but I do not believe this is a common occurrence.” He looked at Lenal.

The Academic shook her head. “Incarnates are incredibly rare. On a Shardrune such as Il’dran? There might be a handful in the trillions of people. On a lone Worldshard? You would be lucky to hear of a single Incarnate in a single age, let alone in a lifetime.”

“That means there are uncountable Skyshards out there without our protection,” Kai reasoned. “Hosts of people who are going to die. Shredded by the Maelstrom or worse. There must be something we can do, yes?”

Lenal looked around thoughtfully for a moment. Her eyes alighted on the dullahans as they filed out of the workshop, looking for Sam and Raiko.

Matt gave them a cheery wave and pointed in the direction their King and Queen headed. The sculpted earthen dome where their crude bedrooms were housed.

The dullahans made a bunch of hand signs Matt didn’t understand and headed off with one leading the way.

Bal’daz watched the dullahans go. “I will need to make adjustments to the doors and entryways of all our buildings to suit their prodigious size,” he muttered to himself.

Matt looked over, a dark brow raised. “Huh. I never thought about that. I guess normal doors would be too small. Can’t have them breaking through the wall like the Juggernaut every time one of them pays us a visit.”

“The…what?” Bal’daz asked.

Matt waved away his concern. “Nothing. Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

“Moving on,” Kai said. “Is there nothing we can do for the people out there?” He turned and motioned to the shimmering lights of the false aurora.

Its beauty was undeniable, but it also made Matt a little nervous. The only reason it was so active was because the Maelstrom was trying to destroy them. If the sky was calm, then there would be no beautiful glowing lights.

“It’s possible we might be able to push against the Maelstrom’s pulling currents,” Lenal said thoughtfully. “But only Raiko, and likely Sam, could determine how effective that course of action would be, as they have control over the Sacred Tree and the Sourcestone.”

“What about the engine?” Matt asked. “With the mana engine we could probably direct ourselves a little, couldn’t we?”

“Even with the engine coupled to their settlement cores, direction is difficult,” Lenal explained. “When you add in the incessant tug of the Maelstrom? I do not think we will be escaping. And there’s the Black City to be mindful of as well...”

“Then let’s dive right through the eye of the storm!” Matt said excitedly, punching his fist into his open palm. “No reason to wait around, paddling against the current. Let’s dive in and–”

Lenal paled at that. Clutching a tome, her hands trembled.

Even Bal’daz was looking quite pale, his face the color of cotton candy. A mandragora looked up at Bal’daz, putting its leaf-like limb to its head in thought.

“What’d I say?” Matt asked.

“You are proposing certain death,” Kai told him. “I figured that was rather obvious. Our goal is to delay and find a way out, is it not?”

Matt shrugged. He figured what he said was suitably Sam-like. The man wasn’t going to just wait around and let the Maelstrom slowly suck them down the drain. He was going to do something, and Matt would have bet all his money on that being an assault on the Maelstrom.

Somehow, someway, Sam was going to punch the Maelstrom. Matt was sure of it.

Judging by his friends’ reactions, he didn’t think it was a wise thing to bring up at the moment. Instead, he tactfully switched gears. “Whatever it is, I’m sure the King and Queen will have it all in hand.”

That always seemed to be a crowd pleaser.

Not that Matt disbelieved his own words, but they couldn’t leave everything up to Sam and Raiko, could they? That seemed cruel.

True, they were Incarnates–not that Matt truthfully understood the depth and breadth of what that meant–but they were still human, right? Or at least human-adjacent (not that Matt, as a Necram, had any room to judge) which meant that they should be afforded the same luxuries other people seek out: comfort, friendship, safety.

To heap everything onto their shoulders would be wrong. Hadn’t they earned a rest?

Matt emerged from his own thoughts and turned to the others. Something else held their attention because every back was turned to him.

“What’re you all lookin’–oh. Huh. Don’t see that every day.”

Despite everything Matt had just gone over in head, his one overriding thought beyond, we’re all going to die! was to run and get Sam.

After all, what could he do against a Skyshard hurtling through their magical shield with an enraged, blue-skinned ogre the size of a towering redwood thrashing an army of ant-sized people?

***

Sam helped Raiko into her bed, tucking her in and sweeping the sweat-soaked hair from her face. Komachi, perched on his shoulder, looked down at Raiko sleeping fitfully.

Her normally regal features were pinched and drawn. “She ain’t lookin’ so nachi,” Komachi said softly, then added on a heart-wrenching whimper.

“We need to find Haman,” Sam told her. He took out the [Seeker Stone]. The dot that represented Haman on the black stone was swirling around and around as if he was trying to use a compass while sitting on a magnet.

“The heck’s goin’ on with that?” Komachi asked him. “Should I bat it?” She raised a paw, preparing to do just that.

Sam was about to offer up a reason when a horrible spine-tingling sensation stole his breath away. One he had nearly forgotten about. Hatred, the likes of which he could scarcely comprehend, slammed into him like a ton of bricks.

Komachi’s claws came out to catch hold of Sam’s armor as he staggered forward. Before she could ask what was wrong, Sam burst out of the room and sprinted down the hall, gathering speed the entire time.

This is bad!

There was only one other time he had felt this level of rancor, and when the status effect popped up again, he was hardly surprised.

[Uneasy Gaze]

The ogre guardian of the golem eye you have purloined is aware of your presence. Through the golem eye you carry, the guardian will learn of your location. Kill the guardian, or never stop running.

He still had the eye! It seemed like so long ago. And besides, he had tried to destroy or get rid of the eye, but it always came back. It should have been utterly impossible for the ogre from the first island to catch up to him!

If the Black City couldn’t catch them, how in the hell did the ogre manage it? They hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the creature, and all of a sudden it seemed to be right on top of them without warning.

Sam burst past the confused line of dullahans coming his way. They separated obediently, and when Sam called over his shoulder, they snapped to attention. “One of you protect Raiko, the others come with me!”

When Sam came upon his friends outside the workshop, he wanted to shout a warning to them, but it was already too late.

Each person was looking at the horrible sight unfolding just above.

A group of Skyshards had crashed together and were hurtling through the magical barrier. The barrier was doing its part, rejecting them and protecting Sil’mara.

He could feel both the Sacred Tree and Sourcestone strain to keep the barrier intact while doing their best to work together without the express instruction of either Raiko or Sam. With his Tin senses, he could discern that their powers were joined in some ways, but not in others.

In just a few more minutes, those Skyshards would be destroyed. The people he could barely make out would fall to their deaths.

If any of them survived the ogre.

Leaping over his friends’ heads, Sam called on the powers of the settlement cores, hoping that they would both heed him in the absence of Raiko’s presence.

He snapped out a hand mid-air and conjured a [Source Chain]. The glimmering spike materialized below his feet. It launched itself through the air, trailing a colossal chain of mana that came from the Sourcestone’s core.

Hurtling toward the foreign Skyshard, Sam evoked his second ability. By manipulating the [Sourcefield], Sam was able to allow the Skyshard pieces to pass through without destroying them. All the while denying the Maelstrom’s encroachment.

Riding the chain toward a losing battle with the ogre, Sam didn’t have time to find a way to exclude the monster and its horde of minions.

He had to hope that his newfound powers would be enough.