Rage bubbled up in her heart, dark and ugly, and she returned her perception to normal time. “Kneel,” Malice ordered.

  And she released her own Netherworld Empress.

  The image of the Empress shattered the ceiling above her as it loomed like her shadow. The technique enhanced her willpower, pushing it down on each of them.

  Strong they may have been, but they were her subjects. In her domain. And she was still a Monarch.

  One by one, they crumpled under her authority.

  Yerin was the only one who remained on her feet, though she bit her lip and cycled her madra to its limit to remain so. Nonetheless, it would cost her in concentration to carry the weight of Malice’s will.

  Still holding her daughter’s arm in an iron grip, Malice glared over the others. “When I am finished with you, no one will remember you ever existed at all.”

  First, she had to disable her daughter. She drove a solidified sword of shadow into Mercy’s chest.

  Bloodline armor shattered as it formed, though it did block Malice’s first attack. Before she could strike again, she saw an incoming shadow from the future. Yerin, leaping for her.

  Malice weaved out of the way and struck at Mercy again.

  This time, Mercy caught the blade in one gauntlet. With a burst of strength worthy of her Herald advancement, she broke Malice’s grip.

  Malice could wrestle for a hold again, but she was tired of fighting like a mortal.

  Shadow burst from her and tore her own floating castle apart. It was time to remind the entire world who Akura Malice was.

  If it cost her some rebellious children, that was a cheap price to pay.

  26

  Reigan Shen kept pace as Lindon fought off not one, but two Dreadgods.

  Empty Palms covered the sky and warped the aura of an entire region. Dragon’s breath burned molten holes through the hearts of mountains. Clouds of Blackflame aura produced dark tornadoes of flame that scorched the Wandering Titan and affected the weather for miles.

  That didn’t even take into account those Dreadgod weapons, for which Reigan burned with greed. The shining white halo’s effects were largely unseen, though any Monarch could sense the trades of dream aura that represented a mental battle, but the swords made from the Weeping Dragon were as dramatic as anything else.

  Storm-clouds followed overhead, crackling with lightning. Bloodspawn that spread from the Phoenix wrestled against a rain of animated draconic bolts, and thick lightning of concentrated aura hammered the Titan. The swords themselves flashed against the Dreadgods, turning attacks with thundering blows that cracked space.

  Lindon hadn’t even used the Weeping Dragon’s breath, though Reigan could sense the binding that would make that possible. He was holding that tactic in reserve, waiting for the opportune moment. Like the Dragon itself had done.

  All of Reigan Shen’s calculations and predictive artifacts suggested that Lindon would lose. It would be a difficult battle, but he couldn’t stand up to the combined might of the Dreadgods.

  But no one knew better than Reigan Shen how the future could shift, and there were too many factors altering Fate to be certain of anything. When he observed with his own eyes, Lindon’s victory was a disturbing possibility.

  He wasn’t pressuring the other Dreadgods, of course, but he was matching them evenly. A horrifying feat.

  Reigan himself had intended to join the fight, but he had the sharp and uncomfortable premonition that Lindon was waiting for that.

  Not only was there little room to intervene without risking a hit, Reigan felt something suspicious about the way Lindon fought.

  Here and there, Lindon’s spiritual sense flickered closer to Reigan. His eyes would pass that direction for just a moment as he flew to dodge a Dreadgod’s attack.

  Reigan Shen knew he was under observation.

  Centuries of instinct warned him not to make a move. That could have been a trick. Perhaps the Silent King’s Crown allowed Lindon to intimidate Monarchs without being detected, but Reigan didn’t think so. This was likely just his gut warning him that if he intervened in the battle, Lindon would find a way to crush him between Dreadgods.

  Unfortunately, his gut was also warning him of something worse.

  The Dreadgods couldn’t travel through space very far, not without a great expenditure of resources or tools like the Wraith Horn, but they had grown faster as they grew in intelligence and power. In a fight like this one, even the Wandering Titan was an earth-shaking blur.

  Or, in this case, an ocean-churning blur.

  Their battle covered miles every second, as Lindon and the Bleeding Phoenix lit up the clouds with their techniques while the Wandering Titan dashed along and provided heavy hits from below. They were now far from the mainland of the Iceflower continent and still moving quickly.

  Toward Rosegold.

  Reigan’s home.

  The distance between continents was not negligible, even taking into account direct spatial transportation, but Rosegold and Iceflower were closer than most. Once, they had been linked.

  Crossing the ocean between them was still a significant journey, but Lindon and the Dreadgods could cover a lot of ground. And it wasn’t unusual for Dreadgod battles to last for days.

  Before tomorrow, they would hit the coast of Rosegold. At that point, every punch they traded would be a loss for Reigan Shen.

  Reigan triggered a messenger construct to contact one of his few remaining allies. “Miara. The Ghost is dragging the Phoenix and the Titan closer to Rosegold. Help me redirect them north.”

  The construct flickered away, through space, though it would be at least a few minutes before Sha Miara could respond. They were far from Ninecloud City.

  While this stretch of ocean was uninhabited, thanks to vicious water-spirits that didn’t seem quite so vicious in light of the battle tearing apart their territory, the seas to the north and south had cities and nations of their own.

  But the one to the south owed its allegiance to Reigan Shen, while the one to the north did not.

  If it came to a choice between giving up his own people and driving the Dreadgods north…well, he wasn’t responsible for them. It was the best he could manage.

  In the meantime, maybe he could drive this fight by himself.

  He clutched the Wraith Horn in one hand and contacted the Bleeding Phoenix. She seemed more amenable to negotiation than the blank wall of stone that was the Wandering Titan.

  “We can’t head east or south! That’s my territory. We need to take the battle north.”

  It was a few seconds of sky-rattling battle before a bubble of blood madra appeared next to his ear. It warped into a mouth, which whispered: “Why should we waste our energy changing course? We’re grinding our little brother down.”

  “That’s my territory.”

  “Until the Weeping Dragon returns. Then, it will be his. Why would he notice a missing country or two?”

  The bubble popped, splattering blood madra all over Reigan Shen’s face.

  He wiped it away, letting the madra burn to essence, and that insult cracked his fear just a little further.

  Lindon had already humiliated him once. He was looking down on Monarchs, and had snatched prey from Reigan’s mouth. The entire world had seen how Reigan Shen did all the work for a human boy to reap the benefits.

  Then, the world had literally watched as Tiberian’s Underlord advisor had revealed himself to be a world-destroying threat.

  Reigan’s fear had far outweighed his anger, but that didn’t mean that he had forgotten his pride. Eithan had been laughing at him behind his back for years. Lindon had learned from his master. Now, even the Dreadgods—the rampaging beasts that Reigan had corralled like rabid dogs for so many years—were spitting in his face.

  Reigan Shen had been made the butt of the joke too many times.

  He was not a housecat. He was a lion.

  A king.

  The time had come to act like it.

  [Wow, who pulled his tail? There’s a change in Reigan Shen, so watch out.] Dross highlighted the Monarch in Lindon’s vision.

  Lindon was Consuming the energy from a meteor the Titan had condensed from earth aura and hurled at him. At the same time, he was striking against the Titan’s tail with flying swords, hitting its building-sized punch with his own human-sized one, keeping the Phoenix at bay with sweeps of dragon’s breath, and wrestling for aura control over a ten-mile area. All while flying and switching between cores.

  Reigan Shen was not a welcome addition. There was a limit to how much Lindon could juggle.

  Still, as threats went, Shen was not at the top of Lindon’s list.

  Dross’ alarm flared as the Monarch opened a gate to the spear he’d used to attack Sacred Valley before. Lindon had thought that weapon had been destroyed by Ozmanthus, but obviously he’d been wrong.

  “Close!” Lindon ordered the King’s Key portal.

  Reigan’s will only kept the gate wobbling for a second or two before it was crushed beneath Lindon’s working.

  That would slow him down for a while, but Lindon paid a price for it.

  One of the Phoenix’s techniques—a hammer-blow of blood and force madra—slammed into Lindon from above. It launched him into the sea like a falling star, and water from the impact blasted into the clouds.

  Before he could collect himself, the Titan was stomping a foot down on him.

  [Soul Cloak,] Dross suggested, and Lindon agreed.

  Blue-white madra flared around him, seeming almost solid now. He caught the Titan’s foot in both hands.

  Which was a bit like saying he’d stopped a collapsing roof with a toothpick. Nonetheless, he did it. The air twisted around him as he flew up, shoving the Titan’s foot above him.

  The Wandering Titan stumbled and caught its balance with its tail.

  Lindon had been trying to shove the Dreadgod onto its back, but the Phoenix sent a flurry of needles his way. Each needle was bigger than his arm and contained enough power to destroy a fortress, and the Bleeding Phoenix was sending him ten thousand.

  He had to drop the Titan and expand the Hollow Domain to deal with those. Even then, the needles weren’t wiped out until he finished them with an Empty Palm that blotted out the sun.

  Lindon remembered slamming the Empty Palm into an Iron’s stomach to win a duel.

  It had failed him against Li Markuth, the so-called Gold that had come from beyond the world.

  It was his first, oldest technique.

  Now he was using it against Dreadgods.

  [Look how far you’ve come,] Dross said wistfully. [Now, this is going to be the end of the line, unless someone else has something up their sleeves.]

  Lindon was fighting with everything on the line. He was stretching his techniques beyond their limits and had made every weapon he could. This was as far as he could go.

  And, if things continued this way, he would eventually lose.

  That was inevitable.

  No matter how vast his reserves, no matter how much he replenished himself in the middle of the fight with his right arm, his opponents could do the same.

  Lindon’s only chance of survival was to buy enough time for the others to come through. But his real goal was to take one of the Dreadgods down.

  If he did that, he could call it a victory whether he survived or not.

  [You know I hate to pester you, but…] Purple light drew Lindon’s attention to Reigan Shen again.

  This time, the Monarch was coming in with a two-handed sword that ran with blood. He was doing something with the Phoenix’s madra, perhaps feeding it to the blade to strengthen it, but Lindon was trying to dodge a technique that bent Fate. He had bigger enemies.

  A slash came in from Reigan Shen, a sweep of madra that erupted at the same time as an attack from the Wandering Titan, and Lindon had to waste extra madra and burn some of his limited soulfire to deal with both.

  Lindon’s patience slipped.

  Dross, find me an opening.

  [Here. But you know, this is going to shave an hour or two off our maximum time.]

  Lindon didn’t care. Getting rid of Reigan Shen was another goal he could accomplish. That would improve the world, even if Lindon wasn’t around to see it.

  Dross helped Lindon identify the pinpoint timing. He deflected a falling sword of the Phoenix at just the right moment to cause it to slam into the whipping tail of the Titan.

  The two attacks clashed, sending black cracks spidering through space and churning the ocean beneath, which created a split-second pause in the battle.

  Lindon shot toward Reigan Shen.

  The Monarch defended with his two-handed sword of blood, but Lindon destroyed the artifact with one Empty Palm from his left hand. His right hand shot for Shen.

  Reigan Shen’s defensive constructs activated and forced Lindon back for a moment, but Lindon had already used up the time he’d allotted for himself. He switched to his Blackflame core, activated the Burning Cloak, and slammed a fist down on Shen’s skull.

  Bone cracked.

  Reigan Shen blasted down through the water and into the stone beneath, but Lindon wasn’t finished. He followed up with a two-handed blast of Blackflame, thicker than his torso, with all the soulfire and authority he could cram into it.

  That should put even a Monarch out of the fight.

  In case it didn’t, Lindon used Wavedancer to deflect a Striker technique from the Wandering Titan. A shining golden razor of earth madra hit the flying sword and was redirected.

  Right toward Reigan Shen.

  Lindon dashed back into the battle, shoving the Dreadgods east once again. He knew the Rosegold continent was coming up, but he was boxed in. There were populations north and south of here, and the longest stretch of uninhabited ground was between east and west. Once he reached the coast of Rosegold, he’d try to turn the fight around.

  Though there was only so much he could do.

  He was back into the fight, shoving a river of blood-red flame into the sky using the Hollow Domain, when he sensed a change in the world.

  [Uh-oh. Hey, I know you don’t want me to keep drawing your attention to Reigan Shen, but I still think you ought to look behind you.]

  Lindon was struggling with the weight of an ocean of burning blood, but he still glanced back.

  Reigan Shen had returned to his original form.

  A white-and-gold lion leaped out of the ocean, and a roaring image in the sky met him. The Lion Icon.

  In his natural body, Shen was regal and imposing. A vast white-gold mane that shimmered in the sunlight, a pale pelt with bright highlights. He radiated majesty and strength.

  The effect was only heightened by his wounds. One of his eyes and the entire side of his face was blackened and burned away, one of his legs had been half-crushed, and scorch marks marred his hide.

  Sacred beasts tended to take human bodies because the form resonated with madra more easily, allowing more complex control of techniques. For this, they sacrificed power.

  It may have been the temporary support of his Icon, but Reigan Shen at the moment felt like a Dreadgod himself. He had given up his weapons, weakened his Path.

  In return, he gained strength.

  He kicked off of nothing and vanished, leaping through space.

  Lindon’s spiritual sense screamed a warning and he met Reigan Shen’s pounce with a Soul Cloak-powered punch.

  Of course, at the same time, he had to hold off the Titan with nine flying swords and burn a cloud of red poison from the Phoenix.

  Dross was just as busy, on an invisible front. The white halo over Lindon’s head flared as Dross sent mental attacks against all three, a flood of dream aura at a scale that temporarily matched the Silent King itself.

  With Dross distracted, Lindon didn’t know exactly how much time he had left. But he knew he was burning through it too fast.

  If he had to, he would burn himself down to nothing.

  The Void Icon approved.

  Yerin never thought she had underestimated the Monarchs. They were the kings and queens of the world, able to go toe-to-toe with the Dreadgods under the right circumstances.

  But maybe she had underestimated Malice.

  A dozen blades of shadow the size of towers fell from the sky. They flew over the forests at the eastern end of the Ashwind continent, where the dragons had once ruled. Yerin slashed at one of the Forged swords herself, intending to break the one in her way and continue on to Malice.

  It wasn’t easy. Yerin had to pour her whole effort into her attack, and only managed to break through the shadow sword with a full-powered technique. Orthos, Little Blue, and Mercy struggled to defeat a sword each, though Ziel and Charity seemed all right.

  Even a technique with one-twelfth of Malice’s will was enough to match any one of them. And the Monarch was drawing back the string of her bow.

  To relieve pressure, Yerin used the Endless Sword.

  The blades of shadow echoed with sword aura and cracked, helping the others to break them, but Malice’s next attack was focused with deadly intent.

  On Little Blue.

  An arrow tore through space, but Yerin appeared before it in a blink of white light. She deflected the first, but the second was right behind it. Mercy took care of that one, stopping it with her armor. Orthos burned another out of the air, and Ziel blocked two. The last, Blue had to handle herself.

  All the arrows came at virtually the same time.

  While they were still reeling, an armored Malice appeared next to Orthos. She was human-sized, and he punched at her with the Burning Cloak active, but she absorbed the blow easily and hit him in the chin, ribs, and gut in quick succession.

  The air exploded with the force and Orthos blasted into the distance.

  Striker techniques from Mercy and Yerin ripped through the space Malice had just occupied, but she was already gone.

  Once again, she was on top of Little Blue. She brought her bow down on Blue in a two-handed strike. Blue blocked it with crossed arms, but Malice caught her before she could fly into the earth and stabbed another blade of shadow into Little Blue’s gut.

 

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