Cradle ascension box set, p.24
Cradle: Ascension: Box Set, page 24
Even by a Monarch’s standards, these were no ordinary weapons. They had a powerful will to destroy that resonated with the aura all throughout the labyrinth.
These tridents were hungry.
And one flashed at each of Shen’s enemies. Dross slowed the world down, and Lindon extended his left hand to the trident spearing toward Mercy.
He could feel the will compelling the trident to seek life, and rather than oppose it, he redirected it.
“To me,” Lindon ordered.
The trident swerved and headed to Lindon, but it wasn’t as fast as the one that was already about to reach him.
This one, Lindon reached up and caught with his right hand.
Ordinarily, that would have been a fool’s move. The Soul Cloak gave him the speed and precision to catch it, but he shouldn’t be strong enough to hold back such a weapon.
The strength he’d gained from draining Crusher stayed with him, and now he was strong enough. Physically. But death madra seeped into him, eroding his life from the inside. It was trying to consume him.
So Lindon Consumed it right back.
The power of the trident soaked into Lindon, and he saw a few flickering images, pieces of the weapon’s will. It didn’t have memories, exactly; not like a living being did. But he pieced together something of an understanding.
These weren’t nine weapons made to work together. This was one weapon, and it had one intention. Nine fangs flashing together.
And it wasn’t happy about having its energy stolen.
The second trident arrived as the first started struggling to pull back. But Lindon had a firm grip on it.
He swung the first trident into the second.
[It will try to dodge, but it is not a true intelligence. Just a naturally formed will. But it is a very good thing that all nine are not focused on you.]
Sure enough, the trident tried to dodge, but it couldn’t keep up with Lindon enhanced by the Soul Cloak. He knocked the second trident out of the air and vented the death madra into the air.
All the while, he watched and thought.
Mercy had used her freedom from the trident to focus attacks on Reigan Shen. Ziel had matched against his trident, Eithan had blasted it from the air and kept his attention focused on the enemy, and Yerin hadn’t even been slowed down by hers.
Why hadn’t Reigan Shen focused all the tridents?
He had kept four back to defend himself, which was certainly more than he needed. If he had sent them all at one person, he would have been able to keep them out of the fight.
[It looks as though he’s trying to preserve your lives,] Dross suggested.
Or the tridents, Lindon responded.
And that hunch felt right. Reigan Shen would not waste his prized collection.
With renewed vigor, Lindon adjusted his grip on the death trident and Consumed again. The madra channels running into his arm strained, and he could feel the binding warping under the flow of powerful energy, but he kept it up.
The trident he’d knocked away turned back to him, and Reigan Shen shot him a look of annoyance.
One of the tridents defending him from Yerin’s attacks peeled away and shot toward Lindon, leaving Lindon fighting three.
Lindon’s thrill at having his theory proved right was accompanied by an equal sense of crisis. If Reigan Shen was fighting them while trying to avoid damaging his weapons, that meant he wasn’t taking them seriously.
And the moment he did, they were going to die.
Lindon was overwhelmed for a moment, and only with Dross’ help did he manage to keep the three tridents off him. Even Mercy shot one down as it was about to hit him, and he focused soulfire and Blackflame madra into the most condensed black dragon’s breath he could make.
With that, he sliced a trident in half.
Yerin and Reigan Shen were clashing in the middle of a visible thunderclap that distorted space, but Lindon still caught the Monarch’s grimace. All eight of the remaining tridents flew back to Reigan Shen, almost impaling Yerin until she dodged.
“Enough of this,” Reigan Shen said. The tridents vanished. “Engrave this memory into your Remnants. For you are privileged to witness the Path of the King’s Key.”
Gold-edged portals swirled open behind him. Five of them; one for each opponent.
Techniques emerged from the portals like serpents leaping from the ocean, and these were not the limited techniques that had been eroded by hunger aura. These were true Monarch techniques, and they blinded Lindon’s senses.
[Processing!] Dross cried.
The scene seemed to freeze, as it often had before. That gave Lindon plenty of time to see what effects Reigan Shen had summoned from the weapons hidden in his void space.
One was a Forged hand, seemingly made of jade streaked with gold. The madra was so dense that it seemed physical, but Lindon could feel that it was dense energy of life and earth. The hand was reaching out for Ziel, and it was going to flatten him.
An orange-white line blasted out of another portal; this was red dragon’s breath, focused to such a degree that Lindon could scarcely believe it. It must have been a launcher construct made from a red dragon Herald, and it shot for Eithan.
Ocean blue tides gushed out of a third portal, with enough pressure that the water itself could crush stone. Inside the depths were glowing, flickering humanoid figures. This was a mysterious water technique headed for Yerin, and it brought an energy of suppression that struck at the soul as well as the body.
A flurry of silver bat-like techniques rushed after Mercy, carrying sword energy complex enough that Lindon couldn’t quite identify its makeup. They were possessed by a furious will, like a swarm of bloodthirsty bees. And their very presence shook his senses until he felt like he was going to bleed from the ears.
This was a technique meant to shred Heralds. Mercy wouldn’t last a second.
A massive sword, so detailed that its blade gleamed in the light, speared toward Lindon, but he paid it no mind. It was made from dream madra Forged solid, and it reminded Lindon that Reigan Shen didn’t know about Dross.
Between pure madra and Dross’ support, Lindon should be able to crack that sword like it was made from cheap porcelain. But the others were in danger.
Dross, what can we do about the technique targeting Yerin?
[Inconclusive.]
Do we have enough time to block for Mercy with the Hollow Domain?
[Inconclusive!] This time, Lindon caught a hint of desperation from Dross’ voice. That was fair, as Lindon was feeling not a little desperation himself.
What can you tell me?
[If we do not intervene, at least three of our allies will likely suffer life-threatening injuries. And I cannot hold on for much longer.]
His hold on Lindon’s perceptions was beginning to slip. The dream madra was thin here, and Dross was still weak. Lindon looked desperately from one of his friends to the other. He could throw himself in front of Mercy, but then he wouldn’t be able to reach Yerin. And what about Ziel?
With the Pure Cloak, can I make it to Mercy first and then get to Yerin?
[It depends on the exact strength of the techniques and how long Yerin can hold on. Most likely, yes. But that leaves Ziel.]
Eithan’s closest to him. Tell him to cover Ziel. Lindon had to assume Eithan had another trick tucked up his sleeve.
[That will be the last significant action I can take.]
Do it!
The world slipped back into motion, and so did Lindon.
He dashed in front of Mercy, the Hollow Domain erupting around him. The world was filled with blue-white madra.
The techniques Mercy was using to defend herself were canceled, and her purple eyes widened in panic as the Strings of Shadow lashing her to the ceiling were wiped away.
The bladed silver bats were not. They were so dense and so much stronger than Lindon that they dove into the Hollow Domain and continued flitting for Mercy.
While they weren’t destroyed, they were weakened.
Lindon slammed an Empty Palm against them, focusing his will and his soulfire on the technique. A Forged palm bigger than his body smashed into the fluttering blades, and they crashed into it like a wall.
But each one pounded against his spirit, and he felt like a window pelted by hail. Each strike left him cracked.
That was when the dream sword arrived. It wasn’t as dense as the spirits of sword madra, so it was weakened more by the Hollow Domain, but still not enough. It plunged into Lindon’s mind, and his concentration was disrupted as it struck.
The Hollow Domain flickered. Dross pitted himself against the technique, but he was weaker than he had calculated. It took too long.
In the absence of the Domain, the remaining bladed bats flew around Lindon toward their intended target. Mercy called up her bloodline armor as she fell, and it formed before the Domain returned.
Even so, they cut straight through her armor.
Mercy’s blood sprayed the floor from a dozen wounds, and she screamed.
Dross finally broke the sword, and instead of rushing toward Yerin, Lindon had to fall toward Mercy. Concentrated pure madra broke the technique, but Mercy’s bloodline armor had already shattered. She bled from too many wounds, including one to the neck.
Lindon pressed down on it, pulling out the healing construct he’d withdrawn earlier. A pulsing sac of blood and life madra attached to her wound, feeding her healing energy, and her breathing steadied.
With dread in his heart, Lindon looked up to Yerin.
She was pinned to the wall by a rush of dense water madra, and he saw flickers of red as she battled with the glowing white silhouettes in the depths. He felt her holding her own, and he was encouraged.
Then Reigan Shen lazily raised his sword in her direction.
Lindon’s world focused to a single point.
“Stop!”
Reigan Shen froze. He snorted and tugged his arm against Lindon’s will as though pulling against stubborn cobwebs.
Pain stabbed through Lindon’s head, and his working broke. But he blinked past tears in his eyes to see that it did have some effect.
Reigan Shen had turned his sword toward Lindon instead.
[I cannot go further,] Dross said, but there was a little more emotion in his words now. He sounded ashamed. [I am…too weak.]
Me too, Lindon thought.
But Lindon raised his arm and gathered his madra. He would try to Consume some of the power in the attack Reigan Shen was about to use. If it had worked to weaken the Titan’s attack, maybe it would work here.
As he activated the technique in his arm, he felt a soul-piercing snap. The binding fell apart.
And his arm fell to his side, inert.
The glowing sword cracked the void as Reigan Shen swung it down, sending spatial cracks to every side like a spiderweb. A slash of orange light rushed for Lindon, and when he felt it, he realized his Consume technique would have done nothing anyway.
Lindon still didn’t give up.
He stood over Mercy’s body and radiated the Hollow Domain. If he weakened it enough, then maybe—
Eithan appeared in front of them.
Ghostly blue-white armor shimmered over every inch of his body, as though he wore a Remnant over his skin. Archlord soulfire rippled through him for a second, like quicksilver.
Then he was striking forward with a Forged spear.
His will and technique crashed against Reigan Shen’s. Deep, black cracks spiraled through the air as the world began to break.
Orange madra dispersed into essence, Eithan’s spear broke, and the cracks healed.
A smile tugged at one side of Reigan Shen’s mouth. “You’ve worked so hard to stand before me. I’m almost proud.”
“That’s not what I was working for,” Eithan said. “But I admit…it is a perk.”
Lindon felt something. Eithan had reached beyond himself for that attack. His will was dense, and far-reaching. He had tapped into something bigger than himself.
An image began to form at the ceiling, something more real than a working of dream and light. Lindon began to see a shaft of polished wood, projected from beyond reality.
Then Eithan gestured, and the image cut off.
Reigan Shen’s head jerked back, and he looked truly shocked. “What are you thinking?”
Eithan pointed another spear of pure madra. “You are not my goal. You’re just in my way.”
“Very well.” The Monarch lightly twirled the sword in his hand and another golden portal appeared behind him. “Die, then.”
And the battle between Eithan and Reigan Shen began.
16
Eithan’s spear grew as it flashed across the room, and Lindon saw that he had projected the Hollow Spear technique from his scissors. It was a perfect blend of sacred instrument and Striker technique, carrying the power of both.
But it was only enough to match the orange energy that Shen projected from his own sword. The entire room shook, spiritually and physically, and Lindon was painfully aware of how little madra he had remaining.
Compared to his normal state, at least. Compared to the others, he was in great shape.
Ziel moved weakly against the wall, half his body burned. His clothes had been singed away. Lindon hadn’t seen what had happened to him, but obviously Eithan hadn’t been able to save him completely.
Lindon carried the still-healing Mercy away. She mumbled at him that she would be fine—and she would, thanks to the healing construct on her neck—but he needed to move her away from the battle.
Eithan called a rain of stars down on Reigan Shen, and Shen responded by swallowing them all into a portal he opened over his own head.
This time, Lindon noticed that the portals were actually sticking just like the void keys had been. Shen had to spare the willpower to force open his own void space. That had to be a weakness they could exploit.
But another worry overcame him first: Yerin.
She was still inside the water technique.
Every clash between Eithan and Shen shook the surging mass of water that imprisoned Yerin, and every now and again her madra speared out, but her spirit was still flashing inside. She was battling against the spirits inside the technique, and she was weakening.
Lindon sprinted around the wall of the chamber. His pure core had less than a third remaining, and his soulfire was a dim candle, but he had to help.
Dross, what do you have left?
[Not what I should, and that disturbs me. Northstrider once used me to develop a combat report against Reigan Shen.]
Lindon’s hopes soared.
[But I am too fractured,] Dross continued. [I can piece together so little of it. Too little.]
Lindon’s heart crashed back down. Let me know if you remember anything. In the meantime, tell Yerin I’m on my way.
As Reigan Shen hurled Eithan across the chamber and Eithan retaliated with a slash of suddenly-huge scissors, Lindon dove into the side of a raging river like a waterfall suspended in midair.
Suddenly he could feel the pressure of the technique firsthand. He’d been able to sense it from across the chamber, but this was like the weight of the ocean crushing him from every direction. It was a churning maelstrom of water madra on at least the Herald-level, and every drop bore the will to destroy him.
A ghost of soft white light drifted up to him, extending hands out to him as though in peace. The spirit’s smile was a black crescent in its face.
Lindon met it with the Empty Palm.
On a human being, the Empty Palm washed their madra channels clean, temporarily robbing them of control over their own spirit. On a spirit, it blasted away the very material of their body.
The spirit dissolved, but its smile only widened.
From the darkness of the chaotic water, two more spirits came for him. They darted in when he wasn’t looking, then flitted away when he turned toward them. They were afraid of his pure madra, and Lindon couldn’t tell if it was an instinctive aversion or if they’d learned from what happened to the first.
Lindon extended his perception, searching for Yerin, but he found his senses choked off. He felt as though he were adrift in the center of an endless ocean with no surface, and it was only him and these eerie, malicious spirits.
He began cycling for the Hollow Domain, but Dross stopped him.
[This environment is already filled with madra denser than your own. The most you could do is weaken it for a moment, and then your Domain would collapse.]
Then I’ll have to try something else.
Surrounded by water, Lindon switched to his Blackflame core.
It wasn’t ideal, of course, but the Path of Black Flame was destruction as much as it was heat. And he had more Blackflame madra left than pure.
Lindon controlled finger-thin beams of dragon’s breath, fully aware that Yerin might be nearby. He sliced both spirits in half.
They re-formed instantly, still grinning. Four hands extended to embrace his head, and he felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Foreign will pressed in against him, urging him to relax and allow them in. Strangely enough, the technique reminded him about Bai Rou, although the Skysworn’s techniques had always felt repulsive.
But such a vague temptation had no sway over Lindon. The spirits were close, now; closer than they would have gotten if he had kept cycling pure madra.
So they had fallen for his trap.
Blackflame retreated, replaced by pure madra, and his eyes turned blue.
They turned to swim away, but it was too late. An Empty Palm caught one, then the Soul Cloak propelled him after the second. He dispersed that spirit too.
And in the instant he projected the Hollow Domain, it lifted the veil the water kept over his senses. He felt Yerin.
He swam in that direction and encountered her in seconds.
She was surrounded by spirits, slicing them apart as quickly as they regenerated, but they had no physical bodies. A huge spirit—obviously the leader of the white shadows—loomed over her. Lindon had seen many strange Remnants, but this one resembled something like a soft centipede with human hands instead of legs.
