Wintersteel Page 111
The moment stretched between them as Crusher looked down on them. Dross and Lindon prepared to feed.
The Blood Shadow turned and ran.
Yan Shoumei looked more shocked than Lindon felt. He could only see his meal running away. He ignited the Burning Cloak, fired a burst of dragon’s breath at the Redmoon girl, and leaped after Crusher.
He landed on the monster’s back and began to Consume.
Rather than memories, Crusher had only bestial impressions. One of those was the instinct of a wild animal. In Lindon’s arm, the spirit felt a predator.
He funneled everything from the Blood Shadow into his body, and when it tried to swipe back at him, he dodged and kept feasting.
In seconds, Crusher collapsed into a red stream and flowed back to Yan Shoumei, who was somewhere behind a collapsed wall.
Dross made a disappointed noise. [Quitter.]
Lindon intended to move back and finish off Yan Shoumei, but now he heard Mercy’s scream. One last time, he dashed up the stairs. To the top of the tower.
The first sight that greeted him was Akura Grace’s body.
She had been pinned to the wall by a Forged spear, her eyes glassed over and her hair hanging loose. Her Remnant, a glossy black and silver, slowly dissolved in pieces nearby.
Her hand still clutched her sword.
This one stopped Lindon in his tracks. Courage and Douji’s lives weighed on him more than he expected, and he hadn’t even liked them.
Now Grace was dead because he had been standing too far away.
Beyond her Remnant, Pride was in little better shape.
He swayed on his feet, covered in blood. His left arm was…not gone, but mangled. Wrung out like a dishrag.
He faced two Overlords from Redmoon Hall. One turned to Lindon, forming a ball of fire, and the other struck Pride with an axe.
Somehow, Pride formed crystal armor on his shoulder that caught the blow. He was still knocked into the corner of the room, his armor broken.
But he climbed to his feet again and raised his fists.
Weak words passed his lips. Lindon thought they were, “I’m still here.”
In Lindon’s spiritual sense, Pride felt even worse than he looked.
“Dross!” Lindon shouted.
And Dross showed both Overlords a vision.
It was difficult to project something into someone else’s mind unless they allowed you to. Your own madra reigned supreme inside your body. These Overlords would shake off Dross’ illusion.
But not soon enough.
A ball of fire flew over Lindon’s shoulder, blowing a hole in the wall, but it was thrown wide as Dross disrupted his concentration.
The Hollow Domain expanded between the two enemies, wiping out the rest of their madra. Wavedancer drove through one, but stuck on the second man as he used his Blood Shadow to Enforce himself.
Lindon dropped the Domain and drove dragon’s breath through him.
He finished off the second man with another dragon’s breath, then dashed over to Pride. He was still on his feet, but Lindon didn’t need a thorough examination to know that he was in far worse shape than Naru Saeya had been.
Lindon’s void key slid open.
Little Blue hurried out, exclaiming in worry, and Lindon sorted through his boxes. “Do what you can for him,” he instructed. He pulled out a pill and tossed it to the spirit; Little Blue caught it easily. “Give him this.”
Considering how many times a day he fought, he would be a fool not to carry medical elixirs with him.
Little Blue cheeped her agreement, and Lindon finally turned to the east wall. Or what was left of it.
It had been blown out, wind whistling from outside, where Sophara and Mercy clashed on a narrow ridge of stone.
The Dragon King’s Totem filled the sky, pushing down on a fully armored Mercy, who released a volley of violet arrows from her Archlord bow.
Sophara screamed as she annihilated them with dragon’s breath.
Lindon barreled into her.
Her tail intercepted him as her Imperial Aegis blocked an arrow from Mercy, but Lindon spun into a kick that knocked the dragon off the tower.
[She’ll be back up in about two seconds,] Dross warned, which didn’t surprise Lindon at all.
He looked to Mercy. “Go see about Pride.”
“Finish her!” Mercy cried, pulling back on her bow.
Lindon met her eyes. They were wild and panicked, filled with grief, and she was covered in wounds. Her spirit was exhausted.
Lindon gave her a weary smile. “I’m here to punch a hole in the sky.”
It was another second before she nodded and hurried back to her brother.
Sophara leaped up to the ledge and stalked after him, golden eyes blazing. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
How are we doing, Dross? Lindon asked.
[No problems,] Dross assured him. [She can’t concentrate enough to hold the Totem.]
Sure enough, the Dragon King’s Totem had begun to dissolve in the sky overhead.
Good, Lindon said, stretching his Remnant hand again.
He would hate to die here because he was overconfident, but he didn’t expect that. He had already lost this fight. Over and over and over again.
Until eventually, so gradually he almost didn’t notice, he’d started to win more than he lost. Then she would gain some new power, and he would start the process over again.
He had trained against Sophara six hundred and forty-four times.
27
Yerin hovered on an invisible platform next to Kiuran, watching Malice fight the Dragon King.
It was almost impossible to comprehend. Malice stood like a Dreadgod in her full armor, her amethyst helmet in the clouds. She strode along the ground outside the city, steps crushing homes and trees, launching a technique that filled half the world with flying skulls of shadow.
Yerin couldn’t even see what Sesh was doing inside his monumental sandstorm, but she felt his power and made out flashes of golden light.
The entire countryside was being ravaged. She could see rainbow light as Sha Miara contained what she could, but even if she saved everyone in the city, people outside were dying.
“You’re not aiming to keep civilians out of it?” Yerin asked her companion.
Kiuran the Hound chuckled, looking over the world beneath him like a rat-faced king. “You’ll learn, when you leave this place. Whatever happens to the people down there, it won’t affect anything real.”
Yerin wished she could have met Lindon’s heavenly messenger instead. She wanted to put a sword through this one.
Casually, the Abidan handed her Penance.
Just like that, the silver-edged black arrowhead fell into her hands. It was heavier than she expected, and in more ways than just the physical. It felt like death. Finality. The end.
“There would normally be a ceremony,” Kiuran said, “but circumstances as they are, your decision is before you now. So! Who’s it going to be?”
He seemed perversely excited.
“The dragon is the obvious target, but then Reigan Shen is the one binding the Dreadgod factions together. Or you could be rid of the Bleeding Phoenix, which would free you from any influence it might have over you. And, of course, the Wandering Titan is about to awaken.”
Malice drew a bow the size of a tower that shone deep blue, purple, and green, like sunlight through a glacier. She launched an arrow that blasted the sandstorm apart.