The Forsaken Hero

”Give up. Your fight is hopeless,” the curse demon snarled.

He waved his hand and cast a sixth-circle spell, sending a wave of black magic toward Fable. It struck him like a summer’s breeze, tousling his fur. The demon’s eyes narrowed as Fable demolished another line of demons completely unhindered.

”What kind of power is this?” it hissed. Its gaze shifted to R’lissea. ”This isn’t your doing, healer. Your magic is useless against me.”

At its command, a large cat-shaped evolved demon leaped across the cavern, lunging at R’lissea. IT was smaller than Fable by a good margin, but dwarfed the slender elf. Its claws left dark after images as they slashed. The seventh-level demon started casting again, summoning seven magic circles.

R’lissea pointed her staff at the ground and soul cast a fifth-level spell. ”Shambling Guardian!”

Vegetation sprouted from the void, rapidly growing until several trees towered over the approaching cat demon. The trunks twisted together like malleable flesh, forming a humanoid creature of bark, branches, and gnarled roots. It had four upper limbs, ending in wooden club-like fingers, and a featureless head.

The shambling guardian raised its limbs, bracing against the demon’s assault. The cat’s claws left deep scores across its chest. The bark blackened and withered, crumbling away as curses spread from the wounds. It brought a thick arm down, smashing into the cat’s shoulder. The demon yowled and retreated, limping badly.

The demon mage’s spell finished, resolving with a crack of thunder. Black lightning crawled across its shadowy flesh, coalescing into a sphere hovering a few inches above its open palm.

”Your soul is soft and tender, ill-suited to the curses I wield,” it mocked, ”Perhaps you would fare well against others, hero, yet against attacks of the soul, you are helpless.”

Evla tensed beside me, her tail switching back and forth. ”Why don’t you look worried? That’s the spell that hurt me! IT went right through my wards and almost crippled me. And R’lissea’s a life mage.”

I shook my head. ”She’ll be alright. This demon’s crying about having superior power, but he doesn’t understand. He should have realized something was wrong the moment Fable resisted his first spell.”

”But she–”

The demon threw the ball at R’lissea. For her part, R’lissea stood unflinching, in the middle of casting a seventh-circle spell of her own. The demon’s lip curved cruelly once he realized she had no intention of dodging or protecting herself.

”Go, kill the wolf,” he commanded his remaining evolved demons. ”Once the life hero has fallen, I’ll claim the Oracle’s soul myself.”

I stiffened. He knew I was the Oracle. The chances that he wasn’t working with Rash’Alon had just plummeted near zero.

Thunder boomed sharply, ringing in my ears. I squeaked, shrinking away as my ears rang. The black lightning left the demon’s hand, streaking through the air. It moved faster than I could follow, striking R’lissea directly in the chest. Strands arced over her body, seeking entrance to her soul, but a sudden burst of starlight consumed it. In seconds, the seventh-level curse had turned to mere crackling sparks, and then to nothing.

The demon’s eyes bulged. ”Impossible.”

R’lissea lowered her staff, finishing the last few runes in her spell. ”Verdant Confluence.”

A bolt of life mana erupted from the tip of her staff, striking the tree monster she’d created. It roared as it lit up like a bonfire, swelling in size to over forty feet tall. It charged the curse demon, stomping on scions and sending evolved demons flying with its oversized limbs.

The cursed demon started blasting it with low-level spells, chipping away at the mana that served as its vitality. Branches, leaves, and even entire sections of its trunk turned to dust, streaming behind its charge, but the shambling guardian was unbroken.

”Corrupted shield!” the demon cried as the guardian neared.

A black sphere enclosed him. Unlike any ward I’d seen before, it was entirely made of curse magic. Throughout the course of the battle, the many spells and attacks using divine mana had filled the cavern with residue. This invisible mist flowed toward the demon’s shield, hissing as it came into contact with the seamless sphere, converting directly into curse mana and reinforcing it. I was reminded of Luke’s aura, and the nature of curses: to steal mana, weakening enemies, and empowering itself.

The guardian’s fist came down on the sphere. All of the power granted it by R’lissea’s spell detonated at once, creating a starburst of light that consumed everything for a hundred feet in all directions. Demons writhed and shrieked as it swept over them, trying to flee. Vines, roots, and trees sprouted from the void within, catching them fast. Thorns and stabbing branches penetrated their bodies from all directions. It was the power of a forest, released in a single pinch.

When the light faded, I stared anxiously where the demon and guardian had been. In their place was a grove of trees that stretched a hundred feet tall. A thick mist of curse mana permeated the area, but the demon itself hung limp in the air, skewered through the chest by a long stalactite-like tree. Of its shield, only a faint residue remained. The demon struggled limply, the light fading from its eyes. A jerk later, and it was dead.

R’lissea sagged, leaning heavily on her staff. Strands of hair plastered against her sweaty forehead. She’d put almost all of her mana in that spell, with little left in her soul.

”That’s impossible,” Evla whispered. ”How can Life Magic...how did she survive the attack?”

”We’re not like the demons. Or the apostles,” I said softly, watching as Fable rampaged through the remaining scions and evolved demons. ”We’re friends. My magic is hers, and hers mine. So even if I’m too weak to fight, I could never leave her alone. Perhaps, against that three-armed demon from before, she might have had trouble, but a mage?” I let out a wry, relieved chuckle. ”It wasn’t even seventh-level. It doesn’t have the qualifications to challenge me.”

I could tell she was still confused, but there was nothing more I could say. She knew enough of my power from our meetings in Brithlite to guess what had happened, and I certainly wasn’t going to reveal anything more to an apostle. I’d trusted Luke with everything already, and he’d proven willing to turn against me. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Even with Fable’s reduced level, none of the evolved demons were enough to challenge him in his true form. Beyond that, he still carried Villie’s wings, which had grown in size to suit him. His bite and claws sprouted roses, returning every bit of strength he expended killing a demon. It was a slaughter on par with the damage he’d done at his peak in eighth-level.

”Life magic really is something,” I murmured as R’lissea returned to my side. ”What was that spell you used at the end?”

”Verdant Confluence,” she said, playing with her hair. ”I, er, modified it a bit. It’s supposed to reforest an entire region, but I thought...well, when I saw Villie cast wings on herself, it made me realize spells don’t actually have intended purposes, except what we give them. So I modified it to be an augmentation spell, just like she showed me. The power of a forest in a single punch.”

I gazed at the grove where the demon’s body hung. It was slowly disintegrating, returning to the void. Over a hundred other demons had been caught in the attack, each slain in a similar manner.

”It’s strong,” I admitted. ”Would you, um, want to work on it later? Not that it isn’t good, but there must be a lot of room for improvement. It seems like a fun project to work on together.”

”Together?” She lit up in a smile. ”I’d love to, Xiv. Thanks.”

We turned to the gate core, floating at the grove’s edge. Exchanging a glance, we nodded and walked toward it. Fable, crushing the last of the demons beneath his paws, bounded over to us, shrinking to his condensed form. He jumped right into my arms, licking my face greedily. I giggled, pushing his head away and petting him.

As we stood before the gate core, warmth bloomed in my chest. We’d saved Evla, conquered the gate, and R’lissea had learned something about combat magic.

”It was scary, though,” R’lissea said, guessing my thoughts.

I nodded. ”It was. But we did it.”

”Almost.”

She flicked her staff, conjuring a small fireball that smashed into the gate core. It shattered, releasing a pulse of mana that shook the gate. She grinned.

”Now we did it.”

Evla came up to us, gripping her staff tightly. ”We should get out of here before it starts collapsing. Who knows how long it will take us to find the exit?”

I exhaled heavily, the weight of the gate returning to my shoulders. I’d forgotten about this part and wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest.

”You’re right, let’s go,” I said. ”We can celebrate later.”

I let Adaptive Resistance go, scanning the cavern’s walls for holes. Four of the ten weren’t sticky, but given that we were in the center, it didn’t really matter which one we chose. All of them would lead away.

The gate was in complete disarray, filled with panicked demons and ever-widening dimensional cracks. Traversing the maze was infinitely easier this time, and we made it to the entrance with few battles.