The Forsaken Hero

The inquisitor stumbled from the smoke, coughing as he clutched his arm. Blood soaked his white garments and beaded on his gleaming steel armor. The source of the bleeding was a long, shallow cut that ran from his elbow to his shoulder. The skin nearby was cracked and blistered, with white ash flaking from the edges, as if his skin were crumbling stone.

The instant the smoke cleared, the Star Guard fanned out around Luke and me, adjusting their grip on their weapons. They didn’t need the Oracle of Eternity to sense the seventh-level power radiating from the inquisitor’s soul. Even injured, this man was dangerous.

”Inquisitors. Who could have guessed?” Luxxa muttered, shaking her head.

”What, this kind of thing happen often?” Luke asked.

”Too much.”

The inquisitor shook himself, raising his head to look around the courtyard. His eyes narrowed as he saw our party, but his attention was on Selena.

”Hmph. Just as we guessed,” he uttered in a barely audible voice. ”But that damned demon...”

”More souls approaching,” Gith said, turning to face the outer wall of the estate, ”A whole war band by the feel of it.”

Luke’s fingers dug into my arm, tightening like a band of iron.

”We can flee, if you wish,” he said, not taking his eyes from the inquisitor. ”Your ice demon can carry you away. They won’t be able to follow.”

”They’re not just here for me,” I said, squirming until his grip loosened again. ”We have to protect Selena.”

”But you-”

”I’m not leaving her, Luke. I promised.”

His brow furrowed, but something in my voice gave him pause. In that hesitation, the inquisitor moved.

Waves of light exploded from the white-cloaked man as he lunged forward. I hunched back, but his sword wasn’t aimed at me.

”Selena!” I cried.

The comforting weight around me vanished, and I stumbled back a step, catching my balance. When I looked up again, the inquisitor had already reached her. But his sword froze a few inches from her chest, locked in place by a shadowy black blade. Luke stood to the side, casually holding his sword with one hand.

”Damn it,” The inquisitor cursed, leaping back a dozen feet.

He eyed Luke warily, glancing from me and the Star Guard, then back again.

”Who the hell are you? There’s no mention of a black-horned filthblood on the premises,” he growled. Then, giving his head a shake, muttered, ”Not that it matters. You’re all going to die today anyway.”

As if on cue, Gith cried another warning, and the wall exploded. Chunks of enchanted stone and battlements rained down around us, covering the courtyard. I flinched as one struck my wards, exploding in a shower of debris.

White cloaked soldiers rushed through the gaping hole in the wall, but their panicked expressions gave the impression they were fleeing rather than attacking.

A dark figure wreathed in flames rose behind them, pursuing in a measured, unhurried stride. Dark horns crowned a demon head with smoldering coals for eyes, plated armor cracked with molten armor, and a long, thick tail ending in jagged spikes marked Fyren’s demon form.

Jenna let out a soft gasp as she recognized him, glancing uncertainly at Luxxa. The knight’s lips pursed in a slight frown.

”I thought he wanted to avoid attention,” she murmured.

The squad of inquisitors, about twenty strong and with souls ranging from fifth to seventh level, regrouped behind the one who’d attacked Selena. Their combined auras made the air waver, and though little had changed, they held an air of confidence, and...relief?

”You would bring such a savage monster into the heart of a peaceful, orderly city?” their leader accused, glaring at me.

Fyren bared his fangs. ”None bring me anywhere, mortal. I tread where I wish.”

He advanced a pace, setting the garden around him ablaze from the heat radiating off his scales.

”You’re a determined lot, I’ll give you that,” he rumbled, ”Yet some might say you’ve crossed the line from bravery to recklessness. You couldn’t face me when you set out with twice your numbers, yet here you still stand. A fool’s errand.”

The inquisitor recoiled, a flicker of uncertainty passing through his gaze. But he steeled his gaze and replied, ”We’re not here for your head, demon. You’ll meet your end at the whims of the Divine. If you wished your strength to mean something, you should have stopped us before we reached our targets.”

He raised his hand, and a ring on his finger gleamed, bathing the entire estate in white light. It was harsh and hot, making my skin tingle and my horns itch. A glowing ball materialized over his head, burning like a miniature sun. It seethed with overwhelming mana, matching the cumulative pressure of Selena’s spell. And the longer the light lingered, the greater that pressure grew, exerting against both my body and soul. My legs grew weak, my breathing labored, and the power of my spells and abilities hemorrhaged, dropping almost a full level.

”What is this?” Luke asked, staggering a step beneath the light’s weight.

”Impossible,” Fyren hissed, his own soul suppressed to the seventh level. ”How did you come by one of those? Are the gods truly so desperate?”

”Light’s Judgment.”

A soft, strained whisper caused me to turn and see Selena staring at the sun. She’d faltered in her spell, yet had managed to keep it stable. ”It’s an artifact from the church’s vaults. The Sun God gifted it to a pope some thousand years ago when an eighth-level demon was brought to Enusia.”

”Selena, are you alright?” I asked, running up to her.

She nodded, smiling grimly. ”This won’t stop me for long. I just have to adjust to the pressure. It’s going to hurt you a lot more, being a demonkin, but I’m afraid you’re on your own,” she said, nodding at her incomplete circles.

Shouts and screams sounded from outside the estate, floating through the hole in the walls. They faded as more soldiers marched through, dressed in white. Another thirty or forty, though these were no stronger than fifth-level.

”You must know this won’t save you,” Fyren said, observing the two forces.

The inquisitor barked a bitter laugh. ”We were dead from the moment the Pope blessed our mission. Our lives are a small price to pay for the peace of our world.” He lifted his sword and raised his voice. ”Kill the elf and filthblood. For the Divine!”

The inquisitors charged forward with a roar, releasing their auras in a wave that forced even Fyren back a step. Luke started toward me, but Fyren blocked his path.

”Move, demon. I’ll see her safe,” Luke growled.

”You’ve not earned the trust nor the right, apostle,” Fyren returned.

Luke’s eyes narrowed, but before he could argue, an arrow whizzed between the two, burying itself to the fletchings in the ground. Fyren stomped on it, burying the ensuing explosion beneath a clawed foot. The ground erupted around him, yet he didn’t even flinch, continuing to stare at Luke imperiously.

”Gah, fine.” Luke spat, turning on his heel. He raised his blade, moving to intercept a trio of inquisitors with sixth-level souls.

”Wait, Luke!” I cried, but as he charged away, I could only turn to Fyren. My hand curled against my breast as my tail twitched. Is he going to be alright?”

”Even weakened, he’s at the peak of seventh,” Fyren answered. ”And if he can’t do this much, there’s no use to him remaining beside you.”

”I don’t care about that,” I mumbled, fingers closing into a fist.

The inquisitors struck us hard, attacking from all angles. Fyren blurred around me, intercepting swords and magical bursts with his body. Even the hardest blades sparked harmlessly off his scales, while the mana rolled into Adaptive Resistance.

Luxxa and Kahlen fought beside him, maintaining a tight perimeter. Borealis remained in his small form, standing alert on my shoulder. He’d dropped to the middle stages of sixth-level, but even so, he was stronger than all but the three seventh-level inquisitors in the force. It seemed he was acting as a reserve and last line of defense.

An arrow snapped by my ear, taking a fourth-level mage inquisitor in the throat. Blood spurted through the air as it tore cleanly through, and I turned, seeing Gith already shooting another arrow. He’d positioned himself at the edge of one of the few surviving groves of trees, targeting the more vulnerable back lines through the Chaos.

Several inquisitors scaled the walls and engaged the elvish guards of House Sunsinger that were rushing to the scene. It caused my heart to ache as they were hewn down one by one, but I couldn’t worry about that when the inquisitors, after clearing the walls, drew bows and open fired.

”Jenna!” I cried, pointing.

The wind mage turned, flinching as an arrow struck her wards, causing long cracks to spread across them. She raised her hands, chanting a sixth-level spell.

”Vortex! ” She cried.

The wind stirred, gently at first but rapidly rising to a deafening roar. It swirled around her like a hurricane, strong enough to pick up fist-sized pieces of rubble and hurl them around. The arrows of the inquisitors veered off, blown in random directions far from their intended targets. Gith’s, on the other hand, pierced the storm with ease, sheathed in a strange pattern of mana. A magical art? Had he learned it from one of the remnants?

As the gales began to buffet me, a small eye of calm formed around Jenna, just big enough to encapsulate me and Selena within it.

”Fable,” I pleaded in a whisper, ”I need you.”

But there was no response. All I could feel was his mana flowing through his body, and the heat of a battle coursing through his thoughts. Not the measured excitement of a spar, but the blood-boiling rush of true combat. Had they ambushed him, too? Just so he couldn’t help us?

I wished I could just summon him through a portal, but my mana was already strained. Under normal circumstances, the drain caused by placing and maintaining wards on everyone was usually offset by my natural recovery, but that was almost entirely occupied by sustaining the spellbook. If I let that go, it would practically guarantee Selena would fail her spell, resulting in an explosion that would wipe the city off the map.

My blood chilled at the thought, and I turned to the lead inquisitor, watching as he engaged with Luke. That was their plan, wasn’t it? That was why they weren’t worried about Fyren, or even targeting me. If they killed Selena, no other objective mattered.