Chapter 481: Traveler

 

  The ground shook every few minutes as jade boulders came hurling down from the night sky and crashed into the Commoner District. The valley army’s trebuchets fired without fail from the safety of their backlines. The temple’s walls shook with every volley and Karen wondered to herself if the temple’s magical defenses would hold.

  She looked out the window and saw only chaos. Shattered homes, buildings on fire, and residents cramming the roads to the Trade District. The few guards left from the garrison that hadn’t been stationed at the wall tried to usher the people through the roads and bridges in a somewhat makeshift order. Fear and tragedy had blinded the common folk and they pushed and even trampled over the guards to reach the Trade District.

  All the while, stone golems marched down the streets, picking off any straggler who had failed to escape the burning neighborhoods. The city’s undead sentinels moved in small packs, clashing against the golems wherever they found them. But as the sentinels’ numbers began to grow smaller and boulders kept falling from the sky, Karen worried that soon the district would be overrun entirely.

  A single golem had appeared at the temple’s front gate and began striking it with its stone fist. The temple’s brown and red sigils flared to life and formed a protective dome around the temple. The magical wards only made the golem’s attacks more incessant.

  Karen knew little of magic, but she knew that spells did not last forever. She peeked her head into the main hall and saw the orphan children huddled in a group. Many had tears in their eyes, others were outright bawling. The other acolytes sat with them, trying to comfort them with hugs or stories. Witt had raided the pantry for any sweets he had picked up at the bakery and was passing them out to the children. 

  The head priest, Elm, knelt down in front of the four large statues of the ebon gods situated at the front of the hall. Karen walked over and joined him in prayer. She prostrated herself to the gods and begged with silent whispers for their aid.

  She prayed to the Watcher, the goddess of the moon, Lunae, to watch over her children and to keep them safe if something were to befall her and the priests.

  She prayed to the Guardian, the goddess of war, Bellum, to aid their soldiers in battle and bring them victory over the invaders.

  She prayed to the Traveler, the god of stars, Stjerne, to lead Melfyn, Sandra, and the rest of the older children back to her safe and unharmed.

  Lastly, she prayed to the Mystery, the god of the deep earth, Caligo, to drag their enemies into the dark and smite them all.

  Karen clenched her eyes and prayed in fervent whispers, pleading for a miracle, if only to save her children.

 

~~~

 

  A few neighborhoods away a dragonbane barreled through the streets, crashing through houses and rubble with ease. The massive beast stood taller and wider than the small houses of the commoners. Oshnyr’s spiked tails whipped around the air, occasionally smashing the random fleeing resident into a red smear on the cobblestone streets.

  Sparks of orange light flickered here and there between the Oshnyr’s legs. He slammed his feet into the ground, trying to stomp out the small flickering figure to no avail. His brother, Eldrak, swooped down like a comet, claws outstretched towards Holo. She Flickered atop Eldrak’s back and sliced the base of his right wing with her scythe, Lyrae.

  Eldrak shrieked a deep-pitched sound and crashed into a pair of houses, sending debris flying everywhere. Holo jumped away at the last minute and landed in a roll. Dust covered the air and she coughed as it filled her lungs. With a flick of her wrist, a breeze blew around her and pushed the dust away.

  The two dragonbanes stood amid the destroyed neighborhood. Black blood oozed from several deep gashes across their smoky-translucent flesh. Their grey muscles undulated in strange patterns as they tried to regenerate with little success. Little nubs of bone poked out of Eldrak’s right wing stump. Holo smiled in satisfaction. It would take a long while for the wing to fully recover.

  Oshnyr and Eldrak growled a deep rumble and glared at Holo. She took a deep breath and tried her best to ignore her pain. Cuts and bruises covered her skin, even her dark hair was covered in dry blood. 

  She clenched her teeth and grimaced as her flesh knitted itself back together. Her regeneration was slowing down, she could feel it in her bones. The longer she fought these beasts the more sluggish she became. Their mere presence drained her Orange mana and every time she Flickered the spell’s strain became worse. The delay between each spell was already close to 8 seconds long. If she didn’t stop Flickering, at this rate her Orange mana would give out.

  She needed to get back to the wall soon. By now the valley armies were practically at their gates. The Noirs needed her. The city needed her.

  Lyrae hummed in her hands with a trace of shared anxiety. Holo smiled reassuringly, “I know, old friend. I know. Let’s finish this.”

  The two dragonbanes were already breathing hard. Their wounds had slowed them significantly. All she needed was a single opening and she could take down one of them. At that point, the second would be much easier to deal with.

  Holo flourished Lyrae in a large arc and grinned defiantly, daring the beasts to attack.

  Oshnyr and Eldrak roared at her, the sound shaking the air itself. They sank their claws into the cobblestone and crouched low, ready to pounce.

  “ENOUGH.” Came a booming voice from above.

  Holo glanced towards the night sky. A familiar figure cloaked in black feathers floated downwards and landed between the dragonbanes and Holo. The void beasts growled in submission and bowed their heads.

  “Caligo,” Holo muttered. “Come to save your pets?”

  The young man regarded her with opalescent eyes, the irises shifting colors every few moments. “Indeed I have.”

  “You think you can keep them from me?” she growled.

  His lips curled up in a smirk. “I’ve missed your rage, traveler.”

  She glared at him but quickly soothed her expression, unwilling to give him the satisfaction. He knew she hated it when he called her that. “It’s funny, they say you’re the Mystery because no one truly knows who you are or what you stand for, but I think I finally figured it out.”

  Caligo cocked his head to the side, his eyes slightly narrowing in a smile. “Oh? And what might that be?”

  “Keeper of Secrets. God of the deep earth. Patron of none. Monster in the Dark. Crow. You have so many names and titles. Yet deep down you and I both know the truth. You’re just a fucking psychopath.”

  Holo Flickered behind him and swung Lyrae down on his head. Caligo spun around and drew a large glass-like black sword from underneath his feather cloak. The sword and scythe clashed in a reverberation of energy and sent ripples through the air.

  Caligo’s smile widened, but there was no mirth in his eyes. “For someone who has spent a vast amount of her life studying and researching the secrets of this world, you seem to know so little about the truth.”

  Holo jumped back and took up a defensive stance. She glanced at the dragonbanes, who hadn’t moved since Caligo’s arrival, then back at the man himself. “Enlighten me then.”

  Caligo sighed and stabbed Honorem into the ground. “Even if I explained it, you wouldn’t understand, or more accurately you wouldn’t want to. I suspect you’d fight me until your last breath.”

  “Gee, I wonder why. Maybe it's because you released soul-devouring monsters into the world.”

  “The dragonbanes are necessary. They have always been necessary, you simply can’t see it.”

  “Then is all of this necessary? The destruction of my city? The deaths of thousands?!”

  “I imagine you're quite accustomed to death. And no, it wouldn’t have been necessary had you simply given me Selyndra’s Key.”

  “I told you I don’t have that damned orb! It was destroyed when Solis died.”

  “STOP LYING!!” he screamed, his voice exploding in the air like a bomb, shaking the ground underneath them.

  Holo took another step back and gripped Lyrae’s handle.

  Caligo closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and relaxed his shoulders. “...Despite the lies, Lunae, Bellum, and you concocted, I know what truly happened that night. I know Selyndra's Key survived and I know where you’re hiding it.”

  “Even if that were true… even if I had the orb, why would you want to cause a second Schism?”

  He laughed. “The key did not cause the Schism, you fool.”

  “Then why do you want Selyndra’s Key?”

  “Selyndra was my mother.”

  Holo frowned, “The titan queen? But that would make you…” Her eyes widened in horrid realization. 

  “Now you’re beginning to see the truth.”

  “Ananta… why…? You fought Unildyr! You fought the dragonbane! Why are you doing this!?”

  “I told you, you wouldn’t understand.” 

  “...I won’t let you have it!” Holo clasped her hands together and a pillar of azure flames exploded underneath Caligo.

  The feathers of his cloak burned away in the heat, revealing the black scales underneath. As the fire died away and the smoke cleared, Caligo stood in the same spot he had been, unharmed. A faint golden sheen glimmered on the cloak’s black scales.

  Caligo shook his head in disappointment. He grabbed Honorem and pulled the orichalcum sword out of the ground. “I promise you, come dawn, I will have Selyndra’s Key, one way or another.”

  “I should have left you on that mountain all those centuries ago,” she hissed.

  “I was grateful you found me that day. I had lost everything and I couldn’t even remember it. If it wasn’t for you I would never have regained my memories.” Caligo sighed, “I would have let you live out your life in peace… And then you betrayed Solis.”

  “I always wondered why Solis acted so strange towards the end. He knew the truth about you, didn’t he?”

  Caligo said nothing, but his silence said it all. Holo scoffed in disdain, “You pretend like you’re not a monster, but you destroy everything you touch.”

  “Lin Lu doesn’t wish for you to die. She still holds some sentiment for you after all these centuries.” He glanced at Eldrak and Oshnyr’s wounds, even now they refused to heal properly, “But I think we both know you’re the only one in this city who poses a threat.” 

  He suddenly spoke in a strange language and the two dragonbanes bowed their heads and left. Oshnyr took to the skies with a powerful beat of his wings and Eldrak ran off with heavy footsteps towards the wall.

  “Just you and me then, hm?” Holo brandished Lyrae in front of her, the scythe slicing through the ground like paper. 

  “One last journey, hm, traveler?” he smiled.

  Holo clenched her jaw and tried to calm her rising anger. She forced herself to match his smile, “I don’t know about that. You’ve tried to kill me several times before. Never quite worked out for you, did it?”

  His smile turned pitiful. “Oh, Holo.”

  Caligo disappeared.

  A sharp pain stabbed into her back, right behind her heart. She flew forward and crashed through three houses. Her vision darkened at the edges. She gasped for breath. Blood filled her left lung; her broken ribs had punctured it.

  She gripped a broken plank and struggled to stand up.

  A figure flickered at the edge of her sight. “You misunderstand me—”

  Holo Flickered away in a panic and landed two streets away. She collapsed on the floor of an empty home and coughed up blood. Her mind rushed with thoughts.

  He wasn't a True Orange, let alone a chromatic mage. How was he teleporting? Some sort of device maybe?

  Caligo appeared in the doorway. “I’ve never tried to kill you—”

  Holo Flickered to a nearby bridge that ran over the stream connecting both the Commoner and Trade Districts. Holo leaned on the bridge’s railing for support and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air. She grimaced as her broken ribs slowly slid out of her lung and reattached themselves.

  “—Not until now.” 

  Caligo’s figure flashed in front of her and for a brief moment Holo saw it. A chill ran down her back. There was no device. No spell. He wasn’t teleporting. He was simply fast. Impossibly fast. Faster than she could—

  His fist struck her chest. Her sternum cracked with a crunching noise. She flew back with a boom, smashing through the bridge railing and crashing into the stream in an explosion of water.

 

~~~

 

  …The Western Wall…

 

  A familiar roar echoed in the night sky above them.

  Elzri looked up with wide eyes, “Oh no…”

  Oshnyr landed on the wall with a heavy thud. The nearby soldiers screamed in terror and tried to flee. His spiked tail lashed out and sent them all careening off the battlements. 

  Elzri stared at the monster of the void in disbelief. The dragonbane’s body was covered with deep gashes that oozed black blood, yet Elzri knew it was the same beast as before. Oshnyr’s ebon eyes turned to him and reflected within was mutual recognition.

  The dragonbane bared its fangs and roared hungrily.