The sight of Honoka streaking across the length of the hall broke the spirits of the Guards. Around the time she was impacting the shield blocking off Grey and the Warden’s duel, they nearly universally abandoned the fight. As Sylvia and I raced across the battlefield towards the barricade, we passed many Guards who were fleeing past us toward the blown-open doors.
I don’t know where they thought they were going. This was an island, after all. It’s not like you could hide here forever. If they were going for the ships, then they were probably going to be disappointed. Bella’s crew had, presumably, taken care of those.
Speaking of, the pirates of the Thorny Reef didn’t seem to care that the Guards had given up. They were still chasing them down for the slaughter, hooting and laughing as they did so. I passed Curloch as he was hooking the legs out from underneath one of the escaping Guards. He gave me a grin and a thumbs-up.
Yeah, okay, man. Have fun I guess.
By the time we had reached and slipped through the makeshift wall, nearly the entire Guard force had forsaken their Warden. The side of the battlefield Sylvia and I had started on was filled only with my companions, McGill’s pirates, and the moans of the dying.
Those were being dealt with by the freed prisoners.
They didn’t catch my attention, though.
Two other things did.
First, the Neptaurian Prime was gone. Presumably dead, I thankfully didn’t see its Monster Core anywhere that the Warden could bring the creature back. I think Venix was injured somehow though, as I saw his massive frame being tended to by Renauld. The Gnoll that I had taken a chance on was too busy to pay me any mind. He was concentrating fiercely on the downed form of the Antium, hands glowing with a golden light as they hovered over him. Aurum and Woodrick were also nearby them. Aurum was wringing his helplessly, while Woodrick was standing guard. Both Sculpted looked a little roughed up, honestly.
I grimaced at the sight. If Aurum couldn’t do anything for Venix and Renauld could...
He might be in bad shape.
But what caught the attention of most of the hall was the confrontation occurring between Grey, the Warden, and Honoka. With the bubble shield gone, I could see it clearly.
The three of them were locked in a standstill. Warden Leonard was barely holding the two of them off, surrounded by a nearly physical crystalline blue aura with how dense it was. Grey was to the right of the Warden, pressing inward with both Stellarum and a pitch-black aura dotted with stars, teeth gritted in exertion. At the same time, Honoka was pressing in on the Warden’s left, still suspended in midair from her dive. The old woman was trying to drive a dagger of what looked like white-hot plasma into the skin of the Warden’s left hand, which was barely holding her back.
It didn’t look like the Warden was winning this struggle. He must have realized that as well, as with a shout of exertion, the crystalline aura surrounding him exploded into all too real physical shards. Both elders attacking him were blown away, leaving the Warden to stand alone, visibly exhausted and panting. Grey skidded to a halt near where I was standing, while Honoka corrected herself in midair. She spotted our group, and drifted down to stand next to Grey. Her fiery wings folded against her back but didn’t dissipate, surprisingly not giving off any heat. Behind the four of us, the rest of our forces were watching the confrontation with bated breath.
Grey took a deep breath and then nodded to Sylvia and me before he fixed his eyes on Honoka. “Well,” He said in a condescending tone, entirely ignoring the Warden. “I see that the children solved your little problem. Tsk tsk. What has the world come to, when Elders must rely on the efforts of the young?”
Honoka glowered at him, also giving no mind to the Warden. “No thanks to you, you lazy reprobate. I would never have been branded if you hadn’t been swinging your moon-bothering, over-inflated sense of self-importance around. What took you so long, anyway? Did you need an up-jumped infant to do all the work and save you from the big bad stunties?” She said mockingly, conveniently ignoring that’s what she had needed.
I faintly heard an offended ‘Hey’ from the form of Azarus, standing not far from us.
Honoka paid no attention to my dwarf friend, keeping her attention on Grey.
I blinked slowly at the unexpected back and forth. I don’t know what I was expecting from these two’s reunion, but it wasn’t for them to immediately descend into insults. Still, even I could tell that there was no heat behind the words. Instead, there was a near palpable sense of relief and muted affection in the gazes of the two as they bantered.
I could tell that they had known each other for a long, long time.
Now that I thought about it, probably longer than my home country had been around.
Warden Leonard interrupted the reunion by spitting on the ground, seeming to have caught his breath. “Honoka,” He said flatly, clenching his hand around his staff. “How…surprising to see you. And with your Status active as well.”
The man sounded as if he was barely holding back an ocean of rage.
Honoka and Grey turned from each other to face the Warden. Honoka smiled darkly at him. “Bet you weren’t expecting that, eh, boy? Can’t say I was either, but I won’t question it. After all, it’s going to let me get my revenge on you.” It was almost disturbing, the amount of bloodlust the woman injected into that word.
“As much as it pains me to say, I’m willing to let you surrender, Leonard. As a favor to your brother.” Grey said, ignoring the protesting noise and betrayed look that Honoka shot him at his words. “You might well have triumphed in time over merely myself, but you stand no chance against the both of us. You have my word that I’ll treat you better as a prisoner than you did Honoka. I’ll make sure you’re delivered into the custody of Leopold myself.”
“Oh, will you now?” Warden Leonard sneered, eyes nearly popping out of his head in affront. “How dare you. How dare you! You must think you’ve won, don’t you?”
Grey made a show of looking around the hall. The only people left in it by now were people with no reason to look kindly on the Warden. In fact, there were some decidedly un-friendly looks being leveled his way. “I rather think I have. Don’t be stubborn, now. I’m sure that you’ll only face imprisonment in your family home for, oh, perhaps a century? Not the worst thing that could happen today.” He said, pointedly raising Stellarum once again.
The Warden lowered his head, his shoulders starting to shake as he did so. At first, it appeared almost as if he was sobbing, but everyone in the hall was soon rid of that notion. Chuckles started to escape the man, ramping up in volume until the man threw back his head to cackle loudly into the silence of the battle-worn entry hall.
Grey’s face hardened, while Honoka merely watched the Warden with eyes hungry for vengeance.
Slowly, Leonard’s laughing came to a halt. He started to shake his head. “Oh, but I’m not quite beaten yet,” He said with a vindictive smile. “After all, you made a mistake before you ever set foot in this hall, Headmaster. Care to take a guess? I’ll even give you a hint, if you’d like it.”
Grey was silent for a moment at Leonard's provocation, merely watching the Warden of Caer Drarrow with narrowed eyes. His grip on Stellarum tightened. “And what would that be, Leonard?”
Warden Leonard of House Ashran leaned forward on his crystalline staff, a mad glint in his eye. “You shouldn’t have brought the Abyssmother’s Core with you.” He hissed. Leonard raised his staff, head pointing past Grey.
At me.
Dread realization stole across Grey’s face before he whipped around to face me with panic etched across his aged features. “Nathan--!” He tried to shout.
I was ahead of him.
I think the only reason any of us survived what happened next was because of Ringed Mind. It was because of the swift actions of my middle ring that I didn’t die. While my outer ring was watching the confrontation, my middle ring had been observing Leonard closely. The second my middle ring had processed the word ‘Core’ from Leonard's lips, it had seized control of my body and dived a hand into my back pouch. Inside was where I was keeping the Monster Core that Grey had gifted me, left behind after he and Venix had killed the Frostbrine Abyssmother in the caverns below. I’d grabbed hold of it, already feeling the sphere beginning to heat up and bulge oddly in my fist. I don’t know what Leonard was doing to it, or how he even knew that I had the Core, but I didn’t have time to consider the matter. I yanked the Core out of my pouch in a mad panic and tried to toss it as far away from me as I could.
It only managed to fly half of the way to the Warden before the reason for Leonards confidence became apparent.
This time, the Core of one of Leonard’s Primes didn’t erupt back into the form of a revitalized monster.
No, this time the Core exploded.
Violently.
Two things happened then.
The first, was that I saw Leonard cluck his tongue in disappointment at my swift actions. Before the Core was finished exploding, I saw him take a small crystal sphere out of one of his robe pockets and throw it onto the floor. In a brief flash of light, the Warden of Caer Drarrow disappeared, teleported away from this location somehow.
The second, was that Grey stepped in front of Sylvia and I protectively. With a grim cast to his face, he raised Stellarum and concentrated, flat of the blade presented in front of us. A large circular shield of shining silver light appeared in front of us, stretching far on either side of our position. Honoka raised a hand as well, lending her strength as well. A similar shield appeared in front of Grey’s, a fiery crimson in color.
They weren’t enough.
The force of the blast from the exploding Core was far more powerful than I could have imagined. It blew the entire front of the entry hall away, both ceiling and walls on either side of it violently disintegrating under the force of the expanding white-hot fireball. Somehow, the back half of the hall retained just enough structural integrity to not instantly collapse on top of us.
Grey and Honoka’s shields weren’t so lucky.
Honoka’s broke nearly instantly from the force of the blast, causing her to reel back with a cry of pain. Grey’s shield instantly splintered from the strength of the Aetheric bomb as well. I could tell that Grey was trying to reinforce his shield from the snarl of effort on his face and the pulsing of the splinters, but…
It just wasn’t enough.
In the split second before the wave of force and fire could roll over Sylvia and I, I cast Thorn Cloak and grabbed her. I hoped that it would help protect the two of us, even if only slightly. I turned my back to the oncoming fire and looked down at Sylvia held in my arms. Our frightened eyes met, crystalline blue on emerald green. Sylvia buried her head in my chest, as the wave of force rolled over us.
We went flying, and the world went dark.
