RE: Monarch

Chapter 103: Sanctum XXVIII

You hate him because he resonates. A magician who lacks in sheer power, and resorts to tactics and manipulation of those weaker than him to achieve his goals. Children. Because he represents the logical conclusion of your abilities as they are now, taken as far as they can go. Based on what I know about you, about what Ive heard, he is you, albeit in a twisted and dark mirror.

And you dont like yourself very much, do you, young prince?

Thats fine. Its better than the opposite, really. This is the rare situation where self-hatred is useful. But you have to use it properly. Harness it. Reverse engineer your approach, your strengths, your weaknesses. This is your chance to punish those weaknesses mercilessly. Take nothing for granted. Expect everything.

And maybe, just maybe, after youve won, you can begin to heal.

I leapt at cowl. He darted away, dodging the strike from my sword by a hairs breadth. There was fear in his eyes as he staggered, standing directly over one of the mines covered in a cloud of dark magic.

I snapped my fingers.

There was no explosion. Before I could think about that, absorb the reality that he could somehow interfere with the blasts, he was already reaching into his coat and pulling out a black glass bottle. Immediately I called to the air, ready to dodge. With a cruel smile, he threw it down at my feet. I caught it just in time with a cushion of air.

But it was a mistake. Hed been watching me. Knew how Id fight. That Id likely be just as wary of anything that came in a bottle as he was. The bottle crumbled, separated liquid fusing until a bright light overtook everything in a screaming keel. I managed to get my arm in front of my face by the time I realized, but it was almost too late. My vision was awash with a mess of melting purple and green afterimages.

So, thats what that feels like.

Vogrins voice whispered in my ear. Dagger. Behind and to the left, melee range in three seconds.

I waited two breaths, then swiped out with my gauntlet first, connecting with nothing, following up with a wide horizontal swing from my sword. There was a sound of something hitting the ground and scampering away.

Nearly thirty seconds had passed and I could still barely see. I turned slowly as Vogrin gave me instructions.

Okay. Eyes in the back of your head. Mana sense or something similar. Good to know. His tone still carried the same swagger, but was underlined by a hint of caution that hadnt been there before. Gods. The balls on you, kid. Cowl said, even though judging from his face, he wasnt that much older than me. Do you know how many people Ive killed? Countless Magicians. A few arch-mages. And your big plan is to stick us together and see who comes out on top?

Down.

I dropped, and a burst of air passed over head, smelling vaguely of rot and death.

Seventeen. Vogrin said, his voice terse. Wed talked about the possibility of being blinded. It was a common trick in my repertoire, so wed placed the lines across a grid Id memorized. Without looking or raising my hand to snap, another misdirection, I blew up the mine in the seventeenth quadrant. There was a muffled exclamation that cut off midway.

I fed the inscriptions on my legs and sprinted blindly in the direction of the explosion, sword raised over head. Some of my vision was returning, and I slashed downward at the vaguely human shape crumpled on the ground. A wide burst of darkness in the form of a modified aegis served to trip me and fling me ahead, carrying my momentum overhead where I landed hard on my back, dazed.

Upside down, I looked up in time to see Cowl pull a small black disk from his satchel. He threw it out, and it split into five smaller disks. My eyes widened. The distribution was wide, three long and two short, specifically engineered to cover as much ground as possible with me in the center.

Even if I got up now and started running, I wouldnt be able to escape the disks themselves. So instead of moving to the side, I flung myself up with an expensive burst of air magic, and once airborne, using the more economical air steps that Saladius had taught me. This bought me plenty of altitude quickly, but it was barely enough.

Several of the disks jumped in the air and began to levitate, orange lines forming between them until they formed a cube-like barrier that would have contained me had I been any slower on my feet. I watched in horror as the barrier shrank to the size of a pinprick, in on itself, the intent of the trap clearly to crush whatever was caught inside.

What a trap to simply have at your disposal. That could have been it.

I surveyed the battlefield in the brief moments I had before I came back down to earth. Cowl was scowling at me, his earlier smugness forgotten. He had moved since the last time Id seen him, but he was still covering the three nearest buried charges with darkness.

Why only three?

A quick glance confirmed my suspicions. The previous mines hed been covering were still active, the darkness gone. Three was his limit, or at least, all he was willing to commit to defense.

Morthus was right, then. He was more limited in his capabilities than I was expecting. Still, the mine coverage presented a problem. It meant I needed to knock him off-balance to be able to access the lions share of firepower wed prepared.

Arent we going to talk He stopped when I blew up a mine directly between us, kicking up a cloud of dust and allowing me to throw a smoke bomb.

My blood was up, and all I wanted to do was dive through the smoke as I had many times before, hoping to score a direct hit, but I was certain hed likely seen that, as Id used it against the abominations.

So, I held myself back. Drew mana within me, directed it downward, then kicked off the ground. The world slid away from me, the movement too quick to track, then reappeared as I flash stepped directly behind him. He swiped behind him with his dagger, and looked surprised when I grabbed it with my gauntleted arm, wincing as the razored nails dug into his flesh. I drove a knee into his gut, feeling a grim satisfaction as the breath went out of him. But before I could finish with my sword, I saw him smiling.

An explosion of dark magic tore from beneath his arms, ravaging my hands. I watched as my skin shrunk and shriveled, seeming to age decades in a single moment. Slowly, I stumbled backwards, weak from the sudden loss of vitality.

But how? I hadnt seen him cast. What was the explanation?

Artifacts.

Sure enough, beneath his sleeves, I glimpsed a pair of silver bangles. During my studies in the enclave, Id come across descriptions of items that could store additional uses of spells. They could look like anything, and the weaker ones were somewhat common and often use for day to day conveniences. But the more complex artifacts capable of storing strong magic were worth a kings ransom. And understandably so. If you had many, you could effectively mitigate any issues with low mana.

Which meant I had to assume cowl had one less weakness than me and that between the two of us, I would run out of steam faster. I couldnt focus on the pain, how brittle my arms felt. I couldnt hesitate. He threw another long, narrow spear of darkness at me. I held out the gauntlet to catch it.

There was a massive impact, driving me back as I braced the gauntlet with my sword arm, the force of it sending me sliding back on my feet. The gauntlet shimmered with dark energy.

Before, Id only been able to catch spells and send them back. But by the end of the last loop Id begun to notice something. The spells never came out exactly the same way. If I focused my mana on the gauntlet, I could shape them. The level of control wasnt great, but perhaps

Time slowed down. I held the gauntlet out, fingers splayed, aimed at the covered mine beneath Cowls feet and tried to narrow the exit point of the spell as tightly as possible. The knock back was immense and I had to throw my head to the side to avoid being struck by my own hand, a thin line of pain streaming down my shoulder.

As the thin black beam sundered the ground, I noticed that one of the dark coverings of nearby mines had disappeared. Cowl focused on a spot to my left, a quirk of amusement on his mouth. When Id been talking to Vogrin, one of my concerns was that Cowl might be able to reverse engineer the charges, use them against us. Vogrin had admitted it was a possibility, but an unlikely one, as they were buried and Cowl would have to do so purely through trial and error.

But wed miscalculated. The purpose of the dark magic pages he kept casting on the spots where the mines were buried wasnt just to prevent the explosion. Hed been analyzing them.

Pain tore through my side as the twin explosions went off, and we both fell to the ground.

/////

Think about what your enemy means to achieve. Take it from him.

I struggled onto my knees, leaned forward onto my hands. My vision was blurry and my ears rang. Vogrins warning came just in time. I scrambled forward, half-running, half-crawling, as a half-dozen explosions went off behind me.

Youve earned my respect, lordling. I knew the risks of reading the blood, but still. All this? Its clever. Almost flattering. And to throw your friends away just for a shot a luring me in? He brought his fingers to his lips and made a delighted noise. A masterstroke. I honestly didnt think you had it in you.

I wheezed, trying to catch my breath, looking back and forth like a caged animal, ensuring I wasnt surrounded by anything that could explode. My left side had been torn open, several ribs broken and exposed, screaming every time I moved.

Slowly, intentionally, I lowered myself into that frigid madness that descended on me every time a loop went on too long. It calmed my mind, my nerves. He had me, and clearly wanted to talk. So, Id let him.

You know, Ive thought about it. The reason someone like you would follow someone like her. She has everything you lack. Raw power, talent. In fact, morally bankrupt ruthlessness is really the only thing you share.

Pure conjecture, Cowl snapped, but there was something new in his voice. I was touching a nerve. A bolt of darkness flew at me. I scrambled to the side, throwing two more smoke bombs, filling the chamber. Carefully, I navigated the ground where the charges had already gone off.

Maybe, but that doesnt matter if Im right. I spoke through the air, my voice transported ahead of me. Several charges went off and I ducked my head instinctively. This was good. If he kept it up, I could narrow down where he was.

I thought back to the night of the coronation. How broken and twisted cowl had seemed, unable to do anything but laugh. My guess? I said, whispering from another direction. More charges went off. You resent her. She was handed everything, while you had to work your entire life for even a fraction of the power. And youre already planning your betrayal.

No response. Maybe I was completely off-target, but I kept going. Had to figure out where he was, try to get the drop on him.

Thing is, anything you might be planning, anything you might intend to do? Thoth already knows. Everything is a game to her. I bet shes even dropped hints, made little implications that have you sweating at night, wondering.

A mana charge went off to my left. Not close enough to do damage, but close enough to cause other problems. The smoke was picked up in the gale of wind, leaving me exposed.

Cowl stared at me, openly unsettled. How? He asked, his mouth set, lips narrowed.

Because I know what you are.

The tension grew taut as we faced off. We were both bleeding, my wounds more serious than his.

This is pointless, Cowl shifted, and a spatter of blood hit the floor. Youve thrown those dear to you away. And now you will die alone.

Now. Vogrin snapped. Every charge went off at once, sending a swirl of smoke and debris. Cowl was thrown to the side and landed hard.

The mana charges were on a timer. It was a contingency wed set up in case he somehow managed to neutralize everything. I felt sick, my brain numb from the endless explosions, hearing half gone.

I staggered towards him.

And watched in horror as he began to drink potion after potion. His body began to glow red. The corruption, but different from whatever hed used on the infernals.

A bit of white caught my eye, drifting in front of my face. At first, I thought it was an insect. But it was a bird made of paper, its tail on fire with a single pinprick of demon-fire.

I looked up the expansive walls to the cavernous entrance above. Jorra and Bell were bracing Maya as she emptied the entire bag wed prepared.

But as the paper birds took flight in a slow downward spiral, each of them dancing in the rising heat of the explosion, each of them carrying that tiny spark of demon-fire, I felt my heart soar.

Never doubted you for a second.