Liesel

  There was no doubt about it—Liesel stood under the might of a divine being. Its sheer size. The jackal head. The suffocating pressure that exuded from its otherworldly appearance.

  Anubis, the mythical god of the Saar, had descended upon the mortal realm.

  And it had somehow been summoned by an Exalted.

  “It’s a memetic entity!”

  Nabil’s voice cut through the terror and despair that shackled Liesel’s conscious.

  A memetic entity. The term described an ability that exclusive to Exalted who can shapeshift. The memetic entity was a physical manifestation of a shapeshifter’s transformation brought to form with mana. Rather than transform into their Gifts, the shapeshifter can materialize them separately into existence and command them with their will. Being able to conjure a memetic entity represented the pinnacle of a shapeshifter’s abilities. Only a couple of Exalted have been capable of such a feat in Ardair’s short history.

  The ability was so rare that some scholars believed it to be a myth and even denounced records of its existence as embellishments.

  Why are there so many powerful Exalted in the Saar?

  Liesel suddenly saw a vision of a unified Gharia standing toe to toe against an Ardairan subjugation army formed to suppress the rebellion. She could see them winning. The possibility existed. Their odds weren’t great, but a fractured Ardair driven to exhaustion by Vigil and infighting amongst the aristocracy was not an undefeatable opponent.

  “Buy me some time!” Nabil yelled. The Dhazara leader arrived at their side by the Azurite mine entrance. He was breathing hard and sweating profusely. “I’m the only one who can fight that memetic entity. Protect me. I need a moment to use my Gift.”

  Anubis began to move. Each step of the memetic entity sent shockwaves through the entire encampment. Nabil’s stone golem marched to meet its advance. Simultaneously, the Zal’Khari’s detached force began to storm the Dhazara warrior’s left flank.

  “You’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m going to throw my life away to stop that thing!” Anna spat.

  “Of course not, I want you to help my men deal with the detached force for now. You can do that right, Anna?”

  Anna looked like she was about to slug the Dhazara leader. Eventually, she clicked her tongue as the sounds of steel and death resonated across the encampment. The battle at the left flank had started. Electricity buzzed across her body as she sprinted towards the Dhazara formation.

  Nabil let out a sigh of relief. His hands immediately reached for the ground, his fingertips gleaming with mana as he began to draw a new ritual circle.

  “Where do you want me?” Liesel asked.

  “Here. My golems will stall the memetic entity, but that means the rest of their vanguard is free to move in the gaps. They’ll definitely come for me. It’s their easiest path to victory. So be my shield.”

  “Are you insane?!” Liesel yelled, “Did you forget that my Gift is ineffective in the Saar?”

  Nabil smirked knowingly. “Oh, but you’re the Ice Maiden of Belle, are you not? The Prodigy of Ardair. I’m sure you’ve figured something out.”

  This wasn’t blind trust. Liesel had enough of a read on this man that she knew he did not make decisions on a whim. Everything that Nabil did could be traced back to reason and calculated risk.

  Did he find out what Kai and I were doing? But we made sure no one was listening in.

  There was always a chance that Basar’s Gift also allowed him to enhance his hearing, but there was no way to know now. The Dhazara Exalted’s corpse was half buried in the sand, soaking in a pool of his own blood.

  Nabil began to intone. His eyes closed. The concentration of mana around them rose steadily. He continued to draw in the sand, adding more and more details into the ritual circle. The inscriptions were indecipherable to Liesel and the words flowing from his mouth sounded nothing like the languages that she studied. An esoteric tongue. Likely knowledge bestowed by his Gift.

  In the background, the line of stone golems clashed against Anubis. The godlike entity lifted its foot and stomped. One of the golems was crushed in an instant, exploding into a rain of fragments. Anubis reached for its ruins. A spiral of mana gathered around the destroyed golem, mending and reforging the pieces into the shape of a staff.

  Liesel shot Nabil an exasperated look. Clearly, they had different explanations of stalling if his meant giving the memetic entity a weapon.

  At the left flank, Anna’s electricity screeched in the air. The girl was like a blur, weaving in and out of the enemy formation and wreaking havoc. Electricity enshrouded her body in a web, pulsing at high frequency to repel any projectiles while also electrocuting anyone that came close. Anna had worked hard to improve her Gift to minimize her glaring weaknesses. Volt was now a versatile Gift with both offensive and defensive capabilities. No Ordinary army should have posed a threat to her.

  She’s the least of my worries.

  Back at the front lines, the Zal’Khari forces began to move. War cries announced their descent down the sand dune to reclaim their stolen encampment. They swerved around the ongoing battle between Anubis and the stone golems. Their bloodthirsty shouting got closer and closer. Liesel could see fingers being pointed at their position. Nabil had been spotted.

  Fuck.

  It won’t be long before they were in range of the crossbows. Nabil didn’t look close to completing his ritual. The Dhazara leader remained focused, frantically scribing nonsense into the sands while chanting a foreign tongue. Was he even aware of their situation?

  I need a source of blood.

  There was no more time to dawdle. She had to resort to the cruel method she and Kai thought of to bypass their restrictions in the Saar. But there was nothing nearby. The initial raid on the encampment should have given her plenty of material to work with, but the casualties had been much less than anyone had anticipated.

  Basar’s body was the closest to her. She could make use of him. But the blood quantity wasn’t nearly enough.

  Her eyes landed on the slaves still being guarded by a couple of stone golems. The poor sods stood there—scared, helpless, and innocent. They had nothing to do with this conflict, and yet their lives were being threatened regardless. Most of them were prone, eyes closed, ears covered to block out any sounds of the combat. A couple sat with a sullen look as though resigned to whatever wretched fate awaited them.

  Am I seriously going to do this?

  Her mind trembled, embroiled in conflict. The Zal’Khari’s war cries grew louder. Her survival instincts slammed against the doors of her morality, pleading for the mental barriers to break. She had to do this to live. She knew it. There were no alternatives. No clever solutions. No way out.

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  “I’m so sorry—”

  She steeled her gaze. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she gritted her teeth in resolution. Her hand rose. Mana followed, latching onto the blood of Basar. She weaved it, biting down her disgust while solidifying the viscous liquid into crimson ice. Myriad shards, the size of a finger, materialized in the air.

  Liesel flicked her hand towards the slaves.

  She narrowed her eyes, forcing herself to watch as she cut down the innocent people apart. Blood sprayed. Screams echoed. She couldn’t even grant them a painless death. For this to work, the wounds had to be grievous. She needed them to bleed. The more that died, the more blood she could control. The few that tried to escape her bloodbath were crushed by the golems. The slaughter was over in a few seconds.

  Liesel never detested herself more than in this moment.

  Thunk!

  The ejection of steel echoed. The first barrage of crossbows was unleashed on her position.

  “Crystallize!” Liesel intoned as she brought over the crimson ice. The fragments quickly stacked atop of each other to yield a makeshift barricade. Bolts and arrows arrived, smashing into the ice shield. The melodic chime that rang in accompaniment would haunt her for years to come.

  She waited until the Zal’Khari vanguard was within her inference range.

  “Shard!”

  A chunk of the shield splintered off and realigned itself into an array of ice shards. She snapped her finger and the projectiles rushed towards the oncoming foes. The attack was devastating. The first wave of Zal’Khari was hacked down. Liesel immediately seized their blood to add to her reserve.

  She covered her mouth, fighting the urge to puke. The sight of the Zal’Khari corpses, mutilated and eviscerated, made her knees weak. She had done this. They were dead because of her.

  Were battles always like this? Was this the true nature of war? Had she just been na?ve, thinking that most of her encounters were going to be like the Clash of Dawn and the spars within House Belle’s estate? It turned out that she was just playing pretend this entire time. Reality was so much crueler, so much more disturbing, and so, so much bloodier.

  The ground stirred. Liesel peeked above her blockade of ice. Anubis stood tall, resting its staff of stone atop its shoulders. All of Nabil’s golems had been crushed and pulverized into bits. The memetic entity soon directed its attention to them.

  Without warning, it broke into a sprint. Each step shot the giant manifestation forward by several meters. The stampede of its unstoppable approach shook the entirety of the encampment.

  Liesel reforged the crimson ice protecting her into multiple icicle lances. With a push of her hands and a burst of mana, she launched them into Anubis’s path.

  Anubis was unfazed by the attack. With an arm raised to shield its face and chest, it took the brunt of Liesel’s lances head-on. The ice shattered with ease upon crashing against the memetic entity’s forearm. Liesel scanned its body for weakness. The projectiles left temporary incisions in Anubis’s arm, but the wounds were rapidly healing.

  It’s useless.

  She seized more blood from the dead Zal’Khari and pooled it into a swirling mass. She closed her fist. The bloody mass froze, congealing into the shape of her knuckles.

  “Hammer!”

  If piercing attacks were ineffective, then she resorted to blunt force instead. The mass of ice barreled into the memetic entity.

  Thud!

  The head-splitting echo thundered. Anubis received the attack with a swing of its stone staff. The result was an explosion of rock and shards of frozen blood decorating the skies. Liesel was out of options. Her blood reserves were too low to mount a proper resistance. And Anubis refused to be stopped.

  “Nabil! Hurry up!”

  The Dhazara leader was still in the middle of his ritual, seemingly oblivious to the inevitable danger. Liesel gathered as much blood as she could as the shadows of Anubis loomed over her. Her legs wobbled. Her feet itched with panic. She wanted to run. But Nabil’s death and failure would also forsake everyone in the encampment. Including Emil and Kai who were still inside the Azurite mines.

  I swore I would redeem the Belle family’s name!

  She unleashed a projection of crimson ice as Anubis swung down its staff. She knew at a glance that her phenomenon was insufficient to stop the attack. Her hands were already engulfed in mana as she prepared a desperate last stand with Mana Arts.

  The area suddenly lit up. Screaming cackles filled the air. Electricity carved through the space as it trailed a spear of lightning. Thunderfang soared into the path of Anubis’s attack.

  The combined clash of phenomena sent the memetic entity reeling backwards.

  Anna returned.

  She reached into her pockets. Multiple coins were loaded into the gaps between her fingers as she prepped Ionize for the follow-up.

  Liesel had no time to feel relieved when she felt a violent storm of mana behind her. Nabil’s chants grew louder, his voice deepened, resonating with the surging mana.

  “Levigu el la tero, kaj atentu mian vokon!”

  His ritual circle glowed. Liesel was forced to close her eyes at the blinding lights. When she finally felt the lights cease, she caught herself jaw slacked.

  An enormous stone colossus emerged face-to-face with Anubis. Its body was glowed with mana as the esoteric energy flickered sporadically across its limbs and torso.

  The battle between giants had begun.

  Kai

  The fracture in the wall across the subterranean chamber continued to expand. Fragments fell like curtains opening before a show. Except this time Kai felt no curiosity, no anticipation, no desire to see what horrific secrets laid beyond the confines of this Azurite mine. The entire subterranean chamber seemed to have been silenced as the Zal’Khari and their slaves watched the collapse with morbid fascination.

  A deafening shriek ensued.

  Kai flinched as though hit by an invisible wave. He grimaced as he covered his ears. The sound was so shrill that his skull felt like it was being split apart. But there was something more to the deafening cry than just its harsh pitch. His body was shaking. His heart raced frantically. This was something visceral. Primal. His unconscious mind was sending him warnings.

  He looked up right as the earth tremors intensified. The incessant shaking nearly brought him to his knees. Then he saw it. The source of all this commotion. And the reason why the Zal’Khari and their slaves were holed up at the bottom of this chamber.

  The eyeless face of a sandworm.

  The disgusting suckers and teeth lined along its circular mouth were twitching with anticipation. This specimen was massive. Far larger than any of the ones that they had encountered before. The mouth and face themselves could almost cover the bottom of the subterranean chamber.

  Why? What were the Zal’Khari doing hiding this enormous monster in the depths of the Azurite mine? Kai’s mind scrambled in confusion until he caught a glimpse of what laid behind the sandworm.

  Skulls.

  Skeletons.

  Massive mountains of bones piled with what seemed to be excrement from the sandworm’s body.

  The Zal’Khari were feeding it. With slaves that had recently Awakened.

  Were they trying to tame it? A monstrous creature like this?! For what, to use as a weapon in the war between the Gharian tribes?

  No, he realized the answer shortly after. There was a reason why their journey towards the Azurite mine had been devoid of sandworm encounters.

  What was one way to keep an area free of monsters?

  Have an even larger, more dangerous monster occupy the territory.

  It was a stupid, stupid idea. The Zal’Khari were absolutely insane. This was the work of a madman, not someone with a functioning mind capable of rational thought. Because Kai refused to believe that any ounce of logic that convince a group of people to feed and raise a massive sandworm.

  The shrieking stopped. Kai let out a dry gasp of air. Cold sweat leaked down his back. The abrupt silence placed everyone on edge. The entire chamber held its breath as though waiting for the colossal sandworm’s next action. The monster’s suckers vibrated like the motility of a centipede’s legs. Without eyes or any other discernible facial features, it was hard to read its intentions. Was it hungry? Had it simply been disturbed by the conflict within the subterranean chamber?

  The Zal’Khari had just fed it. Kai remembered one of the slaves being dragged away. Surely, it was satiated?

  The sandworm’s mouth suddenly moved.

  The array of teeth caked in blood and chewed up entrails was briefly exposed as it plunged its jaws at the slaves and Zal’Khari at the bottom of the chamber.

  The ensuing splatter was unlike any sound that Kai had heard.

  The monster gorged in delight. The subterranean chamber became a slaughterhouse. The Zal’Khari on the lower levels of the chamber finally had the presence of mind to counterattack. Bolts and phenomena arced through the air with desperation, aimed at the thrashing monstrosity in the midst of its feast. But the assault was useless. The sandworm’s weakness was its underside. Attacks from an elevated position were never going to reach its vulnerable areas. But doing so required the Zal’Khari to jump down to the bottom of the chamber where the colossal monster was in frenzy.

  Kai looked around, taking in the gravity of the situation.

  All of the Dhazara in their group were dead. The Zal’Khari were distracted with subduing their unstoppable sandworm. Judging by the scale of the threat, they had no chance without taking severe casualties.

  We can leave now, right?

  They found the Azurite deposits. The remaining Zal’Khari were going to be eliminated by their own folly. There wasn’t even any Dhazara alive to hold them hostage. This was their opportunity to escape.

  Emil, however, seemed to have different ideas.