Unbound

The trip to Jaast was uneventful, just laborious. Gabby had never traveled with an army as large as the one mustered at Elderthrone. She had also never done so much waiting in her life. Moving the legions and assembled allies was an operation too vast for her to tackle. Despite her training, she was not a general or a tactician. She was a weapon.

And a weapon in the sheath isn’t doing its job.

Mostly, however, Gabby was bored. It took four hours for the army to exit the Shadowgate and get on its way. The scouts surveyed their prospective path, keeping a sharp eye out for Marzul or the Khadan Imperium, but there was no evidence they’d strayed so far northwest. As for their path, they took to what Gabby could only describe as a medieval highway. Apparently an ancient artifact to speed them along, she doubted its efficacy. Magic, while useful, was more than a little scary to Gabby. She’d seen some gnarly uses of it, thanks to the Hierophant.

“It is perfectly safe,” Zara had told her. The sharp-toothed woman smiled, and somehow, Gabby wasn’t put at ease. Still, she didn’t hesitate when they mounted the ancient steps and her mages eagerly activated a slew of arrays along its weathered edges.

A strident hum filled the air, felt more than heard, and Gabby immediately felt a continuous, tingling jolt along her feet and legs.

Interesting.

“We can only go so far on this road—the Emperor has only restored so much of it while claiming the Territory,” Vess told them as the artifact powered up. “Stay close and keep your pace even.”

Gabby overheard a few mages muttering about the sigaldry involved, limitations, and all sorts of nonsense she didn't understand. All she could do was move, so she did.

She fell in love immediately.

Every step felt alive, somehow. The movement of thousands of feet on its surface transformed from a staid march to a percussive concerto. The ephemeral strings of the Grand Harmony joined them, echoing from the artifact itself. For a while, Gabby lost herself in it. That is, until it was cut brutally short.

The scouts found it first. The artifact had been broken. Stone was sheared away, plants charred, and all of it was as cold as winter despite the tropical heat surrounding them. Worst of all, the damage wasn’t Ages old or even years—it was new.

Fear clutched at Gabby, a distant emotion she squashed without thinking. Fear was useful, but it could throttle decision making as much as rage or grief. She needed a clear head. Cautious, but firm.

Their pace slowed of course. Hopping off the ancient highway and forced to enter the jungle proper would have put the brakes on any group, but their numbers pushed it down to a slogging crawl. When they had set out, it was mid-afternoon. Now, it was full night before they reached the area approaching Hevaan. The problem was manifold, but setting aside the logistics of moving thousands of soldiers, it was the terrain that was the true culprit. Mountains hid among the tangled green, clad in broad leaves and vines and hanging moss in every direction one looked. It gave Gabby a distinctly claustrophobic feeling, as if she were being hemmed in by the world.

She hated it. The lack of mobility, the looming vantage points, the endless blind spots. More than once, she fought an urge to burn the entire place down with golden light. As the march stretched into the small hours, the urge only grew stronger. It was there that they began to see the touch of Marzul.

For the past several days, the night had become twilit days, never quite dipping into the inky shades of true dark. It was the consequence of the moon of Noctis crashing out of the heavens, and of Goddess’ own power being stolen. Now they came upon the first real evidence that it was not destroyed, for as they traversed the jungles, true dark claimed them.

The night had returned.

Lightless Eyes is level 142!

Wings rushed above her, near silent in the midnight dark, but they couldn’t hide from her. Her Skill had Evolved from Goldensight—a Legendary Skill that allowed her to stare into the sun without harm and to see perfectly in even the dimmest of lights. Now not even the thickest darkness could impede her vision, nor the stealth Skills of high Tier Chimeras. She could pick them out easily as they flew by relatively slowly in all four directions. They still hadn’t a clue where the enemy was located, but after the damage to the highway everyone was certain they were close.

The Chimera, while swift, weren’t stupid. They stayed beneath the canopy, where they couldn’t be silhouetted by the moon and stars. It made their scouting far harder, but thankfully the jungle trees were tall. Tangled for certain; flight among the branches looked incredibly complex. As a result, scouting was left to the smaller, more nimble Chimera while the larger specimens marched alongside the rest of them.

Scylla led them, the white-feathered tenku that her brother’s Companion was all gaga over. She flitted among their number whenever they reconvened above the army, holding whispered conclaves that she could only just make out. Her ears weren’t nearly as good as her eyes.

Gabby sighed. There was little use trying to eavesdrop on folks. If something happened, she'd be told. It was just that the waiting was getting on her nerves.

She walked at the front of the army, a lone combatant among companies and battalions. Vess was their general, with Evie and that armored man as commanders—Harn, she believed his name was. The trio were thick as thieves, gabbing in low voices about all manner of things from combat advice, Skill discussion, and worse, shared experiences. Inside jokes she had no access to.

She’d established a rapport with the two women previously, but now the hours stretched by interminably slow, and Gabby had nothing to contribute. Strangely, she felt more out of place with the three leaders than the rest of the Unbound. An improvement to be certain from even just a day prior.

Archie, Beef, and Elowen were nearby, as were Wendell and Ondine, but all of them had tasks of their own. People they were responsible for. Gabby just had herself and her thoughts. She didn't much like either of those things.

"I don't trust this quiet," Rowland said through his close-cropped beard. The Chancellor of Pax’Vrell moved like a stalking cat, despite his fancy armour and eight-foot spear, similar to the liquid grace his daughter possessed.

The hulking wyvern beside him was no different. "It is concerning," Thalgrym agreed. “A calm before the storm.”

“The monsters the Dragoons have faced were wily things, the type that would appear and slaughter a household before they'd vanish into the night. I’ve learned not to trust this silence. My hunts have always been quiet things, until they weren't."

Gabby understood that. She too had been part of quiet hunts. Too many, in fact. Except in hers, it was Gabby that was the stalker in the dark, and none of her prey had ever escaped. She shuddered, pushing the memories back. She didn't have time for them. Here and now, that was where the threat was. Her past was dead. Imara was dead. The words gave her strength.

Still, the jungles were lifeless. And that spoke to a predator.

"It's never like that," Kevin said, coming up on the other side of Roland. "Even when the Adamant Knights and their huge snakes were here, the jungles didn't go quiet. There was always bugs and small things moving in the underbrush. Even the plants made noise."

Kevin's brother moved between the roots of some large tree, barely visible even to Gabby's Perception.

"I've been watching," Shadow said. "Things are creeping away from us fast. Not because of us, though.”

Evie snorted. “Of course they are. We're an army marching through a jungle. Quiet as we are, we can't hide that.”

Shadow shook his head. "Everything I sense is moving past us, not away."

"The boys speak true, Commander Aren. General Dayne." Scylla alighted on a low branch before the head of their column. Vess drew up short. "We spotted entire herds shift through the jungles, and all of them silent as the grave."

Vess scanned the tangle of green before them. Gabby wasn't sure what she saw, but it clearly displeased her. "Where are they coming from?”

“According to your maps, it's Hevaan."

The city was under siege.

Gabby peeked over the ridge a solid half mile away and watched as gleaming Skills tore through the night to splash against the tall walls of the resurrected city. The place was massive and impossible to miss. It rose in ascending tiers, similar to Aeonis in several ways, except there wasn’t a mountain at its center. Instead, huge pillars held up the disc-like sections, far above the ground they stood on now. Tall, fortified walls surrounded it on every front, and though the jungle rose up around it, much of it had been cut away, cleared for at least two hundred yards around every side.

The city had clearly prepared its defenses, yet those measures clearly didn't hamper the foes set against it. Squat, humanoid figures hustled around on strange mounts, moving complicated machinery across the empty tracks of land.

Siege weapons. They planned this. "Are these the Dwarves of the Khadan Imperium?" she asked. “Why are they even here?”

"Yes, and I am unsure.” Vess peered at them, her own vision swirling with magic. “But it is almost certain they planned this attack in advance.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Gabby’s expression hardened. “Marzul?”

Vess hesitated. “No. I do not see her, and unless she planned to lose her empire, I cannot see her planning this far ahead. We must assume they are separate threats. For now.”

Evie scooched closer to the ridge, tilting her head in either direction. "They look…weird."

"How so?" Vess cocked an eyebrow.

"Dunno. Analyze won’t pick anythin’ up, but they’re movin’ funny."

Gabby hadn’t noticed that, but then she wasn't as familiar with Dwarves as others may be. She could tell, though, from a distance, that the Imperium's soldiers were skilled. They seemed to move a bit frenetically, perhaps desperately, but they worked their contraptions with deft hands.

A harsh rasp announced the firing of at least five seige weapons. The constructs were like ballistas mixed with trebuchets, a complex series of inscribed wheels and gears flashing with every reload and fire. The shots arced up over the walls of Hevaan, aimed for the streets within, but they exploded against an invisible ward. It rippled with prismatic waves as dark green fire clung to its unseen shape. Magic sloughed off, falling into the fields just outside the walls, where it was snuffed out by the thick mud.

The attacks were answered by relatively scarce strikes from the city walls. A smattering of arrows and spells fired off, clusters no more than a hundred strong in several distinct parapets. They splashed just as ineffectually against the siege weapons, when they reached their targets at all. Even when some of the Dwarves sustained a direct hit, they shrugged it off, seemingly unconcerned.

"Who's manning those walls?" Gabby asked.

Kevin shrugged. "We moved the Wyrmkin in there, along with every village and town in fifty miles. Our people."

Gabby nodded. Kevin had explained his activities in Jaast before. She'd been impressed. His efforts against the Adamant Knights and the bandits before them was admirable. If she’d been thrown into the same situation, Gabby doubted she would have persevered the same way, not without her brainwashed training regimen. Then again, Kevin had his brother. Support like that couldn't be underestimated.

"That's not a lot of people to defend a town let alone a city.” Harn spat and gave the field a sour look. "It's only a matter of time before they break through. These Dwarves are Master Tier, I can tell that much. Might even be a Grandmaster among them.”

Shadow swallowed audibly. “No one in this area is prepared to handle either of those things.”

Gabby agreed. There were at least three thousand Dwarves below, all of them standing in orderly, easy to count lines. That many Master Tiers were a true threat to anyone except maybe Felix. But he wasn’t showing up any time soon. They had to handle it themselves.

Worse, something about them nagged at her. Maybe it was Evie's words talking about how they moved strangely, but Lightless Eyes picked up a weird afterimage that trailed after a few of them. A trick of the light, maybe. There wasn't much of that to be had. Only a single moon had risen, crescent and bronze, and its light was a dull thing in the darkness.

"We need to intervene," Vess said. "If nothing else, Hevaan is our fallback point. We can't let it be taken.”

“Three thousand Master Tier’s ain’t gonna go quiet,” Evie pointed out.

“No. And neither will we. They might be Masters, but so are all of us—and I would gamble on us every time.” She nodded to Gabby. "Remember, these foes are weakened by Felix's Authority over this empire. We should not underestimate them or their capabilities, but do not underestimate yourselves. Now go. Assemble your Talons."

The various Unbound scattered back down the ridge, returning to the battalions they were each in charge of. Nine Talons, each with thousands of Legionnaires, Nagafolk, Frost Giants, Yttin, and many more. Looking over them, Gabby could believe they’d handle this fight easily.

She checked her new armor, tugging on several straps that needed no adjustment.

“Nervous?”

Gabby looked down to see Vess and her Companion a few feet away. “A bit.”

“Not eager to test out your Evolved Skills?” The Dawn Wyrm had finally left his floating wagons alone, though he seemed grumpy about it. “I’m surprised.”

“I’m eager enough,” Gabby admitted. “But battles change quickly. I don’t know what we’re walking into.”

“My concern as well.” Vess stepped closer, eyes roaming the army that gathered behind the obscuring ridge. “If luck holds, we will get the drop on them soon enough.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Yin snapped his jaws—quietly. “Then we instruct them in pain.”

Gabby laughed. “Corny, but alright.”

Off to the side, a scout made handsign. <<We are ready.>>

Vess gave a short nod, hefting the glaive in her hands. "The lesson begins now."

They descended through the jungles, the commanders of each Talon at the fore. Eight Unbound and several other Master Tiers walked with Gabby, moving slowly through underbrush as a hundred stealth Skills tried to muffle their approach. With an army as big as theirs, it was bound to fail eventually.

Eventually ended up being about five minutes.

A hornblower cut into the night like a siren as the leading edge of their army reached the tangled edges of the jungle. Arrows almost immediately peppered the Dwarven scout, but the damage was done. The Imperium soldiers turned almost as one, their orderly lines intimidating despite the numbers on Gabby’s side. These were professional soldiers.

“Rear guard!” one called, and the Dwarves spun their siege engines, only for their operators to leap from the cockpit. The Imperium soldiers leaned forward, hands all but braced against the earth as a strange aura surged among them all.

"Talons forward!" Vess cried. “Kill them all!”

Chaos erupted. Skills bright and shining struck the Dwarves, splashing against their bodies, burning the ground and spiking their lines with a brutal frost. The Dwarves slowed, but only a bit. They bellowed, an aching sound that must have shredded their vocal cords. Animalistic rage rose in their bloodshot eyes, and they charged with a maddened abandon.

That makes no sense! They should attack from a distance first! Use those seige weapons on us at least—

Her inner monologue vanished as those afterimages she’s spied congealed across their torsos. Slick appendages of shadow burst from their backs and wrists, lashing outward as foam flecked the Dwarves' mouths beneath their heavy helms.

Gabby's eyes widened, but her charge never faltered. "Godslaves," she realized. "They've all been turned into godslaves."

She met them. Brightblade hewed through, swung through the first three that came against her. The wide golden sword snagged on their armor, but only for a moment before they were cut in two.

You Have Killed A Khadan Imperium Corpus (Corrupted) (x3)!

XP Earned!

Corrupted. She was right.

Evie crowed. “Told ya somethin’ was wrong!”

“Fight now!” Harn grunted. “Brag later!”

The man’s axes described glittering arcs through his enemies, silver fire flowing in his wake as the Khadan line crumpled. The Talons moved with practiced precision, Blade, Fist, Bone, and Arclight unleashing their might in coordinated waves. The Dwarves frothed at the mouth and their shadowflesh spread across their armor, but they died just the same.

Brightblade Crescendo is level 135!

A massive blade of solid golden light, cut through the field of battle like the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Everywhere she moved, Dwarves died, bodies bisected and shadow tendrils smote into vapor. Yet their numbers didn’t diminish. More appeared, swarming her with weapons that gleamed with a familiar blackened-green energy.

Necromancers? She dodged beneath them, faster by far, and flared a newly Evolved Skill. “Heliacal Rise!”

The Skill surged within her—a Transcendent Evolution of Sunburst (L), it allowed her to seize and burst nearby sources of light Mana, inflicting heat damage on all targets. It was the dead of night, but Yyero’s waning moon lathered them with bronze light.

All of it was hers to command.

The field exploded, moonlight expanding into a blossom of brutal heat that briefly illuminated the dark.

You Have Killed A Khadan Imperium Corpus (Corrupted) (x12)!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Khadan Imperium Spiritus (Corrupted) (x20)!

XP Earned!

"They aren't Masters," she said, as dark reclaimed the world. Broken corpses littered the ground. "Something's wrong."

"Maybe the shadows fouled ‘em up," Evie said, her chain whirling amongst their armored foes. Even she, barely into Master Tier herself, was slicing them down with little effort. "Don’t see why you’re complainin’! Give me an easy fight any day!"

Gabby couldn’t argue against that logic, and she didn’t bother. The corrupted Dwarves didn’t stop, so neither could she—none of them could.

Dwarves died by the dozen, and the Legionnaires were handling things just fine on their own. Lucent Tower mages hurled elemental magics in spiraling arcs, fire and ice and earth crushing hundreds in their grasp. Berserkers and Nagafolk cut down others while Risen undead took the brunt of Dwarven might. They were winning, so much so that eventually Gabby was faced with a field devoid of enemies. Her Perception caught a clutch of them advancing far to her left, but she’d reached the midfield, where the siege machines were located.

She paused. These things, complicated as they were, had a true power to them. Whatever was afflicting the Dwarves clearly hadn’t touched their artifacts. "Is it the shadow? Did being turned into godslaves make them weaker?"

Something twinged at the edge of her Perception, and light pulsed within her core. She was missing something. Gabby had always been talented with the element, but since the Omen Path she had grown far stronger.

“Lightless Eyes.”

A field of Mana surged before her, threads intermingling in every direction she cared to glance. Before it was merely a vision Skill, and it still was, but now it could pick out the thinnest piece of light Mana from an insane distance…and amplify them.

Immediately, Gabby spotted odd fluctuations. A strange enough phenomenon, even during a normal day. But now, on a nearly moonless night, it made no sense.

Gabby spun, turning her attention toward the trees. There! Shadow and light Mana mingled in unnatural flows, almost as if they were hooked together in order to—“There’s a sheet of Mana clinging to the trees.”

Evie retrieved her chain. “What?”

Gabby didn’t answer—instead she reached out. “Heliacal Blaze!”

The shadow before her hardened, an impenetrable cold sealing away outside influence—but she was already inside. Lightless Eyes flared, amplifying her Skill as her Will burst through the shadow. The sheet of Mana burst, explosions cascading across the forest hundreds of feet away, and gold illuminated the night.

Heliacal Blaze is level 133!

Gabby gasped.

A wave of murky water clung to the treeline, suspending hundreds of massive creatures that seemed grown of living stone and crystalline ice. Beasts in form, clad in blood-red sigaldry and swirling with a power that Gabby could feel in her bones.

"Elementals!” someone bellowed. “Major Elementals!”

A horn sounded, and the tsunami that spread over the treetops cast a shadow even in the night. It closed in on Hevaan…and them.