Chapter 202: The Purge
Evan and Xiaoshuang barely dared breathe. He knew the man couldn't actually see him, but the magical world held no shortage of strange gifts and techniques, and there was no telling what any of them might sense.
Watching him give the room one glance and turn away, the two exchanged a look and let out a breath of relief. After a moment, Xiaoshuang finally spoke through their link. "This ring isn't controlled by Shulman himself. Someone else is holding the connection to it."
"Can you handle it?" Evan asked silently.
"Mm-hm. Don't underestimate me. I've got a real handle on divine art now — mimicking one person's presence is child's play. Let me start copying the ring's own signature first, so he never notices," Xiaoshuang said, thoroughly pleased with herself.
A faint ripple passed through the space around them — she was managing two things at once, drawing out the man's presence on one side while, on the other, a faint outline of the ring began to take shape, his own signature slowly building up across its surface. She turned back with a small, satisfied smile, flashing a victory sign.
Evan, carefully keeping the disturbance she'd caused from spreading further, let out his own quiet breath of relief. One problem down.
He gave her an approving smile and a thumbs up. She smiled back, pleased with herself, and slipped off to the side.
"Boss, have they made up their minds yet? Should we press them?" one of the men asked Shulman.
Shulman nodded and called out loudly, "Send someone out. Let's talk properly."
The voice carried, even through the stone, and Heathermere heard it clearly. She considered a moment, handed her post over to another mage, and made her way down. Shulman felt another ripple pass through the ambient magic just then — the disturbance shifting, weakening rather than growing stronger.
Something felt off. He turned. "Cree, is there any problem with your ring?"
Cree closed his eyes, focused for a moment, and nodded. "No problem at all. Ready to trigger whenever needed. Still bound tightly to my presence." Shulman's mind eased. With the magical elements here in such chaos, detection spells of any kind simply wouldn't function.
A voice called down from above. "What is it you want? Controlling the floating city isn't going to happen."
"If Hollingburton refuses that, there's another way," Shulman said.
"What way?" Heathermere appeared, her cold eyes sweeping over the assembled men. Evan seized the moment, slipping quietly closer to Shulman under his invisibility — Heathermere still caught the faint ripple in the air, though everyone's attention had already fixed on her instead. Facing down a legendary mage was bound to unsettle anyone present.
"I want the secret of the Gate of Legend. And temporary control of the floating city, enough to carry us out over open water," Shulman said.
"The secret of the Gate of Legend, we can give you. Control of the floating city — never," Heathermere said.
She noticed the ring wasn't worn on his wrist, but held loosely in his hand. Its starlight flickered faintly. He seemed to sense something amiss, and said hurriedly, "Control of the floating city isn't mine to decide. And we're not comfortable putting it in your hands either."
Just as Shulman felt something off, Heathermere's words pulled his attention away again. "We don't want to be enemies with Hollingburton. The Church put us up to this, but all I actually want is the Gate of Legend. I'm just wary Hollingburton won't let this go otherwise — which is why I need control of the floating city, if only to guarantee our safe passage. Once we're clear, we'll return it whole."
Evan drew back quietly. He'd already finished his work — it would only hold for a short while, but that was all they needed. He sent the signal. Amid the chaos, it got through cleanly. In that same instant, a fierce, hard edge crossed Heathermere's face, still wearing a smile that carried no warmth at all. "Heh heh. You band of terrorists. If you leave here alive today, my name isn't Heathermere."
A ring of ice burst outward in a single wave, freezing even the air itself wherever it passed.
Evan's signal hadn't slipped past Shulman unnoticed — the instant it went out, he sensed someone had gotten in close, and shouted at Heathermere in alarm. "Do you have a death wish?"
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He raised the Ptolemy Ring in his hand, still with no idea it had already been compromised.
He didn't get to finish. The frost had already reached him. Being fire-aligned himself, a ring of flame burst up at once — only to be crushed instantly by the encroaching frost, shrinking rather than expanding outward, frost crystallizing across his hair and clothes. Three of his twelve men, standing closest, froze solid on the spot; the rest moved sluggishly, ice already forming across their bodies.
Evan triggered the legendary ring on his own finger — its core forged by Ortlando himself — and a wash of blue light rose to shield him completely.
The moment the blue light flared, his invisibility broke instantly. He didn't spare it a thought, drawing his blade, sword-force locking onto Shulman at once, a streak of light lancing straight for him.
Shulman hadn't expected such a formidable opponent lurking behind him, let alone one wielding a blade instead of magic. Though the ring of ice had touched him too, its effect proved manageable — Arcanist and Great Knight both, he twisted his body sharply, breaking Evan's lock, and hurled the Ptolemy Ring straight at him in the same motion.
He wasn't worried about damaging the ring itself — he'd tested its resilience before, unbreakable by any ordinary means. Even landing in someone else's hands, a single thought from him would still be enough to trigger it, reducing everything within several dozen cubits to nothing.
Once the ring left his grip, he shifted, a fire lance materializing in his hand, body and weapon moving as one straight at Heathermere. He knew things had gone badly wrong, and gritted his teeth, preparing to trigger the ring regardless.
But first he needed to clear the ring's blast radius entirely. With teleportation sealed off, he had no choice but to force his way out.
Heathermere swept a hand coldly through the air, and a wall of ice sprang up before her. The fire lance struck it and scattered apart. He turned and darted down another passage instead, and Heathermere flicked a finger, ice and snow sweeping in behind him in an instant. His body jerked, then burst free suddenly — some magical item he carried had saved his life.
She gave a cold laugh, sending a signal through the mental link, and didn't bother pursuing him herself, letting the storm of ice and snow rage on unchecked. The remaining knights and mages had no hope of weathering a legendary mage's fury. Cree, seeing no way out, gritted his teeth and triggered the ring — nothing happened at all. Only then did he understand: Hollingburton's people had already compromised it, somehow, without his ever noticing.
The storm of ice reached him, and he froze solid where he stood. Evan had already retreated to the core chamber by then, one ring in hand, Xiaoshuang carrying the other.
Watching Heathermere unleash her full strength, Evan smiled, tension finally draining from him entirely. The crisis had passed.
Heathermere finished sweeping through Shulman's followers, and finding Evan and Xiaoshuang in the core chamber, smiled. "My thanks to you both. Everything's settled now."
"What about Shulman?" Evan asked.
"He won't get far. I've sent word for Marantel and the others to hunt him down. He escaped my grip by burning a precious magical item, but the floating city's sealed shut entirely — there's no way out of it, whatever he tries. Anyone who'd move against Hollingburton is already a dead man," Heathermere said. Cole entered just then as well.
"I don't know how he learned so much about this place's inner workings — worth investigating thoroughly. By rights, all of this should have stayed confidential, and yet Shulman seemed to know it inside and out. And that locator signal — what was that all about?" Evan asked.
Cole gave a rueful look, spreading his hands and producing a locator from his palm. "This. I found it hidden behind one of the devices — someone brought it in ahead of time. No idea who."
"Trace it magically. Cole, hand it over," Heathermere said.
Cole gave her the locator, and Evan said, "I honestly didn't expect this level of carelessness from you all. Clearly the blueprints leaked, and someone managed to smuggle this in besides — some kind of magical tracking device, no doubt, which explains how Shulman's group teleported in so precisely. Seems you've put a bit too much faith in raw magical strength and not enough into building proper safeguards around it."
Heathermere looked genuinely embarrassed. "You're right. We were far too careless. By the way — you have two Ptolemy Rings now. Would you spare one for my own research?"
Xiaoshuang immediately clutched both rings to her chest. "This is our spoils of war. Not for free. If you want one, you'll have to pay for it."
Heathermere laughed. "Fine, I'll pay. What would you like?"
"A legendary item in trade — one no weaker than the ring itself," Xiaoshuang declared, entirely serious.
"Xiaoshuang, don't be ridiculous. Here." Evan handed one of the rings to Heathermere. "This one was Shulman's own — he'd never have imagined we'd manage to disable it entirely."
Heathermere smiled. "I'll trade you a legendary item for it properly. And if my research turns up anything, I'll share it with you as well. Don't worry, Xiaoshuang — I won't take the ring for nothing."
Footsteps approached from outside — Marantel and three others. Heathermere asked, "And Shulman?"
"Dead. He leaned entirely on that Ptolemy Ring — take that away, and he was nothing much at all," Marantel said with a smile.
Shulman had fled down another passage, having burned through one magical item already, and clearing the ring's blast radius, kept running, meaning to trigger it properly once he'd reached open ground. He came to an abrupt stop. A figure stood before him — the legendary mage Marantel himself.
Marantel, a lightning mage, stood perfectly still, regarding Shulman with a cold stare. Notoriously short-tempered, he'd found an unusual calm settling over him in this moment.
He'd come here on Heathermere's word through the mental link, waiting specifically for this.
The instant Shulman saw him, his face changed — he knew there was no escaping now. "In that case," he said coldly, "we'll die together." He focused his will, meaning to detonate the ring. A moment passed. Nothing happened at all. Marantel gave a cold laugh. "Still waiting on that ring to go off? Ha. You have no idea it's already useless — and you're still trying to bluff in front of us. The moment you set foot on this floating city, your fate was already sealed."