Book 3 Chapter 53: You Don't Leave Unless I Let You
Dantes let out a cry of anguish as he ran for the side of the building. His raw emotion reverberated across the city as he screamed. Dogs and cats howled, bats shrieked, rats began going wild across the city, the flowers that had been blossoming began to close, even the roaches went still, unable to process the emotion that Dantes had unconsciously sent out throughout Rendhold.
Godfrey didn’t stop him from running for the side of the roof, black energy emanating from him, sapping the will and hope from everything it touched. He just smiled and soaked in the despair that had just traveled through the city through its connection to Dantes.
Dantes reached the edge of the roof, and looked desperately across the ground, trying to see where Jacque had landed, hoping that he was somehow okay, but he didn’t see him. He started to look up, and saw him floating in the air, gently falling down to the ground below. He could see two muscular men waiting below. One an incongruous massive elf, and the other an old man wearing purple robes that did nothing to hide his massive frame. Orebus and Merle saw him and waved as they moved to catch Jacque. They looked rough, bruised, burnt, but alive at the same time, as if they were filled with the kind of vitality that can only come from a grand victory.
Dantes felt relief for a moment, then he turned to look at Godfrey.
At that moment, Jacopo finished reorienting the threads of their locus, cutting them off from the damage done to their destroyed gardens.
Dantes spread his will throughout the city, feeling the whiskers on the face of every rat, the wind rustling every leaf. He could see where all of his allies and enemies were, sense everything near them as the barrier between him and Rendhold blurred.
Godfrey raised a fist, and the air around him seemed to blur and shake.
“I’m going to grant you the mercy of death now Dantes, you and this city.” He opened his hand and gold and black light shot from it and began arcing all around the city. In that moment Godfrey became many, but not just a handful of clones, in that instant he became legion. Those at the barrier who’d just driven away the Viscent army suddenly saw more than a hundred gold and black figures led by a man in resplendent golden armor. In Uptown where they’d thought they were safe, an army of gold and black suddenly appeared in their midst and began laying waste to everything. All those who’d thought themselves safe were suddenly being put to the sword, and leading each of those groups of black and gold constructs, was a duplicate of Godfrey, wearing a cruel smile.
Dantes drew his pistol, pushing all of the wands he had out of his wooden arm at the same time. Jacopo shifted into his man-form and stood next to him with his metal claws flexing.