Crowned in Black: Chapter 47

Oh boy, have I been waiting to write this chapter for a LONG time.

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“Nice to see you here, at last. Knew you’d come one day.” Ororgael smirked as he strode through the door—the same one we had entered through—the Godslayer held naked in his hand. The whitecrystal blade crawled and spat with flecks of void energy, like tiny black holes bored in reality. "And just the two of you, too. You've made everything so much easier."

"How the FUCK did you know we were here?" I stared at him in shock. There was simply no way he could have known. Not unless... "Who told you?"

He laughed, then flashed a broad, mirthless grin. "Who else could it be? Your girlfriend. The red head."

"Liar!" Karalti flared her crests and mantled her wings, ducking her head and screeching aloud. Before I could stop her, her jaws gaped, drooling white fire that she spat at Ororgael. He brought the sword up, and the fire hit it and… vanished. As if it had never been there.

Violetta and Lucien entered behind him: the woman as emotionless as a doll, and almost as lifeless. Lucien’s thin mouth was twisted in a sneer of derision. Violetta lifted her spellgloved hand and concentrated, and a portal opened behind them, filling the doorway. One by one, their dragons entered: the misshapen forms of Whisper and Tempest, and then the visually perfect, but eerily lifeless Hyperion. Karalti shrank back, hissing with her head held low. These dragons were a much higher level than she was… we both knew we were outgunned.

My heart dropped, but even as I fought the gut reaction of being told that one of the most important people in my life might have betrayed me, something cold and clinical studied Ororgael from behind my eyes - and made note of the way the grin had fixed to his face, and how HIS eyes gleamed with expectation and anticipation.

"C'mon, Oreo, you can do better than that." I sniffed. "I normally wouldn't ever stoop so low to make fun of a cancer victim, but I thought eunuchs were supposed to be good liars."

Ororgael's expression of cruel mirth drained away, leaving nothing but a fixed mask clamped over simmering hatred.

"Sorry, I know." I held up both my hands in mock-surrender. "Didn't mean to, uh, 'pluck the low-hanging fruit'."

"You piece of shit!" His fist tightened on the hilt of his sword.

“I’m the piece of shit?” It was my turn to laugh. I held up a warding hand. "Hang on, wait just a second. Which team has been murdering and raping people, poisoning cities and burning villages? Which team has been starting wars and trying to destroy the world? If I’m the piece of shit, then you guys are a whole fucking unscooped kitty litter box. Seriously, though: how did you know we were here?"

"The Pearl, you idiot," Ororgael snapped. "It was coded to snap to any virally-tainted person and is bound to me like a tracking device. I can see it on my world map. I made sure that you had it... you didn't tear it from me. I gave it to you, and the fact it went straight to you and into the Spear simply confirmed for me that YOU are the source of this world’s corruption."

"Oh." I did actually feel kind of stupid. I'd originally suspected that the Pearl of Glorious Dawn, the Light-element Keystone, had somehow been compromised. Then nothing had happened and I'd forgotten about it... so I'd been worrying about a spy reporting our movements, but it was just me after all. Still, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. "My dude, the Pearl was stuck in YOUR face. It belongs in the Spear definitely. Why the fuck do you have to lie all the time? I know you're Squalor's bitch, but it's pathetic."

"Yeah, you kind of are. We all saw the recording," Karalti added.

When I said Squalor's name, the Godslayer darkened, and the motes of Void energy swam around it like a cloud of angry hornets. Ororgael's eyes narrowed at the word 'recording'. "What's pathetic is the fact you haven't realized that this is my world, and that everything that has happened to this point has been executed to plan. Including this. It was a matter of time before you delivered the Queen into my hands."

Karalti rumbled. "Excuse me, but ‘the Queen’ has a name."

"I'm sure you absolutely planned for us to kill Andrik, and for Lucien to fuck up and let Ignas slip through his fingers." I rested the Spear over my shoulders and smiled as prettily as I was able to. It was superficial, though: my mind was racing, trying to figure out what the fuck we could do. Message Suri and call for reinforcements? But the thought of her being hit with the Godslayer… fuck.

Ororgael's mouth sloped down. "My dragons are in Myszno, finishing the job we started. And finishing your little NPC friends off, too. And your castle, and everything else you thought you'd accomplished. "

My fear of that happening was real, but I couldn't show it. Not if we hoped to win. "Let's go, Karalti: buff yourself, then blast Hyperion right in his fucking face while they're distracted. I’ll keep him talking."

"Okay." She paused a second. "You told me what they did to my mother. I'd rather die than let them take me. You know that, right?"

"Then don’t let them take you."I paused and spoke aloud again. "We were expecting the dragons, Ororgael. And we have the weapons to fight them. And once the Diamond Pact is gone? Karalti will command her kin like she's supposed to, and you fuckers won't have a leg to stand on."

"You won't be leaving here alive." Ororgael subtly shifted his weight. "Whatever the fuck kind of virus you are in this system, this sword can handle it now."

"Now! And watch out for his invisible spirit guards, or whatever the fuck they are!" Without any tells, speed boosted by Blood Sprint, I half-dashed, half-teleported straight toward Ororgael.

There was a brief moment of shock on his face just before we clashed - shock that deepened as he put his guard up, and I smashed his shield away to the side and headbutted him. Lucien and Violetta reacted, seconds too slow. They and Ororgael had once been too fast for me to follow, but now Ororgael seemed clumsy as I ducked and weaved around his sword swipes. I put some distance between us and faked a stumble, drawing him in, only to teleport behind him and drive at Violetta. There was a flash of light as her spell misfired and she squawked, stumbling away as my weapon hit some kind of force barrier and sent cracks through it. Lucien pulled a pair of knives and rushed at me - he was the only one of them who now had comparable speed.

"No! Leave him to me! Get that dragon! And don't you dare fucking kill her!" Orogael yelled.

In the split second when I'd charged Ororgael, Karalti widened her jaws and belched a plume of searing white fire right into Hyperion's eyes. The dragon screeched and backpedaled as the tender scales of his muzzle and neck ignited. He spat lighting reflexively, missing Karalti but hitting the furiously, erratically-pounding diaphragm leading to Solnetsi's reactor core. But his agony was a signal for the other two dragons: as one, they screeched in challenge and launched themselves at Karalti, flanking her to either side. The ground bucked under my feet as they clashed - I saw Violetta and Lucien break away to join their dragons against mine, but Ororgael was coming for me with the Godslayer - and if that sword tapped me OR Karalti, we were gone. Forever.

Ororgael tucked behind his shield as we clashed, using it to shove me and block any spear thrust I could have managed as he drove the sword at my waist like a gladius. It was too long for him to get a good angle - I twisted away, driving the heavy pointed butt of the Spear behind the unarmored back of one knee. He snarled and spun; I caught his thrusting sword arm and shoved it back, giving myself enough room to shadow dance back away from him. As I did, I saw him grin - and instinctively ducked as unseen weapons whiffed over my head, invisible swords from his pair of spirit bodyguards. My body charged with energy that I let burst outwards in a flower of destruction, and briefly, I saw the spirits come into view, seizing and writhing as the dark energy of Black Lotus rolled over them and drove them back.

[Black Lotus deals 11,212 damage to Spirit Guardians! 322 damage to ???0001FETCHERROR:NULL!]

"Hrrrgh!" Ororgael snarled from the blast, recoiling from it... only to point his sword forward and discharge a ray of mingled light and void energy. Like a homing missile, it tracked me as I threw myself to the side, hitting me in the chest. Searing pain ripped through my body, and I barked a harsh cry as my HP dropped slightly over halfway. Ororgael wasn't fast and he wasn't a great fighter, but fuck, he hit hard.

Gloating, Ororgael sprinted at me, eyes glowing with a familiar heat. I dove behind the activation plinth as he blasted me a second time. The Cyclops eyebeams hit the plinth instead of me, slagging part of it to liquid metal and stone. Instinct told me the spirit guardians were flanking me, but I took a second to spam a potion and quickly murmur the words of the healing spell Matir had gifted me. “Ikizt y’lanihaat nefesuu, yildizla’man shihben chizierum!”

[You have regained 700 HP!]

I stumbled up from behind the plinth, feigning injury. Sensing victory, Ororgael put his now-glowing shield down and rushed me. I pretended to stumble, and as all three of his aspects closed - him from the front, his ghosts from the back - I launched myself straight into the air and flew at him.

"You can't win, Park!" Ororgael skidded to a stop, setting his shield up to ward off the expected rain of death from overhead. But I hit Night Falls - and instead of landing on him, I vanished and appeared behind him with a flurry of blows. Blood Sprint burned through my AP as I drove into his unprotected back with powerful slashes he wasn't able to recover from. The combo ripped at him and sent him sprawling forward to hands and knees, scrambling shocked as I blackflipped up into the air... and rained Master of Blades down on Lucien and Violetta as they attacked my dragon. Fifteen darts of pure thrumming energy manifested around me in a dark halo and shot down at them, impacting them and the three dragons battling Karalti.

"Six against two says the odds are in our favor, asshole!" The black missiles vanished, pulled back, and reformed around me into the Rain of Glass that targeted Ororgael. He caught some of them, Darkness shattering against his shield, freezing and dulling it. But others broke through his guard, dealing more damage.

But Karalti wasn't doing well. She was bleeding, scorched and limping as she snapped and blasted ghost fire at the other dragons, trying to face enemies on every side in close quarters. Even with intermittent healing, her HP was dwindling down below 50% for the first time I could ever remember.

"Queensong! Queensong and healing now!" I bellowed, boosting myself with Dancing Fly and dodging another swipe from Ororgael.

"I'm trying! There's not enough room to do anything!" Karalti slammed her tail down to break Violetta's spellcasting, beating her wings to blow Lucien end over end as he tried to sever one of the tendons in her back foot. She opened her mouth to sing, only to squeal as Hyperion lunged forward and locked his jaws around her neck, twisting her to the side and driving her down to her flank with his weight. "Hector! Help!"

The sudden flash of pain and panic over the Bond distracted me a second too long. Ororgael was suddenly on top of me, using his shield in a high-speed rushing charge that bowled me over. It sent me sprawling and sliding across the floor, and before I could flip back to my feet, the bigger man had tackled me, straddled me, and had his weird crawling sword raised over my face. I kneed him right in the nuts - the blow shocked him enough that I got my hands free and slammed a fist up into the side of his jaw over and over again. Helmet or no helmet, the blows rattled his skull. He struck down desperately. Instead of ringing off the stone, the sword struck down into the ground beside my head and unmade it, turning the area around it into a fritzing void of nothingness.

Behind me, Karalti screamed as Tempest pounced onto her. I saw her kick out with one powerful hind leg at his soft underbelly. Her killing claw caught into his scales, dug in, and ripped, and the larger dragon howled in tandem with Violetta as both crumpled over. But Tempest fell forward over Karalti, pinning her to the floor with his weight, and leaving her vulnerable to Whisper as the third dragon joined his brother in seizing her and holding her down. My dragon squealed again in panic.

"Karalti!" My voice was raw with fear, but Ororgael - smoking, panting, was STILL coming. A roar of rage tore from me as I grabbed his sword arm, wrestling with the weapon as he fought to drive it into my neck. One blow was all it would take for Squalor to get in, figure out whatever encryption OUROS had coded into me, and unmake me.

"It's over, Park!" The veins in Ororgael's jaw and temples stood out as his greater strength slowly overwhelmed mine. "Surrender now, and I'll promise we won't hurt her!"

I didn't waste breath on replying. I let go with one hand, straining and shaking as the sword inched toward me, and groped up to Ororgael's face. He snarled, trying to pull his face away, but not before I sunk a metal-tipped thumb into his eye. He screamed - a blood-curdling shriek of pain - and desperately threw his head to the side. It took his focus off the sword long enough that it wobbled to the side. I belted it, sending it skittering away, and grasped his face on the other side to try and get the other eye. I didn't quite make it before he grabbed my armored wrist and bent it back until I felt something inside it tear.

"Fuck you!" I roared at him as I drove the thumb deeper. "This is for Ignas, you dumb fuck!"

The pain was so intense that his hand flinched away. He punched down at my face in desperation. Injured or no, I found the other side of his face and burst his second eye. Ororgael screamed, blood and ichor running down my wrists and forearms.

"I... will... KILL YOU!" He shouted, fumbling out for the sword.

I rolled Ororgael away from the weapon, getting on top of him and smashing my fists into his face. Five solid hits... then he shoved his palm into my chest and discharged a blast of light energy that blasted through my veins and lit up every nerve in my body with fresh agony. When I regained my senses, I was at a quarter HP and Ororgael was back on top, hands wrapped around my throat. I clawed at his face again, driving my knee up into his groin over and over. The blood in my temples was pounding in a way that reminded me just how alive I now was. My vision narrowed at the edges until all I could see was the bloody ruin of Ororgael's face: feathery white hair stained scarlet, blood pouring down his cheeks in rivers. I managed to get my knee in hard enough that something cracked deep in Ororgael's pelvis. His hands faltered... and then he suddenly coughed a gout of blood onto my face, mouth hanging open with shock and pain.

"Wh--wh...?" I gasped, drawing in a deep, heaving breath that opened my field of vision again... and I looked up to see Lucien standing over us both, hands wrapped around the hilt of the Godslayer.

It was buried in Ororgael's back.