Book 5 - Chapter 39

Zaff tilted his head to the side, incredulous. He gave Brin a look like he was waiting for him to crack, to admit that it was all a joke. When Brin kept his face stern, Zaff shook his head ruefully.

“I’m tempted, Brin, I really am. I’d just love to play this out and see how it goes. Unfortunately for you, I can’t take the chance that you’ll find a way to escape in the confusion. You’re a vital ingredient to the enemy’s victory. You’re too dangerous to leave alive any longer,” said Zaff. He produced an Eveladis and gave it a little shake with a knowing smirk.

Brin’s mental panic increased in intensity, and he was glad he was invisible because he doubted he could keep it all off his face. The Mirror Image on top of Rhun did an admirable job of looking unconcerned. “Can I ask how you knew I’m important to the war? I thought I’d been pretty subtle until now.”

“You may step as softly as an ant, but the footfalls you have yet to take echo as loudly as an elephant’s. Understand? It’s not your past that gave you away. It’s your future. Fate has betrayed you,” said Zaff.

“So I really am to play a role in our victory? Or maybe deliver a mighty wound. Perhaps what they saw was me slaying you, today. What strange, circular games these [Fate Weavers] play,” said Brin. 

“You know nothing of fate, young [Illusionist]. Don’t pretend you do,” said Zaff.

“I don’t. But I don’t pretend to. It’s your queen that does that. If Arcaena were so good at reading fate, then why is she losing this war so badly?”

Zaff snickered. “I would tell you to seek your answers in the afterlife, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. I’ve been on both sides of the grave, and death just left me more confused than ever. I’ll tell you this, though, and maybe you’ll find comfort in it: Soon you won’t care at all. I don’t care if I was sent here for a good reason or not. All I care about is how fun it’ll be to kill you and how delicious you’re going to taste. Your young flesh will be sweet like honey, and the magic in your blood will sizzle on my tongue.”

“If you really don’t care, then tell me who sent you. It wasn’t Arcaena herself,” said Brin.

Zaff shook his head patronizingly. “Are you done stalling yet? Got all your little tricks and traps set up?”

What was his response supposed to be to that? It was hard to think with his mind split into ten like this, like his mind was too small, or maybe that his mind wasn’t fitting in such a small space. He didn’t need to come up with a plan; he just needed to follow the one he’d already decided on. And that was..? Right. Lie. Lie about everything.

Brin looked down imperiously. “I thought you were the one stalling for time. I thought you must have reinforcements coming. You surely don’t think you can defeat me alone, do you? Zaff, for the first time ever, I’m prepared to unleash ten percent of my power. Try to last long enough to make it a good demonstration, at least.”

“I admire your commitment to the bit. I really do. But I know what you are.” Zaff held the Eveladis up dramatically for everyone to see, and then flung it to the ground.

Brin’s heart leapt up into his throat, but this time, in overjoyed excitement. Zaff had just made his biggest mistake.

The [Alchemists] who made Eveladis weren’t fools. The glass bottles they came in were made with pretty tough glass, so that the moderately expensive potion wouldn’t break accidentally. But they also needed to be deployed easily and quickly, so there was a snap-off lid, protected by a glass cage that you could fit your fingers through. The smart thing to do would be to snap off the lid while you were still holding it, but in Brin’s experience, most people couldn’t resist dramatically flinging the potion to the ground. Just like Zaff had.

Brin yoinked the potion away, and at the same time summoned a new glass to shatter against the stones on the ground. He’d never been good at creating a soft, glowing light to mimic the effect of a true Eveladis, but he didn’t need to be. His Lightmind had a spell for that.

He activated the spell. Soon, a softly radiant, pure white light expanded from the broken potion bottle, falsely proving to one and all that the fake structures, weapons, and obstacles of glass that Brin had summoned were actually perfectly real.

Zaff realized his mistake and rushed over to stomp on the bottle, but Brin had already whisked the real potion away, and all Zaff’s foot crushed was the already broken glass he’d replaced it with.

Zaff closed his eyes in a wince, but he was already smiling. “Fine. We’ll do this the fun way.”

He leapt towards Brin in startling speed, and was immediately slammed to the side by an eighty foot long, beam of glass. Only the very front of it was real glass, of course. It was made from a thin sheet of Brin’s shield, enchanted to the brim. The rest of the beam was an illusion, but even so, there was an added weight to being struck by something that large. [Say What’s True] used every inch of that space to shout the message This is the spell of an overwhelmingly powerful [Archmage of Glass].

It wasn’t the only one. A dozen more appeared, flying in every direction. The next time one of them came flying at Zaff, he leapt over it, dodging easily. That was his second mistake. He’d accepted it as real. He’d let himself be drawn into Brin’s game. It wasn’t enough yet, not nearly enough, but it was a start.

Brin unleashed a hail of glass darts that rained down on the earth over an area fifty yards wide. Only the ten darts in the middle were real, but that was fine because they were the only ones that struck Zaff.

He summoned a thirty foot-long blade and swung it wide. None of it was real, so when it struck the barest edge of Zaff’s foot, Brin matched the blow with his spear and shaved off three of Zaff’s toes.

Zaff jumped towards Rhun, and Brin launched a giant beam of glass between them. Zaff chopped down on it, a stunningly powerful blow with his full might. Brin put a block of real glass there and let Zaff break through it, then adapted the illusion to make the two sides of the massive beam fall off to either side.

Zaff barreled through a storm of spears, uncaring that three spikes of glass stabbed straight through him. Brin put another giant beam of glass in the way, and this time Zaff jumped onto it and ran across. Brin was hard-pressed to push his glass into place so that Zaff would have something to step on. He was actually helping Zaff get to Rhun, but those were the rules of the game, and if Brin broke them it was all over.

Zaff charged into Rhun. Brin sent him an urgent message. “Use your best defensive Skill!”

A sphere of golden light surrounded Rhun and Brin’s decoy. The light was illusion, but when Zaff struck Rhun moved his very real towershield into the right spot. There was a clang and the glass holding Rhun up shattered, forcing Brin to quickly reform it. To physical eyes, [Archmage] Brin was completely unmoved, and Zaff bounced off of him.

When the boss is surrounded by golden light he’s invincible. Everyone knows that.

“Heh. Not bad. You’ve forced me to reveal my hand,” said Brin.

Three obelisks rose out of the earth, each of them covered with magical sigils and glowing with power. They were clearly empowering [Archmage] Brin’s energy shield, but in case Zaff was a little slow, Brin assigned them a status.

Prismatic Glass Foci: These devices draw elemental glass energy from the earth, empowering Brin the Mistaken with mana and power.

 Zaff attacked [Archmage] Brin again, and Rhun executed another perfect block. Brin pushed a stronger argument into the golden light. The golden shield is invincible, moron!

Luckily, Zaff didn’t try again. He flung himself back in the air, dodging the swarm of flying swords Brin sent after him. He rebounded against one of the floating glass platforms, and pushed himself down hard into the ground where he waited for a moment, eyes scanning the surroundings, thinking.

Brin 5: The lens is ready. Let’s get some lasers going.

Brin 6: Laser Drones are go.

Brin swallowed another Mana potion. His Mana was nearly depleted, but it was for a good cause. One of Brin’s minds had created a twelve-foot-diameter fresnel lens and held it floating in the sky.

His other mind created five Laser Drones. They started shooting their beams, staggering them with a five second cool-down. Wherever the beams hit, Brin focused the fresnel lens, letting it flashfire the ground so that Zaff’s Heat Sense would still see them as a real blast of flame.

Zaff dodged them all, zagging straight into swords and spears if it meant staying away from the fire. He could probably tank a few; he could probably tank ten or twenty. But his Mana Pool wasn’t infinite and as far as he could tell, Brin’s Mana Pool was. In reality, Brin had two more shots in his armor–oh no wait, not yet he didn’t.

He activated the artifact Gerin had given him. Gerin was watching the whole display with wide eyes, in overwhelmed awe. He had no reason to doubt Brin’s display here and his credulity was giving Brin further weight in the Wyrd. Gerin’s artifact filled Brin’s Fire Jelly cores. Now he had two more shots.

Zaff’s movements had lost all the casual ease. He no longer moved like someone who knew he was going to win. This was a real challenge, and from the rictus grin on his face, he was loving every second of it.

He dodged a pair of lasers, vaulted a floating monolith of glass, jumped off a spinning saucer, tanked a flurry of bullets and landed at the first of Brin’s obelisks. He chopped his blacksteel sword into the device, muscles bulging as he pushed his body harder than would be healthy for someone who couldn’t regenerate.

Brin rushed to put a big block of glass in the way, and Zaff shattered it. Brin let his whole array of illusions slow for a moment, as if stumbling due to the interruption in their power source. Then the other obelisks shone brighter and the whole thing started moving again.

This wasn’t good. If he’d got one, he could get the rest, and by Brin’s own rules he’d have to take down the golden shield.

Main: We need more.

Brin 2: Me and 3 could use more help with illusions. Does glass really need three minds?

Brin 4: We’re barely hanging on with glass.

Brin 7: I know you’re not thinking of splitting my attention on lasers.

The rest of his minds were planning and researching. Brin didn’t like the idea of taking them off of that. His main mind was in charge of moving his real body. He had to stay near Zaff so that attacking him with glass wouldn’t waste too much Mana, but doing that was taking all his attention. He didn’t have a single thought for what was coming next; that’s what those other minds were for.

Brin 8: I’m ready for Marksi.

Main: Finally! Do it!

There was a spell in the Lightmind for letting someone else pilot your illusions. Apparently, Hogg had put that in as the most useful thing he’d learned in the tower so far. Brin had adapted it for glass. Now he could let Marksi use both glass and illusions. Theoretically.

Brin 8 explained to Marksi what he had in mind, and Marksi instantly agreed. He’d been impatiently prowling on the other side of the glass barrier, trusting that Brin would tag him in at the right time. That time was now.

Marksi roared, an explosion of sound that made Brin’s Vitality-enhanced ears ring. It was the sound of crashing thunder after lightning hit the house next door. It was the sound of an earthquake, a volcano. No, it was the roar of a dragon.

A fifteen-foot long dragon with rainbow scales pounced on Zaff. His claws were long and sharp as razors, and he was quick, quick as thought. Marksi had lost none of his legendary agility when he’d grown to this size and he flowed around Zaff like water. Marksi swiped, and Zaff’s sword-arm went flying. He snapped his teeth forward and Zaff kicked, breaking several knife-sharp fangs, but Marksi’s rage was unrelenting. He slashed at Zaff with his claws and forced Zaff to retreat.

Only Marksi’s claws and teeth were real, suspended in the air and controlled by Marksi’s intentions. Brin had wondered if it would work, but Marksi was born to magic and he took to controlling Brin’s spells as if it were his birthright.

Marksi grabbed Zaff’s fallen sword–the hand still attached had been pulling it back toward the body. He slashed the fingers away from the sword hilt and then flung it away.

Zaff, dancing through the air to avoid Brin’s lasers, regrew his arm. Then with a flourish, he produced a new sword from
 from where? From the same place he’d gotten that Eveladis. He had some kind of dimensional storage, something Brin couldn’t detect. Did the necklace have that function the same way Brin’s ring did? How many powers could one piece of jewelry have?

Zaff demonstrated his new sword by swinging into a giant glass beam, splitting it in half. Then he jumped onto one of the falling halves and ran up it. Brin groaned with strain as he put his glass in place. Zaff jumped off, going straight for one of Brin’s obelisk’s.

Brin tried to stop him, sending swarms of glass spears and putting a Laser Drone in his way. Zaff tanked it all, battering away what spears he could and accepting the rest. Brin had to rush to get in place for the laser–it was actually going to hit. He shot his laser from behind instead of from in front, but it burned through fast enough that he doubted Zaff could tell. He also tried to aim the fresnel lens at the Wight at the same time, but he was moving too fast, he couldn’t focus it quick enough.

Even with a hole straight through his stomach, Zaff smashed down with impressive strength, shattering the obelisk in one go.

One left. Marksi tried to engage again, but Zaff stayed far clear of the dragon. Marksi might’ve been faster with reflexes and agility, but Zaff was proving that he had a faster running speed. 

Marksi grew frustrated and charged at Zaff in a straight line. Zaff threw his sword, striking the dragon right in the forehead. Brin’s heart leapt to his throat, but no, it had missed the real Marksi. Still, there was no way the fake dragon could survive that. Brin altered the spell to make it look like the sword struck the dragon and shattered him, pretending he’d been a glass construct the whole time.

“Don’t worry, buddy. You can still help with <Laser>. Just wait for the right moment,” Brin told him with Silent Voice.

Zaff turned to the last obelisk. Brin cast his eyes around for an answer. Cowl had helpfully emptied his bag of all Brin’s consumables and lined everything up in front of himself. There were still three exploding potions left. That could work.

“Impressive. But that was your last one. Witness my Glass Missiles!”

The missiles curved and circled through the air, moving in unpredictable curves that should be hard to dodge. Zaff still did, slippery as a snake as he wove his way around these new obstacles on top of all the rest. He ducked, dodged, spun, jumped, and then he was wide open. Brin sent a missile straight for him and timed the impact with a potion.

The detonation was nearly as loud as Marksi’s roar. It struck true, right in the center of mass, and Zaff exploded in a shower of limbs.

His left hand flew towards the last obelisk. Zaff had flung it that direction at the last second. That’s impossible. He can’t!

But Brin expected impossible things from the Great Ones of Arcaena. He cut the hand with a flying saber, and a single finger flew on towards the goal.

A burst of necromantic energy, and Zaff regrew his entire body at once, all from that one finger. He pulled his arm back, and then punched. The obelisk shattered.

Zaff’s clothes were back by the time he hit the ground. He turned to face [Archmage] Brin. To face Rhun. What could Brin tell him? Zaff had destroyed all the obelisks. The rules of the game said that meant the golden shield was down. And they had to play the rules of the game.

“Take it like a man,” Brin whispered.

Zaff struck, slashing into Brin’s decoy. [Archmage] Brin fell out of the air and landed hard on the ground. Zaff laughed in delight at the sight of real blood on his sword.

Then [Archmage] Brin thrust out his hand and the golden shield was back. Zaff was blasted back in the air, and he hit three of Brin’s floating obstacles before landing on his feet a good distance away. 

Three more obelisks grew from the ground.

“Not bad, but I doubt you can do that again. You’re low on Mana. You’re getting tired,” [Archmage] Brin gasped. He had a wound on his arm and shoulder, mirroring the real one Rhun had taken. It didn’t look good, but it wouldn’t kill him in the next five minutes, which was all Brin could afford to think about.

“Again and again and again, as many times as it takes. No matter how long it takes. I stopped thinking about time a hundred years ago,” said Zaff. “You’re a dead man.”

He was right, of course. Brin needed more. More light, more glass, more control. More everything. Directed Threads were doing a lot to manage all the bits and pieces of his spells, but there weren’t enough of them. Each split mind could make around twenty before they slowed down each-others time too much to keep them functional. They could make about ten without messing up the split mind that summoned too much. All ten of his split minds were at their limit. He needed more.

This was going to hurt.

Main: Everyone split in half.

Main: Everyone split again.

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