MiP B2 Chapter 62: Division

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Carlos's mind raced, his perception of time running many times faster than normal, and several of his contingent spells were a hair away from triggering. King Elston deciding to eliminate them as intolerable threats to his power was among the possibilities he had speculated about, and he had prepared for it. He hadn't anticipated the final wrinkle in what had just developed, however, and he held off from interrupting.

King Elston Kalor, resplendent in his orichalcum raiment, gaped at his daughter Lornera. His right arm was transformed into a gleaming steel sword, coated with dense mana and essence that seemed to scream of danger to Carlos's senses. Lornera's arms—both of them—were transformed into a thick shield, filled with similarly dense essence that spoke of unyielding protection. Elston's blade's tip was embedded a quarter-inch into the surface of Lornera's shield, and Lornera's soul quivered with the strain of blocking the blow.

The two royals stared at each other, Elston scowling and Lornera pressing her lips tightly together, grimly defiant. Elston shook his head and sighed. He spoke softly, yet sternly. "Daughter, stand aside."

Lornera firmed up her stance, and her mana tried to push Elston's sword out from the shallow cut. "House Carlos is a priceless and irreplaceable asset for the Crown. Without them, you might not still live. Destroying them would be an unconscionable waste and would risk our destruction at the hands of a second like Nyralis. I cannot let that happen."

Elston glared a moment longer, then gave the smallest of nods. "Their knowledge and skills are valuable, yes. But they are not of House Kalor and thus cannot be trusted. I trusted the nobility to follow my laws, and they repaid my mercy with rebellion. I trusted the enchanters guild to equip my forces, and for my riches they gave me sabotage and betrayal. I have no trust left for any outside of House Kalor. A second truly royal house could threaten me in ways Nyralis could only dream of. That danger must be eliminated while it is still weak enough to be vulnerable. Now stand aside!"

Elston swung his second armblade, turned to strike with the flat of the blade and merely swat his daughter out of the way. Lornera shifted her armshield to angle it toward her right and braced. The two collided with a ringing crash that sent a shockwave of mana throughout the room.

Lornera slid several inches, but kept her stance. "They have demonstrated their loyalty through their actions, and we need them! A successor of Nyralis is the true potential threat we face, and House Carlos is our best shield against that!" She glanced over Elston's shoulder toward her siblings. "Brenelle, Patrimmon, surely at least one of you understands their importance to us. Help me!"

Carlos refrained from commenting about how this argument happening right in front of him would surely impact his loyalty. Brenelle and Patrimmon looked at each other and shifted uncertainly. The lines of royal guards stood motionless, silently witnessing the confrontation.

Elston shook his head and called out over his shoulder without looking, "You two stay out of this. Lornera, you were there when I offered marriage into our house to them. You saw and heard how they responded with reluctance and hesitation. How their mana churned in turmoil at the idea of it. They helped in that battle, yes, but they hold their own house above ours in their hearts. Now drop this stubborn defiance and stand aside as I command!"

Lornera shoved hard, and Elston moved back a fraction of an inch. "You drop your stubborn insistence on destroying our own critical asset! Yes, they hold their house separate from the Crown, but so does every house! If they wanted to seize rulership, they would have done it two days ago when the most perfect opportunity in history dropped into their laps! Instead, they actively worked to support our continued primacy."

Elston drew back his right armblade and hammered it into Lornera's shield again, slamming it twice as deep into her transformed flesh, and shouted, "That is enough Lornera! The decision is mine, and I have made it. You are a Kalor, loyal to the Crown above all. Obey the Crown's command to stand aside!"

Lornera took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, then glared back at him with stern resolve. "No. I stand here for the Crown's best interests, and I cannot do otherwise."

Elston stared for a long moment, then pulled both of his armblades back and settled into a ready stance, his focus squarely on Lornera. He spoke calmly and evenly, an edge of steel in his tone. "You defy a direct command of the Crown? You are no Kalor. Tell me how you subverted your loyalty soul structure, and I will make your end quick."

Lornera mended the shallow cuts in her armshield and moved back slightly. "I have done no such thing. I am loyal to the Crown, and that loyalty is precisely why I must do this."

Elston gestured dismissively with his left armblade. "Tell me how you concealed it from my senses, too. Your soul still feels the same as when I first confirmed your faithful construction of the Kalor soul plan, but your actions prove the lie. Obedience is the foremost core of loyalty, and you have disobeyed."

Lornera shook her head. "I disobeyed you. I did not disobey the Crown."

Elston roared, "I am the Crown!"

"No. House Kalor is the Crown."

Elston blinked. A chuckle escaped his mouth. He laughed, dry and humorless. Slowly, his laughter faded, and he pressed his lips together. "I see. You think yourself part of the Crown, and so you believe you can decide for yourself what the Crown wants." He abruptly darted sideways and tried to charge at Carlos again, but Lornera blocked him once more. "Last chance, daughter. Persist in this wrong way of thinking, and you will cost the Crown another scion. I will ensure this perversion of loyalty is purged from the future of our house, and if I must soul-kill you to achieve that, then so be it."

Lornera cocked her head. "You truly believe that? Do you also not see how your own inflexibility and refusal to compromise contributed to the rebellion?"

Elston raised his right armblade, preparing to strike. "The Crown's authority—my authority—is absolute and unimpeachable. Defiance against the Crown cannot be tolerated. There can only be obedience and treason."

Lornera sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry, father, but you have allowed arrogance and pride to blind you to reason. Your rule would lead us to ruin, and so you are unfit to rule. For the good of the Crown, I must remove you as king. Brenelle, I… I hope you understand. You are next in line. You must become the monarch."

Brenelle stared dumbly and stammered, "I–I– Wha– Huh? What is– I… don't know?"

Elston imbued more and more essence and mana into his right armblade, sharpening the already-deadly edge to cut even a royal soul of Lornera's Level. She didn't wait for him to finish. Lornera rushed forward and slammed her two-handed shield into Elston's right bicep. He shifted to take the hit on his shoulder and shoved back right when the blow hit. Lornera bounced ten feet back from the impact.

Elston flew after her, so fast that Carlos's eyes could barely track him despite his accelerated perception. Elston's armblade shone with an orichalcum aura, fully ready to execute Lornera.

Before the attack could land, Carlos and Amber took action as one. Several layered Force Barriers snapped into existence in Elston's path, waves of force flowed sideways to push him off course, and a ghostly layer of essence and mana wrapped Lornera protectively.

Elston's essence lashed out even faster than his physical movement and cracked the spell structures of the first two Force Barriers before they could finish forming. The rest barely slowed him as he simply sliced straight through them all, and he compensated perfectly for the attempt to deflect his course. He slashed his right armblade horizontally at Lornera's chest, and for a moment it seemed like nothing could save her.

Lornera spun and began to duck, but she wasn't fast enough to fully dodge Elston's speed. His sword cut through the Mage Armor spell almost like it wasn't there and went on to hit her shield. The blade sank four inches of its tip into her shield, but it was at a shallow angle. Lornera angled her shield away from the cut's path as she hastily flew back, and Elston's sword emerged back into the air. A small piece of metal fell, carved from Lornera's shield, and she winced. The metal transformed back into flesh as it fell, and royal blood stained the marble floor.

A faint shimmer came with Elston's armblade, and a concealed spell unfolded the moment it lost contact with Lornera. The shimmer expanded to enclose Elston, part of it sticking to his armblade to prevent him from simply moving away. It was a copy of the trap spell Nyralis had used, but improved by the last two days of work; the methods used to breach Nyralis's traps would not work on this version. Carlos hoped desperately that it would suffice to contain Elston a second time.

Elston watched the cage unfurl and snorted contemptfully. "So you were in league with Nyralis after all? Unfortunately for you, you lack his strength." His essence grasped the section of the spell that was attached to his armblade and squeezed, crushing it utterly. While that section disintegrated into motes of dust, he pulled in all the sections connected to it, and the sections connected to those, and more. In a blink, he had drawn the entire spell into a merciless grinder that overwhelmed it.

Lornera tried to capitalize on his distraction by splitting her right arm off from the shield and instead attacking with it as a blade, but Elston parried and counterattacked with his left armblade in the same moment as he crushed the would-be trap spell. He stabbed his left sword toward Lornera's heart, and she desperately aborted her attack to deflect. Elston's sword hit the combined defense of both of Lornera's arms, one as a shield and the other a sword, and another mighty clang of forcefully colliding metal rang out.

For a fraction of an instant, so briefly Carlos almost didn't catch it, Elston's soul shook with strain between the two simultaneous efforts. A patch of microscopic scratches showed itself to Carlos's senses, then disappeared again as Elston finished destroying the attempted trap spell and turned his full attention to Lornera.

Carlos felt tempted to believe that Elston's lingering soul injury meant they actually had a chance of beating him here and now, but he knew that was nothing but wishful thinking. Lornera might—might—possibly be in slightly better health than Elston, but he was too much stronger than her. As things stood, she could only slow him down briefly before he would kill her, and Carlos and Amber together would have to be lucky to even achieve the same—and that was if Brenelle, Patrimmon, and all of the royal guards and mages continued to stand by rather than aid the king. Their continued passivity did seem likely, with how the mana on all of their souls roiled with confusion and uncertainty, but he really didn't think that would matter in the end.

It was time to resort to their final contingency—with an on-the-spot adjustment. Carlos cast a Voice Projection spell to deliver a sped-up message directly to Lornera's ears, and only to her. "You can do more for the Crown if you escape than if you're dead! Come with us!"

Then he triggered an already-formed Teleport spell that had been waiting only for a flick of his will. On impulse, he extended its targets to include Lorvan and Ordens as well as himself and Amber, and of course Princess Lornera. The mesh of the teleport's boundary wrapped around the five of them, its structure already formed. Elston tried to cut it, but Lornera flew backward away from his sword, and the small part he managed to connect with slipped away.

Power poured through the spell's structure and slammed headlong into a permanent dimensional barrier built into the rooms walls, floor, and ceiling. For one heartstopping moment, it seemed like they would be trapped by the sheer power of the enchantment forbidding teleportation. Elston began to swing both of his armblades at Lornera, both of them empowered to cut her royal soul, and aimed so that she couldn't possibly dodge both with her inferior speed. There was no time to hack the enchantment.

As powerful as it was, however, that enchantment had never been meant to stand up to the determined efforts of a high-level royal. Its barrier, though strong, felt soft to Carlos. He poured more mana into the spell, Amber pressed against the barrier as well, and even Purple joined in to assist. The block tore like tissue paper under the combined strength of three Level 50 royal-tier souls, and suddenly they were elsewhere.

Lornera exhaled sharply, let her arms return to flesh and blood, and bent over, breathing heavily. Lorvan and Ordens had both accepted the teleport as well, and they stood respectfully at attention. The roiling confusion in their mana was settling rapidly and turning into firm resolve instead.

Carlos looked around at the buildings they had already set up in their wellspring and sighed. "Well, I guess it's time to see what this world has beyond Kalor Kingdom. Maybe we'll find out what the Voidlands are."

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END OF BOOK 2!