Jackal Among Snakes - Chapter 702

“Are you sure you’re alright to do this?” Argrave asked as he stared at the last fort standing between the southern valley and the city of Blackgard. The last thing keeping out Gerechtigkeit’s present avatar—a terrifying force of nature.

Sophia watched ahead unwaveringly. “It’s what you’d do... right, dad?”

Argrave eyed her. He’d never actually heard her call him ‘father’ or ‘dad.’ He didn’t want to demand it of her—he had no right to force the title out of her, even if it was something he wanted her to feel comfortable saying. In the end, that long wait had been worth it. It carried far more weight than if he’d simply demanded it.

“Well, maybe not when I was your age.” Argrave inhaled deeply. “I’d be playing this scenario out with action figures instead of actually living through it. The reality is a lot scarier.”

As if to prove that point, a great destructive noise echoed over and above the fort, and Sophia tensed. Elenore fed him more information, but in truth he paid them little mind as he waited for Sophia’s next words.

“I don’t want this to end,” Sophia said simply. “If I can do that... I want to.”

The last fort burst wide open in a white inferno that turned stone, wood, enchantment, and even the closest parts of the mountain all to ash. Golden embers drifted through the air as that four-armed centaur automaton walked through, its body cracked and exposed in parts where Argrave had managed blows. It took in the city almost in awe, before focusing those terrible eyes it had on the pair of them.

Argrave put Sophia down, keeping his eye on this opponent. Inside the city, the restraints of the array upon their enemies would totally cease to function. Proving this point, in a blink of an eye the Zanti was upon them, his arms grasping futilely at Sophia. She stared up at the thing fearfully, yet unflinchingly. It was as if there was an invisible barrier around her. Argrave, meanwhile, thrust his hand out with a spell at the ready.

He used [Godkiller] up close. His arm burst into gore as it always had, yet before it could even strike its target all his flesh and blood returned to him. The Zanti only briefly diverted its attention away, slapping half-heartedly at the magic with one arm. Instead of the former outcome, its arm was utterly repelled, and the bolt of pure blood magic slammed into its body. The centaur automaton was sent flying away at breakneck speeds, propelled out toward the coast. It split the water before being lost in it, sending a great wave outward into the sea.

Raven had taught Sophia three things while Argrave did his best to hold back Gerechtigkeit’s final card. One, she’d learned to imitate Jaray’s power. She could no longer hurt anything, but nor could anything hurt her—the god of politics proved to be of some value to them in the end. Second, she’d been taught how to funnel her power of creation into the wellspring of Argrave’s vitality. Like this, he’d stacked another modifier atop his blood magic—the power of creation, of life itself. There could be no more potent fuel, as that one brief exchange had proven.

And thirdly... Sophia had learned how to allow Argrave to pursue Gerechtigkeit through the wound in the world. All that remained was sending the calamity back there to finally break the cycle.

“Are you okay?” Sophia asked urgently, having seen his arm explode. “Did it hurt?”

“Not a bit,” Argrave lied, tousling her hair. “You?”

Before Gerechtigkeit could even respond, another attacker scored a blow—Dario, hidden away in the mountains, fired a mechanical weapon of his design empowered by spirits. A javelin intended to hunt whales slammed directly in the center of the horse like body of the creation. It was a particularly brutal blow, as if the man took offense at Gerechtigkeit’s imitation and adoption of his people’s art of automatons.

Moments after, the Shadowlander appeared again. As if advised by foresight, the Zanti whipped its body and gripped the blade, yanking the perpetrator out. That white-haired Shadowlander was the one responsible. He gripped her neck and jammed an elbow straight through her chest, breaking her. Then, its third arm lashed out at the portal, digging its fingers in before it could close. With a pull, Gerechtigkeit somehow tore open the Shadowlands, revealing the portal’s creator. A burst of white fire exploded into the Shadowlands moments after, killing any and all unfortunate enough to be nearby.

Argrave attempted to smite the wrecked automaton with another [Godkiller], yet Gerechtigkeit’s black essence cracked like a whip and batted it into the distant mountain. Artur’s Hall of Enchantment was directly hit, and in the resulting rockslide buried the entrance of the building while much of it seemed to collapse inside. In the next moment an eerie black hand attempted to grasp him, but Argrave instinctually lashed out with raw power.

By the time Argrave realized the attack had been a fake-out, the Zanti had already nearly made it to the parliamentary hall. Dario fired another javelin from his post with impeccable aim, yet Gerechtigkeit caught it as if the attack were a joke, throwing it back with animosity. Cleansing white flames began to build all around him as he proceeded. He was the closest he’d ever been, but Argrave didn’t hurry. Instead, he stopped altogether.

Argrave breathed a deep sigh of relief as a faint ward began to rise up out of the parliamentary hall. Anneliese, rather than chase by foot, had taken the Shadowlands. Before ever even fighting Gerechtigkeit, they’d dropped her off in the heart of the parliamentary hall to protect Elenore, their nexus of communications. With Anneliese’s Spark of Eternity, all those within would be totally safe.

A great horde of Shadowlanders began to fill the broken city from the portal Gerechtigkeit had wrenched open, uncoordinated yet bloodthirsty in the wake of the deaths of their two greatest proponents. Argrave felt a great surge of vigor in his chest, and looking behind, saw Law marching in from the southern valley, bringing with him his Domain of Law. Other great gods joined him, eager to avenge those that had fallen. Argrave himself never ceased creating electric eels for a moment, as he prepared to end this.

Looking upon that wrecked automaton, with all his allies at hand, victory felt close at hand.

“It’s all so tiresome,” came Gerechtigkeit’s voice—fatigued, resigned, disappointed.

The body of the Zanti fell like a lifeless doll, clattering quietly.

“Surgical precision is an ill-suited method for me,” he continued. Argrave saw subtle waves of darkness on the edge of his vision, and could predict what was soon to come. “But it brought me here. That was more than enough.”

Argrave felt a rising nervousness which he expressed as a smile as he awaited what came next. For the people of the world, the final stand came—for Argrave, though, this the beginning of the end. Griffin had abandoned the Zanti. Without that shell, all that remained was ending his very essence.

But as the earth tremored and the mountains trembled, the planet itself seemed to reject the coming coalescence. It was a power that didn’t belong in this world.