Transcendence - Chapter 76

***Kingdom of Mislow, City of Mirrors***

***Norent Grant***

This burning agony! It’s still coursing through my entire body like fire. I’ll get them for this! Luckily I realized in time that it was a trap. The infuriating part is that I fell for it like a novice.

The explosion peeled the skin from my body and almost killed me. I would be dead if I hadn’t the divine protection of the gods. There was nothing left of the assassin when I crawled screaming out of the crater.

Curse that guy for setting up such a trap. I poured all my power into my best healing spells and ran away. There was no doubt that the assassin was broken and worked for them. The healing spell worked quite well, but there is a strange curse on me since then. Probably the assassin transferred it to me when I touched him.

My body burns like fire and I lose my hair. My skin sheds and produces strange ulcers. It’s like my body is coming apart while I watch. I can heal myself, but the whole process starts again soon. It’s impossible to keep healing myself day and night. Even though I got huge mana reserves from the gods blessing, they aren’t endless.

The healers covered my body in bandages and fusillade. It’s conventional medicine for commoners and doesn’t do much. At least it keeps the worst pain away.

Currently I am walking through the entrance hall to the king’s throne room. A look at the guards is enough to tell me that they fear what they see. The blood and fluids which are oozing through my bandages must be a gruesome sight.

They step away from me and I enter the throne room. There are huge mirrors all around me instead of walls. Even the ceiling and the floor are a single mirror. The room creates the impression that it goes on and on for eternity. On the throne is a single figure.

A huge man in full body armour made of mirrors. The armour has a magnificent design and covers every part of the body. Only the joints are made of silver chain-mail to keep them flexible. The visor is closed and there are no facial features visible. Many people think that the figure on the throne is a golem, which acts as a proxy. But the truth is that nobody knows for sure.

The ruling family of Mislow is a mystery.

The armour lifts it’s helmet and targets me with its eye-slits. “The great Inquisitor is returning from his mission and the enemy is still alive. On top he is heavily wounded. It seems that your safe plan turned out to be quite dangerous.”

“If your majesty would finally decide to join this holy crusade, there wouldn’t be so many problems.” I press the words through my teeth.

The armour starts to tap the armrest of the throne with one finger. “Mislow doesn’t move lightly. We already assisted you in your efforts to fulfil the desires of the gods. But as you see, moving without proper knowledge about the enemy is the choice of the fools.”

“We can’t wait any longer! They are advancing every day and spreading their ideas. They create horrific spells and curses. What will become of our world if we watch any longer? They even have flying ships! By the gods! They could show up above your beloved capital and destroy it without a problem.” My face distorts in disgust and I feel my skin rip.

The armour remains silent. Then it looks to the side at one of the mirrors which seem to repeat the armour’s mirror image till eternity.

I press on. “There is no time! The longer we wait, the less chance we have to restore the balance! I know that Mislow is a land of heretics who pursue knowledge! But at least you don’t create artefacts for commoners! Are you so blinded by your ideals that you ignore that this problem originated from you?”

The armour is still staring off at somewhere else and ignores me. “Yes, Ascathon came from your very own country! He is a child of your culture! So solve the problems which you created! What will you do if their negotiations with Phenex are fruitful and they join forces?”

“ENOUGH!”

The armour’s voice booms through the room and a shock wave almost wipes me from my feet. But I hold against the pressure and keep standing.

“Fool! You are a blind believer. A fanatic! And there is nothing worse than fanatics! Mislow will ready itself once again. But not because of you, or the gods! We will protect our bloodline. The bloodline of mind magic. Its secret can’t fall into the hands of anyone else. We won’t do it for you, or the gods!” The armour raises from it’s seat and walks past me with smooth motions.

I follow with hasty steps and a procession of guards joins in behind us.

“Call the Nation of Mist! We need their ships. And get every magician you can find and enlist them into the army. This time we will have a full scale mobilization. And activate the fleet!” The armour walks towards a balcony and steps outside.

“Wait! Fleet!? What fleet?” I follow it.

“Our fleet.” The armour waves his hand across the sky and dozens, hundreds of silver ships appear out of nowhere in the sky above the city of mirrors. They seem to be made out of silver and their hulls are smooth and polished. They are blinking, blinding me by reflecting the sun off their hulls.

“What?” My mind isn’t able to absorb the scene in front of me.

Then the armour waves his hand again and the fleet disappears. “We are building them in secret facilities and hide them with optical concealment spells. They are Mislow’s ultimate answer to anyone who manages to set foot on our soil.”

I gape at the gigantic breach on regulations regarding technology. “Heretic! Do you know what you did!? Why wasn’t this reported to the academy?”

The armour places its hands on the parapet. “We defend ourselves. Against foes from outside and within! The Academy has fallen and the Inquisition is a homeless bunch of terrorists. So there is no need to hide any more.”

“Who do you think you are!? I am the hero of the gods!” I scream at the heretic and summon a holy sword of light in my right hand.

Suddenly the armour blurs and my hand is gripped. It squeezes down on me with unbelievable strength until I have no other choice than to unsummon my sword of light. Blood is oozing through the bandages on my hand. “Stupid fanatic, there is only one truth! And that’s the truth you find with your own mind. Do you really think that a hero is more than another chess piece for the gods?”

My hand is twisted until I am on my knees. It feels like fighting wouldn’t gain me anything now. I am inside the capital and there is a fucking huge fleet above my head.

The armour lets go of my hand. “Choose now. Follow our fleet into battle with your Inquisition, or die here in vain.”

Rage is building up inside me. The wish to destroy Mislow comes to my mind, but then I look at the invisible fleet above me and smile. Not yet. The heretics can kill each other, then I’ll clean up the rest.

“What are your orders?”

***Floating somewhere above the Sea of God***

***Lidith***

“You guys are using underhanded cheap tricks! First you deceive me with those puppets and then you send all forces you can muster against me.” I pout my lips and roll my dice.

“A fifteen. There is nothing decisive she could do with that.” Aneth shrugs his shoulders. Wynne and Charon nod with bored expressions.

“But there is!” I grin and place my ticket of free talking on the table. Everyone is looking at me with strange expression.

“~How fortunate that all my important heroes are in one place! So I can freely talk about everything I know.~”

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