She was scorched by the lightning of the Thunder Fairy, but she still landed on the Storm Sage like the wrath of the heavens. She blazed with crimson power, and Ziel only saw the flash of a black blade before the Sage fell to pieces again.
The laugh of Yushi, the Thunder Fairy, was so pleasant and melodious that it was out of place in a battlefield. “Do you really want to keep fighting the two of us together? You must know this doesn’t end well for you.”
Yerin ignored her, speaking to Ziel instead. “What happened to Lindon?”
“He…sent us here.” For some reason, it felt like Ziel hadn’t spoken for days. With every word, he remembered himself. “He didn’t…need us.”
Scarlet fury flared from Yerin until she outshone the sun. Not at Ziel, he thought, though it was still overwhelming.
“Deal hasn’t changed,” Yerin said to Yushi. “Give me a ride home before I paint you my favorite color.”
The storm Herald laughed again. “Your confidence is—”
Yerin’s hit sent her through the clouds. Another pulse of blood aura would have stopped Calling Storms from regenerating, but a more refined will stopped Yerin’s Ruler technique.
The Sage formed again, and this time he was laughing at Yerin. “The Reaper should have taught you better!” he said. Then he shot a bolt of storm madra at Ziel.
Yerin knocked it aside with her sword and her spirit, though the impact shoved her back several feet. She retaliated instantly, sending six Striker blades from her Goldsigns.
Something twitched in his heart when he saw her stand in front of him, glowing with red moonlight. A distant whisper that, for a moment, he had forgotten.
She was standing where Ziel should be.
“Eyes of heaven!” the Sage of Calling Storm shouted. “Open my sight and help me to see!”
An instant later, he called living lightning onto a seemingly empty spot. Yerin appeared there an instant later, and the thunderbolt carried her down.
Violet arrows streaked out of the sky, launched by Mercy far away, but Calling Storms strolled through them as though walking through his own garden. He could see exactly where to step.
A flock of birds formed from lightning flew down from the clouds overhead. They flew for Mercy, and the song in the back of Ziel’s mind grew stronger, more urgent.
Yerin slashed a Rippling Sword at the birds, tearing them apart, but Calling Storms had waited for that. He landed a crackling punch on Yerin’s gut, and she coughed up blood as she flew into the distance.
Once again, she’d taken a hit she didn’t have to in order to protect someone else.
Ziel’s own voice whispered to him from the past.
“I will give my life for the sect.”
His Archlord revelation.
He had chosen that goal for himself and failed to meet it. The Storm Sage had crushed his future, making a mockery of his life’s purpose. Was Ziel going to let him do it again?
Maybe Ziel had only failed…once.
He had done everything in his power to save his first sect. Now, he had a chance to do it again. That was who he had been, and who he could be.
A guardian of his sect. A protector.
A shield.
Though he gained no more madra, something inside him shifted. And overhead, a massive steel shield formed across the sky.
A serpent of lightning rushed at Mercy, but Ziel focused on her. He felt more himself than he had since his first duel against the Storm Sage, and his heart was calm.
“Endure,” the Shield Sage commanded.
A storm dragon washed over Mercy…and passed, leaving her unharmed.
The Storm Sage whirled to Ziel and laughed maniacally, throwing his head back to heaven. “Look! A fragment of the truth, revealed! Look what I have created!”
The working had taken great effort from Ziel, and he had no madra left to fight for himself. But that was all right. That wasn’t the role of a shield.
Mercy launched a powerful arrow at Calling Storms, who met it with madra directly. His sight had worn off, it seemed.
In the meantime, Yerin clashed against the Thunder Fairy again. The older Herald had the advantage, so that was where Ziel could make a difference.
“Hold on,” Ziel ordered, and reality changed so that she could.
Yerin accepted a hit to land one on her opponent…but the sword that struck Yerin failed to penetrate her skin. Meanwhile, Yushi plummeted into the ground.
Calling Storms leaped past another of Mercy’s arrows, appearing over Ziel. He looked delighted, and he had a Striker technique prepared to hurl down on Ziel’s head.
That was a lethal blow, certainly, but Ziel stayed focused on Yerin.
“Protect,” Ziel ordered the world. His third working, not backed by any technique. His core was entirely empty, but the protection of his authority should give Yerin the edge. Without him to make her vulnerable, she would defeat both enemies. She and Mercy would walk away.
He wouldn’t get his revenge, but at the moment, that didn’t seem so bad.
Was it really revenge he’d wanted, anyway? Now he wasn’t sure. All along, he had only wanted a chance to do it over.
In a flash of shadow, Mercy appeared in front of him, shrouded in armor. She shoved Ziel’s powerless body away, and he hurtled back.
The Sage’s technique devoured her.
Yerin crashed into Calling Storms an instant later, splattering him over the rocks. He didn’t even try to defend himself. She focused for a second, expanding her spirit to the blood aura around her.
“Been doing this from the beginning,” Yerin said irritably. “Soon as I split him in half, she’s on me. But now…”
An eagle of lightning crashed into Yerin’s back and splashed harmlessly against Ziel’s working.
“…thanks for the shield.”
Yerin’s sword rang like a bell and every drop of blood left in Calling Storms’ body exploded.
By that time, the technique around Mercy had faded, and Ziel was almost too afraid to look. If he’d failed her…
But Mercy was crouched on the ground, armor still intact. She let it burst into essence and collapsed, breathing heavily.
She gave Ziel a weak wave. “Nice…block!”
Ziel’s attention was focused on the regenerating Sage, but he felt the battle around him shifting. With the House Shen leaders occupied for so long, the Arelius forces had pushed in. They wrapped around the Shen sacred artists, and Ziel felt the noose tighten.
He got the sense of a spider wrapping silk around prey, and only then did it occur to him that he had never felt the Oracle Sage engaging directly in battle.
Nonetheless, House Arelius moved as though guided by a thousand eyes. They pounced on House Shen’s weaknesses.
In a flash of light, the Thunder Fairy streaked up to them. Her face was dark, but her spirit was weak. The fight with Yerin had taken much from her.
She slammed her glowing sword away, and the Herald’s words rang loudly. “I am willing to send you safely to Lindon Arelius if you agree to leave me and the Sage unharmed. And immediately.”
Yerin skidded to a halt next to Yushi. “Agreed,” she said immediately. From the feel of her spirit, she’d aborted an attack halfway through.
“Yes!” Mercy called.
The body of Calling Storms merged back into solidity, and he was cackling the moment his lips re-formed. “I have not had my fill of Death’s apprentice.”
“Oh, really?” the Thunder Fairy asked in feigned surprise. “You don’t want to reunite the children of Death? Who knows what miracles they might create together?”
Ziel could feel the insane thoughts crawling through the mind of the lunatic Sage. He looked as though he’d received a divine revelation, though the Herald rolled her eyes behind him.
“I will cast the children of Death toward their older brother,” the Sage said at last. “But on my own, I can never reach so far. Heralds, join your will to mine. Daughter of the Destroyer, grant me access to your Moonlight Bridge.”