CHAPTER ASHBORN 429: FINAL MOMENTS (THREE)

Vir regarded the burning capital of the Kin’jal with awe. Even in flames, the city was incomprehensibly vast. Many times the size of any demon city, and every inch of it was built like a fortress. From district walls larger than those of most castles to how one had to venture through a tunnel inside the wall to access the next district, everything about it was overbuilt. It spoke of a paranoia on a grand scale. It spoke to their culture's values in a way no military procession ever could.

Maiya had told him of the city, of course, going on and on in exquisite detail, but seeing it with his own eyes was something else entirely.

And I have to somehow find Maiya in all of that? Vir thought, surveying the smoldering city from the air in the pre-dawn darkness.

Seeing the city ablaze, Vir couldn’t help but be reminded of Samar Patag. Not in scale or even quality, but the general architecture of the demonic buildings—short and squat—bore striking similarity to those of the Kin’jal capital.

Similar enough, perhaps, to fool an old seer?

The thought came with the suddenness of an epiphany, and Vir was suddenly struck with doubt. Greesha’s prophecy, why his rebellion had gone so well… She’d been correct. A rebellion had failed. A city had burned.

It had just been in another realm. Another rebellion at the same time.

Vir set the airship down on a rooftop on the castle grounds. None had witnessed his arrival, or if they had, no one had bothered to pursue. Whether out of ignorance or necessity, Vir couldn’t say. For now, it mattered little. Vir was angry, and he was desperate. With Maiya’s life on the line, there was precious little he wouldn’t do to ensure her safety.

“Find Maiya,” Vir said as he unlocked the wolves’ cage. “Shan, you’ve seen her image in the orb. Tell your brothers and sisters. Do not worry about stealth. Speed is of the essence. Report back to me when you’ve located her.”

Shan barked in response, and the wolves jumped away one by one, setting off in different directions.

“Shall we split up as well?” Ashani asked, but Vir shook his head.

“We have no way to communicate with one another. I may need you to open a Gate when we find her.”

“Then let us be off,” Ashani said, wearing a rare frown. It was one of the handful of times Vir had seen the goddess distraught. To think it was out of concern for someone she’d never met was the real reason she was a goddess in Vir’s eyes.

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Before jumping from the rooftop, Vir tried to make some sense of the situation on the ground. Scouting had been difficult from the air, though thanks to Prana Vision, he’d managed to glean at least some information on the occasions when he’d swooped low over the city.

For one, fighting had broken out throughout the capital. It was safe to say that was due to Maiya’s rebellion. The fires had been an inevitable byproduct of the orb-based combat humans used. The supposed toys of Imperium children.

Second, the Castle district—a fortress unto itself, with several sets of walls separating it from the rest of the city—was surprisingly empty.

Vir had expected to find swarms of Balarian Guard at their encampment outside the castle, but instead found only a skeleton crew. Had they been deployed throughout the city instead?

Once again, Vir brought out his communications orb. With no one to fill it, he’d been sparing in its use, hoping Maiya would contact him after his first attempt upon entering the Human Realm had failed.

Once more, Maiya failed to reply. Whether because her own orb was discharged or because she was indisposed, Vir couldn’t know.

One thing he did know for certain was that the prana surrounding the castle had been intentionally drained. Maiya had mentioned her inability to use magic—this must have been why.

And an intentional drain could only mean one thing.

Vir felt the Balarian Guards’ presence well before they ducked out from a hidden passageway, hoping to ambush him.

For a split second, Vir was caught in a bind. Not because he couldn’t deal with their threat, but because, due to their relative weakness, he had so many options available. ŗἈ𝐍O͍ꞖΕṠ

Should he sink into the shadows, cleaving them one by one as he did with Ash Beasts? It was the safest approach. And the slowest.

Should he hit them with Life Prana attacks, nullifying their ability to resist before blasting them with a wave of prana?

In the end, Vir took the quickest approach and laid down the most powerful Balancer of Scales field he could summon.

Elite Warriors though they were, they were still only human. Not one was able to resist the onslaught of force their bodies were suddenly subjected to.

Bones broke, skulls split, and in just a moment, the half-dozen attackers lay on the ground, silent and dead.

I’m really going to have to figure out a more efficient way of killing humans, Vir thought, before stopping in shock. Had his thoughts truly become so dark? Devoid of feeling and compassion? Even if he had the power, he’d never have thought such thoughts before he’d left for the Ash.

It was something Vir took careful note of. While such thoughts allowed him to take the decisive actions befitting a leader, Vir knew it to be a dark and evil thing. Something to control, lest it grow too far and control him.

Vir approached one of his would-be attackers—the only among them still alive. Partially due to the soldier’s resilience, partially because Vir had done his utmost to exert the level of control needed to vary the field’s lethality. He wasn’t anywhere near Cirayus, but he was learning.

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Kneeling next to the crippled soldier, Vir pulled off the man’s helmet and grasped his hair, yanking his head upward.

“I am looking for someone. A redheaded woman. Do you know where she is?”

“Eat piss, Altani,” the man said, before spitting at Vir. Instead of moving aside as most would, Vir surged prana from his body, vaporizing the spittle before it got anywhere near him.

As a consequence, his body was now bathed in black fire, and despite its rather gaudy appearance, the flames were not for show.

The soldier’s hair burned off in seconds before proceeding to ravage his skin. A few seconds later, he broke.

“Central Square! In the North Commons!” he blurted, his prior bravado nowhere in sight. “They’re boiling the traitor alive.”

Vir’s heart nearly stopped at the man’s words. He glanced at Ashani, who was already on her way out. Vir stood, readying his prana to end the man’s suffering, but the Kin’jal grabbed his sleeve.

“I only wish I was there to see it,” he said deliriously, his teeth bared.

It was the last thing he would ever say.

Touching the man’s head, Vir surged prana outward, quickly overwhelming the downed Kin’jal’s blood capacity. Then he left.

The soldier’s death was neither swift nor painless, but Vir could hardly be bothered. The brightest star in his life was about to blink out, and if that were to happen, Vir feared there would be little left of Sonam in the wake of his wrath.

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“Shan!” Vir called as the wolf joined him in his mad dash to the city center. “Gather the others. Maiya needs our help. Tell them to head for the center of the city”

Shan howled in acknowledgement and darted off, leaving Vir carrying Ashani as they bounded from rooftop to rooftop.

In any other situation, he might’ve enjoyed the activity, for it reminded him of how he used to travel. Now, all he could think of was Maiya being boiled alive. Vir’s mind flooded with thoughts of what he would do to the person responsible for hurting the one he loved. Their identity mattered not. No one would escape his wrath.

The anger kept his mind from wandering to darker thoughts, and so Vir let it consume him.

The journey wasn’t far. Despite its size, Vir could cover vast swathes of land in a single bound. Yet each step felt like a thousand miles, each second a lifetime.

And then he found her.

Hanging by her wrists atop a massive boiling pot and dressed in shredded rags that barely preserved her modesty, Maiya’s body was a canvas of red, laid bare for the world to see.

The anger that had been building became something far darker and more potent. Something primal. Something lethal. The fear that had been roiling melted away, merging with the fury that was about to burst through Vir’s veins.

It was a change not of the mind, but the body.

Vir’s form grew larger. His muscles multiplied, bulging through his armor, which strained and cracked, ultimately falling away, broken by the strain.

Fresh, jet-black armor wrapped around his body like a suit of bones. An exoskeleton, fitting tightly against this new form. It formed around his head, wrapping it in a helm that ended with two massive horns that speared the sky.

Vir flexed his muscles, feeling the burgeoning power within, begging to be let loose.

Vir set Ashani down on a nearby rooftop. “Make a Gate to Tara’s camp,” he said in a voice far deeper and colder than his own.

Then, finally, she looked up. Their eyes locked. Maiya’s—glazed over and dazed. Vir’s—burning with the flame of hate and anguish.

He knew. Even as he prepared to Leap to Maiya’s position, in that moment when his eyes locked with Maiya’s, he knew.

He was too late.

“Have her ready to treat severe burns.”

He’d scarcely uttered the words when the rooftop cracked under the hammer force of his jump, sending him barreling toward the execution platform at speeds he’d never managed before.

And while his augmented power consumed an outrageous amount of prana, Vir scarcely noticed. His eyes never left Maiya’s. Not until he reached the end of his jump, flattening a Kin’jal soldiers back as he landed, breaking it cleanly in two as he jumped once again.

With his second jump, he reached the boiling pot…

Just in time to watch Maiya fall into it. She was joined by another a moment later.

An ostentatious man cried out in alarm, but Vir didn’t hear him.

Balancer of Scales activated, suppressing everyone in the area.

Without hesitation, Vir bolted forth, diving into the boiling pot to grab Maiya. Such temperature was nothing against his skin, toughened by the Ash and protected by a barrier of prana. Yet, this water had also somehow been engorged with prana, making it manifold more lethal.

Vir surged Prana Current to its maximum, sucking up the prana like a vortex.

He was out again in seconds, cradling his love in his arms, but the damage was already done.

“N-no!” Maiya whispered, gritting her teeth through levels of pain Vir could scarcely imagine. “Ira! Save… Ira!”

Respect her wish? Or prioritize Maiya? To Vir, Maiya was everything. He didn’t even know this princess, and everything he’d heard had been through Maiya. The decision was not difficult. He was about to ignore her when she spoke again.

“Please!”

Vir looked down into her eyes, at her mangled face. Through the pain and fear was a burning desire. Vir knew that if he ignored her, he would regret it for the rest of his days.

And so, Vir turned, setting Maiya down gently before bursting through the water to rescue Princess Ira.

The stunned princess writhed in Vir’s arms, fainting when she finally opened her eyes and took in his visage. Her once-beautiful face had also been disfigured by the water.

“You dare!?” a voice called, and Vir finally recognized the presence of the man who’d been shouting all this while.

Vir had no time for this pathetic fool, and yet, failing to deal with him might very well hamper his escape.

With perfect timing, the wolves bounded onto the stage at that moment, biting into the host of Balarian Guard assembled on the platform.

Vir ignored their screams and locked eyes with Andros, standing to his full, enhanced height. Then the black flames ignited.

Andros’ eyes bulged as he was forced to take a step back.

“I do,” Vir said, laying down a Balancer field and unleashing a torrent of prana containing fully half of his body’s reserves.

The sheer amount of prana let loose in that attack would have been enough to vaporize a dozen demons and thrice as many humans, leaving not a trace of their bodies behind.

Andros should have died then and there.

Instead, a pendant he wore flared brightly, and while the Imperator was slammed back into a nearby wall, he was still alive. Alive and conscious.

There was only one type of object in all the realms that could have deflected that blast.

The Imperator wore an Artifact. Perhaps several.

Andros ginned, spitting out a broken tooth. “Is this all?Is this the extent of your twisted power!?”

“No.”

Unleashing a Life Chakra attack, Vir broke the pendant off the ruler's neck, before grabbing the Imperator with his free hand, lifting him high into the air.

Andros’ body went limp as the Chakra illusion manifested, and Vir fired another prana attack, his hand clenched against the Imperator’s neck. It was as though he clutched Seric, not flesh.

Yet again, his attack was nullified. Without stripping Andros bare, without removing every bauble he wore, Vir could not know how many Artifacts the Imperator carried, and there was no time for that.

Maiya and Ira were dying, and not even the Panav could bring back the dead. Vir didn’t dare risk their lives for revenge. Not now. The Human Realm was now open, after all. He could annihilate Andros any time he wished.

Yet he could not leave Andros as he was. Vir’s rage forbid it.

And so, he did the next best thing. He lifted the ruler’s body with his free hand and walked over to the vat of boiling water.

There was no one to stop him. The wolves had made amply sure of that.

For the first time in perhaps a very long time, it was not rage or arrogance that filled the Imperator's eyes, but fear.

“Demon!” he whispered, legs failing pointlessly as he clutched Vir's arm.

Vir raised the Imperator above the water. “The only demon here is you.”

In full view of thousands of his own people who watched on in horror, Vir let go.

As he gently picked up the now-unconscious Maiya, he worried that Andros might have another Artifact that protected him from burns or shielded him from hot water.

By the Imperator’s hysterical screams, however, he most certainly did not.