CHAPTER 32: SABOTAGE

"What!? Utterly ridiculous!" Trent was positively furious. "How dare you come here and spread such lies, the Archdruid should..."

"I accept your challenge." Vinifer interrupted him.

Trent looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

"What do you mean you accept!? Refuse her you buffoon!"

The Archdruid looked at him coldly.

"Elder Trent I will not tolerate further comments, this is not your place to step in."

"Fine, I’ll deal with both of you after this little show is over." Trent hissed.

Vinifer stood up, and grabbed his weapon - unlike Lydia’s, it wasn’t a living blade.

In his hand was a heavy quarterstaff made of polished wood, adorned with intricate engravings on its entire surface.

His weapon was carved from a branch of the great tree, a privilege only an Archdruid could enjoy. Things made from sacred wood was nigh indestructible and highly compatible with divine power - when crafted properly, of course.

Lydia and Vinifer were standing on the opposite sides of the open area, calmly observing each other.

"Who shall be the overseer for our duel?" The Archdruid asked.

"My brother. We might be related by blood, but no one here can question his honor - if I loose he will acknowledge my failure."

Vinifer nodded.

"Elder Baor, if you will?"

The large druid moved to the center and spoke.

"As tradition dictates, the duel shall end when one of the contestants yields, or is unable to continue."

He put his hands together in prayer.

"May the Green Lady watch over us."

"Forever in her grace." Every druid present responded.

"You may begin." Baor took his place in the auditorium.

***

"Okay, we’re in." Calen took off the masking cloak.

"Honestly I’m surprised there’s no one inside - I thought we would have to knock out at least a few people." Cassian admitted.

"It’s not that weird, Trent might have assigned two civilians to guard the gate, but he doesn’t want any non-druids in the inner sanctum." Elira shrugged.

Calen and Isara took out carving knives they borrowed from Lydia, and hurried towards the enchantment they had to alter - meanwhile Elira and Cassian climbed on the roof of the central shrine, and began quietly observing the gate.

"So we have to carve an alternate route for the array - do we go over or under?" Calen asked.

"Under, I think. We have to make it a decent distance from the enchantment to not damage it while we destroy the original part."

"Yeah, also it would be hard to reach this high, and levitating each other would be a pain in the ass."

"Are calling me fat Cal?" She threw him an accusatory look.

"No, levitating anything is draining."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Okay, I’ll let you off the hook this time. " Isara pointed at the left side of the array. "You start there, I’ll go from the other side."

They carefully started carving palm-sized symbols into the tough wood, slowly creating an alternate path for the divine power

"They changed it." Isara said without stopping her work.

Calen quickly scanned the magic circle - she was right, the incomplete enchantment was now finished, ready to be activated at any moment.

"Do you think he intended to use it today?" He asked after returning to carving.

"Probably, why would he wait and give people more time to potentially discover it?"

"True."

Isara glanced at the array.

"You really want to use the flame to destroy it?"

Calen shrugged.

"It’s the fastest way, and the only one that can guarantee no one will be able to reuse or copy it."

"Yeah, but if Vinifer can sense divine power isn’t it fair to assume Trent can as well? What if he notices us."

Calen shook his head.

"Actually, neither of them will be able to sense it. Lydia and I checked, and when I use the Flame like regular fire spells the divine power is practically undetectable."

"Well, that’s good, but we should still be careful."

"Why? He’s trapped in the council chamber."

Isara pointed at the array.

"Judging by it’s structure Elira was right on the money, and the whole thing can be activated remotely - who’s to say he won’t notice the damage to the circle on his side?"

It’s true that if Trent tries to activate the enchantment while it’s actively being destroyed, the results might be even worse than it’s intended purpose.

"Fine, let’s do it as quickly as possible quickly."

Soon enough, they were finished with the alternate route.

Calen stood in front of the terrible magic circle.

"Ready?" He asked.

Isara gave him a look.

"I’m not going to do anything, are you ready?"

"I think so?"

He sighed and pointed his palm at the array - a second later a wide stream of golden flame hit the wooden surface, slowly disintegrating the the shallow runes.

***

Trent was completely disinterested in the duel - they were both going to die either way, he won’t spare Vinifer after his insolence.

He grasped the wooden token I’m his pocket, and stroked its surface.

Trent frowned, the object he had for so long was... different. The grooves weren’t as smooth as they use to be, and the material was uneven.

Carefully, so that no one would notice, he took out the activation device and looked at it.

The once perfect token made of polished wood was now cracking and crumbling, the previously bright toxic green light it gave off faint and flickering.

Trent tugged at the sleeve of his right hand man.

"Why is it acting like this?!" He hissed quietly

"I... I don’t know Lord Elder, perhaps something is wrong with the main array." The man responded.

"That’s it, I’m activating it."

"Please don’t, Lord Elder!" His voice barely above whisper, but full of urgency.

"Why the hell not?"

"We don’t know what will happen if you use it in this state, it could kill you as well."

"What on earth could be interfering with the array..." Trent sneered. "Those brats! We have to stop this farce this instant, and run to save the array."

"But how, Lord Elder? None of us can realistically fight Elder Lydia."

"I’m going to use that."

He took out a gray pill from a secret pocket in his robe, and swallowed it.

***

Lydia and Vinifer were locked in a fierce combat - or at least that’s how it looked to most of the gathered druids.

In reality neither of them put any effort into actually hurting the other, their moves were more akin to a complicated dance than exchange of blows.

Right at the beginning of the fight Lydia understood that the Archdruid had the same goal as her - stall for as long as possible.

Fortunately for her, they were both masters of combat, faking a long and intense duel wasn’t particularly challenging.

For the next twenty minutes they put on a show so convincing, that only a few members of the audience realised something was off.

Suddenly-

Scream.

Lydia and Vinifer instantly stopped acting and looked at the commotion.

A hulking mass of flesh and vines was standing in the middle of the auditorium - its features were somewhat humanoid, but twisted and disfigured. The left arm was as big as the Torso and Legs together, while the right one was far too long and thin, almost like a living whip.

The massive three fingered hand was squeezing one of the trainees who didn’t manage to run away, the wooden claws of the beast quickly tightening around the fragile body.

BOOM

A large figure, almost the same size as the abomination, rammed into the monster, making it drop the child.

The saviour was Baor, fully transformed into his most powerful form.

His four armed, horned form was twice as tall as during the confrontation with the Prowler, but the most astonishing part was that his flesh was replaced with twisting vines, hard wood and coarse bark.

Baor looked like an avatar of nature, a demigod ready to crush anyone who stood in his way.

"What are you waiting for?! Run to the door, and hide behind us!" Lydia yelled at the crowd of druids frozen in shock.

Her commanding tone made the gathering move before they realised what they were doing - a moment later the only people left in the main part of the chamber were Lydia, Vinifer and Baor.

"What the hell is that thing?" Lydia asked.

"Trent." Baor responded with a noise closer to a growl than a human voice.

"Fantastic, I guess he noticed Cal and Isa messing with his project."

"How much longer do the need?" Vinifer asked.

"Does it really matter? We won’t get out of this chamber until this thing is dead."

The seal was both a blessing and a curse in their current situation - it could only be released when all currently living elders agreed to do so, meaning that they, and the rest of the circle, were currently trapped here with Trent, giving Calen all the time he needed to destroy the enchantment.

Before they had a chance to attack, the disfigured Elder spoke in a raspy, pained voice:

"I... will... have... the... power... I... will... ascend..."

Lydia tightened her grasp on her weapon

"I’m here to make sure you don’t, you old sack of shit."