The wave of psychic pressure Burundus radiated was leagues beyond what I'd experienced previously. Now comfortable in his new flesh puppet, the King of Earth was able to exert his will in ways I hadn't expected. It took all my concentration not to buckle under the sheer force of his presence, which he wielded like a weapon against me. This is different from before. The last time I was that close to him, it was like feeling the heat from standing next to a burning building. Now it feels like a dragon is breathing fire straight at me.
Even though Burundus' eyes still had pupils, something was definitely off about them. Embedded in the blue-black of his now morphed sclera, they gazed unflinchingly at me, but seemed more like they were looking through me. He sees something that isn't there. Perhaps his demonic nature allows him to perceive Drache? Luckily there's an easy way to test that. I reached out to her using our shared bond. "Any ideas on what to do? I don't even know where to begin with this guy."
Guunzel's mouth moved but Burundus' voice came out again, this time clearer as though he were becoming more accustomed to manipulating his new body. "There is no need to hide your thoughts from me. Tell your vessel he may use his words. Whether he likes it or not, both he and his fox are now snared in your web, Drache." My skin crawled. Shit. Well, the game is over now.
"That's a neat trick. I assume you can just read my thoughts?"
"It is less a skill and more a side effect of what I am," Burudus said, and with his statement came a flurry of voices in my head. Dozens of individual voices overlapped, fighting to be heard, not loud enough to cause pain but still creating a disorienting effect on my psyche. I swore I could even hear familiar voices like Yuzuruha, the Emperor, the six guild leaders, and even the Ishmarian Legionnaires still fighting in the skies above. The battle for Blossom City was the central focus of all the voices, and each carried a different emotion: fear, anger, determination, and anxiety.
"In my time, I strove to be a leader who listened to the voices of his people," Burundus continued. "How could I fulfill the desires of my subjects if I could not hear them, their pleas for a better life? But their hopes and dreams became the shackles your mother placed around me, and when she fell from grace, she dragged me into the darkness with her." His eyes narrowed, and black, viscous liquid began to trickle out of the corners. "She gave me a gift, at least that was what she called it. All I ever heard were cries of terror or pleas for mercy as my monstrous form did her bidding. My own people were sacrificed to carry out her insane ambitions, and I heard each of them beg as they went." A shudder ran along Guunzel's body, the first humanlike emotion I'd seen Burundus display since taking it over.
Drache's translucent form stepped ahead of me, either to address him directly or possibly to place herself between him and me. "Had I known the extent of my mother's madness I would've stopped her. But we were all afraid of her. She was the strongest of us." A hard edge made its way into her voice. "We envied her, too. That ambition was what we strove for until we saw what it did to her." Beside her waist, her hand balled into a fist.
"True. Your mother was always willing to take the risks we wouldn't. You know as well as I do that not every risk was worth it, nor did they pay off." He gestured to his slime body, still sitting precariously on top of the Repository. "I'm still at a loss as to what you saw in her, Drache. In her eyes you were never worthy. You were a freak, an example of imperfection. You were the living embodiment of what she wanted purged from the world and still you stood by her side for the longest time. I simply have to know." He leered at her, the last of his teeth turning to mush in his mouth. "Why?"
As her back was turned to me, I couldn't see Drache's face. My only clue to her true feelings was the flood of conflicted emotions from our bond. Sorrow, anger, deep hurt, and love permeated the link, swirling around like the wind in the eye of a hurricane. "She wasn't always that way. She was my mother." Then hate overrode everything and drowned out the other emotions completely. "Then one day she stopped being that, and I made my decision about what I had to do."
"Too little, too late I suppose," Burundi said wistfully. He tilted his head back to look at the sky. "So that brings us to now. What good does it do to poke and prod at it now?" The head snapped back to look at us with an audible and unnerving crack. "You know how the gate works. You know what the goddess did to seal it off. Would you jeopardize it all just to prove something to a woman who probably doesn't have enough sanity left to recognize her own daughter?"
Drache raised her right hand and, to my intense discomfort, I saw my own right hand mirror her movements. When her fingers curled, so did mine, and a ball of incandescent red fire burst into being just above them. When she spoke, her voice came out of my mouth. "The only person I need to prove anything to is myself." I tried to wrest control of my tongue back but the level of control she exerted over me was so complete that I didn't even know where to start in fighting her. "I don't owe the world anything."
What was left of Guunzel's face twisted into a monstrous scowl. "You really are your mother's daughter." His skin bulged, more sickly veins appearing across every visible surface. Parts of his armor fractured as slime billowed out from openings for his arms and legs, the once polished metal tarnishing like corroding steel in seconds. "Perhaps it's time for you to meet the same end she did!"
If Burundus had planned an attack to go with his last word, Drache cut him to the quick. The fireball in my hand was already hurtling towards him as he uttered the last two words in his declaration. It impacted him full in the chest, and the detonation reverberated across the courtyard as it kicked up loose bits of marble and stone. Unlike most fireballs I conjured on the regular, Drache was able to sculpt the entire blast and angle it at its intended target. Smoke trailed behind the armored body of our enemy as fire washed over it like a river over a stone, blackening what was left of its skin.
Shards of metal rocketed off Guunzel's body as glistening blue-black slime erupted from the holes in his armor. A tendril of slime hardened into a point and thrust toward me, intent on puncturing my torso. My legs moved without me telling them to, and I moved to the left just in time to sidestep the incoming attack. As the slime passed by me the voices Burundus had projected in my head flared up again, all of them blending together into a nonsensical chorus singing dozens of different songs at once.
Do not listen, boy. If you do you'll hear voices you never wanted to. The things they say will toy with your heart. Drown them all out, and focus on something that matters to you. Before I could respond, a whirl of blue flame filled my vision and something grabbed hold of the back of my collar. Taking care not to flail me like a dog with a chew toy in its mouth, Deotra whipped her head around and deposited me on her back. My arm curled around her neck just in time for her to leap forward and break into a full sprint.
"I would really appreciate it if you would warn me next time before you hijack control of my body," I said internally. "Also, we need to have a talk about the fact that you can even do that. Long conversation short, don't." In response, my muscles relaxed and suddenly I could move again of my own accord.
"You granted me that power only when you extended your trust to me. Even then I would not have done it if Burundus hadn't directly threatened you." Drache's voice was a little snippy, as if she were only mildly annoyed by my ultimatum. "In the event you succumb to his mind manipulation, I can prevent you from being puppeted physically while I attempt to wrest control of you back. If you want to keep control, I suggest you remain vigilant against his mental attacks."
My equally snippy reply was cut short when a sizzling ray of blue heat careened past my head, impacting the wall of the garden up ahead, next to the entry gate that led back to the Golden Approach. "Please! Maybe now is not the time for that!" Deotra pleaded with us both, her voice full of panic. "Focus on getting the King of Earth out of here!" Planting her feet, she leaped up and over the gate, landing on the other side and making a small crater in the stone steps before blazing past the statues of Sir Sirius and Lady Brunswick.
"Alright fine, I get it," I snarled. "We have to get out of the city now. We've got Burundus' attention, so make for the outer wall and we'll jump over it."
In the back of my head, Drache's voice weighed down on me. "Not so fast. His main body is still on top of the Repository. Right now only a fragment of his consciousness resides in the body of the Ishmarian. We'll have to force him out of that body." I craned my head to look in the direction of the Repository; it was hard to see at first thanks to the multitude of high buildings around us, but once we got out onto the open streets I could see the giant blob still sitting atop it.
"So if we destroy Guunzel's body, that should be enough?" Taking a chance, I glanced behind me to where the general's corpse was. To my horror, it had climbed over the wall and was coming after us with terrifying speed, tendrils of slime propelling it across the ground like a series of legs. The way it bounded after us resembled a monster straight out of a nightmare. "Great, well fire didn't do the trick. Any thoughts? I'm fresh out at the moment."
Drache let out a hiss. "Even if you destroy his vessel, we need the Hand to destroy the manifestation of his soul. Contrary to what you think, that is not his true body up there." Deotra bounded to the left just in time to avoid a ray of blue-black energy that hit a statue ahead of us. Upon contact, the ray melted the stone statue in seconds, turning it red-hot even as disgusting black slime dribbled down its sides. What was once a monument depicting a stern fox in soldier's garb was now a half-slagged ruin.
"Let's worry about one thing at a time, shall we?" I said as sarcastically as I could. "I need solutions to our immediate problems, like the slime monster puppet thing chasing us." As I mentioned Burundus, another beam of magical force shot down the street at us. Deotra rounded a corner and narrowly evaded, but sooner or later our luck was going to run out. Think, Kuro, think. If Burundus isn't affected by magic then what else can you use against him?
Normal weapons won't make a dent in him. If he's as immune to magic as Drache says he is, then magic weapons might not work either. So how do you kill something like that? As I was furiously wracking my brain to find a solution, Deotra turned another corner and hit something in the middle of the street. I flew off of her and forward, but before I hit the ground a cushion of air currents halted my momentum, bouncing me harmlessly into a sideways roll instead of a headlong dive.
Drache growled at me. "Pay more attention! In a fight like this a single mistake means death!" Ignoring her, I looked over at what my familiar had collided with. She was sprawled along the ground amidst the ruins of a street cart. Brightly colored fireworks were strewn about, some small enough to fit in my hand while others were as long as my arm. Whimpering, Deotra picked herself off the ground and came over to me, her head pressing against my shoulder.
"Owww. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. We've got to get out of here. Can you run?" She nodded, and I jumped up and onto her back. I had just managed to get situated when Burundus rounded the corner, his entire form sliding into view as his slimy appendages struggled to gain traction on the ground. As he raised his bulging, rotting arm a condensed ball of energy swelled into being in his palm. Purely by reflex, I pointed the Staff of Farewells at him and funneled heat from my body into it, blasting it out at him in a funnel of orange fire.
What I hadn't anticipated was the presence of the fireworks. The funnel itself did nothing against Burundus, but as it swept over the many scattered tubes and canisters on the ground they ignited, filling the air with a multitude of colorful explosions. One of the arm-length fireworks shot at him like a miniature missile, impacting him in the chest before tearing a huge, fleshy chunk out of him in a bright flash of yellow sparks. I saw his left arm go flying away, severed by the force of the explosion, landing with a squelchy thud before dissolving into a puddle of black slime.
Wait. That's it. That's the answer.
The fireworks had another unintended but welcome side effect: the force of the detonation severed one of the tendrils holding Burundus up, causing him to flounder like a fish out of water. The tendril had been cauterized, and the burnt edges weren't regenerating as quickly as he had from Drache's earlier fireball. A mundane force that isn't magic but is strong enough to destroy a body made of flesh. I know what to do.
I pat the side of Deotra's neck. "Take us to the south gate. Get us to rooftop level and make sure to outpace Burundus. I've got a plan." She nodded, fire gathering around her feet.
"Alright! Here we go!" Bounding forward, she moved to a nearby building and ran up the side of it, running up a sheer wall like it was the street we had left. Clinging on for dear life, I shut my eyes until I felt us invert back to normal, and when I opened my eyes again we were on the roof.
Perched precariously on the shingled sloping roofs I'd grown to hate recently, I took a moment to reorient myself. The Repository was north-ish of us, but the pitched battle still going on at the west gate between the Ishmarians and Four Pillars made it easy to figure out where to go. Pointing my finger, I motioned in the direction of Blossom City's southern gate. "Okay, stay on the rooftops as much as you can. We need Burundus to give chase, but still have enough lead on him to give me time to set up my plan." I fed her my idea through our bond, and wasn't surprised when a wave of concern came back.
"Even for you, that seems like a bad idea," she said. "But I don't have any better ones. I'll do my best." Even though she was trying to be brave, I could sense the trepidation underneath. It's not that she's afraid we'll fail. She's more afraid that she'll let me down. Honestly I'm more worried about what will happen if I screw up.
The sound of heavy slams and wet impacts drew my attention downward. Driving his sharpened tendrils into the wall like pitons, Burundus was climbing up the side of the building with alarming speed. My familiar bounded off the slanted roof and onto the building across the street as the corpse vessel made it to the top, mantling over the lip of the rooftop without losing any speed at all. As Deotra made to leap to yet another building, he reared back on his slippery legs and "jumped", landing not far from where we'd been just a second ago.
Not a second after landing, Burundus raised one of his tendrils and fired yet another beam of light at us. Had Deotra not already been one step ahead, we would've been hit by the beam; instead it passed through empty air, hitting another building the next street over and gouging a hole through it. I pat the side of her body with my free hand. "Come on! Don't stop now. Worry about getting us to the gate and leave him to me."
She had some trouble maintaining her footing, scrabbling her clawed feet across the shingled rooftops, but she managed to remain steady long enough to propel herself to another tall, long building across the street. Tiles cracked under our combined weight as we landed, but there was thankfully no landslide of shingles that would've knocked us off. Seeing the dozens of tiles gave me an idea. Waving the Staff of Farewells, I yanked a few dozen of them loose, levitating them around us like a swarm of bees.
I just need a quick second. It may not hold up for a second hit, but I can replace it as we go. With an application of sheer force, I smashed the tiles together, creating a crude barrier that I reinforced by creating overlapping layers behind the initial surface. The more times his beam has to penetrate, the less power it'll have. Try getting through five layers of magically reinforced shielding, arsehole.
I didn't have much time to admire my handiwork before it was put to the test. Another beam shot towards us and I angled our new shield into its path. My theory was sound; the beam easily melted through the first and second layers before taking significantly longer to burn through the third and fourth. By the time it ate through the fourth layer and started working on the fifth and final layer, the attack was over. Discarding what was left, the now slagged tiles fell to the ground below.
Whenever Deotra made it to a new roof, I would pry another set of shingles loose to create another shield. Burundus snarled as several more beams failed to make it through my impromptu barriers. As effective as it is, sooner or later he's gonna figure a way around it. How much farther is the gate?
The gatehouse above the actual gate was the same design as the one on the western entrance of the city, where we'd arrived. The bridgelike gatehouse with its ornate statuary towered over the surrounding buildings, making it easy to spot in the distance. We were nowhere near it. At the rate we're going it could take another five minutes to get there. But moving along the streets would double or even triple that time. Up here we're much easier targets, but mobility is restricted at street level.
Staying up here is our best bet, which means I'm gonna need some help. Drache! She materialized next to me, effortlessly moving in time with Deotra so she was more or less hovering a foot away. "Yes?" She asked.
"I need to know something. Burundus may be immune to magic cast on him, but how does he fare against magic cast at him?"
Her brow creased, as if she wasn't sure she understood my statement. "Clarify."
"I can't throw a fireball at him, but can I do something with that fireball to affect him so long as it's not magical? Like affecting the environment?" More than just our immediate predicament, it feeds into my future plan. So hopefully she knows the answer.
A smug smile spread across her face. "Why yes. Hitting him with a fireball wouldn't work, but picking up a giant rock with your magic and hurling it at him would. At that point it isn't magic but gravity. Clever boy." Yanking another set of tiles free of their moorings, I smirked back at her. "I'll make sure to aim for his face."
As Burundus reared his arm back for another beam, I fired the tiles at him, spinning them like throwing stars in a rapid fire barrage. While the individual tiles weren't nearly enough to cause any real damage, it was still hard to aim a sizzling death laser at someone when you couldn't see. He let out a scream of rage as the textiles smashed into his head, spraying dirt and dust across his face.
Our game of cat and mouse continued over those long, long five minutes. Every leap made my insides curl in protest, my stomach reminding me that it was not happy with being bounced around so callously. Burundus managed to get a few more lasers off but none of them came close to hitting us. When the gatehouse loomed up ahead of us, Deotra put on some extra speed.
"Hang on!" She yelled, moments before she made the most amazing jump I'd ever seen in my life. The wind seemed to go quiet as she barreled up and through the air in an attempt to bridge the large gap between the roof of the last building and the top of the gatehouse, a full story's height and at least twenty feet of horizontal distance. Her front legs made it, but her back left leg caught on the ledge, and we almost fell back. Luckily she recovered quickly and hauled herself onto the top of the gatehouse.
I wrapped my left arm around her neck and held tight to the Staff of Farewells in the other. "Okay. When I give the signal, we jump off together as high up as you can.. Keep your right flank towards the gatehouse, and try to make the landing as soft as you can." The lumbering form of Burundus landed on the roof of the building behind us, and without losing any momentum he launched himself up at us, screaming the entire way.
As he sailed through the air, Deotra jumped. Once we had cleared the roof, I pulled heat from her and myself, conjuring a fireball that was equal parts blue and orange, twisting together as it ballooned to the size of a wagon wheel. Carefully aiming, I threw it at the roof. The explosion was enough to nearly break the bridge of the gatehouse in half, and when Burundus landed his weight was enough to collapse the top of it down into itself. As he tumbled into the interior of the gatehouse's armory, I created another twin colored fireball and threw it in after him. As the fireball closed on its target, I clung as hard as I could to Deotra's body.
The entire gatehouse exploded fantastically in a series of intense detonations as my fireball ignited the stores of blackpowder in its armory. Like the gatehouses in Standing Stone, there was enough of the stuff in there to take out a hundred soldiers, and more than plenty to turn what was left of Burundus's meat puppet into charbroiled steak. The explosion destroyed the entire gate, leaving a jagged hole in the outer wall of the city. Wood and metal scorched past me at high speed, and I squeezed my eyes shut as the blast wave threatened to knock me off Deotra's back.
Fortunately, Deotra stuck her landing more or less; had she not been a familiar she would've broken a leg on impact but as it stood she was unharmed by our sudden return to the ground, using her body as a cushion for me. The hard landing threw me off of her, but not until after she'd absorbed most of the impact. She was already licking my face, checking me for injuries. "Are you alright? I didn't mess things up, did I?"
"On the contrary, you were amazing," I reassured her. "Even the landing. I should be asking if you're hurt, but I know you can't be." She pranced about to prove it, her legs working perfectly. "You know, that trust you placed in me… that's the only reason I was able to do what I did."
I reached up and scratched behind her ears. "You could've done all that without my trust. What you needed was motivation. You need to believe that I believe in you, Deotra. No more doubting yourself." She stood up straight, her ears perking up.
"Alright. As long as you're with me, I can do anything." She rubbed up against me, her feelings flooding into me.
Drache floated down to us. "You've destroyed the vessel. Credit where credit is due, boy. That was a clever idea." I smiled at her. "Not everything requires magic. Sometimes ancient problems require modern solutions." Looking up past the smoldering wreck of the gatehouse, I spied the Encroacher stirring at the top of the Repository.
The enormous monster was thrashing about, flecks of slime landing on the city below as it let out a psychic scream. Even as far away as I was, I could feel it at the edge of my mind, like a thousand needlepoints poking at my skull. No longer able to work through its puppet, the creature began its descent from the spire, and a feeling of nausea settled in the pit of my stomach. Everything about it was unnatural, from the way it moved to the pressure it exerted through the air.
When it hit the ground, I felt the tremor like I was right next to the point of impact. Whether the strength of the shaking was due to the sheer weight of the Encroacher's body or some magical factor I didn't know about wasn't clear, and it didn't make any difference anyway. What was more concerning was that the tremors were getting stronger, and the collapsing of the many buildings we'd used as stepping stones indicated it was heading our way.
Scrambling back onto Deotra's back, I turned to Drache. "How long will it take to get to the Valley of the Last Sunrise?" The tall sorceress put her finger to her chin.
"A day and a half, two days tops if Deotra runs at her full speed. Burundus will be able to keep up with us, so anything less than that and we'll all be dead before we get there."
I gave my brave little fox a headpat. "You can get us there in one piece, can't you?" She nodded her head emphatically. "I can! Just leave it to me!" Blue flames swirled around her feet and she took off, heading west and across the open terrain towards the grassy hills we'd traversed on our way to Blossom City. Behind us, the crashing of stone and mortar announced that the Encroacher was now hot on our heels, having smashed through the city wall to give pursuit.
We didn't dare go near the western gate. The Pillars were still waging a spirited battle against the Ishmarians, who were trying to goad the defenders out of their strategically advantageous position with hit and run dragon attacks. I wasn't sure if they deigned to give any thought to the massive slime monster in the distance, but if they did nothing changed. We passed with no trouble, and the battle raged on.
Whatever happens now, it's in the hands of the defenders. Whether Blossom City lives to see tomorrow is up to them now. As for us, the chase is on. A few hours later, as we bounded across the endless sea of green, the Encroacher caught up to us.
Then the voices started, and none of them had anything to say that I wanted to ever hear.