Deus Necros

Sloth remained in the center of them.

Tull reached him first. His sword cut toward the ground beneath Sloth’s feet rather than the Usurper himself. Green aura extended beyond the blade, slicing through the stone in a line intended to collapse the area around him.

Sloth stepped aside. One slow movement carried him beyond the fracture, and he placed his palm against Tull’s shoulder.

The captain flew away and struck the canyon wall hard enough to bury half his body inside it. His aura prevented the stone from crushing him completely, but the impact left blood spreading across his armor.

Thomas released a concentrated stream of flame toward the rocks behind Sloth. The fire struck the canyon wall, and heat spread through the stone.

Sloth looked toward it.

The flame narrowed. Its roar weakened into a flicker, then a thin line, and finally nothing. Heat abandoned the rock before the surface could crack.

Redd rushed from the opposite side, claws growing along both hands. He did not slash at Sloth. Instead, he dug them into the earth and pulled, tearing a section of ground upward beneath the pale giant.

Sloth lifted one foot, and the displaced stone settled before it could fully rise.

Cain attacked again, this time directing his claws toward the canyon wall beyond Sloth’s shoulder. The strike split the rock and sent an avalanche of debris toward him.

Sloth touched one falling stone, and the entire collapse slowed. Boulders descended like feathers while dust hung motionless in the air.

Cain moved through the suspended debris, but Sloth caught him by the throat and threw him into Redd. Both struck the ground in a tangle of limbs and shattered stone.

Kaiser cast from a distance. Spears of dark magic appeared above the battlefield and drove into the space surrounding Sloth. They pierced the ground in a circular formation, each one releasing chains that tightened around the area rather than his body.

The formation collapsed inward.

Sloth extended one finger, and the chains went slack. They had not broken. They had simply lost the will to pull.

Ludwig charged again.

Durandal struck the earth beside Sloth with enough force to tear open the canyon floor. The blade released a violent wave through the stone, directing every fragment, fracture, and displaced piece toward the place Sloth occupied.

Sloth kicked the flat of Durandal, ripping the sword from Ludwig’s hands. Before Ludwig could summon it back, Sloth seized him by the face.

His massive palm nearly covered Ludwig’s entire head.

Then he pushed.

Ludwig’s body slammed into the ground. The canyon floor cratered beneath him, stone bursting upward in a ring as the back of his skull shattered against the impact.

Sloth released him and turned away.

Ludwig’s body repaired itself before he had fully risen. Blood crawled back beneath his skin, bone reformed, and his vision returned. He pulled Durandal into his hand using the soul chain and attacked once more.

The battle became an ugly cycle. They charged, struck the space, were repelled, recovered, and tried again.

Sloth moved more than he had during the entire battle in Solania. A turn of his shoulder redirected a sword. A lifted palm stopped an aura wave. A foot placed against someone’s chest sent them flying across the canyon.

He never appeared hurried and never wasted motion. Every action ended a threat with the least possible effort.

Ludwig was struck through a boulder and came out the other side with both arms broken. Cain lost half his lower jaw to a backhand. Redd was driven into the ground by one finger pressed against his forehead.

Kaiser rebuilt portions of his body repeatedly while raising spell after spell, each one designed to attack the environment around Sloth instead of the Usurper himself.

Nothing gained ground.

The black creatures hidden throughout the canyon did not move. They watched from cracks, ledges, and deep openings in the rock. Pale eyes followed the fight, but none descended.

Sloth had told them they would not interfere, and they obeyed. That did not make the situation any better. Ludwig’s group was being overwhelmed without them.

Celine remained near the tribesmen. She had drawn her sword, but she had not joined the charge.

Her eyes moved between Ludwig’s group and the humans struggling behind her. The tribesmen suffered beneath the clash of Authorities. Wrath’s presence leaking from Ludwig filled the canyon with agitation, anger, heat, and the impulse to act, while Sloth’s influence pressed in the opposite direction.

Their bodies were trapped between violent motion and absolute surrender.

Several had dropped to their knees. Others leaned against the canyon walls, fighting to keep their eyes open. One man tried repeatedly to stand, only for his legs to relax beneath him before he could straighten.

Redd’s sister remained close to him, her spectral form flickering whenever Sloth’s power deepened.

Tull suffered worse than anyone in Ludwig’s immediate group. He was the only ordinary human among them.

His aura protected him from the full effect, but it could not erase it. Every time he forced himself out of the wall or rose from the ground, his movements became slower. His breaths grew deeper, and his sword lowered farther between attacks.

Sloth did not need to defeat him. He only needed to wait until standing felt unnecessary.

Celine felt it too. Her steps became heavier, and her grip around her sword loosened before tightening again as she forced herself to remain vigilant. The palace was distant, but Sloth himself carried the principle that had hollowed its inhabitants.

Her mind offered reasonable excuses. She should stay with the tribesmen, protect the wounded, wait for an opening, and avoid wasting her strength.

They sounded logical.

That was what frightened her.

Ludwig struck Sloth’s position again. Sloth caught the blade between two fingers and twisted, sending Durandal spinning from Ludwig’s grasp. A kick struck his side and launched him across the canyon, breaking stone wherever his body touched the ground.

Ludwig rose more slowly this time. It was not because he was tired; the Living Vessel did not tire like the living.

He was thinking.

This was going nowhere.

They had identified the weakness in Sloth’s Authority. Indirect damage could reach him. Attacking the space worked when Sloth allowed the attack to complete.

But he was no longer standing still. He moved, redirected their attacks, and struck first. Understanding the rule had only changed an impossible battle into a terrible one.

Ludwig reached into his inventory, and Nightbreaker appeared in his hand.

The massive pentagonal spiked mace struck the ground beside him with a heavy impact. Its dark metal head carried the memory of Morde’Xander’s strength, and the weapon felt far more suited to destroying an area than Durandal’s blade.

Noctivex stirred. The living metal cube responded from within Ludwig’s equipment, ready to spread across his body and reinforce him. Wrath pulsed beneath his chest. The Crown of Pride waited to shape certainty into Law, while the Eyes of Envy could give him the ability to suppress or disable some of Sloth’s absurd abilities.

He had enough to fight. Perhaps enough to win if he goes all out using these powers.

But not like this.

Tull struggled near Sloth. Redd attacked from one side, Cain moved too quickly for most eyes to follow, and Kaiser filled the canyon with spell formations.

One uncontrolled swing from Nightbreaker could catch any of them. That would have been dangerous in an ordinary battle, but here, Ludwig could not even aim at his enemy.

He needed to destroy the place Sloth occupied. The wider the attack, the more likely it was to reach him...and the more likely it was to kill everyone nearby.

Ludwig tightened his grip around Nightbreaker as Wrath began gathering.

Heat rolled from his body in waves. The canyon floor darkened beneath his boots, and fine cracks spread through the stone as the Authority inside him pressed outward, eager to ruin everything within reach.

Kaiser noticed. His eyes widened.

”Ludwig, wait.”

”I don’t see another way.”

”we have too many people near him.”

”I know.”

”That is not reassuring.”

Sloth looked toward Ludwig. His crimson gaze settled on Nightbreaker, then on the heat twisting through the air.

For the first time since the battle began, he shifted his stance fully.

Ludwig began calling upon the Wrathful Heart.

A different pressure answered.

It did not come from him.

It came from behind him.

”I didn’t want to use this,” Celine muttered.

The words were quiet, but Ludwig heard them anyway.

Something awakened inside her.

[Wrath Stirs. The Queen of Rage is awakening]

Ludwig froze.

The shard embedded within Celine answered the Wrathful Heart. It had been placed inside her when she was being transformed into the Queen of Thorns, one of Wrath’s servants. The process had been interrupted, but the remnant had never vanished entirely.

It had remained buried. Dormant. Waiting.

Celine’s eyes turned bloodshot. Red veins spread from their corners, branching across her pale skin like thorned vines. Her pupils narrowed until only thin black slits remained within the crimson.

Heat poured from her body. It was not ordinary heat.

It was Wrath.

The air around her distorted. Her dark hair lifted from her shoulders, moving in currents no wind had created. Thin crystalline growths formed beneath her skin and crawled along her neck toward her jaw.

Her sword trembled in her hand as blood-colored crystal spread across its edge. The weapon lengthened slightly while jagged veins hardened around it, transforming the elegant blade into something far more violent.

Cain turned toward her. ”Celine?”

She did not answer.

Her breathing became uneven. One inhale sounded controlled, while the next came with a low growl.

The tribesmen nearest her recoiled, but their bodies were too burdened by Sloth’s influence to move quickly. One tried to crawl away and managed only a few inches.

Ludwig felt the shard recognize him.

Wrath recognized Wrath.

The power inside Celine did not regard the canyon as a battlefield. It regarded everything around her as something that deserved destruction.

A notification appeared.

[You are in a hostile environment!]

Ludwig did not need to turn toward Sloth to know the warning had not come from him.

Celine lifted her head, and her bloodshot eyes moved across the canyon. Cain stood closest. Tull was several paces beyond him, barely upright. The tribesmen surrounded her.

Wrath did not distinguish allies from enemies. It only distinguished what had been destroyed from what had not.

Ludwig’s voice tore across the canyon.

”GET AWAY FROM HER! RIGHT NOW!”

Cain vanished. Tull threw himself aside, Kaiser slammed his staff against the ground and raised a barrier around the nearest tribesmen, and Redd seized two men by their clothing and dragged them backward.

Celine lifted her sword. The blood-like crystal coating the blade pulsed.

Then she swung.