Jackal Among Snakes

“I should be surprised that you did it. Your role was always my concern,” the Alchemist said cooly. Hands emerged from his body, running over each of them and casting healing magic. Orion was so badly injured that healing magic alone would not restore him to fighting condition—only time regenerating with his own blessings would cure his ills.

Argrave looked back at Hause and her court of mortal servants. They gave their party a cautious distance, acting more as temporary allies in misery than fellow participants in this heist. He didn’t know what her being here meant—either for this fight, or for the distant future. But they had succeeded. A challenge remained. Namely, getting the hell out of this place.

The Keeper walked across the top of the flowing liquid, and neither Mozzahr nor Argrave made to fight with this new arrival. They were like animals snarling at each other—even though they knew a conflict was inevitable, it still came with consequences that forced caution from both of them.

“You came into our home, bringing along a foul and monstrous mortal whose strength could be likened to a god’s,” the Keeper said contemptuously. “You killed hundreds of our emissaries, destroyed a Lodestar of the Annals of the Universe, and stole its power. You entered this vault, putting an end to creatures that have been alive longer than any of you. Have you any idea what it took to entrap those dragons? Do you know what Erlebnis surrendered to earn the fealty of the King of Beasts?”

“Ruining your home was part of the plan.” Argrave slowly rose to his feet, still feeling unimaginably drained. He didn’t think he could muster casting another Domain of Law. The Blessing of Supersession left him not too long after Mozzahr’s attack, and he’d been forced away from the old domain when the vault crumbled around them. He was dangerously low on blood echoes—perhaps thirty remained.

“You’ve almost entirely destroyed this Museum of Artifacts within the Magic Wing,” the Keeper continued, walking closer. “And along the way, you… you and the Alchemist, have pilfered a collection we collected over millennia,” he said, shaking his head. “But… none of that matters. Because this only ends two ways.”

“Victory or defeat. That’s how I always wanted it,” Argrave nodded.

“No,” the Keeper laughed. “You can submit to eternal servitude, or you can die here, forgotten. You will be relegated to a small footnote in history—an accident analogous to a freak housefire. Either way, by freeing Hause… we don’t think it’ll be a net loss. We can finally utilize her abilities.”

Anneliese rose to her feet, coming to stand behind Argrave. “This conversation repeats time and time again, does it not?” He eyed her injuries, and she gave him a reassuring smile. She was pale from her wounds, even though they’d been sealed by magic. “They say we have no hope of victory. We disagree. And then, we win. Am I correct?”

“True enough,” Durran agreed, using a divine artifact fashioned as a spear to rise to his feet. “Cut him some slack. He’s knowledgeable, but it’s clear creativity can’t be learned. All Erlebnis can do is learn what other people discovered, then hoard it and trade it.”

“Let’s just focus on fucking living, yeah? No time for talk.” Melanie insisted, standing shakily. Orion agreed, and with Argrave’s support, rose to his feet.

The Keeper stared. Though his jaw did not move, his voice echoed in Argrave’s head. “In this realm, I can speak into your mind. But my brother… what do you think he can do?”

The Alchemist slammed his dimmed gray spear on the ground. “He begins mental warfare. Be ready! Resist that which consumes your mind, and forget not your place in reality. He will attack both your mind and our bodies. There will be no reprieve, no rest. I will lead us away from this place. When we are in safety, come to me. I will use [Worldstrider] to take us away.”

Argrave swallowed nervously. Mental warfare from a god… this would not be easy to overcome. Argrave had drained much of the god’s power by being struck while using the Blessing of Supersession and the Inerrant Cloak in tandem, but the fact remained that Erlebnis was a deity, and this was his realm. Even if they bested him, he could not truly die here. He was immortal in every sense of the word.

“We will follow,” confirmed Hause. “If you would cut a path through Erlebnis, I will guard our rear.” Argrave had so much to ask of her, but for now he could only be glad she was cooperating.

The Alchemist hunched over, his body trembling. Arms burst free from his back one after another, making grotesque noises as they spread to their full length. He brandished the weapons of the divine in each hand—swords, spears, all of it. The arms were flaccid and limp at first, but they slowly shifted and burst with muscle. The Alchemist lifted his head up, mouth wide open and teeth gnashing together. Then, his head was subsumed into the rest of him as he fully slipped into a form made for nothing more than war. And then… he stepped toward the pool of liquid metal. It all shifted, and then rose up to meet him.

Argrave prepared to follow… but he was consumed by darkness.

You seek creativity, do you? A question surfaced in his mind—not the Keeper’s voice, and not his own… indeed, he could discern nothing about this voice, not even what it sounded like.

Then, Argrave stood atop a tower. He looked around furiously, then recognition dawned on him—this was the roof of one of the towers of the Dragon Palace in Dirracha. His heart beat, sounding like a great bass drum in his ear. In mental warfare… there’s always a chance at victory. He held his hand to his heart, doing his best to ignore it, then stepped to the edge and looked down. He spotted a tall, spiny tower, and followed it down.

The tower… it was a finger. A gigantic purple humanoid stood under him, its hand holding the tower in its palm. It was a Shadowlander. The moment Argrave recognized this its fingers clenched, crushing the tower. Argrave’s eyes widened, and then he climbed atop the railing and jumped to the roof of the Dragon Palace. He ran along, and the impossibly gargantuan Shadowlander rose up.

It chased after him with a belltower in its hand, the bell still attached. It swung at him like a maniac, and each time the bell struck the Dragon Palace, it rung out in an ominous grandeur as the building crumbled away. Purple lightning struck all around him as he ran. When the roof ended, the great snake Vasquer’s body rose out, forming a pathway for him that ascended to the heavens. He sprinted along the feathered snake’s back, following it away and away as the Shadowlander continued to swing its belltower in a beautiful yet eerie song.

When he ran out of snake to run on, another platform awaited him. He clambered onto it. At once, another Shadowlander rushed at him. Argrave panicked for half a second before remembering this was a battle of the mind. In this mental world, he triggered the Blessing of Supersession, held out the Resonant Pillar, and received its attack without injury to himself. With the Resonant Pillar charged, he swung it at the Shadowlander. It exploded into darkness, and Argrave was freed.

Released from the mental battle, Argrave looked around to readjust to his surroundings. The Alchemist barreled into the great mass of liquid metal that was Erlebnis’ form. It surged, coalescing and condensing in many points, until an army of red chrome men stood before him. They were perfect metallic recreations of great warriors. Some of them were eerily familiar, and when Argrave faced the coming swarms of soldiers, he knew what this was.

They fought the army of the slave rebellion against the ancient elven empire. The centaurs led by Sarikiz, the elves led by Ghan… this was a recreation of their army. The Alchemist met the vanguard with an unmatched ferocity, brandishing the weapons pilfered from this vault with the fury of a demon. Argrave and his companions broke free of the mental warfare, and joined him in this fight. Hause and her court were not far behind.

It was truly as though they had been thrust into the heart of a battlefield. Their spells, their tactics, their intelligence… this army was a perfect recreation of what had ended the ancient elven empire. If not for their appearance, Argrave would’ve thought these were truly mortal foes. Argrave and his allies went to war with Erlebnis’ knowledge of war, combatting the army that had cut the throat of the greatest empire the world had seen.

Then… once again, Argrave was met by darkness. When his vision returned, he stood behind a ward. Thousands of electric eels danced all around him, like a great curtain. And beyond it stood… well, himself. He charged a [Bloodfeud Bow], pointed right at his face. Though it took a moment, Argrave realized where he was. He was in the position his older brother Prince Induen had been a few minutes before his death.

The fake Argrave released the [Bloodfeud Bow], and its bolt came flying at him. Argrave rooted around in his head, and found an answer quickly. This was his mind—spirits were not restrained here, as they were in Erlebnis’ vault. He cast [Requite]. It completed just as the maroon bolt neared his hand—he was certain that, without Castro’s training, he would’ve been hit.

The arrow turned, shooting straight through the fake him. Even still, the thousand electric eels swarmed down, ready to finish the job. Argrave conjured a ball of ice and shattered it with wind magic. The fragments exploded outwards, making the eels ineffectual. Argrave calmly walked through, where he came upon Induen once again, dead and dying as he had been that long time ago.

Argrave quickly cast a spell of wind magic to sever Induen’s head. The scene faded away… and Argrave was back in reality.

“Argrave, what have you done?” Durran shouted.

Argrave saw Anneliese’s head flying away from her body, then landing on the ground. A blade of wind flew past, carrying her viscera with it. The sight was nauseatingly disgusting… but Argrave narrowed his eyes in a few seconds.

Argrave walked to Anneliese’s head and picked it up. The sight brought him such a deep emotional discomfort it was almost too much to bear, but he narrowed his eyes and looked up. “I’m going to cry…” he began, voice shaking. “Do you honestly think Anneliese is so pitiful that I could kill her? Get a grip, you wormy bastard. And get out of my head.”

Argrave threw her head behind him, and true reality returned.

Argrave searched for Anneliese, smiling in pure relief when he found her with head firmly attached. Hause and her faithful persisted, though several of them succumbed to Erlebnis’ mental warfare, bleeding from their eyes as they died in abject agony. They were back on the battlefield, and as Argrave watched, the last of the slave rebellion died. Erlebnis’ oceanic body surged and twisted, writhing to stop their path, and a towering figure arose. A great, fat raven took form—the Smiling Raven, reborn of red chrome.

The Smiling Raven threw its great wings out, and thousands of ravens soared through the sky with such tremendous speed it was overwhelming. Argrave could only expend the last of his blood echoes to conjure [Electric Eels] to defend himself and his companions. They swirled about them like a shield, impacting against the man-sized ravens that sought to attack them.

Argrave felt a tremendous wave of power, and shifted his eels aside to look. He saw the Alchemist standing atop the Smiling Raven’s chest, stabbing it time and time again with half a thousand divine weapons in his hand. He looked far more a god of war than Sataistador. After eviscerating the spot, he raised all the weapons up for a final, all-powerful slam, and the faux Smiling Raven dissipated.

“The portal!” the Alchemist shouted. “Come!”

Reinvigorated, all of them sprinted toward the spot the Alchemist called out as fast as they had ever run. Argrave saw the portal, nearly diving through it like a pool. He passed through, and…

Eight dragons awaited Argrave. They inhaled deeply, and blew out their breath at the same time. Fire, frost, lightning, poison, wind, darkness, earth, and light… but Argrave’s mind had never felt stronger. He leapt up into the air, sent out his blood echoes, and killed each of them with a spear of blood-infused lightning to the head.

When Argrave regained vision, he laid face-first on the purple carpet in the Promenade of Wisdom. He could hear the geyser of water, and quickly rose to his feet. The Alchemist stood above them all, waiting. Argrave looked around, and all of his companions rose up. Hause and much of her court had survived the battle, and even now, more poured into the portal.

As Anneliese rose to her feet, she stared at the Alchemist and noted, “Your lifeforce…”

“Spare us the observations of your Truesight,” he dismissed. “We have made it. Your efforts using the Blessing of Supersession in tandem with the Inerrant Cloak weakened Erlebnis… elsewise, I am certain we would have failed. On top of that, Mozzahr has elected to steal yet more from Erlebnis, heading deeper within the vault.”

“Him?” Argrave repeated, looking around. “Who cares who we thank? Let’s go! All that remains is getting information about Gerechtigkeit.”

“Yes,” the Alchemist nodded in confirmation. “It is time to leave a victor.”