Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Sixty One – 961

The Empress.

Growth Follows Abundance.

The Path Continues.

As the dark faded into light, Gabby found herself standing with an army.

This again.

Paladins surrounded her, a sea of waist-high, crimson platemail and upthrust banners marked with the Hierophant’s glyph. Yet they were the least of her worries. Toward the front of their formation, metal gave way to putrescent flesh, weeping wounds, and the writhing worm-tails of Plaguerats.

Emissaries of Yyero.

All around them, the oppressive heat of the far south hemmed her in. A wet warmth hugged her as closely as her armor, unmitigated by the shade of the wild jungle in all directions. They were in the jungles of Jaast, by her estimate. Ahead of them was a town she didn't know the name of, but whose wall rose before them like an insurmountable barrier.

Men in patchwork armor hunkered atop of it, firing volleys of arrows into the Paladins. Golden shields deflected every shot, Skill-backed or otherwise, as the army stood two hundred yards from the wall. She’d arrived between breaths, but the Paladins seemed unwilling to make any moves aside from defensive ones. A strange tactic, and not one normally employed by the Hierocratic forces—they were usually far more aggressive.

Imara was calling the shots then.

Gabby sneered beneath her full helm. Her boots were muddy and her silver armor had signs of wear that suggested they’d been traveling for weeks if not months. What had happened that sent her here, now? The Memory answered for her, or perhaps she did; a wash of images and emotions welled up from her own Mind. She had come south to gather the twin Kobolds, and Yyero had decided to aid her. She recalled an argument between the gods, Yyero fighting to stay in the south where he desired, where his rot was most effective, and the Twins changing their plans to go after another.

All of it because Gabby had captured the Lizard.

She'd found him in record time, before her brother had even saved his second Territory. The Lizard was already bound in the north, strapped to En’Cridhe and awaiting all the others they could gather—others that they had been able to find thanks to the Lizard’s strange Bondsight Skill. A Skill that Gabby had tortured out of the man.

She gagged, her Mind overwhelmed by the visceral treatment she’d meted out. Gabby shoved it away. It’s not real. None of this is real.

Still, her own efficiency was almost as terrible as Imara’s lack of respect for life. Gabby gritted her teeth against it.

Shouts broke through her reverie, and frankly Gabby was glad for it; the townsfolk were lobbing rocks from behind their walls now. The condensed light of their shields broke them apart, but now the Paladins were starting to fall, or at least being forced to stumble thanks to the sheer weight of projectiles.

Gabby peered ahead. The town’s gate was closed, and the walls shone with unfamiliar wards.

“Captain?” a man in lieutenant’s garb asked.

A tall man with a close-cropped golden beard sneered. “Let the fodder do their work.”

A deep guttural screeching sounded from the forefront of their lines, and the Plaguerats rushed forward. Their horse-sized bodies trampled the undergrowth and frankly ignored the firing of Skills and stones that dropped onto their number—even those that found the rats were ineffective, splashing harmlessly from their putrid hides. They raced to the walls and sank their virulent green claws through the wards. In the same swift motion they plied upward, their momentum unbroken as they raced up the vertical surface.

Some townsman shouted something, and it rang through the air with a distinct tang of potent magic. Thorns burst from the wall’s top third, tearing straight through the godslaves. None survived the ascent, and their corpses fell, smashing the rest into a layer of poisonous barbs that had grown up at the base of the wall. Yyero's creatures were felled.

Paladin Captain Okon, he of the golden beard, stared, consternation and disbelief warring for dominance on his face. “How is this possible?”

Before she could speak, a vicious cruelty rolled through her. A song like war drums hammering upon her Spirit. Rage burned her veins.

"It doesn't matter how," she spat. "That they have is insult enough." Gabby held out a hand. “Brightblade.”

Her weapon manifested out of golden radiance, a greatsword larger than even her eleven-foot frame. The captain and others backed away while she strode forward.

What's the point of this Path? She was panicked at the rage she found in herself. It was a familiar emotion, intense and violent, and it felt entirely too natural, as if with each step she was settling into a persona she had thought destroyed. Gabby glanced up and down the wall, hunting for a way out.

The Empress Omen. Growth and abundance. The thorns still studded the walls. Do I have to destroy this town? These people? The thought made her sick. State-sanctioned murder and abduction. She'd done so much of both in her time as Imara, but she wasn't Imara anymore. Right?

For all her rejections, Gabby could still feel her, like a dark shadow cut into the light. The claws were there, just over her shoulder, waiting to seize her by the scruff of her neck.

The villagers shouted, Skills dropping down upon her, washes of blazing fire, boiling acid and spears of metal dropped from above. Aurum Armory. Her body, already clad in silver plate, was skinned over again by radiance. Magic flowed over her harmlessly, scouring the earth instead.

"You cannot stop me," she warned. "Step away from the gate.”

The townsfolk piled closer, their Skills falling faster. She could hear them on the other side of the gate. Dozens, it seemed, pressed against the doors to keep them closed against her.

Pathetic.

She shuddered. That wasn't her thought. A dark claw clenched against her neck, a tight grip that was as cold as a winter's night and as blinding as the sun at noon. Righteousness flowed—an assurance that Gabby had forgotten echoed across her Spirit like a truth that could not be denied.

They keep us from our duty, from what needs to be done. The Pathless has fallen, but we must follow the Light. We must teach others to follow it as well, no matter the cost. Gabby's hand lifted against her will, the great sword held high. If they fight us, then they die.

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Gabby clawed for control as the sword fell in slow motion. She pushed at Imara, but she wasn’t going anywhere—the bargain remained, weakened but still there. She could almost see it, pale blue lines that stretched off away from her, impossible to cut loose, tied to her very soul.

Her arm dropped. The gate split and exploded, ripped from the wall as the wards were overloaded and the metal crumpled beneath the Titan’s Strength. An explosion of gold rocketed outward, tearing through the square just beyond the gate, and Gabby held her breath, her hand suddenly her own again.

How many had just died? How many will die?

The fires faded, and to Gabby’s immense relief there were no bodies. Instead, it was as if she'd felled a forest. Thick stalks, vines, and foliage filled the square, crushed beneath the broken gates or emitting a thick white smoke from golden flames.

All the pressure she’d felt against the gate was just…plants?

"Oh, great, it's you.”

A small Kobold was there, standing alone among the pruned greenery. His scales and fur were green-gold, and he'd folded his arms as he stared at Gabby.

"Kevin?" she asked.

He visibly relaxed. "Gabby, why the hell are you helping them attack us?"

Unbound! Take him! She winced, forcing her arms to stay at her sides. Her greatsword trembled, casting a wobbling light across the square.

"Blight the Night!" the rats cried in unison, their voices sibilant and sickly. Plaguerats rushed through the sundered gate. The Paladins hung back, weapons ready, but it was clear the captain was eager to let the godslaves make their move first.

They flooded towards Kevin, a tidal wave of malformed monstrosities covered in slime and studded with bone spurs that burst from tumorous flesh. Jagged teeth and yellow eyes and burning claws ran headlong into a forest. Somehow, between one blink and the next, the square had turned from a felled clearing amid a stone square to a maze of soaring trees.

The Kobold vanished among them, moving at right angles from Gabby's sight. She turned, marveling as vines threaded across pathways and the thick jungle smell invaded her senses. The Plaguerats scrambled, slamming into thickened trunks and nets of vines, finding too late more of those vicious, sword-legnth thorns.

Yowls of pain and putrid brown ichor poured through the square and Kevin was a ghost in the greenery. He bore a golden sickle in his hand, and it reaped a fell harvest every time he appeared from behind a bole or vine. He sliced into the creatures’ hamstrings and sides, leaving bloody wounds that he jammed with his small claws for good measure. Each blow hampered them, slowing them until the majority fell to the ground, unable to move at all.

"That's enough watching," Captain Okon shouted. "Paladins, forward march!"

The armored redcloaks waded in, wielding their blazing swords. Like burly loggers, they hacked at the forest, felling trees in single smooth motions. The nets of thorns burned beneath their light while blasts of heat and force Mana withered the rest.

When the last tree fell, so did Kevin.

“Seize the Unbound!”

The few Plaguerats that remained pounced on him, capturing the small Kobold between their slick jaws.

“Bring him to me,” Gabby ordered, and the godslaves listened. Kevin was dragged forward and set at her feet, covered in scratches that were already festering.

A piece of her wanted to rage at the sight, and not because she'd seen an ally hurt, but to punish them. The creature before her who dared defy the gods, who dared defy her Paladins—but there was a gap to Imara’s control. Her orders, Imara's orders, were to keep the Unbound alive. Gabby leveraged it, pushing it like a shield between her and her foul persona.

Captain Okon laughed, stepping up to Gabby’s side. “Titan, it looks like you've captured the Unbound. Now all we need to do is get its brother, and our mission here will be complete. I hear they're planning a grand celebration for the first to return. I'll be happy to march at your side."

“We’ll be done with this place soon,” Gabby promised.

The captain smirked. “I have complete trust in you, Titan.”

Kevin stared at her, swallowing hard and breathing fast. Gabby winked. Without warning, she punched the Paladin captain.

His head pulped like a pumpkin beneath a boot.

"Go!" she told the Kobold.

"I'm right where I planned to be." Kevin snapped his fingers.

The corpses around them shook as magic flooded away from him…and into the Plaguerats. Realization dawned as Gabby ran through what she’d seen: the secondary blows the Kobold had made with every slice of his sickle had another purpose.

He was planting seeds.

Every corpse across the square exploded at once, and even the living ones found their flesh turned into sudden fertilizer. As hundreds of blooms rose up on thick stalks, flush with vibrant orange, yellow, and blue flowers before they split open, glistening darts formed in the center. They shot outward in all directions and dozens of Paladins went down immediately, clutching their necks, arms, and knees—joints where their armor was weakest. Others threw up shields of golden light, blocking the turret blasts of his poisonous flowers, but they were driven back, and Gabby laughed.

Imara screamed within her, but she faded beneath Kevin's odd presence, just enough that like the technicality of keeping the Unbound alive, Gabby was able to muscle through the difference.

“Titan, you killed—why?”

Gabby swung on the others, cutting through them instantly. Kevin had done damage, even killed a few, but Gabby was death itself. Light faced light, Paladin blades meeting Brightblade and failing utterly before her Strength.

She ended them all.

In the quiet after, there was only Kevin’s heavy breathing and Gabby’s irritated grunts as the last of the Paladins fell.

In the far distance, the jungles fizzled and popped, the edges of the Memory corrupted by more of that unstable Mana, but here in the town, things were better. People crept out of their houses, tentatively at first, and then with greater numbers as they saw their enemy felled. Soft cheers began growing in strength. Cheers for the defeat of the Paladins and Plaguerats, and cheers for their heroes. Families hugged one another; a child laughed; a grandmother hugged her son.

The exertion hadn't been much for Gabby, but the bargain in her soul held every swing back. Her arms burned from forcing through it, but a piece of her recovered at seeing the people around her so…joyful.

"I was worried for a second there," Kevin admitted. "I thought he was going to kill me for sure."

“Hmm.” Gabby didn't answer exactly. "That can't be all there was here. This wasn't difficult enough for a Path like this.”

“Speak for yourself. I'm exhausted."

A tremor shook the earth and a boom of thunder rocked the sky. Windows around them shattered, and the trees beyond the walls flattened, some glitching out of reality entirely. Above them, the sky boiled, clouds turning black and splitting to reveal the moon, and it was falling directly for them.

Gah!” Kevin covered his ears. “Why’d you have to say that?”

Massive creatures swarmed across the surface of the moon, shadows and worse, sliding through its bronze surface like a pool. It was vile and slick, and the sky turned putrid in its wake, like brown and yellow bile oozing from the moon's rapid descent.

A clear bell rang out, smooth and bright.

The Door Beckons.

Leave Or Perish, Ascendents.

A bent doorframe appeared out of twisted light not ten feet away from them. As one, they backed up, even as people started to cry out. Kevin flinched, eyes wild.

"Can you stop it?" An older woman asked, turning away from her young children.

Kevin couldn't answer, his eyes torn between doorway and falling moon. "It's... " he panted. "It's bad."

"Can you save us?" She looked to Gabby.

The Door Beckons A Second Time.

Leave Or Perish, Ascendents.

Kevin stopped moving. A firmness now in his Spirit that Gabby recognized.

"I think... no." She grabbed Kevin and lifted him up.

"What are you doing?"

Gabby threw him through the door. He vanished.

"We cannot save you," Gabby swallowed and didn't meet the old woman's eyes. "I'm so sorry."

She bolted through the door.