“I understood.” Orthos looked to Little Blue.
She bit her lower lip, and her shoulders were hunched. He couldn’t sense her feelings as clearly as Lindon could, but she was nervous.
However, she still gave a decisive nod.
[Delightful! We can try the Eithan training again once you’re around peak Overlord. Or maybe higher. He’s tough.]
But if Orthos couldn’t beat an Overlord-level Eithan, and two-on-one at that, there was no way he could fight the Wandering Titan.
Firmly, he fixed his goal in his mind.
First, Eithan.
Then, he could fight by Lindon’s side again.
Outside Sacred Valley, Akura Charity looked up at the titanic figure of gray-white madra that blotted out the sky. It straddled mountains, the ring of light around the closest peak hovering only around its knee.
It gave off a pressure that was more than merely spiritual. The Heart Icon stilled at the sight of this imposing, imperial figure, and she knew its name.
This was the Hollow King.
When it swept three Monarchs aside with a sweep of its cloak and a thrust of its spear, Charity was unsurprised. For as far as she could sense, other powers went quiet at the passage of the Hollow King’s madra.
And this was only an echo. A memory, preserved in the labyrinth.
How powerful was the real thing?
Malice had taken the brunt of its technique and had been driven out of the battle. Now was the chance for the lesser sacred artists, like Charity, to strike.
Even after the Hollow King projection dispersed, no one moved to fight.
The Winter Sage, at Charity’s side, spoke in unconcealed awe. “What are we doing here?”
“Our jobs,” Charity responded automatically, but she was equally disturbed. Still, she didn’t let that touch her tone as she began ordering Archlords. “Half of you with me and half with Min Shuei. We need to keep pressure on the labyrinth’s defenses. Begin with any techniques that may not be repelled by a barrier against violent force.”
Akura Justice gave her an astonished, wide-eyed look. He was an ancient figure who had mentored her when she was a girl, his beard white and long. But his venerable appearance was disturbed when he pointed a shaking, black-gloved hand up toward Sacred Valley. “My apologies, Sage, but…surely we shouldn’t fight him here.”
Charity empathized, but she kept her face blank. “Our goal is to pull him out. Now, we have no more time to waste.”
The Monarchs had already recovered and begun preparing their next round of techniques. While Lindon and the labyrinth had to be meeting their limits too, she had to assume their window would close any second.
Min Shuei straightened up, eyes alight with passion, her white hair streaming behind her, and sword drawn. “Archlords, with me! We strike from the front!”
Half a dozen Archlords, powerful figures all, followed her with much less enthusiasm.
Charity turned to Justice and her own team. “Let’s hope she catches his attention. We’ll strike from the flanks.”
Her team looked much happier than the Winter Sage’s had.
Striker techniques traded overhead, scorching the air and sending the aura trembling for miles, but this could be considered a casual exchange on the level of Monarchs.
Which was the level it seemed Lindon had reached. At least, with the aid of the labyrinth.
Charity and her Archlords reached the southern entrance into Sacred Valley, near a mountain that now gushed with a red river that reminded her strongly of blood. Prior to the Wandering Titan’s attack, this place had probably been all but impassable, but wide passages had opened in the repeated earthquakes.
The aura was also significantly stronger now, so Charity and her Archlords flew in at full speed, coming to a halt a healthy distance from the protection scripts.
Charity conjured a pair of owls, layering mental techniques into them. “Let the Monarchs do battle with him outright. We will see if we can influence him more subtly. Even a moment of his attention taken—”
She cut herself off when she saw Lindon standing in the fractured passage before them.
He was a mile away, but everyone on the team had advanced to Archlord. They could see him clearly.
The young, powerfully built man had hands clasped behind his back and wintersteel badge clear on his chest. He surveyed them with black-and-white eyes, staying behind his protective script formation.
Most of the Archlords prepared Enforcer techniques.
“I had hoped you would be on my side, Charity,” Lindon said quietly.
Charity ignored him, speaking to the rest of her team. “A Silent King illusion. Continue as before. This technique is not dangerous without the protection of the labyrinth.”
Lindon raised an eyebrow at that and casually stepped across the boundary of Sacred Valley.
A moment later, he stood in their midst. The air trembled, though the Archlords held up admirably to the pressure. They shouted, crashing onto him with techniques from six different Paths.
They were wiped out by a Hollow Domain.
Blue-white light that was almost solid erased the techniques. The feel of the Void Icon was powerful with Lindon.
And he was just an illusion.
His gaze stayed on Charity. “You know what I’m doing. Don’t stop me.”
For the Akura clan, Charity stayed strong. “If you can carry a message back to your real self, then tell him this: we can have this discussion peacefully.”
“I didn’t attack your home,” Lindon said.
That shook Charity more than she let on, but she continued. “We must stop you from killing the Weeping Dragon. You know what will happen if you do that. The damage will be—”
“More than letting the Dreadgods live? For centuries?”
The Archlords shifted around Lindon. His Hollow Domain had fallen, but they hesitated before attacking. They had heard Yerin’s message through the Dreamway, and even if they hadn’t, the rumors had spread far.
“This is foolish,” Charity went on. “We’ve fought on the same side for years.”
The white rings in his eyes burned. “You saw how Malice treated Mercy. You think I’m the one who betrayed you?”
Charity had better arguments. She had lived for over a century, and her connection to the Heart Icon helped her keep her thoughts and feelings organized.
However, she didn’t have a response to this. Not because she couldn’t think of one.
Because, in her heart, she felt that he was right.
“Enough!” Akura Justice shouted. He Forged Strings of Shadow, launching them at Lindon. The Path of the Chainkeeper erupted into three separate techniques, tearing at Lindon with force and shadow in attacks that were both spiritual and physical.
Lindon’s illusion let itself be torn apart. It tried to say one more thing, but Justice seized it by the hair and pulled the young man’s head off.
The wounds disappeared, fading to the disturbing white light of the Silent King’s madra. She wasn’t sure precisely how Lindon had borrowed its powers. Moving the Dreadgod’s core binding into a bow should have altered its functions, but perhaps this was a different construct. Or an action of Dross.
However he had done it, they had proven the technique could be beaten.
No matter how much it shook her.
Justice raised his fist that had just held Lindon’s severed head. Or at least its appearance. “He can be beaten! He is not a true Dreadgod yet!”
Several of the other Archlords raised similar cries, though they could all feel the real Lindon trading techniques with Northstrider overhead. One of Malice’s arrows disintegrated before it could collapse a mountain.
Instead of agreeing with them, Charity pointed.
Another copy of Lindon stood in the passage, waiting exactly where the first had.