Not that it looked like one from the outside. The land for miles around was a scorched ruin wracked with aura-storms. Combined with all the recent Dreadgod attacks, Lindon doubted the region would recover for decades.
Dross, what do we have left? Lindon asked. He was currently suppressing Malice’s spatial travel while sending dragon’s breath sweeping at Northstrider and preparing a Void Dragon’s Dance. None of it was going to do any real damage to his enemies, but he had to at least keep them on their toes.
[Echoes? I don’t want to say none, because that isn’t true, but no significantly useful ones except for the ones involved in our…Ultimate Solution.]
Lindon didn’t support that name, but Dross had called the plan something different every time. He meant their last resort; the emergency measure they wanted to save in case the Weeping Dragon made it all the way here.
[Some of the hunger bindings are damaged and will need our attention, since the restoration authority in the labyrinth is strained as it is. You can imagine why. It’s because of all the damage.]
What about the suppression field?
[We can’t set up the suppression field again without physically rearranging the power cores. It’s actually an inversion of the standard system. As it is, we have several layers of defensive scripts, but activating them will be a significant drain on our power. The Titan took a big bite out of us, and the Dragon will hit Windfall before sunset.]
Malice put an arrow through the hunger-ghost of Reigan Shen at virtually the same moment Northstrider kicked his clone out of the atmosphere. Lindon pressured Malice with dragon’s breath, but at this rate, the Monarchs would be done with the echoes in a matter of seconds.
They were reluctant to enter the range of the labyrinth’s authority for the same reason that Lindon didn’t want to leave it. He couldn’t do much except Forge echoes and send them out or launch Striker techniques from within the Valley.
This was like a bet between them. Lindon was betting that he would have backup if he stalled long enough, and they were betting he wouldn’t.
But he didn’t like this kind of back-and-forth deadlock. There had to be a way to get them to retreat so he could go back and help.
I’m not sure I can use the Bow again. Lindon said. He had almost passed out last time, and it was hard to recover his mental strength with the Dreadgod weapon still raging in his soulspace.
[I didn’t think you could use it last time,] Dross responded. [We have to engage the labyrinth defe—oh look, they’re proving my point. So helpful.]
Even before Northstrider and Malice finished off the echoes, they began building up attacks that lit the sky. Lindon and Sacred Valley were pincered on two sides by a shining blood dragon and a star condensed onto the end of an arrow.
Lindon activated more of the labyrinth script’s defenses. He had no choice. Invisible walls sprang up around the border of the Valley.
The walls would hold against straightforward attacks, but the Weeping Dragon could break them. And they wouldn’t stop mental attacks, poison clouds, or even shadows. He had other defenses for that.
But the Monarchs could always cycle through more abilities. Left alone, they would find their way through any static defenses. Northstrider had already summoned his oracle codex and begun calculating a better method of attack.
Lindon cycled his madra. “Are you ready, Dross?”
[Yes. Absolutely. As long as you don’t need to fight for more than a few seconds.]
“Let’s take it one second at a time.”
Lindon had a script-circle they couldn’t penetrate at his back. He was the one with the fortress, which was a tactical advantage.
He’d leaned on that advantage to make it this far.
Lindon left Sacred Valley and shot through the air at Northstrider, but anything short of slipping through space was slow for an attack on a Monarch. Northstrider had plenty of time to see Lindon coming, sneer at him for it, change techniques, and meet Lindon with a punch that could crack the world.
Dross showed him all that before it happened.
Lindon would have loved to transport himself behind Northstrider, but he didn’t have anything as handy as the Moonlight Bridge. If he used his Sage authority to approximate a similar effect, Northstrider would override him.
Instead, Lindon ignited the Soul Cloak and kicked off a platform of wind aura, slipping aside Northstrider’s punch and preparing one of his own.
The black orb over Northstrider’s shoulder flickered with power, and the future changed.
[Redirect!] Dross shouted.
Lindon pulled himself up short, so Northstrider’s punch scraped by him. The impact kicked up a hurricane’s worth of wind, tearing a path through a nearby aura-storm.
The Empty Palm landed on nothing, then a Forged dragon rushed at Lindon and was torn apart by his Dreadgod arm.
They exchanged half a dozen moves in an instant, but neither landed a clean hit. Two opponents who could predict the other.
Dross called the time limit and Lindon shot back into the boundary. Northstrider tried to stop him, but Lindon slipped through a weak point in the barrier just as an arrow from Malice blasted through the space where he’d been standing.
The echoes had stalled her a little longer than Northstrider, but not long enough. Without Dross, Lindon wouldn’t have made it out without a hole through him. But without Dross, Lindon wouldn’t have tried going out there at all.
He cycled power through the Heart of Twin Stars, breaking down everything he’d Consumed from Northstrider in their brief exchange.
From outside the invisible barrier, he saw Northstrider doing the same thing.
“You’re a child carrying weapons too heavy for him,” the Monarch said. “Give them up before they drag you down.”
Did you get that? Lindon asked Dross.
[Not yet I didn’t. You know how few of his thoughts I read from that? Steal more!]
Lindon looked from Malice to Northstrider. “How about we duel for them?”
Malice’s armor faded away and she gave a pleasant laugh. “A fair fight, then? Of course! I would never interfere.”
Lindon watched her while keeping all expression from his face.
“Aw, you don’t trust me? I’m hurt.”
Malice would agree eventually. Their objective was to keep Lindon pinned here until the Dreadgod showed up, and preferably after. But she would look for a trap in any plan of his.
The enigma was Northstrider. He showed nothing on his face, as usual, and he was the one most likely to see through Lindon.
What was his oracle codex telling him right now?
In Northstrider’s mind, his codex spun out Lindon’s thoughts.
He has two advantages, the codex said in its cool voice. His primary plan will be to use the labyrinth, which has several functions that can reach beyond the boundaries. His backup will be a clash of authority. As the creator and bearer of a Dreadgod weapon and a limb from the Slumbering Wraith, he most likely believes his authority over hunger madra will give him an edge in your clash.
Will it? Northstrider asked. Such things were often vague.
The codex’s response was confident. Not enough. While his body has properties similar to a Dreadgod’s, giving him power that in some ways exceeds that of a Monarch, he is not one. Your willpower is more refined and better able to conduct your authority. In fact, his attempt to control you will present an opening you can exploit.
And what about Dross?
We cannot know for sure. The model of him was complete, but it is difficult to know how much he benefited from the madra of the Silent King. Even so, any possibility in which he out-performs me is very remote.