It was time for another tidal wave, he decided. Water raged across the courtyard, dousing scattered fires, tossing rubble and battered servants around.
It bought him the extra bit of time he needed. After one more water jet pressed into the dome, he was at last able to punch through with an icy gauntlet. The castle wall lay on the other side, and he immediately launched himself over. As soon as he landed on the outer steps, he started running. ‘Go!’ he told Axiolis.
Thankfully, at least, Lawrence’s enhanced radiation didn’t affect reapers as strongly as living things, so when Axiolis broke away from Zeff, the reaper was only suffering from a bit of ghostly smoldering. He vanished into the ground.
Zeff saw the radium dome disintegrate and knew that Lawrence would be on him any moment. He lowered his own soul defenses in order to be able to kill himself. The ice formed in his mouth, about to pierce his brain.
Instead, a bladed disc sliced through his mouth, severing the top half of his head from the rest of his body. And he saw Lawrence standing there on the wall with a clenched fist.
Still conscious, Zeff could only watch as the radium clapped around his head. Axiolis had escaped. He had not.
-+-+-+-+-
Lawrence carried Zeff’s radium-coated head under one arm as he reentered Rhein’s Keep. Upturned earth, shattered stone, and regenerating bodies abounded. He immediately had Lieutenant Adam Leroy freeze Zeff’s head for him--or rather, for Dergoz.
‘You let Axiolis get away,’ Dergoz said privately.
‘Zeff was stronger than I anticipated,’ said Lawrence.
‘You are lying. You held back.’
‘Of course I did. You wanted them alive.’
‘That is not what I mean, and you know it.’
General Xavier Lawrence refrained from further argument. He knew there was nothing to be gained from it. And besides, the reaper wasn’t exactly wrong. He couldn’t disobey Dergoz overtly, but occasionally, small victories were still possible. For all of Dergoz’s threats, Lawrence knew that the reaper didn’t want to release a servant with his level of power. It would mean starting over from scratch, letting nearly eighty years go to waste.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Ax can still warn Mariana, so not all is lost...
ReplyDeleteIt seems we have an ongoing clash of servant and Reaper here. Still short on details of course.
ReplyDeleteNot just warn her, but bring the other rain lords locked and loaded for war.
ReplyDeleteAha! I was wondering why it was the Servants who were considered the ones in power when it was clearly the reapers holding the final say! Now we see it from the other way around! This will be iiiinteresting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it sort of makes sense reapers are loathe to lose their servants, so as time goes along, the servant probably gets some more autonomy
ReplyDeleteAhh...I'd had this feeling there was another hint hiding here somewhere. Garovel had mentioned earlier that he wasn't necessarily sure Hector was making iron. But what else could it be? But if you can, sometimes, rarely, create two elements at once - a compound - then that might be the answer they could have missed. If Hector is actually making an alloy metal much stronger than iron (as many iron alloys are), we could be getting interesting.
ReplyDeleteI am left wondering after all this if the Rainlords regularly get the rare ability to materialize two elements and get the SAME two elements, are servant abilities influenced by genetics or personality?
ReplyDeleteToo bad reapers have to touch their servants to activate or deactivate the boosts. Turn off Zeff's regen, and that radium prison would bake his head like a potato.
ReplyDeleteEither genetics or culture, it seems. Another interesting aspect to explore.
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDeleteI literally shouted "FUCK!" when Zeff had his head cut off.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Lawrence at least is not so bad. Dergoz seems like the biggest dick yet in this series. I'm reminded of that Vanguard duo (their names escape me ATM but one *looked* like a kid) that refused to help Helen before Harper offered. Seems Vanguard higher-ups are douches extraordinaire