Chapter 37
Shame burned through Siwang.
He had no idea that such a desperate fight was going on. He was having a picnic with his fiancee. Just enjoying a peaceful meal out in the meadows, screened by some of his monster girls. He had no idea that anything was going on at all until it was over.
Now he stood before Leo in his dungeon with Munjan, the other young builder looking as aghast as Siwang felt.
“I am so sorry,” Siwang said. “I should have come and helped fight. I could have done something. Held him off.”
“Not without Fire, you wouldn’t,” said Leo. He had barely any of his companions with him. Just the fliers along with his adventure servants. A group of dwarves, humans, and an elf. Plus Kassie. She looked so thoroughly disgusted. “You would have just died with the others. He would have drowned you.”
Munjan shook his head. Was he regretting signing up with Leo now that he knew the foes arrayed against them? The Saints. Siwang had heard about them, but he hadn’t imagined that so many of them would show up at once.
“Desperation,” said Agubnamus. “Lord Leo, you cannot expose yourself to such dangers. You cannot take such risks like today.”
Leo closed his eyes and nodded.
“I have to get stronger,” Siwang said, his hands clenched into fists. “I have to start attacking the rogue dungeon builders. To get more elements. I have to find more mana veins.”
“Yes,” Munjan said. “This ... I mean ... If you died, it would have been our deaths, too.”
Leo sighed and nodded.
“Then you have to help us get stronger,” said Munjan.
Leo sighed. “King Thanitis wishes to speak with me. Let’s go see him.”
Siwang and Munjan were at my sides when we entered King Thanitis’s pavilion. The normally confident young king was now sitting slumped in a chair with an open letter before him, half the blue seal lying on the table beside him.
“Lord Leo,” he croaked as he looked up at me. His eyes were full of such anguish. “This is a black day.”
He hadn’t heard about what happened to me, right? No, no, this was something else. “What is it?”
“Myrecilla has fallen,” he said, his voice cracking. “My city has fallen to Tuerien Ironbane.”
“Shit,” I muttered.
I closed my eyes and found the words to use the Scrying spell. I spoke them aloud and sent the scrying circle out toward the city. It flashed over the ground, traveling fast, but it was still a tense fifteen minutes before we neared the city.
Smoke rose from the great metropolis that straddled the wide river and had as many canals as streets. I could see the palace on one end as I surged the scyring sensor over it. The city was large, the streets awash in people. Monster girls of so many different types were racing about everywhere.
He had access to more glyphs than I had thought and...
He was rounding up the citizens. In a large square, a group of cowed men was being guarded while they were being led to the river to have their heads lopped off by animated armors. Their swords swiped through the men’s heads.
Bodies and heads choked the river, slowly flowing out, the waters stained red.
“No,” croaked the king as the butchery continued. Tears spilled down his eyes. He collapsed to his knees. “It’ll take more than a week to march my army there. He’s...”
“We’ll save them,” I told him with such certainty. “Tuerien Ironbane will die. I promise you that. I will grind him beneath my boot!”
King Thanitis grabbed my hand. He held it tight as he said, such pain in his eyes, “I swear as King of Myreman that myself and the Royal Family of Myreman will forever serve Leo the Heroic! My forces are yours!”
Therodin roared as he charged at the dungeon builder. Thong Tri, a tall and slender man with dark-olive skin and short, black hair. He swung a flaming whip that cracked before the leader of the Company.
Therodin didn’t care and didn’t halt his attack.
The flaming lash struck across his armor while fear beat in his heart. His Ril drowned in the embrace of a slime. She fought for her final breath right now. He had to save her. He had to kill the bastard dungeon builder before she perished.
Swords clashed against weapons. Aython and Zarn fought a four-armed asura, her fiery blades crackling. Fire flared from the impact. I didn’t care. I just had to put this bastard down. I could see the fear in his eyes.
“A gout of flame, let the breath of Lord Gibil burn!” Thong Tri cried.
Fire erupted from his mouth and engulfed Therodin. He roared through the pain and charged through the flames. His stone armor cracked from the heat. His flesh burned. Ril filled his mind. His sweet elf. He raised his sword and swung.
He cleaved through Thong Tri’s head.
The ooze drowning Ril burst into motes of glittering light. Ril spilled out, coughing for breath. The asura vanished. Both of the dungeon builder’s companions were killed with their owner. More power surged for Therodin’s “master.”
Another vermin crushed.
Therodin panted as he turned to face the company. The mage Empty was down, burned but alive. Corthin attended to him. Therodin hurt but he didn’t care. He was one step closer to ridding the world of all of them.
What a glorious day that would be.
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