Chapter 23: The Princess Resonates

Note: Thanks to WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Sven Falk

The vault opened on creaking hinges. Both Theophil and Carsina stared in awe at the dark room. My own stomach swelled in knots. This was it. It wouldn’t be long before we had the location of the Altar of Souls and...

I glanced at Kora. She held the ruby that held Vebrin’s foul soul. A look of such hope crossed my sister’s face. She gazed upon salvation, freedom from the burden about her neck. She didn’t know what the cost would be.

Lights flickered to life inside. Crystals set into the ceiling shone a radiance on him. Ava, with a hesitant step, entered the vault. I followed her, Zanyia heeling me, Ealaín right behind us. I frowned as I entered, looking around the room at...

Suits of armor. Exotic armor. Armor made out of strange designs. Plate armor that looked made of rubies and sapphires, the way that the vault door looked made of diamond-impregnated steel. Another had a gleam of yellow, like the helidors imbued in its steel had the sun’s glow trapped in them. There was a harness of leather straps and another suit of armor made of black leather that...

I shook my head, the black of the leather so dark it almost swallowed the light, becoming almost a negative space that almost arrested my gaze. I could just stare at it.

Carsina gasped nearby while the rest entered the room. Greta let out a squeak and Nathalie groaned. Ealaín’s armor clinked as she drifted towards the glowing suit, admiring it with her gaze. I wanted to keep looking at the black leather but ... but...

“Where’s the map?” I asked.

“Not a map, the key,” growled Theophil. Then he let out a harrumphing grump. “You don’t need me for this.”

I caught his gaze, his muscular arms folded before him. “What?”

“Carsina can explain it.” A smile crossed his lips. “Unless you want me to enjoy your women.”

I frowned at that, but he strode out of the vault. Whatever excitement he felt was gone. Vanished.

“What did that mean?” Aingeal asked.

“These are Powered Armor,” Carsina said in awe. “They’re forged by Krab himself. These are what he created for the gods to wear and they’re ... here. I’ve dreamed of seeing them before. It is the highest goal of the Esoteric Crafts, a skill no mortal has ever mastered.”

“Why would Theophil think I’d want him to enjoy my women?” I asked, trying not to stare at the black armor.

“Because it requires the Blessing of Surrender to bond the armor with the wearer,” Carsina said. “I’d have to have sex with any who would don them. Well, any priest or priestess would. So if you want him enjoying your women. Or you.”

I gave her a hard look.

“These are so ... interesting, Master,” Zanyia said. She crouched before the harness, her ears twitching with such excitement.

“They are, Master,” Nathalie said. My fourteen-year-old sex slave stood before the ruby suit of armor, her hand reaching out to touch the deep-crimson surface. She traced the stylized pattern of flames worked into the armor.

“Yes,” I said, moving closer to the leather armor. It did swallow the light. It was darker than everything around it. I stood before it, looking at the dimensions of it, my critical eye studying it. I hadn’t worn leather armor since training in the Fencing College of Az, but... “It’s a good thing you’re sexy, Carsina.”

“I am?” she said, moving up alongside me. She pushed up her glasses on her nose. “And why is that?”

My dick swelling hard, I said, “Because I need—”

“This is it!” Ava said, standing over a hammer made of diamond. Scintillating light reflected off of it. “This is what I need.”

She grabbed it.

The brilliance inside the hammer flared to life. I flinched before it as the air hummed and vibrated. I felt something shift around us, like the foundations of reality had changed ever so slightly for me. Ava groaned from the light as it flooded through the room.

It grew brighter and brighter. I raised my arm to ward my eyes. The light surged with such intensity. It shone through my skin, my bones dark lines around cherry-red flesh. I flinched away, closing my eyes. But it shone through my skull. It radiated through my mind.

“This is it!” Ava cried out as the room quaked.

Prince Meinard

Soldiers died.

Blood sprayed through the air as the monstrous horrors of Vebrin surged into Az’s militia. I strolled in the wake, making myself cold, beating down any queasiness. I had strode through battlefields before in this very body. I witnessed men hacked down to fall in expanding puddles of crimson, twitching and moaning as their life poured out of them.