Chapter 29: Sacrifice

LYDIA

Lydia watched tensely as Ayana took a step forward, not taking her eyes off the enthralled King Morrison.

“I don’t know if you can hear me right now,” she heard the Water Slifer say to the king. “But if you can, just know that I’m here to save you. I’m sorry it took this long.”

Ayana raised both hands, and globules of water began to form and swirl around the Slifer, gradually increasing in size.

As she watched, Lydia realized what was happening; Ayana was drawing the ambient moisture from the air as water to fuel her powers.

As the water surrounding Ayana began to grow and swell, the individual globules started to join together, until they finally took on the shape of a water serpent coiling protectively around the Slifer’s body.

In response, Morrison unclenched his hands as sparks of lightning began to arc from his fingertips. The king took a few purposeful steps forward before finally breaking out into a full sprint toward Ayana. Following the king’s lead, the Wizard Hunters flanking him all charged as well.

Wasting no time, Lydia tapped into her own Slifer abilities as she and the others charged forward to engage with the Wizard Hunters, leaving Morrison to his duel with Ayana.

Seeing Ayana staring down her lover in determination, Lydia couldn’t help but think back to her own battle against Gabriel.

She hoped this one would play out similarly.

The Wizard Hunter leading the pack wasted no time in attacking first, attempting to stab at Lydia with an iron shortsword.

Lydia sidestepped the blow, hooking the attacker’s sword arm between her hip and elbow, leaving him vulnerable to a point-blank blast of fire magic from her free hand. The searing flames struck the hunter directly in the face, causing him to collapse to the ground with a scream of agony.

Another hunter attempted to strike from the opposite side, making a broad swing at Lydia with a bladed polearm. Lydia ducked under the attack and blasted the attacker’s legs with flame, causing him to collapse face-first into the ground.

Now finding herself with slightly more breathing room, Lydia paused to see how her allies were faring.

Gabriel, unsurprisingly, was still in his element, his shadow magic cutting down the hapless Wizard Hunters like a scythe through barley. Redmond and Adira were similarly unmatched, their natural synchronicity turning them into the ideal fighting pair.

Lydia observed that even Lucius was holding his own among the skirmishers, using short-range bursts of teleportation to compensate for his otherwise limited mobility.

The real standout combatant, however, was Ayana: even in their own initial confrontation, Lydia had never seen the Water Slifer fight with such an equal mixture of ferocity and grace.

Lydia watched in awe as Ayana weaved effortlessly around King Morrison, using the natural conductivity of her water to deflect and divert the flow of the king’s lightning attacks, drawing the bolts away from her as easily as one might swipe a hand through a cobweb.

In spite of this, however, Lydia noticed that while Ayana was able to avoid Morrison’s attacks, she was not landing any decisive blows against her opponent. The king flung bolt after bolt, leaving no openings and forcing Ayana to fight defensively as she struggled to gain traction.

Their duel was a firm stalemate.

The thought of interfering to sway the fight in Ayana’s favor crossed Lydia’s mind but was quickly interrupted as a wizard hunter wielding a short ax made a diving swing at her.

The Fire Slifer dodged, rolling away. The ax blade bit into the ground at her feet. She placed a hand on the flat side of the blade, channeling her powers as the weapon began to glow with a red-hot intensity.

The offending hunter dropped the ax as the heat reached his unprotected hands, letting out a yelp of pain before being struck down by Gabriel’s tangible shadows.

“Just how many of these Wizard Hunters does Uzier have at his disposal?” Gabriel shouted, moving on to another unworthy opponent.

“Maybe if he scaled back their ranks, he could afford to train them properly,” Lydia replied, blasting out fire as she took out yet another Wizard Hunter.

A flash of lightning caught Lydia’s eye, and she shifted her focus onto Ayana and Morrison. The stalemate appeared to be turning to the enthralled king’s favor, his blasts of lightning wearing down Ayana as each successive bolt evaporated the Slifer’s water into steam clouds.

Lydia could see Ayana’s face contort with worry as she struggled to maintain her footing, trying to find an opening against Morrison’s seemingly endless onslaught.

“She needs to end this soon,” Lydia heard Gabriel say. “Or else she’s going to run out of water before she gets the chance.”

Sure enough, what was once an impressive water serpent was now reduced to a few remaining globules, each of them shrinking gradually as Ayana split them again and again in an attempt to continue diverting Morrison’s lightning.

Then, something suddenly changed.

Lydia watched as a series of expressions quickly flashed across Ayana’s face, running the gamut from worry to resignation and finally to steely determination. A flash of realization suddenly struck Lydia’s mind as she deduced what Ayana was about to do.

“Ayana, wait—” Lydia called out, but it was already too late.

As Morrison flung another lightning bolt, Ayana collected her remaining water and fired it directly at the king’s forehead in a single high-pressure blast.

The two attacks passed by each other and struck almost simultaneously; as the blast of water hit Morrison’s head, his lightning bolt also found its mark, striking Ayana square in the chest. The two of them flew backward.

“Ayana!” Lydia called out with fright, running to her fallen friend. Similarly, Gabriel and Redmond ran to Morrison.

As Lydia knelt down beside Ayana, she could see that the Slifer’s condition was every bit as bad as she’d anticipated. A massive burn scar ran down the length of Ayana’s torso, and the Slifer’s breathing was shallow and labored.

“Lydia…” she said weakly. “Tell me…is Morrison okay?”

Looking over, Lydia saw Redmond and Gabriel lifting Morrison to his feet. As the king raised his head, the jadestone fell in two neat pieces, clattering against the cobblestones of the courtyard.

“Yes,” Lydia said softly to Ayana. “You broke the stone. You saved him.”

Ayana smiled up at Lydia weakly. “Good,” she said, her voice raspy. “I was afraid…I might have missed…”

Lydia blinked back tears. “That was a reckless move you pulled back there,” she said. “There was no reason for you to endanger yourself like that.”

“I learned it from…someone I know…” Ayana managed with a smile.

Slowly and wordlessly, King Morrison approached Ayana. Lydia watched as the king gently bent down and scooped up the fallen Slifer in his arms.

“Morrison,” Ayana said, her voice growing even weaker. “I’m so glad you’re safe…please…the fountain…”

Morrison nodded and slowly walked Ayana toward the fountain that made up the courtyard’s centerpiece; Lydia and the others followed in stride.

Gently, Morrison lowered Ayana into the fountain, where she floated face-up in the shallow water. Though her voice was raw and coarse, Lydia listened as the Water Slifer slowly began to sing one final melody:

~“Tears line her face,~

~“Her throbbing heart aches,~

~“As the silver moonlight bathes in her eyes,~

~“She smiles again and says goodbye…”~

Ayana’s skin took on a translucent glow as the Slifer’s body slowly began to dissolve, merging with the water in the fountain. In the span of a few seconds, Ayana disappeared entirely.

Lydia let out a muffled sob of grief, clinging to Gabriel’s arm for support. The Fire Slifer watched as King Morrison hung his head, tears flowing freely from the monarch’s eyes.

Ayana had been the first Slifer Lydia had met. In many ways, the Water Slifer had been Lydia’s first real friend after Lux.

The thought of her being gone forever was almost too much to bear.

To Lydia’s surprise, Lucius approached and placed a firm hand on Morrison’s shoulder.

“The cost of war is often steep,” the wizard said. “Perhaps unfairly so. Ayana, Calix, we must honor their sacrifice and endeavor to complete our journey on the road they have built for us.”

“A touching sentiment, Mr. Voltaire,” came a voice from behind the group. “Alas, it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that your friends have died in vain.”

Lydia and the others slowly turned to see a figure descending from the moonlit sky above them. Uzier touched down on the cobblestones ten meters from the rest of the group, his dark eyes like two deep pools of ink watching them.

“Uzier,” Gabriel hissed, taking a step forward. “So, you finally decide to show yourself.”

“You say that as though I’ve been in hiding,” said Uzier coolly. “Until now, I have merely been content leaving you to my subordinates. However, it seems as though your interference has finally forced my hand.”

Shadow-like tendrils began to swirl and dance around Uzier’s feet as he spoke.

“None of you are leaving this place alive.”

***

EVINE

As Uzier spoke, Evine crept toward the Slifers and Royals with grim determination, her dagger clutched firmly in hand. As expected, Uzier’s sudden appearance tightly held the attention of their enemies, allowing Evine to approach undetected.

At this moment, she could easily kill the Fire Slifer using her blood magic and be done with it. But that was too impersonal. The Slifer had escaped her grasp. She humiliated Evine publicly in front of Uzier and the Wizard Hunters.

She had killed her son.

No—this would be up close and personal.

Drawing closer within range, Evine raised her dagger, her face twisted into an expression of sadistic rage.

There was a bright flash of light, and…

***

LYDIA

Lydia staggered to regain her footing, having just been teleported two meters to the left of where she had been standing seconds earlier.

Looking over to where she had previously been, the Fire Slifer saw her oldest friend and mentor, Lucius Voltaire, with Evine’s dagger plunged deep in his chest…