Luthiel's screams hadn't stopped.
"MASTER! MASTER!"
Tears poured down her cheeks, soaking the faint markings on her skin. Her form shifted without rhythm or reason, cycling through aspects with none of the usual smoothness. Lu's golden eyes would flash to Thi's crimson, then to El's hidden bangs, then back to gold, each transition jerky and unstable. When El surfaced, the screaming stopped, but tears still streamed down her face in silent rivers. When Lu returned, the wailing resumed with doubled intensity.
Grub watched her for a single, somber moment. Then climbed onto the railing of the third wall and gripped his morning star with both hands.
This time, I will kill him.
But before he could leap, his eyes found Morrigan below. Against every reasonable expectation, the old kappa was moving. Her clawed hands scraped against the dirt, dragging her body upward, her arms trembling with effort that would have broken most people ten times over. She staggered to her feet and swayed from side to side, barely conscious, blood dripping from the wound in her lower back and pooling at her heels.
She took a ragged breath. Then another.
"How?" Morrigan's voice was raw and cracked, but the fury underneath it was unmistakable. "How did you get past my Anima sense? No matter how skilled you are at concealment, I'm far too experienced for that to work." She coughed blood onto her chin. "So how didn't I sense you?"
Cordylus stood a dozen paces away, his pitch-black scales gleaming in the smoky light. His red eyes were half-lidded with satisfaction as he lifted Morrigan's blood to his nose and inhaled deeply.
"Ohhhh, Great Sage." His tongue traced the flat of the dagger again. "Your blood is utterly delicious. A kappa's base with a Dormant tang, but Great Sage undertones hiding underneath. Truly a marvel of flavor."
"You want to know how?"
He flipped the edge of a long black cloak draped across his shoulders. The fabric seemed to eat the light around it, its surface so dark that it was difficult to tell where the cloak ended and his black scales began.
"This is my Cloak of Concealment. An item that allows me to completely mask my presence. Erasing my Anima signature, scent, heat, and sound. I become nothing." He smiled wider. "Stole it recently from a passing merchant. It was his most prized possession."
Morrigan's legs shook beneath her. She steadied herself through willpower alone and raised her fists.
"You think this is over?" Blood leaked between her teeth as she spoke. "I'm still going to beat... your... ass... fucker."
Cordylus clicked his tongue and held up the dagger, turning it so the blade caught the light.
"What I stabbed you with is another item I acquired. A Tempered-rank blade, Tier Two. Its imbued Forte allows me to inflict a deadly poison through any wound it creates." He twirled the dagger between his fingers. "I can cure the poison whenever I wish. Speaking of which..."
His red eyes drifted across the battlefield as if searching for something.
"Where is Jug? He was sent here, correct?"
Grub's fingers tightened around the morning star at the sound of the name. Jug. The nickname he had told the Lacerts, it seems they still believed that was his name. That was good.
"I cured the his poison after our fight, so I could have fun with a creature that interesting," Cordylus continued casually. "But you?" His red gaze returned to Morrigan and his grin sharpened. "I won't cure you. And right now that poison is potent enough to kill you before long. After all, you're equalized down to my level, aren't you? Your body doesn't have the resilience to fight this off."
He shrugged theatrically.
"And the chance that someone in this backwater village knows knows healing advanced enough to purge something this potent?" He sighed. "Very slim."
Morrigan narrowed her eyes.
"I..."
"...don't know..."
"...who that is."
Grub clenched the morning star harder.
I do.
Morrigan's body was visibly failing now, each breath shallower than the last.
Grub coiled his legs to jump. He could reach the ground in seconds, cross the distance to Cordylus, and put his morning star through the bastard's skull before—
"STAY RIGHT THERE, CUTIE."
Morrigan's voice cracked across the battlefield like a whip. She hadn't turned around. Her eyes were still locked on Cordylus. But her words carried directly to the third wall with a commander's precision.
"If you attack him and he gets you with that knife... my plans will end." She coughed violently. Blood spattered the earth. "I need you safe. For Luthiel."
Grub froze on the railing. His muscles screamed at him to move but his mind processed her words faster than his body could override them.
For Luthiel…
What did that mean?
He gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached. Then he stayed where he was.
Cordylus looked confused for a moment, his red eyes scanning the walls as if trying to identify who Morrigan was addressing. Luthiel, on the other hand, was too consumed by grief to have heard anything, her sobs drowning out the conversation below.
The black Lacert shrugged and turned his attention elsewhere. He extended one hand toward Morrigan's fallen staff, lying in the dirt several paces away.
Suddenly, Konkushu disappeared from the dirt and appeared in Cordylus's claws.
The weapon crossed the distance in an instant, teleported from the ground by an invisible force and pulled into Cordylus's waiting palm. He caught it cleanly and spun it once, testing the weight.
Morrigan's eyes went wide. "What the—"
Cordylus grinned and twirled the staff with flair. "Nice trick, right? That's my Forte!" He tapped the side of his head with one black claw. "I only awakened it recently. Losing to Jug prompted me to get stronger, so I trained. And as a prodigy, I was able to manifest and control my Forte in just a couple of weeks."
He slung Konkushu across his back alongside his cloak as if claiming a trophy and admired his stolen adornment.
"What a lovely weapon."
Then his scarlet eyes swept the walls until they found Grub. Standing on the railing of the third wall, morning star in hand, pale face twisted with barely contained rage.
"Ahh, there you are, Jug!" Cordylus's grin widened to its fullest, most deranged extent.
"After seeing Morrigan here, I knew you had betrayed us. But honestly? I expected that. I don't care though, it's quite fun." He laughed, a sharp, barking sound that bounced off the walls. "We're not so different, you and I. I also have no loyalty to the Lacert army."
He pulled a small leather bag from his belt and shook it. The contents clinked with the heavy sound of coins.
"I already got paid. After unlocking my forte, the Colonel hired me to use it and steal that weapon he's been obsessing over. The Dundun Ile. Originally, he told me I had to do it or he would kill or me or kick me out of the army. But when it was clear I didn't care I got paid instead." He pocketed the bag with a shrug. "But honestly, I don't care about that. I don't care whether the Lacerts win or lose anymore. With my Forte, there are far bigger scores waiting for me. Far more interesting ones. That idiot already paid me more than enough, going through with it isn't necessary, plus I think I did something pretty useful anyways.
His red eyes gleamed.
"Oh, and I already sent word to Gavial about your little deception. The real message should reach him soon enough."
Grub's blood ran cold.
"I truly hope to see you again, Jug." Cordylus flashed his teeth. "Maybe I'll catch you somewhere else in Aethrys. There's a big world out there."
He turned to leave, then paused and glanced back over his shoulder.
"One last thing.." His red eyes flicked toward the tree line where the Anomaly had crashed. "You really shouldn't look away from an Anomaly. They're dangerous, you know."
The serpentine creature stirred from the wreckage of broken trees. Its ashen body uncoiled, iridescent blood still seeping from the stake wounds across its back. Empty black eyes locked onto the only moving target in range.
Morrigan.
The old kappa turned to face it without her staff. The Great Sage also had no Anima left to speak of. Poison was eating through her body with every heartbeat, while the grotesque land serpent surged across the battlefield
Cordylus smiled one final time. "See you around, Jug."
Then he vanished. His black scales, red eyes, stolen staff, all of it dissolved into nothing as if he had never been there at all. Only the bloody dagger wound in Morrigan's back proved he had existed.
The Anomaly reached Morrigan before she could brace herself. One massive paw swiped across her body and sent her hurtling across the scorched field. She hit the ground without resistance, rolling limply through the dirt until she came to rest face-down in the mud. Blood pooled beneath her, as her body convulsed a couple of times.
The creature crawled toward her, its four legs carrying it with that horrible, skittering gait.When it was close to her its abominable jaws opened wide, wider than any natural mouth should stretch, revealing that bottomless throat.
Luthiel screamed. "MASTER!!"
Grub's hand was on the railing. His legs were coiled. Every instinct in his body was screaming at him to jump, to run, to do something, anything—
Until something burst from the forest.
A blur of speed so extreme that Grub's eyes couldn't track it. One moment the tree line was empty. The next, something had crossed the entire distance between the forest edge and the Anomaly in what felt like a single heartbeat.
The blur slammed into the creature's side with the force of a battering ram. The impact was thunderous. The Anomaly's serpentine body was lifted clean off the ground and hurled sideways, crashing into the earth and gouging a trench ten paces long before skidding to a halt.
Grub's eyes went wide.
The blur straightened and turned to look at Morrigan's crumpled form lying in the mud. A single right arm reached down toward the limp Great Sage.
With impossible gentleness, the figure scooped Morrigan off the ground and slung her carefully across broad, dark-skinned shoulders. Her basin tipped but the figure caught the water with a cupped hand, steadying it instinctively as if handling something precious.
Then the figure turned to face the Anomaly, which was already pulling itself from the trench and preparing to charge again.
From the third wall, Grub stared. His morning star hung forgotten at his side. His jaw had dropped open and refused to close.
Because standing in the middle of the scorched battlefield, facing down the Dormant monster with a dying kappa draped across his shoulders and absolutely no fear on his face, was a dark-skinned boy with one arm and a grin so wide it could split the sky in half.
Grub couldn't help but smile despite everything.
He smiled. Because that idiot was alive.