Authors: Nicholas Alexander
Luca went over to Gareth, who was busy talking with Brand and Wiosna. “What's the situation?” he asked.
“As I was telling your friends, the Acarians appeared out of nowhere, right inside the city walls,” Gareth said. “We've set up barricades, and we're doing our best to fight them off, but they're advancing farther into the city every minute. We don't have enough men to fight them off. And then there's Zinoro himself - nothing we do has any effect on him. He counters every attack, whether it is soldiers, arrow fire, or magick.”
“I see,” Luca muttered. It was as bad as he'd thought. Needless to say, many people had to have died already. He pointed to Emila, who had gone to Eva's side. “Can you get those two somewhere safe?”
“There's an emergency shelter in the lower levels of the palace,” Gareth said. He looked to one of his men, who nodded and went to Emila and Eva.
“Is that where Zaow and Selphie are?” Brand asked.
“I have not the right to say,” said Gareth. “But they are safe, so long as we do not allow the Acarians to breach the walls of the palace.”
“Brand, Wiosna,” Luca said to his friends. “I need you two to help them barricade the palace. Fight the revenants when they show up. Do everything you can to hold them off.”
“Where are you going?” Wiosna asked.
Luca looked out at the barricaded palace doors. “To the battlefield. I'm going after Zinoro.”
“Luca, that's insane,” Brand exclaimed. “You fought him once already. Don't-”
“I know what you're going to say!” he shouted. “Just trust me. I need you to stay here and help these people. Don't let the Acarians in, no matter what. If you came with me, you'd just be throwing your lives away.”
Wiosna grew very quiet. Brand hesitated, then stepped close to Luca and clasped his hand in his own. “Good luck, my friend. Come back to us alive.”
“I will try.”
<> <> <>
Luca appeared outside, to the sight of burning buildings and the sound of people screaming. Behind him, he saw wooden spikes set up on the spikes of the palace to stop the revenants from coming inside, and heavy wooden barricades on the doors. He knew that wouldn't hold them very long if they made it that far.
In the streets, groups of armoured Sonoian soldiers fought fiercely against the black-clad revenants. As steel met steel, he heard cries of, “For Sono! For King Zaow!”. In contrast, their enemies were silent, advancing and killing without hesitation. Though the Sonoians fought boldly, each Acarian they struck down was replaced with three more, and they were gradually being forced back.
Luca was filled with an urgency to find Zinoro. He warped to the top of a high building, grabbing onto the frame of a large bell to keep from falling off. He looked over the streets of the city, searching for the distinctive figure of the Acarian king.
Finally, he spotted him, standing beside a large fountain in the town square. He was surrounded by his revenants, his arms crossed as they spread his mad destruction - kicking in doors, cutting down defenceless civilians, and setting buildings alight. Luca then saw someone running towards Zinoro - a lone Sonoian soldier. Some young man who thought he could be a hero and stop the Acarian king all on his own. Almost bored-like, Zinoro jumped out of the way of the young soldier's attack, then drew his claymore and swung. The kid was cut in half from the waist to the shoulder, the manaflame of Zinoro's sword slicing through his armour like it wasn't even there.
Luca felt his hands shaking. There was far too much of himself in that boy. He knew that he was going to die the same way, his attack completely futile. For a mad second, he considered warping back to the palace.
He almost laughed.
Steadying himself, he focused on the stone tiles of the town square, and warped there.
Turning, Zinoro saw him. For a brief moment, there was a haunted look in his eyes.
“You...!”
The wind blew through the street, and rustled Luca's hair. Zinoro's sole eye narrowed, and the fear vanished.
“No... Luca,” he muttered. He had mistaken Luca for someone else. “You survived? How? The wound you received was mortal.”
“It was a good thing there was someone there in the palace who could heal mortal wounds then, wasn't it?” Luca called out to him across the street.
“Eva?” Zinoro muttered. “I told her to stay in her room...” More loudly, he said to Luca, “Did you bring her here?”
“Her and Emila both.”
“Fool! You risk their lives!”
“What a very hypocritical thing of you to say,” Luca said. “It doesn't matter anyway, I've had them taken somewhere safe.”
Zinoro frowned. “Well, it is no matter. It is good that Emila survived as well. In fact, this actually makes my job easier. Once I have taken this city, I will not have to return to Acarienthia for them.”
“You're not going to take this city!”
“Don't say such things. The prophecy was false. I - I cannot be stopped.” There was a hint of regret in his voice. “I will destroy this city, and kill Zaow. It is inevitable. Son of Lodin, you should not have come back. I will not show you the mercy I showed last time.”
The blade of Zinoro's claymore burst to live, the black flame covering it, and a powerful rush of mana filled the air.
Luca's heart began to pound. “This is it,” he said softly to himself.
Zinoro drew closer, each step seeming to echo through Luca's ears. The black manaflame that flowed over his great sword radiated an overpowering presence of mana. Luca felt like the very air was trying to force him down.
He knew he had no chance. No ordinary blade could stop that. Without a Rixeor Fragment, Zinoro's sword would cut right through his and he would fall in a single strike. He knew Zinoro would kill him the moment he reached him. And this time, there really was no miracle to save him from death's grasp - no tether, no Eva. He really would die.
But he had to fight. Even if it was pointless. Even if there was nothing he could do to stop Zinoro. He still had to try. So many people were relying on him.
Ash, Selphie, Jared, Zaow, Wiosna, Brand, Gordon, Eva - and Emila. And countless others whose names he did not know, who at that very moment were hiding in their homes, terrified. So many lives that would be ended by the madman before him and his pointless desire for revenge.
He would give his life for them. In a heartbeat, he would. I cared about them all, far more than he cared about himself.
Luca held
Siora
tight. The sword felt hot in his hands, like it actually knew what was coming, and was as prepared as he was.
Zinoro was just before him. The manaflame was so intense. The sword was high in the air, about to bear down on him. That single strike would end his life. He knew it. He had to stop it.
He knew he couldn't. But he had to try. He needed to protect them. He needed to protect everyone!
Luca drew Siora from its sheath and held the sword up in a block he knew wouldn't work. He braced himself, as Zinoro's sword swung down towards him.
There was a loud clang, that sounded to Luca's ears like the ringing of a bell.
He looked up, and he saw Zinoro's blade, an unstoppable Rixeor Fragment of legend, stopped by his own sword.
Zinoro's expression betrayed his surprise. “What the-?”
And then it happened. Luca felt a massive surge of mana, flowing not from Zinoro, but from himself. The blade of his sword began to glow, and a white flame burst from within it, matching the black of Zinoro's.
His heart pounding, Luca pushed back on Zinoro, and the Acarian king actually stumbled backwards and nearly fell over. Luca could feel the energy of his sword, the same kind of force that had been threatening to overwhelm him mere moments ago, rising up and matching Zinoro's.
He knew what this meant. He didn't understand how it was possible, but he understood what it meant for sure.
“All this time...” he said to himself, looking down at the white flaming blade. “All this time -
Siora
- my father's sword...”
It would seem Lodin had kept one last secret.
“That isn't possible!” Zinoro shouted. For the first time, the Acarian king actually seemed afraid.
Luca remembered something. The words of a strange man he'd met in a town a few months ago.
The sleeping shard carried at your side.
Know it not from a blade of steel
.
The sleeping shard will awaken at the time of it's choosing
.
And not a moment before
.
You need a good reason...
...you must have a need for it...
Luca knew that
Siora
had finally accepted him. He swung the blade a few times through the empty air, and it felt weightless in his hands.
He turned his attention back to Zinoro. The Acarian king glared at him, holding his own flaming blade. Luca held up
Siora
, pointing the blade right at him.
“I was told you have the power of a god behind you. And you told me you fought with restraint before. Now, I want you to show me everything you've got. Because if you have anything less than the power of a god, then it will be
lacking
!”
Chapter XXIX
Let Slip the Dogs of War
The doors of the throne room swung open, and Gareth strode inside at a hurried pace. At the far end of the room, seated upon the throne was King Zaow, in his battle armour, a sheathed sword at his side.
“My king, I just received word from one of my soldiers. The Acarians are advancing into the city. They've past the third district.”
“So there is only one district left before they reach the palace,” Zaow muttered. “They are advancing too quickly...”
“Your majesty, perhaps-”
“Are the barricades set up?”
Gareth nodded. “The palace doors are blocked, and the men outside are setting up spiked barriers on the steps as we speak.”
“Very good,” Zaow said. “That should slow them down, at least.” But he knew it wouldn't stop them. The city's defences were too weak... T'Saw had never encountered a battle within the city's walls. They had no way to retreat, and they'd no way to prepare. Zinoro and his men had literally appeared from nowhere, right within the city.
He knew the chances of defeating Zinoro were too low to consider it a possibility. His only option now was to surrender as soon as he could, to reduce the loss of life as much as he could. Trist and Selphie were hiding underground, but he knew that the possibility of defeating the Acarians was too low, and the possibility of escape was zero. If it came down to it, he would have to choose between his kingdom and the lives of his children.
And he knew which one he would pick.
“Your majesty, perhaps you should take shelter as well,” Gareth insisted. “If the Acarians should break through our defences-”
“Then I will be here, prepared to face Zinoro myself,” Zaow said. “He came here to see me, did he not? I will not hide from him.”
Gareth frowned. Clearly there was more he wanted to say.
“Get back out there,” Zaow ordered him. “You have a battle to fight!”
Hesitating for the briefest of moments, Gareth nodded, then turned around and made his way back out to the entrance hall. The throne room doors swung in his wake, and closed with a loud, resounding bang. King Zaow was left alone, silence his only companion.
Zaow sighed, his old body aching and weary. The battle and travel of before had taken too much out of him. He could not make such a journey again.
He felt old. Too old to still be ruling a kingdom. In the old days, when he was still a passionate young man, he would have charged out into the streets with his sword held high, and faced Zinoro himself. He'd done it once before - back when Zinoro's father had tried this. That battle had been long and bloody, but in the end, Manorith had fled.
Zinoro was a far greater enemy than Manorith had been. No force under Zaow's command could hope to stop him, and he had known that, which was why he had tried so hard to keep this conflict from happening.
In the end, the mistakes of his past had caught up with him.
All he could do now was hope for a miracle.
<> <> <>
Siora
met
Blight
in the air, and there was a brief flash of energy as the manaflame of each
sword clashed. The presence of the two flames felt like a heat to Luca, even though it was not
a true flame, but a strong presence of mana. Luca pushed against Zinoro, and the Acarian king fell back. It was true indeed - the two were finally evenly matched.
Zinoro glanced down at the flaming sword in his hand, and then at Luca's. “This has to be the first time two Rixeor Fragments have met on the battlefield in years,” he said. “Tell me, why did you not use this power in our first battle?”
“I didn't know I had it,” Luca said. “The sword was asleep.”
“Ah. More of Lodin's work, it would seem. It truly is a shame he did not fight back when I found him at Arimos. That would have been quite a battle.”
“My father did not fight you because he felt guilty for what he did,” Luca said. “He could not kill the son after killing the father as well.”
“He was weak.”
Luca took a few steps away from Zinoro, and assumed a combat stance, his sword level. “You mistake the lack of hatred in others as weakness. People have other strengths. That, Zinoro, is your weakness!”
Luca gathered his mana, feeling it amplified by the sword he held. He used his teleportation magick, and warped to the very top of the fountain behind Zinoro. In the tiny of window of time it took for Zinoro to relocate him, Luca created a handful of magick needles and threw them at Zinoro.
The Acarian king easily dodged. “You're going to need different tricks!” Zinoro then charged towards Luca, leaping into the air several lengths higher than an ordinary human should have been able to. His claymore held high, he brought the blade down on the fountain that Luca stood on, slashing through a glorious statue of Zaow's father.