“You have more to lose!” he hissed, still gasping for air. “So at the very least, you must try!”
“You think so?”
“I know! Either that, or let me syphon more energy from the core!”
“You’re setting me up for failure, Rufian,” I replied skeptically. “This isn’t about physical strength at all. You said there’s a force pushing you back, and it’s coming from the Grimoire. Even if I can’t break through this thick wall of rock there’s always the option of smashing through the sheet of ice underneath our feet. But I can’t even do that. The properties of this resistance are on a magical level, and I have zero mana.”
“But you have her…”
“I don’t want to use her powers aga—”
“Quit with the righteousness, Silas! This isn’t the time nor the place! Tap into her powers and break that ice, or break that rock, whatever! Just get me that damn book!” he growled, Rufian getting infuriated.
His villain was showing, Rufian confirming what I already knew. Too bad for him, I wasn’t willing to take that risk. Tapping into the dungeon core’s powers was a bad idea. I was essentially Alzera-Kar. She was resting inside of me, dormant. If I stirred her awake by eating up some of that shard energy, there was no telling what would happen…
I could send out a beacon for all I knew.
Going this route would jeopardize the mission, and forfeit everything we went through to get here.
“Silas!”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Why do you insist on being so stubborn?!”
“I have my reasons for not wanting to go that route.”
“You must think this is a game!” He growled. “Without this book, there is no future for Senterra!”
Rufian stopped abruptly and heaved, but it was a different type of reaction. He didn’t gasp from exhaustion but from taxing effort as he clenched his chest and leaned his hand over the chasm’s wall. “I don’t…have time for this,” he said in a shallow breath. And before I could ask him what was wrong, he whispered something under his jagged voice.
All of a sudden, I had an ornament on my head, a fucking green and black tiara!
“So-kumbe-zah-a-lachee,” Rufian said, the tiara glowing black. Suddenly its aura permeated my entire body, and I fell on my knees, crippled by its controlling effects.
“Fuck, Rufian!” I growled.
“I’m sorry I had to do this to you, hero. But I can’t let you ruin my plans.”
“Rufian, let me go!”
“Tiara of Tabathetta. Novelty item, nearly cost me an arm and a leg. The stronger the will-power, the stronger the effects. Which makes you the perfect candidate for it. Downside is that it’s a one-hit power play, and it costs half of my own willpower to use it. But the Grimoire is worth it.”
I struggled against the power of the tiara, trying to break free from its hold, but it was no use. The more I fought, the stronger the control became. My body was no longer my own, and I felt like a marionette with Rufian pulling the strings.
“Good grief, Silas. If only you’d done what you were told,” Rufian said, his voice low and cynical. “Now that we have that settled, let's get back to the task at hand. You're going to use your little friend's powers to break through that ice and get me that book.”
“Screw you, you piece of shit!” I seethed, my body moving on its own. As I stood up straight from my cringing and writhing, I lifted up my leg, Rufian controlling my every move. The asshole knew how to tap into the shard and tether its energy. Vulnerable to his magic, I felt its power run through my veins, and then just as fast, I stomped my heel into the thick sheet of ice.
With a loud crack, a fissure opened up in the ice bed, the impact so explosive that it showered me with chunks of ice and water that left my body in a thermal shock. Between the ice bath and the dungeon core’s power, I fell to my knees as I floated on a sheet of broken ice, my body submitting to the intense wave of pain.
For a few seconds, Rufian released his command on me, but I couldn’t move to do anything about it. I couldn’t feel my face, my hands, not even the blood that trickled down my nose before I started coughing up blood.
With the ice bed gone, Rufian had an easier time fishing out the Grimoire. He swept the ice water underneath upward, pulling out the ultimate spell book that was as fucking dry as the Sahara Desert.
Not a drop of water touched it…
“Well, that was easy,” Rufian said as he levitated, unfazed by my struggle while he skimmed through the pages. “Ah, reunited at last! My, my, have I missed the smell of this ancient thing!”
I continued to shake uncontrollably as I knelt there, hacking up blood and trying to clear my lungs.
The bastard turned to me with a frown, huddling the book under his arm. “Silas, I don’t know what happened to you, but you’ve become a huge liability to Senterra,” he said bitterly, his voice unsympathetic. “Honestly, your questionable ideals have turned you into nothing more than a babbling pacifist steered in the wrong direction. And time and time again, I tried to lend you a map. But you fought, you fought so hard to save these dreadful creatures. I had hope that you’d open your eyes and see the truth. They cannot be saved. They cannot be turned. The longer you believe otherwise, the longer you will suffer…”
“I knew I couldn’t trust you!” I growled. “I knew it from the start!”
“Yet, here we are,” he said, pacing around me as my body fought to get up. “First the orcs, then the fae. Reaching for a sliver of hope that they can change their ways. Tell me, Silas? What has being in Gued taught you? What has walking among those barbarians shown you? So a handful listen to the garbage that shaman is spewing, so what? The majority, they are still savages, aren’t they? Those ideals are dominant, and those ideals are what will reverse whatever temporary spell you’d put them under. Because let’s face it, destroying, killing, conquering—it is in their blood. There is no making peace within races. There is no living in total harmony with enemies! I don’t understand why you can’t get that through your head! You say my sister thinks the same, then I must say, she has done a piss-poor job convincing you. You continue to walk around with a proud badge of humanity’s savior, but what you really are is that bitch’s puppet.”
I choked, Rufian making my eyes wide with his bold statement.
“Alzera-Kar’s side arm…what a joke! If you put all of that energy of yours into where it counts, you wouldn’t have been so far behind, Silas.”
“On what? World domination?” I hissed. “I read that journal of yours, you piece of shit! You’re just a genocidal maniac!”
“No, just someone who wants to do right by Thalian. We press the reset button, we start over. With or without you.” He offered me his hand. “Silas, I’m giving you one more chance to come to your senses,” he replied, his tone growing sterner. “I will put this embarrassing past of yours behind us. All you have to do is devote your loyalty to me, and together, we will create the perfect paradise Thalian deserves.”
“If you think I—”
“Don’t you believe Senterra deserves it? After countless years of oppression? Of hate? The lone hero of Senterra, I ask you to stand for your country. I ask you to help me bring them out of this war victorious…”
