Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (10 page)

“Her only problem is
you,” Eric declared.

“Don’t you know? Elfin
shapeshifting is a controlled mana mutation and she can’t do it. She hides from
this problem like she’s hiding from me.”

Annala stepped out from
behind Eric and notched an arrow. It pointed at the ground, not at Nulso.
Nevertheless, the bow glowed as it powered up and a magic circle appeared
beneath her feet. Eric recognized only a handful of the runes, and they were
“bypass defenses,” “empower,” and “kill.”

At once, the street
cleared as civilians moved into buildings and off the street. Nearby stores
closed and homes locked. All of them knew that a fight between an elf, the
Trickster's Choice, and an ordercrafter was bound to be destructive. Others
watched from windows and balconies.
They
knew that such a battle was
bound to be entertaining. The only business still open was a popcorn vendor.

“Who’s hiding? Leave me
in peace!”

Nulso spread his hands
in an open gesture. “Your arrow can’t hurt me. Come with me and I can help you.
Otherwise, something bad will happen to your
mortal
friend.”

Annala smirked. “Thank
you for threatening him. Ataidar has very good self-defense laws.”

She released the arrow
and it pierced Nulso’s bubble like a shroud. It lodged in his chest and
discharged its payload of magic power into his body. While he didn’t shout, it
was clear he was in great pain from the grimace he made.

“Cute and Intelligent
Elf Girl: 1. Lame Order Drone: 0.”

Nulso removed the
arrow, reformatted it for Order’s power, and placed it in his pocket.

“You are arrogant and
complacent. I don't need Order's power to put you in your place.”

Nulso's spirit pillar
grew as high as a building and his spiritual power radiated a full square
block. By proximity alone, he made bystanders faint. Eric was forced to lean on
his staff. The intensity of his power was unlike anything he’d ever felt. It
was more than oppressive; it demanded submission and pushed his head down.
Nulso did all this without moving. His first offensive gesture was to withdraw
a metal collar attached to a three-foot-long steel cable leash.

“Over my dead body! Those
who are empowered by Order the First Born are feeble before Lady Chaos the Matriarch.
In her name, bow down!”

Nulso blinked and then
laughed. “You have no authority to use those words. You are a pitiful mage if
you do not understand that.”

Summoning his own
spiritual power, Eric raised his head and unleashed the full force of his Evil
Eye. All the pain, suffering, and sorrow he had gathered over his entire life,
he flung at Nulso. It was returned ten-fold.

Nulso’s Evil Eye was
like being flash frozen from the inside out. The only difference was the
absence of eventual numbness. Eric felt only the burning pain of tissue damage.
Nulso's spiritual power was all around him; crushing him, squeezing him. Out of
his mind with terror, he fainted.

“Foolish child. Your
suffering and hatred are nothing compared to mine.”

Opening his mouth,
Nulso took a deep breath and blue energy left the body of everyone unconscious.
It streamed down his throat. He caught another arrow that bypassed his barrier
and held it still while he swallowed the stolen energy. He briefly glowed blue
while his hand burned and sizzled with golden-brown smoke.

“Even if my barrier
can’t stop the arrows, it can slow them down enough for me to catch them.”

He stepped forward and
runes on the collar shone dimly. Annala jumped away from him, grabbed another
arrow, and notched it by the time her feet touched the ground. A magic circle
appeared beneath her feet, the arrow charged, and she shouted,

“Those touched by chaos
will never falter! Their sword shall pierce any shield and their will shall
burst all restraints! They shall be free all the days of their lives!”

The arrow flew towards
Nulso like an amber missile. It bypassed his barrier and headed straight for
his forehead. Then he caught it. Just like the previous arrow, he caught it
without difficulty.

“Wh-wha...”

“Just as a mage
requires magic theory to support his spells, so is faith needed for prayers.”
Between his fingers, he snapped the arrow in two. “Your arrow cannot hurt me,
oh ye of little faith.”

“I have
plenty
of faith!” Annala shouted. “Lady Chaos –”

“
Apostate!”

The word struck her
like a physical blow and stole the strength from her legs. She fell backwards,
her bow clattering on the ground, and repeated, “I’m not. I’m not.” Over and
over again.

“Your scripture doesn’t
work against me. Allow a true believer to show you how it’s done.”

He pushed both fists
before his chest and closed his eyes. His aura flared and he began to speak. “No
soul escapes the All-seeing Eye. No power exists beyond the All-controlling Hand.
Resistance is forlorn.”

The aura retracted and
fit around him like ghostly armor. He opened his eyes and stared with solid
grey eyes.

 Adrenaline pumping,
Annala fired a fourth arrow. Nulso’s Armor of Stability deflected it and he
stepped forward. Annala fired a fifth time and Nulso didn’t break stride as his
ethereal armor deflected it. By the sixth arrow, he was close enough to grab
her bow. With an effortless yank, he threw it away.

Panting with fear,
Annala drew a dagger and stabbed him, but he caught that too. Then he grabbed
the wrist holding it. Twisting her arm behind her back, he joined the other
hand to it and held them both with one of his own. Annala squirmed and kicked
while he drew the first arrow of the battle out of his pocket and twisted it
around her wrists like handcuffs.

He whispered in her
ear, “Be glad. Your suffering will lead to a cure for mana mutation.”

“My family will save
me!”

Nulso placed the collar
around her neck. “Your family isn’t here.”

A blue mana bolt
exploded against his head, knocking him clear away from Annala and into a
building on the other side of the street.

A human woman stepped
out of the shadows. She wore a white cloak over a stained darker colored tunic
and pants. Her long, pale blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, thus putting
her mad eyes on full display. In one hand, she held a rowan staff that affixed
a sapphire at one end and an emerald at the other. Her second hand brought a
listening crystal to her mouth.

“Memo to myself. In the
future, reserve extensive experiments for when my niece is not being stalked.
End memo.”

“Auntie H!” Annala ran
into her arms. “You cut it biologically close.”

Hasina smiled and
hugged her. “Sorry, my little guinea pig. Pemas insisted that I close up my
work before leaving.”

Annala tilted her head.
“You were operating on a patient?”

Hasina continued
smiling. “Sure, let’s call it that.”

“Well if it isn't my
partner in science, Ginger Hasina!” Nulso bellowed. “I wasn't expecting you to
drop by and interfere.”

“Good afternoon, Harry
Butchin,” Hasina said in reply. “My niece called and said you volunteered for
my next experiment.”

Nulso looked down at
the elf with stern disapproval. Annala scurried behind Hasina.

“Harry Butchin is dead.
My name is Nulso Xialin. As for your ‘niece,’ good girls shouldn't tell lies.
After I defeat 'Auntie H,' I will make sure she never lies again.”

Hasina pounded her
fists. “Now who's lying?”

Nulso expanded his
spirit pillar a second time, but Hasina was not affected. As a captain level
mage in the Dragon's Lair, she possessed far greater fortitude than a novice
like Eric. Unlike Annala, she also possessed a genuinely pious soul. She walked
straight up to him and socked him in the gut. He bent over from the impact and
then she kneed his chin. This made him fall over backward.

“You may work for Order
now, but you’re still a wimp.”

He stood up and
scowled. “You’re still a brute. Working for Chaos is why you have more lawsuits
than patents.”

Hasina scowled in
return. “You abandoned our work and I kept it alive despite the cost.”

Shapes slithered out of
Nulso’s aura and took the form of miniature people. They put on a show of a
crowd chasing someone away from a building. Hasina’s jaw tightened while Nulso
grinned sadly.

“If you had come with
me, then you would see how misguided you are. The true path to curing mana
mutation is not
more mana mutation
. Why can’t you see reason?”

“It must be the glare
coming off your orderly cage.”

Suddenly, Nulso's aura
shifted from grey-blue to the eldritch light of his Armor of Stability. It
leached color out of the surrounding area and decreased its temperature. Dozens
of ethereal claws emerged from it like a spider's war arsenal.

“
I will force you to see reason.
”

All of them struck at
once. Hasina dodged some and deflected others, but eventually, one grabbed her
leg and tripped her up. Then another grabbed her left arm and a third her
throat and again until she could no longer move. A final appendage, shaped like
a human hand, placed itself on Hasina's head and entered her mind. Annala
gasped in horror. Nulso grinned in triumph.

A golden-brown beam
struck Nulso like a bolt of divine judgment. His tendrils vanished, his armor
shattered, his aura dissipated, and he feel to his knees. The light solidified
into Tasio the Trickster with his arms crossed.

“You crossed the line,
Harry
Butchin
. Now you have three choices: You continue harassing my granddaughter
and I kill you. You call reinforcements, I will call reinforcements, and
then
I will kill you. You run away with your tendrils between your legs and I do not
kill you.”

Nulso looked past Tasio
to Annala. At the moment, she was still bound, but Hasina stood guard next to
her. He weighted his chances of grabbing her and running away against a chaotic
blade cutting him in half and made his choice.

“Option three.”

“Good boy. Now make
your promise.”

“I, Nulso Xialin,
A.K.A. Harry Butchin, promise that I shall not harm, coerce, control, etc. the
elf known as Annala Enaz for a period of thirty-one days. Every soul within
this body or attached to this princeps’ soul shall abide by this promise.”

“If I see you bothering
Annala on the thirty-second, I will cut you into a hundred pieces and bury them
in a hundred places.”

Again, Nulso ignored
him for Annala. The look on his face and greed in his eyes made her shiver and
squirm in the arrow cuffs.

“Look forward to the
thirty-third day, my Golden Hair. Together, we will stop mana mutation once and
for all.” Nulso turned his back on them and walked away.

Tasio looked about. The
streets and nearby buildings were cracked and dented by Nulso’s aura. Annala’s
deflected arrows vaporized parts of both. Every civilian in sight was
unconscious and mana-drained. Hasina was in ordercraft shock and Annala was
traumatized by the ordercrafter.

He said to himself, “I
don't have much time.”

“Why isn't he waking up?”

Annala knelt at Eric's side. She
desperately pulled on the arrow cuffs so she could do more than cry over him,
but Nulso had wound them too tight. She grunted and looked for her dagger.
Having found it, she sat in front of it and sawed through the arrow. To make
sure she didn't cut herself, she looked over her shoulder.

Tasio floated over Eric and slapped his
face twice. Then he hovered his butt over Eric and farted. Neither action awoke
him.

“My guess is Evil Eye trauma. He certainly
has more fuel behind it than Eric and his soul is stronger too. It’s no
surprise.”

“Why didn’t you stop him earlier!?” Annala
demanded. “You could have prevented all this damage, to him and the street, and
I…I was almost collared because you waited until the last second!”

Tasio held up his hands. “That’s how Chaos
works. You knows this better than anyone in this city; in fact, I believe you
gave a verbal report about it a month ago.”

She glared up at him while continuing to
saw.

“Perhaps Nulso had a point about your lack
of faith.”

He disappeared and Annala tried to forget
what he said. She came to a conclusion that accommodated the events without
forcing her to acknowledge she didn’t want to.

The arrow finally gave way and she pulled
her arms apart. She put the dagger back in its holster and rubbed her naked
neck. The feeling of the collar lingered. Although Nulso had failed in the end,
she knew Eric would blame himself for not stopping him.

“Auntie H, can you fix him?”

Hasina’s eyes lit up with glee. “I’ll try
something experimental!”

She opened up her satchel and pulled out a
number of bags. Most of them had mundane smelling salts, but one had squirming
and shining things. She picked one at a time and drifted them over his body,
but none of them worked. Then she reached for the final bag and –

“Captain!”

Hasina deflated. “Oh, pooy....”

Dragon's Lair Lieutenant Jemas stood behind
her, tapping his left foot. Plastering a smile on her face, she stood up and
greeted him. He held out his hand and she grudgingly handed over the bag.

“Louson Fly larvae cause horrific
hallucinations. You know this.”

“A trial conducted by the FHD proved they
could cure certain comas. You know this.”

Jemas withdrew a device. “Quadra
Resuscitator; tried, proven, accepted, established –”

“Boring!”

“Do I have to tell Guildhead Ridley?”

Hasina snatched the device and passed it to
Annala. “I take it you know how this works?” 

Annala tugged her ear. “He's not my
boyfriend...”

“Phileo works just as well as Eros.”

Bashfully, Annala accepted the device and
administered the treatment. Mana and love traveled through the device and
mended Eric's mind/spirit. He woke up and Annala quickly hid the device.