I hurdled over the remnants of the shelves and chased a staggering Cadrin into a massive ceremonial hall filled with grand paintings and detailed carvings. The walls, floor, and ceiling were tiled in alternating marble and ice.
Cadrin’s ragged breathing echoed through the space as his blood splattered over the floor. A tall set of doors stood slightly ajar at the far end, but I wasn’t about to let him leave this room. I had seconds before Horix’s favorite disciple made his way across the space.
Cadrin hurled three Ice Spears over his shoulder as he went. I cut two of them from the air with the Sundered Heart and picked up speed as I closed in on him. The battle in the courtyard and the pain that lanced through my body had taken its toll on my Vigor, but I pushed it into a single powerful effort and called on the combined powers of water and fire to grant me acid. A vicious and concentrated Acidic Cloud bloomed in front of the door as Cadrin reached out to push it open. His scream filled the hall as he recoiled from the toxic fog and turned to face me.
I sped up and reformed a fresh set of Frozen Armor around myself. Harsh spikes erupted from my shoulder plates, and a mask of thick ice slid around my face as I covered the last of the distance between us.
I tackled Cadrin like a front-line rugby player and smashed him into the wall beside the door as the Acidic Cloud swarmed around us. My spikes slammed through what little remained of his armor and stabbed deep into his flesh as the acid ate at his skin. Cadrin’s sword clattered to the ground as he twisted and shoved the Sundered Heart from my hand. But that ferret-like speed was gone. I wrenched him away from the wall, broke his jaw with a knee to the head, and clenched my arms around his neck.
Cadrin screamed and writhed as I pressed myself harder against him and squeezed his face to the spikes of my armored shoulder. His skin bubbled, and the burning intensity of the cloud hissed as it ate away at my armor. Cadrin placed a foot on the wall and shoved in a last-ditch attempt to escape the acid as it clouded around us.
I dispersed the Acidic Cloud, reeled back, and smashed him through the doors of the hallway. Cadrin’s last gasp left his lungs in a ragged hiss as he collapsed to the tiles of a familiar balcony.
I disentangled myself from Cadrin and rose to my feet. Half the spikes on my armor had snapped off inside him and left only stumps. His blood streamed over my pale armor as I turned and snatched up Nydarth’s blade from the balcony entrance.
My own acid had eaten holes and channels in my armor and given it the uneven texture of ancient, rusted steel. But I was still standing, and I had plenty of Vigor still to spare.
A tall figure stood at the edge of the balcony, clad in his white robes. The prickly hiss of acid filled the courtyard beneath the balcony, but he made no attempt to turn to look at me.
“Horix!” I called out. “You really know how to put on a show.”
“You flatter me, Swordslinger.” He turned to face me in a swirl of robes and locked his pale, piercing gaze upon me. “That is what you are, isn’t it? Or what you wish to become. The Immortal Swordslinger. Grandmaster of the Elements. Wielder of the Immense Blades. It is why you have come to the guild house. You want the Depthless Dream. You are not here for the Qihin or even the task Xilarion gave you. The trident is here, so you are here.”
“I want the trident but not for myself. It belongs to King Beqai and the Qihin.”
“So noble. So straight. Do you really believe those lies you tell yourself?”
I raised the Sundered Heart, and fire flared along the blade. “This ends now.”
“Something will come to an end, yes.” A weapon appeared as he drew his hand out from the folds in his robes.
I realized with a sinking heart that it was the Depthless Dream. Power flooded from the trident into the air behind Horix, creating ripples and streams of sparkling dust. It was the source of the Toxic Blizzard that had forced us inside during the initial battle for the guild house. The Guildmaster had used the weapon meant to protect the Qihin for their own destruction.
“We’ve fought our way through the doors,” I said. “Everyone’s inside, and they’re making quick work of your guild. If you don’t end this now, you won’t have a guild left to lead.”
“I believe you’re right,” Horix said mildly as he looked over the edge of the balcony. “The filthy Wilds proved stronger than I anticipated. Or perhaps my students were simply not equipped to deal with such savages.”
He smiled without a trace of joy or affection, then slammed the trident against the ground. I was thrown from my feet and almost fell on Cadrin’s body as the guild house trembled around us.
“Ice buildings always have a shatter point,” Horix said. “A quirk of the architecture. A weak spot where, with the right exertion of force, the whole place can be brought tumbling down with the help of a little acid rain. One strike, and I could topple the entire tower onto itself. Can you guess where it is?”
He struck the ground, and the guild house shook violently once more. Chunks of ice fell from the ceiling and shattered on the ground around me.
“I’ve been waiting for the rest of the Qihin to get inside,” he said. “If I’m going to bring my guild house down upon them, then I want to make sure I crush them all. Fat, listless Beqai. His impertinent daughter. His upstart son. All the filthy, misshapen rabble he calls his subjects. But you’re not one of
