“Greetings, travelers. Have you come to worship?”
“We’ve come to take you back to Dying Sun,” I said. “Along with your brothers.”
The monk laughed. “And you are?” His voice cracked like gravel under a heavy boot.
“Ethan Murphy Lo Pashat. The Immortal Swordslinger.”
The monk’s faux-friendliness vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“You dare blaspheme the sacred order so? You cannot be here. Leave us to our meditations. Our work is not yet complete. Our directions were to restore the old places of worship.”
“You haven’t restored it,” Kumi said quietly. “You’ve destroyed it with filth.”
The monk wheeled on her. “And just who are you to speak to me so?”
Kumi gulped, but her face hardened, and a steely light touched her eyes. “Princess Kumi of Qihin City, acolyte of the Temple of the Deep. I serve the gods. But you have left them behind.”
The monk stalked toward Kumi. I stepped in front of her, my sword in both hands. The blade ignited after I sent Vigor racing into its steel. The flames reflected in the monk’s eyes, and he halted his prowling step to examine the weapon in my hands.
“That’s far enough,” I said. “We’re here under Archpriest Tymo’s orders. He charges you to remember your sacred duties to your order and return home.”
“I’m not finished!” the monk howled. “You’ve interrupted my duties!”
I glanced at the demonic statues around the Lost Shrine. “Is that so?”
The monk raised a shaking finger and pointed to Tolin. “And you brought along a blasphemer. An evildoer. A pathless wretch. A vulture who picks at dead bones.”
“I really can’t abide zealots,” Tolin muttered. “So highly strung.”
“Silence!” the monk screamed. “You do not talk here!”
“Where are the others?” I leveled my gaze at the monk, ready to cut him down if he so much as moved in the wrong direction.
A manic grin stretched the monk’s face. “They serve the sacred order, just as I do, Swordslinger.”
The soft haze of Physical Augmentation rippled around the monk, and he jumped back 20 feet to the altar in a single bound. The monk’s crazed eyes didn’t leave us as he scooped up the two ritual daggers. He slashed his own forearms with the curved blades and flung his blood wide.
“My brothers pursue their duties. As do I. But you will not interfere with them, Swordslinger.”
The demon statues cracked loudly around him and came to life. Dust fell from their fur as they stepped off their small pedestals. Rusted weapons gleamed in their hands, and a furious red light shone from their eyes.
One enemy had suddenly turned into 13.
Chapter Sixteen
The corrupted monk came at me in a blur. He suddenly appeared in front of me, and I barely managed to block his twin daggers with the Sundered Heart. He counter-attacked, slashing the daggers at my throat with terrifying speed, and I swayed back to avoid the strike, but I wasn’t quite fast enough. A dagger nicked my neck, and warm blood dribbled out over my robes. Vigor swam through my water pathways, gave me a burst of speed, and I slashed across his torso. The monk blocked my blade with his bare forearm, and sparks flew from the contact, as though his flesh was made of concrete.
“He’s faster and stronger than Horix was,” Nydarth warned me.
“It’s a good thing I’m faster and stronger than I was back then, too,” I replied.
I jumped back to get a little distance and sent an Untamed Torch at the monk. He didn’t even stagger backward when the projectile slammed into him, and fire crawled along his robes before disappearing completely. The garments weren’t singed in the slightest, and he didn’t appear to have been burned at all by my technique.
“You have learned our ways well, Swordslinger,” he said, “but I have trained for centuries. Your power is that of a child’s before his father.”
“So, should I call you ‘Daddy’?” I asked.
“Your jests simply indicate a weakness in concentration,” the monk snarled at me. “And distractions destroy your ability to Augment in every form, Swordslinger.”
“I appreciate the lecture. Are you sure you don’t want to come back to the monastery and teach me yourself? Kick back over some tea and soup? Talk about all of this?”
The sound of clashing metal echoed through the clearing behind me as my friends fought the demons that had been statues only moments ago.
Kumi’s Song of the Sea carried the water from the nearby stream in long ribbons that attacked the demons like striking serpents. Smoke billowed from the demons’ black fur, and they voiced their agony in high-pitched squeals. I’d never seen Kumi’s magic do anything more than heal, but maybe this had been something the monks had taught her. Faryn stood in front of Tolin, slowing the demons down with Strangling Roots and bursts of Smothering Leaves.
The corrupted monk rushed me, but I summoned an Acidic Cloud that materialized around him in a greenish haze. His manic laugh echoed through the sounds of battle as his aura vaporized the airborne poison. I channeled a Smothering Mist to obscure his sight, but steam hissed off the monk as he jumped out of the cloud and ran headlong into a Plank Pillar I summoned. His aura incinerated the wooden pillar into ash, and I slashed at the cinders as they fell toward me.
I activated Compress Ash, and razor-sharp ash hardened around the Sundered Heart, turning it into a lengthy polearm. I swung the ash-coated blade down at the monk as he came into range. It cut through his aura and dug into his collarbone. My enemy howled, shattered the ash blade with his dagger, and I rammed the Depthless Dream into his gut. The prongs bit into his flesh but didn’t puncture into his organs. I shifted my grip on the Depthless Dream, stepped to the right, and placed Nydarth against the trident’s handle.
“Together!” Yono urged Nydarth.
Crashing Wave blended with Untamed Torch and hit the monk square in the chest. The man whirled through the air and smashed into the stream at
