Not on my watch.
I waved the Demure Rebirth, and a huge Sandstorm washed over the top of the maze. Choshi giggled as I concentrated the biting sand at the black forms of the demons. They fell from the barriers with screeches of pain and ducked down against the thorned walls to avoid my earth technique. I pulled the Depthless Dream from my back with my free hand.
“Once upon a time, Master, you’d never have dreamed of such power,” Yono breathed. “And now you turn the tide of battle as a master of the elements. How may I serve?”
Her sultry voice tingled through my mind and sent a chill down my spine. I stabbed the trident downward and combined the fire and water pathways within me. My body adapted instantly, and a potent Acid Cloud appeared at the center of the maze. The edge closest to the tower burned and shattered as my allies tore through the enemy and picked off the enthusiastic stragglers.
I stretched the Acid Cloud outward, boosted its power with raw Vigor, and the sickly green cloud rushed through the corridors of the maze. The screech of agonized demons joined their human compatriots and filled the courtyard with screams of pain.
“Their fear, their terror!” Nydarth exclaimed. “Bow before your god, traitors and abominations! None of you will escape the justice of the Immortal Swordslinger!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I left Nydarth to her ringside commentary and descended through the air to watch the chaos unfold. I’d bought my friends time, and I wanted to see how they were holding up against the onslaught.
Hamon’s blazing form appeared in the midst of a fleeing pack of guards. Their eyes widened with terror as they attacked their prince, but Hamon was a force of nature. He turned aside their weapons with casual flicks of his hands, and bursts of devouring flame enveloped Jiven’s men. Their howls abruptly vanished as their flesh washed away in a cloud of ashes.
A laser-like Untamed Torch tore through a guard to Hamon’s right and punched a hole in his chest the size of a trash can lid. Vesma pierced another guard’s throat with a vicious thrust, ripped out his jugular, and kicked the corpse into another knot of guards. A demon blindsided her from the left, and her skin turned translucent as Vesma used her Physical Augmentation. She deflected a serrated sword with her bracer and caught hold of the demon’s face with a red-hot hand. The demon screamed as her fingers burned through its fur, punctured its skull, and pierced its brain. Vesma tossed the demon aside without a second thought and leapt to support Mahrai.
Mahrai’s skin flickered as she constantly switched from her armored form to her regular flesh. She caved in human skulls with savage swings of her new staff and armored herself against the demon’s claws and swords. Without any pure elemental damage, she couldn’t directly harm the demons, but her golem more than made up for it. The stone monolith bowled over the black-furred creatures of hell with punches and shoulder charges while also using the wooden walls of my temporary maze to puncture the monsters’ thick fur.
“Why do you not strike them down in one fell swoop, Master?” Nydarth demanded. “Unleash Choshi’s true potential. Crush them all. Bring down this castle on their heads and end this battle once and for all.”
I didn’t know the extent of my powers now that I had mastered Environmental Augmentation, but by combining a Ground Strike with the Demure Rebirth, I probably could have destroyed the entire castle and a reasonable amount of the mountain itself. But now wasn’t the time to test my limits.
“Cinder’s still in here somewhere,” I reminded Nydarth. “The castle might be overrun, but it doesn’t mean that I have to destroy it to end this. We simply need to find the source of the attack.”
I landed beside Hamon, impaled a demon on the Depthless Dream, and swung it around to face its fellows. I pushed a Crashing Wave through the trident, and the snarling creature shot away from the Immense Blade like a bullet. It crashed into a thick spike on one of my Plank Pillars.
“They’re not slowing down, Swordslinger,” Hamon grunted. “There are too many, even with your impressive power. They seek to keep us from the inside of the castle.”
“Then let’s ruin their party,” I said, “and light this place up.”
I slid the Depthless Dream into its place on my back, set the Demure Rebirth beside it, and drew the Sundered Heart from its sheath. The sword came free with an animalistic moan, and flame danced from the blade’s edges. I pushed fire through my channels and combined the raw Vigor of the environment with the increased efficiency of the sword as a channel. Hamon lifted his hands toward the walls of my acid-laden death trap.
Untamed Torches raced out of us, tidal waves of flame careening over the stone floor of the courtyard and consuming everything it its wake. The Plank Pillars vanished into clouds of ash. The flames turned green as they consumed my Acid Cloud, and glass rained from the sky as the heat crystalized the last remnants of my Sandstorm above the maze. Our attack obliterated the demons and mercilessly devoured the human guards who had turned against their own.
In seconds, we cleared out the entire courtyard.
But Hamon was right. Fresh Lesser Demons streamed out of the doors to the castle, with howling war cries and rusted weapons held aloft. Even a firestorm had only stemmed the flow for a second. We had to find the portal that let the demons onto this plane and close it. If we didn’t stop them here, their numbers would overwhelm Flametongue Valley.
I strode toward the surging tide of demonic warriors. Dual sets of eyes glittered with malevolence as they howled guttural cries and swarmed in to dogpile me under a mass of claws, blades, and reeking body odor. Hamon
