The small flood turned into a sheet of ice. I ripped my feet free from the sudden skating rink, and Hamon freed himself with a burst of fire, but the surviving Augmenters weren’t so lucky. I kicked the dining table over with a burst of fire-assisted strength. The hefty oak furniture smashed into them, and their ankles dislocated as they failed to free their feet in time. One of the Augmenters looked up in fascinated horror as I strode over to him.
“Where’s Jiven?” I asked.
“Gone. He won’t return,” the man gasped. “And nor will you stop us.”
I smashed a kick into his jaw, and his head came apart around my increased strength and hardened armor. The second Augmenter’s hands flared, but I pierced his heart before he could summon the will to attack. A Greater Soldier slammed Hamon into the wall behind me, and the prince’s burning aura dimmed as the creature manhandled him like a toy. Its huge paw tightened around his throat, even as its fur blazed from the sheer heat of handling a fire elemental.
“Need help?” I called.
“I’m—” Hamon began.
I activated Flame Empowerment on the demon’s burning fur and fed the technique raw Vigor. The monster’s grip vanished as I burned it to cinders. Hamon collapsed on the frozen floor, and steam hissed off his flaming form as he caught his breath.
“—fine,” he finished.
“You’re a long way away from fine,” I told him plainly. “How much faster are you killing yourself by throwing around this much power?”
“I will endure,” Hamon managed. “Until my task is complete.”
He straightened up and met my eyes. Sheer, iron-willed determination shone through his flaming irises, and I studied him for a moment. Hamon’s face had been a picture of calm the whole way through our battle so far, and this was the first glimpse of serious emotion I’d seen from him. I had to admit, it was enough to convince me that Hamon was right.
He’d see this through to the very end, come hell or high water.
“Which way to the dungeons?” I asked.
Hamon pointed behind me, and I slid over the icy floor to the next door. I took the thing off its hinges with a kick, slipped the Depthless Dream back into its place on my back, and entered the next hallway.
Another staircase to my left led downward, and a rotten stench rolled up from the depths of the castle. Hamon limped into the hallway behind me, and we started down the stairs together. Power crackled through my body, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the satisfaction at how much damage I was able to bring to this fight.
“You grow closer to immortality with every kill, Master,” Nydarth said. “We can feel it at the center of your being. Soon, you will have the ability to release us. To give us physical form. Don’t stop now. Not when you are so close.”
I considered the thought for a moment. “All of this, and you still can’t do it?”
“We are still bound to the Blades, Master,” Yono told me. “Nydarth speaks truly, but she neglects a simple detail. Our power grows with you, yes, but there is one more power you must learn to truly unchain us from our bondage.”
I thought back to my training and the missing piece of the puzzle. “Spiritual Augmentation. That’s what you need, isn’t it?”
“Focus on the task at hand,” Yono advised. “Prevail, and we’ll speak of it later.”
Hamon watched me closely as we reached the bottom of the stairs. A few gutted torches smoked, and he waved a hand to re-light the sconces. Light flared around us, illuminating ghastly corpses piled on the floor. I recognized the Clan Wysaro robes, but the people that wore them barely looked human. Their faces had been torn away, organs discarded wantonly over the stone floor, and shattered bones jutted out from weird angles.
Fury boiled in my gut. Some of the corpses had been harvested for organs, or eaten by the demon creatures in the castle. It reminded me of the deranged villagers in Danibo Forest. Except these weren’t monsters who’d been eaten, but humans.
I fought off a wave of sudden nausea as I turned my eyes away from the carpet of rotting human flesh. Hamon dropped to a knee to study one of the closest bodies. His expression was unreadable as he stared down at the corpse.
“That’s not Cinder, is it?” I asked, fearing the woman who led the Wysaro was already dead.
Hamon shook his head. “No. She may still live.” He straightened. “My father will pay for this.”
I gritted my teeth as my stomach threatened to empty its contents. “How close are we to where Cinder might be?”
“Close,” Hamon answered.
Flight flared around my feet, and I lifted myself into the air to avoid desecrating the corpses any further. Hamon made his way through the hall as I pushed myself through it. A darkened archway loomed ahead of us. Fleshy growths of blackened tissue pulsed around the archway, and bars of yellowed bone barred our progress. I landed in front of the horrific doorway, pulled the Demure Rebirth from my back, and raised the warhammer to break through the barrier.
“Who could have done something like this?” Choshi whispered in horror.
“Monsters,” I answered grimly. “Let’s just hope that Cinder is still alive.”
I swung the hammer, and the bones shattered like glass. I added a burst of strength to my body and stepped through the darkened
