[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
[Your Echo has been destroyed]
[You have slain an Awakened Demon: Hand of Oryx]
[You have received a Memory: Murmur's Nod]
Lucky winced under the barrage of notifications the Spell gave to him; it always seemed to sound bored whilst speaking to the lowly Awakened, as if the novelty of rewarding him with Memories and Echoes had long since faded.
Knocking an arrow to his bow, Lucky aimed at the masses. His arrow was made of a strange green material and twitched slightly as he drew the bow.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster: Blade of Oryx.]
[You have slain an Awakened Monster: Blade of Oryx.]
[You have slain an Awakened Monster: Blade of Oryx.]
The sudden burst of noise in his ears caused Lucky to misfire, the arrow firing wide of its intended mark. Yet it still managed to land within a group of the Whispering Legion, sliding into the eye slit of one of the Rook's helmets. As it fully sank into the Rook's head, the shaft unravelled like twisted rope coming undone, splitting into whip-like strands that lashed violently outward at the nearby Pawns.
[You have slain an Awakened Demon: Hand of Oryx.]
Reaching for another arrow, Lucky grit his teeth as another barrage of notifications hit his ears. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, attempting to push the voice of the Spell out of his mind.
'It seems the Pawns are actually called Blade of Oryx, and the Rooks are called Hand of Oryx… I much prefer the names Ascended Morn gave them, although. Then what are the Bishops called? What's…'
Lucky's eyes lingered on the carnage occurring between his Echoes and the Whispering Legion for a moment before he slowly turned to look at the battle raging between Lauri and the Whispering King atop its steed.
Lauri was currently using [Light Dash] to catch his spear every time the Tyrant knocked it away.
Lucky felt a chill run down his spine as he watched the Whispering King, so he quickly turned his attention back to the ongoing battle. Lucky's face twisted with worry for a brief moment before he forced himself to calm down.
'If anyone can go toe to toe with a Corrupted Tyrant… I believe in you, Captain.'
In front of the Rhino, Mele and Sansa stood close to each other.
Mele was, as usual, taking her time with each shot. She waited patiently amidst the chaos, eyes scanning the battlefield for the perfect moment before finally drawing her bow string back.
reaching down and pulling an arrow from the snowy ground beside her. The arrow was freezing to the touch, its translucent surface resembling a shard of solid ice more than a crafted projectile.
She knocked the arrow smoothly and released it a few seconds later.
The enchanted arrow soared high into the air before descending toward the battlefield below. As it fell, the arrow burst apart, water exploding outward across the gathered Nightmare Creatures. Any Pawns or Rooks caught within the splash suddenly found their movements slowing as the water began to freeze over, locking their legs into place. Even as the Rooks attempted to pull their legs free of the ice, it was too late for those members of the Whispering Legion – As the nearby Echoes descended upon them.
Sansa, meanwhile, calmly reached for another arrow.
She wasn't firing with her usual relentless speed. Normally, Sansa shot rapidly as every second mattered – because Nightmare Creatures had to die before they could injure someone. But now Lucky's Legion occupied the front lines, the countless Echoes acting as a constantly shifting wall of flesh, claws, and essence.
For once, Sansa could afford to be patient.
Lining up her next shot, Sansa glanced towards Mele from the corner of her eye.
"Mele, can I ask you a question?"
She let the arrow fly.
"Not really. I'm trying to stay focused."
Sansa's eyes narrowed as she turned her head a little further to stare at Mele.
"Seriously? Since when are you staying focused? Usually, you're the one distracting me."
Mele's eye twitched as she reached for an arrow that looked to be forged from glass. Beginning to nock the arrow, the returned Mele's stare.
"It's the remnants of a Fallen Titan, Sansa. Captain's currently throwing hands with a Corrupted Tyrant, I think I can afford to be a little serious."
Pouting, Sansa reached for her next arrow.
"Right..."
----
Danse, Vick, and Katrina were locked in a brutal fight to the death with the twin Bishops of the Whispering Legion.
The two Fallen Devils fought with eerie coordination, alternating the use of the colourless crystals embedded within their sceptres. Whenever one Bishop focused its power on disrupting an Awakened's essence, the other immediately pressed the offensive, forcing the trio into a constant struggle just to maintain their footing in the fight.
Danse's essence faltered as one of the gems glowed with pale mist. Immediately, the second Bishop surged toward him, sceptre lashing out in a killing strike. Danse barely managed to intercept it with his greatsword before Katrina crashed into the exchange from the side, her mace detonating with amplified force and forcing the Bishop back a step.
At the same time, the first Bishop shifted its attention toward Vick as she drew her hand to the side, the threads sprouting from her fingertips rushed towards the attacking Bishop. The gem atop its sceptre pulsed ominously as Vick's threads suddenly weakened mid-motion, disrupting her control just as she was about to fully entangle one of them.
But that momentary shift in pressure created an opening.
One Danse was happy to act on.
His ability to wield essence was currently weakened; each time Danse attempted to pull on his essence to enhance his body, it felt as if he was grasping into a deep fog. Unable to find what he was looking for, to any other Awakened, this could have been troublesome, but to Danse, it was merely an annoyance – as most things in life were.
Danse was able to activate his Awakened Ability for five seconds, but those five seconds were enough.
The Bishop that had been weakening him staggered as Danse reflected the power of its sceptre back at it, a fog suddenly enshrouding the Bishop's mind, as for the first time in its life it felt the bitter sting of its own power.
Danse laughed with his full chest, the sound ringing out despite the chaos unfolding around him.
"Not so funny now, is it!"
The Bishop deactivated its sceptre, the mist shrouding Danse's mind vanished instantly, and in the same moment, he stepped forward with explosive force and swung his greatsword in a brutal upward arc.
For the first time since he had been engaged by the Bishop – Danse's blade connected.
Danse's greatsword bit deep into one of the Bishop's wrists, cleaving through the pale armour in a violent spray of sparks and fractured metal. The impact tore straight through the joint, nearly severing the hand entirely, and then Danse's Dormant Ability activated.
The exact same wound appeared on the Bishop's other wrist. Armour split apart as if struck by an invisible blade, metal rupturing and flesh beneath tearing open in perfect mimicry of the original strike.
The Bishop was forced to drop its sceptre as it lost control of its hands. A mixture of blood and mist seeped from the wounds as it raised its head to glare at Danse.
Danse cocked his head to the side.
"What? You want-"
The Bishop moved, its limp hands waving in the air. Its arm struck the side of Danse's head before he could raise his weapon, causing the Awakened to see stars for a moment as his head jerked to the side. Yet as this happened, the Bishop's own head was thrown violently in the opposite direction as if struck by an invisible force.
Danse had expected this reaction. Having recovered from the Bishop's strike, his greatsword moving again, he kicked the Bishop in the chest with all his might.
Had it been any other situation, one kick would not have been enough to knock a Fallen Devil off balance. But the Bishop's head was still ringing from having its own strike reflected back upon it, and the moment Danse's Aspect activated – slamming it in the chest with the full force of the blow a second time – the Bishop was knocked off balance.
That single instant was all Danse needed.
He surged forward immediately, his greatsword crashing into the Bishop's chestplate with overwhelming force. The Ascended blade punched through the armour and buried itself deep into the Bishop's chest. The initial strike missed anything vital – but then the mirrored wound appeared on the opposite side of the Bishop's body.
And this time, the invisible strike pierced directly through its heart.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil: Herald of Oryx]
[You have received an Echo: Herald of Oryx]
Danse held his head; the feeling of being punched in the head by a Fallen Devil was one he wouldn't forget for some time, but despite the pain pulsing within his mind, Danse couldn't help but grin.
Blue sparks began to appear in the area around him as he turned to look at the final Bishop.
Vick and Katrina backed up to stand beside him. Vick flexed her fingers as she gave Danse a nod.
"Let's finish this one off, before it gets any notion of aiding its King."
"A three against one, it's cheating. But I'm not complaining…"
Katrina trailed off as she turned her head away from the Bishop and noticed all the sparks Danse had summoned. Her eyes widened slightly as she understood what all these sparks would mean.
"You got an Echo?"
Danse rubbed the side of his leafy helmet one more time before crouching down to pick something up from the floor.
"I did, and what a lucky time, too. I'm only surprised we haven't received more Echoes in this entire cursed affair."
As if responding to his words, blue sparks suddenly began to condense rapidly, twisting together until a humanoid figure slowly emerged from within them.
A Bishop appeared.
But unlike the other members of the Whispering Legion, this one looked untouched by time. Its pale armour gleamed brightly beneath the cold light of the battlefield, polished and unmarred where the originals had been dulled by centuries of warfare. The layered capes draped around its waist flowed cleanly behind it, pristine and elegant rather than ragged and torn.
It was the same Bishop Danse had just slain.
And yet not the same at all.
The Nightmare Spell had cleansed it. Stripped away every scratch, dent, and stain of age until the creature looked less like an ancient soldier – and more like the idealised memory of one reborn anew.
The other Bishop, the Fallen Devil, looked at the thing that had just appeared. Its head tilted as if some kind of deep understanding shifted within the recesses of its tainted mind. The Bishop raised its sceptre, but Danse's Echo had already raised its own sceptre – Danse having given it the command a second earlier.
The gem atop the Echo's sceptre suddenly began to glow. The power of the pale mist swirling within it caused the opposing Bishop to stagger.
Danse grinned beneath his helmet before tossing what he had picked up from the battlefield toward the Echo.
"Catch."
It was the sceptre belonging to the fallen Bishop. The weapon spun through the air in a clean arc before the Echo caught it with ease.
Now wielding two sceptres, the Echo raised the second, pointing them both toward the enemy Bishop. The gems flared together, their oppressive influence overlapping as waves of interference crashed into the Fallen Devil's mind.
The effect was immediate.
The Bishop's movements faltered, as its mind was destabilised by the mist. Even the power radiating from its corrupted body weakened beneath the compounded suppression, as if its very connection to its power was being strangled.
"I was hoping it would have that effect!"
The three Awakened rounded on the crippled Fallen Devil at once.
Danse moved in from the front, greatsword raised high. Katrina moved in from the side, while Vick's threads lashed outward through the air once more, curling toward the Bishop's limbs now that its ability to disrupt her Aspect had been suppressed.
The fight – if you could call it that – ended quickly now that the Bishop was unable to defend itself.
The Bishop raised its arm attempting to block Danse's attack, but his sword pulled back at the last moment – a feint. Katrina's mace slammed into the Bishop's stomach, the force of the hit amplified by her Aspect, knocking the Bishop off its feet and into the air where Vick's threads caught it, slipping through the surface of its armour and digging into its body. The Bishop hit the ground, beginning to writhe as if it could expunge the threads from its body just by struggling.
But with Vick's threads tearing it apart from within, the Bishop's struggle came to a quick end.
Vick deactivated her Aspect, the threads disappearing.
Wincing, Vick flexed her fingers again.
"It's dead."
Danse caught the flat of his greatsword with his other hand, steadying the blade as he took a brief moment to survey the chaos unfolding around them.
The Echoes had gained the advantage at some point; the meagre amount of Pawns and Rooks that had crossed the ravine could not contend with the pure carnage sown by Lucky's Legion. Had the entirety of the Whispering Legion managed to cross the bridge, Lucky's Echoes would have been inevitably crushed.
But with Lauri having destroyed the bridge, he had effectively cut the head of the Whispering Legion off from the majority of its forces.
The stragglers were given no choice but to die.
Danse turned back to Vick and Katrina.
"Alright, with the Bishop's down, let's see if we can help Lucky's Echoes clear the fie–"
Danse was interrupted as Lauri's voice broke through the intense sounds of battle.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
An explosion followed – an eruption of light that banished the Antarctic night in an instant, flooding the battlefield with blinding radiance as it surged outward in all directions. Danse and Vick staggered under the shockwave, forced a step back by the sudden burst of force and light, while Katrina was knocked clean off her feet and landed hard on her backside.
Danse and Vick turned in time to see Lauri tearing into the underside of the Whispering King's horse.
Vick took a step towards Lauri, a strangled gasp escaping her lips as the Whispering King's fist crashed into Lauri's side, sending him flying sideways. As Vick took another step forward, Danse put a hand out to bar her path.
Vick's face contorted in anger as she turned to curse at Danse.
"What do you think you're doing, you idiot!? We need to–"
"You heard our Captain, Vick. We'll just get in his way. Anyone who tries to help him is going to get hurt… or worse, they'll wind up dead…"
Danse watched as Lauri slowly rose to his feet just as the Whispering King began to draw the sword from its sheath. Something cold reached into Danse's mind as he heard the distant scrape of the sword being drawn, the sound somehow reaching him clearly despite the distance between them.
The moment the blade cleared its sheath – Danse's determination wavered.