Chapter LII (52)

  Before Mitsuko even hit the floor, she cast Mend on herself, refusing to allow the darkness of unconsciousness to seize her. Then she repositioned under the bitelas man and thrust up, piercing through the underside of a joint in his carapace.

  Coleo, the bard, stumbled back, off of her sword. Purple blood now marred his carapace. The boy in the room screamed.

  The bard raised a hand to comfort the distressed boy. “Hm. Please, do not worry, little Bupre. You will be safe.”

  “Release him from your control,” Mitsuko growled. Once again back on her feet, she steadied her footing, ready to go on the offensive. But even if Coleo died, there was no guarantee this young bitelas boy would be freed from his influence. Theo and Hideo had remained ensnared by Rodrick in later loops. From what she knew, the only way to free the acolytes from the guardians’ influence would be to end the Prismatic Spiral completely.

  “Bupre?” Sterling said. Unconcerned by the danger around him, the cat strolled over to the sniveling and shaking bitelas boy.

  “You can’t have him,” Coleo said. "I won’t let you take him from me.” As if unaware of the gouge in his body from where she pierced him earlier, he moved completely unimpeded. In fact, Mitsuko thought he struck with unnatural speed as he lashed out with his folded kazeuta, faster than most uninjured people. The instrument hummed as it swung through the air. Still, despite his surprising speed, Coleo simply didn’t know how to fight. He lacked the fundamentals of combat.

  Mitsuko dodged the attack, then stepped in and swiped with her own counter. The attack left a gash on his wrist. A normal person would drop their weapon after a strike to the hand. It was a simple technique designed to disarm opponents. Not only was dropping their weapon the natural reaction to pain, but even the slightest cut to the tendon should make a human’s grip strength fall apart.

  And yet, Coleo wasn’t a human. He brought his instrument down on her while she was up close. She managed to catch the brunt of the blow with a raised arm, but still nearly lost her footing. Coleo shouldn’t have the strength to hurt her. He was a musician wielding a wooden string instrument. And yet her arm throbbed, likely broken by the powerful impact.

  Backing up to the doorway to put a bit of distance between them, Mitsuko cast Mend on her arm. The bone popped into place and sealed back together, relieving her from the throbbing pain while she took stock of her situation.

  Coleo stood unperturbed by the dark blood that gushed out of the wound she’d torn through his flesh. Perhaps it had to do with his species. They had different sorts of bodies from the other humanoids she’d fought. Maybe they had a means in which to nullify pain and keep their bodies from failing.

  Of course Coleo also struck with more force than she’d first assumed possible from the bard. He was the island’s guardian and likely chosen for a reason. But it also created a nagging question.

  “Who are you really?” Mitsuko called to the bitelas bard. “You can’t be Coleo. What entity took control of his body? Or are you a shapeshifter just mimicking his appearance?”

  “Hm,” Coleo examined her with his insectoid eyes. He stepped forward. His body language showed no sign of the wounds she’d inflicted on him, despite the cuts continuing to ooze his purple blood. “I will put a stop to you.”

  “Just as you did at the circus? You know I’ll just come back again at the start of the next loop. You can’t keep me down.” She parried his instrument as he attempted to strike her. “Especially not with your sloppy form.”

  The bitelas man should have charmed her with the magic of his music rather than attack her out right with the instrument. It was as if he wasn’t in the right mind. And he wasn’t even bothering with the hostage he’d taken. The boy Coleo had abducted remained shivering on the ground while Sterling examined and spoke to him.

  Maybe the guardians weren’t all sane. They were ancient beings from over a thousand years ago. Mental stability could not even play a factor in their appointment to their position.

  Her eyes glanced over to the boy. Another possibility flitted to her mind but she stuffed it down. Instead of confronting the thought, she sliced again at Coleo, this time aiming for the exact same spot she’d cut him before on his wrist. She connected once again. This time she sliced through the end of his appendage.

  The bard’s hand flew from him, lopped off at the wrist.

  He appeared unconcerned about the loss, instead picking up his instrument to his other hand and attacking once again. Mitsuko dodged and delivered yet another strike, this time to the side of his head.

  “Your hand,” the boy softly said from beside Sterling. “You won’t be able to play the kazeuta anymore.”

  Coleo looked down at his fallen appendage, as if noticing it missing for the first time. “That doesn’t matter. I won’t let her take you from me.”

  Tick, tick, tick.

  The clockwork all around them kept the room in a constant state of movement, even while Mitsuko’s mind froze and stumbled over the obvious answer.

  One last time Coleo attacked, once again stumbling forward with his instrument wielded in his off hand.

  Then Mitsuko’s blade was at Coleo’s throat. Without a moment of hesitation, she ran her sword under his jaw and jammed it up.

  His body slackened, mouth dropped open, and his mandibles twitched madly. Mitsuko could see her sword in the back of his open mouth, stained by the purple blood. Spittle and blood dribbled from his mouth, splattering against her shirt as he attempted to speak. She let go of her blade and let Coleo’s corpse slouch to the floor. His body fell on his battered instrument. Now broken and useless.

  Tick, tick, tick.

  The noise of the clockwork radiated around them. It consumed all other sounds.

  Mitsuko tore her eyes away from Coleo’s body. Both Sterling and the bitelas boy sat on the floor nearby. The boy quivered and his emerald caprice shook.

  “The sage?” Mitsuko asked Sterling. Her mouth was dry. “Where is the sage? I defeated the guardian. Do we need to wait until the next loop for the sage to appear?”

  “Mitsuko…” Sterling started to say.

  “Where is he?” Mitsuko repeated. Then she threw her hands up in the air. “Or she, or whatever! Where is the sage?”

  “You need to kill the guardian still,” Sterling said, his voice more firm this time.

  The child quailed at his words and shrank back. He shifted, searching for an escape but Mitsuko stood in the only doorway.

  “No.” Mitsuko shook her head. “I won’t accept it.”

  Tick, tick, tick.

  The clock’s clangor continued.

  “It’s the only way forward,” Sterling said. “If you let him slip away now it very well might take dozens of loops before you find him again.”

  “P-please,” the boy begged. “I didn’t ask for this. I just want to go home. I’m sorry I sent them after you, but you’re hunting me. He told me you’re coming for me. To kill me. I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.”

  “There must be another way,” Mitsuko insisted. “I won’t kill a child.”

  “He won’t die,” Sterling said. “Not yet at least. Guardians are banished.”

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  “What does that mean?” Mitsuko snapped. “I’m tired of your shit questions. Tell me!”

  “I…” Sterling hesitated. The cat took in the sight around him, then his body posture slouched. “I’m not supposed to say. But the guardians will be one of the final challenges you need to face after you’ve freed us all.”

  “What sick person chose a child as one of their guardians? Who are we fighting? What is this all for? Sterling! Answer me!”

  “Someone who knew this would be a moral issue for the next Champion!” Sterling snapped back. “Someone vindictive and spiteful and horrible who wants to end the world and send us all into motionless oblivion! Someone who I…AGHHH!”

  Sterling collapsed on the floor and began to writhe about. Then the cat froze, captured in a moment of time. The light went out in Sterling’s green eyes and his body began to dissolve into dust.

  Tick, tick, tick.

  “Sterling?” Mitsuko called out. “Sterling!”

  No response.

  That hadn’t been a normal death. Something had snatched him out of time and destroyed him. Utterly removed his essence from the Prismatic Spiral. Only dust remained and even that was scattered across the loft’s floor.

  But the sage would be back next loop. Surely, he couldn’t be gone. All he’d done was…give her information that he said he couldn’t tell her. Broken a covenant between the sages.

  “Is…is it true what he said?” the bitelas boy asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mitsuko said numbly. She stared where Sterling had been moments before. There was a scratch mark in the wooden floorboard from his claws, but not even a speck of him remained recognizable. “Probably, yes. We’ll all die.”

  The bitelas boy gulped. “My father gave up everything for me. He refused to let me go. I…I don’t want more people to die because of me.”

  Mitsuko looked down at her empty hand. The ring on her finger just needed a flick of her wrist to activate. Then she could end this. Everyone’s lives depended on her. She was supposed to be a hero. But what sort of hero slaughtered children?

  “I don’t want to die,” the boy said quietly. “I was promised I could live forever if I survived a year. Just one year.” He started to cry. “I really don’t want to die again.”

  “Again?” Mitsuko muttered to herself. So this boy remembered his previous death? She was supposed to kill a boy who’d already suffered one death. Unlike her ex-fiance, this boy would stay dead if things worked out for Mitsuko.

  “It’s either your death or the deaths of so many others,” Mitsuko replied. She flicked her wrist and created a new blade of ice and raised her weapon, blocking the room’s exit.

  The boy sat there, visibly shaking in terror as he faced down his inevitable fate at her sword’s edge.

  Her blade fell. It clattered to the floor. She stepped to the side, out of the doorframe. “I can’t do it. Go.”

  The boy paused for a few seconds, then carefully walked up to her and edged around the corpse of Coleo. As he passed her, Mitsuko thought of how easy it would be to stick him in the throat with a blade. She could end this.

  But she didn’t. Weakness. Compassion. Guilt.

  Her father had killed her unborn sibling when he’d thrown her mother down those stairs. Akuta would undoubtedly slice off this boy’s head if it meant his own survival.

  But Mitsuko thought about Holly. A friend she genuinely loved and respected. Holly would never kill a child. No matter the consequences.

  The boy passed Mitsuko and left her in a room of ticking clockwork.

  DONG, DONG, DONG!

  The entire building shook as the clock notified all of the hour passing.

  There was a yelp behind her and Mitsuko whirled around to see the bitelas boy pinwheeling his arms in a desperate bid to reclaim his balance. His emerald back shell opened wings fanned out behind him. But it was a losing battle. He fell.

  Mitsuko’s heart leapt. Had she just been…successful? Without even needing to touch the boy, could all of her problems disappear just like that?

  Then she spotted his fingers clutching at the edge of the drop. They shook under the pressure of holding his weight.

  “Please, help me,” he begged from below.

  Mitsuko took a step toward him. Then she froze.

  What was she supposed to do? The obvious answer was to turn her back on the boy. Let him fall to his death. In fact, rationally, she should step up and chop off his fingers. Force him out of the Prismatic Spiral.

  But…what would her friends do? What sort of decent human being let a child die? There had to be another path forward. A future that allowed for the survival of innocent children.

  She knelt down and took a hold of his quivering wrist.

  “I’ve got you,” she said calmly. “Let’s get you back up here.”

  So many people’s lives were placed on this scale. This action risked a lot more than her own life. She tried to tell herself to release the boy and let him fall into the cogs below. Instead, she heaved.

  On the precipice of safety, the boy looked at her with insectoid eyes that glinted like a hundred mirrors.

  And then he was on the rickety wooden platform. He backed up and stared up at her in horror.

  “You…” the boy stammered. “You…need to die. He says you need to die!”

  “Wha—”

  Mitsuko’s words cut out as the bitelas boy shoved his weight into her.

  Caught entirely off guard, her back foot moved to steady her stance and take on the sudden blow. Only, there was no wood beneath her foot now. It had slipped over the lip and into the open air. Her weight fell backwards.

  She rapidly descended toward death by clockwork.

  There was nothing to grab a hold of. Nothing to save her.

  Except for magic.

  In the split second before her death, she cast Mend. The spell designed to heal. To bring things back together. Instead, she cast it on the boy’s belt. She shoved her will into it, demanding that it return to where it had been moments earlier.

  The boy lurched backwards, dragged away from safety by the belt at his waist.

  And then he too, fell.

  Mitsuko’s body smacked into a cog, her body flipped over to continue falling, then she crumpled on impact with a large, horizontal gear. Her legs dangled off the edge. It slowly clicked forward beneath her.

  Her vision swam and she instinctually cast Mend on herself to clear her head. But the gear beneath her was moving. A fraction of a moment later she was engulfed in terrible, crushing pain as the gear pressed up against another. She screamed as her body jammed the clockwork. It jittered, clogged by her flesh and bones, but the powerful enchantments on the clockwork kept it functioning, pushing it forward.

  Her bones didn’t just snap, they were pulverized into dust under the cogs’ power. Her vision blurred as pain and tears stopped allowing her to comprehend the world around her.

  In that moment, she longed for power beyond all else. The power to make it end. To stop time. To end the pain.

  Grasping for magic, she cast Mend on the mechanics, attempting desperately to force it back. She met a wall. There were too many enchantments on the clockwork. It was too extensive of a contraption.

  She didn’t fucking care. The pain overwhelmed everything. Again, she slammed her magic into the gear destroying her body. Then went beyond. Lacing her magic into everything around her. Forcing it all back.

  The entire building shuddered. Her magic strained under the task. Everything needed to be undone. It was all wrong. She fought time itself to put it all back in place.

  Time was hers to command.

  With a scream, she channeled even more power into the building, pushing beyond anything she’d ever attempted before.

  For a moment, nothing. Then it began to reverse. The mechanics spit her out and her body reconstructed itself. It bent back into shape, the splintering bones fusing together and skin reknitting itself back into smooth flesh.

  Whimpering and manically laughing simultaneously, her clothes dragged her up upwards. She couldn’t force her own body’s movements to rewind, but physical objects like clothing obeyed her commands.

  She watched through blurred vision as another figure was dragged back up alongside her. Bupre, the boy guardian. But, unlike her initial fall which had left her broken but alive, the boy hadn’t been so lucky. He hung limp while his clothes puppeteered his body. He then slipped back over the edge, to where he’d initially fallen and grabbed the ledge.

  Then Mitsuko’s clothes carried her beyond the steps and into the loft with Coleo’s corpse and broken instrument.

  She released the magic and collapsed in a heap on the floorboards, no longer suspended by her clothing’s fabric. Immediately her already hazy vision dimmed, the world around her wobbly. The telltale sign of magical overuse. Sterling had told her not to worry about blood loss. But there were always limits.

  Face down on the wooden floor, she gasped for air, lacking the strength to push herself back up into a sitting position. She just needed to rest.

  The booted feet of a bitelas man appeared in front of her. He crouched down beside her head and made a few hand gestures. But it was all a blur in her vision.

  DONG, DONG, DONG!

  The clock tower shook with repeated sound. It reverberated through her bones. Black spots blotted out her vision. And then the darkness consumed her.

  *Ding!

  *Mend Level 5

  Mend, Strengthened

  Mend’s Aura, Radius Enhanced

  Mend Self, Strengthened

  Mend Others, Unlocked

  *Ding!

  *Retrospection Level 1 Unlocked

  15 more chapters on my !!