Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 318

An icy breeze ran its fingers through the enormous, frost-covered stone hall. It swept in from the open ceiling, howling as it wove between the great statues that filled the room. Each of the statues was large enough to be a centerpiece on its own — the shortest of them stood more than four stories tall.

But not a single one of the statues was still whole. They were all destroyed to varying degrees. There were few that still stood past the legs, and fewer still that had a torso. None of them had been left with a head.

The remnants of what had once been mighty weapons and bodies laid at their feet in huge piles of rubble. Huge and small chunks of stone alike littered the entire hall like craggy waves. But not so much as a pebble or speck of dust had fallen upon the thin path running through the room.

It was as if, even in death, the statues could not bear to mar the way forward.

No matter how hard the mighty wind blew, not even the dust of the great statues allowed itself to float across the plain stone walkway. It remained as perfectly clean and spotless as the day that it had first been built.

That pathway led up to the far wall of the hall and just past it. It led to a balcony that hung over the edge of the world.

There was no railing separating the balcony and the seemingly infinite drop beneath it. There were a few paces of stone, and then there was nothing at all.

The balcony itself was only large enough for one man to stand on but calling it comfortable would have been a misnomer. While the statues had refused to disgrace the path with their presence, the wind had no such reservations.

It screamed like a scorned god, dragging its claws through the balcony in attempt to pull anyone that dared stand upon it down over the edge of the steep mountain and into the darkness beyond.

But all the wind’s efforts were insufficient to pull the lone man upon the balcony away from his place. The man’s eyes were closed, his features calm if not serene. He floated a foot into the air, legs crossed beneath him, plain clothes snapping around him with loud snaps like striking whips.

A thin layer of frost covered his body, running all the way up to his pure white hair, and his breathing was so faint that it may as well not have been there at all. It was evident that he had not moved for a long time.

The screaming wind was split by a crack so faint that it may as well have not even happened at all. But it had — and a second one followed after it. A dozen more followed. Then, slowly, the man’s shut eyes twitched.

His features remained unchanged, even as his legs uncrossed beneath him. He dropped from the air, landing on his knees as if in prayer. The man remained in that position for a moment.

Then the ice covering his eyes shattered.

Fragments of shimmering frost fell away as his eyelids lifted, and beyond them was nothing but freezing blue. It was a frost that made the layer of ice covering his body look like the desert heat, so insufficient and lacking that it should not have even been able to think of itself as ice in the presence of his gaze.

The man rose to his feet. Then, slowly, he turned to the entrance back to the hall at his back. Standing at the hall’s center in the shadow of the great statues was another man.

 There was a long silence.

Then the frost-covered man stepped into the hall. The fragments of ice encrusting his body fell away with every step, twinkling faintly as they shattered against the ground. He continued until he stood directly before the intruder.

The two men stood in silence for a moment longer.

Then the newcomer bowed his head slightly. He said nothing more.

More ice cracked. The pieces of frost around the other man’s jaw cracked and shattered, finally freeing the rest of his face from their grip as they fell to smash on the cold stone at his feet.

“Vincent,” the man said. “Why are you here?”

“I was… outmaneuvered,” Vincent said. His jaw clenched in anger. “The Empty Court was at the Ancestry. With a Banishing Scroll. They were expecting my presence. I nearly lost myself in the void, but I managed to crawl back. Forgive me. I underestimated Absolution. I have failed.”

Vincent went to drop to one knee.

He never got the chance.

Before he could hit the ground, a hand slammed into his shoulder. It tightened, locking him in place and leaving no room to escape.

“Stand,” the other man said simply. “Starfallen do not kneel. Not to kings. Not to gods. And certainly not to me.”

Vincent swallowed. Then he unbent his knee, rising back to his full height. “But the Ancestry. Both it and Absolution. I—”

“Your heart is turmoiled,” the other man said. He released Vincent’s shoulder. “Seclude yourself until your conviction has returned. You may use my seat.”

Vincent’s eyes widened. “But… that — I don’t deserve such an—”

“Few in this world receive what they deserve,” the other man said. “So why not accept that inequality and take advantage of what you have been offered? I will ask more of you in return for it. An equivalent exchange.”