Chapter 141. The Final Act

“Kaiwen,” Maria murmured, sweat dripping down her temple. “What did you say?”

Kaiwen bowed her head. “Sorry to forcefully end your session, but...things have spiraled out of control.”

Maria hung her head and took in sips of air. One of the Infinity Loop scientists was sitting off to the side, his hands shaking softly with fear. The room designated for Infinity Loop experiments was as small as it was well-protected; just three people in the room was enough to make it feel cramped. Reduced space was a small concession to make to ensure the dilation chamber remained close to the Cuna without attracting undue attention.

Kaiwen looked the man’s way and snorted. “Proffin and company wanted to wake you up slowly, but I insisted you be awakened immediately. I see you’re still slightly...out of it.”

Maria shook her head and closed her eyes. “I’m fine. What’s this about Dunai and Euryphel and the Cuna?”

“They’re entering the Cuna as we speak.”

“But...it should be submerged by now. We used Mother’s arrays to facilitate the city’s protection...”

Kaiwen sighed. “They’re burrowing through the defensive mountain formation and through the earth. Our defenders were unable to stop them.”

Maria felt like tearing out her hair. She had prepared for disaster, but the day was somehow exceeding her expectations.

“Hold on. I thought they were successfully ensorceled by the End arrays around the city. We saw them turn around in the direction of Pardin before I entered the dilation chamber.”

“They...broke the bindings. We’re not sure how.”

Maria blanched. She refused to believe that Euryphel had been hiding his strength, that a man fifteen years her junior was capable of undoing her best handiwork. But then that only left Dunai...who shouldn’t be able to break oaths.

“The western district of the city is also under attack from a coalition outfitted with eastern and Godoran armaments. I don’t know much else about the intruders at the moment, but unless they also had a way to break your End array, I suspect they were biding their time inside Cunabulus until the descendant’s arrival.”

Maria grimaced and rubbed her forehead. They’d prepared for opportunists to strike, but it would’ve been a pleasant surprise if all they had to deal with was the descendant and the infuriating duo.

Kaiwen blinked. “You wish to go to the Cuna.” It wasn’t a question.

“I do.”

“Isn’t that a tad reckless? If Dunai or Euryphel find you, they’ll try to kill you...and you’re not exact–”

A searing red flame spiraled over Maria’s arm and up to her neck, forming into the shape of a viper. “There’s no time for a potentioreading, but I’m not feeling so bad about my chances.”

Kaiwen’s expression turned cold, her eyes flitting between Maria and the scientist. “You were in there for two minutes. That’s...nearly two years.”

Maria chuckled bitterly. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but...I decided I would be remiss not to personally enter the Infinity Loop in our moment of crisis. Now I realize I should’ve done this weeks ago, but there’s no use regretting what’s already come to pass.”

“Maria...”

“I’m sure you’ve run a full course of scenarios. If you still think I should stay back and wait for Dunai and the descendant to tear each other and my arrays apart, I’ll heed your wisdom.”

“I’m still thinking,” Kaiwen murmured, biting her lip, her hands clenched. “Just what did you do to...?”

“You should know very well how this came to pass,” Maria said, her voice almost a whisper, her eyes like cold steel. “Dunai killed my child. It’s not entirely surprising that the ordeal...changed me.”

Kaiwen shook her head in disbelief. “It was a second awakening. Those just...don’t happen.”

“I never awakened in the first place, Kaiwen,” Maria snapped. “That’s why my affinity was so useless; I was just barely on the cusp of 20% Sun affinity. I could manifest, but could never improve.”

Kaiwen’s gaze locked on the scientist. “How is this possible?”

He swallowed. “I’m not sure I’m following the conversation.”

“The Eldemari is now a peak Sun practitioner. How is this possible?”

The scientist looked like he was about to fall over. “It shouldn’t be. Not to contradict the words of the Eldemari, but...the second she passed 20% affinity, she should have been able to advance and cultivate her affinity, even if by a small amount. There’s no such thing as a second awakening.”

Kaiwen frowned. “I’m starting to think the Infinity Loop is more dangerous than we initially imagined, that Dunai isn’t as anomalous as we thought. It only took you two years to master Sun affinity...”

“I’d hardly call myself a master,” Maria sniffed. “I’d say I’m just around 90% Sun affinity. I know it’s not a match for Dunai, but I need to go and secure my arrays. If someone shatters them, it’ll be difficult to prevent the domestic situation from devolving into chaos.”

Kaiwen groaned. “Please be careful, and don’t leave my side.”

Maria took the woman’s hand and squeezed. “Always.”

—

“Ian, I think I understand why we haven’t yet encountered anyone.”

Ian’s head turned toward the prince. “Why?”

“Attendants and staff bunkered in a room underground; I can see their End arrows. As for the rest, I presume Selejo’s officials have left to defend against insurrectionists above ground.”

“Nobody’s going to fight us?”

Euryphel stopped walking. He faced Ian and narrowed his eyes before speaking out loud: “Would they even have a chance?”

Ian blinked. “If peak practitioners work in tandem, they might be able to kill me.”

“Or, they can simply wait for Ari to do the job. In these close quarters, the Selejans won’t have the luxury of engaging you at a distance. These are important people we’re talking about, Ian–people that won’t easily throw their lives away. People that, perhaps, would find the destruction of the Eldemari’s arrays to be a...neutral, if not fortuitous circumstance.”

The prince sighed and plopped into the nearest seat, a plush red-velvet-upholstered divan. He stretched out over its length, one leg fully extended while the other was bent at the knee. Head resting on the divan arm, he motioned for Ian to sit down.

“Eury...I think we should keep going inward.”

“We’ve gone forward for the past minute; I’m satisfied I would have seen people’s End arrows if they existed. We’re essentially alone in here, Ian. It doesn’t matter where we go: The Eldemari’s End arrays are scattered beneath us.”

Ian peered downward. “Can you see them?”

Euryphel brushed a strand of hair from his forehead. “About five feet below where we’re standing, the earth is covered in End arrows of all different colors. They’re too numerous to count. Maria can use it to control everyone in Selejo, interfacing with the many through a few bindings. She likely uses one binding for all regulars and a few others for different classes of practitioner, though I’m not privy to the specifics.”

Ian tried to imagine it, his mind conjuring up the multicolored tapestry from his forays into the domain of souls. “Where is the Eldemari if not in the Cuna?”

“No idea.”

Ian was at a loss. Were they just supposed to...wait and do nothing? He decided to at least stop levitating himself above the ground with his practice and began to pace in a circle.

“You’re not seeing anything new?” Ian muttered.

The prince shook his head. “Nothing. No Ari nor anyone else.”

Ian paced for another twenty seconds before the prince finally stirred, his focus sharpening. “Ian, we have people incoming.”

Ian nearly jumped out of his armor, the soul gem on his chest crackling with blue light. “We do?”

“The Eldemari’s coming with Kaiwen Chowicz.” Euryphel massaged his jaw, and sat up, expression contemplative. “I’m trying to understand why she’d come herself. The only thing I can conclude is that something has changed that we’re unaware of, else Chowicz wouldn’t bring her.”

“Just those two?”

“For now, though Ari could come at any time.”

“What’s their aim?”

Euryphel smirked. “Getting you out of here and away from the End arrays below. I’m sure they’d like to end you as well, though that goal’s secondary.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “I did save her son.”

“...You killed him first and are still trying to ruin her palace and arrays. Not that I’m complaining.”

“I made a deal with an ascendant to protect Pardin,” Ian protested. “I’ve tried to be as reasonable as humanly possible, but she’s never let up.”

“It’s not a competition Ian. Everyone has made choices and leading us here today. As I’ve said before, much of the conflict this past month was always inevitable.”

Ian and Euryphel left the parlor room and entered a slightly-larger chamber closer to the palace’s center. Ian had few bones remaining to create decemantic constructs, but at the very least he’d recalled Bluebird and the shark tooth whip before burrowing into the Cuna. Ian wound the whip throughout the room defensively while Bluebird perched on his shoulder. Euryphel stared off into space, no-doubt running a succession of scenarios.

“What’s going on?” Ian asked. “They’re taking longer than I thought.”

“It’s me and Chowicz that are delaying everything. We’re both about evenly matched, which makes it impossible to simply outmaneuver her with prescience.”

“They’re staying beyond my range I presume. What are they trying to do from a different room?”

Euryphel breathed sharply and groaned in frustration. “Chowicz is fairly similar to you in how she fights, Ian. You both also have a near identical range, though yours is slightly farther than hers, thankfully.”

Ian knew that Chowicz was most deadly not for her water elementalism but for her Moon affinity: She could control the water in people’s bodies. When she’d attended the Fassari summit eight years ago, she’d come in third place behind two powerful individuals from the East, and she’d only grown more powerful since then.

“If my range is larger, there should be no contest: We’ll win in a confrontation.”

“And I think Chowicz knows that, but the fact that she’s still hanging around and running her own scenarios suggests that she and Maria still have a feasible objective.”

Ian frowned. “Do you see what kind of scenarios she’s running?”

“No. She’s not doing anything in the real world and neither are we.”

“So...what, are they just waiting for Ari?”

Euryphel sighed and shifted on his feet, red carpet caving softly under his toes. “Seems like it. I’m sure I’ll begin to see more of what they’re planning once Ari’s less than a minute away, but for now...I think we’ll need to wait.”

“What if they’re activating defensive arrays now to fill the palace with poison, or...what if Chowicz tries to flood the palace with water?”

“Ian.”

The necromancer paused at the prince’s verbal statement. “Yes?”

“Stop thinking so hard. If the Kyeilan wasp venom couldn’t so much as phase you, poison gas won’t be enough to force us out. And flooding the palace? We’ve spent the last week half underwater and it’s not like we’ve tossed out our water breathing apparatuses. I’m sure they have no end of defenses in the Cuna, but if they’re not strong enough to force our evacuation, Maria and Chowicz won’t activate them before Ari’s arrival.”

“What about after?”

Euryphel smiled thinly. “I suppose we’ll see.”

Another forty seconds passed. Ian spent the time condensing Death energy around his body and ensuring that Bluebird’s soul gems were in good order. Euryphel remained standing, wind running in light circles over his body, his gaze fixed on a fresco of the four elements spanning the ceiling.

Suddenly wind gusted around the prince’s body, his hair flipping up around his shoulders. He turned to Ian, expression grave. “Ari’s coming.”

“How?” Ian felt as though his heart skipped a beat. “Is she going to break through the ceiling?”

“You’ll both feel and hear her; it’ll be quite the smash.”

Ian couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “Is she just going to pulverize the earth into a tunnel?”

“Ian, let me think, please. Precious seconds counting down here.”

The ensuing seconds were agonizing: Ian could only look on as Euryphel’s expression twisted, the man fighting a hundred unhappened battles against a foe with the same advantage. Ian could imagine the frustration of constantly trying new strategies, training against an opponent that was also training against you...

Finally Euryphel let out a huff of air, a vicious sneer coming over his features. “Ian, listen closely to me. One thing is for certain: We need to take Chowicz out of the equation, and Ari’s arrival is when we’ll have our chance. When Ari lops the top off the Cuna, we’ll have a direct line of sight on Maria and Chowicz. Maria’s going to try something but leave her to me; your job is to eliminate her compatriot, then face your real nemesis.”

“When is this happening?”

“Soon.” Just as the prince finished transmitting the thought, the earth above trembled.

“Eury...”

“Ten, nine...” The earth trembled again, harder. “Six, five, four...”

Wide-eyed, Ian turned his gaze to the ceiling. He could just make out the vitality of a far-off woman slamming what had to be a hammer into the ground.

“We haven’t known each other for long, but I feel like together, we’ve lived a lifetime. This is our final act. Whatever its conclusion, I hope you’ll think of me, even when I’m a soul untouched by the wind.”

Ian’s jaw dropped slightly as he turned the prince’s way, his expression one of terror.

Euryphel smiled softly. “Three, two...one.”

The necromancer had no chance to respond before all was consumed by a deafening smash and brilliant light.