The Zombie Knight

Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Four: 'When compeers doth vie...'

The rest of the ceremony proceeded normally enough, and thankfully, Hector didn't have to actually talk during it. There were more opportunities for him to do so, of course, but he was able to remain silent through them all without drawing more unwanted attention than he already had.

Afterwards, the camera crews were ushered out of the office by the President's black-suited security guards, and from there, the actual meeting could begin.

Surprisingly, the Lord Gaolanet was the first to speak up once everyone was seated. "President Dance," he said with a stern expression on his illusory face, "is it your intention to insult the Queen of Atreya with this gift?"

Dance's own expression was just as steely, however. "Not at all. There will of course be a monetary reward rendered for Lord Goffe's services as well. However, we did not feel that we should present it before the cameras, especially since we did not know who, exactly, would be the recipient."

"What do you mean by that?" said Prince David. "Lord Goffe is obviously the recipient."

"Ah." Dance eyed Hector for a moment. "We thought, perhaps, the Atreyan government would be accepting payment in your stead. Forgive the confusion. We certainly meant no insult."

Hmm. This guy wasn't easy to read. But Hector was a little more familiar with Prince David, and with the help of the Scarf, he was able to notice the ever so slight narrowing of the man's eyes before that easy smile returned to his face.

Hanton was the one who spoke up again, though. "That is not what I was getting at, President Dance. And I think you know that. The Roots of the Farakano Tree are part of an obscure Lorentian tradition that few in Atreya are likely to be aware of, but I highly doubt that you and the people advising you are ignorant of the historical precedence behind what you have just done."

The whole room went quiet, and Hector waited for elaboration on what Hanton was talking about. Just from the Sparrow's tone alone, it seemed that this was more serious than Hector realized.

The President leaned back in his chair a little. "I think perhaps you are reading too much into our actions, Lord Hanton. The Root is simply a means of expressing the depth of our gratitude. What you call 'historical precedence,' I would merely refer to as 'historical significance.' I hope it is clear--to you, Lord Goffe, especially--that we did not gift you this cherished item lightly."

'Okay, Garovel, what the hell are they talking about?' said Hector.

'I honestly don't know,' the reaper said privately from over his shoulder. 'But I'm sure Hanton will explain if you ask him.'

As it turned out, there was no need for that.

"The Roots of the Farakano Tree have rarely ever been gifted to anyone," said the Lord Gaolanet, "but on those occasions, they always doubled as a symbol of land ownership." He shot Hector a look. "Lord Goffe, President Dance has just granted you sovereignty over some unknown portion of Lorentian territory."

Hector's eyes widened, and he looked at the engraved box in his hands again.

'Oooh,' was all Garovel had to say.

"Obviously, this is extremely generous," said Hanton. "My issue is not with the stinginess of the Lorentian government, as the President seemed to be implying. Rather, my issue is that he has granted this land to you, not Atreya. And I do not think the Queen will find this little stunt very amusing."

"Ah," said Prince David. "I see now. How cunning. And you made a show of the gift on national television, no less. That is quite the bold strategy, Mr. Dance."

"It was no strategy," said the President. "The reward was suited to the accomplishment. Anything less would have been an insult, we felt."

David snorted a laugh. "I do not think my sister will see it that way. In fact, I am quite certain that she will see it as you attempting to poach our dear Lord Goffe from us."

Hector didn't know what to say here, and it didn't particularly help that Garovel was just laughing his ass off at the moment.

"We have no such designs on your Lord of Warrenhold," said President Dance, "but even if we did, 'poaching' would be an incorrect and needlessly inflammatory term, Prince David. We are not forcing anything on him, and Lord Goffe can make his own decisions, no?"

The Prince's big belly trembled as he broke for a chuckle. "So if he were to return the Root, that would be no problem, then? The Lorentian government and general public wouldn't see that as an incredible insult?"

The President folded his arms. "What cause would there be for him to return it? Other than the Atreyan government putting an inordinate amount of pressure on him to do so?"

"As I said, our Queen will not find this amusing," said Hanton.

"And so she will do him an injustice by depriving him of a well-deserved reward?" said the President. "If that is the case, then perhaps your government's relationship with Lord Goffe is not as healthy as it should be."

A tense silence arrived.

'Yikes.' Garovel wasn't laughing, anymore.

Hector felt a bit like the rope in a tug-of-war contest. He should probably say something here, but what?

The President was the one to pick the conversation back up. "Lord Goffe, if the matter of land ownership is too uncomfortable for you to talk about in this present meeting, might I suggest we postpone and discuss it another time?"

Oh fuck. Lord Hanton and Prince David were both looking at him like they had something they wanted to say but couldn't.

Uhh.

Uhhhhh.

'Ask where this land in question even is,' said Garovel privately.

And Hector hesitated. Should he really do that? Well, it was Garovel saying it, so it probably wasn't a horrible idea, even though it kinda seemed like one...

Agh.

"...What land are you offering me, exactly?" said Hector.

"Well, seeing as Warrenhold is already so close," said President Dance, "we were thinking that the southern Jagwa territory would be the best suited to you, but there is some room for negotiation if you would prefer a different region."

"Oh, like the central Nyani territory, perhaps?" said Prince David.

The President's eyes shifted to David, and his face remained like stone. "There is some room for negotiation, I said. I should hope it is obvious that certain areas cannot be offered."

"Don't want to grant him sovereignty of your capital city, huh?" said David with another laugh. "And here I thought you were trying to be generous."

As seemed usual, the President did not look amused.

Hector gave the Prince a look of mild pleading. "Prince David..."

"My apologies." He took a deep breath and nodded. "Perhaps I have let this situation tickle my fancy just a bit too much. In all seriousness, however, I must say that I am quite curious about how you intend for this whole situation to work, precisely. Lorent is not a monarchy, and you are not a king. As far as I understand your system, you do not have the power to grant lordship over land in the same way that our Queen can."

"Yes," said Dance. "In legal terms, it would not be a 'lordship.' He would not hold the same degree of power over Lorentian citizens as he does over those in Atreya."

He had power over Atreyan citizens? Come to think of it, Hector had never really bothered to look into the legal definition of 'lordship' in Atreya. Hmm. Maybe he should do that sometime.

"It would simply be 'ownership,'" the President went on. "We will of course provide the full legal details to you in writing of your rights as a Lorentian land owner. Additionally, since the land in question is so large, there will likely be other regulations that apply to you--and others that may not."

"So he will still be subject to Lorentian law," said Prince David.

"When it applies to him, yes," said the President.

"And I assume you intend to grant him full citizenship as well?" said David.

"Of course," said Dance. "That is a prerequisite for owning land in this country. The process has already been fast-tracked for him and is ready to be completed whenever Lord Goffe wishes to sign the accompanying paperwork."

"I see," said David. "And would he also have a responsibility to protect any other Lorentian citizens that happen to live on his land?"

The President stared at the Prince for another long moment. "No. That would be a matter for law enforcement."

"Mm." David nodded again and scratched his chin. "But I suppose you would not have a problem with it if he took such a responsibility upon himself voluntarily, eh?"

"It would be his land. He can do with it as he likes, as long as it is within the confines of the law."

"Right. And is it only land that you are offering? Or is there also a specific homestead you have in mind? A base of operations, perhaps?"

"That would depend on which region is chosen, but it is negotiable. I am sure that there are many historical buildings that might serve such a function, but if Lord Goffe would prefer an entirely new construction, that could be arranged as well. And I would ask that any further questions regarding the minute details of this reward be saved for a discussion with our Secretary of Agriculture and Land Development. He can provide you with more specific information."

"Very well." The Prince looked around the room at the remaining observers. "He wouldn't happen to be present, would he?"

"He would not," said the President. "However, his office is only a few doors down from mine, and he should be expecting a visit from you after this one, unless you prefer to reschedule."

"How accommodating of you," said David.

"It is not our intention for this gift to feel like a burden in any way," said the President. "Ultimately, that is all that I had hoped to achieve with this meeting here today. If there are any larger questions concerning the nature of the reward, I would be happy to answer them."

"Thank you," said David. "As it so happens, I have many more that come to mind."

"As do I," said Hanton.

And Hector, for his part, merely continued listening. And as the meeting drew out, Hector had to wonder if the two men sitting next to him were actually on his side in this particular conversation.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Just as the Vantalayans had said, these rings were surprisingly easy to use. The Rainlords still took precautions and decided to practice with them anyway, but Raul felt like he'd gotten the hang of it pretty quick.

Once he understood the way the invisibility functioned, the ring just seemed to respond to his intent. If he wanted to become invisible, he became invisible. If he wanted to see his companions who were also invisible, the ring revealed them.

It was unfortunately still unclear whether or not these rings could reveal the locations of all other invisibility users in the vicinity. If so, then these items could very well prove to be supremely valuable tools in the fight against Abolish, both now and in the foreseeable future. But the reapers all seemed to be concerned that this function might be limited.

They felt there was a high probability that these rings would only work on other, similar rings. As in, perhaps they would only be able to penetrate the invisibility of rings that had been "harvested" from the same aberration.

And with that possibility in mind, caution was still the order of the day. At first, this mission had seemed like it might well become trivial with the power of these rings now in their hands, but the Rainlords had suffered too many losses too recently. They were not going to let overconfidence be their downfall here.

The plan, therefore, was to have only one person infiltrate the town of Miro before attempting to send everyone. In the event that it turned out to be some sort of trap, they didn't want to risk them all getting captured at once.

It probably wasn't a trap, though, in all honesty. If it was, then that would mean those Vantalayans had been in on it, and Raul Blackburn really didn't think that they were.

Nonetheless, the reapers wanted to be extra careful. And if it wasn't a trap, then this plan would work out just fine, too.

That was part of the reason why Raul had volunteered for it. The other part was because he still felt responsible for this whole mess in the first place. If he had been more vigilant, then his two brothers wouldn't have been captured. He very much wanted to be the one to go in and free them. Perhaps that would make up for his previous failure, if only slightly.

The others had required some convincing before eventually agreeing to it. The Lady Stroud in particular had seemed quite against letting him shoulder this responsibility, and Raul hadn't been able to tell if it was because she was worried about him or if she just didn't think he was capable of pulling it off. Maybe both.

The reapers ended up overruling her, though. They reasoned that it would be better not to risk one of their strongest warriors on this task.

A bit insulting, perhaps, but not inaccurate, he supposed.

So here he now was, all on his own, sneaking into town behind an invisible shroud. In broad daylight, no less. There was no point in waiting until nightfall again. The cover of darkness didn't really matter if the enemy wouldn't be able to see him, anyway. In fact, it would just make it more difficult for him to find his way around.

The town was still in shambles from their first battle here, the one that had lasted a full twenty-four hours and ended in a stalemate. He tried to take note of any new developments, though.

Several buildings were now completely gone, leveled to the ground. That seemed a bit odd, considering the fact that one of the reasons that fight had lasted so long and been such a problem for the Rainlords was because they had deliberately tried to avoid obliterating any buildings. The reapers had been able to sense innocent bystanders within many of them, and the whole point of this operation was to rescue those poor people.

As far as Raul was aware, they had thus far been successful in that aspect of their mission, at least. While some of these squat, little buildings may have gotten punctured a few times accidentally, none of the civilians had actually been killed.

Raul had been proud of that, if not much else here.

But now, looking at these piles of rubble where houses used to stand, he found himself wondering if even that accomplishment had been undone. These civilians might have survived the fight, but they had still been forced to endure the tyranny of those Abolish maniacs for a few more days.

Raul had wanted to believe that these Abolishers wouldn't kill their hostages, their most valuable bargaining chips, but now he wasn't so sure. He hadn't seen any bodies yet, but a part of him was expecting to.

The streets were torn up, missing giant chunks of pavement or simply replaced by craters that made it more difficult to get around. No doubt, that was the point. And as Raul slowly made his way deeper toward the town center, he began to notice tall barricades that had not been there before, either.

Hmm. Perhaps that was where some of the materials from those destroyed homes had gone. To erecting defenses.

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Fortunately, there weren't that many barricades, and Raul was able to slip past them easily enough. The only thing he had to worry about was not making any noise. The invisibility couldn't conceal the sound of his footsteps on this wildly uneven ground, so he needed to move very slowly and carefully.

He informed his reaper, Arumoro, of his position. Arumoro was still all the way back in Warrenhold, but he was in communication with the reapers of his two cousins who were here, Dino and Rafael Blackburn. It was bit of a lengthy relay--and somewhat slow, besides--but it worked. Cousin Melchor and the others would be kept apprised of the situation as it developed.

He knew they were all on high alert while they waited for him. He had to check in with Arumoro every two minutes, at least to confirm that he was not dead yet.

Slowly, he made his way toward the largest building in Miro. That was where Abolish seemed to be operating out of, the last time he was here.

He still hadn't seen a single person, though, which was putting him even more on edge than he already was. The streets were empty, and he began taking the opportunity to peer through windows as he passed by each building, yet still he found nothing. Without a doubt, all the non-servants had been rounded up and herded somewhere like cattle.

At length, he reached his destination, the apparent town hall. The building's old wooden beams groaned against the early afternoon wind, and the floorboards made Raul question every single step he took. His pace slowed to even more of a crawl than before.

The first floor appeared to be empty, but there were two more to check and possibly a basement as well.

As Raul made his way upstairs, he began to feel sweat gathering on his brow. And it was not the temperature's fault. Vantalay may have had a tropical climate, but today, the weather was actually quite cool.

No, this was field density. Heightening his discomfort. Testing his nerves.

The enemy was here somewhere.

In all likelihood, his two brothers, Esai and Adan, were currently nothing more than frozen heads, so naturally, Raul was hoping that he would be able to locate them and destroy them so that their reapers might be able to regrow them from scratch back at Warrenhold. And of course, freeing the civilians would be even more of a boon, if he could somehow accomplish that. Perhaps with this ring, it would be possible, though he doubted it.

However, his real objective at the moment was nothing so grandiose as being the heroic rescuer. As much as he might have preferred otherwise, his task now was far more simple and mundane than that. He needed only to confirm that these rings were actually working, that Abolish truly could not sense his presence while he was invisible.

That was the reason he was here alone, after all. Once he accomplished that small feat, it would be safe to alert the others and have everyone else join him here so that they could mount a surprise attack with full force.

And that was why it was such a problem that he couldn't find anyone. The second floor appeared to be just as empty as the first, and he continued up the stairs again, he had a dreadful feeling that the third wasn't going to be any different.

The notion that they might also be using invisibility crossed his mind. This power did originate from their aberrations. But it still seemed unlikely to him. If they had that tool at their disposal, then surely, they would've used it by now instead of enduring this stalemate over the last few days.

Raul had seen Abolish patrolling the town last night through his binoculars, but he supposed that he didn't have confirmation that they were still using this town hall as their headquarters. It would make sense if they had decided to move it.

As far as he knew, there were currently eight Abolishers in Miro. Over the course of their first battle, Raul had been able to commit all of their faces to memory, but the only one whose name he knew was Thaddeus Croll, the so-called Killer of Krohin. That man was clearly the most dangerous, but the others had held their own during the fight, too.

That day had been absolutely insane. The Rainlords and Leo had come into town with full force, not holding anything back. Everyone who could use a hyper-state had been doing so. And at first, it seemed as if Croll's team would be quickly overwhelmed, until Croll himself entered pan-rozum and began repelling both Leo and Cousin Melchor simultaneously.

Even now, Raul wasn't entirely sure how he had done that. Croll's subordinates had assisted him and utilized hyper-states of their own, but even so. He may have witnessed it with his own two eyes, but the whole thing had been confusing beyond belief. A total madhouse.

In pan-rozum, Cousin Melchor's power of mercury transfiguration was like that of a monster. An amorphous beast that splashed down on its opponents and smothered them into submission. That was why they called him Darktide.

And Leo, while he couldn't use a hyper-state and was no doubt trying not to destroy the town he loved, had still been materializing so many things in such rapid succession that it was like watching a storm moving across the battlefield.

And yet somehow, Croll had endured all of that.

With a sword, no less.

Raul had never seen such a thing. The way that Croll's blade had cut through Melchor's liquid body and Leo's flurry of materialized boron--it didn't seem physically possible, quite frankly.

Naturally, Croll's soul must have played a significant role in strengthening his weapon in such a way, but still. That couldn't have been all there was to it, right? Swordsmanship would've been much more common among servants, if that were the case.

And of course, Raul had not forgotten the reason why he and his brothers had been sent all the way here to Vantalay in the first place.

To search for a treasure called the Sword of Unso.

It had therefore occurred to him that the Killer of Krohin might have been wielding it. That might've explained the seemingly supernatural nature of the man's swordsmanship.

Cousin Melchor and Leo didn't seem to think so, however. When Raul had voiced that idea after the battle, they both said that such skill was achievable without the aid of a magical artifact.

"You youngins would be surprised what some people can accomplish with raw talent, the right teacher, and a hundred years of practice," Leo had said.

It seemed like Leo had meant for that to be encouraging, but after hearing that, Raul had been anything but.

"It does strike me as strange, though," Melchor had added, "that a swordsman of such caliber would be in this region at the same time that we were searching for the Sword of Unso. Somehow, I doubt that's a coincidence."

On that point, Raul was at least able to agree. If Croll wasn't wielding the Sword, then perhaps he was looking for it.

And after seeing what the man was already capable of, it was terrifying to imagine what he would be able to do if he ever managed to get his hands on it.

Perhaps the most ridiculous thing, however, was the fact that even after twenty-four hours of fighting the man, Croll's other abilities aside from his swordsmanship were still somehow unclear. He didn't appear to be a materialization, destruction, or alteration user, as the wielding of those powers should have been obvious.

That left transfiguration, integration, and mutation, but even after debating the matter for sometime, the reapers couldn't puzzle it out. If it was transfiguration, then he wasn't using it in the normal manner of creating explosive compounds and corrosive acids. If it was integration, that would make sense as to why he was relying so heavily upon his weapon, but there were still minor ways that he could have used integration in combat--theoretically, at least.

And mutation, well. That was usually obvious just by looking at someone, and Croll had the appearance of a very normal human man.

Well... mostly normal.

Those dark eyes were something else. The weight behind the man's gaze felt almost like another blade of its own. Raul never heard him utter a single word, yet Thaddeus Croll's murderous determination still seemed obvious from those eyes alone.

'That is no accident,' Orric had observed. 'I believe that man has something called czort-jasnosc. It has been a very long time since I have seen it.'

"What in the world are you talking about?" said the Lady Stroud.

'It is a unique form of psychosis' the reaper said, 'and quite possibly supernatural, as well. It's rare, and I can't claim to know exactly what causes it--or if anything does, for that matter. I have heard speculation that it is simply a natural phenomenon attributed to genetics. But I have also heard that it is something that only happens after someone has murdered countless innocent people.'

'What do you mean when you say it's a "unique" form of psychosis?' asked Ezura.

'Specifically, I am referring to the potentially supernatural aspect of it,' said Orric. 'Psychosis is a rather broad term that covers many different conditions, but many psychoses are characterized by delusions and/or hallucinations. Czort-jasnosc--or czorja, as some call it--is distinct in that the things it causes the person to experience... are always incredibly violent and gruesome. Those inflicted with it often believe that they are literally living in Hell--or something like it.'

'Wow,' said Ezura. 'That sounds... horrible. But not exactly supernatural.'

'Ah. Yes, well. The reason for that is because there are many disputed accounts of some of the "sufferers" having seen hallucinations that turned out to be real or surprisingly close to real. Some reports have even mentioned "predictive capabilities that occasionally made it seem like the patient could see into the future."'

Needless to say, no one had been pleased to hear that.

Certainly, Raul did not want to believe that the Killer of Krohin was capable of such a thing, but the more he thought back to that fight from the other day--and to that penetrating stare--the more he thought it might just be true.

And if it was, then this surprise attack strategy was even more important. While it might be tempting to get discouraged and say that there was no point in attempting an ambush if the enemy could see into the bloody future, Raul was convinced that it might still work.

Especially if they didn't attack Croll first. If they could ambush his subordinates while he wasn't around, then they could isolate him. And from there, they could overwhelm and possibly even capture him or his reaper.

That was the hope, anyway.

With the third floor confirmed to be clear, Raul made his way all the way back down. The basement was his next destination, and it took him a little while to find. The entrance to it was squirreled away behind the kitchen, probably for ease of retrieving food from storage.

The stairs leading down into it were even creakier than the previous ones had been, and Raul again found himself moving at a snail's pace. His foot had to flirt with each step before actually taking it, testing out the wood with light taps, trying to discern if it was going to squeal. The favored tactic was to step near the corners of each step, where the wooden boards intersected and were therefore strongest, but he still wanted to be exceptionally careful here.

If his presence was discovered, there was no telling how many of the hostages might end up dead--either now or later.

The basement was dark but thankfully not pitch black.

Nor was it empty.

The hostages were gathered in the middle of the chamber, tied up and sitting together in apparent silence.

And Raul counted two Abolish guardsmen for them, both fairly close to his position. The basement only had the one entrance, so it made sense that they wouldn't want to stray too far from it.

Neither one of them was Croll, thank god. They weren't looking in his direction, so it was a little difficult to tell if they genuinely couldn't see him or if they just hadn't seen him yet.

It was boding well, though. The staircase was rather well lit compared to the rest of the basement, so they most likely should have seen him as he'd descended it.

He moved directly into their lines of sight, just to be sure.

Yes.

They looked straight through him, unfazed.

The invisibility was working just as hoped.

He informed Arumoro immediately. With this, the operation could truly begin. The others had been waiting on word from him for quite a while, and now they could finally move into the town and get into position.

It was his turn to wait. Arumoro kept him apprised of their progress.

He used the time to reevaluate his situation. This basement floor was comprised of one large room with three smaller ones attached to it. Two storage rooms and one small office.

He would've liked to lure one of the Abolishers into one of those smaller rooms in order to isolate and ambush him without alerting the other, but that might've been too much to ask for.

The hostages, for their part, were utterly silent. They were not gagged, but their dirty faces, ragged clothes, and downcast eyes all painted a clear enough picture for Raul of what these people had been through.

Were these all of them, though? No. By his count, there should have been twenty or so more.

And these two Abolishers. He may not have known their names, but after that first battle, he certainly recognized their faces. They wore matching uniforms, both about as dirtied and torn as Raul's more casual clothing. They both carried a sidearm, though he only recalled the short one using his. The taller one was a materializer of a silvery metal. The reapers suspected it was zinc, but they acknowledged that there were simply too many other elements that fit that description to be sure.

Not that the element mattered too much for Raul. Being an alteration user, he thankfully didn't have to be terribly concerned about unexpected chemical reactions suddenly turning the tide of battle for or against him.

Most of the time, anyway.

Judging from the skill that the man had displayed previously, he was probably at least twenty years old as a servant. Which was a problem, of course, so Raul wanted to take him out first, though he wondered if it might be possible to neutralize them both at once.

Raul's power over friction allowed for quite a large amount of versatility, and the elder servants in his family had frequently told him and his brothers that it might just become one of the strongest abilities in the world, one day.

For the longest time, he didn't believe them in the slightest, but recently, he'd begun to see what they were talking about. Just a little.

Because in one form or another, friction was in everything. Air resistance was a type of friction. Even the internal structure of many physical objects was held together by friction. That was why he could dig his fingers into a solid rock wall as easily as if it were a bowl of pudding and pull out a baseball-sized chunk. That was why he could shear off the side of a hill as cleanly as a hot knife through butter.

But friction could also be finicky and weird. Moving objects--like living bodies, for instance--were always fluctuating and oftentimes had a fluidity to them that made them surprisingly difficult to manipulate. Not impossible, perhaps, but difficult nonetheless. And he was still trying to hone that aspect of his power.

The idea that he might one day be able to simply separate a servant's head from their neck at range, with little more than a snap of his fingers... certainly, that seemed quite potent, indeed. However, that particular use of his power was still out of reach, and he had a suspicion that it always would remain so. Even if he could figure that trick out, there was still the matter of passive soul defenses to overcome, and sufficiently aged servants would have that in spades.

Separating their head from their neck up close, however, was still doable. He had discovered quite young that, like most servant abilities, his power was significantly more potent when harnessed nearer to his own body--at the tips of his fingers, for example.

Raul closed the gap between him and the taller Abolisher, but he didn't want to get too close just yet. While he now had a fair amount of faith in the invisibility power of this bone ring on his finger, a part of him still worried that perhaps the man would be able to sense his presence in some other, subtler way.

Smell, for one. Raul hadn't bathed in days. It would be pretty goddamn embarrassing if he botched the mission because of his body odor.

And maybe he was just being superstitious, but he felt like there might be something that he didn't quite understand about presence detection. He'd heard the rumors among the Rainlords back in Warrenhold. The ones about Lord Goffe. They said it was like he had eyes in the back of his head, even when his reaper wasn't around.

Raul remembered asking Melchor about it, too, and the man had just smiled at him like he knew something but couldn't tell him.

So Raul wanted to be careful here, as ever. He didn't have Arumoro to heal his wounds or grant him superhuman strength, but he was confident that he could take both of these Abolishers if he just made the right decisions. Tall one first, short one second.

And he bided his time, waiting for word from Arumoro that the others were in position. It took a long time. The two Abolishers alternated between sitting in a corner chair and pacing across the room, observing the hostages. They were probably waiting on word from their reapers, too, Raul figured.

Then it came. Confirmation.

'On zero,' said Arumoro. 'Five... Four... Three...'

Raul's heart was racing, and his palms were clammy. He tried not to shift his feet in anticipation, because the sound of his shoes scraping against the stony basement floor would be too loud at this range.

'Two... One...'

The taller Abolisher's head perked up suddenly. He didn't look at Raul, but it was enough to cause confusion.

'Zero! Go!'

From a crouched position and still invisible, Raul bounded on the guy, going straight for the neck with his left hand.

The fingers dug into the man's flesh but caught halfway. And though that might've been enough to kill a normal person, it was barely enough to even slow a servant down.

The tall man growled in agony and gurgled blood up from his mouth, but his reaction was still quick. Silver metal coated the majority of his body in an instant, making it immediately more difficult for Raul to complete his intended task.

They both hit the ground in a messy heap. The shorter man was alerted, but with Raul still being invisible, he must not have been able to tell what exactly was happening or how to attack, because he just sort of stood there, watching with apparent confusion.

The silvery metal lashed out haphazardly with materialization, searching for Raul's hidden flesh, and Raul knew that he couldn't afford to let it him, even by accident. So he resorted to one of his most favored tactics.

A massive increase in air resistance all around his body, like an invisible cocoon.

The reason it was one of his most favored was because he had been able to hone it enough to stop even bullets in midair.

Unfortunately, it wasn't yet perfected. At his current skill level, the caliber of the firearm and travel speed of the bullet still mattered greatly, but here and now, he wasn't dealing with high-powered rifles. The wild flailing of blind materialization was no trouble by comparison. Scraps of metal appeared all around the two of them on the ground, scratching the floor and wall, toppling boxes and furniture, and flying through the air--until they came within Raul's range. Then they got stuck like pins in an invisible cushion.

With his attention divided between guarding himself against the materialized flurry and trying to take off the enemy's head, Raul struggled to maintain his focus. His fingers were still stuck in the tall man's neck. He just had to force them the rest of the way through.

He could feel the bone in the way. Blood was gushing everywhere now, splattering over the aberration "shadow" that granted him his invisibility. If it wasn't already obvious to the other Abolisher what was happening, it would be soon.

Raul forced his left hand deeper, and he felt the bone give. Whether that was the result of his ability or simply brute force, even he wasn't quite sure, but the head came off all the same, and then Raul was scrambling to get back on his feet. It didn't help that the floor was slick with blood.

So he fixed that. And he got his footing back instantly.

He was still covered in blood himself, though, and therefore not particularly invisible anymore. The other Abolisher had already drawn his sidearm.

Aberration shadows were supposed to be quite good at blocking purely physical attacks, but Raul didn't have the luxury of mulling his decision over, nor would there have been any logic in taking that risk.

His right hand became a fist, and he reached for the absolute limit of that which he was capable. He needed to maximize the air resistance in front of him if he was going to have any hope of stopping bullets.

The piercing crack of the gun firing came so quickly and repeatedly that, at first, Raul couldn't even tell if he'd been fast enough. But when the bullets started pelting his chest harmlessly, having been slowed down to the speed of spitballs, he was able to exhale a relieved breath.

The shorter man scowled at the sight of what had just happened, and he holstered his gun again. His posture straightened, and he looked like he was about to say something until the ground began to shake.

Trails of dust shook loose from the basement's ceiling. The old building groaned and cracked. Raul's breathing paused as he waited for the trembling to subside, and thankfully, it did.

He was reasonably certain that the fighting elsewhere in the town had caused that just now. Faint popping sounds arrived as well, probably from explosions in the distance. They must have been pretty loud if they were making it all the way down here.

But Arumoro wasn't informing him that anyone needed his help just yet, so Raul tried not to worry. He still had one more opponent to focus on.

And the other man was taking his time, too, perhaps to consult with his reaper and assess the situation.

Raul took the opening not to attack but instead to undo the invisibility-inducing shadow from the ring. The blood that had been splattered across it suddenly had nothing to hold onto and dropped in midair, splashing around him. Some of it got on his clothes, but that was fine, because he immediately resummoned the shadow. He made sure to engulf the severed head under his arm as well, carrying it like a football.

The remaining Abolisher sighed and muttered something in Valgan.

Then he drew his weapon again and blew his own brains out.

Raul just blinked and stared.

It took more than one bullet. The undead man had to unload the rest of the magazine into his head before his body finally went limp, and he dropped to the ground in a bloody heap.

Wide-eyed, Raul needed a few moments to process what had just happened.

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