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Chapter 962
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 23:41:42 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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The Emperor
Stand Before Rigid Authority
The Path Continues.
“The Pathless demands you halt!”
Archie slipped through the Inquisitor like a ghost, his knife lashing out and catching him by the neck just as he cleared his red cloak. The man gurgled and fell, one among hundreds. Blades of light dropped from the sky, skewering into the inlaid tile, but Archie dove through them. He tumbled forward and phased through heavy limbs and sections of the floor in equal measure, but he didn’t have infinite Mana. His greatest advantage against the Inquisitors was the same as always: his size. He ran between legs, tangling his fist in their cloaks and hauling them off balance.
“Fanblade!” His Molten Daggers spun, a helicopter blade of razor heat that he brought to bear against the backs of knees and heels. Inquisitors fell, pained shouts louder than the call of their Skills.
“Get the Gnome!”
He was a ghost, unable to be touched. Unlike the First Door, his Mana was at full capacity if dwindling rapidly. “Primeval Drift!”
He slid sideways through a slashing sword, the vibrations of high steel and fire shaking through his chest harmlessly. He reached out, tracing a shining sigil against an Inquisitor’s helmet. “Innocuous Suggestion! Protect me!”
Archie’s Skill rammed up against the Inquisitor’s Willpower…and overcame it. A filter snapped into place between their Mind and Body, and suddenly their sword turned away from Archie. “I will protect you.”
The Inquisitor rounded on his former allies, sword aflame, and delivered a deadly sweep that caught several of the zealots across their surprised faces.
“Lost In The Crowd!” Archie faded, his stealth Skill flaring around him like a thin blanket against an arctic night. Alone it was a laughable protection, but light enough fires and it worked like a charm.
Innocuous Suggestion is level 103!
Lost In The Crowd is level 99!
He ran, chaos behind him as zealot fought zealot, giving him enough time to chug down a Mana Potion.
Bleh! Tastes like blueberry fizz. He rolled through a redcloak’s legs and fetched back to his feet, still moving. I hate blueberries.
Somehow, Archie had entered the Vault of Nine Kings once again. The Inquisitors were still after him, only this time the battle was far different. In reality, the Vault had been months ago, but now an alternate story played in the back of his Mind. It flashed at him, distracting him from the moment, nearly getting him decapitated by a blazing sword despite his stealth.
With an undignified squawk, he fell back, phasing last minute through a wall of gold and highsteel statues that flanked the eastern side of the central chamber. He could sense the nook behind them, Blindsense pinging off the cavity, not large enough for a man but more than enough for him. He slipped out of the gold and slammed hard into the stone on the far side, high Tier enough to stymie Primeval Drift for a moment and force him to take a long, shuddering breath.
Damn, I’m tired. He was out of Stamina Potions. Health Potions too. He’d burned through both during the first hour, and he’d been in that vault for nearly two. This Door sucks.
He clutched at his temples, the onrush of new memories was dizzying, confusing. It didn't hurt, but each step he took was fouled when he recalled something new, something that didn't make sense, because it never had happened. He remembered being on the run for months, far longer than before. This time, he'd lingered in Birchstone well after Felix and his people had moved through. Alter-Archie had avoided them entirely while Felix had hunted for whatever they'd been after. There were a few close calls: Archie nearly getting snatched up by the Autarch, but a few heavily greased palms kept his name out of the smuggler's mouth when Felix came asking.
Felix had assaulted the Undermount, and in the end, he'd failed. Archie couldn’t believe that, but the Path had no reason to lie. Turns out, if you want to succeed even someone like Felix still needed the right sorta help.
Alter-Archie had been too deep in hiding to watch the chaos as Felix was chased out of Birchstone, but he recalled seeing a wingless Chimera limping out of the city as their company fled before the Red Shield Ironskins.
Then the Titan had returned.
Archie flinched from the memory, dagger blindly slashing against the gold. It rang like a damn bell, shocking him out of his haze. He recalled the woman setting up camp in Birchstone, still on the hunt for him, and he’d sunk even deeper into the criminal underground. He’d kept far away from the Hierocratic forces, even when the Paladins and Inquisitors had invaded the entirety of the Rimefang Mountains. That had been less than a month ago, and already the Holds had fallen. It's what made Archie make his move.
The Red Shield Hold had fallen, the Hinterlord killed, and the seat taken by the Titan herself. Archie had attempted to infiltrate the Undermount that very night, and found the Inquisitors waiting for him.
Fuck this Door. He gripped his Molten Daggers, hunting for comfort. A bunch of lies stuffed in my head.
A sizzling pop was the only warning Archie had before a fist punched through the golden statues. "Cease your hiding, Gnome!"
The Titan had been waiting for him, too.
A blade of solid light sliced through where his head had been, but Archie was already sinking into the floor.
Sight and sensation faded, replaced by his Blindsense. Vibrations rolled through him, waves of sound and texture that informed him of the near thousand inquisitors within the Vault of Nine Kings. Their footprints rippled as if they stood atop a pond of shallow water, chaotic with every movement, every drawn weapon or summoned Skill. Ripples ontop of ripples. Blindsense struggled to parse it all, but he had a good frame of reference. He'd fought them before; he could do this again.
Blindsense is level 109!
Blindsense is level 110!
Things clarified, if only slightly.
There!
Angling his Body, Archie shot upward through high Tier stone. He was different now than he had been the first time they'd entered the vault. Back then, he'd been utilizing a lesser version of his favorite Skill. Back then, he hadn't known nearly as much.
Back then, he'd been weak.
Archie shot up into the midst of the redcloaks. His Molten Daggers spun, lopping through necks in a spray of gore, dropping six of the Inquisitors at once before he zipped forward, each swing of his arms taking down another redcloak.
"GNOME!"
The shout was a physical force hurling at Archie's back. It threw him off beat, his blade missing the next Inquisitor by scant inches, which only meant it took the zealot twice as long to die. The Titan charged after him, all eleven feet of her in pristine silver plate and an armory of weaponry bristling from her hip, back, and shoulder. She used none of them, instead conjuring her elemental weapon, now a halberd, its axe blade sweeping through her own people. They were gutted in a spray of light.
"I thought you were supposed to keep me alive, lady," he said, diving beneath the halberd and rising twenty feet away. "I take it that you're not Gabby.”
The Titan didn't answer, except to howl in incoherent rage from beneath her slotted helm.
"Yeah," he muttered. “Not Gabby. Okay,” he grinned. “That means I can kill her."
Archie shot forward, flaring his Agility and Primeval Drift. He smeared across the vault, whipping a confusing path around and then beneath the Titan. She smashed the ground, her glowing halberd hunting his neck, but only managed to crack the tiles. Archive vanished, diving down and then up and through one of the many columns that stretched into the ceiling.
Blindsense is level 111!
Primeval Drift is level 112!
He shot out from above her, one Fanblade already whirling through leather straps and baldrics, dropping axes, maces, and some sort of spear from her back. The second strike drew a deep score across the metal itself—and the Titan swung.
Primeval Drift is level 113!
Archie half phased through the woman’s blow before a steel-core of light smashed into his dagger and then his gut, in that order. He was launched backward, tumbling end over end before fetching up against a pile of treasure.
Warning!
Health Has Dropped To 30%!
“Shit.” He held up the broken haft of one of his Molten Daggers. “I loved that knife.”
She swung for him, and he slid aside, lifting his remaining Molten Dagger to the sky. He barely deflected her powerful blow and felt something creak in his arm. Still, the halberd turned aside, into the earth, where it split the rock into a five-foot crevasse.
"Holy shit." He jumped back, phasing through a pile of gold as her backhand swing scattered it to the four winds. "You are supposed to keep me alive, aren't you?"
"The Pathless has already won. He's secured four of the Unbound already, more than enough to suit our needs. That's why I was allowed to take Red Shield Hold. We knew you were here, hiding like a rat. But all the while, I played the slow, insufferable game, letting you feel comfortable, waiting for the moment when you'd actually have the balls to make your move. And yet you never did. Fitting.” She cast off her helmet. Her hair clung to her forehead and her eyes blazed with golden light. “You may sound like a man, but your heart matches that of a child's. Untested. Unstrengthened. Weak.”
A slow, sneer transformed her beautiful face. “Taking over? Killing the Hinterlord? That was just a bonus to getting you to move.”
“You did all that for me? I should be flattered.”
“Don't be. This was not the Pathless's choice. It was mine. I've been given free reign here, in these mountains. And I tire of your bullshit." She stepped forward, halberd turned into a longsword.
An arrow struck the ground ahead of her and exploded. Cold shadow blossomed, hurling the Titan back into a rack of armor.
"Well, that was a villain speech if I ever heard one.”
Archie whipped his head up to follow the trajectory of the arrow. A Kobold, with purple-black scales and fur, stood atop a golden balcony near the ceiling of the vault. “Shadow?”
“Hey there Archie. How’re you doing?”
“Been better. Where’d you come from?”
"Ended up on some sort of weird upside-down mountain. Then I saw the redcloaks. Godslaves.” The Kobold spat. “Now I find you going toe to toe with Gabby? What’d she do?”
“That’s not Gabby.” Archie stood back up. “That’s Imara. I hope you brought reinforcements.”
The Inquisitors rallied, swords and crossbows lit up with fire and light. They took aim at Archie and Shadow both.
“You know, that’s part of what confused me.” The redcloaks were pummeled by new projectiles, each flaring with poison and shadow. They fell back. Shadow grinned. "I woke up with a whole damn army."
Hundreds of Wyrmkin bandits—men and women Archie recognized from Jaast—flooded the upper levels, each armed with a crossbow, longbow, or in some cases, massive ballistas. They fired upon the Inquisitors, driving them back, even as they answered with their own light and fire.
"This isn't enough," the Titan yelled, climbing out of armor that had pooled around her, like molten metal. She burned with a golden radiance, so hot that even mithril started to sag. "Bring an army, Archibald. You will not defeat me. And you, oh, you I will capture." She pointed at Shadow. "We already have your brother."
“That’s the last thing you wanted to say,” Shadow snarled and lifted his bow. “Multishot Massacre! Deadly Darkvein! Piercing Echo! Sanguine Serration! Pinpoint Burst!”
His arrow fired like a missile, screaming across the vault before bursting into thirty identical clones, each blazing with dark power. They landed among the Inquisitors like a bomb, tearing through their ranks and ending the lives of a dozen separate zealots.
Golden shields flexed and shattered, but not the Titan’s. She grunted and fell back a step, unharmed. "I have the relentless might of the Pathless behind me, and what do you have? A coward, a lizard, and a handful of thieves."
“Don’t forget giants!”
Frost overtook the vault, snuffing out the golden light under thick purple-white crystals and trapping the Inquisitors. Evie, clad in a strange outfit of furs and black metal, stood at the entrance with twin chains held aloft. Frost poured off of her shoulders, and her skin had taken on a strange blue hue. Behind her, through the main gates of the vault, charged hundreds of giants. Fifteen feet tall at the smallest, they roared, their bodies coated with black iron and crimson ice, mouths frothing as they brought out their wrath.
“Release!” Imara called and ice cracked. “Take to your Armaments!”
Redcloaks summoned the light, forging massive suits of armor to face down the giants. They were not enough, as the Risi slammed into their lines hard enough to shatter the ground. The Berserkers were followed up by scores of Witches and their hexes, and others that raced along with a pack of Hoarhounds. The huge, horse-sized wolves took up Inquisitors in their jaws before snapping them in half.
Chaos reigned.
"Now I think I know the point of this path," Archie said in the pocket of quiet between him and Imara. "I thought I was supposed to steal the array. The one I’d come to get a long time ago.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I see it now." Archie adjusted his stance, scooping up a spare dagger from the ground. It felt good in his grip, but he didn't bother looking at it. "The point of this Path is for us to take you out."
Imara laughed. She stood there, blazing through the ice that choked the chamber and insulating herself from the arrows that rained from above. Her silver armor was covered in a sheen of gold, and her eyes burned like twin suns. “Then test your mettle, Gnome.”
“I’m not a Gnome.” Archie lifted his daggers. “I’m Archie Ross.”
Imara charged, a golden wrecking ball, but Archie vanished before she’d taken her first step. He neatly avoided the massive chain that careened into her from the side. The Titan grunted, caught off guard by the heavy links, as well as the woman that launched feet first into her back.
“Bindings of the White Waste!”
Pale chains locked around Imara’s feet and she fell forward, Evie somersaulting off her back with insulting grace.
“Arcane Arbalest! Magnified Shot! Deadly Darkvein! Sanguine Serration! Pinpoint Burst!”
A second arrow fired, this one bigger than the last, and it crashed into Imara’s head with all the subtlety of a car crash.
“Keep on her!” Evie ordered, whipping her chains back around, but they were caught in a golden fist.
“I am the Vessel of the Pathless. You are nothing more than an ant.” She hauled back, yanking Evie off her feet before she could let go, and Imara drove her fist into the chainwielder’s gut. Evie spat something, gasping for breath, but still managed to latch onto the Titan’s forearm enough to spring away.
The arrows kept coming, each deadlier than the last, but Imara moved like liquid lightning. She dodged between them, chasing Evie down with a summoned Brightblade and the sure stomps of an unstoppable juggernaut. She was imbued with the Light of the Divine after all; what could stop her?
A Molten Dagger sizzled through the sole of her boot, and Imara fell.
Icy chains followed, binding the Vessel to the earth again and again, until blood ran from Evie’s nostrils. The Titan rocked immediately to her feet, but for a moment she was still—long enough for Shadow's arrows to sink into the rare few gaps in her armor. Status Conditions flooded through her, lasting mere seconds due to her unnatural resilience, but stalling her even further.
“This cannot stop me.” Imara spat blood, thick and dark. “None of you are enough!”
Archie’s Molten Dagger sliced through her Achilles tendon, forcing her to stumble. She swung on him, snapping new frozen chains but missing as he sunk into the earth.
“Maybe not alone,” Evie said, chains sprouting from the earth. They pulled Imara low.
Shadow’s bow blazed with dark light. “But you can’t handle us together.”
Archie landed on her neck, Molten Dagger and his spare plunging forward. “Primeval Drift!”
The Light bucked, fighting against him, but Archie had it’s number. He’d heard its song too many times to count, and he rode through the wave. The golden armor shattered, the silver plate buckled, and his knives stabbed deep into Imara’s skull.
You Have Killed Imara, Vessel Of The Pathless!
XP Earned!
Comments
Tim Johnson
glad archie was able to overcome his heart demon in this part of the path.
James Skinner
Good fight, thanks for the chapter.
