Mark of the Fool

Chapter 895: Finally Free

“Be ready,” the king of Thameland whispered.

He stood on the walls of the capitol city, looking out.

His muscles ached.

His breathing was heavy, but the power of both the General’s magic and the Traveller’s blessing flowed through him. On the wall around him, his knights remained watchful, scanning the fields ahead. The General’s powerful mercenaries flanked them, and without them, many more lives would have been lost. The city was quiet now, delivered from Ravener-spawn.

Yet the same could not be said for the fields surrounding it.

Another horde of Spawn was rushing for the city gates, gnashing their teeth and flexing their claws, snarling, howling, and crying out for Thameish blood.

The king gripped his sword. “Steady. Steady! We only need to hold out as long as…as…”

His words trailed off.

“Sire!” a court wizard cried. “Look! Something’s happening to the spawn!”

Tobias Jay pushed through the crowd of knights to stand behind his king, and watch the horde approaching the city.

Or rather, that had been approaching the city.

Across the fields and forests, thousands of Ravener-spawn suddenly …stopped.

One moment, they were rampaging toward Ussex’s high walls, and the next, they were as still as statues, staring ahead, looking through what seemed to be unseeing eyes.

As one, they suddenly dropped.

Ravener-spawn collapsed on themselves like puppets with their strings cut. They sprawled on the ground, unmoving, as silent as the grave. Flyers plummeted from the sky, landing in heaps. On fields that a moment earlier werechurning with life, dead bodies now lay, silent in death.

In less than a breath, thousands of Ravener-spawn were corpses.

The king, the high priest and the other defenders of Ussex, stared down at the sight in bewilderment.

They were falling.

Dozens of Ravener-spawn fell in the tunnel ahead of them, right in front of Ripp’s shocked eyes. One moment, they were fighting for their lives, and the next, every Ravener-spawn had simply toppled over, dead.

“What…what happened?” Kybas asked as Harmless cracked the bone of a dead behemoth, eager to feast on the contents. “I wonder what’s wrong with them?”

“I don’t know,” Ripp said. “But, whatever it is, I think it means we won. If they’re dropping dead, I think that’s good news.”

“Svenia, are you seeing this?” Hogarth asked.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Svenia murmured, pulling her halberd out of a gibbering legion’s corpse.

The two guards and other defenders peered down the tunnel at Ravener-spawn corpses lying on the ground ahead of them. All was quiet.

“What’s happened?” A Watcher asked.

“I’ll tell you what’s happened.” Birger smiled, tears in his eyes. “My boy did good, is what happened. All of those young folks did good.”

He looked up at the ceiling.

“We got ‘em, Kelda.”

Vernia Jules fell silent, watching Ravener-spawn falling across the moors.

They collapsed like stalks of wheat cut down by a farmer’s scythe.

“Well,” Gemini said. “This bodes well.”

“It does, indeed,” added Councillor Kartika.

“My word,” Professor Jules muttered. “I think this might mean—”

As she spoke there came a shimmering in the sky.

The image of the Traveller formed above them, her white robe contrasting with the blue of the sky behind her. She beamed, waves of joy radiating from her smile.

“Thameland,” she said. “It’s done. The great battle of our time is finished. The Ravener is gone, and not just for this cycle, but forever. The kingdom and its people are at last free, thanks to the Heroes of Thameland, their companions and your endless efforts and sacrifices! We! Have! Won!”

There was a moment of silence.

Then the wizards of Greymoor shouted in victory. Fists pumped. Watchers hugged mercenaries, some even bowed their heads in reverenceto the image of the newborn goddess.

“Well, that looks to be check,” Hobb said calmly. “And mate, if I am not mistaken.”

Professor Jules didn’t cheer quite yet.

She wouldn’t.

Not until her students came home.

“Look! Look above!” a soldier cried, pointing to the sky above Coille Forest.

There in the sky was the image of the goddess, the Saint of Alric, transformed and transcended.

“It’s the Traveller!” a priest shouted.

“She heralds victory!” cried another voice.

“We have won!”

“The Traveller bless us!”

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“We are delivered from the darkness!”

“Blessings upon the Heroes! Upon Thameland!”

In front of the Cave of the Traveller, the Thameish army chanted, cheered, and threw themselves on the ground in supplication. The news of victory spread to those within the cave itself, they joined in celebrating and praising the newborn goddess.

The only members of the teams of defenders who did not join in were Toraka Shale’s golems, they had fallen silent and were completely still. There was no more fighting for them to do.

Ravener-spawn corpses filled the forest of Coille.

Never to stir again.

A cheer erupted from thousands of voices, rising over Ussex as the Traveller made her announcement. Her image had appeared across the sky, visible from every part of Thameland.

As one, the entire kingdom cried out in victory, in relief, and astonishment.

The Thameish king was no exception.

“Victory!” King Athelstan declared. “We have victory! We have truly won! Rejoice, Thameland! Rejoice!”

“I told you we would live.” Kyembe of Sengezi sheathed his sword at his waist. “And live well. We drink from the cup of victory along with these brave folk. Ah, but we should go and find—Hm? Wurhi?”

The tiny Zabyallan had collapsed across the parapet, panting heavily, her sword limp in her fingers. “Feels like my arms are about to fall off. Damn these monsters ten times! Twenty times! I hope they eat hot coals in the hells. Hot coals dipped in dung and soaked in a fisherman’s waste basket!”

Kyembe responded with a deep, rich laugh.

A little distance away, Ezerak Kai smiled wistfully. “I did not have to witness another kingdom fall. This is a good day. This is a very good day.”

The golems stood silent near Alric’s walls as the town’s defenders cheered, clapped each other on the shoulders, and caught each other up in the deepest hugs.

Standing in front of the medical tent, Peter and Paul gazed up at the sky, their jaws agape.

“Did…did we just live through this, Peter?” Paul asked.

“Aye, Paul,” Peter replied. “I think we did. I think we did, at that. Traveller be praised, and I’m going to buy the Roth boy an entire keg of ale when I see him next time.”

“The biggest keg in the town’s history.”

Baelin and Carey floated in the sky, watching the Thameish countryside.

Carey looked up at the Traveller’s image, her face beaming. “It’s done. We’ve won at long last. Thameland is safe!”

“Indeed.” Baelin looked at the fallen Ravener-spawn on the plains below. Already, he was eyeing the bodies, looking for any choice samples that met his eye. “It would seem that our friends and allies have brought down the cornered beast. Very good. Well done, my young friends. Well done.”

“I…I think it's dead! I think it’s dead!” Cedric’s joyful cry filled the cavern.

The Ravener, pressed to the wall by Alex’s companions, was completely silent. No mana stirred from it. No angry cries demanding the return of Uldar’s body. No spark of divinity. No attempt to attack or defend itself.

Nothing.

What once was a terrible construct of horrifying power, now seemed to be dead. A damaged orb of dead, black material.

“It is done,” the Traveller said. “I feel no signs of life from it, no connection between it and Thameland, or any other energies. It is dead, and I have told Thameland.”

“You mean we won?” Thundar blinked, catching Khalik’s eye.

“I think we did!” the prince grinned.

“Wait,” Theresa said, cutting in before they could start celebrating. She was carrying Uldar’s body over her shoulder like a sack of trash. “Where’s Alex?”

The others fell silent, looking at each other.

Then all eyes fell on the black orb.

Alexander Roth, archwizard, General of Thameland and former Fool of Uldar, stood within the corpse of the Ravener.

All was quiet in the wake of its death.

The node was calm, yet Alex’s mind reeled.

The Ravener was dead.

The monstrous creation of a monstrous god. Something that had plagued his people for millennia.

Was actually dead.

It had changed the very direction of his life.

And now it was dead.

With the aeld staff giving off waves of relief in his hand, he stepped forward—using the light of the aeld’s crystalline blooms to light his way—and placed a hand against the throne.

It was ash grey, flaking like cold embers.

He closed his eyes and poured his mana into the Ravener’s pathways.

Nothing.

No spark of energy or life; the mana pathways were completely burnt out.

“It’s over,” he whispered, hardly believing it. “It’s actually over.”

‘Father?’ Claygon’s voice reached through the link with his father. ‘Father are you alright?’

‘I’m fine, buddy,’ Alex’s thoughts reached back through their link. ‘I’m…I’m more than alright.’

‘Father…the Ravener…has gone silent. It’s not moving at all,’ Claygon thought. ‘It seems to be…dead.’

‘Yeah,’ Alex thought. ‘It really does.’

The young wizard teleported out of the node and into the dark world within the Ravener. There was no movement around him, the air was cool and free of energy, a deep silence filling it, only broken by Alex’s steady breathing.

Suddenly, the world began to shake.

Dark skies began falling.

The ground cracked further.

In the distance, node towers crumbled.

‘Father…!’ Claygon called through their link ‘The Ravener…it’s breaking apart!’

Alex took a quick look around, then teleported out.

There were no barriers, no traps, no death beams, nor magics to stop him from leaving the Ravener’s internal spaces unopposed. He could leave with no problem, and he did, reappearing in the Ravener’s lair.

Everywhere he looked in the dark cavern, he found blood and bodies.

Thousands of Ravener-spawn were heaped atop each other in great piles. Ahead of him, his companions had pushed the Ravener against a stone wall.

Or rather, what was left of the Ravener.

Cracks were spreading through the construct’s lifeless form as it crumbled. The sphere dissolved, its form running like black rain, and spilling onto the stone floor.

It ran until it poured.

Increasing in volume.

“It’s bigger on the inside, that’s why there's so much of that stuff,” Alex whispered.

“Alex!” an excited voice cried.

The young archwizard turned in time to see Theresa flying toward him at speed. She tossed the burden on her shoulder aside—Uldar’s body, Alex realised—discarding it to land on a pile of Ravener-spawn bodies like so much trash.

“Maybe we should be more carefu—Oof!” he groaned as Theresa barreled into his chest at full force, nearly knocking the wind out of him, and wrapping him in a crushing hug.

“Alex!” she cried, pulling back and cupping his chin in her hand. She turned his head this way and that, examining it closely. “Are you hurt anywhere? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” he smiled.

Her eyes met his. “And is it done?”

He nodded. “It’s done.”

The huntress’ eyes sparked, and she froze for a moment, then began trembling and laughing. She let out a whoop of joy that echoed through the Ravener’s lair. “By the Traveller—”

“Yes?” Hannah said.

“—we won!” Theresa finished. “We actually won! It’s true, we did it!”

“Faaaatheeeeer!”

Alex looked up just in time to be hugged by an evolved golem of steel and dungeon core substance. Claygon wrapped his family in his four arms in a tight embrace. “Faaaather you are…alright! We…did it! We are…alright! We…won!”

“We sure did, buddy,” Alex squeezed out his words as his body was being crushed. “We actually did it! Is everybody alright?”

“Of course not!” Prince Khalik shouted, flying up to Alex, Claygon and Theresa. “How can we be just ‘alright’? We are better than that, so much better, my friend! We have gained a great victory today!”

“Hells yeah!” Thundar flew over as well. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!”

“Truly well done!” Isolde joined them.

“A glorious expression of violence,” Asmaldestre’s voice stung the ear.

“We did it,” Drestra’s voice crackled as she stared at the remains of the Ravener, still pouring onto the cavern floor. “We actually won.”

“And without any of us dying,” Hart said. “It was some battle but we lasted. Glad we did all that training. It was worth it.”

“Traveller be praised,” Merzhin added.

“Why, thank you.” Hannah smiled.

The Saint looked at her sharply, a startled expression crossing his face.

Grimloch looked at the Ravener’s remains, letting out a long sigh. “Looks inedible.”

Bjorgrund patted him on the back. “I’m sorry, friend.”

“I’ll get over it. Lots of meat around.” Grimloch eyed the Ravener-spawn bodies, licking his chops.

“Ooooiiiii! Good job, everyone!” Cedric shouted.

Brutus barked, flying up, three tongues licking Alex and Theresa’s faces.

The young archwizard of Alric smiled. “None of us would be here if it weren’t for our dedication, our wits, our strength and our teamwork.”

He looked down at Uldar’s body.

“But now, we have a lot of decisions to make. A lot of people to talk to and a lot of rebuilding to do,” he said quietly. “A new age in Thameland’s history starts today. One where we’re finally free from terror and death. Finally permanently free.”