The Greatest Sin

Lyca stopped as he made the way out the containment wand. His fists were dripping with blood, fire crawled around his body as it warmed him. Eliza, Edmonton and Fleur caught up quickly.

Thirty mages waited outside, staffs and wands already glowing as they waited for him to leave. Lyca snarled as sorcerous energies spiralled around him.

They wanted a fight? Let them have one.

A proper one.

To the death.

Fer roared as an axe pierced into her side. She roared again as she caught a spinning glaive with her hand. Half of the centurion-sentinels had fallen, and she was on one bottle left. Anassa stared up from the ceiling as she watched the brawl. This could not go on.

She turned twisted, the blade of the glaive shattered beneath her claws as she increased the pressure. The axe was torn out of her body as she twisted with all the grace of a leopard. The sentinel was thrown away, it’s bulbous body taking a step back as it stabilized it with one of its four legs. A drum beat from behind Fer, another automaton coming in from behind.

Fer’s ears twisted as she caught the sound of air being cut. She curled into a ball and pulled the machine with the glaives forward. An axe buried itself deep into the machine as Fer rolled and kicked it backwards into what just had tried to attack her. Fer launched herself into the air, slammed into the ceiling, her claws tore into the stone. She grabbed and held on with one hand as her eyes scanned the room.

Kavaa’s final vial of blood was quickly downed. This could not go on indeed. The healing would only last for a dozen or so hits. Fer growled as she felt her side close, veins rearranged themselves and the bleeding stopped as Kavaa essence once again started to burn up quickly. She had to end this quickly, she had to save Anassa here and now.

Or else she would die.

Fer’s eyes scanned the room. The sentinels rearranged themselves as they ploughed over the wreckages she had left. Steel twisted and snapped under the heavy footsteps of the robots. The door to Anassa was still protected by a full team of twenty. Shields and spears raised and pointed in all directions. The rest had split into three teams of eight, seven and nine. They prowled to every corner as their machinery angrily hissed at Fer in the air.

Something had to be done.

She had to get through that door.

Fer let go as Kavaa’s essence closed her wounds the blood started to settle within her stomach. “Anassa.” Fer said.

“What?”

“I’ll need to borrow some of your strength.” Fer said as she licked her lips.

“Sharing is caring.” Anassa said flatly. “And you know I’m a caring soul.” The false vision of Anassa laughed in that haughty sarcastic mirth only nobles could pull off.

“Can you not damage these?” Fer asked.

“I can do this.” Anassa said as she turned around and clapped her hands. It was a grand display of sorcery, with red blades and beams erupting from around her. They launched into the closest automaton and then simply blinked out of existence. The robot did not even react, the attack did not even make a scratch. “Trust me, I’ve tried before.” Anassa said. Fer nodded grimly, so it was only her.

Her against fifty. She had to get through that door. Fer growled as she let go of the ceiling. The sentinels started to move before she even touched the ground. They walked over broken steels and glass, over fragments of ancient crystals and crushed weaponry and circled around Fer again.

The Goddess of Beasthood took the initiative before they closed the circle. She pounced at that group of seven. A sword bit into her leg, the remains of Kavaa’s blood set alight. She grabbed a machine by the arms and spun in a circle. It launched high, straight into that barrier of twenty. Another was thrown by the leg as Fer felt a spear pierce her stomach.

Fer merely twisted her chest as her muscles hardened with all the strength she could muster, the spear snapped as she pulled that shard of bronze alloy out of herself. It stabbed into the machine that had tried to down her. The glowing blue sensor array on it gave a few final sparks of life before it switched off for good. A third machine was grabbed, Fer’s claws buried itself deep through the armour as she tore it apart.

Bronze-mithril alloy screamed and tore in a cacophony of noise as Fer tore the machine in two. One half blocked an axe aiming to split her skull, the other became a shield as turned and threw it into that barrier.

Fer saw the opening. A momentarily lull in the defender’s as the reorganized themselves. One machine had been crushed by the first throw. The other had torn through the legs of two more. They were being pushed out of the semi-circle by shields.

In the blink of an eye, Fer launched herself at the wall. The stone cracked as if it had been hit by a cannonball. Fer’s legs hardened, the muscles straining to keep up with the damage she had just put them through and she launched herself into that group.

Spear pierced her shoulder. Shield cracked her bones. Her jaws closed around an arm as she tore through metal and spat the shards out. The machines crowded around her. Shields slammed into the ground to force her still.

Fer’s claws found an opening as her foot tore up the floor and she kicked one up. The sentinel took a step back, it’s rear leg hissing as the pistons within contained the pressure of the recoil. Fer slid through the gap and grabbed a spear. The machine had a strong grip, but it wasn’t a Divine. Fer arms twisted the machine, the joint gave out and the arm tore at the connector to the machine’s body.

Fer rolled on the ground like a snake as she avoided two more spears. They buried deep into the stone and were pulled out just as quickly. A shield that would have decapitated her was caught, she threw it back. Mechanical hinges cracked and shattered as she grabbed that huge, terrifyingly heavy, piece of metal and slammed it forwards.

The door.

There it was, another opening. Two sentinels were already coming to block her way. Fer was faster, her legs tore stone as she readied her shoulder and crashed into that flimsy piece of wood. To think that it was so soft compared to the metal of the machines.

Fer crashed into a staircase as Anassa appeared before her. The woman was about to stay something when Fer felt her hairs stand up. She rolled to one side as the stairs were pierced by spears. Then again as the machines started to follow her. The air was bitter and burning here. “I’m in the middle of a mercury pool.” Anassa said. “Hold your breath.”

Fer took a breath of the bitter air and held it as she kicked the spears back. One more pierced her arm. She roared, snapped the steel, took another breath and kicked stairs at the robots. One shard of stone got a sensor and the robot took a second to re-calibrate. That was enough, Fer’s claws dug into the walls and she pulled herself up.

The machines were strong, but she was fast. Fer stood up as she looked down at the machines from the stairs and inspected her body. Her stomach was bleeding from a hole, one arm was torn to the bone, the other’s palm was gaping forwards. Her legs were bleeding.

Fer licked her own blood only for the taste. Her own blood had no effect on her, it merely sent her into a bloodlust again. Bloodlust was good, bloodlust made her think of other’s blood and not her own. She turned as the machines formed a single-file line. A heavy step came onto the first stair, then another.

Fer raced up the stairs before the machines would catch up to her. Each step felt heavier than before, and there was another door. Wood again. Fer slowly lifted an arm up, her muscles tearing in pain as they tried to stop the exertion and she cracked through the wood.

There she was. Anassa. Held up by two chains bound to her wrists, in that red dress she had always worn in the Great War. Her black hair falling to her waist, her eyes closed. She hung two feet away from the liquid mercury. A final line of defence to stop any mortals from getting to her. The false Anassa stepped from behind Fer. “Those are Elassa’s crystals.” She said as her hand swept across the round room to the crystals that lined the wall. Each as tall as Fer, each glowing and pulsing as it absorbed the magic residue of Arcadia’s leylines and fed them into containing Anassa.

Fer’s eyes scanned the room. Two hundred of them, two hundred to the dot. Anassa hovered into the air and sniffed in humour. “I once told Elassa it would take a hundred of them to contain me, so she doubled it.” Fer heard the machines crawling up the staircase and wasted no time. Anassa laughed mirthlessly again. “And you know, I’m never wrong, so I can’t get through two hundred. Ninety-nine is possible though.” Fer smashed into the first crystal with all the force her body could produce.

It cracked and released one final pulse of energy as Anassa smiled from above.

One down. A hundred to go.

Fer’s claws ripped into one. She splashed into the mercury, jumped at another as she worked cyclically. A punch into one. A leg into the other. Sweat burst out over her face, these stones were twice as hard as the bodies of the automatons. Another down. She worked her way, eventually simply stepping through the knee-deep mercury as it splashed and burned on her skin, her fist pressing into the crystal until they shattered.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

The Sentinels reached the room. They came, a party swarmed around the Fer, the rest took protective positions to safeguard the rest of the chamber from the rampaging Goddess. Fer launched, splashing mercury over an automaton as she kicked it back before the machine could slash at her with those spinning glaives. It still got her leg on its way out, and that wound in the mercury.

The robot stumbled backwards and smashed onto three crystals. They shattered under the machine’s weight as the rest of the magical array started to pulse faster. “I feel it.” Anassa said from above. Fer did not stop to answer as an axe smashed into her shoulder. She grabbed it, tore the weapon off with the entire arm and flung it across the room. It bounced across the walls, smashing another five of the massive glowing gemstones. Fer jumped away, splashed mercury over two machines as she ploughed into more.

Fourty crystals down. Sixty and one left.

A sentinel armed with two shields and two spears came at Fer. She dived through the mercury and kicked it to the side. It lost control as liquid metal covered its sensors and blinded the machine, the smashed into another gem. A sword hit Fer’s cheek. She twisted her neck as her body screamed, crushed it in her jaw and spat the shards into her arm.

Her fist crushed the metal into a ball. That ball cracked yet another gemstone. It pulsed, then shattered in a spectacular explosion. Another crystal went off, Fer’s hopes for a chain reaction died when it was only that pair that fell. She kicked off the floor, sidestepped two machines and dragged her claws across some more.

Fifty. Half way there.

Kavaa’s blood burned up to its dregs until Fer’s stomach was so empty she felt the pangs of starvation within her. She avoided the machines now, jumping away when they got close and simply smashing into the gemstones with the sheer force of her body. She ran her teeth across one, damaging the veins of the crystal until it started to glow warm and heat up. Fer closed her eyes, curled up into a ball and was launched by the explosion high over the sentinels to the other side of the room.

Sixty. Fourty and one left.

Her claws cracked and shattered on number sixty-five. Her fists would have to do at this point. Fer felt her golden coat start to shed as her power started to fade. She punched one gemstone, felt another spearpoint cut into her side and screamed as she pulled the machine close.

Goddess and machine rolled through liquid mercury as Fer ripped shards of metal out and threw them across the room, maddened and uncaring where they went. She heard cracking and more shattering of gemstones as the machine was torn apart to give her ammunition. Her hand found the robot’s core, she tore it out, stood up and hurled it towards a crystal. A brilliant explosion took out the two adjacent ones as well.

Eighty. Twenty and one left.

The hum of gemstones got louder, their beating got more frantic as they channelled more magic to contain the hanging Anassa. “Behind you!” Anassa shouted from above and Fer rolled forwards. She hadn’t heard the axe, it would have split her in half if it hit. Fer took another breath of bitter air as she forced her body to stand.

There was nothing left. No more bloodlust to be chased, no power to be had. “I’m sorry Ana.” Fer said as she launched forwards at the one space unguarded in the room. Anassa. Her mouth settled on Anassa’s shoulder and she gripped her sister. Her teeth broke the skin, her tongue lapped up the blood.

It surged within her, her fur regrew then faded. Anassa was a strong Goddess, but not of Kassandora’s physical prowess, nor did she have Baalka’s innate strength. Anassa’s magic had been self-taught, that could not be stolen. The vision of Anassa that hovered in mid air did not even look at her shoulder as it started bleeding. She merely turned and pointed to an empty crystal.

Fer felt her bloodlust kick in one last time. She launched herself with a roar, her eyes going red as Anassa’s blood raged within her. It cracked and fell. The rest started to glow brighter. To another gem that stood away from the sentinels. Her shattered claws dug into it, then snapped off when Fer tried to pull them out. Fer closed her eyes asa she fell to her knees, then picked herself back up. The sounds of splashing mercury were coming close.

Fer launched into the air, splashed mercury over the machine’s sensors, and then kicked it back. It lost control in the liquid metal, its legs slipped and it tumbled backwards as it ploughed into a row of crystals. Fer jumped to the other side of the room. Her head smashed into a crystal, she shook the dizziness off and jumped backwards as she grabbed a hunk of gemstone.

Ninety. Ten and one left.

That hunk of gemstone shattered another crystal. They were humming madly now, as if straining to contain Anassa. Fer side-stepped a glaive coming down on her and tore it off. Tried to. The machine wouldn’t crack this time. She roared, pushed her foot into the ground and knocked the sentinel over. It crashed into a spot where a crystal had shattered. Fer’s teeth tore through the handle of the weapon and she sent it flying to another.

Eight and one left.

The humming increased. Fer screamed once again as a glaive cut into her side. She hardened her core, grabbed the weapon with both hands and snapped it over her knee. The weapon was hurled into another man-sized glowing gemstone. It exploded into a hail of storm blue lights that flickered like snow in the sunlight. Four crystals followed.

Three and one left.

Fer’s arm penetrated into the core of the machine and she felt the core. She had wanted to rip it out at first, but the moving arms just made her crush it. The whirling blades stopping moving a hair’s width away from her neck. She heaved and a plate of armour away. It got thrown behind like a discus.

A crystal exploded. Ninety-eight destroyed. Two and one left.

Fer snarled as she tore the armour machines leg clean off. She cracked it in two, jumped into the, staying close to the wall and threw both pieces at exposed gemstones. Ninety-nine and a hundred blew up. The rest started to glow clear white as the temperature in the room increased. That fake Anassa smiled from above as she looked back to herself.

One left.

Fer found it, she pounced off the wall and launched herself, her entire body serving as the wrecking ball to free Anassa. Too slow. A sentinel stomped into position. Fer’s shoulder smashed against it and the machine stumbled back. Four spears turned and penetrated into the wall to serve as a barricade.

Fer roared and punched the machine. It an inch. She roared again and felt the back of the machine touch the crystal as joints and pistons hissed in anger. Fer took a step back and smashed into the automaton with all the strength she had left. The pressure cracked the gemstone and the two of them were thrown back.

One hundred and one.

Anassa was never wrong. She had wanted ninety-nine, Fer had given her ninety-nine. “Sister, you take it from here.” Fer said as she collapsed onto her knees, her breathing heavy as her body struggled to keep with regenerating the damage.

It was over. She had given Anassa all she could. She just hoped it was enough. Her vision faded as her kept herself standing. The closest sentinel took a step forwards, then took a step back.