Ruinous Return
Chapter 58

Lyn charged headlong at James, yelling a war cry. A defiant shout against being forgotten. A scream of pain and a desire to just beat the shit out of the man who took the credit that was hers. The person who abandoned her to die. "Coward!" She screamed as she brought the glaive around on the armored man.

He deflected her blow to the side and countered with a thrust that was fast – faster than anything Lyn had ever encountered before. Her enhanced perception barely picked up on it, and there was no way she could react in time. As her glaive split the earth asunder, the mana surging out in a violent tempest that ripped through the sky and ground, James' sword sliced through her armor, through her body enhanced skin and deep into her side. She gasped in pain as the blow sent her flying from the sheer strength of the impact.

She didn't have any time to recover, as the angelic figure was on her in an instant and slashed down. She barely got the shaft of Cataclysm in the way to block, and the impact sent her reeling as the ground under her feet cracked from the force of the impact. Anor min / nartho hain i daeth nin. The internal regeneration spell kicked in and she could breathe once again as her sliced lung mended itself. Willing Cataclysm to shift, it switched to the two daggers. I need to be able to deflect faster. A spear might be better at it; but I need to move quickly to keep up with James' speed.

The angelic figure swung – and again, it was incredibly fast. She barely got one of the blades in the way before the sword changed course and carved across her torso, biting deep into her flesh, and she felt the air leave her once more as both her lungs were cut into. But that gave her an opening, and she jabbed forward with her offhand dagger, cutting into the armor and scoring a deep blow of her own. This forced James to back off. Lyn repeated the internal spell. My mana is about one-third gone. The regeneration spell took quite a bit of mana when dealing with these life-threatening injuries.

But she was able to catch a breath as the angelic figure's golden blood dripped out of its wound. "You are a worthy opponent," a voice said. Not James' voice. The voice from before when she first arrived. "I shall stop holding back now." The figure vanished.

Lyn felt a piercing pain in her back, and looking down, saw the sword poking through her chest. Fucker! The thing moved so fast, there was no way she could keep up with it. The figure shoved her to the ground and twisted the blade around, and Lyn would have screamed if she wasn't face-down in the dirt. Anor min / nartho hain i daeth nin. The spell kept her from dying, but she could feel the mana constantly draining to heal the continuous wound that was being inflicted as the figure above tried to saw her in half by ripping the blade up.

She pushed herself up just enough that she could get her hands under her, and she gripped the sword. The blade kept being pushed up, and she held onto it, squeezing the blade as hard as she could. Just stay still! She thought, trying to keep it right in the center of her torso. Still enough that her lungs could regenerate and get some air. Just enough for her to use an external spell. "Britho ai!" she barely whispered.

But it was enough to get the words out for 'destroy everything'. The mana exploded out of her body as a volcano erupted from her form. The blue lava coated the figure behind her, and she heard the scream and felt him try to pull the sword free. No you fucking don't! If this thing that wasn't James wanted to survive, it would leave the goddamn sword behind.

She felt the blade start to slip from her grasp, and growled as she held it firm, feeling her claws dig into the metal. The figure behind her cursed and the pressure lifted. Kneeling, she saw it had ascended and flown above the cataclysmic outpouring below. Lyn pulled the sword out of her chest and pulled it around her body, grabbing it by the hilt. She grabbed one of Cataclysm's daggers and willed it to shift back to the blade. The other dagger hilt flew to the blade, and she stood up as the regeneration finished healing her. "Come on then!" She shouted at the thing.

"You are worthy of my full might." The figure above raised its hands and began a verse in Elenthir.

But he could not speak as fast as Lyn could. "Echado corn dan ha / i cario en-rosgar a bartho / ai haw o lego i fân." There was a ripple in space around him as a bubble of air appeared. All the atmosphere within the bubble vanished, and he began clutching at his throat. "That's right! How's vacuum taste?"

The figure fell as its wings beat against air that wasn't there – and the vacuum sphere followed it to the ground. It clawed at its throat with one hand and reached towards Lyn with the other. She walked over to it, "Fuck you." She stabbed forward with Cataclysm, right into its head, and the mana-blade erupted, consuming the body in blue lava.

The walls of the room vanished, and the angel's sword vanished. Lyn fell to her knees and drew in deep breaths. I win. She had maybe a tenth of her mana left. If that…thing…was just a glimpse of what James can do…fuck me.

She had seen James use his Paragon-only spells a few times. It was what she had based her own wind spell trump card off. But he moved at the speed of light with no momentum. Her mimicking version, on the other hand, caused her body to feel the momentum. The biggest drawback is that she could kill herself or have permanent brain damage as the organ slammed against her skull. It did mean she had the ability to deliver incredibly destructive force in comparison to James…but at a cost.

I need body enhancing stuff to strengthen my insides. She had no clue if that type of thing existed. I'll have to see if Brad can come up with anything.

She stayed there, on the ground, for several minutes until her mana was back to full. Standing, she walked through the hallway to the next chamber. Another pedestal. She put her hand on it, and it dropped into the floor.

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She was standing in a courtroom. A stern looking man with silvery eyes and a stern countenance looked down at her from a judge's bench. "Lyn Rivers, current Destroyer, former Scout hero, and former summoned individual; you are charged with the crime of killing Aelor's chosen. How do you plead?"

What is this shit, Lyn thought. "Guilty," she stated. "I just killed him. It. Whatever the angelic thing was."

The judge looked at her. "Well, thank you for your honesty. It is refreshing having some of that in my court."

"What the fuck am I even doing in this challenge?"

The judge leaned forward, "Being judged. Let's look at your past." He waved his hand, and an illusory vision appeared next to her. It played out the scene of her executing Volio. "You are charged will the killing of the Archer hero. Do you deny this?"

"No."

"And you believe you were justified?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." The judge stared at her. "Let us look at another." The scene shifted, and the illusory screen showed her imprisoning Bhelarm, and ordering the death of Poweno. "Do you deny taking these actions?"

Lyn crossed her arms, "No. I did what you're saying I did."

"Hmm." The judge waved his hand and the image faded. "You have done much that would be seen as evil by this court."

"By whose fucking rules?" Lyn asked. "Show me the fucking rule book that everyone on Ghomar should be following."

"Good and evil is determined by the decrees of Ael-"

"The fucking dead god?" Lyn interrupted, feeling her chest heat up as she got angry, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks as the rage slowly rose. She shook her head, "Who decides good and evil? I'll tell you who. Me. I'm going to make the goddamn rule book. Now, since I'm the closest thing you have to a deity…I order you to let me pass this chamber."

The judge on the bench nodded and bowed their head. "By your command." The room shifted and Lyn found herself in the square chamber once more.

I…huh, that worked. She wasn't expecting that to work; that the trial would just…obey her instructions. But it made sense the more she thought on it. The Destroyer core belonged to Raevan, a goddess of destruction. Since Raevan and Aelor were two halves of the same deity…I must just have the same amount of pull as Aelor would in this trial.

The final hallway opened, and she saw the altar ahead of her. The wooden box was present, as expected, but there was a second one. Two mana cores? She thought. There was also an ornate shield on the altar. The inscription around the outside was intricate, but effectively made the shield impenetrable. She lifted it, and then tapped it with Cataclysm. The hilt of the blade shifted and became a short sword, and the shield vanished before appearing on her left forearm. Heater shield and short sword. A solid combo. She willed Cataclysm to return to the single sword hilt before socketing it on her hip.

She grabbed the lids to both wooden boxes and opened them at the same time. Inside one was a bright core that was golden with silver flashes. The other was a deep purple. She lifted the golden one first. You have bested my dungeon. I, Fenoscion, High-Priest of Aelor, give you the ability to manipulate the element of light. The core shrank down and then flowed through her mana channel to be consumed by the Destroyer core.

The world appeared slightly brighter for a moment, the edges of the altar, sharper by contrast to the surroundings. Light elementalism. Interesting. It was a good external spell type for utility, and in combat having a flash grenade that could blanket a battlefield was a potent tool. She didn't have light at her disposal in her past summoning, so she would need to experiment with it.

Looking at the other core, she smiled softly as the purple rapidly shifted and warped. It became dark black, and the purple was obliterated in an instant. She could see the occasional whisp of a skull crossing the orb's face. Lifting it, a familiar voice she had not heard in years came to her thoughts.

Took you long enough! Elias Begant, Revenant hero, shouted in her mind.

"Hi Eli," she replied.

Thirteen years?! Fuck, I've missed out on so much. Trapped in that goddamn statue. He was pissed off.

"Right," Lyn muttered. "Condolences."

Oh, don't get me started. You could've taken us along with you for your dungeon expeditions. But noooo. Miss independent had to fucking go fuck off and become this crazy strong fighter without us.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you guys wanted to take breaks all the time."

We could have spent decades building up power. But noooo, you just had to fucking go-go-go and prove that you weren't useless. Well, congratulations, you're not useless. But you fucking cost me my life. You, James, Ben, Kory…ya'll are assholes.

"Mind telling me what your core does?"

There was silence for a moment before a terse reply…Turn into a ghost, mana-charged weapons and spells can still hurt you, but otherwise you can walk through walls. And you got death as an external spell type, along with all its sub-types.

That sent a jolt of excitement through Lyn. Outside of The Dragon's Maw was an enormous battlefield. One with centuries of corpses that were buried. I can raise a fucking army of the dead. It would give her the means to man the entire Valley. "Thanks."

Up yours. I'm going back to Earth. Maybe I can fucking live a normal life there. The voice vanished, and the mana core shrunk down, wrestled with the Destroyer core, and was consumed by the stronger force.

Elias and she had never seen eye-to-eye. She wanted to get strong fast, and he was content to just take his time. No sense of urgency. The definition of laziness, just like back on Earth. Lyn shook her head as she put her hand on the altar. She was transported to the crevasse along the cliffs, facing the ocean. Focusing on his mana core, she didn't feel any message like previous heroes had left. "Good riddance."

Bolvon sat under the shady trees with Gael and pondered the dark underside of the canopy. "That's a lot," he muttered.

"Yeah," Gael said as he started to sober up. "The hero that killed the Demonic Dragon, returned back to Ghomar as the Destroyer." He shook his head, "We have to keep it secret. If word spreads that she was the hero that killed our last deity…everything she's built would crumble down." He looked at Bolvon, "I couldn't lie to you. But if you love me…keep this secret."

Bolvon leaned back on the log and stared up into the canopy. The revelation that only he and the twins knew this truth – and the heroes she had sent missives to – was groundbreaking. "I'm her Shadowstalker, now and forever." He looked over at Gael as the other Duskari heaved a sigh of relief. "I will keep her secret." He put his hand on Gael's back and grinned, "She can have you in the bed chamber still. But I get my nights with you. Or days. Whenever I want you."

Gael laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "You're too much."

Bolvon shrugged, "I'm going to make a name for myself. Everyone will fear Lady Rivers' Shadowstalker." He pulled out the punch dagger she had given him and traced his finger along the invisible blade. "Her will be done."