I Don't Want to Be the Hero Vol. 3, page 25
“Where did these things come from?” Gilly complained as she knocked over another faceless bust.
“I think the Library is just making them,” I answered, feeling some spatial magic coming off the bits of broken stone.
“The Library is designed to express the will and desires of its Owner,” Annowan said, her voice tense. “Since the Bitch Goddess is trying to take over, she’s exerting her will through the Lament of Heaven, changing this place to suit her twisted sense of decoration.”
We found murals made from bits of books, colored paper, and smashed-up pottery, each one of them depicting the divine love of the Bitch and the evil threat posed by the demon lord.
“Lilith would get a thrill out of this,” Gilly laughed, passing by a fresco that showed the demon lord as a giant horned monster that could spit clouds of burning flame.
“Tarial would smash it out of a sense of righteousness,” I argued.
“This is just weird,” Thalie said, as she peeked through a nearby doorway.
Beyond was a hewn-out room; I could see the remains of wood, plaster, and stone where walls had been torn down or the floors above demolished to make more space. Hundreds of mannequins and statues, all of them dressed in various costumes, were arranged to re-enact some forgotten battle.
To our left, the figures were all wearing black armor and sable cloaks much like the ones Annowan typically wore. Spikes and sticks had been driven or attached to their heads in a crude effort to give them horns. Most appeared to be cowering or running away.
The mannequins to the right were a more motley mix. Some were dressed as Slayers or wardens and they were given heroic-looking poses. Several statues were wearing leather armor and carrying axes reminiscent of Daggerdare’s. Others had been truncated, their arms and legs cut off at the elbows and knees; they also had elaborately braided bits of cloth hanging around their chins, reminiscent of beards.
“I think they’re supposed to be dwarves,” Gilly said.
If the diorama was meant to depict some ancient battlefield, it was clear The City’s forces had won. Several of the Slayers were standing over fallen demons, their blades poised mid-chop as they slaughtered their downed foes.
“This is just insulting,” Annowan growled.
“I do not feel any better about it.” Daggerdare went over and kicked over one of the mannequins that was dressed like an elf.
To our shock, the thing got up and righted itself, restoring its original pose, its wooden joints clicking loudly as it raised its axes back into position.
Several mannequins turned their heads towards us in unison, and I felt waves of malignant magic welling up around them.
“We should go,” I said, quickly hustling everyone back outside and closing the door. “I’m pretty sure we could take them in a fight, but I don’t think we have that kind of time to waste.”
Sometimes it felt like we were climbing some impossibly huge tower, while other times it was like we were delving down into some forgotten depths. The Library spiraled around us, the entire place wrapping itself around the Lament of Heaven as the Bitch Goddess’s influence became more and more powerful.
“We’re close now,” I warned everyone as we finished climbing a slanting set of stairs.
The air was charged with arcane energy. Just beyond the landing was a huge promenade, similar to the dragon landing courtyard we had seen at the Giltscale estate. Statues of the Bitch Goddess were arranged in strange, circular patterns, the air between them supercharged with corrupt magic.
there was no sky overhead, just the endless nothingness of an interdimensional void.
“Give me the fresh air and blue skies of the great outdoors any day,” Gilly said.
“With a decent bar or restaurant nearby, right?” I joked.
The demon knight directed us towards a large, wooden double door that rested at the edge of the courtyard. The doors hung unsupported, framed only by the vast nothing beyond.
They were locked; since none of the administrative functions worked anymore. Annowan just blasted them apart with balefire.
Stepping over the splintered wreckage, we found ourselves in some immense hall. The floor was shod in bronze. Matching pillars held up the ceiling, which was made of veined black marble. The walls were decorated with whirls of gold and silver, which had been molded into strange patterns that made you think of nothing but greed and hunger.
The air was cold and stank of ozone and blood.
I almost had a panic attack. I’m back in the Bitch Goddess’s Palace!
Thalie put a concerned hand on my shoulder, “Mal?”
I took a deep breath, then nodded to her. “I’m okay. This place just really reminds me of the Bitch’s palace back in The City. It’s her so-called heaven on earth.”
Looking more closely, I saw it was an imperfect copy. The pillars were made from bits of bronze and metal stolen from other parts of the Library, all sloppily melded together; I could pick out doorknobs, hinges, and bits of weapons sticking out of their sides. The floor mostly appeared to be made from melted shields and plates of ancient armor.
The filigrees were a crude copy of the ones I’d seen in the Bitch’s palace, and I noticed the ceiling was cracked in a dozen places, allowing the hungry light from the Lament of Heaven to leak through.
Annowan stepped forward and took a disdainful huff. “I’m not surprised the Bitch decorates her home in such a shallow, ostentatious manner.”
“You live in a flying palace above a lake of lava,” Daggerdare reminded her.
“But tastefully,” Gilly kicked over a nearby statue.
At that point, there was no question on which way we needed to go. We could all feel the heat and light of the Lament of Heaven, like a miniature sun, burning ahead of us. Moving quickly, we began to cross the hall, our footsteps muted and dull.
“Where is everyone?” Gilly asked, her bow strung and an arrow knocked. “I can’t imagine all the troops the Bitch brought with her are dead.”
“They’re probably lying in wait just ahead,” Daggerdare replied, squinting.
The light only got brighter the closer we got to it, shimmering and gold. I raised my ability protecting us from the lash of its magic, full of spells laden obedience and control.
“WHO DARES TREAD INTO MY HALL!”
The voice tore through the air like a bolt of lightning.
I raised my ability, blunting the worst of its force, but I saw Thalie wince, holding herself steady with her halberd. Scrapple went low and snarled.
Annowan, undaunted, strode forward, a blazing sigil of the Throne erupting in the air before her.
“I am Annowan, heir to the Throne, Knight of the Throne, and sworn defender of the empire!” Her voice wasn’t as loud as the Bitch’s but it rang with authority. “You are the trespasser, entering into my mother’s library!”
“TRESPASSER?” The Bitch Goddess laughed. “I AM A GODDESS, I GO WHERE I PLEASE. HOW CAN I TRESPASS IN A PLACE THAT I OWN. THIS WORLD, AND EVERYTHING IN IT, IS MINE!”
“Lies,” spat Daggerdare. “You are nothing more than a broken pretender.”
Thalie, who had been wilting, stood up straight, emulating Annowan’s posture. “I don’t belong to you! None of us do!”
Scrapple barked and Krencha cheered. “Damn right! I write my own destiny!”
Smiling, I felt my heart swell in pride for my wives. I pushed back on the Bitch, nipping at the magic she was using to project her presence.
“Damnit, Malory, you know it makes it a lot harder to display my divinity when you go screwing up my magic,” the Bitch yelled from the far end of the hall.
She strode out in the open, still wearing Sarah’s body. I could see the corrupt possession filling her like a blazing torch.
“Let Sarah go,” I demanded.
“You never know when to play along, do you?” she huffed. “Fine, if you are going to make this difficult, I’ll rise to the occasion.”
From out of the bright light marched a veritable company of Slayers, wardens, and kinless assassins. Necrotic angels flew above them, their scything blades gleaming against the shadowy terror of their wings.
“Got the whole crew here, just for you.” The Bitch smirked beneath her mask.
We raised our weapons.
“Cut through them and secure the Lament of Heaven,” Annowan barked.
The necrotic angels swooped down on us, the air whistling over the edges of their blades. Annowan threw out orbs of balefire while I snapped out with my ability, breaking the magic that animated three of them.
Scrapple leapt up and snapped another one out of the air. The mole-dog took several hits dragging the thing to the ground, but he kept fighting. Krencha smashed it repeatedly as the undead construct thrashed and tried to fly free.
“We’ll not go down that easy!” she screamed as she crushed the necrotic angel’s skull.
The wardens were advancing down the middle of the room while the Slayers spread out to the left and the kinless ran towards our right. They still greatly outnumbered us, and they were planning on fencing us in and crushing us under their superior numbers.
Daggerdare rushed towards the kinless, trying to stop them from coming around our flanks. Her arms and legs glowing with the Mother Tree’s sap, she struck like a deadly tempest. Her axes hacked and chopped in swift, bloody blurs that left the dragonkin killers reeling, unable to coordinate against her.
Thalie and I engaged the wardens, hoping to push them back and break the envelopment. They fought in small groups, their spears raised behind their large, square shields. Thalie let loose a tangle of predatory vines. They slipped between their ankles, winding their way through their ranks before pulling taut. This scattered their formations and pinned the wardens in place.
We tore through the openings in their defenses, slashing, cutting, and killing as quickly as we could.
Annowan took on the Slayers by herself. Knowing her bale magic would be blunted by their glyphed armor, supercharged by the Bitch’s close proximity, she instead relied on her strength and skill with the blade.
The demon knight cut down the first attacker but was forced back as several more jumped at her, hacking at her with their sawtoothed blades. She grunted in pain as one of them slipped past her guard and struck her on the arm. The Slayer’s blade rent through her armor, leaving a bloody gash.
“Annowan!” Gilly slammed an arrow into the man’s throat.
The demon took the opening to lash out with baleice. Rather than striking at the Slayers, she aimed at the floor, turning it into a deadly field of frozen spikes. Several of her assailants fell, impaling themselves on the deadly ice or leaving themselves wide open for Annowan’s finishing blow.
Thalie and I fought through the wardens, but we became separated when a fresh wave of reinforcements appeared. Our group was hemmed in, our foes attacking from all sides. For a moment I was battling with Daggerdare, the two of us fighting savagely for just a few meters of space.
A flight of necrotic angels dived down at us. I snapped off my ability, temporarily shredding their undead wings. The constructs lost control and crashed straight into a squad of wardens, killing them all.
Then I felt Scrapple’s bulk behind me, and together with the dragoon, we hammered at a fresh wave of Slayers who had appeared as if from nowhere.
The sound of combat was deafening. For every one of the Bitch’s forces we cut down, two more lined up from the end of the hall.
The Bitch just stood there, watching us, occasionally bellowing out terse commands. But there didn’t seem to be any strategy involved in her methods, she simply seemed to be throwing wave after wave of soldiers at us, not caring if they lived or died.
I found Gilly crouched down next to Scrapple, quickly treating the worst of his wounds during a pause in the fighting. “You’ll be okay, boy.”
“Keep it up,” the Bitch laughed, “I can do this all day!”
“What, get your forces slaughtered?” Annowan replied from somewhere to our right.
The Bitch shrugged. “My generals, bless their hearts, were the real geniuses behind my military victories. You should have seen how Tarial led her forces, she slaughtered all your filthy nonbelievers at an astonishing rate. It was utterly majestic.”
Annowan launched a retaliatory blast of balethunder, and Scrapple got back up, a growl rising from his throat.
“While I am perfect at a great many things,” the Bitch said, “my tactics in battle are pretty simple. I’ll just keep throwing things at you till I win via attrition.”
Another company of wardens raised their spearheads and beat them against their shields, raising a peel of metallic thunder. Golden, barbed halos rose to hover above each of their heads.
“Go,” the Bitch commanded. “Slay in my --”
The wall to our right exploded, the metal buckling and cracking as a huge black tentacle, its rubbery flesh festooned with hundreds of screaming mouths, burst through.
The Bitch stared up in wonder, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” She pointed to a squad of wardens. “Go get --”
The thing shot a limb out, seizing her round the waist. Before she could issue another command she was pulled violently into the air.
“Sarah!” I screamed.
The whole room lurched, and more tentacles punched through the floor. The opulent hall groaned, and several of the pillars cracked and snapped. I almost tripped as the floor tilted. With a horrendous cry of shattering stone and breaking timber, the entire structure began to tilt. The floor leaned towards the light from the Lament of Heaven, which blasted upwards like a searchlight.
The Slayers and wardens, still obeying the Bitch’s last order, stubbornly began climbing towards us, even as we slid downward.
“Stick together,” Annowan yelled. She tried to grab onto a column, but the floor beneath it broke apart, sending her falling.
“Annie!” Gilly screamed.
The demon skidded along the floor, crashed into a group of wardens, and then disappeared into the light.
I braced myself, grabbing a crack that had opened in the floor.
Scrapple launched himself towards the light, even as the goblin dragoon shouted, “For the Throne!”
I reached towards Daggerdare, but the treespeaker slipped as well. Turning, she gave a fierce cry, axes raised as she slammed into a pack of Slayers. Together they all fell.
“Gilly, Thalie!” I saw they were clinging together, the orc using her halberd to fend off a group of Slayers that were determinedly trying to claw up to them.
I tried to jump and reach them, but just as I was about to leap I heard a familiar voice.
“Mal! Mal! Help!”
Looking towards the ruined wall, I saw Sarah was still in the monster’s clutches. The Bitch’s control had slipped, and she sounded like herself again. Her sword was still sheathed and pinned to her side; her mask was askew and blood was running down her neck.
“Mal!” she cried again. “Please, save me!”
She feebly beat at the tentacle holding her, her hands bouncing off its rubbery flesh.
Before I could react, the beast retreated through the wall, Sarah’s shrill screams echoing through the hole it had left. “Mal! Please!”
“Mal!”
Looking back, I saw one of the Slayers had grabbed Thalie’s weapon and was using it to pull the two of them into the light. They screamed, and Gilly reached out for me.
I couldn’t get to them in time.
They were gone.
The hall’s remaining supports groaned, and I knew I only had seconds to act before the whole place collapsed.
Sarah screamed again, her voice full of terror.
I had two choices. I could go after Sarah and the tentacle beast, hoping that I could beat it back and save her. Or I could let go and fall with the others.
Below, the light burned brightly, and I could hear the sounds of battle. The women I loved were fighting for their lives.
I felt my heart tear. Going for Sarah meant leaving Annowan and my wives to fend for themselves. But I knew if I didn’t act, Sarah would be killed.
What do I do! I had resigned myself to fighting Sarah, maybe even killing her if forced to, But could I just abandon her to die?
Somewhere below I faintly heard Thalie yell in pain.
I hesitated, but only for a moment. Deafening myself to Sarah’s increasingly hysteric and fearful cries, I let go of my handhold and dropped into the heavenly light.
Chapter 23
The walls of the gilded hall gave way to the blinding, consuming light. I skidded along the bronze floor, letting the back of my armor take the brunt of the punishment as I plummeted towards the Lament of Heaven.
The hall’s floor ended in a ragged tear. Beyond, I could barely make out the Lament of Heaven, its light burning through the stone shell that strained to hold it in place. Golems crawled over its surface like ants.
Trying to stop my slide, I jammed the edge of my buckler into the scrap floor. Hanging there by its straps, I only had a second to analyze the scene below.
I saw Annowan and the others were fighting in a tight cluster, the surviving City troops pressing in on all sides. Thalie was injured, her hand held tightly against a wound in her leg as Daggerdare fought to protect her.
I couldn’t see Gilly, but to my right, I saw a flare of dragon breath and hoped it was her.
My buckler arm was screaming in pain and blood was slicking down my wrist from where the straps were cutting into my skin. The curved floor of the chamber was several meters down, the fighting happening almost right below me.
I gripped onto the buckler’s straps and jerked it free.
Screaming, I fell into a group of wardens, practically landing on top of one of them. We both tumbled into a heap, his body breaking my fall. Before he could recover I savagely smashed my pick into his neck and then jerked it free. Blood sprayed everywhere.
The other wardens were stunned by my sudden appearance. They had been focusing on Daggerdare and Thalie.
I drove my warpick into a woman’s shoulder, pulling her towards me. I used her as a human shield as another warden tried to impale me with a spear. She screamed in agony as her partner stabbed her; I spun her away with the spear still pinned in her back.
