Chapter 481: Battle Of The Manor (Part 8)
Maia’s words resounded in the hearts of her children, helping draw them out of the pit they had found themselves in after the loss they had suffered in the first attack. After their religious head and queen had been heavily injured, it was hard for anyone to muster up enough support to continue the fight. This lead to a mass retreat which allowed for things to develop like that had to this point; the previously breached manor had beaten back their attackers and had once again hidden within their turtle shell.
Despite this, not one of them thought it would be easy, especially Maia. She had not taken the first attack as seriously as she should have which lead to the losses they experienced and she blamed herself for that. She had never considered that some of her people would actually try to kill her, even if they had betrayed her. After all, the incident with the Infernal Beetles wasn’t exactly a serious threat and Maia had just thought it was them acting out.
It was only now that she knew better.
’This time,’ she promised herself, ’I won’t hold back.’
That was the resolve she had made and the reason for the change that Laz noticed in her.
None of that mattered to him right now. Instead, his mind was focused on the calm of the storm that was the array pattern. Seeing it, Laz could tell what it did, but he didn’t know how to stop it. The biggest problem was the load on the rune. While being the anchor for this section of the array, it was also the support for it, causing the pressure of the array to hold it steady. Considering the size and strength of this thing, even if Maia herself were to take action, there was no telling if it would work. And if it did, what the backlash would be.
You couldn’t just remove a support pillar from a dam and not expect to drown in the resulting flood waters.
So Laz knew that whatever needed to be done, it had to be him.
After thinking it over for a while, Laz sighed and stood up, turning his gaze to look at Maia. When he finally turned his head, he noticed she was already looking his way, her eye’s ablaze. And not just her, everyone around her, all of the fae children born connected to her, also seemed like they were blazing. Laz couldn’t help but briefly marvel at how everyone seemed to be connected, all based on her. Where they were once weak when she was sick and injured, now they seemed like an explosion, contained but waiting to burst out.
"I assume you’re ready?" Maia asked to which Laz nodded.
Behind her, one of the older and slightly less blazing members of the elves stood forward and said,
"Goddess. I know this person is your guest, but I highly doubt such a young child could effectively bring down this array. After having studied it for over a day, I can safely say that this array isn’t anything that our people ever made or even dreamed up. It’s far more effective than once can even conceive. While giving him a chance is your choice, myself and the other array masters had determined that only with your strength can we destroy this turtle shell and get justice on these traitors," the scholarly man said, keeping his head low.
’Does he not know just what would happen if she did that and succeeded? That she could be injured by the backlash?’ Laz thought to himself while looking at the thin man.
He was about to say something, but seeing the serious look on Maia’s face, he didn’t think now was the time.
"How certain are you?" Maia asked.
"One hundred percent," Laz responded without a hint of hesitation.
"And if you’re wrong?" Maia raised her eyebrow, wondering if Laz was just boasting for his own benefit. Although she thought highly of Laz, she also knew that there was a lot of truth to what the rune master was saying, that someone of Laz’s age should not be anywhere near his level of mastery.
"These runes that you use are unfamiliar to me, to be honest. But after studying them, I’ve come to a very interesting conclusion. The language of these runes is based off the rune that I have learned. Or to be more precise, someone took the rune language that I know and simplified it, making this language that you are currently using. Since I know that, it’s pretty easy to determine what it is I need to do," Laz said instead of answering her question.
"You’re speaking as if you know the ancient runic language?" The scholar said, his eyes wide in ridicule.
Laz ignored him and turned to face Maia.
"If you tried to destroy it, you might not succeed. Even if you did, the backlash of trying to strike down the array would be enough to seriously injure you. I just want you to remember that," Laz said, having decided to voice his concerns in the end after seeing the attitude of this ’rune master.’
Laz walked to the spot in the array, the anchor position he could reach and then addressed Maia once more.
"As for the answer to your question? If I am wrong? Well... then feel free to kill me if this doesn’t," Laz said, writing quickly in the air. He had motioned for Jill to stay close to Maia to give himself space, but that was only a lie to get her to move. He didn’t want her anywhere near where he was working.
Having heard his words, it took Maia, Jill, Sylvia, Ivana and Genevieve a second to understand, the one second he needed.
"Hagalaz," Laz said out loud as he drew the ’H’ looking rune into the air before blending it into the array and sending it straight at the anchor spot.
Watching it happen, Laz knew he had succeeded. He stood up and turned around, smiling.
Laz hadn’t expressed his feelings in a long time. He had been traveling from place to place, dealing with problem after problem. He had seen some of the worst the world had to offer but had also witness some amazing events that people would never have dreamed of. He had met and fought with gods, loved and had been loved, lead armies and faced demons.
Most recently, he had come here to this closed world, where a people who had just been a fantasy in his world actually existed. And he had again gotten involved with things that should have had nothing to do with him had he just had it in him to be cold.
But at the same time, he still hadn’t found his parents. He was also no closer to saving his grandfather or knowing if he was alive or dead.
He had lost track of many of his own lovers and had no idea where they were, or what they were doing. He had thought about finding them, trying to connect, but every time he ended up with them, they would be dragged apart.
There was only so many times a man’s soul can take a blow like that before the pain no longer fades.
Maybe his connection with Sylvia wasn’t much with his connection to Ivana being even less. But they had become people in his life before he even knew it and they had almost died.
And then there was Maia, the once carefree child who was calling him daddy had now turned cold and angry. It was hard to see,
Maybe if he didn’t actually care about anything, this wouldn’t have effected him. But ever since he had to run away from ’The Shack,’ Laz had felt himself falling a little more into that big abyss that he had ignored for so long, the one that first formed when his parents had left him.
So although he didn’t think the result of him using that particular rune would kill him, a tiny, tiny part of him almost didn’t care if it did.
Hagalaz drew in the forces of the array as a rune of destruction and forced them through the point of it’s contact, right at this particular anchor spot of the array. The result was similar to what would have happened if the weight of dozens of load bearing supports were suddenly transferred on to one support.
It collapsed without hesitation, causing the energy of the array to exploded outward and upwards. Since he was the closest as everyone else had been giving the protected gate a wide berth, the force of the blast hit his back and sent him flying like a ragdoll, past the shocked and frozen forms of those gathered.
With that, the array shattered like glass breaking and falling away.
For a moment, everything was silent.
The the yelling and cheers started, the troops ready for blood and no one telling them to stop.
Maia, Sylvia, Ivana and Genevieve looked back at where Laz had landed, bloody and not moving as Jill’s small form rushed by, ignoring everything as she raced to Laz’s side.
Just as they were debating going to check on him, Laz raised a hand.
"Just go," he said, waving them off.
Seeing this, they relaxed and charged forward, their bloodlust taking hold.
None of them looked back to see Laz’s limp hand fall heavily on the ground.
