Chapter 26: Forging Calamity

Five figures rushed toward Yanguere.

Their footsteps struck against the ground in rapid succession as they moved through the dark landscape, their figures steadily closing the distance between themselves and the monstrous creature.

Yanguere noticed them almost immediately.

His head turned. His gaze settled upon the five approaching figures.

For a brief moment, he simply watched.

Then his black lips slowly curled upward.

There was something deeply unpleasant about that smile. It wasn’t hurried or surprised. It carried the simple certainty of something that had already decided what it wanted to do.

Yanguere lifted one of his pincers.

With a flick, he sent the Suaps forward.

The dog-shaped Fiends immediately responded.

Their bodies lowered toward the ground as their legs pushed against the crimson mud, sending them rushing toward the five figures.

Woof! Woof!

Their barking echoed through the surroundings.

The five figures continued running.

The distance between them and the Suaps rapidly disappeared.

The barking grew louder.

The Suaps were almost upon them. But right at that moment the figures changed direction. They shifted sharply toward the right without slowing down, moving toward the back side of the Black Spire.

Their movement was abrupt, but deliberate.

They didn’t turn toward Yanguere nor did they didn’t run directly away from the Suaps.

Instead, they maintained their distance from both sides, their path carrying them around the Black Spire.

Yanguere watched the change.

His smile remained on his black lips.

But something immediately felt wrong and he sensed it.

The five figures continued moving, but Yanguere no longer simply watched them.

He climbed onto one of the Suaps.

The instant he settled onto its back, the creature accelerated.

Its paws struck the ground rapidly as it carried Yanguere forward.

The remaining Suaps followed.

They rushed alongside and behind him, barking continuously as they pursued the five figures.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

The sound followed them across the dark surroundings.

The five figures kept running.

Yanguere kept coming.

The distance between them gradually shrank.

The Suaps movements became more frantic as they closed in.

Their claws struck the crimson mud.

Their bodies surged forward.

Yanguere’s black lips remained curved into that same smile.

He was getting closer.

Very close.

Then the five figures stopped.

Their movement came to an end so suddenly that the contrast was almost jarring.

They stood still.

Then, one after another, they turned around facing Yanguere, who was still sitting atop the Suap, his black lips stretched into that unsettling smile.

The other Suaps were rushing behind him.

They were already within reach.

Yanguere watched the five figures.

The Suaps leapt.

Their bodies left the ground at almost the same moment.

Five sets of eyes met the approaching creatures.

The Suaps stretched forward, their jaws opening as they closed the final distance.

They were about to touch them, but right at that moment, the figures dissolved.

Their forms lost their solidity in an instant. Their bodies turned into an illusionary mist.

The Suaps passed straight through them.

There was no resistance and no impact.

The creatures continued forward, passing through the mist where the five figures had been.

Yanguere’s movement stopped. His expression stiffened. The smile on his black lips remained for a moment longer before becoming strangely rigid.

He looked at the mist and saw there was nothing else.

The five figures were gone. Yanguere looked like a kid who had wanted a toy for a long time and when he was about to get it, he simply didn’t.

Only mist drifted through the space where the five figures had stood.

It moved quietly through the air and then the mist began to gather.

Five feet above the ground and twenty-five feet away from Yanguere, the scattered mist slowly concentrated into one place.

It didn’t disappear, rather it condensed.

The vague brown color gradually became more distinct as the mist took shape.

A door appeared in the air.

It was a brown, misty door. Strange magical patterns were scattered across its surface, their shapes difficult to make out through the surrounding haze.

Yanguere looked toward it.

His attention shifted completely to the door. The strange door remained suspended in the air.

The door opened.

Fwoosh!

Fog burst from inside and sprayed outward through the open doorway, spilling into the surrounding air.

Yanguere continued looking at the door. He didn’t move. His attention remained fixed upon it.

And then—something came through.

It happened so quickly that there was almost no time between one moment and the next.

An axe shot out from the open door. Lightning coated its surface. The violent purple light twisted around the weapon, gathering and changing shape as it moved. A deer formed from the lightning. A purplish lightning deer surrounded the axe as it tore through the air.

It rushed toward Yanguere at the speed of lightning.

The distance between them vanished.

Yanguere’s expression changed.

Two Suaps immediately reacted. Their bodies moved in front of Yanguere, putting themselves directly between him and the approaching attack.

The lightning deer reached them.

The instant it did—the two Suaps turned into ashes.

Their forms disappeared beneath the violent lightning.

The lightning deer vanished as well. But the axe did not.

It continued its pace forward. Straight toward Yanguere, who let out a deep grunt from his throat.

His four pincers moved simultaneously as he brought them together.

Two crossed against the other two, forming a barrier directly before his body.

The axe arrived.

Clang!

The sound rang through the surroundings.

The axe collided directly with Yanguere’s crossed pincers.

For an instant, the two forces met.

The axe kept pushing. It didn’t stop after the impact. It continued driving forward against the pincers as though something invisible was forcing it onward.

Yanguere resisted.

His body remained behind the crossed pincers as he tried to push the axe away.

The pressure continued.

The metal of the axe ground against the pincers.

Screech!

Sparks burst from the point where they collided.

The axe continued pressing forward. Yanguere’s pincers held against it. The force between them intensified as neither side gave away.

At that exact moment, the axe vanished.

And in that exact instant, Eliza appeared in its place.

She had a substitution charm attached to the axe and it had taken effect!

She was still suspended in the air.

Her left hand was wrapped around the axe. For a moment, she occupied the exact place where the weapon had been. Then lightning gathered around the blade. It crawled across the axe, twisting around the metal. Purple light condensed. The lightning grew denser and more violent. A purplish lightning deer formed around the axe once again.

Everything happened within moments.

Eliza remained in the air. Her left hand held the weapon tightly.

The lightning deer surrounded it.

And then she swung it toward Yanguere.

"Forging Calamity!"

Shur!