43 - The Adversary

Seven voices overlapped, addressing me, "We meet again, brother."

"So we do." The Ancient replied with my lips.

"Did you think I'd never escape that prison you sealed me in?"

"Of course not. Nothing lasts forever. Not even us."

The seven possessed welders laughed. It was eerie seeing wife laugh so differently from how she usually did. "We are immortal! By definition, we will last forever, spiting each other in a eternal loop of vengeance!"

*His hatred has consumed him,* I realized.

*Yes.* the Ancient agreed.

"You have not changed, after all this time," the Ancient declared.

"Of course not! I am a god!"

"No, not yet. And not on this path. Brother! Release your greed!"

The seven made the same smug grin. "Make me."

They turned away from me, looking south and kneeling in either reverence or prayer. A cloaked figure emerged from the forest. He rode a white-furred beast that stood over 12 feet tall, even on all fours, though it looked like it could stand up on its rear legs.

Though I could see nothing under his hood, I felt his eyes staring me down. The pure, unbridled hatred... I shivered, though the Ancient kept my body still.

"What will you do now?" the Adversary asked, speaking from his own mouth instead of through my friends, "I have your people, and the monster wave isn't so far gone that I can't bring it back. I wonder how long your partner would last, watching his friends get trampled with smiles on their faces."

That was too far, and I was about to tell him so, but the Ancient stopped me. *That's what he wants. A reaction.* he said.

A large portion of my mana suddenly disappeared. The Ancient pulled it away to make boxes around the other double-possessed wielders. Then he knotted the connection I had to each barrier and disconnected them. Even though I was no longer the source of mana from the seven boxes, they didn't disappear. They had been sealed. 

Options flew through my mind. Strike him down with my sword. Escape and rejoin those who weren't under his control. Make a plan. 

Then I realized the Ancient had a plan. I felt my voice start to sing a song. The song-like spell he used on the Boss. 

The Ancient used a sequence of barriers to drop to the ground in a controlled fashion. He continued to sing the decimating song.

The Adversary sang back, in the same language, but an entirely different tone and lyric. The two songs seemed to cancel each other out, disappearing. The remaining silence was short-lived.

"Don't be surprised." The Adversary said, "You had millennia to prepare for me, but I also had millennia to prepare for my revenge."

Instinctively, I put a barrier up behind me. A hawk-sized bird with the head of a snake crashed into it, then savagely beat against it. The Ancient boxed it in and sealed the barriers used to make the box, infusing a larger mana supply than he had for the people-sized ones. My mana was starting to run low. 

"That won't work on me." the Ancient growled.

"I knew it wouldn't."

Without me realizing, he was in sword-range. I brought the Ancient up to block his sword strike, but I was too slow. The Adversary's broadsword - nearly identical to the Ancient - pierced my abdomen. 

I backed up, ramming into the barrier containing the bird. The Adversary pushed his blade in deeper. He leaned in close and whispered, "I still remember the spell you used on me. After I kill your host, I'll do it to you. And maybe you'll know what it's like to suffer in the fiery depths of a volcano for thousands of years."

I threw a wild punch, which he easily dodged, twisting his blade. I screamed out in pain. 

The Ancient formed a barrier around the Adversary's blade, right up against the cross guard. The Adversary tsked and pulled his blade out. I clutched the wound with my left hand. I stumbled away. West. I had to go west.

The Adversary made a token attempt at attacking me from behind, but the Ancient blocked it with a barrier. I limped into the air, using the last dregs of my mana to make steps over the wall we had created. 

"We'll meet again, brother," he said from behind me. I kept moving forward, and disappeared behind our wall. "And when we do, I'll make you suffer the same fate I did!"

Blood trickled from my wound. It dripped a trail as I went westward, towards what part of my group hadn't been possessed. 

I don't know how long I walked. I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. My hand covered the bleeding. Soon I heard voices. Hoarsely, I called out to them.

Their silhouettes blurred as they approached me. Then blackness enveloped me.