B3 - Chapter 70: Chains

The gauntlet-wielding combatant stiffened, his golden eyes snapping toward his ally.

"Is that Vorath, Ulric's—"

"Yes," Zakar cut him off, voice as sharp as his blade.

Ulric. The name of his father struck Seth like a punch. His fists clenched so hard the leather of his gloves creaked.

Zakar noticed.

The white-haired spearman took a step forward, raising his spear. Blue-white lightning exploded across his armor, racing down the shaft before arcing down into the earth. The trampled grass blackened and smoked wherever the crackling arcs struck.

The man looked at the giant wyvern. "So is that why he fled and hid like a coward? For a child?"

Anger exploded inside Seth. His core hammered against his ribs in perfect rhythm with his racing heart, flooding his body with scorching heat.

Zakar's lips curled into a feral snarl. An overwhelming presence erupted from the spearman and crashed into Seth like a falling mountain.

The sheer weight drove the air from his lungs. His knees buckled, and despite using every bit of his strength, he couldn't remain standing. One leg slammed into the dirt.

Marcus moved to shield him. Yet before the old Alchemist could even take a step, the wyvern shifted its stance.

Its large foreleg swung across Marcus's path, planting a talon into the ground to block his advance.

The wyvern slowly turned its head, and its glowing blue eyes settled on Seth. A cold glint flickered within its reptilian irises. And from the beast's gaze he could tell, it agreed with Zakar. All those sacrifices for someone so weak.

Seth ground his teeth until his jaw ached. Deep within his chest, Will of the Defiers flared to life. The Talent pulsed alongside his core, pouring stubborn strength through his body.

His trembling muscles locked and his leg straightened while Seth forced himself back to his feet. He lifted his chin and met Zakar's eyes.

The spearman's aura surged once more.

This time, the pressure carried the wind itself. A violent gale whipped Seth's hair across his face, rattling the straps of his armor and threatening to throw him backward. He dug his boots into the scorched earth. He did not step back or even blink.

If only he had been stronger, he would have crossed the battlefield, ripped that spear from Zakar's hands, and torn the man's head from his shoulders.

"Zakar, we can't win this!" the gauntlet-wielding man shouted behind.

Zakar didn't even acknowledge him and instead exploded forward.

One step. That's all Seth's eyes could see. Then he lost track of the man entirely.

The wyvern let out a deafening roar.

The sound seemed to split the world itself as the massive beast lunged to intercept the spearman. Its wings unfurled, unleashing a hurricane that ripped across the battlefield and sent walls of mud and debris spiraling into the air.

Then, for the first time it cast a spell, and reality itself seemed to come to a halt.

The temperature across the neutral zone plummeted, and frost raced over the ground faster than any sound. Towering glaciers erupted next, piercing the battlefield and transforming the plain into a frozen kingdom of ice.

Every glacier radiated an impossibly dense concentration of aether.

Seth knew right then, even if he were to strike at one of them for years without ceasing, it wouldn't even crack.

Zakar reappeared in a blinding flash.

His lightning-wreathed spear slammed into a pillar of ice that surged toward him, the impact releasing a clamorous metallic shriek that resonated across the frozen landscape.

The Stormfang Sabertooth joined him and pounced at the wyvern; its ivory fangs scythed through the air as blue-white lightning exploded from its body, racing across the ice in violent arcs.

The wyvern met the assault head-on, and a blizzard erupted around its enormous frame. Shards of condensed ice screamed through the air like siege ballistae, while torrents of freezing wind swallowed everything in their path.

Marcus stepped in front of Seth.

The Alchemist shielded him from the devastating shockwaves as fragments of ice and aether hammered against the invisible barrier surrounding the old man.

Ahead, the gauntlet-wielding man and his four-armed yeti charged across the frozen battlefield to support Zakar and the feline. Both the giant ape and his owner threw punches at each glacier that erupted out and threatened to impale them, reducing the enchanted ice to glittering fragments.

But the moment they got closer, the wyvern was ready for them.

The beast whipped its massive tail around and struck the yeti's chest with devastating force. A sickening crack echoed through the frozen wasteland as several of the giant's ribs shattered. The colossal beast skidded helplessly across the ice.

The gauntlet fighter lunged to help his companion, but the wyvern's jaws snapped open before he could reach it, and a beam of freezing aether surged out. The spell struck the man, hurling him across the battlefield while leaving a trail of frost in his wake.

Zakar and his sabertooth fared little better.

Lightning split the air as the spearman carved apart glacier after glacier, while the sabertooth tore through walls of enchanted ice with fang and claw, but for every construct they destroyed, three more rose to replace it.

They were being driven back, step by step.

The neutral zone had become the domain of the wyvern, and none of the four foes had the power to challenge it.

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Cornered by an entire mountain of jagged ice crashing down upon him, Zakar released a roar and crushed a scroll engraved with golden runes. The effect was immediate, and a shockwave of compressed aether erupted from his palm.

The discharge vaporized the surrounding ice into billions of glittering shards before crashing into the wyvern with enough force to shake the battlefield.

For the first time, the colossal beast was pushed back.

Its massive body slid across the frozen plain, forcing the wyvern to drive its talons deep into the frost-coated ground, which left giant trenches gouged into the battlefield.

It finally stopped only a few paces from Marcus and Seth.

Zakar raised both arms toward the sky. "Why?" he roared at the wyvern. "Why are you protecting him? Why do you still serve that shackled clan?"

The wyvern answered with a roar. The shockwave ripped across the battlefield, flattening the frozen grass and splitting the frigid air.

Zakar staggered beneath it, knees buckling.

Then he forced himself upright once more and pointed at Seth, gaze still on the wyvern.

"Do you truly believe this is your Path to vengeance?" he shouted. "Do you think this pathetic child will ever become strong enough to threaten the Bloodfangs?" The man's golden eyes burned with contempt. "Elrod blood flows through his veins. He was doomed the moment he was born. Like all the others, he has no choice but to kneel."

Zakar reached into his Endless Pouch. When his hand emerged, it held a scroll fashioned from blackened parchment, which he raised overhead.

Marcus froze. Even the gray wyvern recoiled, its glowing blue eyes widening in unequivocal shock.

"They still have those…" Marcus whispered, dread creeping into his voice.

A cruel smile spread across Zakar's face. He looked at Seth, then back at the wyvern. "So the boy doesn't know."

Seth frowned. "Doesn't know what?"

The man's grin widened. "Let me present you your chains."

Seth turned toward Marcus, a dozen questions surging through his mind.

"What does—"

But he never finished.

A pain unlike anything he had ever imagined erupted from the deepest part of his chest. His legs gave out instantly, and Seth crashed to the ground.

The agony ripping through him was so excruciating that any sane man with a knife would have slit his own throat just to make it end.

The pain came from the deepest reaches of his Well, where, wrapped around his aether channels, spectral chains had suddenly blazed into existence. They glowed white-hot and tightened with every heartbeat as though trying to crush his very soul.

'Seth!' Nightmare and Colossus cried out in unison.

Both beasts' voices vanished beneath the overwhelming pain.

Beside Seth's Well, his core erupted in fury. It demanded retribution, demanded that he rise, cross the battlefield, and slaughter the man responsible for this.

But that fury was nothing compared to the reaction of Will of the Defiers.

It exploded.

A thunderous force burst from the depths of Seth's chest and seized the burning chains wrapped around his Well. The spectral metal groaned, twisted, and strained before slowly starting to bend.

'You. Will. Not. Yield.'

The command thundered through his mind. It reverberated through every bone, every muscle, every fragment of his soul. The ambient sounds of the battlefield vanished from Seth's ears. He barely even heard the roar ripping from his own throat.

Scalding blood streamed from his eyes. More spilled from his nose and his ears, splashing onto the ground beneath him. Pain tore through his body again and again, as if he were being ripped apart ten times per second.

He still fought.

The chains crushing his Well and channel creaked louder. Then, through the relentless pounding of his heart and the wyvern's furious roars… Zakar's voice somehow reached him.

"It is inevitable! He's an Elrod! This is his fate!"

The man's words only fed Will of the Defiers' insurrection.

The energy surged through Seth's chest with a power so immense his mind struggled to grasp its extent. More blood poured from his eyes, nose, and ears. He clenched his teeth until his jaw threatened to crack.

Then his body moved.

Every muscle strained, his arms pushed the ground, his legs straightened. Seth began to rise as if pulled upright by an unbreakable force.

Another earsplitting roar ripped from his throat—but this one was born of defiance. A challenge to the gods themselves to descend upon this plain and force him to kneel.

'You. Will. Not. Yield.'

Seth stood tall.

Blood blurred his vision, yet he didn't close his eyes. His gaze locked on Zakar and the black scroll clutched in the man's hand.

For the first time, cracks appeared in his composure.

Arrogance vanished, replaced by something that looked like fear. It spread across the white-haired man's face as if he had suddenly realized the magnitude of his mistake.

As he should.

No mountain was too high for Seth to climb. No enemy was too powerful to reach. Today, Zakar stood miles ahead of him.

But one day, the man wouldn't.

As long as Seth still breathed, he would continue to grow. As long as death failed to claim him, he would hunt and fight to reach that strength.

And when the day finally came that they stood as equals, mercy would not exist. No matter if he had to chase this man across kingdoms and continents, blood would be shed. That was his sworn pledge.

'You. Will. Not. Yield.'

Seth clenched his fists even more and unleashed one final roar that rattled the very ground beneath his feet.

Deep within his chest, the spectral chains snapped: one link, then another, until its entirety burst into countless fragments of light before vanishing. The agony disappeared with it.

Silence swallowed the plain as Seth remained standing atop the churned ground.

Warm blood continued to drip from both his chin and the wounds his fingernails had carved into his palms.

Across the battlefield, Zakar stood perfectly still for several long seconds, then tightened his grip around the black parchment scroll in his hand to use it again.

Nothing happened.

Seth remained on his feet, and inside him, his Well pulsed with a painless rhythm.

The gauntlet-wielding man behind Zakar staggered back a step, dread surging through his face. "How is that possible?" he muttered to himself.

Beside the shocked Marcus, the colossal wyvern slowly turned its gaze to Seth once more. The judgment that had lingered in its eyes earlier was gone.

It threw back its head and released a roar that shook the heavens.

Then it lowered its head until its predator blue eyes met Seth's. "Seth Elrod, son of Ulric Elrod, Voice of the Wild, and Clarissa Velarys, the Unbound," the beast declared, its aetheric voice resonating with the authority of a deity rather than a mortal. "Do not hide anymore. Be the one who never stops. Be the one whom others fear. Be the one who seeks to avenge them. From this day forth, I, Vorath the Great, shall protect your Path with my life."

Zakar charged, lightning flaring across his armor. "Vorath! You dare pledge allegiance to this—"

Vorath cut him off with another deafening roar. The sound tore across the battlefield and forced the white-haired man to stop and cross his arms.

The giant wyvern advanced forward.

With each step, his claws gouged trenches into the frozen ground. Each breath rolled from his nostrils in streams of frigid air.

The gauntlet-wielding combatant retreated another pace and recalled the battered Ancient Frost Yeti into the pendant at his neck. "Zakar!" he shouted. "We have to leave. Now!"

Even the Stormfang Sabertooth hesitated. Its ears flattened as it let out a low growl and backed away from the advancing wyvern.

Only Zakar refused to move.

Humiliation and fury had crept into his face. Seeing the danger, his ally ripped a golden spatial scroll from his belt and rushed to the man's side.

Vorath's talons carved another series of furrows as the wyvern's voice rolled across the plain. "Yes. Flee, Zakar. But don't forget to tell them. Tell them how Ulric's son revealed himself. Tell them how he stood before an Apex Predator such as yourself and lived."

The colossal beast paused and slowly straightened, its gaze never leaving the white-haired man. "Tell them how the chains of your miserable god failed to make him kneel."

Before Zakar could answer, his ally crushed the scroll in his hand.

A pillar of light erupted around the two men and the Stormfang Sabertooth, swallowing them completely.

They then vanished, and a heavy silence descended on the neutral zone.

In the distance, the male officer of the NEVAK knelt to the ground, cradling his wounded partner against his chest. He pressed a glowing scroll against the spear wound of his partner, which had finally stopped bleeding.

Nearby, the Spirit was motionless.

Its translucent body still flickered, though it had regained some stability. A pulsing violet orb that looked like a communication artifact glowed within one of its hands while its hollow eyes were locked on Seth.

The emotionless mask it had worn throughout most of the war was gone, and in its place lingered an expression Seth couldn't decipher. It seemed to be a mix of awe, fear, and some fascination.

Only a few steps away, the contribution rankings still floated above the battlefield.

Yet the name that blazed at the very top had changed.

Seth Elrod, He Who Cannot Be Chained – 167550 points