The next time Aeber slunk out of the shadows, it was just behind Olberic. The warrior let out a gasp of shock before pulling in his arms and rolling off to the side, carefully maneuvering his blade so as to not hurt himself along the way. Aeber, who had been stabbing downwards at his prey, was left staggered for a moment because of the shift of momentum caused by Olberic evading the strike. It was a small opportunity, but it was all that Primrose needed to send out a quick blast of dark magic, hitting Aeber in the chest and sending him backwards.
Unfortunately, this meant that Aeber was once again out of view, slinking through the shadows even after the blow he had sustained. Ophilia raised the Ember to try and catch a glimpse of him, but she wound up hooking the lanthorn back on her belt when she was able to find him. She raised the Illumination Staff, and a column of light exploded from the shadows to cover the entire room.
Aeber was hit by the attack, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, he simply laughed it off, and Therion immediately knew why. Light attacks were effective in helping them find Aeber, yes, but as long as their eyes were adjusted for the darkness, the explosion of illumination was going to be detrimental as well. Therion stumbled backwards because of the light, letting one hand come up to press at his right eye. He couldn't help but wince, and his grip on his dagger threatened to loosen to the point of dropping it. Aeber was certainly a tricky one, and Therion couldn't help but think that perhaps this was some kind of trap. As long as Aeber had full visibility of them but the travelers couldn't return the favor, he was going to win.
In other words, they were going to have to get creative.
Right off the bat, fighting with physical weapons wasn't going to get them anywhere. Aeber was too evasive, and he was hiding in the darkness on top of that. As far as magic was concerned, fire was out of the question given that Aeber could freely control his element and would find a way to turn it against them. On top of that, fire, thunder, and light magic all presented the same problem of likely ending with blinding everyone who wasn't properly defending themselves from the onslaught of an explosion. That took out half of the common elements from the group's option pool, and that was already a bad sign.
Ice magic probably wasn't going to be a good idea either. Therion briefly entertained the idea of using the ice to trip up Aeber and potentially mitigate his stealth advantage, but that wouldn't work if his element was there to defend him, which it unfortunately was. Wherever he stepped, the ground caught fire, and that would immediately melt the ice. The nature magic provided by the Rose Axe and Dohter's blessing wasn't going to help at all given the lack of plants in the shrine. Wind magic would probably just come back to bite the travelers since they wouldn't know where to aim, and dark magic was much the same. Aeber's offensive strategy involved stealth and surprise attacks, so they were going to have to use some strategy that would take that benefit out from beneath his feet.
Luckily for them, Therion had the perfect idea.
He knew Aeber was behind him, so Therion sent himself forward in the direction he thought the other travelers could be found. He summoned a small orb of fire magic that fit neatly into the palm of his hand so he could guide himself as to where he was meant to go, but he extinguished it as soon as he had an idea of where everyone was. He didn't want to accidentally give away everyone's positions to Aeber and take away what little blessing they had. He didn't know how much visibility Aeber had of the travelers, but Therion wasn't going to give him anything more, so he used as little magic as he could and started weaving towards Olberic.
Aeber took this chance to strike at Cyrus, and the scholar turned around in the nick of time to blast the god back with wind magic. Aeber's shoes slid across the ground as he was sent backwards, and the sound of smoldering earth echoed throughout the shrine. Cyrus retreated a moment later, going to where he suspected the other travelers were for the sake of watching his own back.
Everyone else had come to the same conclusion, though it was risky as all hell as far as Therion was concerned. Together, they would be able to fend off any potential attacks and not have to worry about being struck from behind, but at the same time, if Aeber went in for a massive blast of magic, he would have them all cornered at once. They didn't have much time to work with before he took advantage of their new formation; they had to act fast.
"Create a wall of earth around us," Therion instructed of Olberic. He could barely make out the warrior's confused expression in the darkness, but he continued to press it. "Just trust me."
Olberic nodded before stabbing his blade into the ground below. Immediately, a series of four barricades appeared around the travelers, successfully blocking them on all sides. Tressa glanced around in confusion, letting out a sudden yelp of shock from the movement of the earth, before her gaze settled on Olberic. The warrior simply rose to his feet, yanking his sword free of the ground along the way.
Therion did a quick headcount to make sure that everyone was there, and sure enough, they were. They were short on time though, so as soon as he recognized that they were all in the area, he whirled to face Olberic once again. "Can you tell where he is?" he whispered, his voice so soft that it was just barely audible.
Olberic closed his eyes, grounding himself as much as possible into the element his blade contained. After a few moments, he nodded carefully. "Not precisely, but I can roughly gauge how close or far away he is," he replied.
Therion nodded, a light smirk playing across his lips. "In that case, when you feel him get close, I want you to force all of these barricades to explode outwards," he instructed. He turned to the rest of the group, his gaze eventually falling on the silhouettes he could only imagine belonged to Ophilia, Primrose, and Cyrus. "Do what you can to help him. We're only going to be able to try this once before he catches on."
Primrose pressed one hand against the nearest wall, and the other three followed suit. At the center of the column, Tressa, Alfyn, H'aanit, and Therion were all packed in close to make sure they didn't get hit by the aftermath of the upcoming attack. Therion's heart was pounding wildly in his chest, and his nerves weren't helped in the slightest by the fact that he could feel Linde curled around his legs. There wasn't much space for her to maneuver, so she was taking what she could get, unfortunately to the disadvantage of everyone else.
For a few breathless moments, Therion could only count the seconds as they ticked by. He wasn't even entirely sure that this plan was going to work, but he had to at least try it. As far as he could tell, Aeber attacked the way he did with a hit and run style to make up for his weaker defenses. In order to win this fight, the travelers were going to have to hit him as hard as they could, and as long as physical attacks were out of the question, earth magic was their best option. It was a gamble, but Therion had gone up against worse odds, so what was the harm in putting in the effort at the very least?
Therion could feel the shift in his surroundings much the same way the other travelers could, and two seconds later, the rock walls were sent flying outwards in a grand explosion of debris. Small chunks of stone slammed into the ground and walls, littering the shrine along the way, and a few even mustered the force to strike the minimal flames that burned atop the torches lining the area. For a few beats, the air was heavy with constant echoes of noise, but Therion did his best to pay them as little heed as possible.
Instead, his ears focused in on any sound coming from Aeber.
Therion heard a small grunt of pain a few seconds after the outburst of rock, and he knew that his plan had worked. He could hear footsteps distantly as Aeber staggered backwards from the sheer force of the blow, and Therion could already tell that the god wasn't going to be regaining his balance any time soon. That was perfect; after all, that had been the plan. Aeber relied on sneak attacks and speed, no doubt to make up for his minimal defenses, and all they needed was a few good hits to truly throw him off his guard. If they couldn't get to him in any other way, then this was the perfect method, and it seemed to have worked just the way Therion had been hoping.
With Aeber's struggles, the fire around his feet grew more prominent since he wasn't actively trying to hold the flames back. Therion could easily make out Aeber's silhouette thanks to the fire around his boots, and the thief used the light as a beacon as he charged towards the god. He raised his sword like he was going to bring it down only to feint at the last moment, instead offering a kick towards Aeber's knee.
The god fell sideways from the blow, and his knife fell from his grasp, clattering against the floor of the shrine. Before Aeber could reach for it though, Tressa reacted with a flick of her wrist. Wind sent the blade sliding in the opposite direction, and Therion could distantly see its outline against the haze of the darkness. Therion could only imagine that the dagger was meant to be hot for the sake of keeping anyone from getting their hands on it, and until the group was able to receive Aeber's blessing, they would be unable to handle the knife. For the time being, their best bet was to simply keep it out of their opponent's hands.
Aeber wasn't giving up just because his weapon was lost though, and he sent up a quick flare of fire with a skyward punch. Therion realized what he was doing just in time, throwing up one arm to block the light before it could overwhelm his eyes. He could only hope the other travelers had done the same as he let his arm return to its place by his side, readying himself for yet another charge in Aeber's direction.
The god was already making a break for his knife, winding up yet another fiery blast along the way. He sent the attack in Cyrus' direction, but the scholar threw up a shield of ice just in time. The flames and frozen surface collided in a messy explosion that sent stray droplets of water in every direction, and Cyrus was left almost completely soaked in the aftermath. Still, it was better than being hit by the fire, and this gave Cyrus the energy he needed to press on, something he did without missing a beat.
Cyrus, now fully aware of where the god was, sent out a blow of harsh wind magic to try and knock his foe off course. Aeber attempted to duck out of the way, but he was just slightly too slow, causing the tempest to send him rolling far beyond his control. Aeber hissed as he planted one hand against the ground, trying to rise to his feet despite the clear disadvantage he was at.
As the travelers closed in around him to force a surrender, Aeber kicked up fire around his body once again, creating a column that surrounded him. Therion barely managed to close his eyes in time, but he could hear Aeber attempting to strike once more all the while. He could tell Aeber was close though, so Therion decided to trust his instincts and raise his right leg in a kicking motion, lashing out with all the force he could muster.
Therion could have laughed from relief when he realized that his foot had made contact with its intended target. Aeber groaned and stumbled backwards, losing his footing and balance in perfect succession. The god tumbled to the ground a moment later, wincing from the strike. If Therion had to guess, he had hit a sore spot from when the flurry of stones had struck Aeber previously. Just like he thought, the best way to go about fighting a foe like this was to hit them hard and fast, and once their defenses were broken, they would crumble easily enough.
Therion placed his foot on Aeber's chest once he had figured out where it was, raising his sword before pointing it down at the god's neck. Aeber was silent for a moment before he let out a dark chuckle. He snapped, and the torches around the shrine sparked back to their full vitality, consuming the space in a deep red glow. It took Therion's eyes a few seconds to adjust to the shift of lighting once more, but Aeber was willing to be patient. The thief blinked a handful of times before he was able to fully admire Aeber where he was sprawled out on the ground, completely and utterly defeated. His trial had been won, and he couldn't have been happier.
Therion sheathed his blade once more as he stepped away from the god, and Aeber rose to his feet. He wiped off invisible dust before looking to Therion once more. There was something about his smirk that was all too familiar, and the sinking feeling from before returned with a vengeance. Therion was almost sure that he was going to be sick for a few moments, caught between his paranoia, terror, and desire to understand despite Aeber's secrecy.
Therion only truly came back to reality when a hand appeared in his line of sight. Aeber was standing before him once more, his flaming dagger pressed gently between his fingers. "I believen the Inferno Dagger belongeth to thee now," Aeber began casually. Even after being thoroughly defeated, he still had that same laidback aura about him, and it was well beyond unsettling for a thousand different reasons. Therion's stomach twisted and turned in every direction imaginable, and he could already tell that sleep wasn't going to come easily that night no matter how hard he tried.
Therion stared at the knife for a few moments before snapping out of his trance and reaching out to take it hesitantly. Aeber had seemingly removed the burning quality of the dagger, at least for the time being, and it felt like any other weapon in Therion's hands. No, that wasn't precisely true. It came with an immediate surge of energy that hit Therion with all the force of a tidal wave, and he nodded to himself at the sensation. The steel was no longer hot enough to scorch his fingers, but it was far from being an ordinary blade. After all, if there was nothing strange about it, then Aeber wouldn't have wielded it to begin with.
"For defeating my trial, I granten thee my gift," Aeber continued, not bothering to wait for anyone to fill the silence before he continued. "With this blessing, thou will holden full control over the element of fire as well as the power of speed unparalleled. I trusten thou to use it wisely."
Aeber raised his hands above his head, and magic immediately began to rain down from above. The particles looked like smolders of ash, but they didn't burn when they touched Therion's skin. In fact, something about it felt welcome, and once again, the thief was certain that he had felt this before. Not only had he met Aeber previously, but he had felt the kiss of the god's magic. He hated to have to admit it, but he couldn't run from the truth forever.
"Thou hast other places to be. I willst not be the one to keepen thee," Aeber said next. "Until we meeten again, travelers." He raised one hand and snapped his fingers, and light immediately exploded around the area. Therion opened his mouth, ready to say something, but he was cut off by the glow that flooded his vision.
When Therion next opened his eyes, he was back in the shrine, the Inferno Dagger still pressed in his hand like before. Therion yanked his other hand away from the carving of the knife that had transported them to Aeber's battlefield to begin with, a frustrated sigh leaving his lips. He shouldn't have been surprised that the encounter ended so abruptly. He had always heard that the god of misfortune was elusive at best, and it seemed the rumors had been true, much to Therion's chagrin.
"He couldn't wait to send us on our way, huh?" Tressa muttered with a shake of her head. "I guess there's nothing we can do about it though." She reached one hand out in Therion's direction, though it took him a moment to realize what she was trying to imply. After it clicked that she was waiting for him to give her his old dagger, he pulled it out and handed it over. Tressa tucked it away with the rest of their supplies, no doubt thinking about how to sell it and exchange it for better materials in Quarrycrest. After all, as monsters got stronger farther from the core of the continent, they were going to need more powerful weapons.
"It is what it is, I suppose," Ophilia commented with a shrug. "Either way, we were able to obtain his blessing and weapon, and I think that's our cue to keep pressing on. Quarrycrest isn't far from here, and after a fight like that, I want to rest for a while."
Primrose nodded her agreement. "I didn't expect him to prove to be such a challenging combatant, though I suppose the gods are holding back on us less now," she remarked. "When we first crossed paths with Aelfric, he had to pull a lot punches to ensure he didn't outright destroy us. Now that we're getting stronger, the gods don't need to hold back as much, and they're certainly proving their strength."
"We wouldn't have found victory to begin with if not for Therion's strategy during the fight," Cyrus smiled as he turned to face the thief. "If you don't mind my asking, where did you come up with an idea like that? I never would have thought you the type to think about tactics that way."
Therion shrugged. "He focused a lot on sneak attacks and speed. In order to be that fast though, you have to sacrifice something, and in his case, it was raw strength and defense. It was just a matter of hitting him hard enough to break his balance, and after that, it all slid into place," he replied. What he didn't say was that this was exactly how he had been defeated before. Back in S'warkii, all it had taken was one major hit for him to be knocked out of the fight against the ghisarma. He knew all too well what his weaknesses were, but if he wasn't going to be able to easily fix them, the least he could do was use that knowledge to his advantage in a fight.
"I'm glad that it worked. We probably wouldn't have had any luck trying to defeat him otherwise," Alfyn grinned. "Thanks for that, Therion. We really do appreciate it."
The thief didn't know how to respond to that, so he ultimately opted to shake his head and start walking back towards the entrance of the shrine. "Come on. We're almost to Quarrycrest. We should better hurry and take care of everything there so we're not tired on the road tomorrow," he declared. He knew that the rest of the group understood that he was awful at accepting praise, and he hoped they didn't hold it against him. Deep down though, he trusted them not to. If they weren't worthy of his full confidence, he wouldn't still be sticking around after learning how to unlock the fool's bangle at his wrist.
Sure enough, the rest of the group was more than happy to follow him after that, and they abandoned the shrine in favor of rust-colored rocks and broad daylight. As soon as they stepped outside, Therion's nauseating anxiety came back full force, and he resisted the urge to hug at the mountainside to make sure he didn't fall. He wasn't going to be foolish enough to lose his footing in a place like this, but the fear remained even so. In fact, it only felt worse than before after that encounter with Aeber.
Therion couldn't help but think back to how the conversation in the shrine had gone, brief though it may have been. Aeber was clearly a man of few words, not that this particularly surprised Therion. The two of them were a lot more alike than Therion wanted to admit, and perhaps that was why this sinking anxiety was bothering him so much. He and Aeber not only had a lot in common, but they knew each other to some degree, and Therion had to ask about it. No wonder Aeber had sent them off again so soon; he didn't want to have the conversation with Therion as long as the other travelers were around. Luckily for Aeber, Therion didn't want that either. The last thing he wanted was for all of them to hear about his darkest failure and the god that had saved him from it.
The travelers had continued walking while Therion's mind wandered back to Aeber, and the thief made up his mind along the way. After they settled down in Quarrycrest and went their separate ways for the day, Therion was going to head back out to the shrine to see if he could talk to Aeber again. Aelfric had allowed Ophilia to see her once more even after the travelers had won a fight against her, after all. That was when Aelfric revealed that she had saved Ophilia's life so many years ago. It had been more private, and that was exactly what Therion needed at present: privacy. He didn't know if he would have been able to stand it if he had to talk about this openly. He trusted the others in his party, yes, but he still wanted to avoid this subject like the damn plague if he could for his own sake.
Therion got so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice when Quarrycrest came into view. In fact, it wasn't until after the party stopped in the entrance of the town that Therion snapped out of his trance to look around the city. It looked much the same way it had the last time Therion was there years ago. There were a few stalls on the street that lined the entrance to the town, and the orange cliffs spiraled into the skies with all the majesty and terror in the world. People bustled around in crowds, and Therion could feel their collective struggle from a mile away. Quarrycrest had much the same problem that Bolderfall did in some ways: one part of the city was incredibly wealthy while the other was down as far in the slums as one could get.
Then again, given what the group had heard about Morlock, Therion was certain that was by design, at least to some degree. Morlock wanted everyone to be poor and under his control, and he was willing to do anything in order to maintain his constant sense of superiority. It had come at the cost of countless lives, and Therion could only offer the gods prayers on Morlock's behalf that they never crossed paths. If they did, Therion was going to end him without even blinking an eye, and he liked to think he was better than murder most of the time.
He turned his attention to Ophilia where she stood nearby, immediately noticing the tension in her shoulders. She was trying her best to hide it, but there was only so much she could do to mask the truth of her emotions. She swallowed dryly before taking a few steps forward, waiting for the other members of the group to follow her. "We should go and get a few rooms at the inn for the night," Ophilia suggested. "We need to put our things in our rooms so that we can go and see Cyrus' friend." The tail end of her sentence was left unspoken, but Therion could still recognize it easily. They needed to go and speak with Cyrus' old friend so they could get out of Quarrycrest as soon as possible the following day.
Luckily for her, nobody dared to object, least of all Therion. He hated being around sharp cliffs like this even though he knew realistically that he was safe as long as he was within the city limits. He still took every step carefully, like he expected the ground's integrity to be compromised the instant he let his foot fall too hard. He still couldn't seem to get his mind off the overwhelming idea of falling, and he absolutely despised how much his brain was fighting him on the idea of snapping out of it.
It didn't take long for the group to arrive at the inn, and from there, they went through the same old routine as always. Alfyn was able to glean a few tidbits from the local townsfolk about the inn, and just like that, they had their discount for the night. Afterwards, they split up to put their things down, taking up the same four room plan just like every other time. It was predictable, but Therion had no reason to complain. In fact, he almost welcomed the normalcy for the peace it brought his raging mind and heart.
As soon as Therion had set his things down, he had half a mind to bolt off and see what information he could press out of Aeber, but he couldn't bring himself to do that just yet. The group was probably going to travel together to see what they could hear from Cyrus' friend, and Therion just couldn't bring himself to abandon them. Deep down, he knew the truth of his intentions though; he was afraid of whatever he was going to hear from Aeber, and he was willing to do anything he had to in order to avoid it for as long as possible.
Therion didn't even know why he was bothering to begin with though. After all, he already knew exactly what he was going to be told, and there was nothing Aeber could tell him that would surprise him in the slightest. Despite all of that though, the weight of the Inferno Dagger felt like it was trying to drag him to hell to burn in the very pyres from which it was carved. Even if he was fully aware of what he was going to hear, he knew he had no other choice but to go through with it.
But not yet. He needed a bit more time, and hopefully, looking around Quarrycrest for a while and speaking with Cyrus' friend would do something to distract him. It was only going to be temporary, but it was a solution, and he was willing to take that. All of a sudden, Therion understood why Ophilia had been so anxious about going to speak with Bartolo about all that had transpired in Creek fifteen years prior. He was just as worked up, albeit for slightly different reasons. The anxiety seemed ready to suffocate him, and all he could do was simply sit back and wait for himself to either become too numb to care or for the ache to go away entirely.
Therion was out the door practically as soon as he had put his things away for the night, and the rest of the group followed suit. Therion's fingers itched to try and steal something since perhaps that might take his mind off all this, but the people in Quarrycrest were too poor for him to even entertain the idea. He didn't want to take from those who were suffering enough already, and the people around him most certainly fit that description. Morlock, on the other hand... There was a man Therion would steal everything from without batting an eye. In fact, it almost sounded fun.
But he didn't dare to hope for something like that coming to pass. It wouldn't be right by Ophilia, and Therion didn't want to wish any hardship upon her or the rest of the group. They were the first ones Therion had felt safe around in a lifetime, and he wasn't going to screw this up even if it just involved thinking about how much he would enjoy destroying Morlock's empire. He finally had earned the trust of other people, and he had granted his own faith in return. He couldn't let this chance slip away.
So instead, Therion leaned against the wall outside the inn and fiddled with the Inferno Dagger, letting its familiar but detached heat rush through his fingers. He was going to have to go and find his answers soon, and if all went well, he would have the truth in his grasp by the time the sun went down. The idea was terrifying, but he couldn't run away from it now.
After all, when else was he going to get a chance like this again?
Another god fight in the bag!
I still really do like writing the battles against the gods. All of them fight in such different ways, and it's a nice way for me to push my skills when it comes to writing combat sequences. The fights in this story are a bit different from, say, Horizon Wars or Alitia, but I still have tons of fun with them. Aeber in particular was tons of fun to work with, and I love how this fight turned out in the end.
Speaking of Aeber, he's a strange one, isn't he? His relationship with Therion is so far a mystery, but we're going to get there eventually. Once again, we have a case of me building off the narrative of the game since I want to take advantage of this format as much as I possibly can. I'm excited for this little bit here, though it won't become fully important until Therion's chapter three, and we're not going to hear about it from Aeber's view until later in the Quarrycrest adventure. Until then, you get drips of truth about it as theory bait.
Anyways, I'm going to hit the hay now since I'm uploading this at three in the morning. Next week, we'll jump right into Cyrus' chapter two at long last! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital