AO 6 CH 32

The king recovered, sweating now, but coming back on the offensive.

While I waited for him to get back to me, I continued to siphon off Thor’s magic from him.

“Ard!” Emlyn screamed as a bolt from my frantic lover clashed with the king, only to be rebuffed by a swing of his spear. It sent her stumbling with a stupid look on her face. 

"He's a mage!" She called out in disbelief.

I used the time Emlyn was buying me to call on even more magic.

"Yes, he's a mage, Emlyn. Blessed by Thor. Which means this isn't really his strength. But that’s okay, we can’t all be four sphere mages by birth." I winked at the king. 

“Arrogant little prick.” He squared up, having a good head of height above Emlyn. I questioned whether or not there were lifts in his tiny golden shoes. The rest of his family certainly wasn't this tall. 

"Well, I'll show you arrogance," Emlyn dove at him, her blade flashing back and forth faster than his overly large spear. Yet to both of our utter shock, that armor of his did little but make a small dinging sound when her bluesteel sword collided with it at full strength. 

"I have right and justice behind me. You are treasonous sinners of my country. You shall not hold a blade against your king," he growled, grabbing Emlyn's sword with his gauntleted fist and swung for the fences with his spear. 

Emlyn could only let go to dodge out of the way before a spike of earth erupted in front of her and smashed into the king, causing him to stumble back. "You're not the only one with a bag of tricks," she shouted, proud of herself for the magic she had used. 

I didn't have the heart to tell her that she didn't even scratch the armor. 

"Ard, watch out!" someone screamed across the battlefield. I didn't have time to figure out who was warning me, taking them at their word.

I quickly hit the floor as a figure flew over me. A moment later, Aurelia smashed into it, knocking a vampyr to the ground. A manticore tail made of fire stabbed straight into its chest, scorching the thing from the inside out. 

The next second, Maribelle was scooping me up as the king of Avente launched another round of attacks as Emlyn fought a running battle to keep him off me and Maribelle. 

"If you've got something big, now would be the time to use it.” Emlyn urged me, but I could only helplessly shrug my shoulders, cradled in Maribelle’s arms.

"That armor he's wearing, I'm going to guess, is blessed by Thor. The spear too. It's probably what's giving him all of his strength and speed. Not to mention his ability to literally turn himself into lightning." I had to admit, they were decent upgrades. I was becoming increasingly happy Thor couldn’t attack me directly without breaking the rules for gods.

Maribelle put me down while Zuri and Aurelia joined Emlyn going at it with the king. The four figures moved quickly amidst the melee. The entire rest of the battle had ceased to exist. Everyone was watching as the Avente King tried to kill one of his own nobles and the only four sphere mage.

They knew the future of their kingdom rest in this battle. If I fell, so too would House Aldis and the Enclave noble families. The Royals would rise and too many people waited to see the decisive moment before they acted.

A significant amount of frustration welled up inside of me as I watched the forces stare dumbly at the exchange. Then again, they wouldn't have been much help, not when even my anchors weren't cracking his shell. 

The king, in his gaudy gold armor, flung Aurelia off before zipping around Zuri. His spear raised as he appeared right in front of me.

I smiled at him as a chunk of stone as big as a tree trunk shot up from the ground. It caught him in the chest with his spear cocked back, flinging him well over a hundred yards away. I could barely scratch him, but at least I could toss him around.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Emlyn cheered. 

I gathered more ice magic to me, pouring it out in waves as I prepared for something big.

The king shot to his feet and was rushing back my way, a small dribble of blood showing that I'd at least affected him.

The ground underneath the king gave way as he stepped up to strike again. Sand cupped the heel of his greaves, only to turn into stone and hold them tight. He shattered it a moment later, but the move broke his stride. 

And it gave enough opportunity for my anchors to come swinging in at his stalled momentum.

While they attacked, I started reworking my plan, trying to think about what Zuri would do. Controlling his movement was working, then that meant I needed to go all in on that rather than trying to brute force through the armor.

Frigid cold air began sweeping into the surroundings and frost began to gather on his mirror bright armor, but the more I considered the options, the more I realized he was valuable.

Like King Martin had been a bridge to Freya, it seemed that the King of Avente had become a bridge to Thor, one that Thor wasn't stopping as I slowly worked to drain his godly magic through the king.

The more frost I gathered on the king’s armor, the slower he became. My anchors kept him hemmed in and pinned down, at least enough that he couldn't rush me any further. 

Ice continued to gather on the king, sealing up joints in his plates and slowing him down until it looked like he had just walked out of a northern storm. A beard of icicles dangled down from his helmet.

"You know," I said slowly, "you might have armor that protects you and makes you fast, but if there's one thing I learned about the difference between mages and anchors, we're a lot less resilient when it comes to changing temperatures. I don't suppose there's a heater in that armor, is there?" I chuckled as he struggled to move and laid the ice on thick, locking him in place.

His eyes were locked in fury, but he couldn’t move even as his skin started to turn blue.

I walked up to the frozen king and tapped on his armor. 

"Is that wise?" Emlyn asked, her tone telling me exactly what she thought. 

"Pretty sure he's locked solid, and even if he tried to move, he'd be fighting me and my ice the whole way." I rapped on it again, just to prove a point. Though, my concentration was still entirely on holding that ice.

Emlyn huffed loud enough for most around us to hear.

"Really Emlyn, one day you will recognize my wisdom." I gave her a smug smile.

She threw her hands up in the air. "Are we going to get into this, Ard? Should we talk about all of the times you haven't been right? Or perhaps, when you've blown up things you shouldn't have?" 

My mother cleared her throat as she wheeled herself forward. My grandfather was injured but slowly walking behind her. 

“I'm glad to see he hasn't changed much. But I am curious about what has been blown up,”  my mother said. "And why my son is on this battlefield in the first place?" 

"Well," I said slowly, feeling suddenly more self conscious. "It's a long story. Suffice to say, though, I was just a hero, so we shouldn’t think about it too hard. Remember, you were dealing with, not one, not two, but three chancellors over that hill." I tilted my head to the side, which then made me regard the frozen king again. An idea was popping into my head.

Thor hadn’t disconnected himself from the king yet, but perhaps it wasn’t the king that I was draining? All the gods had these powerful artifacts and weapons… it couldn’t be…

"Emlyn, do you want to pry that spear out of his hands?" I made grabby fingers at it, excitement getting the better of me.

"If it's so safe, why don't you do it?" She gestured at the king. 

"Well, if you're going to be like that," I sighed and rolled my eyes, walking up to the frozen king, staring at him through his visor. Frozen as he may be, he was still completely aware, which only made me smile bigger.

"Do you know, it's not arrogance for me when I’m stronger. Know your place." I winked at him and began painstakingly prying his fingers back to free the spear that he held in a death grip.

There was a not-healthy-sounding crackle from his gauntlets as I wrestled with the fingers, peeling them back one by one. The king let out a muffled scream. He did not say much to me as I got his fingers off the spear and pried it out of his cold, not yet dead, hands. But once it was free, I nearly fell over with how much it weighed. 

"This thing is stupid," I said, grunting and resting the butt against the ground so that I could leverage it to stand up. This thing wasn’t made for a mortal to swing around.

"If it's that heavy for you, Ard, why do you want it?" Emlyn asked. 

"Because I'm fairly certain that he got the spear from a god." I held it up and smirked at my mother and grandfather. "Also, what should we do with him?" I pointed over at the king. "I mean, besides the obvious," I said quickly. 

"Ard," my mother closed her eyes, an almost pained look crossing her face. "I'm fairly certain whatever is obvious to you, is only obvious to you. Please elaborate." She sounded like she was running out of patience for me, but I knew she was happy to see me. 

"Well, we have to take this armor. Emlyn pretty much blunted her bluesteel sword against it. Heck, if you put me in one of these, you could probably let one of the gods kick me around like a tin can, I'd be fine." I smile.

"Yes, Ard, that was the obvious part," Emlyn shook her head. "I suppose you'll be asking us to take the armor off?" 

"Yes please, even though I'm sure it won't work for us like it did for him." I held the spear and used my senses, proving my theory true. The King of Avente was not connected to Thor; the spear was connected to Thor and he’d been using it for much of his magic.

I also suspected that was why Thor wasn't severing the connection like Freya had done before. After all, if I was currently continuing to siphon from him, at some point he should have put up a fight. But as of yet, he had not lifted a finger to stop me, which meant maybe he couldn’t do it at the moment. I rubbed my hands greedily together, continuing the small trickle from Thor and nearly dropped the damn thing.

"I do not like that look," my mother waved a finger at me. 

"Well, you should. It means I'm winning," I said with a smirk. 

"By winning he probably means pissing off yet another god," Emlyn sighed, only for my mother to give me a very firm glare, one that would send most children scattering. 

"Another god? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Emlyn, I'm not antagonizing another god. I'm antagonizing the same god that already tried to cave my face in. Really, no real change in risk." I defended myself. 

“That makes it so much better," Emlyn closed her eyes and dipped her head with a sad shake. "Do you see what I'm dealing with, Mother-in-law?" 

"I didn't choose him, but you did, so if either of us get to complain, it's me," Gwen clarified. 

My mouth hung open. "What happened to motherly love?" 

"It died somewhere in the conversation that you're antagonizing gods." She replied.

"Hey now, I have two supporting me and two against me, so really it's..." Before I could finish, Emlyn interrupted me. 

"It's like a god sandwich, only the Ard filling isn't very thick and is about to get squished to death and squeezed out the sides," Emlyn added helpfully, with a smile so wide that it pinched her eyes closed. 

"Hey, I have taken two strikes from Thor, and apparently this spear is his," I glanced at it, holding it and realizing the sheer size of the weapon. It was about twice as talls as me, it had to at least be made for someone that was eight feet tall. The thing was golden wrapped in strange runic writing, with a blade that wasn't metal but instead looked like it had been carved out of some fang.

Either way, the important part was that it was connected to Thor, and he couldn't sever the connection. Since it was a godly thing, I concentrated, wondering if it had any connection to the soul. In a flicker of surprise, it disappeared from my hand, and I planted it firmly in the Ardenium Palace. I let out a little mental cheer for myself. But then I got a little nervous about leaving it in my soul.

Just to be safe, I added several chains of the mystical purple metal around the spear to make sure it didn't get into any trouble. The additional connection to my soul also seemed to be enhancing the small trickle I was getting from Thor, so I absolutely cocooned it in Ardenium chains. 

"Well, grandson, it seems like you've had a busy time. Welcome back to Avente. I hope this was the welcome you were looking for." My grandfather stated, bringing me back to the present moment.

No one appeared to be surprised that the spear vanished.

"Oh, it is. Hey, Maribelle," I turned to her and threw my necklace at her. She snatched it out of the air. "Over the hill, I'm pretty sure there are three for you.” 

My maid bobbed in understanding and shot over the ground. Which caused many of our eyes to fall on the vampyr bodies strewn over the field.

“Grap the vampyrs too.” I said before she got too far.

"You know what those are?" Gwen asked quickly, her eyes becoming sharp. 

"I do, Mother. Also, may I say you're looking lovely. Did you get a few new anchors?" I asked teasingly and changed the subject.

"I did. They're serving me quite well.” My mother replied.

“Far better than that previous one." Anadonis huffed. "She was lazy. I never even saw her pick up her blade for you.”

My mother and I shared a look, knowing that he was talking about a goddess. 

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to upset a god," I said to my grandfather. "For all you know, you could be upsetting one right now.”

“What was this about vampyrs?" my mother cut in, stretching out the word ‘vampyrs’.

"Oh yeah, those guys," I pointed over again. "Bad news. They are King Martin's experiments. Most of them were life mages that he did something to," I gestured vaguely, "and they end up these half corrupted, mostly crazy things," I gestured again. 

"And then somehow, once they kill too much they become these crazed things. They might look like they drink blood, but really what they're doing is getting a solid connection to your soul and slurping that out. The more they eat, the stronger they get. So we fought one that had led the attack on Chillwind Pass and the thing had apparently been feasting during the war for several months and was way too powerful. But don't worry, these ones weren't nearly that bad," I reassured her. 

My mother cast a dubious glance at the carnage they had caused. "They seem at least bad enough to upset a full scale battle." 

"That is very true, Mother. But like I said, don't worry. We are working hard to kill them all. And it pays to kill them all, but that gets into some other details that are a little more complicated. Probably best to do over a meal, preferably hot and lavish with all of the trimmings," I said bobbing my head repeatedly. A warm meal that wasn’t cooked with soldier’s rations sounded incredible.

"It seems we will need a longer moment to discuss.” My mother studied me. “So, what brought you back here?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, the chancellors." I hooked a thumb over the hill where Maribelle was likely hard at work. Sure enough, a moment later I got confirmation in the form of a mint infusion straight into my head.

"Yep, she found them," I grunted as Emlyn snickered before I poured enough into her to make her stand up straight with wide eyes. "But we're out hunting chancellors so that we can weaken and then go after King Martin." I glanced over at the King of Avente.

Zuri and Aurelia were working at the armor, trying to pry it off. The red-haired anchor had her feet on the king’s breastplate while she tried to rip the gauntlet free.

I turned back to my mother. “He was about to pull some really stupid shit, Mom. But I have to ask how you got yourself in that situation in the first place.”

“I believe that would be your fault, my son," my mother said without an ounce of hesitation. 

My jaw dropped and Emlyn's snickering redoubled. She turned to the side to hide her face, even though she failed to contain her laughter.

"Well, apparently everything's my fault," I shrugged. "So be it. Just remember all the good things that are my fault as well.”

I waved away any further discussion. “Let's take a break here and then I will sit down in an hour or so with you, Grandfather, and perhaps some of the other Aldis elite. You know, the ones that have done enough that they can meet the incredible and astounding younng mage of the family. We can share a bottle of wine and hear the fantastical tales of my adventure through Garrish lands. You may not believe it, Mother, but I have changed the entire tide of war." I spread my arms wide, waiting for cheers, applause, or some other acknowledgement of my awesomeness.

My mother deadpanned before she wheeled the chair backwards and swiftly turned around. "I'll see you in an hour when I'm more prepared to deal with your bullshit."

I mimed being stabbed in the heart before I muttered, "By my own mother."

Even though I could only see the back of her head, I knew she was smiling at least a little bit while she pretended to just roll away and ignore my antics.

"All right, everyone. Let's clean up. And somebody please make a lovely dinner," I smiled at the crew with me. "Oh, and someone needs to go find Eva." I glanced around, wondering where she had gotten off to during the battle.