We are winning skirmishes now, but we haven’t been able to flush the Pendulum leaders out of hiding quickly enough. Our supplies won’t last long enough to finish this war. By year’s end, reinforcements from the center that can match me and the forward guard in strength will begin filtering into the system for benefits. Our specialists have been delayed in replicating a protocol ladder and the undead empire has been cagey regarding their phylactery secrets. We will have to accept the proposed armistice deal and plan for our designs to be prepared by the time we are released.

  Release not a word about our plan under the system. Not even Golgi-boy can know – he is linked so tightly to it that we cannot risk further dissemination our plans. My only fear in leaving now is that he will become much too attached to this rock when it finally comes time to relinquish it. He is still too young and much too inexperienced to be placed as steward of this incubator.

  –Calaban Run [Spearbreaker]

  Chapter 42 – Inevitable

  Toki's gripped her own hammer tightly. She knew, deep down, that this was a fight she couldn't win, that Golgheim's power likely far exceeded her own. But she also knew that she couldn't back down, couldn't let his actions go unchallenged. Her mind flashed to the contract sigil - she also had a hunch that he wouldn’t or couldn’t kill her.

  As they faced each other, Toki felt a strange sense of calm settle over her. Whatever happened next, she would face it head-on, with the same unyielding spirit that had carried her through every trial thus far. With a roar of defiance, she charged forward.

  The clash of hammers reverberated through the air as Toki and Golgheim collided, her weapon returning in heavy recoil. Toki gritted her teeth as the force of Golgheim's blow sent shockwaves up her arms. She stumbled back, barely managing to parry his followup strike. He’s not holding back.

  Golgheim pressed his advantage, his hammer a blur of motion as he rained down blows upon Toki's defenses. The impacts knocked the wind from her lungs, and she felt her physical strength beginning to wane. But still, she fought on, fueled by the anger and betrayal that burned in her heart.

  "Why?" she gasped out between strikes, her voice breathy with exertion. "Why protect Bastion at the expense of our people? Why are their lives worth more than ours?”

  Golgheim's face remained impassive, but Toki saw a flicker of something in his eyes. His hammer descended with even greater force and knocked Toki away. Fighting with his hammer – that is his path, not mine.

  Toki summoned a single shadow claw from [Lessons], 100% manadraw. She reengaged and used it as a silent partner. As Toki dodged an unwieldy strike, the claw struck. Golghiem parried the follow-up, so she would strike again. Like this, the cadence of the battle shifted in favor of Toki, as Golgheim was pushed to the defensive in a series of flourishes. Toki used the opportunity to split [Lessons] in two, 50% each. The appearance of a third duelist claw put pressure on Golgheim’s flank and gave Toki an opportunity.

  Unfortunately, he leaped back, before her hammer connected with his left ankle.

  “Why!” Toki roared.

  Golgheim put distance between them, and Toki felt the earth tremble beneath her feet as he drew upon his elemental powers. Massive chunks of rock and dirt tore free from the ground, hovering in the air around Golgheim like a swarm of angry wasps. With a gesture, he sent them hurtling towards Toki.

  "There are things in this world more important than any one life, Toki," Golgheim said. "When faced with a larger purpose, sacrifices must be made. I am but a servant to that purpose, a cog in a machine." He rose further into the air, his body wreathed in a nimbus of crackling energy. The ground bucked and heaved, massive fissures opening up around Toki as Golgheim unleashed more of his power.

  Toki's shadow claws transformed into a phalanx around her to defend against the incoming rocks. She used [First Burn] to enchant the shields with [Empower Armor]. 33% manadraw for two. Toki took the hits head on and lunged forward using her last 33% on a newly formed shadow spear which she threw at Golgheim's face. He batted it aside with a wave of his hammer.

  “You are the fucking planet! How can you be the cog! Ho—”

  "Can you say you would act differently!” He interrupted, “If the fate of the world rested upon your shoulders?" he asked, his gaze boring into Toki. "If you carried the burden, what choices would you make? Would you let Aris die in exchange for those you care about?"

  Toki's mind raced, even as she dodged and parried the maelstrom of earth and stone. She thought of the people of Alabaster Ring, of the countless lives that hung in the balance. Could she truly say that she would put her own above all else? “I would burn my enemies before they could!” Lacey Q’s story came to mind, and she hesitated. The stories Kristina told her of Golgheim made her frown.

  “And how many would die in your crusade?”

  Elder and his monkey family flashed in her mind next. They were innocent lives she had used in her quest for the dragon's core. The weight of that guilt settled in her chest.

  "I don't know," Toki admitted, her voice barely audible over the roar of the battle. "But I do know that a path that requires the ignorant sacrifice of innocents is no path at all. There must be another way, a better way. Alabaster Ring has no idea that they are just a shield for your war."

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Is this what you’ve learned from your primes? " Golgheim said, his voice tinged with something like sadness. "Would you listen to leaders like Hammaltin or Cheopx, knowing their crimes? It seems you are the ignorant! Elara raised you better!"

  He summoned lightning from the rain clouds, great arcs of crackling energy that split the sky and set the air ablaze. Toki's shields dissipated under the onslaught. She summoned more shadows as claws, but they were instantly vaporized by the arcs.

  Toki gritted her teeth as she took a bolt to the shoulder. "I am the prime now! I will start the world trial if that is what it takes! I will burn down your coffee garden! We should know what we face! Whether it is from entire worlds, the primes, or you!”

  Golgheim scoffed, “You think agency is so easy to earn? Fate is not broken so easily!”

  “I’ll break yours!” She thought of the spearbreaker then, the legendary figure Golgheim had sworn his allegiance to so long ago. "Who was he, Golgheim? The spearbreaker?” She paused the exclaimed, “And why do you cling to his memory, even now!?"

  Toki once again invoked the improved [Bindings of Tyndall] from her boots and pulled it into existence. From the nothingness, she summoned forth another paradox shadow. It wavered as if it was flickering in and out of the world. Toki drew upon [Lessons] to pull a shadow claw from within. 100% manadraw.

  Shit. I can’t control it! The claw pulsed with power. She couldn’t stabilize the form, so she directly sent it towards Golgheim. It was a wild and reckless force that threatened to backlash towards herself.

  Golgheim's dived to meet the attack and his hammer struck Toki's shadow with a resounding clang. The force of the impact sent shockwaves of mana. He stood in front of her amidst the breaking light.

  "He lost so much, sacrificed so much, all in the name of unity. It was a belief that resonated throughout integrated space. For a time, he brought the entirety of Cazoran together - beasts and humans alike, working towards a common peace. But there were those who sought to tear it all down, to undo everything he had built."

  "I bear the burden and privelege of his legacy," Golgheim continued, his voice tinged with a deep, aching sadness. "The responsibility he entrusted to me... is a karma that will follow me until either he returns or until my days end."

  Toki's frustration mounted as she launched herself at Golgheim once more, she created hundreds of shadows and used [Path of Swarms] to direct them at Golgheim. The shadows pursued with wild abandon. Yet no matter how hard or with how many she struck, how fiercely she fought, her attacks seemed to simply glance off his form.

  "What is the point of all this?" she cried out, her voice raw with desperation.

  Golgheim stood his ground and merely shook his head, his expression inscrutable. "You ask for answers I cannot give.”

  “Can’t or won’t”

  He shook his head, “Do you know of the First War?”

  Toki paused her onslaught, but her hammer was still ready to strike, “Should I?”

  He started slowly, “The First War was a war of extinction. In humanity’s age of early manatech, they were just reaching into the stars. The beast tribes were concerned – they feared the greed, the jealousy, and the cruel nature of this new species. A hawkish alliance was gathered and decimated humanity….” He let it sink in. “Do you how humanity was able to survive?” He paused, then continued, “They were as mortal as you, yet they contended against stage-1, stage-2 beasts.”

  Toki shook her head.

  “They stalled, sacrificed, and ran until they could create something to push back the tides. Perhaps what the beasts really feared was this relentlessness. This… hope.”

  “Why are you telling me this.”

  “They poured a civilization’s wealth, lives, and trust into their champions, created new war tactics, invented m-brew, quantum-mana stabilization engines, and weaponized an unimaginable variety of forgeworks. The system that you use now – that all humanity uses – that… that was their grand design, Tokyo. I do not expect you to understand the depths of Mabu’Aris or the spearbreaker’s plan, but I do suspect that your journey will take you there before this is all through.”

  "All I ever wanted was to forge, I never wanted any of this."

  With a heavy heart, Golgheim channeled his power, breaking away a wedge of earth behind him to reveal a cliff's edge overlooking Alabaster Ring. The sun shone through where his ability parted the clouds. The sight that greeted Toki's eyes as her eyes moved to the precipice made her blood run cold.

  Toki dashed toward the edge. The town was in ruin, the once-proud elvish buildings now broken, burned, or completely destroyed. And there, amidst the chaos and destruction, lay the shattered remnants of the Twice estate.

  "You think you are not at war already? You have chased some faraway truth, but hid from the truth in front of you," Golgheim said, his voice heavy with sorrow. "You left them to fight a war they could never win. Power vacuums lead to war, Tokyo."

  It can’t be… The dragons shouldn’t be able to get in. How… how? Toki's knees buckled beneath her, and she sank to the ground. "How… I... I never meant for this to happen," she whispered.

  “When greater forces clash, even the best of intentions can lead to tragedy. I have always been willing to change, to adapt, in order to ensure the survival of our world. But there are some things that even I cannot control."

  “What happened…” The tears she had struggled to control earlier let loose.

  Golgheim shook his head.

  Through her tears, Toki's mind latched onto a sudden, desperate thought. "The dragon core," she said, lifting her head to meet Golgheim's gaze. "You sent me to find it, to retrieve it. We should have had time! Why? Why send me on a fool's errand when I could have been here, I could have stopped this!"

  “The moment you appeared in the quarry caverns that day, I knew that you could not have!” He rebuked, “Not as you were. The moment you killed that dragon, you sealed the fate of this town. There would be no other ending – one year, fifty years. This was inevitable. The moment that Elara blackmailed me all those years ago, I knew that chaos was coming.”

  He stopped briefly, softening. “The only way you can stop this is by becoming strong enough to weather it.” He continued, “Before, you asked me how to get stronger and I have showed you the way. Steel your heart, child, for this is not over.”

  As Golgheim turned to walk away, the ancient contract sigil suddenly flared to life beneath his feet, bathing the cliff in an eerie crimson glow. For a long moment, Golgheim simply stood there, his broad shoulders slumped as if under a great weight. Then, with a visible effort, he straightened his back and shook his head, as if casting off some unseen burden.

  "Here," he said gruffly, reaching into his robes and pulling out a small, glittering object. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it by Toki’s kneeling form.

  She looked down at the object, her eyes widening in disbelief as she realized what it was. The dragon's core, the very thing she had been searching for all this time.

  "You choose," Golgheim said, his voice heavy with fatigue and resignation. "Will you save your friend, or will you trade it away to save the world? I doubt you can do both."

  Toki's heart twist with his words. She looked up at Golgheim, her eyes brimming with tears of frustration and helplessness. But the old man simply shook his head and turned away, his footsteps heavy as he walked off towards the forest.

  Toki watched him go, her fist clenching tightly around the dragon's core as she struggled to make sense of it all.