Armor
Chapter 43: Origin

I came out from the memory to find my gauntlets embedded in a man’s chest, the life leaving his eyes.

Rubrus threw him, and the body crumpled against the wall. Aside from the man he’d just killed, there were a half dozen others dead around the room and three still standing. The remaining three looked terrified: one held a bastard sword, the other two daggers, and the third was notching an arrow with a narrow head, clearly meant to pierce armor.

Rubrus moved before they could regain the courage to fight. He walked quickly to the one with the bastard sword, deflecting a blow with a glimmering shield and grabbing him by the throat. He snapped it in a mirror image of when I watched Aurum slay that man on the boat.

The man with the two daggers lunged and slammed his daggers into my neck.

Rubrus reached back with inhuman flexibility and grabbed him before throwing him over his back, sending him into the wall. There was a crash as he impacted, and he ceased moving.

The archer had turned around and was running, but Rubrus placed my gauntlet on the ground, and glowing runes lit the path she’d taken. She lost her balance and crashed into the wall.

Rubrus barked some orders in undercommon, and several goblins in mismatched armor came in and hacked the archer to pieces. After that, they started to clean the room. They seemed much more compliant than the last time I’d seen them.

I could feel his attention turn to me as he went to sit on a throne in the middle of the room. "You’re back! Where have you been? Searching through old memories, I presume? Trying to distract yourself from your fate?"

I felt him unlock my ability to speak at the end of the question. It seemed he wasn’t aware it was his memories I’d been searching through.

"What happened?" I asked, a knot in my nonexistent stomach.

"Ah, just some thugs. They say they were sent by a man named Talen to look for you. They weren’t much of a threat to me, though I assume they wouldn’t have been difficult for you to deal with either. My assumption is that they weren’t actually meant to engage you, but oh well."

I felt a measure of relief. I was worried that he’d just slaughtered a group of adventurers just trying to keep the town safe, but Talen’s thugs were another story. They did create their own problems, though. If Talen and his men had found me, it meant that my companions may, as well, and I had no idea what Rubrus would do to them.

I turned my attention again to Rubrus’s essence. The cracks were wider this time. I wasn’t sure if what I was doing was weakening his defenses or if perhaps because the spell he’d weaved to keep from being eaten wasn’t meant for me and was ill-suited for it, but it meant he was weakening. It meant I may be able to regain control.

"You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?"

I paused. "Of course I am." An outright lie seemed pointless.

I felt his essence probe around yet was surprised to find it wasn’t my own essence he was probing, but my void.

"There are things here I’m not reaching. Trying to protect something?"

I felt him push, and as he did, I realized I had been hiding things from him. I’d instinctually insulated my most precious items. The cape, my mask, the elyrium bars, the multi-sword, and the shield.

Now that I was aware I had been defending them subconsciously, I started to actively try and keep the items from him. He felt my resistance and began to push harder. I realized quickly that I wouldn’t be able to hold off forever, so I decided on a ploy, slowly giving in enough for him to see the multi-sword and energy-eating shield and then dropping all active resistance, as if that was all I’d hidden.

"Magical items. That makes sense. Let’s see." He extracted the items and held them for a moment, then I felt something strange. A kind of movement from the items into me. By the end of it, I had a sense that the items no longer held their enchantments, but I did.

"Useful items, though it’s a shame that the sword’s enchantment is restricted to swords specifically." He held up his hand, and a perfect copy of the multi-sword appeared as if summoned from the void, but that was impossible, as I could see it on the ground.

"Let this be a lesson. There’s no sense fighting me."

I felt my voice lock once again and looked at the increasing cracks within Rubrus’s void. Even if it was useless, fighting was its own reward. I slipped into the nearest crack and lost myself to another memory.

* * *

It had been hard to abandon my university project, but I hadn’t had much of a choice. The insight I’d gained from Luda’s ability meant that I was on borrowed time, and this was the only way I could think to survive. Aurum was planning on eating me, or at least my soul, to fuel his return. Every bit of assistance I received from him was paid for by an offering of myself. His urge to live again at my expense was so powerful that Luda’s ability had been burnt up from sensing it.

I doubted my soul alone would be enough for him, but it was only a matter of time before he awakened more of his children, if he hadn’t already. He was cultivating a power source, raising us up to make us a better meal. He was doing exactly what I had been doing at the university, just on a much more epic scale.

I had continued hearing his whispers since I’d realized the truth, but I’d been able to push them away for now. The last things I’d heard from him had been assurances he was proud of me. He’d apparently needed to do much less work to convince me to follow my instincts for power than he’d expected. The temporary protections I’d put in place were strong, and should have allowed me to maintain control if he attempted to take it directly, but I had a more permanent solution in mind. Creating a space to work hadn’t been too difficult. I’d simply taken a cave that already existed and molded it into something more suitable. I’d lined the walls in cold iron to dampen my connection to Aurum enough to keep what I was doing hidden. I had taken all the materials I’d needed before leaving the university.

I etched the runes into the floor carefully, creating four circles of draconic, one for each item I’d involved in the ritual. There was a bag of holding, a suit of armor of absorption in which I’d inscribed thousands of runes, and me. The last circle was a piece of void, something a student had traded to be a scholar. It was a small black marble that was ice-cold to the touch, a piece of the ether in which the gods resided when they weren’t on this plane. I could feel it recoil when I touched it; it seemed not to enjoy godly energy, as if nothing was meant to exist within its emptiness, but the gods forced it to accept their presence anyway. The void was the most important piece—without it, I wouldn’t be able to store the godly energies within me.

I started the ritual, whispering in draconic. The circles on the floor lit blood red, and energies from me, the bag of holding, and the piece of void swirled into the suit of armor on the floor. I could feel myself being drained, watching as the golden light from my body mixed with the black light of the void.

When the ritual ended, I collapsed. I had taken precautions to reduce the weakness I’d experience as much as possible. I’d burnt runes into my bones and empowered myself with dozens of different spells, but it couldn’t compare to the power I felt I’d lost. I felt hollow. Emptier even than I’d been before Aurum had spoken to me. I estimated I was likely at half a soul from where I’d begun.

The suit of armor stirred. I watched as it sat up and stood. Its movements were stiff and unnatural. I forced myself to focus on its face and saw nothing but void. The glamour that was meant to keep people from looking too closely at it seemed to be working well.

I stood and walked over to it. It didn’t move or respond as I did, so I placed my hand on its chestplate and extended my energy toward it. I could sense the items I’d had in the bag of holding still there. I told it to walk, and it did so. Jump, and it followed that direction, as well.

I had him stop and dragged myself up to my chair. It was likely it would take quite some time before my energy had restored itself, and even once it did, there was the chance that Aurum could raise himself. I’d be here a long time. I needed to figure out some way to stay entertained…

* * *

I returned from his memories to find myself sitting on the throne at the end of the dungeon. Torches were lit, and the space was exactly as I’d remembered it, though I’d never looked at it from this angle.

"Welcome back once again. You’re just in time for the show to start."

I felt him unlock my ability to speak.

"Show?"

"A few brave adventurers are making their way through the dungeon. They’re doing quite well so far, too."

That wasn’t good. The cracks on Rubrus’s essence had widened to canyons, but I still wasn’t sure I’d be able to take over, and I was concerned that he might be able to reinforce himself if I didn’t succeed the first time. Aside from that, I was still reeling from witnessing my own creation, and it had left me with one question that even up to now I had no answer to.

"Why did I kill you?" I asked. I could feel that the question surprised him, but I also felt that surprise quickly turn to anger.

"Why indeed?" He tapped my now clawed gauntlets on the arm of his chair. He let out an unnecessary sigh. "I have a theory."

I held my tongue. I wanted him to elaborate, but I was concerned he wouldn’t if he knew how badly I wanted to know. I also knew that he enjoyed hearing himself talk.

"When I consumed people’s essence, it was while I already had a soul of my own. Something that let me control and guide what I was seeing. For you, though, eating an essence was a shock to your system. It fought to survive and adapted. Each essence was another shock, and eventually, you broke. I believe that the souls all became hopelessly entwined in such a way that they became like a soul for you yourself. A monstrous twisted thing. Likely, you ate enough misguided individuals with a penchant for heroism that you were possessed to end me. Had I been paying proper attention, though, it never would’ve happened. Classic wizard hubris, not even I am immune to it."

I considered what he said. It seemed right, but he didn’t have the whole picture. The essences I’d absorbed had given me something similar to a soul, and it had certainly been a monstrous mix at first, but that had changed. I had integrated them, learned who they belonged to, fulfilled their dreams and wishes, and strived to live a life they themselves would’ve wanted. I’d taken their lives from them, but they’d given me something precious. From what I’d taken, I had created something new. I had built myself. I was as much my own creation as Rubrus’s, and I found strength in that thought.

"Ah, the guests are arriving."

I felt my ability to speak locked once again. Three adventurers had entered. A male dwarf and two women. One was massive, wielding an enormous axe already stained with goblin blood. The other wore white robes, her dark hair framed by golden light that surrounded her. The dwarf was in sleek black leather. His beard had been dyed black, but patches of gray were starting to appear, and he had a sledgehammer gripped in both hands.

"Well, now, isn’t this familiar?"

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