Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave stared at the steel docks on the southern shore of the Great Chu at the front of the Sea Dragon. He could see great silos full of the liquid fire that filled their turtle ships. He could see mounted ballistae manned by spellcasters that imbued the bolts with energy. He could see a huge garrison manning this coastal fort. Commandeered trading vessels stood like a wall of wood to block their advance with only a skeleton crew of slaves manning them.

The southernmost portion of the Great Chu was, like the north of Vasquer, cold and rugged, with sparse population. But even beyond this remote fortress, Argrave could see the first of the cities of the Great Chu. Jade and amber decorated the tops of their buildings, slender spikes ascending from the roofs of orderly homes and shops.

During the whole of their approach, Argrave felt as though he was in a trance. He was having trouble avoiding a recent memory.

Argrave couldn’t remember the words Elenore said to call Argrave back to Blackgard, but it had been enough to make him return home even on the eve of the battle. He did remember entering Sophia’s room to check on her… but within, he only found her dolls.

They had all died.

Their small size had enabled them to last a long while, yet the creatures Sophia had created lacked key parts of what made something self-sustaining. They were living—they consumed energy to live, like anything else. But the dolls she’d made lacked the ability to digest, to drink. The small child didn’t understand those systems, nor how they kept a body moving, so the dolls were born without them. Like this they withered away, performing their tasks until their death. Only Castro seemed to be spared that fate, for he was made in imitation of a real human.

Elenore told him that Sophia didn’t yet know they were dead. It fell upon Argrave to bring that news to her.

“Life, Sophia, is a very precious and complicated thing,” Argrave had said to the young girl as she sat on their bed, Anneliese on the opposite side. “You’re very special. You have the potential to create that life easier than anyone. But that creation… you can do great evil if you don’t understand what it means.”

Sophia looked at him, not quite understanding his point. And, inevitably, he told her what had happened to the dolls. And when she didn’t believe… he showed her. The dolls, once alive, now… broken. Withered. Lifeless. Decaying. Sophia had been fearful and guilty of what she’d done before, but with their deaths, true sorrow came.

They comforted her as best they could.

“Before you use your power again, Sophia, the two of us should understand what it means. Life is an important thing—a precious thing, that you should value dearly. It shouldn’t be started or stopped without considerable thought.”

to push you so hard,” Anneliese added.“You have no reason to fear us sending

took Sophia’s small hand. “We’ll help you understand them

had created lives, yet her negligence also led her

the battlefield, lives passed away

the gap, aimed at the whole of them. Anneliese soared forth, carried by her enchanted boots, and cast an S-rank ward to receive the first volley of magic. He saw her magic drain, then soar again as

heart, invigorated Anneliese’s ward to resist all comers, and her foe’s unrelenting assault gave magic sufficient to make them evermore. She was like a goddess of protection, flying through the sky and creating golden shields that blocked flames, electricity, and all such atrocities of magic. Yet even with her defense, causalities on their side were not small. Countless spells broke past,

them as a single wave of force from ahead and above, revealing their unseen forms. And rising to oppose them were the deities of the Blackgard Union. Law’s Justiciar’s split through into this world, clashing blades with titans that

gods. In time, spirits born from the wounds of gods danced into the air, and what was once only a battle became a

foes’ operations before they could even get started. He saw people fall from the ramparts, torn apart so much as to be unrecognizable. He saw the coastal fort deform from the

defenses like this, yet he wouldn’t be able to do it without his queen. Anneliese took half a thousand attacks without faltering. She was a machine of perpetual energy, conjuring wards that replenished her magic more than she spent. By the

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magical prowess, sent forth turbulent blasts of wind. Great gusts caught these towers as they fell, lifting them up and casting them backward. Great Chu mages on the walls of the coastal fort acted in tandem, and the silos split from pressure on both sides. The sludgy white liquid poured on the land, inert without contact with water, and slowly streamed into the ocean. Meanwhile,

battle—their horn. That had come at Galamon’s order, as he was the commander in this battle. And it signaled a rather neutralizing tactic. It had been used at

he saw countless mana ripples fill the air. With a deafening crackle, a wave of ice split through the ocean of greater magnitude than anything Argrave had seen before. It battered against the ward of the Sea Dragon, then broke past it. It continued on, on, and onward, freezing the entire coastline and suspending all ships. Their plan was simple—to freeze the bay

turtle ships continued to fire Dario’s ballistae at the defenders, and spellcasters continued to harass. The wall of trading vessels exploded violently, casting the Great Chu’s liquid fire all over the ice. They’d been packed with black powder and a slave bearing a torch—more than an obstacle, they were mines, meant to prevent or destroy any ships that came near. Now, however, they’d been utterly

battle in the heavens. Their war was a chaotic mess that perhaps only deities could divine. Rook’s storm of daggers flew around him as he jumped from blade to blade like they were platforms. He was hounded by countless of Qircassia’s

terrible presence shake the air, and when he looked, a god that Argrave recognized fell from the sky tower above. Tyrg—minotaurian god of strength and prominent member of the Qircassian Coalition—descended with a gigantic hammer clenched tightly in his

faltered briefly, allowing some of the god’s power through to the mortal battlefield. The frozen ocean cracked, and wayward energy struck ships and troops alike, killing hundreds in the moment the world of the mortal intersected with that of the gods. Then both divine weapons parted, ready to meet

with his blood echoes, tearing holes into the enemy’s defenses piece by piece. Already, Argrave saw the gate on the right side slowly