Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 648: Worth of a Sacrifice

“I won’t let you.”

Orion blinked open his eyes. The pain that he’d been feeling moments before had all gone, replaced only with the pleasant and familiar sensation of wind gracing his cheek across windy plains. Remembering what he was doing, he sat up and looked around. Rather than a battlefield ravaged by his powerful foe, he saw a dreary landscape unfold before him.

As far as the eye could see, there was gray, dead grass. It somehow looked worse than when winter came—blacker, like it’d been burnt away with fire. There was the undeniable stench of corruption in the air, almost like rotting flesh. At the far end of his vision, he saw a golden tree that he’d visited once before.

The Tree of Being.

Fear and nervousness took hold of him as he realized what the implications of his vision were. Had he finally greeted death? Was this horrifying world the afterlife? Was there to be some sort of punishment for his sins? He had tried to outweigh what he’d done with virtue, protecting his family so ardently… but perhaps some things simply couldn’t be outweighed.

“You think too much,” said that voice he’d heard earlier. “It’s rather like how I speak too much.”

The voice was hoarse, almost as if it was an old man’s barely clinging to life. But there was something familiar about it, and Orion rose to his feet. He started to walk toward the tree, already having some inkling as to what he might be going to greet. When he crested the hill that the Tree of Being sprouted from, he saw a great serpent, divested of all that had made it glorious.

Lindon the silver serpent, god of minds, dreams, and consciousness. He laid there, descaled. He’d never had a solid body, but every apparition he’d shown them had been one of some considerable glory. This, by contrast, looked like it was dying. It looked far worse than Vasquer ever had, even when she’d been trapped underground for so long. Even when she’d actually died.

But those silver eyes trained themselves on his figure at the top of the hill, and that hoarse voice pierced his mind once again. “Hello, Orion.”

Orion braced himself uneasily. Given what he’d just fought, he couldn’t be sure that this wasn’t some further machination of Gerechtigkeit. Whether on the physical realm or the mental one, he would fight to the bitter end.

“If you’d like to punch me a few times to relieve your rage, feel free. But I’ve gone through great lengths to make sure that your end isn’t bitter, despite how hard you fought me.” He heard a great sigh from the wounded Lindon. “I had hoped you would react to my warning altogether differently than you did. But, given the limited resources I had at my disposal, it worked out as best as I could have hoped.”

“What do you speak of?” Orion called out, his voice echoing powerfully through this realm.

“That feeling of impending doom. The notion that death was coming. It wasn’t some supernatural intuition that your time for retribution was coming—it was my attempt at a warning.”

face hardened

my existence into what you fought. The power I had, existing within the Gilderwatchers… he brought them together, isolated my being, and used the Melding I’m capable of creating to birth the monster that you killed.

I

snakes die when their head is cut off. They might writhe for a while, but they’re functionally dead. You killed that silver warrior, Orion. You needed no aid from the Fruit of Being. You saved Blackgard. You rallied against fear, and in so doing,

where he recalled that final wound piercing his body. “Then… I must’ve

leave you dying idly? Even as we speak, I suspect she’s scooping you up and making sure you don’t expire. Your extraordinary constitution will take

Orion

studying my technique to warp the mind, too, and it showed. I held out as long as I could, but when I realized death

been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the

He still felt some caution, especially after remembering what’d happened

where he ends the cycle his way and realizes the path laid out for both of them. Defeating it… I will not ever say that anything could suffice as vengeance for the death of Vasquer, but I will say that Gerechtigkeit surely rages at its death. You denied him his perfect future. He now surely hates

aligned with how Sophia had

the fodder for this perfect knight’s creation. In so doing, he has supplanted me within the Gilderwatchers. He exists in them as I existed in them. Simultaneously, he’s attempting to destroy the White Planes, which would unbind them from the treaty suppressing our abilities. If that were to happen, he could exert the same power I once did millennia

felt a deep sense of unease at that. “What of

I was able to enter your mind is because your hand was cut off your body. Still, it would be entirely impractical to expect you to be able to distribute those rings worldwide. The logistics

voice tight. Catching movement, his eyes

quietly. “I will never feel at ease suggesting that you should make something I spent lifetimes protecting simply… end. But given the danger to all others, I cannot dismiss it entirely. There are two other ways I would suggest you pursue, first. Neither can be called simple, but

keeping an easy eye on distant ground.

task. How do you reinforce that which

be the most ideal outcome, from my viewpoint. That would be harnessing your latent bloodline to a greater extent, giving

his eyes. “Is