Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 698: Trial By Fire

Wielding the spark of eternity, Anneliese felt as though they finally had the upper hand in the battle against Gerechtigkeit.

As the intensity of the engagements around the continent lessened, more and more hands were freed up to fight against the main body of Gerechtigkeit. With Law as their heavy-hitter and countless others providing more than sufficient auxiliary fire, they finally had a strategy that could contain his seemingly-indefatigable assault. In contrast to the inhuman rage of Gerechtigkeit, they were all creatures of logic who went through life employing tactics and tools to overpower far more powerful beasts. This was no different.

Anneliese was the trapper, the shepherd. She kept the prey in line, prohibiting its movement with tactfully-placed wards from which it could not escape. Gerechtigkeit feared her wards, and Anneliese believed that fear was justified. If she could manage to trap him within one, it would simply be over. She snared his movement as her allies attacked, blocked his counterattacks as they repositioned, and dug sharp spears of magic when the calamity displayed vulnerabilities.

The spark she had wrested from eternity was a tool so versatile Anneliese almost feared her own power. A lightning that never ended, a tempest that never waned, a fire that never ceased, a seal that never broke—it was the stuff of legends. Were it not so singular, it might be comparable to Sophia’s power. Even as it was, nothing other than the calamity could hope to truly fight against it.

Yet even with the upper hand, the battle wasn’t without its share of losses.

The cornered wolf snapped and snarled as they tore chunks of flesh from its body, wearing it down piece-by-piece. In their desperate struggle, the battle surged upward through the valley north of Jast. The chase lasted hours. The narrow confines lowered their maneuverability, enabling Gerechtigkeit to all but escape up the road until he reached Dirracha. There, aid from the host of centaurs and the liches converged, warding the calamity from destroying the city entirely. Even still, half of the city was ravaged, either by golems or his own terrible power.

Thereafter Gerechtigkeit was forced west, toward Mina’s home city of Veden. Elenore assured Anneliese that its people had all but evacuated, yet nevertheless… the decision to pin Gerechtigkeit down on that location weighed heavily on her mind. It was strategically sound; they dealt grievous blows, but in the end, nothing remained of the city. Another sacrifice for a small victory.

A waning Gerechtigkeit tried to escape into the wetlands northward, but by this point all of their allies had gathered. Deities that were veterans of countless previous cycles descended upon his weakened forms like hyenas hoping to hasten a coming death that they might feast on glory and victory. In the end, it was one of Anneliese’s spells that extinguished him—a great bolt of white lightning that struck for eternity, dissipating his form into blackness.

Anneliese dissolved the lightning spell when he was gone, standing on a plain that looked much like the barren hellscapes she’d seen in the Shadowlands. Looking around her, it seemed this place had become a paradise for death. Burnt, ravaged by war, eaten by the calamity—Gerechtigkeit’s poison had seeped into the heart of Berendar. Those too young or too ignorant to know the truth appeared ready to celebrate… yet those that knew better looked to the sky, where the true trouble brewed.

One of Law’s Justiciars came to stand by here, a shadow of the towering golden deity that stood proudly and defiantly after the first phase of the battle was finished. He stared at the black storm clouds in the sky.

people for the Trial?” Law asked of

said, steadying her breathing. “But from what Argrave tells me, it isn’t something that one can truly prepare for. We must

carried by the formless, sentient power of Gerechtigkeit. It began to entwine itself in the wind, in the clouds, in the rain and the snow… and spread

come to hit her. She didn’t move, didn’t dodge at all. The Trial by Fire was inevitable. No one had ever been able to avoid it.

an unimaginable time, her vision was reds and whites, and she was in total thrall to the pain. But as time passed, senses enough returned to look around.

countless times, clinging to it

been illicitly taken; should you find it on

They’d break, or they’d choose to end the pain. Here and now, though… Argrave seemed to think of it.

though she could barely tell her limbs were moving. She forced herself to keep her eyes open even as the flames consumed the world. The fact her sight didn’t fade confirmed to her this fire was a mere fabrication. She clung to her curiosity about how such a flame functioned, using that curiosity to ground her in

we get through the Trial… Argrave had said. It’ll be the home stretch. One final fight… for this world,

feel his life, humming inside her through their connection. Argrave. He was as much an anchor to her as anything else. With so much support, she wouldn’t ever succumb to pain. So long as he was alive, she’d be able to live as

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Hopeful in a more strategic manner had proved to spare

every few steps beneath the weight of it all. The Hopeful’s shadows, that

by blood echoes to fuel an empowered [Bloodfeud Bow], but it was insufficient. The issue lied in the fact that the shadows could actually consume his typically-impermeable echoes. He tried using them

that not many checkpoints remained. Elenore had spoken to him

Argrave considered every last idea, every last bit