Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 701: Everyone's the Hero

Griffin stared at Argrave, who stood defiantly in his tattered black coat deep within the valley leading to Blackgard. In truth, Griffin himself had done appreciably little to come this far. Most everything had been the work of Argrave alone—wresting Sophia from Sandelabara, depriving the Heralds of their voice in this world, putting an end to the ambitions of the Hopeful… all his own feats, even if he had some help along the way.

Of the foes Griffin had fought during his previous descents, there was no one he thought could take his place. None could endure what he had without surrendering to the will of the Heralds. Lorena had her chance, but in the end, they’d broken her. Raven had nearly risen so high as to contest the Herald’s power, but he succumbed to insanity and lost to a coalition of gods. Lorena had saved him without his knowledge and salvaged his mind, but he’d never again seek that power—instead, it’d paralyzed him with fear. There was only one person Griffin thought capable of taking his place. It was an egoistic answer, but that didn’t change the fact it was true.

Only Argrave could endure what Griffin had and come out the other side opposing the Heralds.

Griffin respected Argrave more than anyone. He came from a soft, prosperous place where the largest danger to people was themselves alone. Despite that, the moment he’d awoken as Argrave he came alive. He acted with cunning, expending boundless energy toward a single end. When he discovered other ends were possible, he pursued them with a moment’s doubt. He didn’t hesitate to steer the path of the world, with or without its consent.

It was alarming to watch Griffin’s plans unravel one by one. Argrave’s influence spread like a plague across Berendar, and then eventually the world. He destroyed, he rebuilt, he established, and overtook all the existing power structures, making them his own. The sum total of that effort stood before him, poised to clash with all its being. Nothing could please Griffin more, facing a foe that he respected.

But respect would not faze him.

Griffin spurred the automaton he’d crafted into motion. This Zanti had been inspired by a myth from Argrave’s home realm—it was the tenth, final incarnation of a god prophesied to bring about a new era of virtue and truth before its ultimate dissolution. In design, it was a collection of all the knowledge Griffin had learned watching the denizens of this realm craft automatons. It used his own being as its fuel—and with that peerless fuel, it bridged the distance between him and Argrave incredibly quickly despite the suppression of the arrays in the mountain.

Argrave shifted on his feet, but Griffin didn’t waver in the slightest. The Hopeful, one of the most powerful beings in the world, had been forced to hobble uselessly in this valley. His Zanti already proved itself far stronger than that. He only needed to break past Argrave and follow the route to Blackgard. Had Anneliese been standing in his way, this would’ve been a problem, but she was behind. Argrave could certainly hit hard, but his defense wasn’t as absolute as hers.

vanished, employing his [Echo Step]. Griffin found his location in a millisecond, then threw the saber in the next. It spun through the air like a sawblade, moving so quickly it appeared like nothing more than a white blur. Argrave couldn’t have

magic behind him, and whipped around to see Argrave had used his new favorite spell, [Godkiller]. With a burst of cleansing white fire and a swipe of his hand, the magic shattered. Even still, it cracked the Zanti’s hand, revealing more of Griffin’s formless being. His saber danced

arm. “Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. A lot of sons are just pale imitations of their father. You’re his spitting

he saw the results of Argrave’s preparation—blood echoes spread everywhere, like bloody ghosts haunting this ruined path. Rather than blindly waltz into an ambush, he held his three arms out, burning away some

belongs on Royal

strong enough to resist, but not enough to truly oppose. Griffin won more and more ground by the second… but every second he spent was another that those behind advanced. If

completely overpowered, Griffin ceased his contest of power and barreled forth with blade raised high. He brought the saber down to cleave, but Argrave conjured the staff Artur imbedded into his being. Griffin’s saber met the staff, breaking it out of Argrave’s hand and continuing on to cut off his right arm and right leg. Argrave, though, didn’t flee. Instead, with a spark of insanity in those gray eyes of his, he reconjured the staff into his left arm,

blow of the same strength Griffin had just delivered right into the metal body of the Zanti. The automaton was sent tumbling backward in a heap, and a fragment of the metal mask broke away. Some of his essence leaked out, but he restrained the rest

against his staff, unable to balance with only

of that taunt to reply, but

continuously appeared before the Zanti, magic at the ready.

leaps and bounds—the blood echoes he didn’t end up using expended themselves, becoming blood-infused [Electric Eels]. Soon enough, between great schools of eels soaring through the sky and Argrave’s own assaults

decided to utilize his now-substantial lead to do what would ultimately be best— killing Argrave’s body outright. The suppression of Blackgard’s arrays was a truly formidable advantage for Argrave, but Griffin was confident he could win. Without Argrave’s body present,

intention was to stall for Anneliese’s arrival,

once, Griffin felt as though he’d entered