A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 356: A Puppet of Power - Part 7

"He has, and he will," Claudia said firmly, almost childishly.

"My lady, why do you believe so strongly in him?" She asked suddenly.

For the first time, Claudia looked up, startled by the question. "I spare all of the mortals my love."

"You do," the attendant reassured her. "But this one in particular, you've put belief in him, a dangerous belief. Blessing him as you did, that was a tremendous risk. You might have created a monster. Now, if you go through with this, more than a monster, you'll be making a cataclysm. A whole country of people could perish for this."

"THEY WILL PERISH ALREADY, INGOLSOL HAS ASSURED THAT!" Claudia shouted, tears in her eyes. "Do you not see me, powerless? What God am I? What kind of mistress do these mortals pray to, when I can not even protect them? I am always a step behind him, always on the back foot. He is always inflicting trouble, always causing them so much pain… and I'm always too ill-equipped to defend them.

And now, my only hope is a mortal again – a mortal to solve a problem of my own making."

"This isn't your fault, my lady," the attendant reassured her, more urgently than before. "Even all the Fullguard together could not stand up to Ingolsol. To burden yourself with matching him alone is foolish."

Claudia sighed, using the back of her hand to brush away her tears. "I hate that man," she said resolutely. "He is the source of all bad things – and worse still, he claims to be something other than evil… But he once said something – the only thing he's ever said that I agree with. He said it was the mortals that would settle the battle between the Gods. It was them that held the power to do that.

The Fullguard scorn the notion… But I think I believe him."

She drew the knife against her thumb, harming her palm skin. She didn't flinch away from the pain. Within an instant, blood welled up from the cut. She spoke again to her attendant. "It isn't just Beam that I believe in. I believe in all of them.

But at this moment, against Ingolsol's manoeuvrings, it is only he that is in a position to change their fate. He has a fiery heart. Even a God would struggle to crush such a thing."

And then a droplet of her blood fell into that pool of clear water, as her attendant watched on, in mournful anguish.

They heard the scream together, the scream of unimaginable pain, as Beam's soul was ground up against the divine will of two intensely powerful Gods. They heard it, and the attendant turned away. Claudia did not. She listened, with a hardened face and a clenched fist, and she prayed. Chapter Experience:

"What's happening?" Lombard shouted over his shoulder.

"I don't know!" Nila shouted back, distraught.

Beam was barely breathing, but a scream of the most horrifying sort from his throat. His body ran left and right, trying to roll away from the pain, as his hands twitched, and his limbs spasmed.

Worse still was the heat that came off him. As Nila tried to grasp his hand, desperately, she could not even get close. It was as though she was reaching into a fire, or even a forge. Her fingers burned to the point of charring. Natural instinct forced that she pull her hand away.

The ground too, it groaned under the weight of something. The snow had long since evaporated, but now too the grass blackened, as did the blood, until they were nothing but dark soil, as everything burned away.

Cracks ran through the dried ground, as everything within a two-metre radius was rendered desert dry. Nila stood closer to him than any of the others. Greeves had already moved outside of the radius of the heat, as he saw smoke rise from his clothes, and threaten to burst into flame. He saw it on Nila too, and he shouted to her.

"MOVE GIRL!" He shouted. "WHEN THE BOY WAKES UP, HE'LL GUT ME IF I LET YOU DIE AS WELL!"

Only that made Nila take a hesitant step back – the implication that Beam would indeed wake up. And the moment she did, the ground buckled, throwing her off her feet.

She fell further than she should have. The ground seemed further away than it had been a moment before. And indeed it was. Where Beam lay, there was now a crater, a metre deep, as though he'd been slapped down into the ground by the hand of God.

The dirt walls sloped downwards, revealing the path of the power, and the differing pressure of it. All the while, the mage continued to weave his signs, gathering more energy into the area.

"YOU MONSTER!" Nila hollowed at him, her voice so full of emotion her vocal cords might have torn. Everything, in a single night, piece by piece, was being taken from her. She refused to let go of Beam as well. It was as though someone was taking a piece of her soul away, a piece of her.

In the bottom of that crater, Beam twitched, and his hand slowly clenched its way into a fist.

Even with his poor eyesight, Francis saw it, and he stopped his magic weaving.

"Claudia as well..? That whore intends to match the Dark Lord?" He muttered to himself in disbelief. He couldn't decide yet whether it was a bad thing or not. It seemed to him like a move of the utmost foolishness. So foolish that he was sure he was overlooking something.

But no matter how he thought, he could see no conclusion other than recklessness. The boy would perish under the weight of Ingolsol's divine energy. Adding more divine energy on top of that would only make him more volatile. It would only make him into a more worthy sacrifice.

Francis' lips curled into a mad smile, as he felt a swelling in his chest, as a euphoric feeling took over. It filled his stomach, and then his head, enough to roll his eyes back into his skull. He almost fell off his tower from the pleasure of it.