A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 361: A Greedy Man - Part 4

"I am not Claudia," she said. "Just as you are not Ingolsol. We are merely fragments of their light."

"Be that as it may, I do not forget my master's grudge toward you. I do not forget my purpose in slaying you. I feel no love for these mortals."

"I feel only love for these mortals. But we are beings of the divine. Before all else, we must defend our power, lest we disappear. We have no flesh, no bodies. The moment we yield is the moment we fade away," the woman said.

Her voice lacked the emotion it had before. Now Beam could almost find himself seeing through her. The same was true with the man. They were terrifying for a moment, but now that he challenged them, he saw they were merely fragments of a greater, more beautiful, and far more complicated picture.

He tutted in dismay. "Do not hold me back with your fear," he said to them. "I move with purpose."

He released his hand from the Dark One's blade, and made his way another two steps, before the hammer came for his legs this time.

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"Guilt staggers my heart as you force me to do this," the woman said. "This goes against my nature. But I will not have you kill me."

"You have no name," Beam said through gritted teeth, as he lay upon the cool stone of the stairs. "You have no purpose. You have no nature. You're merely stained by the colours of what you were."

No thoughts, and yet Beam's own words resonated with his heart, in the same way that the truth resonated. It was as though for a single moment at a time, he could tell the direction of the wind, and he could feel its might, and he could wield it like a torch in the dark, to illuminate that which was around him.

The stairs shrunk slightly at his accusation. The throne grew closer. The man of darkness hissed.

"I AM NO MERE FRAGMENT!" He shouted, lunging at the woman. He grabbed her wrist, his sword came for her neck. She rose her hammer up to defend herself, but she was too late. She closed her eyes as the sword touched flesh.

"You are nothing," Beam said. The man had been unable to finish his task. He stared at the woman dumbly, as his sword drew a thin layer of blood from her neck. He seemed unsure of himself, not understanding.

Beam closed the distance once more, and the steps shrank again. In a single step, he was before the throne, his shoulder crushed, his side opened, his whole being bloodied.

He ignored those two giant beings, despite the wounds they had given him. Beam crawled his way up, reaching a hand for the throne. A shadowy hand stopped it.

It was only a hand, but it gripped tightly. It crushed Beam's palm against the blue fabric.

"My Lord, you seem to be late in returning," there was respect in its voice, and also glee.

A hand of light, smaller than the dark, reached forward to batter it away. "Leave him, Ingolsol. You've already kneeled to him. Show some loyalty."

"Ahh, but Claudia, it is simply against my nature to be loyal," the voice of the shadow grew, crushing both Beam's hand and Claudia's beneath it.

"You dishonour yourself," Claudia said again.

"I am honour itself," Ingolsol said back in reply. "The only honour is to be had in victory, as you would well know. If I win in the end, that is all that matters."

"You speak like you're him – like you're the whole. But you're merely a fragment of him, just like they are," Claudia said scathingly in reply.

"A whole, or a fragment, I am what I am. I carry the name Ingolsol, and I move according to my own intentions. I had no qualms kneeling to the boy – there was worth in it then. He showed something interesting. He made a deal that satisfied me. But now I find those conditions to be… unfavourable.

He's made quite the throne for himself, and now that these lumbering goons have wandered in here, and unsettled the balance of power, I thought I might try my hand at the ruling seat."

"In doing so, you will kill us all," Claudia's fragment warned.

Ingolsol merely grinned at that. "A few minutes is all I need to satiate myself. A few minutes is my eternity – I work towards their most perfect form."

With those words, the hand grasping Beam increased its pressure. Beam could feel his bones creaking beneath his grip. Now, when he looked, there was a man there, nearly identical to the fragment of Ingolsol he had seen on the stairs.

He wore similarly dark armour, and he had similarly golden eyes, with a sword sheathed at his hip, and long black hair, and a cunning smile. He seemed like him, but he was not entirely the same. He shared none of that gigantic height. At most, this man was six foot.

There were other details too that were off – his eyes weren't perfectly golden, there were flecks of something else in there. The patterns on his armour were different, and a shadowy aura surrounded him.

"Ingolsol," Claudia said firmly. With her words, there came an outstretched hand, grasping Ingolsol by the forearm, and attempting to pull his shadowy claws away.

As Beam followed the hand to the woman, he noticed that the same was true for her. She was much like the divine fragment that Beam had seen earlier, but there were differences there as well. Her eyes, and her hammer, and her height. She seemed more of an individual.

She smiled at Beam as she caught his gaze, a gentle smile – a true smile. Unlike the being that he'd seen earlier, there was warmth in it, and it was filled with respect, approaching subordination. "Fear not my Lord, I will keep him in control."