Downtown Druid

Dantes let out a cry of anguish as he ran for the side of the building. His raw emotion reverberated across the city as he screamed. Dogs and cats howled, bats shrieked, rats began going wild across the city, the flowers that had been blossoming began to close, even the roaches went still, unable to process the emotion that Dantes had unconsciously sent out throughout Rendhold.

Godfrey didn’t stop him from running for the side of the roof, black energy emanating from him, sapping the will and hope from everything it touched. He just smiled and soaked in the despair that had just traveled through the city through its connection to Dantes.

Dantes reached the edge of the roof, and looked desperately across the ground, trying to see where Jacque had landed, hoping that he was somehow okay, but he didn’t see him. He started to look up, and saw him floating in the air, gently falling down to the ground below. He could see two muscular men waiting below. One an incongruous massive elf, and the other an old man wearing purple robes that did nothing to hide his massive frame. Orebus and Merle saw him and waved as they moved to catch Jacque. They looked rough, bruised, burnt, but alive at the same time, as if they were filled with the kind of vitality that can only come from a grand victory.

Dantes felt relief for a moment, then he turned to look at Godfrey.

At that moment, Jacopo finished reorienting the threads of their locus, cutting them off from the damage done to their destroyed gardens.

Dantes spread his will throughout the city, feeling the whiskers on the face of every rat, the wind rustling every leaf. He could see where all of his allies and enemies were, sense everything near them as the barrier between him and Rendhold blurred.

Godfrey raised a fist, and the air around him seemed to blur and shake.

“I’m going to grant you the mercy of death now Dantes, you and this city.” He opened his hand and gold and black light shot from it and began arcing all around the city. In that moment Godfrey became many, but not just a handful of clones, in that instant he became legion. Those at the barrier who’d just driven away the Viscent army suddenly saw more than a hundred gold and black figures led by a man in resplendent golden armor. In Uptown where they’d thought they were safe, an army of gold and black suddenly appeared in their midst and began laying waste to everything. All those who’d thought themselves safe were suddenly being put to the sword, and leading each of those groups of black and gold constructs, was a duplicate of Godfrey, wearing a cruel smile.

Dantes drew his pistol, pushing all of the wands he had out of his wooden arm at the same time. Jacopo shifted into his man-form and stood next to him with his metal claws flexing.

“You think you’re the only one who can be in many places at once?” asked Dantes. “We’re going to kill you here. We’re going to kill you in Uptown, Midtown, Needle Street, the Docks, the Underprison, The Academy, the Guild district. However many of you there are, it doesn’t matter.”

Godfrey shook his head. “You have to kill me a hundred times. I have to kill a man that can’t even protect his child just once. The odds are in my favor.”

Dantes laughed. “Odds don’t matter. I cheat.”

Dantes aimed his hand and released the will he’d been pushing through all of his wands at once. A blast of stone, fire, lightning, pure force, and ice fired from his palm. Godfrey teleported to dodge it, but it slayed three of his goldmasks instantly.

Argenta took that moment to act on a plan of her own. A shadow that had been slowly making its way to the Goldmask holding her daughter suddenly shot up with a sharpened point and stabbed through the back of his neck. Argent was briefly in two places at once, standing across the roof, and holding the blade that killed the Goldmask, then she was only there behind her daughter, holding her blade as the other Goldmasks launched themselves at her, trying to kill both her and Alby.

Godfrey teleported next to Dantes with his sword raised, but Jacopo parried the blade with his claws and sent out a powerful kick to push him back.

The deflected sword strike hit the roof, and shattered it, blowing a hole in the building,

Godfrey teleported again, and threw a coin into the air above Dantes.

Dantes dodged as he teleported to the coin in the air and aimed his swordpoint downward. Dantes aimed his pistol at him and fired while he was in the air, but he teleported again, behind Dantes where he swung his blade at his throat. Dantes released his will in his wand pushing him with invisible force, but he barely moved, only shifting his back foot slightly toward the edge of the roof.

Jacopo leapt toward Dantes, changing into a rat, Dantes feigned a throw toward him, but when Godfrey teleported behind him to dodge it, he spun around as quickly as his cat-like reflexes could make him and threw Jacopo behind himself instead. Jacopo shifted into a man with both of his legs extended hitting him with the force of a cannonball. 𐍂ΆℕＯВĘꞩ

Godfrey fell from the roof, and Jacopo and Dantes followed him. Dantes threw a handful of seeds from his coat over the edge and jumped shifting into a bat to kill his momentum at the last minute before he hit the ground, then changing back into himself and running toward Godfrey.

Godfrey, lying on his back, extended his hand and sent out a blast of golden light toward Dantes, but it broke against the enchantment of his new necklace. Before Dantes could reach him he teleported again to Dantes’s right.

Dantes sent his will through the seeds he’d thrown down, and thorny vines shot out from across the ground toward Godfrey. He teleported again and this time Jacopo’s clawed hands carved a deep rend in the back of his leg armor where it was weakest, and scraped a clawmark across the back of his leg.

Godfrey ignored it, and sent out a backward kick at Jacopo that threw him into a nearby building. He then charged Dantes.

Suddenly, Orebus charged from a nearby alley and slammed into Godfrey with full force, his veins glowing blue from some kind of magical force that was infusing his body. Before Godfrey could hit the wall, he teleported again, keeping his momentum this time and aiming himself like a missile toward Orebus, but before he could reach him a massive ball of fire intercepted him and exploded with the heat of a small sun, throwing him back again.

Merle stepped out from a nearby alley, his robe singed. He gripped the robe at his shoulder, and tore it from himself, revealing his powerful musculature as he dropped into a low stance, and began gathering more magical energy.

Dantes looked at him concerned.

“I gave the babe to the young girl on the roof and Argenta. She’s moving them somewhere secure.”

Dantes nodded, and sent more will through the thorny vines he’d summoned, and readying them to strike wherever Godfrey appeared next. He felt separate from himself as he fought. In the same way he felt when he moved through the body of another rat in the city. As he controlled and moved and fought in his body, he did the same thing in a hundred other places at once.

…

Godfrey raised his sword and pointed at the barricade behind which Pacha and his remaining men had taken cover. The black and gold constructs surged past him, silent aside from their heavy footsteps.

Pacha cursed as he watched them approach. His muscles were screaming at him, his hands caked in blood, and corpses surrounded him. Still, he raised his sword and took a deep breath in.

“Alright men, brace!”

The prisoners reacted without complaint, still bound by whatever foul pact Dantes had forced them into, but the guard was more reluctant. Still, they brought themselves to their feet. Those left, who hadn’t deserted, they were men of steel, more than a match for the golden army that now approached them. At least that was what he told himself.

Before the golden army could hit the barricade, the sky seemed to darken, and as he looked up to the sky, Pacha could see thousands of bats blotting out the sun. They dove for Godfrey’s army, screeching and tearing at them with their teeth even as they blinded them with their bodies.

Pacha saw the golden flesh of their enemies bleed, and smiled grimly. “They can bleed men. Let’s help the bats chew their meal!”

He leapt over the barricade and slammed his blade into the nearest construct. As his blade entered it, the construct fell, becoming just a coin that landed on the ground. The men began to fight too, causing more of the constructs that were distracted by the feral bats to fall as coins to the ground.

Godfrey leapt to the fore of his men, killing two guards when he suddenly felt something at his feet. He looked down to see vines tangling them. He looked up to see Jayk aiming a crossbow at him from a nearby roof.

…

Godfrey faltered for a moment as he felt one of himself die. There was a flash of flame behind his eyes as he felt that death, but he pushed that away as he slammed his foot down, causing the concrete in front of him to split and black spikes to shoot from beneath the cracks, firing at Dantes and Merle.

Merle raised a hand and they broke against an invisible shield.

Dantes charged through them, as they broke on whatever enchantment was protecting him as well. Orebus and Jacopo joined the charge.

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Godfrey summoned a handful of gold coins and threw them in front of himself, forming seven golden lions that ran to meet their charge.

He teleported before more thorny vines could reach him and aimed a slash at Merle’s back, but the ground shifted at the last minute as a tree grew below him, and tried to tangle him in its branches, causing him to miss the old wizard as he was thrown backward.

He rolled his neck and held his palm in front of the blade of his sword, he ran his hand across it, drawing some of his blood, and summoned more coins into his hand. He threw those into the air, and three duplicates of his sword hung in the air around him, summoned just in time as Orebus crushed the spine of one of his construct lions.

…

The Uptown guard had difficulty reacting when the copy of Godfrey and his constructs had appeared in the center. Desha had been one of the first ones to notice when they entered the Council building, but she hadn’t raised an alarm or anything like that, instead she very quickly and quietly hid beneath her table as everyone else was slaughtered. A few of them put up a fight, taking several of the constructs with them, but most simply cowered as they were cut down.

The largest of the constructs, a handsome man wearing golden armor, was laughing as it happened. His laugh seemed to drain her as she listened to it. It rattled inside her skull and emptied her of any belief that she would survive. Her only hope became that she may be granted a quick death if she revealed herself, but before she could move, she saw a rat sitting in front of her. It held up its hands as if asking for her to wait, and she was so confused by the sight that she obeyed the request.

That rat was followed by ten more, then twenty, then a hundred, then a thousand, then a wave that reminded her of the ones she sometimes watched crash against the shore. They swarmed across the chamber, tearing into any golden flesh they could find. The gold and black constructs fought back, killing them as quickly as they could arrive at first, but it was a losing battle. Soon only the duplicate of Godfrey was all that was left. It fought for some time, but even he found himself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the rats that were attacking him. He attempted to teleport.

…

Dantes dodged one of the floating blades, shifting into a pigeon to fly quickly above it before shifting and blasting out a stone from one of the wands in his wooden hand at it. The sword was dented, but quickly recovered and attacked him with a flurry of blows.

He dodged without thinking, his mind was pure at that moment. It wasn’t that he was juggling a hundred different perspectives, fights, and ideas at once, he simply was those perspectives. He was wholly himself in each battle across the city, reacting and connecting as naturally as those smallest parts of people attacked disease.

He could feel something else too, something that wasn’t of the mother. Godfrey, his connections to the coins that he could teleport to, that he could turn into constructs or even copies, he could feel that connection where it touched his city. He reached out to it, where it was weakest near his constructs, and stole that thread from him, severing his connection to it.

As he did so, he overwhelmed that copy of Godfrey that had been about to teleport with rats, drowning it in fur and teeth.

Dantes saw Godfrey stagger for a moment as that copy died. It was only for a moment, and he quickly recovered, but that meant there was a cost. When one of them died, it took a piece of him with them.

…

Syn dodged one of the constructs, landing on another as a heavyset orc, crushing his spine, then she shifted into a gnome to dodge under another’s strike, before shifting into a dragonkin to shoot up and drive an uppercut into that construct’s jaw. As that one fell back, she grabbed his golden sword, and drove it into another’s back before she became a human woman do dodge under another attempt at decapitation and rolled toward a rifle that had been left behind by a Viscent soldier. She made her eyes those of an elf as she gave herself an orcs body to steady herself. She fired the rifle perfectly, the bullet going through two separate constructs’ heads. She shifted back into a dragonkin with massive horns and charged into another construct, goring him, before throwing his body away with a jerk of her neck as she ran the bayonet on the rifle through another of them.

She’d gotten separated from Jayk when the constructs had first appeared, but she wasn’t alone. Even in the flurry of fighting, she noticed plants reaching up to grab ankles or even impale constructs on thorns. Dantes was there with her, she could feel his presence. They were both fighting conservatively, conserving momentum and helping one another as best as they could in the middle of the fray. She smiled as she jammed a long fingernail into another construct’s golden eye. They’d had a lot of experience ‘collaborating’ in the last several months. It made sense they fought well together.

A gunshot rang out, and Syn fell backward onto the ground. A black hole on her forehead began to slowly spill out blood.

A copy of Godfrey walked toward her, a golden rifle in his hand and a smile on his face. The constructs cleared a path for him.

“Can you feel her blood feeding your plants, Dantes?” he asked as the rifle shifted into a sword in his hands. “Now I’ve slain two of your dogs, and your bitch too.”

Syn smiled, launching herself up from the ground and driving an enchanted stiletto deep into Godfrey’s chin and through his brain.

She looked at him, her eyes changing to the same shade of gold as Dantes’s.

“He moved me a foot to the left at the last minute with a vine. You missed.” She laughed as she yanked the stiletto back and plunged back into the fray with the constructs.

…

Godfrey actually stumbled this time, in the middle of a swing at Orebus. The fire behind his eyes flashed behind his eyes again and this time the shape he was seeing was starting to become more clear. It was two figures, surrounded by flame, one large, and the other smaller.

Orebus dodged the swing and smashed his fist into the side of Godfrey’s head, leaving a fist sized dent in his helmet and knocking him to his knees. Godfrey cursed, and teleported away again, this time to the roof. He held up both of his hands and started shooting out beams of golden light that scorched the ground as he projected a sense of doom onto his enemies all around him.

Dantes shouldn't be able to counter him the way he was. He’d destroyed all of his major gardens. The research he’d done into druids had shown him that they lose power when their locus takes major damage. He’d hit all of the major gardens he’d located. They were easy to trace with the purchases Dantes had made through his surrogate in Uptown.

Another fireball flew toward him, forcing him to teleport again, but not before the flames of it began to lick against him. His teleportation was getting slower. How? He’d never had any difficulty with that before. His blessings were as strong as ever. It was almost as if his command of the coins was being… stolen from him.

…

Vampa slammed the edge of his blade through another of the constructs, watching as it fell as a coin to the ground. Golden warriors, that was something new to him. He rather appreciated that Dantes had provided him with so many new experiences. The edge of his blade was nearly done for, but he was making up for it with raw strength. His arms were heavy of course, he’d actually had to wrap his right hand to the handle of his sword to keep it properly gripped, but that was what all the training was for.

A man with a golden face was standing behind twenty constructs in front of him. It seemed clear that he was their leader, and that he was enjoying watching as Vampa’s energy was slowly sapped by his men, likely intending to finish him off himself. Very typical behavior of his type.

Vampa dropped two more of the constructs, slamming his gauntleted fist into the face of one, as he used the hilt of his blade to cave in the helm of another.

“Do you perhaps know a woman named Vera?” asked the man in gold.

Vampa stopped, giving the man his full attention.

“I nearly killed her earlier, but decided to wait until later to finish her and those other women off. Her protector gave me a little trouble though. Persistent little dog.”

Vampa began to move toward him more quickly, cutting down more of the golden constructs as he did so. One of them managed to stab through a gap in the armor for his left shoulder and another slipped a dagger into his side. He stumbled, before slaying both of them with a wide swipe.

“I think I’ll take a turn with her and all of the other women there before I cut them down. One turn with each version of me that is. It’ll probably take hours. I won’t tell her I’ve killed you of course. Not until I reach the last version of me. That one can tell her before defiling her virtue one last time.”

Vampa went still, his shaking from blood loss ceasing. He drew himself straight and pointed his blade at Godfrey.

“I swear on what little honor I have left. You will die today.”

Godfrey began to laugh, but ceased when an orc landed in the midst of his constructs, just behind a white dove.

Wane swung out a flurry of strikes, sending his will through his enchanted stave as he did so. All of the constructs he touched flew backward as if struck with incredible invisible force, smashing into walls, one another, or just skipping across the concrete like stones on a lake.

With the way cleared, Vampa charged forward, killing those few constructs left between himself and Godfrey.

The copy tried to teleport away, but found it couldn’t, no matter how much will it mustered. He raised his sword to catch Vampa’s, but it shattered as Vampa’s blade met his own and its dulled edge cleaved halfway through his body. He coughed up some golden blood, before he fell to the ground.

Vampa fell to his knees for a moment, then started to push himself back to his feet, unsteadily.

Wane grabbed his arm, and slung it over his shoulder, helping him to stand.

“Looks like Dantes led me to you just in time.”

Vampa nodded.

“Let’s get you to Clay and Hema.”

He almost argued, almost reached for his sword so he could return to the fight, but didn’t. He wanted to live. He wanted to see Vera.

He lifted the faceplate of his helmet and spat on the split coin that was all that was left of that copy of Godfrey.

“That’s for Zak you bastard.”

…

Godfrey staggered again, and Jacopo struck him in the side tearing off another chunk of his armor.

Dantes used the momentum from Jacopo’s strike to hit Godfrey across the face with his wooden fist.

Orebus drove an empowered fist into his liver where Jacopo had just torn off the armor.

When he teleported again, Merle grabbed him from behind suddenly, and lifted him up, arching his back before slamming his head into the ground.

He teleported again, sending out a desperate blast of gold toward them as he staggered backwards. He felt another copy die as Argenta tore it to shreds with claws made of shadow. Another died as the flowers in front of a butchers shop in Midtown, shot out, and dug their way through his insides through his mouth, a third one’s head exploded as a dwarf fired a rifle from five rooftops away. A fourth as a blonde woman with a massive bow fired an arrow through his skull.

With each death he seemed to lose a bit of focus, and the image he was seeing had no grown crystal clear with every blink. It was the man he’d killed before, the one guarding the women. He was holding a sword of fire and smiling, with a massive black hound standing next to him, with teeth of iron ready to tear him to shreds. Behind both of them was a forge, one he recognized, one that he’d sent many others to. It was Greed’s forge, where souls were minted into gold coins.

He threw out more coins, changing them to daggers that shout out at his enemies. Orebus caught one in the shoulder wincing, but the others dodged themand kept coming. He threw more, summoning three more lions, but very suddenly three massive black shapes appeared, each one ramming into a different lion.

The two wolves tore madly at the lions with tooth and claw, but the hound must’ve been the twin of the one he killed. He disemboweled the golden lion with razor sharp teeth before turning to face him with a muzzle covered in golden blood.

Merle raised a hand, and for a moment Godfrey felt weightless, but instead of panicking he pushed himself off of a nearby wall and slammed into him, knocking him backward. He raised his sword, but found his arm bound by Dantes’s wooden fingers which he used to whip Godfrey over his head and slam him into the ground, cracking the concrete.

Godfrey coughed up golden blood as he sat up and saw all four of them approaching him again, the black canines not far behind them. He clenched his teeth as another of his copies died. There were none left. He smiled one last time.

“Well. Sometimes the best way to win the game, is to quit.” He closed his eyes and sent his will to the coin he’d placed on a boat in a hidden cover far from there. He opened his eyes expecting to see a wooden deck, but instead saw only Dantes and Jacopo looking at him and smiling.

“This is my locus. You don’t leave unless I let you.”

Godfrey tried to stand up, but found that he was held fast by thick thorned vines, and they were getting tighter, leaving only the gaps in his armor uncovered. Rats were starting to slowly approach him from every side.

Dantes posed mockingly in the same way Godfrey had when he’d summoned his copies and constructs all around the city.

“Now. Taste despair.”

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