Chapter 100 - The White Flame

I am so excited to be posting Chapter 100! It's unbelievable to have reached this milestone, and I'm so glad it was on this chapter. Thanks to all of you for the support, especially to Anil and Zadumu who have been my Chosen Hedges since June last year. Hope you enjoy!

Hump woke up in a start. He scrambled back until he felt the wall of his cell behind him. His heart pounded as he searched frantically for anything in the room. Anything that might attack him. His ankle chain went taut, the metal digging into his ankle. That pain brought him back to reality. Trying to calm himself, he breathed deeply as memories came back to him. He was the gorger’s prisoner, captured in another world.

And he was going to escape.

He thought back on the creature’s words before their previous bout and smiled faintly. With any luck, the gorger was gone. Which meant Hump’s moment had come. It was time to get out of there or die trying.

Rushing would only get him killed. He forced himself to think. There was no way to know how much time he had until the gorger would return. Hell, if he was wrong, or if he’d been asleep too long, the beast could already be back.

It won’t be, Hump told himself. The gateways stayed open for hours in the human realm, even the one that had opened early. He had no way of knowing how slowly time passed in the Remnant Realm, but it felt like he’d been there for at least a couple of weeks.

A factor of two didn’t bode well. He might only have an hour or two before the gorger was back, if the attack hadn’t finished already.

Hump didn’t waste a moment. Lucil could arrive at any moment to bring him his meal, if it could be called that. When he did, he had to be ready.

He crawled over to the corner of his cell, dusting off the surface layer of dirt and carefully taking out the chips he’d been collecting. There were thirteen in total—the number of the fallen god, and a very bad omen if he were to be superstitious.

Best to ignore it. He was in another realm. Did the Pantheon’s influence even extend this far or did this place have its own gods? The gorger had said its world had been destroyed by human gods, perhaps they had been wiped out. Either way, how much worse could his situation get…

More importantly, thirteen chips meant Lucil had come to see him twenty-six times since he had started counting. The question was, how often was he fed? Daily? Twice daily? It felt like an age, but at the same time it made him doubt his numbers.

What if the gorger had already returned? What if it caught him in his attempt to escape? Hump steeled himself. The beast was already trying to feast on him. It was already torturing him. All it could do now was finish the job.

He had to take the chance he was offered, no matter the cost.

Hump brought together the chips in his hand, piling them on top of each other. Alone, they were enough power for a body to sustain itself, and not much use for spell casting. Like this, they provided him with a well of essence far beyond his own that he could draw on. Now he just had to control it.

He drew their power into his body, incorporating it into his channels. It felt much like that of the essence stones, though there was less of it this time, and it lacked some of the chaotic nature. Still he felt the wildness of this foreign essence flowing through him. It helped. His fear fell away and his mind cleared as energy surged through him, helping him focus.

None of his spells had managed to even mark the chain, which meant he had to go further than battle magic. He needed a heat powerful enough to melt metal. He needed white flame.

He’d attempted to control it when Vivienne had first tested him. He’d even managed to produce a flicker of white flame at the core of the spell.

And then he had lost control. Vivienne was not here to Dispel it this time; failure would mean having white hot heat exploding within his small cell. He supposed it was better to go like that than for the gorger to drag out its torture. At least he would have hope in his heart, though he hardly dared to think the word for fear the gods would spite him.

Things were different now. He was a Rank 2 wizard, something he’d proven with his Fire Blast, and now he would prove it again. It was time to see just how much his strength and control had grown now that he had accepted his new power. Now that he had accepted the dragon’s imprint.

It didn’t matter that he was a warlock. Gods, it didn’t even matter if he lost the part of himself that made him human. He didn’t care anymore. All he cared about was getting the hell out of this prison alive. He almost chuckled as he imagined Bud’s disapproval, but righteousness wouldn’t get him out of this mess. The sanctity of his humanity could be dealt with later. Bud was not coming to his miraculous rescue. They probably didn’t even know he was alive.

It was time to do things his way.

He sat on the ground and twisted the chain around him so that it was pulled taut. Things were going to get hot, so he targeted the metal where it hooked into the ground, at the point furthest from his ankle.

There was nothing left to do but channel.

“Spark.”

A flame flickered into existence before his eyes. He fed essence to it, filling it with a steady stream of power and condensing it all into as small a space as he could. Where before he had struggled to maintain that stream and control the power of the flame at the same time, now it came like instinct. The heat of the flame built, a pleasant heat against his face in this world of cold.

He stared into the flame. This wasn’t just a spell. This was his life. The last of his power and the only chance he had to escape. It was his lifeline, and he wasn’t about to let it fail. Bit by bit, he added essence to the spell. The flame turned blue, yet remained no larger than a fingernail. A gentle breeze swept out from it, faint streams of essence escaping at its base like whisps of smoke. As the essence built, it fought against him, but there was no doubt in his mind at what he would accomplish. The flame would do his bidding. His essence would obey him.

His heart thundered as the flame flickered with excitement, desperate to break free of his will. He crushed it tighter, forcing all that essence into an even smaller space. Containing all the heat of his life into a fingernail-sliver.

White flame flickered at its core, and Hump beamed as if Lady Light herself had appeared before him.

It flared, trying to escape his control. He supressed it as an afterthought, funnelling more fuel into the flame. More and more, until wind blasted his face, searingly hot and wonderful.

The flame turned entirely white, bright as burning magnesium, roaring like a furnace.

With a thought, he lowered it to the chain. The moment it touched, the metal began to glow, heating up until it was a violent orange. He felt the familiar touch of the gorger’s will in the metal, fighting against his own. He pressed into it, piercing it and screaming at it to break. To melt away and let him be free. To give into the heat.

Still the white flame raged, and the metal glowed brighter. It deformed as he pulled against it, his entire body weight thrown backward. The link in the chain bent, stretching… and then it snapped. Hump fell back, hissing as a bit of the metal brushed his foot and quickly twisting out of the way. He hardly noticed the pain. He stared in amazement at the broken chain.

He’d done it. The chain was broken, and the first step of his plan was complete. Now he just had to wait for Lucil to arrive.

***

It was a long wait. Every second was full of doubt and wonder. What if the gorger came early? What if he was wrong, and it had no plans beyond its halls at all? He did his best not to panic, focusing on recovering as much essence as he could while he waited, meditating on the River and Waves.

When the door clicked open, Hump opened his eyes to see the distant glimmer of red light. He knew from the first footstep that Lucil was approaching, but that did not mean the gorger would not come. The beast could move silently when it wanted to, despite its large body. He positioned himself in front of the broken attachment on the floor, hiding the chain behind his body. He clenched his fists as he listened to the approaching footstep, wishing over and over in his mind that Lucil was alone.

When she appeared before his cell and unlocked the door, all the doubt and fear was washed away by a raging stream of hope. He cursed himself for being an idiot and letting himself fall for such a useless emotion. All it would do was shatter him, but it was too late. Gods be damned, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Lucil stepped inside, no remnant of the sentience he’d seen in her eyes when they’d touched all those days ago. He readied himself for the inevitable battle, recalling the sharp scream in her mind, and the strange touch of another being’s soul.

He would not falter.

She stepped inside; the essence chip held out to him. Not a thing was out of place.

Hump made his move. He rose to his feet, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her closer, pressing his other hand into her chest. Fearing retaliation, he didn’t hesitate a moment. He willed a connection, letting his soul extend toward her, carried on his essence. Time after time the gorger had subjected him to such an attack, and Hump had watched closely. Studying everything. Figuring out what methods of the gorger’s were most effective, and which would fail.

Like before, he wormed his way through the cracks of her soul, searching for the core of her. It was a maze of broken glass. The fight was stronger this time, the shred of humanity he’d dug up before still somewhere deep inside her. There was no finding it amongst a million fragments of glass though, it had to find him. Last time he had relied on force, this time, he had a new plan.

The heat of their connection reached its limit. Her core drew on his for power, and he let it. There was so little to her now that he would give it to her willingly if he had anything to spare.

Instead, he delved inward. He’d spent day’s figuring out how best to get through to her. The images that would draw her back to reality and restore the cracks. The thing an adventurer—a wizard like him no less—would desire. Hump started slowly, drawing on the moments that were special to him. The simple, relatable things that could not cause offense. A reminder of the life Lucil might have lost. His time around the campfire, drinking, eating, and laughing with his friends. Or studying at the inn while Bud and Celaine ate breakfast, before they’d forced him to eat, and he had taught them a few of the principles of formations.

He felt the connection warming and solidifying. She was opening to him. He felt fragments of emotion reflected back, far weaker than when he’d bonded with his egg, but a connection, nonetheless.

Faintly, he heard the sound of whimpering in his mind. Lucil’s soul resisted him, not letting him grow closer. There was only so far the simple things could get him.

He knew his true fear. The thing he tried not to think about. Life was not just about fun and happiness. Positivity moulded the soul, but it was the dark and painful moments that sculpted it. That carved off pieces of yourself until you either came out stronger or broken.

He thought of the horror of Blesdbury Dungeon. The caged villagers. The girl that had destroyed the kobold nest. The villagers of Lakewood, slaughtered by the flesh prowlers. There was so much darkness in the world, so much evil.

Screams erupted in his mind, reverberating through his soul. So much terror, but this time Hump was ready for it. He resisted the urge to retreat, taking the full force of her soul’s desperate attempt to escape and fighting it back.

He would not falter! He would not let her escape this. She would face it, and she would come back to him. With all his will he threw essence at the cracks of her soul, willing them closed despite her resistance.

There was more to the horror than evil. There was good. He remembered what came afterward. How happy he had been when he awoke in the encampment and learned that the villagers captured in Bledsbury Dungeon had reached the surface safely. Or finding Sessil amongst the ruins of Lakewood. The world was slightly better for his actions. Despite all the pain, it was worth something to push on and survive, and to help people.

And that was the crutch of it. All this pain… It had made him stronger. It had not broken him. More importantly, it would eventually be worth it. First, he would save Lucil, and then he would sabotage the gorger’s plans. It wasn’t for nothing.

It was not for nothing.

With all the force of his will, he forced Lucil’s cracks together. He flooded her with essence, drawing on the fresh chip she had brought him and feeding it straight back to her. Her screams grew louder and more horrified, and still Hump pushed on.

She had to live. Not just for her sake, but for his. His suffering had to have meaning.

“Come back to me, Lucil!” he shouted, as the last slivers of his power went to her.

And the screaming stopped. She stared at him with eyes as wide as moons, and in them her zombified gaze changed to one of undulated horror. Her mouth opened wide.

The screams were no longer in his head.