An Unlucky Path
Randal spoke as if the words had wounded him.
"Don't try to frame him."
"And what reason would I have to frame David, here of all times?"
"Because you don't want to die at our hands."
"If you don't catch me, that's the end of it. I'm not the one who's going to die. I'm telling you only because I pity you—fretting away like this without even realizing you've been played."
Hal spoke.
"So how did it end?"
"How do you think? The obvious way. The mage from Touleno Tower killed Sheikh and Harvey, and then they crossed, one by one, through the magic circle Sheikh had gone to such pains to repair. When the last man was left, he ambushed him, killed him, and took the mana stone the man had been about to use."
"So he used the circle on the spot?"
"Of course not. Touleno people were waiting at the destination. How could he use it right away? He used it much later. After that he took the ruins' curse, wandered through dangerous ground, and that's how he happened to meet all of you."
Chris touched a finger to his forehead, then let it fall.
"I've said everything I have to say, so let's part here. Let's not meet again."
With that, he ran with everything he had.
Randal shouted after him.
"Stop right there!"
Chris was never going to stop.
"Tower Master, we have to get up there. Quickly."
Hal answered as he started forward.
"So we should."
They climbed in silence with Hal in the lead, all the way to the top of the stairs. The moment Randal set his foot on the highest step and made to chase the way Sid had gone, Hal checked him.
"Wait."
"Tower Master, there isn't time."
"If what Sid said is true, then he bears the ruins' curse for damaging the magic circle."
Randal begrudged every second that slipped past. Sid was pulling farther and farther away.
"We can't trust a word that bastard says."
"And if it is the truth?"
"We still have to catch him."
"The road he chose is an unlucky one. Follow him, and the trouble will take us too."
"Tower Master!"
"Don't forget why we defied the Three Great Elders and entered the ruins. We came for treasure. We didn't come for revenge. And even if we had, Sid isn't the man we'd be avenging ourselves on. The one who killed Sheikh and David is the Tower Master of Touleno."
"I still can't believe him outright. We won't know where the truth ends and the lie begins until we catch him and wring it out of him."
Randal shook off Hal's restraining hand and went after Chris. William hung back, watching how the wind blew.
"Tower Master, what should we do?"
"David always sat wrong with me."
"He did?"
"That's why I meant to leave him behind."
"So you believe Sid, Tower Master."
"I do. The story holds together, front to back."
Hal turned the opposite way from where Chris had vanished. William asked, worry in his voice.
"Is it all right to let Randal go alone?"
"They're both Seed Cultivation. Randal will win."
"That man's skill is nothing ordinary."
William thought Randal would lose. Hal answered as if the matter were already settled.
"Nothing to be done."
"Tower Master!"
"Randal disobeyed my order. If he dies by Sid's hand, he will have brought it on himself."
Chris ran hard. Magic bolstered his grandmaster body, and his speed turned ferocious. Shaking Randal off was easy.
The moment he let his guard down, the air on every side cinched tight. He ripped it open with a wind blade and swept a look around him.
"Who's there?"
Even as he shouted, he wove wood-attribute mana into the grass and trees around him, priming them so the magic would bloom the instant he finished a chant.
The air ahead wavered, and Julien burst out of it.
"It's me. Julien."
Chris broke into a bright smile.
"Aigoo, Master. What a pleasure."
"The pleasure's mine."
"You're traveling alone?"
"An elder of Touleno keeping company with the Tower Master of Hermann would be strange enough on its own. We parted along the way."
"I see. But why did you attack me?"
"I didn't like the look of you running."
"And why would that trouble you?"
"It occurred to me you might be running because you'd found the treasure."
"Treasure?"
Chris waved the notion off.
"I never even got a look at it."
"Then why are you running like your ass is about to fall off?"
"A powerful enemy was after me."
"A powerful enemy?"
"I ran into the bastards from Mick Magic Tower."
"Why would they be chasing you?"
"I'm a Hermann Tower man, aren't I? You know how bad the blood runs between the towers of our kingdom."
"Or maybe they're chasing you because you're carrying the treasure."
"I told you, I'm not."
"Then you won't mind if I search you."
Chris couldn't allow that. The spatial pouch held Motaro.
I can't let him take the Motaro.
Later he might offer it up to buy his way into a tower, or swallow it himself when his years ran out.
Chris's eyes flew wide.
"Hey—what is that!"
He pointed past Julien's shoulder. Julien didn't turn. Chris had meant to bolt the moment he looked back, and the plan fell apart.
Julien saw through the trick and moved at once. The ground heaved like a wave and rolled in on Chris.
Chris spun and sprinted, teeth clenched. In that instant an explosion erupted in front of him.
The blast flung him like a dry leaf. His back slammed into a tree so hard the trunk snapped. He had no time to swallow the pain. He shot to his feet and chanted. Grass surged up long and coiled around Julien's legs, and roots tore through the soil to bind his waist.
He had no intention of staying to see how the spell turned out. The fight with Sheikh had taught him, in his bones, just how terrifying Ring Binding was. He bolted at once.
"Hmph."
Julien let out a cold snort and stamped his foot. The roots and grass wrapped around him powdered away in an instant and scattered on the air. He flicked a hand, snapped his fingers, and an explosion burst in front of Chris.
The blast hurled him backward—and this time another went off behind him.
He pinwheeled through the air and tumbled across the ground like a scrap of paper.
Chris shoved himself upright, blood pouring from his mouth.
"What is this?"
"A mana bomb."
"How are you doing it?"
"You compress mana at a chosen point and set it off."
"That's impressive."
"Anyone around the middle of Ring Binding can manage it. Nothing worth admiring."
"We were on good terms. Do you really have to do this?"
"As I've told you again and again, my life is hanging by a thread. I don't have the luxury."
Chris heaved a sigh heavy enough to sink the ground beneath him.
"In all these vast ruins, it had to be you. Damaging that magic circle must have been a greater sin than I thought."
Misfortune really did seem to dog his steps.
He looked up at the sky and argued with it.
"The circle was repaired, wasn't it? It wasn't even broken for good. Does it have to go this far?"
Julien asked.
"What are you talking about?"
"I think the ruins are punishing me. Everyone I meet tries to do me in."
"I have no intention of harming you. Leave everything behind and walk away, and I won't come after you."
"Everything? Even my underwear?"
"Yes. Start by throwing me the spatial pouch."
Chris drew the pouch from his belt, made as if to throw it, then turned and ran. Julien clicked his tongue.
"You will never slip out of my hands."
Chris strained every sense. At several points he felt mana knotting together where it had no business gathering. Mana bombs were taking shape. They ringed him on every side; running would not get him clear. He fixed on the single open gap and kicked off the ground.
He cast the flight magic he had learned from Tenbo and shot into the sky. Julien watched him rise and shook his head.
"Forgotten already? Flight is forbidden."
Chris's hair stood on end, and he froze. Lightning was about to strike.
Julien looked up at him and smiled.
"You'll roast nicely."
In that instant Chris thrust a hand into the spatial pouch and drew out the bottle of Motaro.
"See this?"
Julien's eyes bulged, and he shouted.
"You did find the treasure!"
"This is what you want, isn't it?"
"It is."
Julien reached out as he went on.
"Give it to me."
The next word came out raw with want.
"Now!"
Chris dropped about a handspan.
"Oh dear. Looks like the lightning's about to fall. If it hits, the Motaro will be ruined completely."
Julien's face twisted.
"Get down here."
"Even if I come down, I rather think the lightning hits me anyway."
Little by little, slowly, Chris descended. Then lightning dropped out of the sky.
A white flash tore down.
Julien lunged in a panic, meaning to rip the Motaro from Chris's hand before the bolt struck it and burned it away. People like to say of something fast that it moves like lightning. That is only a saying. No one is actually as fast as lightning.
Julien wasn't. He flew with all the speed befitting mid-level Ring Binding, and still he was not lightning.
Chris, meanwhile, was falling fast along a diagonal, holding the Motaro out where it could not be missed.
Julien ground his teeth. The bolt was coming down faster than he could snatch the bottle. He had no choice. He threw himself into its path.
The instant the lightning struck him, Julien roared.
"This isn't over!"
Chris landed at once and ran like a madman. Blood streamed between his gasping lips. The mana bombs had wounded him badly, and he had spent what strength he had left on a dead sprint before he could tend a single injury.
He had barely caught his breath and started to treat himself when fire arrows came whistling in. He flung himself flat and rolled.
The arrows struck the ground and burst. A spark leapt and landed on his calf. He rolled and rolled until the distance opened, then got to his feet.
Overhead came the same sick feeling that had risen when the mana bombs formed. He looked up. A mass of fire was taking shape. It swelled, then poured down in a waterfall of flame.
However tremendous a rain of fire might be, it meant nothing if it missed. He had sensed it early, and he slipped aside with relative ease. That was not the end of it. A lion and a tiger wrought of flame came charging.
Chris drove off the ground, leapt, and vaulted the tiger in the lead. As he did, he thrust out a hand. Wind spun in his palm and edged itself into a blade. The moment he cleared the tiger, the fire lion lunged. He jammed the wind blade into its mouth and set it off.
The lion endured the shock from within and still crashed over him. Chris hammered its jaw with his fist.
The blow burst the fire lion's head apart. In exchange, Chris's hand was burned. He landed and chanted, and the trees around him shuddered. Branches tore free of their trunks and shot like arrows—in every direction.
The fire tiger he had vaulted ran a good distance, then wheeled and came back to take him from behind.
A mass of water formed at Chris's back and moved to stop it. Or tried to. The fire tiger burst straight through the water.
Water and fire oppose each other. Fire ought to die when it meets water, but this time the old rule failed, because the enemy's fire magic outstripped Chris's water. Even so, forcing its way through cost the beast a great deal of force and heat.
Chris didn't turn. He raised a barrier along his back and simply took the hit.
The fire tiger's forepaw smashed into the barrier. Chris used the impact to hurl himself forward.
The branch-arrows strewn in every direction shattered the attacker's concealment. Randal had no choice but to drop his stealth and rise.
From the first glimpse of the assailant's flame magic, Chris had suspected who it was.
"Randal!"
He shouted the name and charged.