Ruinous Return

"No, you did."

Gael shook his head and cradled his sibling, "You warned us, and we didn\'t listen."

Lyn put her hand on his shoulder, the relief she felt turning to concern for Gael\'s mental wellbeing. She knew how difficult it was to see an ally felled. Thankfully, they would avoid the devestation of Vael\'s death. "I should have explained the various threats that we could have encountered. That\'s my bad."

"It\'s…it\'s okay. I forgive you."

Lyn felt her Destroyer core bubbling as the mana continued to fill her up inside, slowly recharging. "I wasn\'t asking for your forgiveness. I did warn you." Lyn cupped his chin and pulled his gaze up to meet hers. "I care for you two. As allies. As lovers…But do not mistake that for affection." I don\'t think I could ever fall in love with someone, she thought. She didn\'t want that level of connection. Especially now that she knew, if she stayed alive, she was practically immortal thanks to the internal regeneration spell. The idea of outliving a beloved companion was something she didn\'t know if she could come back from – even with the Destroyer core inuring her to the bad memories that were now even more isolated from her conscious thoughts.

Vael breathed smoothly but was not waking. Lyn stood up and looked down the hallway. "This was the last trial," she stated. "Come on, pick her up. We\'re finishing this and leaving." Gael did as he was told, and carried his sister as Lyn led the way to the altar. There were five items sitting there. Two of them were boxes that she knew contained dungeon cores. The other three were glass bottles of various sizes, with Elenthir labels. Farsight Eyedrops, which would give the user the ability to zoom in their vision up to several miles away. Faerie\'s Intuition, which would amplify her cognition and reaction speed. And lastly Crystal Marrow, which effectively hardened the bones to be as hard to break as diamonds.

She looked back at Gael, "There\'s enough here for two doses of each. I\'ll, of course, be taking all three. So, you two can argue over who gets what."

"I don\'t know what they do," Gael replied.

Lyn grabbed the items and put them into the storage choker. "I\'ll tell you later." She then went to the first chest and opened it. Lifting it, she peered into the crackling sphere. She heard words in her mind that were not hers. Those of a calm woman, speaking in Elenthir. You have bested my dungeon. I, Tenurel, Tide-Tender, give you the ability to manipulate the element of lightning. The sphere compressed and flooded into her mana channel.

It met her Destroyer core, and there was a brief – very brief – struggle between the lesser core and her more powerful one. The lightning was consumed, and she could feel the crackle of energy course through her body before settling. Pulling Cataclysm, she poured mana into it, and was pleased to see that it crackled with electricity as well as the other elementalism types she had at her disposal.

She went to the other box and opened it, lifting the deep, blue mana core. The same message replayed in her mind, but instead of lightning, it said water. The core shrunk, was absorbed, and she exhaled a burst of steam as the Destroyer core consumed that one as well. Her blade cascaded with water. Turning to Gael, she put Cataclysm away. "Ready to get out of here?" He nodded, and she put her hand onto the pedestal.

Lynhold was teeming with life. Brad was quite shocked at the change from the last time he had visited the Valley of the Volcano. A thriving town – made mostly of wood – was in the process of being erected. And there was far more being built than the scant population would suggest was required. She must be planning an expansion, Brad thought. He was escorted to the front of the fortress itself, and when he saw that enormous citadel…he was scared. The day they had snuck inside to fight the Demonic Dragon was cemented into his thoughts, and he replayed the events in his mind.

Lyn and James were at the front of the group as they probed the enormous door leading to the fortress interior. "It\'s not going to budge without noise," Lyn had whispered down the line of heroes who were all sneaking along the edge of the building.

Brad pushed his way through the line, "I\'ve got this," he whispered as he pulled several powdered herbs in vials from his belt. Muttering a series of water spells, the flasks began to hiss and bubble as the dehydrated and powdered acidic compounds were activated. He tipped the fluid from the vials onto the locks, and a gout of steam and smoke rose as they ate through the impediment.

James clapped him on the back, "Good job." He pulled out his divine blade and pushed the door open – slowly. There was a violent shrieking sound that permeated through the air around them as some type of inscription ward went off. "Fuck," James said as he stepped through and began fighting some foe in the darkness.

Brad wheeled around as the large encampment of Duskari in front of the citadel turned on the heroes. He remembered scrabbling around his clothing trying to find the right potion, in a panic, as one of the Duskari warriors descended on him. Lyn stepped in front of him and speared the man through the neck, and the blood burst out, covering Brad\'s face. She activated her artifact spear and with a single thrust blew a hole through the rushing attackers – a gust of wind with the strength of a battering ram.

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He remembered wiping the blood from his eyes and meeting the gaze of the corpse on the ground. That sight stuck with him. The empty, vacant stare. Thankfully, the whole cluster of Duskari that were present were obliterated with Lyn\'s ability; and so none of the living Duskari would know his face.

In the present he dismounted almost mechanically and followed the squad inside the building. He was led through familiar corridors, recalling the violent bloodshed as Ben took the lead with Kory right beside him. Brad remembered the elementals – raw magical energy given form and a purpose if the mana used for the spell held out.

The lightning elementals were the worst, as they dashed about almost unchecked and were impossible to track, moving at the speed of lightning. Somehow, Lyn and James were able to react in time and kill those off – but Brad remembered the pain of the electricity jolting through his body. If not for body enhancement, he would have died that day.

Then…they arrived in the throne room. The chamber was empty save for several tents that had been erected. The dais where the Demonic Dragon in its humanoid form once sat was pushed aside, a set of stairs spiraling down. But Brad was caught in the memories, reliving that day when the heroes burst into the chamber. The cackling voice of the Demonic Dragon, taunting them. The melee between him and the more martial-aligned heroes. Brad and the rest were not able to get involved due to the proximity of the fighters to each other.

And then, the transformation. None of the heroes had expected it to pull off that stunt. And the sheer power it had, almost crushing Ben with a single swipe of its massive claws, and throwing Kory across the room, shattering his spine. He remembered feeling useless. He never should have come with the party that day. He wasn\'t a fighter.

"Are you there?" someone asked him in Khrelardian.

Brad brought himself back to the present and looked down at the slightly shorter woman. She was an older Duskari, and she bowed slightly. "Good, someone who speaks a language I know."

The woman bowed, "I am Chancellor Vehenna. I serve Lady Rivers, the Destroyer."

"Do you mean Lyn?"

The woman nodded but was frowning. "I would not advise disrespecting her in that fashion."

Vehenna pointed at the emblem that Brad had interlaced into his belt loop. "You bear the mark of safe passage."

Brad nodded and grinned, "So…where is she?"

"Right here," he heard in English. Turning around, he saw a sight he was not expecting in the slightest. A Duskari woman who was shorter than him, with stark white hair and piercing blue eyes rather than the red of their race. She was dressed in the same black armor as the Demonic Dragon had been, but it accentuated her frame nicely. Next to her was a tall Duskari man, holding a female who appeared injured. She switched to Arinol and said something, and the Chancellor ran over to the woman held in the man\'s grip.

"I can help," Brad said in Khrelardian, walking over as the Chancellor peered at him with suspicion. He rummaged around in his satchel and produced a series of poultices. Pouring mana into them, they were charged with the magical power and glowed bright green. He looked at the woman claiming to be Lyn and switched to English. "May I help?"

Lyn smirked, "Go ahead."

Brad placed the poultice on the woman\'s neck, and the skin patched over. "Much faster than a lengthy verse," he stated.

The Chancellor said something in Arinol to Lyn, and she replied in kind, as the tall Duskari and the Chancellor walked away. It left Lyn alone with Brad in the throne room. Lyn gestured to a set of chairs near one of the tents and switched back to English, "Please, sit. I\'m sure we have a lot to catch up on." Brad did as instructed – quite used to following the whims of stronger women thanks to his near-enslavement by Cecily. Lyn sat opposite him and smiled. "Good thing your body enhancement for your eyes is still active." She gestured to the chamber, "They haven\'t put the lighting up yet."

Brad glanced around, "I hadn\'t noticed," he admitted. Darksight Drops. Thank God I was able to make my own. That was one of the unique capabilities of the Alchemist core. He could make the best body enhancement substances. He noted that Lyn\'s skin had the geometric pattern and coloration of several body enhancements – and they were excellent quality. As good as something he could produce. "So…you\'re really Lyn?"

Lyn nodded, "Yup. It\'s been ten years. Crazy, right?" She pointed at the symbol on his belt, "And I assume you read the letter?"

"Yes. Am I the first one to arrive?"

"Since Volio left to deliver the letters? Yeah. Thomas was here briefly, but he ran off due to a misunderstanding." Lyn\'s armor shifted and warped, revealing more of her skin. She leaned back in the chair and kicked her legs up on a nearby table, "What have you been up to?"

"I…I tried to start up a business. It got me kicked out of two kingdoms. I set up in Shereld, but then Cecily took over." He took a deep breath. "She…did things to me." Lyn\'s face was unreadable, so he shrugged and continued, "She fucked with my mind. But eventually I got enough of her trust that she didn\'t feel the need to use those spells anymore. And then Volio showed up and broke me out."

"He did?" Lyn asked with genuine surprise. "I wouldn\'t expect him to do something like that."

"Right? Anyways. I\'m here because…if you\'re really Lyn…then you need all the help you can get." He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "Cecily has been getting stronger. For years. She\'s doing that thing we were told never to do."

Lyn\'s eyes narrowed, "She\'s harvesting mana cores?" Brad nodded. "What method? Torture?"

"Yeah. Fucked up stuff. It makes what she did to me tame in comparison." He shook his head, "She\'s incredibly strong. And you\'re probably one of the only people who can protect me from her. James could probably protect me as well, but he hates my guts. The same with Misty."

"In other words," Lyn replied, "You ran out of options of people to hide behind."

Brad chuckled and nodded, "What can I say? I\'m a coward. I don\'t like fighting. I just want to help people now."

"Help them get high?"

Brad shook his head, "No. I went cold turkey and got clean from everything. Now I\'m in the pharmaceutical industry." He stood up, reached into his satchel, and pulled out several bottles full of pills that he had been developing for Cecily. "That bitch had me working on combat stimulants that were non-addictive and with limited side effects. I was also creating antibiotics, cancer medicine…pretty much anything you can think of."

Lyn stood up and grabbed one of the bottles, examining it. She glanced sidelong at him and grinned devilishly, "You want a job?" Brad nodded and she handed him the bottle. "Then let\'s make a deal. I will protect you. You want apprentices? I\'ll find some for you. You want raw materials? I\'ll get them for you."

"And what\'s the catch?" Brad asked as he palmed the pill bottle.

"You\'re going to start up this pharmaceutical industry in my new empire."

Brad grinned and felt an emotion he hadn\'t experienced since his prison break. A feeling of hope and renewed purpose. "As long as you\'re okay with me making a few intoxicants with no side-effects. You know, just something to help take the edge off."

Lyn nodded, "That seems fine. As long as it won\'t cause something like the opioid crisis back on Earth. And…as long as it won\'t cause issues. You know, lung cancer and that type of shit."

Brad nodded, "I won\'t do that to your people."

"Our people. You\'re part of this now." Lyn held out her hand, and Brad shook it. "Let\'s get started."

"With pleasure." Brad heaved a sigh of relief internally. Finally…I\'m safe.