Chapter 19 - Ruko

As the next bulwark broke the puppets began swarming down the mountain. Each one was minuscule, but within their tiny frames held at least the power of a Saint. They worked in unison despite their differing forms as they guarded and were ordered by the child in the middle of their mass. At the center, around the child sat four wolf shaped puppets carved as if from flames themselves. Each of the wolves lead a quarter of the puppets into action, guiding them at the will of their master to cause most harm to the enemy. On one side there was a swarm of small knights bouncing around and hamstringing every person they passed. Their toothpick-length blades were quick to enter and exit any opponent’s skin, however their ability to cause any lethal damage was far lower than many of their counterparts. As such they were only used to corral and cripple the opponents they came across. The second set of puppets stood behind the first as a bulwark. They were not as uniform a set as the horde of knights, with some as turtles, some as footsoldiers, and even several as living shields, but their defense was uniform and unparalleled. Each time the puppet soldiers would swarm out and do as much damage as they could, cutting and slicing at the flesh and muscles of their enemies, before retreating back into the guard of the shield puppets.

The third set of puppets only stepped up once either the soldiers or the shield puppets took damage. They took the forms of unicorns, phoenixes or sages with intricately carved staves. When the physical forms of the puppets took damage, the third group would channel the mana that was stored within them to restore the forms of their companions to a peak state, allowing them to continue fighting. As they were situated behind the shield puppets their only weakness was the finite amount of mana restored within them. The final set of puppets stood in the rear of the group. As varied as the shield and support puppets, they came in forms of snakes, scorpions, and archers, who would release waves of high powered mana beams as soon as a person was crippled or distracted by a soldier puppet. Within seconds of assault from these artillery puppets a person would resemble swiss cheese, their vital fluids leaking out into the quickly dampening mire of blood, tears and death that now made up the plains below Misty Peaks.

Ruko smiled. Fen had done hard work to make the puppets, but he never had the capability to control them. It was within his wheelhouse, but she was so much better at it than him. In essence, he was the hand, while she was the fist.

They had both been taught by Laurence, but Ruko had taken an entirely different view on the man's teaching to her brother. Where he saw objects for creation she saw forms to be controlled. It was a stark difference to be sure, but came from a very slight disagreement in their outlooks on life. Fen saw people and things as something he should be allowed and able to change, while Ruko saw everything as something that should change for her.

Because of this distinction, Ruko became incredibly talented at controlling the puppets that Fen made for her. She was more tactically minded and it showed as she butchered her way through the heart of the army of the thousand sects. She was an unstoppable force as she killed her way out and then curved her way back towards the twin mountains that housed Fen's new friend. Bodies fell as she moved and her puppets killed. Again and again the soldiers would rush out, before retreating behind the shields and restoring themselves while their victims were peppered by the artillery puppets. A cycle was formed, one propagated by Ruko’s, and by extension Fen's, mana reservoir.

She returned to the mountain and began walking back to the young woman who had become Fen's friend. As she approached Dreamer the woman gave her an odd look.

“Do you want them to hurt more?” Ruko asked the still angry woman.

“Of course, but the curse of the Hephaistians is coming out in me. You've made me curious, Fen. How did you get so strong at such a young age?”

“I'm not Fen, my name is Ruko. I'm his sister!”

“Sister?” Dreamer replied, slightly slack jawed. “You're Fen, and as far as I could tell, Fen was a boy”.

“Fen's in here right now,” Ruko said, pointing at her heart. “He'll be out once I'm done making the baddies pay for making you sad. My brother is too kind, so I have to make sure he isn’t bullied sometimes and that includes protecting his friends”.

“I... you’ve managed to thoroughly confuse me”.

“I know,” Ruko replied, smiling at Dreamer . “I’m strong because my Book is for using the things that Fen makes, and Fen is really good at making things!”

“You really like him don’t you?”

“He’s my brother!” Ruko waved her hands about before pointing back at the swarm below. “I should do some more to them. They haven’t stopped coming”. As she watched the soldiers come closer, the Hephaistian response was stark. A group of people walked out from the foot of the mountain as the foreign army approached once more. Lead by a man with auburn hair and a pale complexion, they were fearless as the wave approached them. In unison, the group threw small red projectiles at the quickly incoming waves of power. The projectiles burst against the incoming magic and a pale white powder spread out from the impact point. The auburn haired man raised his hand and a gust of wind sprung from within his palm, collecting the powder and forcing itself towards the approaching enemies. The powder was pushed away by the initial force of the strike, but the gust of wind forced it back into the energy and as the two collided the attacks from the army of the thousand sects seemed to halt in midair. There was a tinkling sound akin to marbles dropping on a glass table and the intangible streams of energy began turning into crystals. The crystalline structure quickly grew as if it was the roots of a tree, spreading and sucking through aquifers deep in the ground, before reaching the origin of the spells thrown. As the rainbow coloured glass returned to its source the spellcasters cried out. Their bodies started locking in place and within a single minute the cries they had been releasing so fervently died in their throats. As their skin began cracking and becoming as much a glass existence as their spells, the only marker of how they were feeling was the terror permanently affixed on their faces.

In an instant hundreds of young men and women became glass. The group who followed the pale faced god of death were obviously unprepared for the damage they had caused, as the majority recoiled the moment they saw the glass people form. Several began visibly retching, a few cried, but most swallowed their horror and prepared to continue moving.

Ruko watched on impassively as Dreamer stood beside her. She could see Dreamer crying much like those people below. She was silent for a while as she watched the poison spread like a virus through the opposing army. With each life the powder took, the crystallisation process became slower and more agonising, but also easier to resist. Finally after it had spread through a tenth of the men below it seemed to waste away completely and she watched the small group who had caused the terror walk through the sea of glass, shattering the bodies as they walked.

“This is horrible...” Dreamer whispered. “Why do people do this?”

“Peter’s doing this to bring his wife back to life”.

“What?”

“Master thinks I don’t listen, but it’s not true. Fen doesn’t understand but I do”.

“I don’t...”

“The man leading them is Peter,” Ruko said. “His wife is dead, like my Master”.

“But that’ still doesn’t make sense. Why will this bring his wife back?” Dreamer wiped her face with the tatters of her sleeve. “How will causing so much pain to people bring her back?”

“It’s why we’re on a journey. These people don’t matter to him. Only the ending does, where his wife comes back to life”.

“But they have just as much a right to life as him, or his wife. Why does he get to choose who lives and who dies?”

“Because he’s an Immortal. And they’re the baddies. If the baddies weren’t here then they would be okay, and if we weren’t here then you wouldn’t be okay”.

Dreamer sighed, “So it’s just us, or them? Is that it?”

Ruko shrugged, “I guess so”. Both of them went silent and just watched the glass army shatter, the glass the only sound they could hear. Until the siren began ringing a second time.

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