Lindon turned to face the attack he knew was coming, but Reigan Shen didn’t bother. He waved a hand, and a gold portal the size of his head tore open.
A red lion erupted from the portal. A spirit Forged of blood madra, launched from some kind of weapon. Lindon kept the Hollow Domain up as the technique plunged into it, and Lindon put all his power into a soulfire-infused Empty Palm.
A huge palm imprint smashed into the lion, which dissolved…but not before it landed a slash on Lindon’s chest.
Three claw-marks tore across Lindon’s ribs, and he choked back the burning pain as the Forger technique dissipated.
Reigan Shen stood against the wall with folded arms.
Two more portals had appeared in the air around him.
Lindon dropped the Hollow Domain to sweep black dragon’s breath at the Monarch, but a silver shield materialized in front of him. He didn’t even look.
Dross, what can you tell me? Lindon shouted in his mind.
[Dross, reporting for duty!]
Without manifesting in reality, Dross still popped up in Lindon’s vision. He was plumper, somehow cheerier and brighter, with a larger eye and an innocent smile that reminded Lindon of Mercy. [Whatever I can do for you, Lindon!]
Can you give me a combat report on Reigan Shen?
[Hmmm…not quite, but I can give you my best guess!]
Then keep trying!
[But…but I became the helpful version of me!] Dross sounded hurt. [What else could I try?]
How about the deadly version? Lindon suggested, but he couldn’t spare Dross any more attention.
From another portal came a series of spheres the size of a human head, each shining a different color and radiating aura. They were natural treasures, sealed in globes, and they flew to scatter all over the room.
Reigan Shen was preparing for a Ruler technique, but Lindon couldn’t deal with that yet, because another blood-lion had leaped out of the original portal. Lindon drove black dragon’s breath at it, but the technique was at least as powerful as he was; it crashed through his beam, opposing his will with its own.
He had to let the dragon’s breath drop and try something else. Without Dross’ active attention, it was harder, but he wove threads of pure madra and Blackflame madra together.
Then he reached into the lion, sensed its structure, and dismantled it from the inside.
His spirit burned as he tried it, and it took a little too long, but it worked. The Forger technique fell to chunks of quickly dissolving madra.
Lindon switched back to his pure core and released the Hollow Domain as chains of life madra shot out from the third portal. They looked like shining lime-green roots, but they were unable to break through the Domain.
Reigan Shen was pacing around the fight and back to his chair. “That is how Ozmanthus Arelius dismantled techniques. Not bad. He elaborated on that in his inheritance.”
The Monarch reached out, and though his madra had no aspects of destruction or cleansing, his technique was swifter and more practiced than Lindon’s.
The Hollow Domain fell apart.
Tendrils of life madra crashed down on Lindon, writhing around him, and he screamed in blinding pain as they tore at his lifeline. The Empty Palm burst one in half, then he switched to Blackflame to tear the others apart with dragon’s breath.
As soon as Lindon could breathe again, he tore his void key open.
The key snapped.
The void space still opened, but it would remain hanging there in midair until it eventually faded closed. But Lindon couldn’t worry about closing it. He reached inside, now that there was actual aura to work with, and summoned Wavedancer.
It shot out on flows of aura, and Reigan Shen watched it with amusement over the rim of a goblet he’d refilled.
“What a coincidence,” he said.
A flying sword of his own emerged from nowhere. Lindon didn’t see the portal it had come from. Or had the Monarch kept it in his soulspace?
This one was carved like a dancing flame, and it carried a sense of power and presence no less than Midnight’s.
Wavedancer clashed against it and was struck down, but Lindon called Midnight with wind aura. The trident flew into his hand, and he hurled it at Reigan Shen.
A portal opened up and swallowed the weapon.
“It is only right to return stolen belongings,” Shen said. “I appreciate that you’ve taken good care of it.”
At the far end of the chamber, one of the already-existing golden portals had expanded into a larger form. Lindon was terrified that Tiberian Arelius’ Remnant would emerge, but his earlier theory must have been right: Reigan Shen couldn’t summon it since Lindon had broken the portal.
That, or he didn’t want to waste energy from a Monarch’s Remnant on one Overlord.
A black-armored leg thicker than Lindon’s body emerged from the giant portal, and the aura in the room trembled. Lindon realized that he was about to meet the reason why Reigan Shen had scattered natural treasures everywhere.
Shen pointed to it. “This construct does carry a suite of powerful Ruler techniques, but that’s not the only reason I brought out the natural treasures. No, I simply prefer the light.”
Lindon began drawing in aura of fire and destruction while he Forged Blackflame madra around his left hand.
“You know, this labyrinth should be the perfect environment for you,” Reigan Shen called. “I have a bit of a connection to the Void Icon myself. Not enough to call myself a Void Sage, you understand, and I was a Herald first anyway.”
The armored figure emerged from the giant portal, and Lindon had finally condensed The Dragon Descends around his hand. Claws of red-and-black madra swirled with aura, a miniature version of the Void Dragon’s Dance, and it resonated with Lindon’s authority. Even in his senses as a Sage, this attack was powerful.
He dashed forward with the Burning Cloak, clashing against the armored construct’s fist as it emerged.
Madra detonated, flames sweeping away warped white flesh. The construct stumbled back, missing a hand, but it hadn’t been defeated. Chains of wind aura grabbed at him, and light aura blinded his eyes.
But the last he saw, it was halfway inside the portal.
“Close!” Lindon shouted, and he felt the surrounding aura release.
He fell to the ground, and had to roll out of the way before the smoking front half of the construct landed on him. It had been sliced in half.
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t use expensive weapons in battle unless absolutely necessary,” Reigan Shen noted. “I have a dozen of those.”
Two more portals bloomed to either side of Lindon. These weren’t Monarch attacks, like Lindon had experienced before, but they were roughly Archlord level.
Lightning blasted at Lindon from one portal as fingers of acidic liquid reached for him from the other.
From the space of his void key, Lindon summoned a shield to block the lightning. For the liquid, he met it with an Empty Palm.
“As I said, this should be the perfect place for you,” the Monarch went on. “Your home turf, as they say. Your den. It’s full of hunger, and you’re not hungry enough.”
Lindon called bombs; explosive single-use constructs he’d created months before. Shining orange-and-red orbs flew at Reigan Shen.
He lifted his chin, and a bright golden marble flew from a pouch at his side. It detonated when it hit Lindon’s bombs, wiping all of Lindon’s constructs away in an instant.