Lucian fell from the sky like a bloody comet, and as he did, the blade absorbed souls all along the way, devouring the lesser ones as best it could. There would be no survivors in the meatgrinder that the building had become, and through the archmage and whoever else had occupied the eighth floor might have been forewarned and escaped via magical means, everyone else was being fed to it as they were shredded.

-22 Life Force. +49 Human Souls.

Its wielder wasn't in the best shape either, though. Even if the wounds had mostly healed up as they'd been inflicted, some of the razor shards remained embedded in him, and as he fell, he bled. The last time he'd fallen from a great height, the blade had taken care to make him land on his feet, but this time, it did no such thing. The last thing it wanted was for any of its wielder's largest bones to break on impact. A femur or a hip could take the better part of a minute to heal, and they certainly didn't have that.

-61 Life Force. +11 Human Souls.

This time, Lucian hit the ground chest first, bouncing like a rag doll. The impact cracked half a dozen ribs and broke two. His head even bounced off the ground so hard that it gave him a concussion at the same time that the earth flattened Lucian's nose.

Still, because the blade kept him limp, his neck did not break, and neither did any of his limbs, and flattened against the earth was a good place to be for the next few seconds, because the shards that were the Lucent Shard reached the ground, they sprayed everywhere, like an explosion. The blade watched the devastation as they shredded out buildings, trees, animals, and anything else that dared to stand nearby, destroying them completely.

-45 Life Force.

The only exception was the woman. None of the waves of crystalline death, no matter how large or quick moving, reached her. Instead, they froze in midair, not so far from her, before coming to a halt and falling to the ground. The blade didn't know if that was part of her terrible song or some other magical effect, but its vision didn't show any other spells. There was only her glowing font of power, the wreckage of the world around her, and a single line of power that connected her to somewhere distant in the sky, like a frozen lightning bolt.

Lucian lay there in great pain. He might have lain there forever if the Ebon Blade allowed it. His mind was still reeling from what he'd endured, but the Ebon Blade forced him to his feet just the same. When he did so, the blade reached down to pull the largest shards out of its wielder's flesh to staunch the bleeding.

-37 Life Force.

None of that stopped the singing, though. It was louder than ever now, and as the blade started to walk toward the source, it felt like it was forcing Lucian to walk through a churning tide; progress became slower and slower as they closed to within fifty feet of her.

The high-pitched singing damaged its wielder's flesh almost as much as fire might have as well, making him heal almost as slowly as he moved. Then, all at once, it stopped, as she regarded him in the utterly eerie silence. The blade considered leaping toward her in that instant, but decided it would be best to play for time and get its wielder somewhat closer to whole. As it was now, the boy could barely stand under his own power.

-31 Life Force.

Say something, it whispered in his ear when he just stood there. Buy us time to heal before we strike her down.

The boy did as bid and said, "We… I don't want any trouble, Miss..."

"As if you'd have a say in the matter," she answered haughtily. Then, as she registered that he actually heard her, she did a double-take and asked, "Wait, how is it you can still hear me after listening to my song?"

"You're a Goddess, aren't you?" Lucian answered, ignoring the question. Its wielder didn't know which one, and if she was a major or a minor one, but there was something powerful about her mere presence that made him afraid. The blade saw it too, in the power she contained, but it felt no fear at the realization; this was not a goddess, it was only a servant of one.

"I serve the beneficent and illustrious Lady of Light, Lusitiverie," she answered, making a small gesture of submission to the skies.

"But that's the Goddess of Love," Lucian answered, confused. "Why not send the Lord of War against the blade instead of a woman?"

"That oaf has no desire to stop the blade, and my lady is capable of a great many things where hearts are too hard to love," she spat. "Instead, he watches and enjoys the show, leaving the work to me, as if I were made for such things."

"I don't want to hurt you," Lucian said next, trying and failing to back away as the blade tightened its grip on him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

While that was true, it would have been much truer that he didn't want to be hurt. His fragile, mortal body had just been through two deadly experiences, and he hadn't even finished healing from either. The last thing he wanted was to face someone who glowed with power. Unfortunately, the blade wasn't about to give him a choice in the matter.

"Hurt me?" she laughed. It was a beautiful tinkling sound that even the blade found pleasing, and didn't care at all about such things. "The throne beseeched me, and offered tributes and blandishments that I could hardly resist, so I decided to send an avatar to deal with you."

"I… I mean the blades' quarrel is not with the gods, despite your efforts so far," Lucian said at the Ebon Blade's prompting. "Do not change that."

"You think just because a few gods tried and failed to smite you, you can dictate terms to me?" she asked with a tone that was equal parts seduction and threat. "They might have done little more than destroy the world around you, but I could chain your mind with a few words or unmake you with a song. You are less than nothing to me."

-27 Life Force.

You can try, the blade whispered to itself as it regarded the woman as a normal man might regard a snake. While infinitely more dangerous than a mage, or even an arch mage, it was more the uncertainty about what she could do than her raw power that concerned it. The weapon could see threads of power bundled tightly as they climbed toward the sky and disappeared. The woman before them was not a Goddess; she was merely an avatar for one. She was a puppet on strings, but what strings those were.

There was a long silence then as the two of them regarded each other. "Now come to me, young man," she said in a voice that dripped with desire. "Come to me. Lay that blade at my feet, and I will give you the eternal reward that an ally deserves instead of the torments that await my enemies."

-21 Life Force.

While the Centered power it had received from the Path of Vengeance prevented whatever seductive magic she was using on Lucian from taking hold, it almost did anyway; it was that strong. She wasn't just using magic to force him to obey; she was using it to make herself so beautiful and desirable that he wanted to obey her. He might have done exactly as she asked if the blade hadn't held him tight and forced him not to, at least at first.

When she tried the second time, beseeching him with even more compliments, he howled mentally at the blade. Let me go to her. She'll help us!

The weapon didn't let him walk toward her because it believed that for a second. It did it because it wanted to get into striking range. Lucian was forced to drag his feet as he got within forty feet of her, then twenty. Then, she commanded him to stop.

"That's close enough," she purred. "Show me your obedience… lay down your weapon, and I will give you your reward."

-18 Life Force.

Lucian bent to obey, but then, as the weapon touched the dark earth, he sprang forward like a coiled spring, launching himself at the Avatar, giving her only a second to react. Unfortunately, a second was enough, as she opened her mouth again, her deadly song poured out of it, halting the blade's advance as sure as its wielder's less than a foot from her face.

The two of them poured everything they had into pressing forward. Lucian struck with every ounce of his being, using abilities like Amplify Blade in the process. The Ebon Blade even used Bolt, but it was for nothing. The magic of her melody shielded her from lightning strikes as surely as blades, and the sonic shield that surrounded her pushed the two of them back, an inch at a time.

-50 Life Force.

They struggled against it, but as they did so, it took a terrible toll on its wielder. Lucian's skin began to abrade away as blood poured from his ears and nostrils. His left eye burst like a grape from the strain, and his liver ruptured. It was a wall of sound, and it was destroying him.

-166 Life Force.

That was when the blade decided to use another one of its powers for the first time. Up until now, it had considered Eye for an Eye to be too dishonorable to consider. Wounds should be struck, not reflected, but there was no honor to be had in this fight, no matter how it was fought. Lusitiverie's Avatar simply refused to get her hands dirty, and that would cost her.

-135 Life Force.

In an instant, she took half of the damage she was inflicting on its wielder. Compared to the powers she had, that was very little. It was almost a slap in the face, but the very fact that the weapon had managed to touch her and mar her perfect face was enough to interrupt her song for an instant, and that was all it took. In that single moment, as she looked scandalized and recoiled in pain, it pierced the wall, embedding four feet of steel in her generous bosom, and ruining her silken gown with gouts of blood.

-92 Life Force. +46 Life Force.

"M-monster…" she gasped as it drank greedily of her Life Force. "Y-you'll pay for this…"

Lucian said nothing. He probably couldn't even hear her; his brain was too damaged by the intensity of the sound waves to do much thinking right now. The blade, on the other hand, heard her but ignored her statement. Instead, it tried to devour her soul.

Up until this point, every priest it had killed managed to escape its clutches. It didn't know how exactly, but this represented a piece of the Goddess, and it engaged in a frantic tug of war with the heavens above. It was a bitter struggle that made the dying woman's body tremble and seized as it pinned her pierced body to the earth and refused to let go.

+41 Life Force.

In the end, when the blade felt itself losing its grip against the divine, it used Disrupt to break the Goddess' grip for a moment. Doing so mangled the soul to the point of uselessness, but even as it did so, the blade devoured it. It had wanted to learn from the Avatar, but it would gladly destroy it if that was the only option.

That was all it took. As soon as the blade snuffed out that divine-tinged soul, the braids of light that stretched to the heavens vanished. It was over. It had silenced the foul singer forever.

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