Shadow of the Conqueror Page 6

  “This is how I can survive the fall!” Daylen said. But he had to do it just before hitting the ground.

  Daylen straightening his body, reducing his drag and increasing his speed dramatically.

  Now he would complete the fall much faster, easily by half.

  Daylen steeled himself and let gravity do its work.

  Hours later—Daylen didn’t know exactly how long—the ground finally came close.

  Having fallen past the clouds, he was now under their cover and found himself amidst a slight drizzle.

  With his new plan, Daylen had let himself overshoot the edge of the continent by a large degree. Beneath him, uncultivated fields of grass and trees stretched out as far as he could see in all directions.

  So to do the trick that brought me to a near stop, I need to return my mass to normal, or make myself lighter, and then increase it again just before I hit the ground.

  Daylen reversed the bond and reduced his mass. He was suddenly given a huge burst of speed. The wind resistance hit him like a wall, so much so that he was sent into a flailing spin before he leveled out to the gentle drift he had intended.

  Hitting that wind resistance had not been pleasant. It had blackened hurt, like his whole body had been slapped, not to mention the stomach-churning spin it had induced.

  Daylen rubbed the side of his smarting face. “So if I’m already moving, increasing my mass will slow me, and decreasing it will accelerate me…and I hit the wind resistance like running headlong into a wall. Altering my mass while not moving should do nothing. All good to know.”

  Daylen stretched out his arms and legs to let the wind slow him.

  He eventually leveled out, gently drifting through the air.

  The ground was very close now and seemed to approach faster as he fell—not that the speed of his descent was changing, but now that he was closer, Daylen could determine with more accuracy his speed, and he was falling far more quickly than was safe.

  Taking a breath, Daylen braced himself, watching the ground race toward him. He had to switch his mass right before hitting.

  Closer and closer he came, like a picture constantly increasing in size—and then just before hitting, Daylen switched his bond, increasing his mass instead of decreasing it. It was like he came to an instant stop about two meters from the ground. His jacket whipped down, but he felt no whiplash on his body. A fraction of a second later, he began to fall again from a velocity of nearly zero. He landed on all fours with a heavy thud, his hands and feet sinking ten centimeters into the ground.

  He had survived the fall…

  That’s just. . . Wonderful. Daylen thought with agonizing sarcasm.

  Daylen stood and released his bond of light, which returned his weight to normal.

  He felt no increase or decrease in his velocity, for he wasn’t moving. The inertia of his magical mass and his regular were again in sync.

  Daylen had achieved something rather impressive: he had beaten gravity. He had fallen the whole height of the world and landed unassisted. No, that wasn’t true; he’d had a great amount of assistance. Supernatural assistance from magical powers.

  Daylen looked to his hand. It was smeared with dirt, but youthful and strong.

  He gazed about. He had landed in the middle of some uncultivated grassy field, patches of small shrubbery poking up everywhere and trees spotting the rolling landscape. The cloud cover moved under the sun, periodically casting shadows which sent chills through Daylen’s body. That his clothes were damp from falling through that drizzle didn’t help.

  Daylen wanted to see his reflection.

  He had seen a lake from above that shouldn’t be too far from where he had landed so he began walking in its direction.

  Once he crested the nearest hill, he saw the lake and discovered that “not too far” from above meant “a few kilometers” on the ground. Still, he made his way to it. He had to know.

  Eventually, he arrived at the lake having walked with singleness of mind. He knelt to gaze at his reflection.

  A familiar youthful face, one he had not seen in decades, stared back at him. It was his face, his real face—not the one that had been marked and soiled by age, but the one he had grown most familiar with over the length of his life, if a little bit more youthful. He looked to be in his late teens.

  Was he going crazy? If so, this was one blackened realistic delusion!

  Daylen turned and walked up a small hill to a secluded tree. He sat next to it, leaning back with a magnificent view of wild countryside before him, and there he stayed in silence for a long time.

  By the position of the Plummet, it was now several hours to the time Daylen had fallen from the edge last fall. His own fall had ended up being much quicker thanks to him increasing his mass, with his walk and reflection making up the rest. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel tired even though he hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours. But his mind didn’t dwell on that. Apparently Daylen had the powers of an Archknight, and he was young again.

  “So now what?” Daylen said softly.

  He had only chosen to end his life because he had been falls away from dying anyway. He had no such excuse anymore. Another whole lifetime loomed before him, and it was almost too much to bear. Wasn’t twenty years of exile, misery, and regret enough? Even though he felt more depressed than he ever had, his mind still ran the numbers.

  He looked to be around seventeen years old. If he was going to live as long as he already had, that would mean he had sixty-five years of life looming before him.

  Daylen cradled his head in his hand with the thought. “Oh, Light!” It was a sixty-five-year sentence of misery.

  And what should he do with that time? Live in exile like he had before, helping people where he could with his natural skills, and letting his guilt eat away at his soul?

  Daylen raised a hand before his eyes and gazed at it.

  He had some new skills now, possessed far more than a natural inclination for tinkering and mechanics. He had power.

  Such a dangerous thing for someone like him, but the Light would not have given him these abilities if it didn’t expect him to use them…

  A tiny glimmer of hope sparked in Daylen’s heart and, even though it was small, his heart had been devoid of light and hope for so long that the feeling nearly made his chest burst.

  Tears came to his eyes.

  Maybe he had been given a chance to do some true good in the world. How poetic would it be if that good was achieved by destroying darkness of the very like he had spread throughout his life?

  A purpose was kindled in Daylen’s heart, and it slowly grew into a fire.

  “No!” Daylen said, jumping to his feet and beginning to pace. “I’ve been down this path before. Last time I set out to make the world a better place, I enslaved it!”

  Daylen walked back and forth battling with himself before finally stopping. “Then maybe just don’t aim so high. Don’t lead people. Just remain one man, helping one person at a time and fighting back darkness where I find it.”

  “I…I could do that and not fall back into darkness, couldn’t I?”

  Daylen looked to the sun, shading his eyes with a hand from the ever-present Light of the world shining beyond the universe.

  That purpose within him burned once more. “If this is what you want of me, very well. I’ll live out this life as you would have it… I just hope I’m up to the task.”

  He had a lot of work ahead of him—a whole lifetime’s worth, in fact, and one of the first things to choose was where to start. Hunt down the pirates from the Floating Isles? Fight the crime syndicates? End the human sex trade? After all, who better to hunt out the evil of the world than the vilest man who’d ever lived?

  And then of course there was the Shade. Sure, the knights focused on those monsters, but they wouldn’t object to some help. Light, Daylen might even join the knights…eventually.

  Yes, he did indeed have a lot of work ahead of him.

  And sur
prisingly, Daylen looked forward to it.

  Chapter Four

  In Darkness, Lesser Shade are five times stronger and faster than any man; they can fly and see perfectly.

  Greater Shade possess the power known as lightblaring, which grants them unique corrupt powers, such as killing plants by mere proximity, controlling dead flesh, taking hold of things and moving them at a distance, hearing others’ thoughts, and sending horrifying images directly into others’ minds. But being told of something is far different from experiencing it firsthand. I could never communicate accurately the Shade’s relentless ferocity, their lack of mercy, and their terrifying hunger for destruction.

  * * *

  Daylen had a new life before him, and a chance to make some form of reparation for his countless crimes, but that was going to attract attention, especially with his powers.

  If anyone started digging, they would find out whoever he claimed to be didn’t exist on any nation’s records, which were all detailed and extensive due to the Shade. Regular people turned into Shade and, by tracking births, deaths, and the population through annual census, something Daylen had pushed himself as a high priority when in power, the nations of the world could get a close approximation to the number people who had gone missing and had likely turned.

  With his renewed youth, Daylen resembled his imperial self once more. Old age had granted him the perfect disguise. That, plus the fact that he would have no recorded identity on any record, would raise some problematic questions. Light, a clever enough person might uncover his true identity. There was enough magic in the world to accept a person might regain their youth, though Daylen had never heard of such a thing. A Lightbringer could sacrifice themselves with their last miracle to bring back the dead; only a single person, true, but if that was possible, why could youth not be returned?

  So, Daylen needed to get back to his home and grab those valuables he would take with him, and then head to the capital. There, he would break into the records office and falsify a birth certificate.

  He hadn’t needed a false birth certificate while living as the old tinker, as by his age it had been clear he had survived the Fourth Night, back when the records were not as complete. But now he looked seventeen, and the records of the current falls were very precise.

  Daylen nodded to himself knowing what he had to do.

  There looked to be some type of farmstead in the far distance sitting within a valley beyond.

  He marched. Daylen expected to struggle as he walked, but his steps came more easily than he ever remembered. Yes, he had already walked over a kilometer to the lake, but he was a little too preoccupied to notice the difference. His old, feeble body was gone, replaced with this new one. He felt strong and full of energy.

  “The young have no idea what they have,” Daylen said, reveling. He ran. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done this, let alone the last time he had even been physically capable of it. It felt incredible. The wind in his face, the healthy exertion of his body. It was like he was truly alive once more.

  The burning purpose in his heart and the small joys like this pushed back the darkness somewhat, his guilt a soft weight on his heart, but ever-present.

  Daylen eventually tired after a kilometer or so. He could have run for longer, but he wasn’t exactly trying to push himself. Instead, he decided to test his powers a little while he walked.

  He could channel light into four different attributes simultaneously. It made sense that this magic was called lightbinding, for binding was the most natural way he could describe what he was doing.

  Focusing on one of those paths, or bonds, he channeled light into his speed and, having caught his breath, he ran. Wind rushed past him as if he were again riding on Paradan’s wagon. He was easily running twice as fast as he had been before.

  Stopping, Daylen looked back over the distance he had covered. “Not bad,” he said to himself, and then began to think. Increasing both my speed and reflexes will make me unstoppable with a sword.

  “So,” Daylen said, speaking to himself, the old habit strong, “four different bonds to four different physical attributes… but can I stack more than one bond to a single attribute?”

  Daylen tried to channel two bonds of light to his speed. He could feel the light passing through his body. He ran.

  Daylen shot forward at an incredible pace. In fact, this second bond seemed to have doubled the speed he had run with one. The wind stung as it blew past his face and drummed in his ears.

  Daylen tried to stop, skipping and sliding along the ground before finally coming to a standstill. He laughed in exhilaration.

  “Okay, that was two bonds. Now all four!”

  Daylen channeled his light and ran, purposely starting slow and then pushing himself faster and faster. It was incredible. The wind resistance acted on him like a weight on his chest, his clothes flapping about so violently that they felt as though they might rip free from his body.

  Each step was separated by at least twenty meters, the grass passing under him in a blur. He ran up a rise in the land and, before he realized what he had done, had launched himself into the air like he had run up a ramp. “Whoooooa!” he cried as the wind resistance took control now that he had no traction to apply a counterforce, and he went into an uncontrolled spin.

  Everything was a blur and Daylen could think of no way to correct his fall and land safely, so he pulled all his bonds off his speed and funneled the light to his mass, increasing it.

  The stationary inertia of his new mass pulled him to a standstill in the air…

  Then he fell like a brick.

  Dirt exploded around him as he landed on the ground.

  Daylen shook his head and, when the dizziness cleared, he found himself lying in a small crater.

  “What under the Light?” Daylen said, stunned at the force with which he had hit the ground.

  Daylen rolled over and placed a hand under himself, but when he shifted his weight to push himself up, his arm sank into the dirt down to his shoulder.

  “My weight!” Daylen said. “I’m using all four bonds this time. Light, I must be as heavy as a whale, which is odd because I don’t feel any heavier. Is my strength being increased to compensate for the increased mass?”

  Daylen released his bonds and pulled his arm out of the ground before he stepped out of the crater. The hole he had made was about two meters in diameter.

  He was covered in dirt, and brushing off his clothes only did so much.

  Daylen looked up and traced the path he had taken with a finger, trying to remember the height he had fallen from when his greater mass had stopped him in the air.

  “Five or six meters,” he said to himself. “From that height and the force of the impact I should have broken some bones at least, but I barely felt anything thanks to the paired augment in my body’s durability.”

  Daylen paced. “But to resist injury I could just increase my fortitude, and then I don’t have to worry about greater weight.”

  Daylen channeled light through each bond, visualizing his fortitude. The light flowed, indicating he had made working bonds. Daylen slapped himself. He felt nothing. He then pinched himself as hard as he could, trying to draw blood. He could sense the touch, but received no injury whatsoever.

  Daylen ran to a nearby tree and slammed his forearm into the trunk as hard as he could.

  It tingled slightly, but the sensation was nothing close to pain.

  “Huh!” Daylen chuckled. “I need a better gauge on what each bond does.”

  Daylen released his bonds and looked around, finding some boulders and logs nearby. Finding a large rock that he could just barely lift, he found another. Their weights were close enough to make some rough measurements. Daylen went through a process of lifting those large rocks and rock of other sizes with different levels of enhancement to his strength.

  He compared those results to the enhancement he received on different attributes.

  It turned out t
hat the first bond seemed to enhance different abilities to different levels. One bond to his strength seemed to double it, yet one bond to his eyes enhanced them far more than just double. Each consecutive bond stacked after that, regardless of the attribute, doubled whatever previous enhancement was already achieved—thus, all four bonds enhanced his strength sixteen times as much. Using all four bonds on his sight was different due to the first bond having a greater effect than the single bond on strength had. It was very surreal. With his sight fully enhanced, Daylen could see the individual cell structure of things within five meters to him. And then there was the weird shimmer around everything… It made him dizzy.

  “These powers are remarkable,” Daylen said to himself once he had finished with his tests.

  He thought of the distance he would still have to travel to the farmstead. “I think I have a solution.”

  Daylen channeled two bonds to his speed. Four was too extreme, as he didn’t want to launch himself into the air again.

  Though he covered far more distance, he still tired after the same length of time, as if he were running normally.

  Daylen stopped and rested his hands on his knees, puffing to catch his breath.

  He would need a couple of minutes to recover…or would he?

  Daylen channeled all his bonds into healing, and after a second, his energy returned in full. “Nice.”

  Daylen began running again, but this time channeled a bond to his stamina to maintain his pace for longer. It worked, and this time he didn’t seem to tire at all, even with one bond.

  He shot across the land like a darkstone-powered coach.

  The wind beat on his face, and Daylen could feel his cheeks ripple. His hair pulled behind him, as did his long coat, creating far more drag then he would have guessed.

  After several minutes Daylen felt tired; yet this wasn’t normal physical fatigue. His body felt fine, yet something felt tired—in fact it was harder to maintain the bonds he was channeling.