This time, the entrance to the catacombs was guarded. It was one of Denebriel's lieutenants. He was making sure no mortals could get beyond this point.
--
"You two go on ahead. We don't have time to waste on garbage like him. Go!"
"What did you say?!"
"Be grateful. I'm about to show you something I was saving up for later."
Starting from his sides, his arms, his legs, various thick, black tattoo lines crawled across Rayse's body and converged in the middle in perfect symmetry. Even his face was covered in the strange, almost tribal-looking marks.
--
Far behind Teric and Caden, a bright light spread throughout the halls for a moment and then disappeared, followed by a short scream that was quickly muffled out. A minute later, Rayse had caught up with the two.
--
(The room before Denebriel's is huge, and plated with a golden-looking material that's extremely strong.)
(Tyray is in the way of the trio. He immediately goes to attack Caden Law with a powerful burst of air, but Rayse grabs the wizard and makes them both burst into flames and reform a few meters away.)
"Don't get yourself killed. We might need you to save us later."
(Rayse keeps Tyray occupied while Caden/Bloodrose take the seal off the door and enter the spellchamber)
--
"Finally, we're alone," smiled Tyray, pressing down upon his cane in anticipation. "I hope for your sake that you've improved since we last met."
Slowly pulling his Damascus longsword out its sheath on his back, Rayse revealed that the entire breadth of the blade was wrapped in thick, black threads.
"I've been waiting to try this out," he mentioned casually. "You should be honored. It took all of my thread to wrap this up."
The thread was the special spidersilk that he procured from one of his allies on a job a while ago. Especially reactive to magic, it was the perfect tool in Rayse's arsenal. He snapped his fingers with his free hand to produce a flame on his right thumb, which he rubbed across the blade, setting the threads on fire. Although, it was a strange fire that immediately started burning intensely despite not reaching more than an inch beyond the blade. With both hands on the handle, he pulled the sword up above his head. Stefan Tyray remained motionless at this action. He was somewhat curious to see what the young man was up to. With a strong heave, Rayse swung downwards, stopping just short of the floor as he angled the blade towards his side so that it stopped behind him. In the arc of the slash, a flaming crescent raced towards Tyray, who disappeared and reappeared several meters away as the crescent hit the wall and exploded, spreading a cloud of smoke throughout the room that was quickly dissipated by Tyray's magic.
Denebriel's servant lambasted Rayse, "You'll need to do better than that to hit me, child."
Indeed, Tyray was a hard target to hit. He had the unique ability to manipulate the air around him, allowing him to not only move his body throughout the room in an instant but also to quench the much-needed oxygen out of Rayse's flames. Every time he dodged he created an after-image of himself that persisted for a couple seconds in the space his body occupied. However, The Contractor had no intention of losing. If he couldn't take him on from a distance, then he would have to close the gap.
Disappearing into several streams of flame, Rayse reformed behind Tyray and swung at his torso, once again producing a flaming crescent as Tyray dodged to the side using his air manipulation. As the crescent hit the wall and exploded, Stefan pointed his palm at Rayse and released a torrent of highly-pressurized air in his direction, sending the young man flying backwards in pain and slamming into the ground, knocking the sword out of his hands.
"Damn!" groaned Rayse, slowly picking himself up. "Feels like I got hit with a train on that one..."
"Of course!" Tyray raised his arms, palms pointing upward. "The unseen is my ally. I simply suck out all the air between us, then forcibly fill it back up. Causing you pain is but a trifle."
Heh, then I'm sure you actually need to see me to be able to attack me. Rayse fished into his side-pouch and pulled out a small tar-based mini-molotov. Lightning it, with his thumb, he tossed it at the ground between Tyray and himself. The black, choking smoke immediately filled the room, but Denebriel's servant didn't move an inch. He turned around and pointed his palm into the smoke. Suddenly, the smoke dispersed from around his palm and once again Rayse hit the floor violently. The rest of the smoke vanished as well.
Tyray sighed, "You probably thought I needed to see you, right? You are beginning to tire me. Where was that power I saw?"
Rayse picked himself up again, but now he had a few streams of blood dripping down his face. This wasn't going anywhere. Was this the extent of his ability with that storehouse of power? Regardless, he couldn't afford to not use it anymore. The tattoos formed all over his body once more, and his body ignited like a match, burning softly with an orange glow.
"Ah, there it is," Tyray smiled. "Now! Show me what you can do!"
"With pleasure," Rayse smiled back.
--
With one knee on the ground, Rayse struggled to get back on his feet. Finally managing to do so, he glared at Tyray relentlessly. The tattoos all over his body were starting to fade.
"You know," Rayse said between breaths. "All this toying around with me is doing you no good, old man. By now, Denebriel's powerless and getting her ancient ass kicked."
Tyray shook his head, "Is that what you think? What do you think I've been fighting you with this whole time, eh? It's The Sway! Created by Denebriel before her exile, and built up to what it is today through generations! All her lieutenants have access to its limitless potential. In fact, we're standing over the source of it right now! Under this room is an enormous cave of crystals, and some of them retained the great powers of The Tap. We used those crystals to form the channeling point for the power of the Ethereal Sway."
Rayse looked down at the ground. He was starting to notice something odd about it.
"You want to know why I didn't kill you before? I wanted you to bring someone to seal off Denebriel's connection to the Eternal Tap! While she's been missing all this time, I have been right here in Knife's Edge, honing the power of The Sway and making it my own. Now that you've sapped her of her main source of power, I am far more powerful. Once I've taken care of you, Denebriel, and your friends, I will proceed to take control of Salvar myself!"
Rayse looked at the spot where Stefan initially attacked Caden Law. There was a crack in it. None of the walls took any damage from any of the attacks, but the floor did?
"I can't believe how well this has worked! Centuries of waiting, wondering how I could possibly usurp her, and you come along and do it everything for me! It's been hard to contain myself until now! Hahahahaha!!"
Something clicked in Rayse's head, and then he turned back to Tyray and gave him one of the most confident grins of his life.
"Yes, I get it. You're some sort of super genius that's going to rule us all. That's great. Now shutup."
The tattoos disappeared fully from his body, but he caught fire again. The fire burned hotter and hotter, turning from yellow to orange to blue and finally... white. Engulfed in a semi-transparent white fire, jumped into the sky and pointed his right index finger down on Tyray.
Tyray was interrupted from his cackling by the new development, "Hahaha! Ha... Hmm, what's this? Is this a new trick? White fire? Nothing is that hot."
"Then get ready to be blown apart by nothing!" yelled Rayse, firing a concentrated stream of fire from his index finger that smacked into the ground where Tyray was standing, piercing most of the way through it and then exploding.
Tyray appeared on the other side of the room, his hand on his heart. He... he almost didn't make it in time! How did Rayse's attacks get so fast? Why couldn't he extinguish the flame before it reached him? However, Rayse wasn't interested in Tyray at the moment, as he used himself as a human cannonball to plow through what remained of the apparently thin floor to reach an enormous crystal cave below. He landed on the ground and looked around in wonder. Something like this was under Knife's Edge? Denebriel's usurper whisked himself through the hole created by Rayse and appeared some distance away from him in the cave.
"What's going on here?!" Tyray demanded.
"Oh, it's simple," Rayse replied. "I simply took what was left of my excess power and turned it into this fire. The flame that surrounds me is the last card in my deck."
Tyray was jovial again, "Hahaha! So you've given up! Once I extinguish that flame, you'll be helpless! Well, I must say it was entertaining, but I have a kingdom to conquer." With both palms pointed at Rayse, Stefan let loose one of his strongest winds yet, surrounding Rayse and piercing through his flames but not hitting him. After a few seconds of this, Tyray's mood was broken once again. "W-why? I sucked out all the air from around you! What is that flame feeding off of if not air?!"
Rayse smiled, "Simple. It's feeding off my ambition."
Tyray was flabbergasted. How could that make any sense? Whatever, it didn't have to! All he had to do was take him out and be done with it. Clearly he needed more power to douse that fire, and he had plenty of it here at the heart of The Sway. Whisking himself to a small altar surrounding by glowing crystals, he stood in the center of it and drew upon the greater powers of The Sway.
--
"Your flame is sputtering," Tyray noted confidently. "You made this quite a challenge, and for that I thank you. I bid you farewell!"
Putting his hands together, he channeled the power of the ethereal spirits into his being. Anyone who got near him for more than a second would be vaporized, but a second was all that Rayse needed. Disappearing from his spot and reappearing in front of Tyray, Rayse snapped his fingers and below him a flame moved along the ground in several lines. From dagger to dagger, these lines formed the shape of a star around the altar. When he threw those weapons earlier, he was actually forming that shape with some thin spidersilk attaching them end to end. When he said it took him all his thread to wrap up the sword, he was lying.
Suddenly, Rayse's fire turned into an enormous upward beam of light, completely covering the altar and piercing the ceiling of the cave above them. After all, the strings amplified any magic that came in contact with them and the shape allowed an upward momentum of said magic. With Rayse at the apex, this was his most powerful attack yet. For how old Tyray was, he sure was arrogant. Thousands of years without a challenge and a feeling of superiority over the world only helped to fuel his ego. His greatest mistake was not thinking that Rayse would use the same tricks he used upstairs down here. Only someone with everything handed to them would think they could win just through sheer force. That was the difference between them. It was why Rayse hated the nobles. It was why he left his noble family to build who he was from the ground up.
"Do you feel it now, Tyray?! This. Is. My. Ambition!"
Rayse, engulfed in the beam itself but able to withstand its heat, could see Tyray's form chipping away until there was nothing left. The white beam of light tore through the ceiling, interrupting the battle above by nearly incinerating Denebriel who backed off just in time. The beam continued, piercing through the roof of her spellchamber and continuing upwards, finally exiting through a street in Knife's Edge and into the sky. When the beam stopped, Rayse's white fire was gone and he was standing in a crater where the altar had been. The glowing crystals that were arranged around it were gone, and thus the influence of The Tap on this place was lost. The Sway was no more. Wiping the sweat from his face with his shirt, Rayse felt like he was just in an oven. Was he back to normal? It sure seemed like it. Before he could celebrate, however, there was one more task to be done.
--
(Caden Law, Bloodrose, Rayse vs Denebriel)
(Bloodrose's + Rayse's connection used as catalyst for a great illusion/dream spell by Denebriel that puts them in a trance)
(Rayse's dream)
(Bloodrose's dream)
(Caden Law protecting the vulnerable Rayse+Bloodrose from Denebriel's attacks)
(Rayse's dream's Bloodrose and Bloodrose's dream's Rayse make the same decisions that Rayse/Bloodrose did, so they snap out of it)
(Rayse/Bloodrose combo attack right as they awake from the trance to finish Denebriel off)
(Denebriel) "...But... How... ?"
(Rayse) "Even if you change my history, I'll still end up who I am are today. The only one who changes my destiny is me!"
(Outside)
(Teric) "It's another cold day in Knife's Edge."
(Rayse) "Yeah... too bad I can't..." Rayse couldn't believe it. He was shivering. He was feeling it! The cold! He could feel the cold again! He turned away from Bloodrose to hide the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm... home again."
(Possible party involving priceless elven drafts)