Published at 14th of April 2026 11:57 pm

Chapter 221: Eternal Optimism

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Watching Agnete work was something of a wonder for Arkk. Without even a slight incantation, a wall of flame moved forward. The dust and debris in the collapsed rooms burned away completely. Stone walls, scorched first by the explosion, blackened completely as the fire swept through. The air cleared up with the dust burned away, allowing them to see into the trapped rooms.

Arkk stood well back from Agnete and was still overheating. A spell Priscilla taught him was helping a little, but not enough. He would have to move even further back if he wanted to stick around for any length of time. Which was something he was loathe to do. If that avatar popped out of the smoke and fire and attacked, he would react much faster if he could see it up close.

As the flames continued burning, he started feeling a strange rush of air from his back. It began with nothing notable at first, but as the flames continued burning, the intensity of the air rushing past him increased. Eyes widening, he teleported both of them away. Wind control was a demonstrated power of the Eternal Empress.

Whats wrong? Agnete asked, tense as she looked around the much smaller room.

Did you not feel that air?

Agnete frowned, stretching her face enough for the molten metal in her veins to brighten the faint cracks in her skin. Was it too hot? I apologize.

No, Arkk said, focusing on the edges of the territory, searching for any sign of movement. He couldnt see too far inside. It was moving. A rush of air.

Ah. No, I dont think that is a problem. Agnete brought up a small flame in the palm of her hand. She waved her other hand over the top of it, feeling the air. I dont know the full mechanics, but hot air rises above the flame. That air has to come from somewhere. A small flame like this wont do muchit draws in air from all around, using too much space to be noticeable. But that room only has one real entrance, the one we were standing in, so all the air must come from the hall.

I havent noticed that effect before

I dont think Ive burned such a large area in such an enclosed space before, at least not with you at my side, Agnete said with a simple smile. Shall we return? If I notice anything truly wrong with the air, I will alert you immediately.

Arkk pursed his lips. In lieu of an answer, he teleported them both back to the hallway outside the formerly trapped chamber. He stood much closer to Agnete now, though he still gave her plenty of space. Hopefully, the flames starting their real burn further into the room beyond would spare him some of the heat he would no doubt be feeling.

In their absence, the flames had died out, filling the room and part of the hall with smoke. It was a bit thinner than before, at least in the hall, but still blocked out most of the room beyond. Arkk had to breathe through a damp cloth pressed up against his mouth just to avoid choking.

Agnete clapped her hands together. As she pushed outward, a gout of flame erupted, rocketing forward as if a dragon breathed. It filled the space, stretching from one crumpled wall to the other. With a wave of Agnetes hands, it began advancing through the room, burning everything away once more.

That wind started up again. Maybe he had noticed something similar happening around Agnete in the past, maybe not. Either way, he likely would have dismissed it as nothing too unusual. It was only because the avatar utilized wind that he was paying extra attention to it now.

After a short few moments, Agnete began advancing into the room. Arkk couldnt follow. The floor was glowing from the heat. Some smaller parts that stuck out, odd bits of debris and larger chunks of rock and earth, melted completely, turning into a thick liquid that flowed over the ground, almost managing to smooth it back out.

Of course, the ground itself was down a bit of a drop from the rest of this level of Fortress Al-Mir. With the clay bombs having been planted beneath a false floor, that false floor had been utterly destroyed. That alone caused a small dip, but then the bombs went ahead and blasted out a fair portion of the actual floor as well.

Agnete hopped down off the ledge, leaving his territory. He could pull her back at any moment and could see her through his employee link, but a deep disquiet filled Arkks chest as he watched her walk through the molten room that no longer counted as his territory. The very second the air turned from scalding to uncomfortable, a lesser servant would reclaim the entire place.

Perhaps sooner, if the cold spell he used on himself would work without freezing the tar-like mucous that made up servant bodies.

For now, he watched with bated breath, hoping to see that avatar once again, but this time down on the ground. The flames Agnete was using were intensely hot, but they wouldnt render a human body to ashes in an instant. It would take time. Unless, of course, that human body had been rendered little more than a pink mist sprayed across the walls and debris. That was also a possibility.

Arkk still didnt believe it. She could have escaped through some other means. Perhaps she had protected herself from the blast and used the opening it made in the ceiling to return to the surface. Arkk had the entire Cursed Forest claimed, but his omniscience wasnt complete. The avatar was replicating powers granted by other gods. If Lexa, wearing a garment from the Cloak of Shadows, could slip through his fortress in a way that Arkk could only notice through his employee link, it was entirely possible that the avatar could do so unnoticed. She already had demonstrated the ability to render her flying ships invisiblethough Arkk still believed that the demon had destroyed whatever was causing that effect, just to force them into the open and force the fight.

Arkk hoped that her being invisible wasnt the case. The avatar, from what Arkk had seen, wasnt one to trend toward subtle actions. She blasted apart walls and stalked forward on a relentless march.

Even if she was sneaking around, she wouldnt be able to progress to the Heart. Not without destroying several doors or walls, which would instantly alert Arkk to her presence.

About halfway through the destruction, Agnete paused. She crouched down, leaving the wall of flames to continue forward on its own. Arkk, she called out after a moment. You should see this.

Easier said than done, Arkk grumbled. Checking that Priscilla wasnt busy with eggs or anything else at the moment, he teleported the dragonoid to his side.

She immediately hissed, pulling back away from the heat. He watched her jaw unhinge and widen.

Arkk had barely a second to teleport away before a freezing blast of ice and cold chased after the flames in the destroyed rooms. He waited a long moment, tapping his foot on the ground with his arms crossed. Impatience egged him on, but he had to wait. Just a little longer. Priscillas wave of cold finally petered out. That was his signal to return.

Thank you, Priscilla, he said as he teleported back to her side.

What

Arkk sent her away to deal with one more egg. She was too injured to assist with this anyway. Lacking a wing and an arm, the avatar would make quick work of her.

Rather than a layer of snow and ice, the destroyed section of the fortress was simply wet. The air went from dry to humidenough so that Arkk felt like he was walking into a swamp. It was still hot. A little more ice would have cooled it down, but it wasnt blisteringly hot. He could stand walking into it.

As he moved forward, lesser servants trailed behind him, claiming the territory. None of them particularly enjoyed the heat, but they werent boiling to death either, all thanks to Priscilla.

The area immediately around Agnete was the only place still dry. Some warning would have been nice, she said as he stepped over a it of unstable ground. Part of the ceiling was now on the floor, though the jagged edges had since melted off.

If that was enough to harm you, then I have severely overestimated your abilities.

Arkk might have been more concerned, but Agnete didnt look bothered in the slightest. The rogue avatar was a far more pressing issue than a little humid air.

Down here, she said, hopping off a larger chunk of the roof. We might have a problem.

Agnete crouched down next to

A hole, Arkk said with a heavy scowl. She went underground?

Unless this hole was caused by your trap, it looks like it.

The traps were beneath the floor. The floor which has been entirely removed thanks to the explosion. Arkk hummed a moment, staring. It wasnt odd for the blast to have also traveled downward. A bit of a weaker spot of ground would have caved in. But the hole was just too there. Flood it with flames.

Agnete shook her head, peering further down. Looks like it has collapsed at some point just a few steps beyond the opening. Wouldnt have even noticed it were it not for all the molten rock falling in. Even then, might have missed it if I had allowed the rock to cool without spotting the hole.

With a quick incantation, another pair of servants appeared at Arkks side. One started eating away at the holeArkk was hoping only its entrance had collapsed, leaving a clear shot at the avatar beyond. The other started burrowing back into the room, digging deeper in a line directly between the hole and the fortress Heart.

Assuming that was still her goal, she could skirt between the layers of the fortress, only coming up when she reached the Heart.

That was not good.

Every available servant in the fortress immediately began digging straight downward in a wide arc a fair distance from the Heart, claiming territory as they went. The avatar would have to break through those vertical shafts eventually if she wanted to get to the Heart. That would provide a warning. But with her underground, he couldnt trap her path.

Damnit, Arkk hissed. He had been planning, despite the risks, to use the Maze of Infinite Paths again. If it succeeded, she would have been trapped. If it catastrophically failed, hopefully she would have been trapped in the Maze. Either way, a win for him.

Now, that solution was off the table.

Im surprised she survived, Agnete said, frowning at the hole as the servant continued eating away at the disturbed dirt, trying to follow the path of the tunnel Ill be surprised if she can breathe down there.

She can manipulate air.

Manipulation doesnt equate to creation. If she cant create more air to breathe, she will eventually run out.

That would have been a good thing, as she would have to surface in short order, but they didnt know enough about how her powers worked. For all he knew, she could create air. Or she had drawn enough down there, compressed into a little ball, to slowly siphon off as she made her way forward. It was too much to hope for the avatar to have miscalculated and wind up suffocating. She wasntcouldnt be that stupid.

The vertical shafts would act as a barrier. Once complete, he could scatter the lesser servants throughout, trying to find the tunnel or, if she was collapsing the entire thing as she went, any spots where the dirt was less compact.

A certain calm came over Arkk as he realized the full implications of what the avatar had done.

It was a good trick. He would give that. Something he could have seen himself doing. Company Al-Mir had always been more about trickery, using the right people in the right places, and obscure magics rather than blunt force. Slipping between the layers of a fortress, delving into the most critical part of it, was inspired.

If he hadnt noticedor if Agnete hadnt noticedhe might have celebrated their success a little too early, only to be caught off-guard when his Heart ended up detained right out from under his nose.

But he had noticed. He was deploying countermeasures. Arkk might not be able to lay traps in her path now, but he didnt need to.

The avatar had trapped herself. Not completely, as she was obviously moving, but underground, forced to rely on her powers to progress, she now lacked complete freedom of movement. She could dig a hole to her left, right, up, down, or wherever, but that would take time and effort, even if just a little. She wouldnt be able to use her teleport freely in a cramped space. He didnt know the exact limitations of it, but if she could teleport any reasonable distance, she surely would have popped straight into the Heart chamber.

She had trapped herself.

Finish burning away this whole place, Arkk said. There was still a slight possibility that this tunnel was either designed to mislead or was simply a coincidental accident that came as a result of the explosion. He wasnt willing to focus on it wholly until he knew that the avatar wasnt just taking a casual stroll across the surface of the Cursed Forest while hidden from view.

Arkk stepped back well away from Agnete as the intensity of the flames increased tenfold, monitoring everything. The lesser servants in the ground were safe from the flames. The other lesser servants making the shaft barrier were still working to reach the second level of the fortresshe wasnt quite sure just how deep he needed to go, but he could always dig deeper. No eggs had hit the fortress in the last few moments; maybe Sylvara and Hannah hit the whale ship or maybe it was just pausing between volleys.

There was no sign of the Empire army entering his territory. The worms may have delayed them or forced them to call off their assault entirely. Arkk would have to check in with the scrying team.

But he wasnt yet willing to leave Agnete. Not until they were certain there were no surprises here. He couldnt risk her being ambushed from behind the curtain of her own flames.

So he waited, impatient, eyes on Agnete while he waited in apprehensive dread for the inevitable tug across the link signifying some other disaster about to befall poor Fortress Al-Mir.

It never came.

The destruction of the rooms and adjacent corridors left the destroyed chunk of the fortress in a roughly oval shape. Very rough. But it made it easy to tell when they were nearing the end. The wall of flames began to shrink, narrowing down until the bulk of the far end was only about the size of a door. There were a few gaps in the oval, other rooms that had only been partially caught in the blast. Outside the doors blown off their hinges in the initial blast, none of the connecting passages had been damaged and most of those areas were still intact enough to be under Arkks control.

No doors within the connecting corridors had been breached.

The flames collapsed and Agnete turned to face Arkk. Nothing, she said. I felt nothing unusual within the flames either, so she wasnt sitting invisible in a corner of the room, bending the flames around her somehow. And you said that her teleportation produced a bright flash of light, so I doubt she teleported from one side of the flames to the other.

Good. Do you believe there is merit to scouring the surface of the Cursed Forest?

The entire forest? Agnete frowned. That would take a great deal of time, even for me. I could sweep an area the size of this chamber in half the time so long as I dont have to worry about people or burning through walls. You think the tunnel is a decoy?

No, but I like to be sure.

If it had been a decoy, it would have been more noticeable than a small depression in an already deformed room.

I could burn the surface. I doubt it would be conclusive. With the lead she would have if she were up there, catching her in flames is unlikely.

Im going to send you up there anyway, Arkk said. Alone, for now, so feel free to go all out. Sylvara and Hannah were wellaway. Neither were in their chairs anymore, nor was Who trying to adjust them. They must have succeeded. If you sense anything amiss, tug on the link and I will teleport you to safety instantly, without even checking on what is going on.

Very well, Agnete said.

With that, she was gone. Her flames would disrupt his claim over the surface territory, but if she accidentally caught a stray avatar in the mix, it would be a nice stroke of luck.

For now, Arkk had work to do.

That avatar was digging her own grave. Arkk just needed to ensure that she stayed there.

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