As Liron explained all he remembered about Amor, they sensed it. Two floors below Trisa's arena, they felt the freezing of the air. The chill brushing their skin, an echo from the spell the assassin had cast. Each trap she had woven activated at once, transforming her floor into winter's cold heart.
And it beat, fueling a cascade rolling after them. The stairwell trembled, a roaring thunder pursuing them. They sprinted down two more floors before the spell caught up to them. A string shot from above, attaching to the wall, ice stalactites erupting from it, freezing all in a cold tomb. Out of them, strings blasted forward, reaching ever downward, carrying a trap in them. An endless surge forged out of one desire. To end Liron.
The cascade moved faster than lightning, gnawing at their heels. Without any other form to flee, they jumped down their stairwell, stumbling onto a floor. Liron and Gabriella summoned their Conduits, ready to face the spell. Unlike before, this floor offered them no open space to battle in. The corridor they stood in was large enough for both to fight side by side. It led into a maze of offices and other rooms, too complex for any outsider to grasp. As with the bureau's outer shell, it looked sterile and plain, with no sign of identity or life. Like it was not supposed to inhabit any humanity but a strict structure and schedule. All men and women inside had to fulfill a clear function, allowing the greater system to breathe. Inside the bureau, you were replaceable.
The black blade roared to life. Liron might not have the strength left to blow apart his obstacle, but there was a way. And he was keen to find it. But as the cascade reached their floor, it stopped. Liron's neck tingled, the weight of a hateful glare on them. He turned around. The bureau had no interest in creating a pleasant atmosphere for its workers, but it needed them to endure being here. A window worked wonders for this.
At the far end of the corridor, he recognized her figure, hanging upside down outside the window. She was too far away to make out anything in particular about her. But she had aired her opinion on him and what fate he should suffer already. Trisa stretched out her hand, her spell responding to her silent command.
The ice stalactites spat out dozens of strings. Gabriella's shadow shifted, and Liron performed a hau until he noticed that none of the strings were coming their way. They struck the walls, ceiling, and ground. Not one of the webs was intended for them. No frozen spears followed either. Stillness until blue lines spread out from them. Too many to count, multiplying by the second. They radiated with Trisa's magic, sprouting like the roots of a grand tree, anchoring the assassin's spell into the floor.
Their movement appeared chaotic at first, following no pattern. But as they arrived at their destination, connecting to one another, a spiderweb became visible. Its sheer magnitude stomped on them, its blue shine forcing them to pause. Despite knowing what its purpose would entail, a moment had to be wasted on admiring its beauty. Trisa breathed life into this hostile place, granting it something it had never called its own before.
Liron was reminded of Lichtwald, but his admiration died with a sharp bite. He jerked his foot up, a thorn having grown out of the blue line. The spiderweb's glow intensified, stalactite heads crawling out of them. The walls, ceiling, and ground crumbled, getting crushed by a cold grip on them, pulling them inwards.
They had seconds before they would be crushed. Acting as one, without any further coordination, Liron and Gabriella struck the ground. The mad girl enveloped her arms in her shadows, the mass strengthening them beyond all human capabilities. Liron coated his blade in ember, stabbing into the spiderweb. His heat melted them, eradicating the surrounding spell. But his reach only sufficed for the three of them.
Gabriella's fist slammed down, bursting the ground apart. They fell down, slamming into an identical corridor to the one above. Liron shook his head, clearing him of the dust sticking to his greasy hair. He looked up, witnessing Trisa's spell. In Eisenrahm, when the town had gained the permission to hunt, they often utilized larger traps. One they called bear trap. It was too tiny to inflict any harm on such a behemoth, the name originating from a time when the sun still shone. Most called them a rabbit trap now, an iron snout snapping shut around the ankle of an animal stepping into it.
As the floor above burst, Liron thought it would experience the same as the one they had confronted Trisa in. But he had underestimated the assassin. The spiderwebs crackled, ice festering out of them. They grew thicker, crushing the host they had dug into. It happened in a blink. Almost enough to wonder whether it happened at all.
As with a rabbit trap, her spell sprung closed. The strings had become an extension of Trisa, crushing all in the iron grip of her hand. The entire floor yanked forward, the spiderwebs rushing to meet all at one spot. The spell pressed the debris into one ball, ice stalactites erupting from within, ensuring that nothing could have survived. Trisa had mimicked a rabbit trap on a scale large enough to devastate a building like the bureau.
Taking out a crucial piece from the Inquisition's office, the floors above collapsed, descending towards them. Liron had witnessed the church's fall from its roof. Something he wasn't keen to repeat. But seeing the mighty titan's head rain down on him, Liron missed the death of Harras' house in Kupferrang.
Liron and Emma froze, losing all hope to escape their tomb. But Gabriella refused to yield. She pulled both close, conjuring her Conduit, twisting it into a blob of fur and fangs. The mass enveloped them, fat layers of shadows swallowing them. They all hugged as the world around them spun. The ground underneath them gave way, wreckage slamming down on them.
Floor by floor, the bureau burst apart, a chain reaction similar to the spell Trisa had cast. However no spell of hers could have caused such destruction directly. There was no need for such a thing. Trisa's trap could take out any pillar to let gravity do the rest.
Liron and Emma cried their goodbyes to one another. Every fight and argument they had. Each little insult they had thrown at each other. They begged forgiveness for each other, mourning all the time they had wasted on pointless quarrels. Gabriella pressed her lips into a line. Veins popped up on her forehead. She readjusted her Conduit's form to chaos outside, ensuring it took the barrage but also avoided getting crushed. Gabriella had her eyes closed, using her wolf's eyes to see what was happening outside.
Eternity came and went away. The silence that followed was deafening. A heavy cloak weighed them down. Liron babbled a last goodbye to Emma as he realized the stillness. They had stopped moving. The collapse had ceased. Drenched in her sweat, Gabriella dismissed her Conduit. The mass vanished into her shadows, and she fell on her ass, panting.
Dust reigned supreme, floating in the air. Liron and Emma whirled it away with their hands, creating a breathable space for them. The bureau had survived despite all odds. Vast sections of the titan had been ripped away, but the majority of the rubble had fallen onto Kupferrang, burying the area around the bureau. No ceiling above them, the clear sky greeted them with Silverlight. As with the floor Trisa had lured them into, the destruction had torn the walls and corridors asunder, leaving an open space for them. Greater pieces of debris lay scattered around, the ground on the edge of caving in.
The Inquisition's symbol, the shadow cast over Kupferrang, had lost half of its size. At this point, even the church's tower would have dwarfed it. Liron had had no hand in its shattering, but a smile crept onto his lips. A Ravenspawn brought ruin to the wicked heart of the Empire. To the part he wanted to see brought to justice. Emma stepped next to him, sharing his grin.
A moment of triumph. But the one who had caused this act of rebellion allowed them no break. Trisa simply appeared. How she had escaped the collapse or reached their floor, Liron couldn't bother to think about. The assassin spread out both her hands, a string attached to each finger.
Gabriella stood up again, pulling out two knives. Her last ones. She summoned her Conduit, the wolf slithering around her arms. She conjured nothing but the beast's musculature, strengthening her arms and legs. Liron frowned seeing this. How was this possible? Summoning nothing but an aspect of her Conduit.
The time for last words was now, but neither side had anything to say. Liron notched Emma behind him, his sword appearing in his hands. They stared at one another, the wind whistling. The faint echo of the fighting below reached them, but it fell on deaf ears. What a broken thing Trisa was. Her eyes. He had never seen sadder ones.
A somber business indeed.
Trisa dashed forward, slashing at them with her webs. Unlike her usual spells, the strings had expanded, to the same size as the blue lines that had spread through the floor. Dozens of stalactite heads crackled on each string, all a trap set for its prey. Trisa opened with swinging only one arm, but the five cuts were a feat to avoid.
While the strings glittered in the Silverlight, they snapped forward in a blink. Following their motion took all from Liron. Emma stayed behind him as he jumped to the side, Gabriella going the opposite direction. As the webs missed their targets, the traps activated nonetheless, each a rabbit trap. The hiss of dozens of frozen maws snapping shut at the same time kicked Liron in the balls. His skin prickled, fearing it would taste the sharp touch of the spell.
Trisa attacked with the other arm, Liron and the rest ducking underneath. The ice traps bit into pieces of Liron's coat, ripping the fabric from him.
From all he had faced before, nothing came close to Trisa. Each string of hers was a sword equipped with wolf heads growing out of it, starving to taste his flesh. Contesting with this simple spell pushed Liron further than he thought possible. But again, he had underestimated what the assassin was capable of.
As Trisa used her first hand again, Liron recognized what he had missed. He had believed the cascade she had unleashed on them to be one of her many traps. When the rabbit traps on her strings had activated, they had spawned a new set of webs each. All carrying the same maws as before. And the ones that had been activated opened their snouts, having grown.
This time, Liron and Emma leaped to the ground, barely avoiding the spell. Trisa had doubled the amount of traps and enlarged her strings, the original ones empowered by birthing the set of new ones. A minute at most, and the assassin would have built up the momentum to cleave apart the rest of the bureau. As it turned out, she had the spells to cause such destruction.
There was no winning against such a foe. Trisa focused on Liron and Gabriella, allowing Emma to slip away, hiding away at the edge of the floor. Liron fared the best against the onslaught thanks to the sword training he had received in his dreams. He never took a single slash with his blade, but he knew the steps to dodge them. Gabriella had proven her natural genius in combat and quick thinking. But such a blessing could not bend reality around to grant her a victory. Thanks to her Conduit, she had the speed to avoid losing her life, but Trisa edged ever closer. The next strike could be the one ending the mad girl's life.
Glimpsing at her, Liron recalled her ruse. As Trisa cut at her, her webs having the magnitude to chop up a highborn's house, Liron exploded himself forward. Neither he nor Gabriella had attempted to retaliate yet. Only now had the assassin presented an opening for Liron to take. One she had created herself, luring him in. An assassin through and through, a master of deception herself.
Trisa's hand sprang forward. The webs attached to her fingers wrapped around her arm, coating it in ice and the sharpest steel. Her hand would plunge through his chest. Liron countered with an attack of his own. He raised his blade high, performing downward hau. Trisa's other arm was out from the feinted spell she cast at Gabriella, forcing her to counter with the one she intended to kill Liron with. But no Conduit of an Apprentice would match her strike. She would shatter his blade and then his chest.
As their Conduits were to meet, Liron dismissed his blade, diving low. Despite her ferocity and grace, Trisa was wounded from her bout with Angin. She fell for the same trick twice, her attack going nowhere, throwing her off-balance. Liron hurried behind her, smoke fusing to create his blade once again. He could have gone for her neck, risking it all on one desperate hau. But even in her worn-down state, Trisa would protect her vital spots by reflex. No, he needed to take her by surprise.
Liron engulfed his blade in embers, heating it up. Scorching the air itself, the sword descended on Trisa's arm, cutting into the webs enveloping it. He sliced not one. But he never aimed for this. The ice melted. They touched for only a second, but the strings snapped apart, and their momentum was lost with it.
Transitioning from one hau to the next, Liron twisted around, hacking into the webs on Trisa's other arm. She tried to move them away, but Liron's sword struck true, ending her spell. He had wrenched out the weed by its root, preventing it from sprouting further. An impressive victory for an Apprentice. But one that secured no victory. He had put no halt to her. He had taken away her progression.
Trisa's expression never shifted due to Liron's accomplishment. She simply moved forward, conjuring her Conduit anew. Liron held his blade in front of him, the embers burning hot. But it failed to block the next slash. The strings were weakened due to the heat, but they cleaved through his black blade, cutting into his left shoulder. Blood splattered high, and Liron grimaced upon his sword failing against the assassin's spell.
Before she could gut him, Liron spawned smoke around his feet. The severed half of his blade fell down next to him, the embers surrounding it igniting his spell. He escaped the next slash, flying backwards. He slammed into a piece of wall, leaning against it. The wound wasn't deep, but the thread had implanted fragments of the trap inside his flesh, ice crystals piercing him, burying into his body. He stabbed his blade into his injury, melting the spell before it would take his left arm.
Emma shrieked, running towards him. "Don't!" Liron called out, holding up his hand.
She wanted to argue, but she followed his command. Unsure what to do, she looked around, searching for a weapon or something she could do to help. Gabriella charged Trisa, taking advantage of Liron's little victory. Her arms flashed forward, stabbing at the assassin. Trisa danced around the attacks, none coming close to harm.
Her webs had lost their momentum, but they would cut either way. She responded with a slash, hacking into the shadow muscles around Gabriella's limbs. The mad girl bolted away, ice sprouting into her Conduit limb. She had to dismiss most of the mass on her arm, leaving behind a thin layer.
Liron hammered his blade's knob into the wall, exploding himself forward. His spells were of a shy nature compared to the one he had conjured. But they sufficed to fling him back into the fight. Gabriella and he fought alongside one another, pressing the assassin from two sides, not allowing her to build up momentum again. But Trisa blocked everything, barely moving. They fought water, the current flowing around their attacks.
As Liron and Gabriella sped up their onslaught, Trisa went on the offensive. She wrapped the webs around her arms, ice coating them. She punched into Gabriella's other arm, impaling the mass with a stalactite blasting out of her threads. The spell froze the limb, and the assassin kicked her in the stomach, taking all air out of her lungs.
Without pause, she twisted around, intersecting Liron's black blade, taking his hau on her arm. The embers melted the strings, but not fast enough. Trisa swung around her other arm, slashing his gut. Deeper than his shoulder wound, but not lethal. It felt like it, though, and Liron squeaked.
She could have killed him there and then. But as Liron had done before, she would not take any risk. She had to eliminate the greater threat.
Gabriella dashed forward, hoping to take the assassin by surprise. Trisa had learned from her mistakes. She turned around. The webs unwrapped themselves from her limbs, and with two unison motions of her hands, she cut off Gabriella's arms.