Chapter 46
“How’d you little pigs get into my den?” the Heretic asked. It approached, clicking and clacking its claws.
Element readied her sword and shield, her body perfectly still while their enemy remained cordial. Snow used the signet ring to fuse with Sigil and use the Servant's energy to form armour: they'd done this so often it was a natural reaction, reflexive.
“Don't want to talk, do we, pigs?” the Heretic asked.
Neither responded, except to tighten their grips on their weapons. Snow examined the Heretic's form, noting in particular the lack of guns. The suit, like a usual Disciple’s, had few open systems. There were still wire bundles and gears that could be destroyed by traditional weapons, though.
“Fine. I guess I'll get it out of you after I've sliced you to shreds.”
The Heretic ran forward. It was not graceful or fast with the metal weighing it down, but it had all the inevitability of an avalanche. Snow met it with Sigil's might, slipping under its outstretched claw and slamming the signet into the Heretic's glassy core. Sol's Gift flared and sent the Heretic skidding across the floor, its feet ripping the earth up as it went.
But there was not even a chip in its glassy exterior. Snow guessed he’d only struck a glancing blow. He rushed the Heretic, and brought Sol’s full power down on them again. But the Disciple lazily leant to one side, avoid being cracked and destroyed, then ripped into Snow's stomach. Sigil's strength absorbed the attempt, but it took more energy than it ought to, made Snow’s head spin with giddy fatigue.
Sigil screamed, bucking and twitching at the bastard's touch. Its protection nearly failed.
“It's one of you!” the Heretic shouted, delighted, before it punched Snow. “An Acolyte!”
Snow was knocked from his feet, Sigil unable to protect him. Element caught him, kept him upright.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Concentrate, Snow!”
“An Acolyte!” the Disciple repeated. “This is perfect. It's almost like there is a god of some sort, providing such a perfect opportunity as this!”
“What's wrong?” Element hissed. “He's just in Disciple armour, isn't he? Kill him.”
“No,” Snow said. “No, it isn't normal. That armour has... something in it, something which resists Sol's Gift.” Panic rose in Snow as he understood what he was saying. “I could feel my power drain at its touch. It's dangerous, an Acolyte Killer”
“I like that,” the Heretic said. “The Acolyte Killer. That might be my new nickname.”
This Acolyte Killer ran at them, aiming to prove its new name, but Snow and Element dived away from the obvious attack. As the Heretic passed, both got in counter-attacks: Snow with Sol's Gift and Element with her sword. Element's weapon did the most damage, cut one of the suit's wire bundles.
Snow and Element stood side-by-side as the Acolyte Killer slowed, turned. It tested its right arm, where Element had struck it, and found it to its satisfaction.
“Let's make things more interesting, shall we?” It closed its eyes for a second, and then nodded. “There. This'll be better.”
They waited for the Acolyte Killer to charge again, to keep fighting, but it remained still. Like it was waiting for something. Snow wanted to charge it, to continue the fight, but it would be folly to do so when he didn’t understand what he fought.
“What do we do?” Element hissed. “What if it just called for more Disciples?”
“Then I'll take them, you'll take it.”
“What if they also have this... anti-Acolyte ability?”
The Acolyte Killer coughed. “I can hear you, you know.”
Snow tutted. “If they could easily make Disciples that resisted Acolytes, they would have used them by now. Lun, they'd have ended the war years ago.”
“Makes sense. If it's more Disciples, I'll ignore them.”
Snow read the Acolyte Killer's emotional energy. It was muted, as though covered with a fine dust that obscured the Gift. As he focused, he realised there was no emotion in that protective film: it was empty, clinical, yet somehow akin to Sol's Gift. This looked inhuman, like the Disciples had found a way to replicate the Gift. Which might have been how–
“Snow!” Element shouted. “Lions!”
Three Lions roared toward them: he'd been concentrating so hard he didn't hear them approach. He was pushed aside, Element jumped away, and they both avoided rending claws by a narrow margin.
“Good girls,” the Acolyte Killer said as the Lions formed a guard around it. It delicately stroked the largest of the three. “Good. Now, kill the Contegon.”
The Lions fell upon Element. She turned the first away with her shield, and was about to be rent by the second and third when Snow threw them against the corridor wall with Sol’s power. They whined when they struck and slowly got up, the smallest having broken its middle paw.
The Acolyte Killer surprised Snow with a kick in the stomach, throwing Snow into the air. After just about landing on his feet, the Heretic kept at him, swiping and clawing, wearing away Sigil's defences. Between its attacks and Snow's ineffective counters, Sigil screamed and wailed as its power reserves dwindled. He didn't know how long he could dodge the furious, golden claws: this Acolyte Killer had been designed to nullify his only advantage. He would have to rely on Element and her Baptism.
That option was quickly taken. Element was driven back by the Lions, their power and superior numbers overwhelming her. She hissed and reached for the Baptism. Snow had to dodge away from two swipes, and in that time Element threw her Baptism into a Lion's face. The blow was true, and the acids inside began to dissolve its flesh.
“No! No!” the Acolyte Killer shrieked, turning from Snow. “What have you done?”
Snow used the Acolyte Killer's distraction to bring Scar's signet down on a Lion’s skull. It exploded into a gory mess, spraying viscera across the corridor.
“You bastards! You bastards!”
The Acolyte Killer threw itself at Snow and caught him across the back. Sigil's armour was torn away. The claws ripped through his Acolyte robes, scything shallow trenches in his back. Snow hissed and jumped away. His back throbbed, and warm, wet blood dripped down his back.
Element used the monster’s moment of gloating triumph to slam her shield against the glass protecting its face. The blow chipped it, a small divot in the perfect surface.
“Kill her!” it howled at the remaining Lion.
The beast, the smallest of the three, considered Snow and Element, and then ran, sensing in its cowardly way that the tide had turned.
“Hey, get back here! You kill this–”
He was cut off when Element unleashed a torrent of shield blows, digging further into the chip in its armour. The Acolyte Killer realised that it couldn't ignore her attacks and swiped at her, but Element's training granted her the grace and skill to easily avoid the shot.
Snow allowed himself a moment to wonder at how brilliant a warrior the little girl with the blanket had become. Then he joined the fray: when the Acolyte Killer sliced at her, Snow attacked it from behind, slammed Scar's signet into its back to wear down its unnatural defences. When it turned to swat at Snow, Element shoved her sword into its inner workings, crunching the blade but damaging its inner workings.
“No, this isn't right!” the Acolyte Killer said. “I made myself to kill Acolytes.”
“Then you ignored the power of the Contegon!” Element screamed, bringing her shield down with all her fury and strength. The impact caused three deep chips in its glass to connect, forming a deep crack.
Snow struck the Acolyte Killer and felt less resistance than before: Element must have damaged something which supported the emotionless Gift energy. There was still some defence, so it wasn't the fatal blow that would crush a regular Disciple, but it deepened the crack on its face.
“No!”
“Die!” Element roared.
She rolled away from a pathetic attempt to tear her stomach open and went for that
crack. This time, the glass shattered, a gaping hole extending from its head to its shoulders. Before the shards landed on the ground, Element slammed her notched sword through the gap, striking it just between the eyes.
The Acolyte Killer gargled as Element removed her sword. Its eyes rolled up into its head and it fell to the floor, red blood spurting from the wound. Its Disciple parts sizzled and hissed as blood got into them, tore at their lightning strength, and then it fell silent.
Snow watched it for a moment, thought through what this creation meant for the war: an Acolyte could no longer deal with a Disciple incursion alone. All it would take is two Acolyte Killers for their tactics and techniques to be worthless. If the Acolyte Killers travelled with Lions and Disciples, those beasts purpose-built to fight Contegons and Shields, there would be a strong enough mix to prevent those warriors helping the Acolyte. There would need to be some rethinking across the Fronts.
Element stood over the dead Disciple, this Acolyte Killer, her sword held across her body. It would have earned that nickname if Snow had come here alone: if his friend, a powerful Contegon, hadn't been with him. He owed his life to her.
“Element, that was astonishing,” Snow said.
“No, not really,” she breathed.
“Yes, yes it was! You saved my life, you fought a Disciple and a Disciple Lion. Element, you're...” Snow took in a deep breath, smiled. “You're amazing.”
Element coughed and turned. She held her sword to her stomach to stem the bleeding from a deep gash that the Acolyte Killer had struck during that last assault. Bright red tainted her white robes, seeping down her body and dripping on the floor.
“I wasn't good enough,” she said before collapsing.