Chapter 883: Rematch

Wrath continued stirring beneath Ludwig’s skin. The faint heat spreading through the chamber was enough to draw the attention of every featureless giant around Sloth’s throne. Their smooth heads turned as one, and the atmosphere within the upper floor subtly changed, yet none of them attacked. Ludwig found their restraint more troubling than an immediate response.

Sloth possessed an entire palace built from his Authority. The floor, walls, pillars, stairways, and distant bridges were formed from beings that had surrendered themselves to him. Dozens of enormous throne carriers stood within the chamber. Below them sat hundreds, perhaps thousands, of inhabitants who would do nothing to resist whatever Sloth decided.

A battle here should have favored him completely, yet Sloth’s crimson gaze moved past Ludwig and toward the palace beneath them.

The heat of Wrath had already reached the floor. Several white cubes around Ludwig’s boots had darkened faintly, their flawless surfaces reacting to the pressure leaking from within him. Far below, people began raising their heads. They had not grown afraid yet, but they had become aware of something happening above them, and that alone appeared to disturb Sloth.

The pale giant lowered his hand from his face. "Let us change locations."

Ludwig blinked, while Kaiser’s brows rose with genuine interest. "Quite fascinating," the former lich said. "You actually want to move and act."

Sloth’s gaze settled on him. "It is not by my own will."

"You are standing up and moving somewhere because you have decided the current location is unsuitable," Kaiser replied. "That sounds remarkably close to acting by your own will."

Sloth ignored the observation. "You are a problem to the livelihood of the people here."

Ludwig looked down through the palace’s open interior. The residents still sat peacefully in the halls. Food remained arranged across the tables, water flowed through clean channels, and warm light continued filling every room. If Ludwig released Wrath here, however, the palace would no longer remain peaceful.

Walls might break, ceilings could fall, and fire would spread. The people who had forgotten how to desire anything would suddenly need to move. They would need to flee, find shelter, search for safety, secure water, protect one another, and struggle to survive. Need would return, and want would inevitably follow.

That contradicted everything Sloth had built. The palace did more than provide comfort; it maintained a state in which effort had no reason to exist. A battle would introduce consequences into a place designed to erase them.

"So you don’t want them to feel the need to run, escape, or save themselves when we start fighting," Ludwig said.

"Correct."

Sloth’s answer came without shame. He was not protecting them out of compassion. Their suffering outside his territory would not matter to him. Countless humans had already died beneath the feet of his army when it crossed the Dark Continent and invaded Solania.

Those within his domain were different. They belonged to the stillness he had created, and their absence of need had to remain complete.

Ludwig shifted Durandal from his shoulder and lowered the point toward the floor. "Fine. I’m good with that. Where do you want to fight?"

Sloth raised one hand. The movement took several seconds, his fingers opening as though even the effort of separating them deserved careful consideration. Then he snapped them.

The sound was quiet, but the palace answered immediately. Several of the featureless giants stepped forward as the platform beneath Sloth’s enormous sofa-like palanquin separated into individual cubes, releasing the structure from the floor. Four carriers moved beneath its reinforced poles and raised it with perfect coordination.

Sloth leaned back the moment they lifted him. Whatever brief effort he had spent sitting upright ended as his body settled against the long cushions, one arm resting loosely beside him as though the conversation had already demanded too much.

The carriers turned toward the largest window, and the wall beneath it shifted. White cubes withdrew from the frame and sank into the floor. The enormous window lowered silently, opening the upper chamber directly to the sky. Warm wind rushed inside, carrying the scent of the gardens below.

Empty air waited beyond the opening until the cubes began to move. Blocks detached from the palace’s outer walls and floated forward. More rose from the lower terraces, ascending without sound before aligning themselves in front of the window. They joined into a broad white road that stretched unsupported over the forest.

Sloth’s carriers stepped onto it and moved only a few paces before stopping. The cubes beneath their feet began sliding, carrying the palanquin forward while those behind it detached and moved ahead again. The road continuously rearranged itself, acting like a vast conveyor beneath the motionless carriers.

Even when leaving his palace, Sloth had created a way to travel without requiring anyone to walk.

Tull stared through the open wall. "We’re supposed to follow him?"

"It does look like it," Ludwig said.

"That road is floating above a forest."

"We crossed one above a chasm earlier."

"That does not make this one better."

Ludwig stepped onto the path first. The cube beneath his boot shifted forward, yet he felt no acceleration. The palace simply began moving away behind him as the road carried him after Sloth.

Kaiser followed without hesitation, with Cain and Celine coming next. Tull muttered something bitter before stepping onto the path alongside Redd.

"You guys stay here, there is no point in you going over there," Ludwig said to the tribesmen. They thought for a second and still decided to follow, but the tribesmen remained close together, their fear of the palace apparently greater than their concern over the unsupported road.

The moment everyone stood upon it, the cubes widened and divided into several lanes before carrying them forward. Sloth’s palanquin remained a short distance ahead. His carriers stood perfectly still while the cubes beneath them moved, their featureless faces aimed toward the horizon.

Ludwig kept Durandal ready. No system notification indicated combat, and Sloth had not declared them enemies yet.

They traveled above the palace gardens first. From this height, the paradise appeared even more complete. Streams glittered between green trees, and white balconies overlooked courtyards filled with warmth and food. The inhabitants sat beneath awnings or beside fountains, their bodies protected from every danger the Dark Continent offered.

None of them looked up as their ruler left. They did not need to know where he was going.

The white road continued over the forest. The lush trees surrounding the citadel gradually thinned, their green leaves turning gray. Flowing streams narrowed into stagnant channels before vanishing entirely. Warmth followed them for a time, but the terrain soon began to change.

The forest ended abruptly. Beyond it lay dry, open plains broken by long scars in the earth. Canyons cut through the land in crooked lines, their walls layered with dark stone and pale dust. Brittle grass grew in isolated clusters and bent beneath hot winds carrying no scent of water.

Dust devils moved across the empty flats. They twisted slowly, gathering ash and loose soil before collapsing several minutes later. Nothing watched from the rocks. No birds circled overhead, and no animals ran when the moving path cast its shadow across the ground.

The heat increased with every mile. Tull wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "I almost miss the snow."

"No, you don’t," Redd replied.

"I said almost."

Celine looked down at the lifeless terrain. "There is nothing here."

"There is," Cain replied, his eyes fixed upon the ground far below.

Ludwig followed his gaze and saw tracks covering the dry earth. Some were small enough to belong to humans or ordinary beasts. Others had been left by creatures with feet larger than wagons. Clawed prints crossed circular depressions, while long dragging marks wound between them as though enormous bodies had been pulled through the dust.

The paths converged from every direction before descending into the canyons. Ludwig watched their patterns as the road carried them farther. Trails entered the ravines, but very few appeared to leave.

Something dark moved between the rocks below and vanished before Redd could point it out. Another shape appeared farther away, squeezing between two canyon walls. For a moment, Ludwig saw a body made from mismatched limbs and blackened flesh before it disappeared into shadow.

Then he understood. "This is where he keeps the trash."

Redd looked at him. "What trash?"

"I’ve been wondering where his army went." Ludwig pointed Durandal toward the canyon system. "The black amalgamations. The monsters resistant to holy light. The ones that followed him through Solania."

Kaiser looked over the edge of the moving road, and a faint smile touched his face. "They’re here."

"Away from the palace," Ludwig said. "Away from sight. Away from the people."

The paradise across the forest could remain beautiful because everything ugly had been hidden beyond it. Sloth had never destroyed violence. He had simply moved it elsewhere.

His inhabitants never needed to fear the creatures protecting their home because they never saw them. They never needed to understand what defended their comfort or what price the lands outside paid for it.

The white road began descending. Its farthest cubes angled downward one after another, creating a gradual ramp into the largest canyon. Sloth’s palanquin moved first and was carried lower without the featureless giants taking a single step.

The heat became oppressive near the canyon floor. Stone walls rose around them, trapping the sunlight and hot wind. Black stains, old tracks, and long claw marks carved into the rock covered the dry ground.

Something watched them from a high ledge. Ludwig saw several pale eyes open within a mass of shadow, while more shapes shifted deeper inside narrow fissures. The canyon was crowded with creatures deliberately remaining out of sight.

When the road reached the ground, Sloth’s carriers stepped from it and lowered the palanquin onto the dry stone. The structure settled with barely a sound.

Sloth remained reclined for several breaths before he began standing. The process was painfully slow. He planted one hand against the cushion, moved a foot to the ground, and gradually forced his enormous body upright. Every motion suggested reluctance rather than weakness, as though he despised the fact that standing required a sequence of actions instead of happening on its own.

The white road carried Ludwig’s group down beside him. The moment the last person stepped onto the canyon floor, the path began retracting. Cubes lifted from behind them and slid back toward the palace in a continuous stream.

The throne carriers raised the empty palanquin again. They stepped onto the retreating road and allowed it to carry them upward.

Kaiser watched them leave. "You’re not keeping your guards with you?"

Sloth did not look back at them, but Cain answered in his place. "He doesn’t need them."

The vampire’s gaze moved across the canyon walls, where more eyes watched from the openings. Something large shifted beneath the loose stone behind them, producing a quiet scrape that travelled through the ground.

Tull drew his sword. "The creatures around us are more than enough to overwhelm us if he needs them."

"They will not join this fight," Sloth said.

Tull looked toward the dark openings in the canyon. "Right. Like I’d trust that."

"You should," Ludwig said.

Tull glanced at him. "Why?"

"That’s the scary part."

Ludwig believed Sloth. The Usurper had chosen this place precisely because it contained no innocents whose needs would return if the environment was destroyed. His army had been gathered here because they were tools rather than inhabitants of paradise.

Yet Sloth had brought them to this canyon to fight personally. If he intended to release the creatures, there would have been little reason to leave the palace at all. He could have buried Ludwig’s group beneath white giants, hypnotized inhabitants, moving cubes, and every monster hidden throughout his territory.

Instead, he had moved somewhere empty, somewhere he could act without disrupting his ideal world. That meant he intended to handle them himself.

Tull adjusted his grip around his weapon. "We already fought Envy. This shouldn’t be that hard, especially with this many of us here."

Ludwig looked toward him. Tull, Redd, and Celine had recovered somewhat after leaving the palace. Their movements were sharper now, and the constant invitation to sit had weakened with distance. Cain remained calm, Kaiser stood with his red finger resting against his staff, and Thomas hovered near Ludwig’s shoulder with his flames drawn close as he watched the canyon.

It was a powerful group. Against most enemies, numbers like these would have mattered.

Ludwig pointed Durandal toward Sloth. "Envy wasn’t built for battle."

The pale giant stood alone in the center of the canyon. No armor covered him, and no weapon rested in his hands. He barely seemed interested in holding his own body upright. Even so, the heat around him had stopped moving.

Dust hung suspended in the air. The nearest dust devil collapsed as though spinning had become too burdensome to continue, while loose stones rolling down the canyon wall slowed and settled before reaching the ground.

The world around Sloth was already beginning to surrender.

Ludwig’s eyes narrowed as he studied the pale giant. "This guy, though..."

Sloth raised his crimson gaze, and the entire canyon fell silent.

"Different story."