The Whispering King discarded its shield.
Its fingers tipped with menacing claws moved toward [Hailrend] in the blink of an eye. Ripping the cutlass free from the side of its wounded steed. Ice began to creep over the Tyrant's fingers as it held the weapon up, as if to inspect it. Then the Whispering King flexed its fingers, ice shattered and scattered through the air in glittering fragments.
The claws of its gauntlet tightened further around the blade, and as Lauri watched, countless fractures suddenly spread through the black ice that formed [Hailrend]'s blade, jagged cracks racing across the cutlass from hilt to tip like a spiderweb about to collapse.
Before the Whispering King could shatter [Hailrend], Lauri simply dismissed the Transcendant Memory.
The barrier of mist had collapsed as the horse's focus was shattered, allowing Lauri to disengage, kicking off the horse's body. He leapt back, landing on the ground. He slid back a few metres, digging the javelin into the ground to stop himself.
Lauri's eyes flickered in the dark night. He was amused.
'All in all, I hurt the horsie and forced the King to throw his shield away in order to pull [Hailrend] out. I might have had to dismiss [Hailrend], but that's an equal trade, and I landed the first hit.'
Lauri raised his javelin.
'But now what?'
The Whispering King raised its focus back to Lauri, who felt the same crushing sense of fear press down on his mind. Squinting, Lauri pushed back with [Well of Light].
'I can't risk running out of light, or else I'll be left a bawbling wreck-'
The horse moved, rider and steed shot forward. The Whispering King's barbed lance was at the ready to skewer Lauri. Turning his body, Lauri caught the lance on the shaft of his javelin, a dangerous tremor ran through the weapon, and for a moment, Lauri thought the javelin had shattered in his hand. But it held.
Lauri jumped, the horse raised its mouth attempting to take a bite out of him, but Lauri twisted his body mid air, flipping over the horse. Lauri lashed out with the javelin, aiming it directly at the Whispering King's neck, but the javelin never had the chance to land.
The Whispering King caught the javelin with ease. It raised the tip of the javelin away from its body. The Tyrant's fingers made short work of the light construct that was only comparable to a high-tier Ascended Memory. The javelin shattered almost instantly.
"What-!"
The King of the Whispering Legion was not content with only destroying Lauri's weapon; only Lauri's death would leave it satisfied.
Its fist slammed into the breastplate of [Her Aegis], the incredible strength of a Corrupted Tyrant struck Lauri, throwing him to the ground, where he bounced a few times before rolling to his knees.
'I underestimated its strength, of course, it could easily break something of the Ascended rank, what was I thinking!? Thank the Spell I for my Memories, or else that one hit might have done more than simply knock the wind out of me.'
The first thing Lauri was thankful for was one of [Her Aegis]' enchantments. Whenever the armour endured a blunt impact, the force was dispersed evenly across the entire chitinous armour instead of concentrating in a single point. Had he been wearing almost any other Ascended Memory, the Whispering King's strike might have shattered both the armour and his body beneath it outright.
But the more important of the two was his only Supreme Memory – [Partitioner's Relief]. Lauri had activated its enchantment at the very last possible moment, minimising the amount of essence it consumed while still reducing the damage of the Whispering King's attack. Reducing the damage dealt by the King's attack and weakening the force behind the blow.
One enchantment dispersed the impact.
The other diminished it.
Together, they were the only reason Lauri was still breathing.
Lauri whipped his head up. The Whispering King was upon him once more, its lance poised to strike.
But as he activated [Light Dash], Lauri's whole body froze.
An immense wave of terror swept over his mind, cutting through his defences, stronger than anything he had ever felt before in his entire life.
Voices began to whisper at the edges of Lauri's mind.
Soft at first.
Then louder.
Dozens of them.
Hundreds.
They slithered into his ears like cold breath, overlapping one another until they became an endless chorus of dread.
'You are going to die.'
'Your friends are going to die.'
'You cannot stop this.'
Lauri's grip tightened instinctively around his weapon as the whispers continued, each word carrying an unbearable certainty that wormed its way into his thoughts.
'The Whispering Legion will march through Falcon Scott.'
'Everyone there will scream.'
'Everyone there will fall.'
He saw flashes in his mind – walls collapsing beneath tides of Nightmare Creatures, the streets drowned beneath cyan mist, soldiers cut apart by rusted weapons while the Whispering King watched from atop its monstrous steed.
Then the whispers stopped using words; the whispers pushed more daunting visions into his mind.
Danse dying, unable to protect his friends.
Vick overwhelmed, unable to escape.
Katrina crushed beneath the Legion.
Mele running out of arrows as she is stabbed from behind.
Sansa crying over her friend's body as she is cut down.
Lucky screams as his Echoes vanish one by one until he is all that is left.
The voices pressed harder and harder against Lauri's thoughts, suffocating him beneath terror and inevitability, trying to drown him beneath the certainty that this battle, this city, and everyone within it were already doomed.
'Stop…'
Lauri's soul trembled beneath the weight of the whispers.
Then the voices showed him more visions.
Not of the Irregulars.
Not of the people he had only recently begun to care for within the last few months.
'No… Get out of my head…'
It showed him visions of his oldest friends, those he had known for many years.
Jet carving through the Whispering Legion like death incarnate, her glaive sweeping in merciless arcs as its dark blade ignored armour and flesh alike to sever the souls within. For a moment, she looked unstoppable – until a Bishop emerged silently from drifting mist and intercepted her next strike with its sceptre, the gem emanating an evil glow. Jet faltered as her Aspect was disrupted for a single fatal instant, and the Bishop struck her down.
The vision shifted.
Maeve slipped between attacks by sinking through the ground, desperately evading a tide of Nightmare Creatures closing in from every direction. For a moment, it seemed she might escape – until the sheer number of enemies overwhelmed her completely, rusted weapons piercing through her from all sides.
Another vision followed instantly.
A creature barely resembling a human anymore – an amalgamation of flesh, claws, and monstrous limbs encased within a layer of jagged ice – lashed out wildly against the Bishop. The pale figure glided around it with effortless precision before its sceptres pierced into the frozen monstrosity again and again, carving it apart where it stood.
Then came the girl with bright green hair.
Nature surged around her in an unstoppable tide as roots, vines, and trees erupted across the battlefield beneath her command. Countless Nightmare Creatures were crushed beneath the wrath of her living army – until cyan mist swept across the battlefield.
The horse's mist cut through everything.
Roots withered. Trees collapsed. Her army died around her before the mist finally reached her, too.
And then – him.
A man with sharp grey eyes and bright silver hair stood alone before the Whispering King, blade raised as he challenged the Tyrant directly. He fought fiercely, refusing to yield even as the King's monstrous presence crushed down upon him.
But it was not enough.
The King's blade descended for a final time – and the young man fell.
The visions came faster after that.
Death after death after death, each a face Lauri had seen in his life, faces whose names he knew, faces he had seen simply passing by, until the scenes of deaths leeched into one after another – Lauri's mind began to falter under the pressure.
And through all of them, the whispers continued.
'This is their future.'
'This is what waits for everyone you care about.'
'And there is nothing you can do to stop it.'
He drew in a shaky breath as the light within his soul began to grow restless, coiling through his Soul Sea like a rising tide pushing back against the visions. The whispers pressed harder, trying to force their way deeper, but Lauri's resistance only intensified.
The light around the battlefield shifted.
Not like Lauri's normal usage of light, the stray brilliance in the air trembled, then peeled away from its surroundings, drawn inexorably toward him like iron to a magnet.
His breath hitched.
And then, he threw his head back.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
The words tore through Lauri's throat like a roar.
The light under his influence turned physical – no longer the shaped constructs Lauri wielded, but pure radiance made violent. It exploded outward in a blinding shockwave, spreading like a physical aurora, ripping through the oppressive whispers and crashing into the Whispering King and its steed.
The Whispering King was unfazed; entirely unaffected even as the aurora washed over it.
But the Whispering King's steed was not as resilient.
The force of the light blast ripped the horse clean off the ground, lifting its massive armoured body into the air before hurling it backwards across the battlefield.
The Whispering King released its steed mid-motion, descending with unnerving composure and landing gracefully upon the frozen ground. The horse hit the snowy ground hard, crashing onto its side with a heavy, shaking thud that sent a ripple through the mist covering the battlefield.
Before anything could happen, free from the insidious whispers. Lauri glared at the Whispering King with a demented look in his eye, then his eyes snapped to the horse. He turned into light, appearing at its side a moment later. A blade of light snapped into being between his hands. It was crude, not the normal standard Lauri held himself to when conjuring weapons.
But in this moment, Lauri didn't care.
He just wanted to kill something.
Lauri tore into the horse's unprotected underside, driving his weapon relentlessly into the horse's stomach. The steed's armoured plates offered no protection from below – only exposed flesh.
Each impact sent a violent surge through its body.
Blood and mist spilled out in equal measure, the two mingling as the creature's unnatural physiology ruptured under the sustained assault. Lauri didn't hesitate – he kept pressing the attack, blade rising and falling again and again, carving deep into its flesh until the ground beneath them began to darken.
His hands were soon slick with cold blood.
Mist began to build up around Lauri, only to collapse as the horse was unable to concentrate. Its neighs began to grow quiet until it didn't make a sound.
Mist began gathering around Lauri in frantic waves, coiling and compressing as the horse desperately tried to summon its power once more. But each attempt collapsed almost immediately, the fog losing cohesion as the creature failed to focus through the damage and agony tearing through it.
Its movements weakened, the violent thrashing of its body slowed into uneven spasms, and the distorted neighs gradually grew quieter and quieter. Until finally, the horse made no sound at all.
And all of it had happened within the span of only a few seconds.
[You have slain a–]
The Spell's voice was abruptly cut off as something tremendous slammed into Lauri's body and sent him hurtling sideways across the battlefield. Ice shattered beneath him as he skidded violently across the frozen ground before finally coming to a stop.
Pain screamed through his body.
Looking up, Lauri immediately understood what had hit him.
The Whispering King stood where Lauri had been a moment ago. But strangely, it did not seem to be following up on the hit.
Instead, the Tyrant had dropped to one knee beside its fallen steed, its empty hand resting silently against the horse's ruined body. For a moment, it remained completely still.
And amid that silence, Lauri slowly realised something else – the chaos of the battlefield was beginning to lessen.
Somewhere during the madness of the fight, Lucky's Legion had gained the advantage. Echoes still clashed with the Whispering Legion, but the tide had shifted. Pawns were being overwhelmed, and Rooks were collapsing beneath the concentrated assaults.
The Irregulars had engaged the two Bishops; Lauri knew they would win eventually.
It seemed the battle was nearing its end.
Then the Whispering King rose, casting its lance aside. The weapon struck the ground, abandoned as the Whispering King turned to face Lauri.
Expecting it to charge at him, Lauri was surprised to see its hand move instead toward its hip.
Only then did Lauri realise the Tyrant had been carrying another weapon the entire time.
A sword.
Unlike the brutal practicality of the barbed lance, this weapon seemed ancient. The sheath hanging at the Whispering King's side was worn and scarred like the rest of its equipment, yet there was something unmistakably regal about it.
With one hand, the King held the sheath, and with the other – it wrapped its clawed hand around the hilt. Then slowly, it unsheathed the weapon.
The metal emerged inch by inch with a low scrape that seemed to cut through the battlefield itself. The sound was not especially loud, yet it carried unnaturally far, slipping beneath the chaos of combat until even the distant clashes between Echoes and the Whispering Legion felt muted beneath it.
The blade was long, its shape reminding Lauri of the old European broadswords he had once seen illustrated in a history book whilst he was attending the Awakened Academy. It lacked the exaggerated design of most Memories and weapons Nightmare Creatures bore, carrying instead a simple, ancient lethality – as though it had been forged for a war long before elegance or ornamentation ever mattered.
The moment the Whispering King fully drew the blade free, even in his frenzied state, Lauri felt that the flow of the battle had changed entirely. Before, Lauri had been fighting a mounted Tyrant, allowing its steed to primarily lead the fight.
But now, the Whispering King descended upon Lauri in earnest.