Chapter 20: The Prince of Sathvania
Ambush
The attack came from above without warning.
A compressed arc of water — not from Karn's spear, not from anything he had fired — drove straight down into the space where all three of them were standing. Luchion and Delta both read it and rolled sideways at the same instant. Leon managed to get clear. But the young woman between them — Lucia — got her shield up barely in time, a flat disc of conjured mana snapping into place above her head.
The water punched straight through it.
The shield didn't slow it — it shattered it, the mana disc fragmenting outward as the pressurised stream kept going and hit both Lucia and Leon behind her. The impact threw them backward.
"Incoming — Luchion," Zangika snapped.
Luchion had already moved. A black laser built between his hands and discharged in the same motion — Karn raised the spear and the Galactic Laser fired to meet it. The two beams hit each other mid-air and the collision held, neither line moving, heat generating at the point of contact until the air itself distorted around it.
Karn was being pushed back. His feet dragged centimetres across the stone.
"Zangi—"
Something hit the force field from behind — Delta, arriving at a speed that hadn't given Zangika time to finish the warning. The field absorbed the impact but the transferred force launched Karn forward, breaking the laser clash. He tumbled, redirected it mid-motion, and came up in a lower stance.
Delta landed a few metres away and looked at her hands. She pressed them together slowly, then apart.
No contact. No resistance. She had hit him square in the back and felt nothing under her hands — no skin, no armour, just a field of force that had eaten the strike whole.
"Invisible shield," she said quietly, to herself. "So he's not just fast."
Karn rolled his shoulder and looked at her. Then up.
Lucia had gotten back to her feet. A block of ice the size of a small building was forming above her head, the temperature around it dropping fast enough that breath misted in the air under it.
"You vile beings," she said. The ice dropped.
Karn levelled the spear upward and fired the laser in a continuous sweep — cutting the glacier into sections as it descended, each piece splitting away and crashing into the walls on either side instead of the floor. The chamber shook. Dust fell from the ceiling.
He was still tracking the last falling shard when Zangika spoke.
"Leon — below you."
Leon was down on one knee, already charging. His weapon — twin-shafted, each end carrying a spear point connected to the other by a chain link — spun in a tight arc around his body, the motion building until the pointed ends blurred and the chain stretched taut. Red arcs of mana, dense and compact, began forming along the trajectory of each swing. Forty, fifty of them in tight succession, fired in a concentrated spread.
Karn pointed the spear downward and fired, the recoil launching him straight up as the arcs hit the space he vacated. He spun the spear tip as he rose — the laser building, cycling, until it had formed a tight rotating column (tornado) that expanded outward as it met the incoming arcs. The laser tornado carved through them — most dissolving on contact, some deflecting sideways into the walls — but the collision filled the air with red and white light and the sound of dozens of simultaneous small impacts.
Through it, Luchion moved.
He crossed the floor and grabbed Leon by the collar, pulling him back before the arc clash could redirect anything onto their own position.
"You would have been hit," Luchion said, not loudly.
Leon pulled his collar free. "I had it."
"You didn't."
Karn came back down. The moment his foot touched stone, Delta was already above him — both fists joined, dropping from directly overhead, aimed at his stomach.
He stepped sideways off nothing — air walk engaging at the last possible moment — and rolled in the air, coming up beside her descent and catching her with the spear shaft across the midsection as she passed. She hit it, absorbed the blow, and was already repositioning before she landed.
And attcked karn with her legs on his mouth
Take these karn used galactic laser through his hand and attcked delta she jumped and moved backword
"You still couldn't feel me," Delta said. Not frustrated — curious.
"Force field," Karn said.
"It eats everything someones throw."
"Most things," Zangika corrected, privately. "It can't hold indefinitely."
Delta smiled — the wide, genuine kind, not the professional one. She flexed her feet.
"Do you know how many men wants me to step on them?" she said. "I thought you might be the type."
"Even if I were," Karn said—
"What did you just say?" Zangika said.
"—this isn't the right place for it," Karn finished.
Delta laughed — short, genuine.
"You are a feisty one."
Meanwhile the spear nozzle had appeared at Karn's other hand. He fired a laser at Delta's feet — a precise, low-output line. She stepped over it.
"Tickles," she said.
He switched outputs. The nozzle built to maximum in under a second and discharged — a concentrated beam that hit the same spot and blew a crater into the stone beside Delta's foot. She moved fast enough to get clear, but the force threw her sideways and she had to use momentum to roll back to standing.
"Ow," Delta said, still smiling but not at the same intensity. "That one had some flavour."
* * *
The Prince
"Zangika. Fastest route to the prince."
"Sky walk and foot nozzles — combined output. We can exceed normal speed for a short window. Also do some damage on the way through."
"How short a window?"
"Short enough that it'll feel like it wasn't worth it after."
"Good enough."
Karn stood up from where he had landed. Across the chamber, Luchion, Leon, and Delta watched him — not relaxed, but steady. Reading him.
"What are you going to do now?" Delta asked.
He activated the foot nozzles. The drone propellers at the heel plates spun up — water fed through them under pressure, the torque building in under a second. He activated sky walk simultaneously.
He launched.
Luchion and Leon couldn't track it. Delta caught a glimpse — a streak of movement that registered only as displacement and then was already gone.
The pressurised water off the spinning nozzles sprayed outward in Luchion's direction as Karn passed — not enough to be a decisive strike, but the jet caught him across the face at high velocity and opened a cut along his cheek. Luchion stepped back sharply, hand going to his face.
Karn was already at the prince.
Lucia was still recovering from the ice. The prince himself — Edward — was on his feet but barely, blood on his forehead, one hand braced against the wall. Karn hit him in the midsection with his shoulder, carrying both of them sideways and down behind a rock formation as the position collapsed.
Lucia hit the boulder Karn had used as cover and slid down it, out for the moment.
Karn crouched beside the prince.
"My head feels wrong," Karn said.
"You exceeded the Shadow Nexus speed limit. The suit compensates for the force but the inertia still reaches you. Give it a moment."
Delta's voice from across the chamber:
"Interesting. Holding back and you can still move like that."
Luchion wiped the blood from his face. His expression hadn't changed.
"Who are you?" he said. "You don't look like you belong to the prince's kingdom."
"What should I tell them?" Karn muttered.
"How should I know? You're the one who ran at them."
He thought for a second. "What does the sacrifice have to do with the prince?"
Luchion's expression shifted slightly — controlled, but there.
"Why would we tell you anything about our plans regarding the sacrifice or the prince?" Luchion said.
"Usually the villain explains when the hero asks."
Delta tilted her head. Did you just call yourself the hero?
"What makes you different from us?" Luchion said. Not aggressive — genuine. "What makes you good and us bad?"
"I'm not taking a person to sacrifice them for something."
"And what makes him innocent?" Luchion said. The calm in his voice was the kind that has been held a long time. "Do you know what his father did to our people? How many of ours died? How many children?"
"There might be context I don't have," Karn said. "Maybe they had reasons. Maybe the people who died had—"
"Our children," Luchion said. "They just killed them. For body parts. For the stones our people carry. Not in war. Not for reasons. Because they could."
Karn was quiet for a moment.
"Your people did the same to theirs," he said. "That's what you said earlier."
"Your people killed ours for our body parts and our stones," Luchion said. "Hunting. Experiments. Slavery. Long before any of ours lifted a hand."
"I never did any of that."
"No," Luchion said. "You just showed up."
From the floor, a sound. Everyone looked.
Edward was awake.
"They're devils," he said. His voice was steady despite the blood still running from his forehead. "They evolved from the demon race. They know how to use mana."
"Devils," Karn repeated.
"A name your people gave us," Luchion said.
"The hunting — is it still happening?" Karn asked Edward.
Edward's jaw tightened. We only kill those that are dangerous. Those that have killed humans first.
"Liar." Luchion's voice didn't rise. "Your people have taken ours for experiments. For slavery. Long before any of ours ever raised a hand against you."
"And the same does your people," Edward said. "Our dead deserve the same weight as yours."
"It does not make you right," Luchion said simply. "It makes both of us wrong. That is all."
Nobody spoke for a moment.
Delta walked over to Lucia and helped her up without taking her eyes off Karn. Luchion still hadn't moved from where he was standing.
* * *
With the Prince
Edward was already on his feet. Breathing steady. Blood still on his forehead, but his eyes were sharp and focused.
"You good?" Karn asked.
"I've fought worse." Edward raised his sword — a clean, controlled motion, no flourish.
"Three targets," Zangika said. "Delta — speed type. Leon — mid-range pressure. Luchion — high threat, class unknown."
Karn smirked. "Sounds fun."
Delta vanished.
"LEFT—"
Almost too late. A blur of movement and then a claw raked across Karn's side — the Shadow Nexus absorbed it, sparks jumping at the contact point, but the force still rotated his body. He planted the spear and fired sideways, the recoil launching him clear and resetting his position. Delta reappeared in the space he'd just left and swept through empty air.
Edward moved without hesitation. He stepped forward, sword low, and swung — not at Delta but past her — and the aura wave that followed the blade swept outward in a wide arc, forcing her sideways to avoid it. The leading edge of the aura carved a clean split into the dungeon wall behind her.
Karn watched it for a fraction of a second. "Okay. Not bad."
Edward didn't acknowledge it. He was already moving again.
Leon stepped in from the side, weapon already spinning into its rhythm — the chain linking the two pointed ends pulling taut as the rotation built speed. Red arcs formed along the trajectory. He swung and released them in a horizontal spread — a dozen at close range, compact and fast.
"Incoming," Zangika said.
Karn spun the spear and opened the water output — the rotation threw a ring of pressurised water outward that intercepted most of the arcs and split them on contact. But one found the gap in the deflection angle and came through. Edward stepped into its path — sword up — and deflected it upward. It hit the ceiling and detonated into fragments of dissipating mana.
"Watch your flank," Edward said.
"You too," Karn said.
Delta reappeared — behind Edward this time. Karn didn't think about it. He fired a short burst and used the recoil to drag himself forward, slamming into Delta before her strike connected. Both of them went sideways together — Karn twisting mid-fall to get clear, Delta using the momentum to flip back to her feet.
He spun the spear and whipped a water arc at her side as she landed. It caught her across the hip and the force slid her two steps further than she intended.
"Fast," Karn said.
"Very," Zangika confirmed.
Luchion raised his hand. The black light gathered between his fingers — tight, contained, different from the beam he'd fired earlier. Denser.
"No—"
It discharged instantly — not a wide beam, a single straight line. Karn grabbed Edward's shoulder and shoved him sideways in the same motion that he moved himself. The beam passed between them and carved a deep furrow into the dungeon floor behind — a line so clean and so straight it looked machined.
Edward looked at it.
"That's not normal mana," he said.
"I noticed."
Leon came in again — closer this time, shorter chain, rapid strikes rather than arc barrage. Karn stepped inside the range before the arcs could build and drove a thrust into the space between Leon's guard. Leon twisted his body and the strike grazed him — Karn reversed grip immediately and fired point-blank, the concentrated jet clipping Leon's forearm. Blood sprayed. Leon jumped back and put distance between them, good hand going to the wound.
"Tch," Leon said.
Delta came again — above, straight down, all her speed concentrated into the drop. Edward was already there. He stepped — disappeared for a half-second — reappeared mid-air at Delta's level, sword raised vertical. His aura strike came down and Delta crossed her arms in an X-block, taking the force and riding it into the ground.
The impact cracked the stone under her feet. She was still smiling when the dust cleared.
"That's more like it," she said.
Karn landed beside Edward.
"You're holding back," Karn said.
"I'm injured." Edward didn't look at him. "And they aren't normal opponents."
"We're not winning this long-term," Zangika said. "Luchion's output is building with every exchange. The force field is at sixty percent. And Leon is recalibrating."
Karn clicked his tongue.
"Got an idea?"
"Yes. Risky."
"Say it."
"Combine the laser and the water output simultaneously at maximum. They're opposite force types at the same output level — they don't fuse, they cancel. Violently."
Karn blinked. They cancel out.
"Exactly."
"That's the plan."
"The cancellation doesn't vanish — it displaces. The energy has to go somewhere. I'm going to let it go as heat and steam. All at once."
A pause.
"Let's break physics a little," she said.
Karn grinned.
Edward glanced at him. What are you planning?
"You'll see. Trust me."
Edward looked at him for a moment. Then: "...Fine."
All three of them came at once.
Delta from the left, Leon from the right, Luchion's beam already forming. Three directions, three different kinds of force, timed to arrive at the same moment.
Karn planted his foot.
"Spear — maximum water pressure."
The water built — condensed beyond normal operating parameters, the pressure reading in the suit spiking fast.
"Galactic laser — partial release. Now."
The beam formed alongside the pressurised water at the spear tip — both outputs running simultaneously, pressing against each other, the interaction building at the nozzle point.
Karn thrust forward.
For a half second nothing happened.
BOOOOM.
The cancellation discharged as a shockwave first — the force rippling outward and knocking everyone in the chamber back simultaneously, Delta stumbling mid-run, Leon's chain going slack, Luchion's beam breaking off as his stance broke.
Then the steam.
Not a cloud — a wall. Dense, superheated, it expanded from the point of discharge and filled the entire dungeon chamber in under two seconds, driving into every corner and gap. Visibility dropped to zero. Sound dampened. The temperature spiked and then equalised as the steam dispersed outward, replacing every visible thing with a thick white nothing.
Delta stopped moving. She couldn't see her own hand.
"What?" she said.
Leon swung blindly — the arc dissipating almost immediately in the dense air with nothing to carry it.
Luchion went still. He couldn't sense anything through the fog.
"Move," Zangika said. "Now."
Karn grabbed Edward's shoulder and fired backward. The burst launched both of them deep into the fog — no light, no sound from the three, no direction except the path Zangika had mapped before the steam went up. They moved through it at a run, footsteps quiet, breathing controlled.
Behind them — nothing. The three hadn't moved to follow. The steam had taken away every advantage that required visibility and Luchion was too precise to fire blind.
They moved through broken passages and upward — away from the fog, away from the floor, back through the dungeon until the air cleared and the sound of the steam chamber faded behind them.
They slowed.
Edward leaned against the wall. His breathing was even, but the wound on his forehead had been running freely the whole time and his face was pale. He looked at Karn.
"You saved me," he said.
"Don't mention it."
"...You're injured too," Zangika said. "Let me."
Karn held out the coat — something from the void space — and the suit dispensed medicine onto it. He pressed it to the gash on Edward's head. The prince looked at it with the expression of someone deciding how much trust to extend to a stranger in a dungeon.
"What is that?" he asked.
"A little magic," Karn said. "Let it work."
The medicine began closing the wound — not instantly, but steadily, the bleeding slowing and stopping, the cut edges drawing together. Edward's posture straightened incrementally as it worked.
"You should be able to stand properly now," Karn said. "But you need a real doctor."
"I'll manage." Edward straightened fully. He extended his hand — not a casual gesture, something deliberate. "My name is Edward. Prince of the Sathvania Dukedom."
"Tell him your name," Zangika said.
"Nexus," Karn said.
Edward nodded once. He reached into a fold of his jacket and produced a small coin — formal seal on one face, the Sathvania crest on the other — and pressed it into Karn's hand.
"If you ever need anything that my house can provide," he said, "show that to anyone in my service."
Light gathered below Edward's feet before Karn could respond — a circle of pale gold, complex, layered. A teleportation formation.
Karn stepped back.
"Of course," he said.
Edward looked at him one last time.
"We will meet again," he said.
Then the circle closed and he was gone.
The dungeon corridor was quiet. Just stone and the distant drip of water somewhere further down.
Karn stood with the coin in his hand.
"You made a prince friend," Zangika said softly.
"We almost got completely destroyed," Karn said.
"Both things can be true."
He pocketed the coin. Looked back down the corridor in the direction they'd come from.
"Luchion's laser," he said. "That black energy. You felt it."
"Yes."
"Same class as what we've been losing suit integrity to?"
"Close. Not identical, but in the same family. Whatever the devils carry — it interacts with Nexnium in ways I'm still mapping." A pause. "The blacksmith conversation is more urgent than I thought."
"Tomorrow," Karn said.
He turned and started walking toward the exit. The coin was warm in his pocket.
"At least we're alive," he said.
"At least," Zangika agreed.
A beat.
"You almost complimented Delta."
"I was making conversation."
"You said 'even if I were'."
"That's called rhetoric."
"I have it on record."
"Then delete the record."
"I will not be doing that."
He kept walking.
End of Chapter 20