Standing there with nothing to do but watch Elmidath’s expression shift during her silent communion was surreal. Though from the faces she was making, what she was going through her mind was far more unpleasant. Had it been that bad for me? My thoughts had been so scattered at the time that I could barely remember what I’d felt. I remembered being shaken but relieved when it was all over, but not much beyond that. When she was done, she released the sword and sunk to her knees. Her eyes were watering and she hurriedly brushed away her tears.

I would have preferred to give her some time to compose herself, but that sort of consideration was a luxury at this point. “Now do you see?”

“That’s what’s in his head…?”

“Yep.”

I offered her my hand, but she ignored it and stood up unassisted. “And there’s no way we can get rid of it.”

“Nope. For all intents and purposes, he never came back to life at all, just something wearing his face.” I don’t think what I was saying was technically true, but if she was willing to believe it… It should make things easier for her.

“You’re right.” She flexed her gauntleted hand. “Let’s go then.”

I considered making a joke about her being two for two on killing her relatives if this went well, but immediately dismissed it as being in exceptionally poor taste. It would also be damn stupid to risk losing her support at this stage, especially after I’d tried so hard to get in the first place. Now that Shotensho was drained, this was going to be pretty much all her. Hopefully that would be enough.

I strode toward the house where I struggled to get the shuddering door open. Once I did, I held it open for Elmidath to get inside and peered in. Her father hadn’t moved an inch, he was still sitting in the middle of the circles. The only thing that had changed was his appearance, now he was covered in a coat of writhing shadow which spilled out across the floor around him.

No matter how violently his body moved, the shadows remained tethered to the shard in their host’s head and to the ground, keeping him in place. Destroying the hard was clearly the best option, but I couldn’t see any easy way to do that. I sighed. “We’re need to rip it out.” Elmidath bit her lip, hesitating. She must realise he probably wouldn’t survive the process. Well, I could handle at least this much. “Don’t worry, I’ll do it.”

When I was at the edge of the first circle, a thin rapidly rising wall extended upward from each circle. I tried to go over them and they curved inward until they’d formed a perfect dome to cover their host. I swore and pounded on it with my fist, before trying the pommel of my sword. Climbing up, I tried all over it hoping there might be a weak point somewhere.

After failing to make any impression on the hard stone, and I decided it was time to try something else. I’d hoped it might be as simple as walking up to him and pulling out the shard with my bare hands, but the tunnel-being wasn’t going to make things that easy. It was hard to say how aware it had been of our intentions before, but now it knew we were trying to stop it. “Elmidath, can you do something about this?”

“I can try.” She took a deep breath. “Get out of the way.”

I hopped off and moved away from the dome. Once I was clear, blood poured forth from Elmidath’s gauntlet and formed into a long, thin shape with a ball on the end. It flowed across the ground until it extended several strides behind Elmidath. The thin cord snapped around and sent the ball at the end flying toward the dome. Stone splinters clattered to the ground from the impact and she drew it back for another blow.

It was whistling through the air when the walls receded back into the ground, leaving the ball to swing through empty air before slamming down and cracking the ground. The waves of energy disappeared along with the walls. Elmidath’s father reappeared, standing and changed once more. The darkness surrounding him was no longer just a coat, now it was woven into his very flesh, making him look far larger than before. Composed more of shadow than flesh and blood, Elmidath’s father gave us a stern look. “What do you think you’re doing? Stop this nonsense at once.”

Even in the face of paternal disapproval, Elmidath held her ground. “I can’t do that; you need to be stopped.”

“I am your father; you will obey me.”

“No, you’re not. Not anymore. I don’t know how much of the real you is left in there, but you’re not the same person anymore and I have no reason to listen to you.”

He shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m as much myself as I ever was.” The wider mantle of shadow following in his wake, he swept his arm in a sharp gesture. “Now leave me before I’m forced to do something we’ll both regret. Come back when you’re regained your senses, until then I don’t want to lay eyes on you.”

Elmidath’s only reply was to draw back her weapon, readying it to strike again. I had to give it to her, for all her flaws she was definitely determined once she set mind to something. Even if that thing was patricide. She let out a wordless cry and swung the ball at him. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I just clutched my sword and waited. Though the ball at the end of Elmidath’s weapon moved quickly, the trajectory was relatively predictable and her father stepped out the way with ease.

Once the line of blood attached to it whipped past him he stomped down on it, rendering the whole thing immobile. But this was no normal weapon; it reverted back to liquid and raced up his leg. Before it got beyond his knee, a thick layer of stone appeared around him and the blood lost contact with his body. Clad from head-to-toe in stone and shadow, her father advanced toward Elmidath. I doubted my sword would be much use here, but I interposed myself between the two. Maybe I could at least buy time for Elmidath to do something.

He stopped just outside the range of my sword. “Move aside.” Adjusting my grip, I stayed right where I was. “I have no problem with taking your life, move.”

“Yeah, well…” I paused, trying to think of something. “I do have a problem with that.” It was a lame retort, but it was the best I could come up with in the moment.

He thrust his hand forward and a sharp spike of stone shot toward my head. Ducking, I cursed; he really was trying to kill me. As it was passing over me, the tip curved sharply downward and speared me through the leg from behind. I yelped and tried to pulled my leg off the spike, but it wouldn’t come free; the stone spike was caught in the wound somehow. Forming what was essentially a hammer, Elmidath brought it down on the length of stone a few inches from my body.

It broke, but that did nothing to help me with the damage that had already been done. Gritting my teeth, I reached down and tore the remainder out of my leg. It was painful, but not nearly as much as I would have expected. God bless adrenaline. Seeing that Elmidath’s father was still keeping his distance, I moved forward to meet him. There was no point waiting when all I had was a sword and he could attack at a distance. Before I could get within range a low line of stone swept across the ground toward me.

I leapt over it and swung my blade at him while he raised his arm to protect his face. The sword struck his stone armour and bounced off. I’d expected as much; a sword was a poor tool for cutting rock. Dropping my weapon, I grabbed him by the waist. His armour slowed his movements enough that he had no chance to escape. While I may not be able to hurt him, I could at least immobilise him. The former Lord had probably been a large man once, but now he was a scrawny little thing. As I was pulling him to the ground, I felt something tear into my hands.

I reflexively let go and pulled back, looking down at my hands. Blood oozed from a series of deep cuts across my palms and my hands were already red with it. It didn’t hurt that much, not yet, but I stifled a cry at the seeing my own body in such a horrible state. Recognising that it was best to ignore them for now, I focused on the man who’d done this instead. It gave me plenty of motivation to kill him but… I didn’t have a good way to do that. While I was hesitating, Elmidath’s voice came to me over our link. “Get out of the way.”

I threw myself aside, narrowly avoiding the vertical sheet of blood that sped past. Her father covered his face with his arms, but the blood slipped around them to the only vulnerable part of his body. The red-orange tide obscured his head and most of his body. Arms flailing, he fell to the floor and… sunk into it. The stone beneath him flowed like water, and he disappeared into the floor. Watching the whole room, I watched as best I could, expecting him to reappear. But there was no sign of him. “What now?”

Elmidath pointed at me across the bloodstained floor. “Come with me. If we can’t destroy him, and I don’t think that was enough to kill him, we’ll just have to destroy this place. That should be enough to mess up his plans.”

I looked at the sturdy stone structure around me. “And how are we supposed to do that?”

“Remember that solution Tagath was working on? The one that could dissolve things? If we put that at the base of the central column, we can probably destroy the whole manor.”

I winced; my hands felt like they were on fire, though the bleeding had slowed.“You mean we have to go back down there?’

Pale-faced, the young woman gave me a pained smile. “It’s a bit too late to be getting scared now.”