Copper Heaven’s Glory disciple looked very uncertain, glancing over Eithan’s shoulder at Elder Rahm, but he quickly looked back to Eithan’s face. “This one was coming to tell the Elder that our envoy departed on time.”
With strands of his bloodline power, Eithan watched the Elder behind him. The old man stared furiously at Eithan’s back, gathering aura of fire and light.
A Ruler attack was the correct tool to use against Eithan, but the Sacred Valley Jade didn’t know that. Eithan raised his voice. “Don’t make a mistake you’ll regret, Elder Rahm.”
Rahm froze in the middle of his Ruler technique, then stubbornly continued pulling it together.
Something the Copper had said caught Eithan’s attention. “I’m sorry, young man. Your envoy to whom?”
“To…to the Wei clan.”
Lindon and Yerin were at the Wei clan. Eithan had just received a garbled transmission in Dross’ voice that he suspected meant the clan was on its way.
Heaven’s Glory had found out first and enacted a plan. That was galling. Eithan preferred to be the better-informed one.
“You’ve done a bad thing, Elder Rahm,” Eithan said as he slowly turned around.
“Not yet.”
The Ruler technique snapped into place. It was crude, but as soon as it completed, Eithan felt a genuine spike of alarm.
It wasn’t aimed at him.
A line of light focused on the wooden house.
Where the focused sunlight streamed down from heaven and touched the wood, flames leaped up as though the house had been soaked in lamp-oil.
Screams came from inside, but it would take a moment before the fire reached them. They could escape.
Eithan had already dashed back, seizing Rahm by the front of his robe. “What is this?” he asked quietly.
Elder Rahm’s jaw remained stubbornly shut, but there was a gleam of hatred in his eyes.
Heaven’s Glory members had filtered out from all over to watch. They muttered about the fire, but their attention was focused on Eithan.
He had come here prepared to be betrayed. If they all jumped him at once, he could still walk out with ease.
But now, he would have to abandon people under his protection.
A Kazan prisoner stumbled out of the door, but a line of Heaven’s Glory madra streaked in front of him, burning through the doorframe and setting it on fire. The prisoner staggered back, then turned to find another exit. The fire hadn’t spread fully yet. He could escape.
More Striker techniques poured in from the bystanders.
They couldn’t fight him.
But they defied him now.
Eithan turned his attention back to Rahm. “You would rather die than let them leave?”
“Rather die than bow to you.”
Eithan watched the old man’s face, and it was as though he saw Rahm through a new lens. He looked alien, like he had transformed into something other than human.
But he hadn’t changed. This was what people had always been like.
“Very well,” Eithan said.
He shoved Rahm back two steps, where a star from the Hollow King’s Crown hung in the air like a blue-white jewel. The Jade looked up.
The pure madra blasted down, spearing him through the soul.
His Remnant slowly split itself in half as it tried to rise, but Eithan had turned his attention to the rest of Heaven’s Glory. They had piled Striker and Ruler techniques onto the house, openly defying him, and still none had dared to actually attack him.
With his powers restricted, their numbers mattered. They could overwhelm him if they figured out something that would penetrate his Archlord body. Once he ran out of his weak and limited madra, anyway.
He could still leave, regroup with Lindon and Yerin, and together they would plow through the Heaven’s Glory School.
He would just have to leave twelve people in a burning building.
Eithan had made that choice long ago.
He stripped his turquoise outer robe, letting it fall to the snow. Before it landed, he’d reached an Iron Ruler holding sword and shield.
One twist, and the man’s arm was broken, his sword falling. Eithan reversed it, shattering his shin with the hilt.
A Striker technique lanced through the air where Eithan’s head had been a second ago. He stood in front of the Striker who’d launched it, breaking the woman’s jaw with the flat of his new sword.
A trio of Enforcers approached together.
Seconds later, when he was done with them, he stood over their groaning, bleeding, but still-living forms with blood spattered all over his face.
“Anyone who comes into that building with me will be forgiven,” Eithan said.
Several Heaven’s Glory ran away. Most people peeked around corners, unwilling to get closer. The house was all but consumed by fire now.
Eithan