The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4) Read online

  “Is that not what you wanted to speak about?” She looked at me for a moment longer. “I have no claim over you, Arthur. It really is okay with me.”

  “That is one hundred percent not what I wanted to talk about,” I said, waving my hand dismissively.

  “You didn’t come here to apologize?” Hurt flashed through her eyes.

  “Um…” I said because I was a master of oratory function.

  “You didn’t.” She sighed. “I’d thought…” She shook her head. “What did you come for?” She did a very good job of hiding how upset she was.

  I stood there for a moment and realized I had two roads I could travel down. One would be to address the elephant in the room, and the other would be to ignore it and go on.

  “This isn’t working for me,” I said, going with option B because feelings were hard.

  “What isn’t working for you?” Michelle asked, and she seemed genuinely concerned. “Is it the lack of sex? Is that why you were with Uriel in such an obvious way.” She looked at her feet. “I know I haven’t taken care of your needs, but I’ve never done that sort of thing before…”

  “That isn’t what I’m talking about at all.” I made a time-out gesture. “I one hundred percent do not want to talk about sex or relationships or any of that stuff with you right now. Maybe later, but not right now.”

  Michelle looked at me for a moment. “Okay.” There was a lot of pain in her eyes, and it hit me like a punch to the gut. I was hurting her despite trying very hard not to hurt her. “What do you wish to speak to me about?”

  “We need to vastly open up trade with Hell.” I gestured to the soldiers. “Your soldiers are a billion times better than those in Hell, but after that you have nothing. We need crafters, supplies, tools.”

  “I have allowed you to bring four people here.” She looked at me quizzically. “Do you need more?”

  “Fuck yes.” I rubbed my face with my hands. “Do you need more than four soldiers?”

  “Depends on the situation,” she mused, watching her angels run. “But I see your point.” She frowned. “I dislike it though.”

  “How do you feel about Gabriella?” I asked, turning and pointing toward the Darkness. “Because Dred has her and is doing god knows what to her. Don’t you want to save her?”

  “I do.” Michelle sighed. “But what does that have to do with letting demons and the like up here?”

  “I need to complete the achievements to get enough power to stop Dred. Once that happens, you, Phanuel, Uriel, and the others can mark me, and I’ll be strong enough to save her.” Michelle stopped me with a wave of her hand.

  “We spoke about that. An army, not a lone warrior is what we need.” Michelle gestured to the girls. “I am building you the army.”

  “And they need better armor and weapons.” I moved forward and poked her hard on the right hip. “And don’t you want to be free of that mark? Of that link to Dred.”

  She looked down at my finger and took a long, slow breath. “Yes.”

  “Then trust me, Michelle. We need to get the achievements done.” I smiled at her. “I’m not saying to stop what you’re doing. I’m saying we need to do more, work harder in addition to smarter. If we can do both, we’ll win.”

  “Okay.” Michelle nodded. “There is a problem though. Even if I allowed the demonic crafters to come here and work, we cannot afford to pay for the work.” She pulled out a piece of parchment and showed it to me, and I was surprised out how reasonable it seemed at first glance given it looked like Buffy’s handwriting.

  “That’s easy.” I glanced over at her girls. “Hell needs warriors. Trade them. The rest is details, and I bet Buffy can figure it out.”

  “You want me to send my angels down to Hell to work as guards?” Michelle didn’t seem to like that idea. I could tell in the way her body stiffened and her voice became clipped.

  “And have Hell’s guards come here for training. You’re clearly a lot better at it than them.” I took a deep breath. “It’s like Athens and Sparta.”

  “Athens and Sparta?” Michelle repeated, obviously confused.

  “Back in ancient Greece, Sparta was a military powerhouse while Athens produced trade, and inventions, and all those other things a society needs. Individually they were lacking, sure, but together they were much stronger.” I pointed at her. “You’re Sparta. You need to ally with Athens.”

  “Fine,” Michelle said, and she actually seemed less upset than I expected. “I will send my warriors down there to teach them, and in return, I will agree to allow their people to come here to rebuild.” She looked over at me. “That just leaves one more problem.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, wondering what she was talking about and really hoping we weren’t about to have another sex talk.

  “Only an archangel can ferry people between Heaven and Hell. How will you fix that problem because I’ve barely managed to do the trips I do now with what little time I have? I cannot afford to spend more time as a ferrywoman.” Michelle was right, but as I stared at her, I had a horrible, awful idea.

  “Oh, I think I know how to fix that,” I said, grinning at her, and when she made a motion for me to go on, I continued, “Do you know where Phanuel is?”

  22

  “Good luck,” I said, leaving Buffy and Phanuel to figure out the details of the whole Heaven and Hell trade merger thing. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it would work out in the end, but either way, I was feeling pretty good about myself. With Phanuel to constantly ferry goods and people between Heaven and Hell, that would fix two problems. The first, of course, was that we’d have someone to do the job. The second was that no one seemed to want the Archangel of Peace around.

  Still, Buffy seemed to like the archangel well enough, and as I left them to do whatever it was they were going to do, I hoped their friendship would last until we got Heaven up and running.

  It was actually kind of nice because as I walked back through town on my way to visit Raphael, a runner had come and told me she wanted to meet with me, I could see what Heaven would look like.

  Once all the rubble was moved away, there’d be a trading post right there, along with a few other shops like a cobbler and a haberdashery. Truth be told, I had no idea what they did exactly, but I did know from the plans I’d seen that one they gave bonuses to shoes and hats.

  That said, we were a long way from that point. Even with the demon salvage team Buffy had already brought up, it’d take a few days to clear the broken buildings and tear down the damages structures that couldn’t be easily repaired. Then there was sorting and refining.

  I almost didn’t want to think about all the work left to be done, especially since I needed to find some Heavenly Gold for the gate, but that could wait until after I spoke to Raphael.

  The door opened before I even knocked on it and I found Raphael standing there looking like she’d been about to leave.

  “Finally,” she heaved, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me inside. “I was about to go get you myself.” She shook her head. “Didn’t my assistant tell you it was urgent?”

  “She did, but everything is urgent,” I said with a shrug. “That makes nothing urgent.”

  “I found a clue about an achievement.” Raphael stopped and looked at me. “I figured you’d want to know, but if you don’t…”

  “I do, sorry.” I wiped my brow with my free hand. “Sorry. It’s been a long few days. I can barely remember the last time I slept. Between planning, and upgrading skills, I’ve gotten pretty rundown.” I tried to smile. “Still, none of that is your fault.”

  “Indeed.” She pushed her glasses up her nose. “Anyway, I think I know where you have to go to complete the Those who were Lost are Found achievement.”

  “That’s the one about the hidden army of warriors, right?” I asked, trying to remember. It was hard because I only saw updates for the achievements when the percentage complete increased, otherwise, unless I was looking at the page in the book, I h
ad no way of knowing how far I’d progressed.

  “Yes.” Raphael nodded. “There’s just one minor problem.”

  “Oh?” I asked, looking at her. “What’s that?”

  “You need to go to the Plains of Desolation to find them.” She looked at her feet. “That’s not an ironic name either like Iceland.”

  “Why would it be,” I said with a sigh. “What’s there that’s so bad?”

  “I have no idea,” Raphael swallowed. “It was overtaken by Darkness centuries ago.”

  “This gets better and better,” I said, rubbing my chin. “What do you know about it?”

  “Not a lot. It was a place for warriors to go to test their mettle. I’ve never gone, but Michelle has. She’d be the person to ask.” Raphael gave me a small smile. “I can give you a map though. To the Plains of Desolation, that is.”

  “That would be great,” I said, and before I could thank her further, she handed me a piece of rolled up parchment.

  “I’ve enchanted it, so it should show where you are in relation to the plains in real-time.” Raphael turned like she was ready to leave. “I’ll try to find out more about the other achievements in the meanwhile.” With that, she disappeared into her study, leaving me standing there in the hallway. I thought about following her, but honestly, what was the point? I had what I needed.

  No, it would be better to find Michelle, get a small contingent of soldiers and go kick the Darkness’s ass.

  Finding my own way out, I quickly made my way to the battleground. Michelle was there, as per usual, only she now had several demons mixed in among her angels, and from the look of things, the demons were struggling to keep up. Worse, I knew Michelle wouldn’t cut them any slack.

  “If any of you thinks it’s too hard, feel free to go back to Hell,” Michelle said, boredom filling her voice. “Otherwise pick up your pansy asses and run.” She whipped her flaming whip-sword through the air eliciting a sharp crack. “Now move it.” She glanced at another angel, a girl with blue-green hair that fell about her shoulders like seafoam. “Keep pace.”

  The angel nodded before taking off after the running demons, blowing her whistle like it was her job.

  “If you’ve come to see the prospects, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” Michelle turned to me, addressing me in that uncanny way she always did when I approached. “I’ll be surprised if there’s any potential between the lot of them.” She shook her head. “I find it disgusting that the denizens of Hell are so soft.”

  “In their defense, they make really good doughnuts.” I shrugged.

  “Great. When their entrails are spread across the battlefield, I’m sure that will come as a quiet comfort.” Michelle sighed. “What do you need now? Do you wish to turn my glorious city into a latrine in exchange for additional funding?”

  “Is that a joke?” I asked, confused.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Your goblin proposed that.”

  I almost laughed but caught myself. Michelle was barely okay with this, so I found it hard to believe Buffy would propose such a thing.

  “Why?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “Something about creating viable farmland by covering it in shit.” Michelle held her nose. “Unthinkable.”

  “Oh.” I thought about explaining further but figured whatever farming representative Buffy brought from down below could handle that. So far as I knew, the angels didn’t really have any form of agriculture. Instead, they mostly subsisted on foraging for wild berries and roots and off the flesh of slain Darkness warriors. Yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds. Roots and berries were gross.

  “If you’re not here to talk me into the cesspool, why are you here, Arthur?” She glanced at the sprinting demons. “I really doubt you care to see their progress.”

  “I came to ask you about the Plains of Desolation.” As I said the words, Michelle’s face hardened.

  “Why?” That single word was so angry, it actually took me a moment to process.

  “Um… Raphael said I needed to go there to complete an achievement—”

  “Then you should consider it lost.” She squared herself like she was getting ready for a fight. “Even if it wasn’t overrun by Darkness, you would not be able to complete the trials within.” She looked at her shoes. “Neither Uriel nor I could do it.” She blew out a long breath. “Dred got close, but still he failed too.”

  “Wait, Dred has been there?” I asked, confused.

  “Yes.” Michelle nodded. “Before he was a champion of the Darkness, he sought to overcome the ritual despite my best efforts to tell him otherwise. He joined the Darkness shortly after.”

  “Are you worried I will fall to the Darkness too?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Because that’s never going to happen.” I made a fist. “I want to beat the Darkness.”

  “As did Dred, once upon a time.” Michelle met my eyes, and there was real pain there. “You do not know what the trial is like, Arthur. Once you are within the Plains of Desolation, you will be all alone with only your strength and wits to save you.”

  “Then tell me what to expect. Help me win.”

  “I cannot.” She shook her head. “It is different for all who step within.”

  “Oh.” I took a deep breath. On the one hand, that worried me, and not just because of what Michelle had told me. I was worried because I needed to complete this achievement or I wouldn’t be able to save Gabriella. That meant I had to go in there and try. No. I had to go in there and win. Trying wouldn’t be enough.

  Worse, I had no way to prepare for it. That seemed like a recipe for disaster.

  “I can see you’re scared.” Michelle put a hand on my shoulder. “That is good. You should be fearful.” She swallowed and shut her eyes. “You should figure out another way to save Gabriella.”

  “There’s a reason it’s an achievement no one has gotten before.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “If it were easy, you would have succeeded. Uriel would have succeeded, and Dred would have succeeded.”

  “Do you think you can do what we could not? That you are so much better?” The eyes of the Archangel of Justice narrowed.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I do think I’m different though, and you said the trial changes based upon who faces it. Maybe mine will be one I can defeat.”

  “It is a nice thought, but you are wrong.” Michelle shook her head. “I want to admonish you, to tell you no.” She sighed. “But I also want you to win, Arthur. Maybe you will win. I do not think so, but lately, I have done many things I thought I never would.” Her cheeks reddened. “If you decide to go, you must promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?” I asked as she looked me up and down before settling her gaze on Caliburn.

  “You will win.”

  23

  It didn’t take long to arrive at the Plains of Desolation, in part, because Michelle carried me. She’d barely spoke during the entire hour-long trek and, after dropping me off, made her way to a small tree and sat down beneath it.

  Still, I’d learned something during the trip. Heaven was bigger than I expected. It had seemed small because everything was centralized within the gates, but Heaven was a vast place, easily as large as Hell, and there were tons of resources once you got a few miles outside the gates. It seemed that what I’d called Heaven was just a tiny bulwark right at the edge of the Darkness, and behind it was miles and miles of uninhabited territory.

  Sure, there had been splotches of Darkness peppering the lands, but it hadn’t been like Hell where the Darkness seemed to come from everywhere.

  Or at least it hadn’t been until I’d reached the Plains of Desolation. Now I stood at the threshold of a border with the Darkness, and while I couldn’t see through it, I could feel the cold, insatiable hunger within.

  “This is your last chance to turn back,” Michelle said before taking a bite of the apple she’d plucked from the tree. “I will not think ill of you if you do.” She shook her head. “It is not cowar
dice to run from a fight you cannot win. It is wisdom.”

  “Yeah, well, the last angel who claimed to be wise joined the Darkness.” I shrugged, turning away from her and stared at the border. It was now or never. “Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck, Arthur. May you succeed where all others have failed.” As Michelle’s words filled my ears, I stepped across the threshold.

  Nothing happened. Well, nothing like the normal scenario happened. Usually, when I entered the Darkness’s lands, it was like being teleported to some other place. This wasn’t like that at all. Instead, it just felt like a colder version of where I’d been. Trees and whatnot still littered the countryside, and as I glanced over my shoulder, I realized I could see through the veil.

  Michelle sat there, staring at me with concern etched onto her face as though she could see me. I wasn’t sure if she could actually see me or not but was leaning toward not, since when I had waved to her, nothing had happened.

  Well, either way, it was time to do this. Gripping Caliburn, I pulled the blade free and ventured forth.

  The Plains of Desolation reminded me of the Graveyard of Statues in that it had twelve statues of what looked like medieval knights all around, but that was the only similarity. Worse, as I crept around, while the feeling of unease and dread filled my belly, I didn’t see a single enemy.

  I also couldn’t see any tooltips or menu icons next to the closest statue, nor any of the others. Making my way to the statue, I knelt down in front of it and tried to read the inscription on the base. Unfortunately, it was all in that same angelic gibberish I’d seen all throughout Heaven.

  “I wonder what it says,” I mumbled, standing up and looking at the eight-foot tall statue once more. It was of an armored man with long hair. He held a giant shield in one hand, and his other gripped a large claymore that rested over his shoulder. His eyes stared off into the distance like he was scanning the horizon for threats.

  “Who are you?” A voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere. It was the crashing wave, the grinding rock, the crackling fire.