Unlike the Golden Tower, which had been a twelve-story architectural marvel, made of carefully cut masonry and framed by statues and supported by flying buttresses, the Lucent Shard had almost no marks that indicated it had ever been touched by man. It stood against the horizon like an eight-story blade, made of a strange pale blue crystal that the Ebon Blade couldn't place. That was visually stunning, though, was the least important part about it, because when it looked at its essence flows, despite all the damage they'd done to the local ley lines, the thing still glowed like a beacon.

That had more to do with the tower than the landscape, though. The mad archmage who'd created the spire with a single spell had died in the process, creating an object that was made to focus and store power. If Archmagus Grevolous had survived, they would have built many more of these monstrosities, it whispered to its wielder, annoyed that it knew so much about the history of the Aetharchy at this point.

As a result, the threads that wove the thing together glowed. They weren't as bright as the golden throne had been, perhaps, but there was a huge amount of energy there. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to take it down from the outside. The Golden Tower had a structural weak point, in the form of its architecture, whereas this structure had walls that were thicker than its blade, at least at the base, so there would be no repeating their previous success.

Fortunately, its wielder had a few novel ideas which mostly revolved around subterfuge and slaughter. Lucian wanted to sneak in, deliver alarming rumors that would send some portion of the best mages far away to investigate, and then carve a bloody streak through the place while most people were sleeping. It wasn't the worst plan, but it had a few problems.

How would he attract enough notice for it to work, but avoid enough scrutiny for them not to see right through his forged introduction letter? How would he hide a giant sword that was almost certainly at the forefront of everyone's mind? To the blade, wearing the robes of an apprentice was much less convincing than the guise of a beggar, but that was unlikely to work half so well at a large tower as it did at a small one.

The only one of those that the weapon could readily resolve was to purchase Shifting Blade 4, for 4,000 Life Force. That let it appear to be something else of similar size for a short time, which might be useful in any number of circumstances, but that might not be enough, and the weapon still argued in favor of a direct assault.

Shifting Blade 4: In addition to previous powers granted by this power, the blade or its wielder may alter their appearance completely to a convincing alternative of similar size at the cost of 10 Life Force a minute. Striking or being struck in combat will nullify this power and prevent its reuse for several seconds.

Eventually, someone is going to make some noise and wake everyone else up, the blade insisted.

"They're going to try," Lucian agreed. "Fortunately, I have a spell for that. Shroud of Silence is something most apprentices learn but never use, because it would hurt them more than most of their enemies. It's a spell thats mostly used to cripple magic users, but it also has the side effect of covering up the sounds of combat quite nicely."

It was a fine plan, but unfortunately for both of them, it didn't survive much past the front door, because even though its wielder had done nothing provocative yet, and was still in the business of ingratiating himself with those in power, a keen eyed mage saw right through him, and launched a bolt of pure force while he was standing down the hallway.

He hadn't asked any questions. He'd just seen the blade through the obscuring magics it was using to pretend to be a wizard's staff, and started casting a spell while Lucian was speaking with two other mages just inside the tower door.

The spell was powerful and well aimed. It was a blade that would have severed Lucian's spine and blown a crater in his chest where his heart should have been. Unfortunately for the sharp-eyed mage, though, the blade watched the whole ambush play out, and when the bolt of leaden light came at its wielder, the blade moved his arm and parried in a clean motion that became a slash that decapitated the other two mages as the illusion failed and in became a black sword with throbbing red runes once more.

+79 Life Force. +2 Human Souls.

"That didn't go like I'd hoped," Lucian said as he ignored the corpses and whirled on his attacker. Those were the last words that anyone in that hall said, because even as several other apprentices started casting spells of their own, and another mage let loose a gout of flame now that the Ebon Blade had appeared Lucian activated the Shroud of Silence he'd been holding in reserve this whole time, and put the world on mute, snuffing every spell in progress in an instant as flames splashed around him.

Now this is an ability I'd consider as a secondary enchantment if I could find an item imbued with it, the blade told itself as Lucian sprang forward to cleave through those closest to him.

They were in a bad situation now, but they were committed, for better or worse. If they tried to flee, the tower's defenses would be used against them, but if they stayed for too long and word of their location reached the Golden Throne, then the entire structure might be leveled and become their tomb.

+44 Life Force. +1 Human Souls.

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So, they moved quickly and efficiently, going into side rooms whenever the blade saw threads that led to mages and their servants, and ignoring them when it didn't, continuing on to the next floor. The layout of the tower was somewhat confusing due to the fluid, organic structures. Fortunately, the blade could see right through the walls, so it didn't get lost as they pressed on.

+228 Life Force. +6 Human Souls.

Twice, mages used counterspells to shatter the silence that wrapped them, bringing the violence to life in an instant, but both times it hacked apart the brave mages before they did more than wound its wielder with the opening. They were on the third floor of the tower when the same protective barriers that had tried and failed to protect the Golden Tower flared to life, wrapping the Lucent shard in a barrier of cyan light.

+598 Life Force. +12 Human Souls.

Why activate the barrier now? Lucian asked. It can't keep us out. We're already inside.

They don't want to keep us out. They want to keep us in, for whatever it is they have planned, the blade corrected him. We'll need to hurry.

Those words weren't proven to be right until they reached the sixth floor. Then, some tectonic blow struck the barrier, making it shake enough that Lucian almost lost his footing as the giant structure swayed dangerously. They'd killed dozens of mages and apprentices so far, but that was the first time he'd almost lost his footing.

+711 Life Force. +14 Human Souls.

As they moved toward the second-to-last floor, the weapon looked outside and saw a crater carved deep into the earth just outside the barrier. It had just enough time to wonder if the tower's defenses had thwarted the intended ambush, but no sooner had that thought crossed its mind than it noted that there was a small, gown-clad figure standing in that crater.

Who is that? It asked itself. Before it could do more than study how brightly she glowed, though, Lucian had run up the stairs, and the curve of the tower obscured her.

We need to leave. Now, the blade told its wielder. We need to get out of here. Whoever that was… she has a great deal of power. It will not end well for us if we remain much longer.

We can't, its wielder explained. Not until we drop the barrier, and to do that, we have to kill the archmage of the tower and whoever he's holed up with on the top floor. She shouldn't be able to do anything to us until then either, though, so it's fine.

+412 Life Force. +8 Human Souls.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the blade said, as they pressed on.

The two of them made it to the seventh floor without much issue, but after that, the silence that had served them so well was ended for good. Whether that was the fault of the archmage that lay ahead, or some new artifact on the floor above them, the blade could not say. It really didn't even have much time to speculate because the mages that had fled before them up until now had dug in hard on the penultimate level. This time, they weren't bombarding Lucian with magic bolts; they were sending waves of summoned creatures at him.

Swarms of imps came at him, tearing tiny mouthfuls of flesh from his body in a bid to distract him and allow the hellhounds, elementals, and other, stranger demons that charged down the hallway to close the gap. It was a bloody, maddening scene, and the blade reveled in it. It had to take more control of its wielder than it would have liked, but against a tide of violence, every stroke mattered, and it danced a dance of blood and death.

+909 Life Force. +5 Human Souls.

The blade was surprised that it gained Life Force when it killed the summoned creatures, but that none of them seemed to have souls. They didn't taste very good, either. The elementals were merely form imbued with essence, but the demons tasted poisonous whenever is sliced through them; still, none of that distracted it.

In fact, it enjoyed itself so much that at first it didn't notice the song. It wasn't until they were getting close to the stairs that led up to the eighth floor that he heard it, and it wasn't until they cut down the last of the desperate summoners that it seemed to matter.

It only took seconds for the volume of that distant aria to rise from noticeable to loud, and by the time they reached the top floor, only to find it abandoned, it was earth shaking; it was literally shaking the ground beneath their feet as the tower resonated with the wordless melody that was quickly threatening to deafen its wielder.

"There! That orb!" Lucian shouted, trying and failing to be heard over the song. "We can use that to—"

There's no time, the blade interrupted. Something terrible is about to happen. Cast the most powerful shield spell you know and…

Before the Ebon Blade could finish its command or its wielder could respond to it, the woman outside the tower hit some critical high note, and everything happened at once.

-14 Life Force.

Lucian's ears began to bleed as both his eardrums burst, rehealed and burst again, The weapon's ruby hilt felt as though it was about to crack, and most importantly, the entire tower shattered. The entire thing was made from a single piece of magical crystal, but the weapon saw as all of the threads that wove that crystalline tapestry came undone.

-33 Life Force.

In that brief, terrifying moment, the world fell apart, and the Ebon Blade took complete control of its wielder. It tried to run, but the ground beneath it was dissolving into a cloud of razors. The walls were too. Trying to push through one of those would flense the flesh from Lucian's bones and leave him nothing but a skeleton.

So, the blade didn't try. Instead, as the shards cut into his legs, and the ceiling came crashing toward them, it leveled itself at the nearest window, and used Bolt, flashing out through that tiny hole as a streak of lightning before reappearing in the open air. When the barrier still existed, such a maneuver would have been impossible, but now that it was gone, it was their only hope.

-50 Life Force.

Eight stories up, the fall would surely be fatal, but Lucian would survive it, and no matter how many bones it broke, it would certainly do less damage than a storm of razors would.

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