Creating Drestruction

After the devastating events of last issue Vlad goes back to the drawing board. He had come to a dark place to find a way forward. Except…there isn’t one. Everything he’s done has either ended in failure or eventually will. What do you do when there is no path ahead of you? Make one up.


Excerpt


The black blade swung through space in a horizontal arc, air whistled as the fearful ender cut it. The black blade struck a roaring lion of black stone. Edge and stone met in the lions open maw. A single clear note shivered in the air, like a huge golden bell. Sword was held fast to stone. Then the note turned sour, as if the bell had suddenly rusted, and the sword was repulsed from statue. The blade cracked and splintered from the violent rejection, sending metal slivers flying.


Jagged pieces flew at Vlad’s face and stopped dead, an inch from piercing his eyes. Since the first time when one of those slivers laid his cheek open to the bone, he took precautions. If he had done his job right those pieces would have cut through the shield. If he had done his job right, the sword would not have shattered in the first place.

Harrower Sword attempt number seventeen, failure.


The Knight wizard’s dark brown eyes were shaded by intense focus and shadow. He stood shirtless in jeans on a disk seemingly suspended in darkness. Unsupported stairs spiraled up to an entrance that was lost in shadow. His hand scraped in the rough stubble of his new beard. The thing would need to be shaved or at least timed but he didn’t feel like going to the bother. 


Failure. Once just another word in the dictionary, something to be applied to others. It was fast becoming his least favorite in the whole damned book. Seventeen tries at this as still no success. Even the belt had been perfected after only the tenth. The sword however remained resolutely just out of his reach.