Varius approached in his own golem, reaching out to pluck Sobanus from between them and lifting him. The real trick was not to squeeze him to death.
With the golem’s other hand, he pointed, and the soldiers got the hell out of the way.
He popped the top of his golem once more.
“You,” Sobanus shrieked, “Traitor to the empire! You’ve marched against your own people—“
He broke off, choking, as Varius tightened his grip just a little.
“Only against you, Sobanus, and the ones who keep this war going.”
The patrician said nothing, but his eyes were still furious, uncowed.
Caius Sobanus spat on the golem.
This wasn’t a man who would learn anything. At least, not anything that mattered.
Varius felt responsible for his soldiers, and for the civilians in the city, but this? This was freeing.
“You wanted to know what would happen when you pushed me,” Varius told him. “I invite you to watch.”
Without waiting for a response, because nothing Sobanus could say had to matter to him anymore, he sealed himself back inside.
The golems surrounded the dome completely, like the shield wall of a legion.
And as one, they moved.
A boom with one step, as the ground shook.
A boom with the second, as their hands reached out as one.
This now, all of them together, was the easiest thing possible for Varius to do.
He forced sorcerous rock against an imperial hard place, and he pushed.
And he pushed, and he pushed.
Until the patricians’ sanctuary, the seat of their power where now they cowered, shook.
In another moment, it began to crumble.
Varius kept pushing.
Loud cracks sounded, and inside, they would finally begin to understand what was happening.
A few men in the robes of patricians ran out screaming only to meet a wall of rock and be crushed underfoot.
The rest were silent as the stone dome collapsed on top of them.
Dust and debris from the force of the fall blew outward, blocking Varius’ vision, but it too broke against the enormous stone soldiers.
When he could see again, Caius Sobanus was still held in his fist.
Varius wasn’t sure if he was dazed or dead from the storm of the physical embodiment of his power physically collapsing to dust around him.
He also didn’t care.
With one move, he smashed what remained of the man who’d sent Varius’ own men after him into the rubble at his feet with such force that Sobanus was ignominiously pulverized against the stones.
