I really should stop reading into things, but my heart flutters like crazy at the thought that Kinzul saying, “My love,” was an intentional allusion to more than the simple care we share for each other, and those around us in the Order. I leave my Lady’s side though so that she may feast in peace, so that I can help rout the last of the ground forces. Having several layers of telekinesis, and being as light as a feather when moving around feels so freeing. I normally forget to breathe pretty often anyway, so holding my breath while jumping around isn’t anything new. Still, I’d rather not leave Kinzul’s side at all after the moment we’d just shared. She’ll keep track of the prisoner though, and I can pull back down my passive outgoing psychic walls.
Stop dreaming Reggie, get back to it. The Vivant are taking a bit of a pounding with all those mages, and fire mages are something I can do something about. I call out telepathically to Prinrin, “Are you still pinned down by fire mages? Want to switch out with me? They can’t touch me.”
Panting for breath even across our telepathic network, Prinny grumbles, “I, huff, yeah I guess that might be for the best Schism, even Orthral is having a rough go of it on the western flank. If you’re sure you’ve got it, huff, handled, we’ll sweep southeast. Gil is still occupied with whatever that crazy giant lava worm thing is, so the entire southern midsection is still intact. Huff.”
Then, more gently, she adds, “Are you sure Schism sweetie? Huff, phwooph. Your waves are all wobbly on the psychic thingy. I didn’t have the focus to hear everything, but, well, I was still sensing emotions after you were taking in the dragonforce of V--. Just be honest with me, are you up for this?”
Sighing after a deep breath while I swap to T K Surfing, I admit to Prinrin, “Emotionally and spiritually? No, a thousand times no. Physically and mentally? Yeah, I’m better than ever before with two new dragonforces in my belly simultaneously. Well, in my heart I guess. Thank you for caring enough to notice Prinny, truly. I— I have to take my mind off it, even though I’ll be doing the exact thing that I’m upset about. It’s okay though. It’s okay. Thank you. I absolutely adore you. Thank you.”
I sigh as I try to focus my mind on anything other than the wearisome woe-filled thoughts of right and wrong, mercy and ruthlessness. Of course, that then means my mind drifts to the last thing at hand or the last person spoken to, which was the adorable semi-androgynous pixie-like waif known as Prinrin’s human form. A woman, a dragon who is utterly charming, that I’d easily allow myself to fall in love with if she hinted there were the slightest chance of reciprocation. I mean, if I weren’t already in love with her. Am I already in love with her after two conversations? Changeling Fae stuff? Or is she just *that* charming? Maybe not quite in love yet but eagerly hoping for more contact and conversations. Mm, and maybe backrubs traded too. Erk. Brain. Maybe put up the psychic walls befor—.
I put up all my walls save for Prinrin’s. There’s an incredibly bright smile energy from the weary waves along Prinrin’s psychic bond with me. I hang my head low and shake my head incredulously at myself. Really Reggie? About the only women you’ve spoken to that you don’t claim to be in love with are Geskae, Vyela, Nala, Nietru, Burshis, Farzee, Deli the blacksmith, those three gorgeous but rude women in the hallway—. Okay, there might be more than I don’t claim that high of affection for, so maybe I’m overreacting. Prinrin, Lady Kinzul, Illy, and Errissa are all amazing women. Errissa doesn’t seem like we’ll get many chances to see each other again, Lady Kinzul, despite the reading-into that I keep doing to her words and phrases, is so far beyond me that it’s not even in the realm of possibility, I don’t even know if Prinrin is single or in an open relationship or not. I, uh, probably shouldn’t think about Illy right now.
There’s some delightful giggling as a weary voice from Prinrin teases, “Not exactly single, not exactly open, but not exactly taken either sweetie. Maybe when you’re done with your mission tomorrow, you me and Illy can spend some quality time reading together.”
I snort, choke, cough, and nearly fall off my T K Surfboard while I’m still headed southwest to relieve Prinrin and Orthral from the hundreds and hundreds of fire mages pinning them down, leaving them at the mercy of ground troops. Erm, koff, cough, right, yes, that sounds delightful. I’m not sure if that was an actual invitation to what I think it was, or not, but now my brain is swimming with— notions.
In a much more private wavelength that clues me in to double check to make sure I’ve got up my telepathic walls before Prinrin speaks, she explains, “Well Schism sweetie, I suppose I could answer that. It was indeed an invitation to our Friday meetings. I’m technically married to our The Blue’s father. Farzhis would be my daughter in law. Our previous The Blue, her father, is infirm. I wouldn’t marry while my sweet lad were still alive, but, well, he’s always been an understanding, and loving man, and a Prinny does have her needs, if y’know what I mean.”
I once again nearly faceplant, barely catching myself with an extra telekinetic grip as I snort, cough, choke, and fall off of my telekinetic surfboard. I’m glad I have three of those grips. Before I can catch my bearings, Prinny continues, “Oh Schism sweetie. You have such a big heart, and such an emotive face, and after hearing you on this battlefield, hearing the pain and love and loss. Your emotions when Kinzul showed up spoke a million volumes to me my dear. You might have walled off your narrative, but your feelings told me everything all the same. I suppose I’ve just been around our Lady long enough to know what a true Hero of the Onyx Dawn would feel when learning near everything. You really are. You really are.”
My heart catches in my throat at the praise, and I gulp back my emotions while my eyes wet with tears as Prinrin finishes, “You may joke about figuring out whether you’re in love with little old me or not, you’d be surprised how many shun a shrimp or a runt like me. The fact that you find me attractive itself is quite the nice little bonus. But trust me when I say I’d be hard-pressed to deny sharing at least some bond with such a sweet Hero, and I’d gladly return feelings of love, affection, and backrubs.”
D@mitall. Okay, fine, I’m in love with Prinrin too, friggin’ hell. I’ve known most of these people for maybe two days. I intentionally bonk my forehead with an extra telekinetic grip repeatedly as I continue surfing in her direction. I mean, on the other hand, when you share your life story with someone in almost the blink of an eye, when you form literal psychic and emotional bonds, and they provide you with endearing, loving support from the moment you meet—. Is it shallow if they just happen to be beautiful beyond belief? You of course are included in that too Prinny. You’re not just cute, although you’re fuggin’ cute as hell.
I didn’t leap towards infatuated or loving feelings with ten out of the fourteen amazing women I’ve met in the last two days. That’s got to count for something! Right? Heh. Oy vey. I mean, there were also hundreds, and hundreds of other people in all ranges of attractiveness that I interacted with between the feasting hall, and my Mount Verdimenn project. I feel bad that I didn’t more than note the existence of them as kind of ‘the volunteers’ though. That makes me feel so stuck up and self-important. I sigh as I let my walls drop again after thinking lovingly one last time about Prinrin before trying to get my brain to switch topics.
Corpses? Corpses are a topic. Giant freakin’ magma worm? That’s a topic. Gil is fighting it, because he’s not being hurt much by the magma, but he has to keep landing to shake the stone off of his wings as it begins to cool. He’s hardly scratching it though, and it knocks him for a loop then withdraws every time he gets close. Crap on a cracker, we might need everyone on deck to take that thing down. I’ll do what I can against these fire mages to the west. There we go, Prinny and Orthral are retreating this way, they’d been trying to not lose too much ground, but they both look extremely singed and charred. Oh Prinny sweetie, please be okay. There’s holes in your dactyl leather.
Orthral is looking rough, charred, his scales are dented, and it looks like his muscles are all going to be bruised. Oh my gods, some of Prinrin’s chest scales are bulging from blisters formed beneath, and some have even come free to reveal charred, scarred flesh beneath. Her left arm is broken, hanging loosely after a section where it sharply bends the wrong way. I, I want to break down in tears, but something isn’t going to let me. Red as a concept, as a color begins to worm its way up through me. Crap. Crap. RUN! Everyone, f&*’ing run away from me!
It boils up from within me, my muscles spasm and jerk as they flood with some ghastly ethereal ichor, bulging and bubbling. My shoulder blades burn until they burst and it feels as if I’ve sprouted wings of flame. Oh no. Oh no. I have. I have sprouted wings of effing fire. It’s never gone this far before. Wrath got closer than ever to taking me over in the den. Oh no. Oh no I might not come back. No, please no. I’m trapped within myself, observing my actions. My internal self is crying in frustration and fear. My wrath’s eyes go blood red, and my telekinesis drops as my wrath opts for sprinting directly west, slowly learning how to use its flaming wings. It’s calling on powers from Can’Z’aas! No no no no no! My skin begins to break and crack, bleeding light and life.
Noooo! No please, please no! I can’t risk it, I don’t want to leave them, please, please give me back control. Please. Please I don’t want to risk dying. I want to live. Please. It takes two, three minutes, four to even get within short sight range of the fire mages who’ve momentarily held back. My wrath ignores me, flying boldly towards a now expertly-forming contingent of fire mages that are starting to collect their wits and create formations effective for battling dragons. Five minutes. Wrath swoops along a contingent, beheading several mages and scarring several others with Frostburn. It begins wearing number four, flying high in the sky above the now-cooperating mages, as it rains down lightning upon them. Six minutes. Funnily enough, it’s raining more lightning around the edges of the contingents, slowly closing in, a lightning cage to draw all the fury and fire of all the foes. Seven minutes.
Minute after minute ticks by as wrath rains blood, radiance, and lightning down upon the fire mages. Give me back my body! Void, non, the nothing, the absence, call wrath into you, banish it, please. It’s, it’s aaaaargh, starting to, ahhhhh! Wrath, I, we plummet out of the sky as the eighth minute hits. Wrath unleashes a massive F F S, a Flash Freeze Storm, within its lightning cage, instantly glaciating all of the mages, and my blood splatters in nearly equally as large an area, coating these white-frosted statues of Draconiacs, kobolds, and humans, in splashes of crimson.
Wrath and I struggle for dominance, for control of the body that is miraculously unharmed after loosing up vital fluid, the cracks in its skin receding as radiance stops pouring forth. Reggie, wrath, we, I look insane as I throw myself about over the frozen mud. I roll, kick, flip, fighting for every inch of control, barreling into and through and shattering dozens of these new organic ice-sculptures. Heaving with exhaustion, I fight for enough control of my vocal chords to yell out a phrase that will help me win. That will remind my body who it is, who it belongs to, and who I am.
My call of course is, “I am Reggie Shellcracker!” gasping for enough air to finish, I continue, “I am a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn!” my body tries to wrench my throat closed, but I growl, “I am an archmage, Aliased Schism,” every muscle under wrath’s control tenses before I finish, “and I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa!”
My Honoris Causa ignites, engaging my Latent, Nothing. I swap to number five, to stop being struck with lightning. A massive cascade of force pulses inward from a radius as large as the last bit of the lightning cage. An implosion occurs, sucking all the ice statues towards me as shrapnel, dashing any hope that any frozen mage might thaw themselves for their survival. I’m pelted with sharp shards ice, of glaciated creatures, shrapnel of weapons and armor, but I’m fully armored, made sure to swap back to number five, and my telekinesis is back under my control, so I’m rapidly deploying T K Squares. Wrath subsides, sucked into the void within me. The wings of flame recede, my muscles stop bubbling and boiling. I fall to my knees and dry heave between panting for breaths. I release my Honoris Causa, letting it recede as well.
Huff, huff, no time for this. I cast my senses about. The friggin’ magma worm is still alive. I, I’m in rough freakin’ shape internally. Somehow though, Flash Freeze Storm wasn’t the same as other times I’ve called to Can’Z’aas. It’s a zero mana ability, hell, it *feeds* mana. It didn’t knock me out, and the blood didn’t even seem like my own. It was more like— like Can’Z’aas was bleeding, using me as a vessel, purging radiation.
Am, am I healing Can’Z’aas? We wanted to purify the lifestream, the mana, the leylines of our world. T Q said the books would help us do that, that reading our final pages would help us do that. Reading our final pages brought us to Rayileklia with new bodies, while still retaining a connection to our Can’Z’aasian powers. Or could that have been the fifty gallons or so of dragon’s blood I drank inside Olashax?
I, I’m dizzy, and lightheaded, no time to think. Either way, gotta help. Prinny and Orthral are wrapping up, they’ve had eight minutes at quadrants called southwest, and south central while Fenric has had eight more minutes at southeast, to catch up. Where are Lu, Lil, Lucky, and Te?
Three telepathic voices and a bark call out, “I’m okay. Here. Whuff! All good my Airhead.”
Okay, okay. Panting for breath, I T K Surf towards the enormous scarlet magma worm. This segmented being of lava and fury. Wrath didn’t really use any of my resources, so I can go all out with what I have left. Oh wow, Firefrost Salamanderian is still around. Frostfire? Flamefrost? Frostflame? Whatever, he’s an F F S, and he’s currently waltzing around the battlefield in half a suit of Valkyrie armor, wielding a Valkyrie sword and dagger, finding ground force stragglers hiding under their allies to slay.
Querying F F S, I ask, “What happens if this body of yours takes a big hit? Or a lot of big hits? It’s just a projection, right? We could use your help against it, but I wouldn’t want to actually harm you by sending you at that big worm.”
The Ignan emotional wavelength I get from F F S is something along the lines of, “Can do,” with no concern for self preservation, and no worry at all. I like him. I wish I knew if I could call him again, or her again as apparently she’s feeling like presenting as female right now. I’d like to be able to always use the staff to summon her, she’s powerful as hell, durable, friendly in a fashion. She technically can’t die, so I could theoretically just resummon her over and over, reconstructing a body for her from the S P in the staff. I’d feel a bit abusive though, unless she agreed, which, I think they have to agree to the summoning anyway. They sort of offer themselves.
Okay, Lucky, Lu, Te, and Lil are all closing in, from wherever they’d been hunting down stragglers, so is F F S. Fen, Prinrin, and Orthral are almost free of finishing off the last of the majority of the ground forces. Depending on the ambient mana level, after we finish the magma worm, I might be able to let F F S just trawl around the battlefield,
Alright Reggie, don’t use retrocognition, but think on your feet, quickly. Prinny is pretty damn beat up, have her hang back up high and fire a line of acid along where part of the magma worm is buried, so we can get at more of its body. The further back, the better. Half the reason it’s not dead yet is because it keeps withdrawing every time Gil almost gets a good hit in.
Fenric, the magma worm’s temperature and stony, ruby-red carapace might be too powerful for your frost to do any lasting damage. But, couple it with Lucky crashing in, and Lu sending a sonic blast at it, with F F S going ham on it, it should crack a hole in its carapace, maybe exposing something more vital within, unless it’s just animate lava. Te, you’re a monster, beat the sh!7 out of it, either along a spot frozen by Fenric, or just anywhere you can get close enough to pound on it. If Fen still has some charge left, freeze its open wound to the surface, so it can’t withdraw.
Orthral, I’m going to want you to blast *me* with everything you have. You won’t have a choice anyway, I’ll be wearing cursed pants that draw all lightning in the area to me. Gilmeshtu, I’m pleading with you to agree with my suggestions and to suggest the rest of the Vivant follow them. I of course leave everything up to your discression, but I do have a plan.
Lil grumbles across the telepathic wavelengths, “Awe man, I can already tell where this is going. Fiiiiine, I’ll be right there.”
Grinning, I nod to Lil whom I didn’t mention yet, for a very particular reason. Lil’s going in first, superheating the lava, and I’m going in after him. Lil simply has to remember that my greatest shadowy evocation is partially an illusion, and he’ll pass through it, completely unaffected.
Gilmeshtu begins to argue that I’m insane for sending either of us into the worm, but Lady Kinzul’s stern glance across the psychic wavelength stifles him. Our Lady trusts my judgment on things like this for a reason. She’s seen me break the laws of reality. She’s seen her son, my beloved best buddy, produce nigh-endless flame without charging a breath weapon. She’s seen proof that prior to her titling, her Tenith, my Teuila pulverized enough of a meteor that we walked out from under it without a scratch. She’s seen my son, our beloved Hunter master his size changing ability so much, that he rivals adults, and even some ancient dragons. Everyone’s gathered for my plan against this worm.
This worm? It’s going down in the next thirty seconds.
Gilmeshtu grumbles, “You cocky bastard.”
Twenty nine seconds. Twenty eight seconds. Teuila’s charging up a Mirage Flash in a big way. Prinny’s got a good charge built up on her acid breath for a long, strong blob. Hopefully she finds a spot to unleash it northwest. Fenric’s had his breath charged since he was on his way to us from the southeast. Lil’s got his breathing prepared, and he’s taking his last, deepest breath.
Gil adds, “I’ve been fighting this thing, for thirty minutes!”
Twenty seven seconds. Lil begins exhaling, blasting flame ahead of him towards the worm as it lines up in our direction with its next thrash. Twenty six, twenty five. Go ahead Lil, dive in, I’m right behind you buddy, Take your biggest deep breath before going inside, and keep blasting downward to keep the lava liquid for me buddy, please, super duper hot, hottest you can get. Twenty. Orthral, hit me with your best shot please, and keep pouring it on. I equip number four, eighteen. Lightning begins striking me as I levitate in front of the gargantuan creature that must stretch back for half a mile below the ground or more.
Prinrin, if you haven’t already done it, if you’ve got any juice left, basically dig a hole above it northwest please, you should be able to sense where the mud is slightly disturbed from its passing beneath. Fifteen. Fen, if you didn’t already do it, blast the crap out of this thing’s hide where Prinny’s exposing it. Lucky, Lu, Te, F F S, immediately after Fen, hit it with everything you’ve got! Lil, when they blow a hole in its hide, that’s how you get out, even if you’ve got to dig through some meat to make it. Thirteen seconds, twelve seconds, eleven seconds, ten seconds. Make sure you guys retreat as soon as you smash open its crimson carapace. F F S, please protect everybody if you have a way to do so.
I’ve already followed Lil inside, and the lava started off as little more than a warm bath. It will rapidly become much more dangerous, but I’m only going to be in here nine more seconds, eight seconds now. My runes are almost complete. Remember Lil, the spells I cast will only be an illusion to you, it should only tickle. The magma worm rocks as its carapace shatters from the combined might of Lu, Te, and Lucky breaking through its iced over shell, catching it so that jagged ice prevents it from withdrawing again. Five seconds, four seconds. I begin crafting an additional rune to one side of the spells, another frost rune off on its own. Three seconds, two seconds. All I need do is loose the power, imagining the form I want it to take.
One. Breathing slowly, I unleash one, “Rimefrost Tsunami,” as Lil bursts out from inside the creature, rejoining F F S, Lu, Lucky, and Teuila, they know to flee, because the know what’s coming, and they direct everyone back. The magma is far, far, far too superheated by Lil’s flames to freeze right now, but the rimefrost is a thick, cold mist as expansive as a glacier, and this time, I called it in the form of a tidal wave, so it’s accompanied by a hell of a lot of water. I equip number five and unleash all the electricity I’ve been receiving from Orthral into the water, creating extra hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of water coalesce surrounded by a frozen mist, and electrolysis brings forth necessary elements for the combustion to really hit home. To me, it’s little more than an illusion. Lava can’t tell something’s an illusion. The resulting steam explosion creates a massive bubble inside the magma worm’s head that ripples down its neck and out the hole in its side carved where Prinrin had traced back its body and made room for Fen to freeze it for my inner circle to beat it open.
At the same instant that the explosion is beginning, my countdown hits Zero. I unleash my second greatest shadowy evocation, “Gelid Rimefrost Glacier,” with a simultaneously empowered frost rune. My new rime, cold air, moisture, and glacier pushes outward against the force of the explosion as soon as the explosion starts, preventing any of it from reaching me as I emit the glacier around me in a sphere. I let the rimefrost and the empowered frost rune have their backlash on me, and coat me in a massive layer of ice in the midst of the steam explosion. The backlash I accept as falling asleep encased in ice, protected from the effects of the explosion as I create a massive glacier that spans the entire length of the worm now that it’s been blown open to let in air.