Cassandra Pendragon
He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t react, his face still frozen in shock from the disappearance of his brother, he joined him. A consciousness that had plagued this world for centuries and feasted on the souls of the fallen, some of which had even died at his own hands, was erased like a fog under the midday sun, gone, without so much as a whisper left behind. As quickly as it was over, I still realised that I had a decision to make.
My perception was much more accurate and I could react faster but I was still connected to my body, its injuries and the speed of my thoughts limited how much I could actually do simultaneously, even though my consciousness was largely focused in my magic. In other words, I was fast, but everything I did, still took some time. Ahri was getting closer by the second, unfortunately I couldn’t simply push her back, none of my energy was circling through or around her. I had to chose how I was going to use the last few moments I still had access to my extracted power.
Dishing out some well deserved revenge seemed like a great idea, but if Shassa had fed some of my energy into the seed, now might also be the chance to destroy it. It might have been a tiny bit vindictive, but I figured I might always try to deal with the seed afterwards, given that everything the spider had told me had probably been a lie. Right now, I wanted to make sure that no one I cared about had to die down here and lucky for me, that meant I’d have to kill a few more people.
I’d have loved to take my time, for the moment I had the means to dissect Shassa, her psyche, her knowledge, even the Fallen themselves, but I couldn’t. I had to make do with the satisfaction their panicked faces provided me with, when they realised that something had gone terribly wrong, spontaneous disintegration wasn’t a common affliction, after all.
While Ahri was getting ever closer, I reached for the strands of energy that danced around Horus. With a twist of my will I tried to change its purpose, to fill it with a ravenous hunger ready to consume and devour, but for the first time, something fought back. As soon as I tried to exert my influence, a new shimmering band of power appeared, coating Horus and insulating him. It was my own energy, channeled from my core, that prevented me from getting through. I could easily take control of the newly created walls but for every one I took over, another one was formed and the faint echo of pain I still perceived from my body spiked with every failed attempt to push through. That damned spider!
Shassa was slowly rising to her feet, additional legs sprouting from her abdomen like trees growing in a time lapse, while her head elongated and pincer like protrusion appeared around her mouth. Blood was still tricking from her wounds but the bolts had disappeared and her injuries were closing rapidly. She had her right hand extended, fingers half stuck between claws and actual digits, and pulled as much energy from the statue as she could take in. She was forced to mainly use it to protect Horus but still managed to boost the defensive enchantments even more, which roared to life with sparks of silver and blue.
The portals behind Seth and Sobek had closed with their death but the other two were still spewing forth shadowy monsters from the depth of the other realm. They seemed to suffer here, their dark and distorted skin was steaming and boiling, disgusting bubbles formed and bursted in quick succession, a frenzied mob ready to tear into the line of dwarfs and now they were being joined by the animated constructs of the hall’s defences. There weren’t different types of guardians, like I had seen last time, fuelled by my power, sparkling orbs of energy manifested, swaths of transcendent energy circling around them symmetrically. To me they looked like will-o’-wisps, animated specks of light that pulsed with an inner fire in silver and blue. As Shassa pulled even more from my core, the wisps became brighter and larger, sprouting tentacles, that seemed very much like my own wings.
In a way that was to my advantage, I hoped, as they shouldn’t vanish once I was cut off from the statue. I just want certain if I’d be able to control them without a direct connection to the magic, they had been born from. The whole situation was developing into a massive battle and I had the chance to set the stage, with Shassa fighting against me every step of the way, my own energy used as her weapon. Isis and Horus had to die and the portals had to be closed, otherwise we, or rather my friends, since I didn’t expect to be of much use once freed, would have to face an endless horde, that’d just keep on growing. And I didn’t even know yet where the statuettes had disappeared to.
I split my focus, maintaining the assault on Horus’ shields while I simultaneously reached for Isis. Maybe the spider wouldn’t be able to protect two of them at the same time.
Again I turned my power into something ravenous but again, I was thwarted. Shassa had fully transformed but had dropped back to the ground, her legs quivering. Her meridians were glowing through her dark, chitinous carapace, which was covered in a fine layer of ash, smoke rising from her in dark, smelly spirals, but still she worked her magic, ripping energy from my core to funnel it towards Isis and Horus. She was taking in too much, her body breaking down under the strain, but I could feel the gruesome toll it extracted from me, as well. While the pain had gradually been growing, it had been easy to ignore, but now I could feel my thoughts slow down, my concentration waver. Shassa was killing us both while she tried to keep the Fallen alive.
Had my head been clear, I might have thought about quickly separating myself from one of the two, to suddenly redouble my efforts on the other or to attack Shassa instead, I might even have tried to ignore them and instead marshal the growing army of wisps to do my bidding, but I wasn’t thinking straight. Sure, the ridiculous state my body was in played a fair role in it, but it had also simply been too much over the last days. I was exhausted and in my mind, I simply saw a race. Either she would break first, or I would, and in my addled brain, there was no question of who could be more stubborn. Even if it was going to cost me my life, the spider’s creations weren’t going to survive the night. Which, altogether, turned out to be a terrible idea.
None of us had to budge. Storms of transcendent energy ravaged our bodies but our will prevailed until, with a sound like breaking glass, the statue shattered. One second its legs were glowing with silvery sparks and the next an explosion of stone and magic tore through the hall. Shrapnel, sharp as knifes, bit into Ahri, me and Shassa, close to it as we were, while the shock wave ripped through the shadow beasts and the portals they had spawned from, reducing them to memory in an instant. Everyone living was knocked over, if they were lucky, and sent flying if they weren’t. Viyara was pummelled off course and crashed into one of the pillars, while Isis and Horus were thrown back, the shields Shassa had conjured holding for a split second longer before they vanished. Only the wisps remained untouched, they even grew, the shimmering light within them intensifying as they absorbed the power of the wave.
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With the connection severed, I was pulled back into my body, my perception vanishing underneath a haze of agony. I had been flayed and impaled, the only thing that had kept me alive through it all had been the constant rush of power that had flowed through my veins. Dissociated from my body, I hadn’t been able to judge just how bad it had become, but now I could feel it. Every centimetre of my skin stood in flames, my muscles spasmed and eight holes had been drilled through me, the crystalline stakes still firmly lodged inside. Each involuntary movement opened the wounds further, hot blood gushing over destroyed skin where the splitters from the exploding statue had ripped through me. Again I had to fight to even think, the all encompassing pain drowning me as effectively as the blood in my lungs.
Like a sea wrecked sailor clung to a plank, I held onto a simple thought: don’t stop cycling your energy. It was all I could do for now, but if I failed, I’d die, of that there was no doubt.
A shrill whistling sound filled my ears and the coppery smell of blood clogged my nostrils, I was rendered insensible to the outside world, lost in an ocean of torment while my tissue slowly regenerated. The broken legs of the statue and its shards were pushed from my wounds as bones, organs, muscles and tendons regrew below and around them, a gradual process that made me feel even worse as the overstimulated and raptured nerves healed. Instead of a pain induced stupor, I was wide awake and could fully appreciate how much damage had truly been done to my body.
Honestly, I might have lost it for a moment or two, flashes of my life on Boseiju appearing before my eyes and once or twice I even thought I felt Greta’s touch, putting me together after she had gone overboard during her training. The only thing that kept me sane was the knowledge that I was getting better, every new pulse of fire another remainder that I was healing. I fought and struggled and kept the energy from my core flowing smoothly, even when my mind fled towards the past because it couldn’t deal with the present anymore. For seconds, minutes, again I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, I was as helpless as a fish on dry land, curled up and unable to move.
The first real change happened when I vomited up half coagulated blood and cleared my airways with a series of hackling coughs. As soon as I could breath more freely, my mind started to clear and I could even open my eyes. The scene wasn’t pretty. All around me, glistening spikes of dark stones swam on puddles of blood. I must have thrashed around while my body regenerated, the trails my arms, legs and tails and left in the dark red canvas clearly visible. I was still hurting, my skin hadn’t grown back for the most part, yet, but my organs and bones had mostly recovered, the slight, wave like motion my tails performed, a sure sign that the ligaments had realigned.
At first I wasn’t able to make much sense of anything further away, my vision became bleary fast, but when I had blinked away the tears that still clung to my lashes, the images became clearer. The first thing I realised was, that I wasn’t alone anymore. Ahri stood over me, sword at the ready.
If it hadn’t been for her long waves of platinum hair I wouldn’t have recognised her though, she looked nearly as bad as me. One of her eyes had been pierced by shrapnel, blood and a sticky liquid seeping from the swollen skin around it. Her face and chest looked as bad as my back, her clothes had been torn apart to reveal hundreds of cuts, small but deep, that coated her front with gory red. Her cheeks had been ripped open, the pearly white of her teeth revealed behind the wounds, the granite splitters that had hit her, still lodged in her flesh. In a way she looked like a nightmarish version of a hedgehog, all spikes on a carpet of mutilated skin.
Despite her dire state she was guarding me, her blade and wings weaving a sphere of fiery protection around us while the rest of the hall descended into madness. The explosion hadn’t killed the gods, nor had it destroyed the statuettes, of which I still hadn’t seen a trace. Isis was already back on her feet, busily conjuring another portal to call forth their minions form the other realm while Horus manifested his wings and armour, copis ready to welcome the first rank of the dwarfs, who were charging forwards, their deep voices combined into one as they sung their battle hymn.
Heavy footsteps built the rising cadence of war as the dwarfs gained momentum but with an eerie shriek and a wave of his weapon, Horus used a part of his own magic to form a larger spell construct than I had seen before. Strands of energy flowed from his body and combined into intricate formations, a display of blinding like in the darkened hall. Bands of golden flames appeared from thin air, waving and twitching like whips, attached to Horus’ left hand. With a mighty swing he whirled them around and brought them crashing down on the closest dwarfs.
The enchanted metal of their armour flared, but it provided as much protection as a fog and fire consumed them hungrily in an instant. Just like that, four of them had died in less time than it took me to blink.
At least he had to pay. With a thunderous roar Viyara’s silvery flames washed over him, intertwined with sparks of green. She had shaken off her fall quickly and had taken to the air quietly, covered by the stampeding dwarfs. At the highest point of the hall, she had folded her wings and shot towards Horus like a spear. Erya was still on her back, dishevelled and, judging from her furiously working mouth, cursing, but she bolstered Viyara’s efforts with her own power, adding another layer to the flames that danced around Horus.
For a moment the hall was Illuminated by silver and gold, fire and light collided in a furious display of strength. A mighty thunderclap drowned out every other noise and for a second I could only see the burning afterimage of clashing forces. Hot and dry air that carried with it the scent of ozone and superheated rocks, strong enough to cover the miasma of blood I was stuck in, flowed over me, its touch coarse against my raw skin.
When I regained my vision, Ahri was desperately defending us against a swarm of shadow beasts, a freshly formed portal had spewed forth. Every movement made her groan and sprinkled the ground with her blood, but she still held on, stubbornly refusing to take to the air and leave me behind.
My mom had somehow managed to get through the chaos and was sprinting towards us, her magic a pulsing aura around her body, which kept the shadows at bay and incinerated the ones that had made the mistake of getting too close. The elves and Mordred were circling around the back, trying to get close to the now fully transformed spider. Shassa was still down, she had been hit as badly as us but her carapace had protected her from the worst of the explosion. Disorientated and slightly burned she was struggling to her eight feet, a dark substance dripping from the gashes that had opened along her body, despite her natural armour.
With a quiet whimper I rolled around and forced my body onto its knees. I was still regenerating, but the serious injuries were gone and I was mostly in control of my limbs. First things first. I manifested my wings, the silvery torrents of energy slithering around me and Ahri like snakes, before they struck and cut through every shadow I could reach. Black smoke rose from their decapitated bodies, hawk heads and grotesque, horned, human like shapes turned into sparks of light when they were separated from the neck. In the blink of an eye I had cleared the space around us and slung my changed wing around Ahri.
Maybe it happened because we were already linked through our tattoos, maybe it was our emotional relationship, whatever the reason, it was ridiculously easy to heal her. My magic seemed to know exactly how to strengthen her own abilities and how to support her body to fix itself. It didn’t even take much out of me. In a way it was more like I was guiding her own power to do what was necessary, preventing it from burning its host along the way.