Men exploded up through hatches onto the ancient airship's deck as it transitioned through the emergency Gate conjured by Master White. Though his authorization ward triggered only moments before the gate began to form, the crew was highly trained and even more highly paid, quickly bringing the enormous vessel airborne and mobile within a minute. More than twenty-five Mana Cannons were charged from massive arrays distributed through the ship as weapons systems were armed and brought to bear by gunners with decades of experience with the same weapons they now manned. The sheer size of the massive delta-shaped machine blocked out the stars above it as it slammed through the change in pressure and slowly came about. Spotters barely visible upon the deck already waving flags and calling out instructions into small handheld artifice devices that relayed their voices deep within the airship to the pilots.
Kallio eyed it calmly while it began what could only be an attack run, mana surging to the forward cannons as Master White vanished under layers and layers of conjured shielding as he absorbed his puppets. The Warlock turned towards the massive airship, the simple motion carrying him over yards of ground to stand in the middle of the shattered battlefield some distance away from where White had bunkered down. He felt the cannons begin saturating the air around him with mana in preparation for their bombardment as Master White began to pulse regularly with high-density mana. Kallio collapsed the area affected by his Oversoul in response, bringing it close to his body, and freeing the councilman behind him from the teleportation lock.
The man vanished in a cloud of white light at the same moment that the airship fired its first shots, and a volley of tree-thick beams of energy roared down from the sky with pinpoint accuracy. Kallio raised his arms as the gem upon his brow flared with light, diverting a large amount of energy from the oncoming attack directly into mana. He funneled all of this mana directly into the ravening blast of black flame he expelled from both hands, the torrent of fire expanding rapidly with the influx of power. The attacks collided in a shockwave that blew the Warlock skid back a hundred feet and caused the Airship to list as though struck by a huge wave. Kallio barely had time to reposition himself, blurring away in an explosion of pulverized earth as the vessel's gunners managed to land another barrage before the ship had even righted itself. The massive beams of energy carved enormous trenches into the ground behind him and huge amounts of debris were thrown into the air as the shots landed.
“Mirri, change of plans. I am currently engaged with one of Dvallin's battleships.”, Kallio’s voice was focused and terse as he slammed to a halt, “Board it. Zeptik, ideas?”
He barely registered the imp’s pulse of acknowledgment through the soul link over the raw torrent of hatred that boiled up through the succubus at the revelation of Dvallin’s survival. The Warlock almost grinned as he sprang into the air over a dense ball of energy that exploded into vicious bolts of lightning which crawled over the ground, shattering the exposed boulders protruding from the torn earth and setting fire to the few unfortunate shrubs still alive. The follow-up shot roared straight into him and he speared straight through it, warping the beam around his body and emerging from the other side scorched but intact as he punched through. Kallio could almost imagine the surprise on the gunner’s faces as the return lance of black fire slammed through the armor of the airship high above and consumed them, smoke and wicked flame pouring from the hole as he began to fall.
He felt the imp tug on his consciousness through the delicate inscriptions upon the circlet and allowed the message to come through as the massive airship swept over him and began to turn the damaged section away, “I can cannibalize this array into a Hell Gate? We won't be able to direct the Mindless Ones without the Blade but...”
“Do it, then locate the Blade. They’ve surely retrieved it by now. Prepare a recall in the meantime, Mirri should be here soon.”
Almost immediately after he finished speaking a howl began to sound in the distance as Zeptik went to work, the city of Verren consumed by an emerald glow as the ensorcelled towers began to harmonize at the direction of the imp. Kallio braced himself before he impacted the ground, taking most of the force with his legs and redirecting it back into the ground with the assistance of the Oversoul, bouncing away into the air ahead of the telltale surge of ambient mana. He soared through the air in the direction of the warship as it began to fire its rear guns. A ball of hatred dense enough to make his bones itch pinged against his senses from the direction of Verren as Mirriana accelerated to unwise speeds with frantic beats of her wings.
Before he’d even begun to fall the succubus had blurred past him in total silence with only a mental scream of unthinking fury to herald her arrival. Mirriana slithered through the incoming spells fired from the deck of the ship and vanished from his line of sight a full heartbeat ahead of the sound of her passing, the shriek of protesting air struggling to keep up with the enraged demon. Kallio faintly heard the sound of screeching metal and panicked screaming as he saw a hastily conjured wall of shields shatter like glass and utterly fail to prevent the succubus from boarding the vessel while it continued its maneuver and slowly began to come about for another run.
The Warlock began to compress fire in his right hand, emptying the Seed of all the mana it had drained over long moments, a massive lance of abyssal flame expanding from his fist as he drew his arm back. Kallio coiled his entire body like a spring, hurling the lance into the path of the airship with such force that he tumbled away from the shot as it left his hand. It stuck a few seconds later and the airship rocked under the force of the attack, a large tear appearing on its armored hull. Flashes of light and small explosions began to dot the deck of the massive ship as Mirriana savaged the enemy in an attempt to gain access to the interior of the vessel.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Kallio righted his fall and couldn’t help but feel a bit vindicated as the sound of thousands of wings filled the air around him.
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Guild Master Hobbs stumbled as the stone heaved under his feet for the dozenth time in less than a minute while explosions rang out, shockwaves cracking against the stone of the Guild proper like thunderclaps. Tiare cursed loudly and climbed to her feet from where she had stumbled, caught mid-step by the shaking earth as she ascended the darkened staircase. Hobbs spared her a glance while she shook her head and indicated that he continue without her.
“Just go, it’s almost dawn. Whatever’s happening it doesn’t sound like we’re winning. Go!”, she barked loudly.
The Guild Master nodded and vanished in a roll of thunder of his own, chaining short-range teleports as quickly as his mana would allow, the artifact in his hands fighting him every step of the way. Malevolent mana reached out and attempted to shred the spellframes he conjured before they fully formed, forcing him to shield himself from the cursed thing's presence.
The Blade was roughly three feet of curved Hellsteel, blade smoldering with green runes that gave Hobbs anxiety just looking at them. Even holding the damn thing had caused inconceivable pain as the mana within had ravaged his arm, forcing him to retrieve a thick wrap of Wardcloth with which he had wrapped the hilt. The cloth blackened and smoked where it touched the weapon, but the workaround held and he carried the weapon with him out of the Guild at all speed. He materialized in the entrance hall after a dozen teleportation's, huffing with exertion. Sweat dripped into his eyes as he stumbled over a disemboweled corpse laying flat on its face, killed in an attempt to flee if the smear of blood was any indication.
He tore his eyes away from the dead Adventurer and began to jog towards the exit, huge marble pillars framing the growing glow of approaching daylight over the city of Verren. Within moments the elderly man had crossed the threshold at an impressive pace as he fell into a rhythm while his feet pounded the ground and his mana rapidly replenished itself. Hobbs focused on his breathing while he descended the elaborate steps to the Guild three at a time, stumbling and almost being thrown from his feet as the earth heaved underneath him once again. A deafening explosion rolled over the city from the north, a shockwave of warm air billowing his robes as he struggled back to his feet before simply rising into the air with great effort.
Lighting crackled around the Guild Master as he forced himself into the air on nothing but mana and sheer willpower to survey what had become of the city since the disaster at the hands of the Warlock’s servant. To his immense relief, the city appeared untouched, though his blood immediately ran cold as he began to fully take in the sight that greeted him.
The towers that had previously burned with emerald fire had surged in power, a spiderweb of flame connecting them above the city to a large smoking hole in reality through which clouds of batlike demons emerged, swirling above the city in a vortex of shrieking hunger. Like a flock of starlings, a swarm of the creatures broke free of the vortex and veered out north over the city, drawing his eye to the battle taking place just outside the city itself.
A massive airship that could only be the Disproportionate Retribution was under heavy assault. Dozens of mana cannons fired indiscriminately at the earth below the ship from behind thick shields, the barriers falling for a split second to allow the shot passage before snapping back up again. Fire, both mundane and magical raged along the deck of the airship as the vessel listed slightly to port. Hundreds of smaller spells rose in volleys from the deck, pushing back the cloud of creatures that swarmed the shields in an attempt to break through. Hobbs watched in awe as a huge pillar of fire, pitch black but somehow visible, rose from the earth below the ship and exploded against the shields as they faltered, a section shattering as the magus supporting it either ran out of mana or died under the strain.
Hundreds of demons dove instantly through the gap, the single-minded creatures hungrily honing in on the immense magical signature the ship was emitting. The Guild Master watched as most of them made it through the gap before the shield snapped back into place, the section taking on a distinctly different hue than the previous barrier as another magus assumed the defense. The upward volleys slowed and the swarm pressed in on the airship again as the defenders on the deck of the ship prioritized killing the demons that had made it through the barrier over the ones still safely contained outside.
Hobbs couldn’t help noticing that the cannons on the ship's starboard side had begun to fall silent as if something was happening in the depths of the airship itself. Moments later one of the cannons at the aft of the ship visibly fell free of the hull, impacting the shield below the ship and breaking through to plummet to the ground. The barrier quickly snapped back into place, and a small tendril of the ever-growing swarm of flying demons was rebuffed as they attempted to circle under the vessel.
“GUILDMASTER STICKYFINGERS, I ASSUME?”
Hobbs nearly fired a bolt of lightning in the direction of the irritating nasal voice in shock but managed to restrain himself at the last possible second, clenching his fist and smothering the spell before it completed. He swept his gaze to the right, landing upon the hunched form of a small twisted creature that clung to the side of the closest tower with a sinister light in its eyes as it stared hungrily at the blade in his hand.
“Is this the ascendants doing?”, Hobbs shouted at the creature above the sound of the battle.
Before the creature could respond the blade in his grasp seemed to sense the being’s energy. The constant assault from the weapon faltered for a split second before redoubling in intensity, igniting the wardcloth that protected his grip in a brilliant emerald fire that exploded towards his hand. Hobbs cried out in shock and tossed the blade away reflexively, the weapon tumbling through the air toward the ground before it was wrapped in a net of sparkling runes. Hobbs watched numbly as it drifted through the air to hover next to the creature who utterly ignored him to direct its attention to the sword. He willed himself closer to the creature as it began to speak animatedly to the weapon with a gleeful expression on its face.
“....yeah, of course, we’re gonna let you out. Mirri and Virax are with Master now. Yeah, one of Dvallin's warships. Oh yeah, Master’s pissed, but nowhere near as bad as Mirri is. I think she’s eating the crew.”
Hobbs began to speak again as the creature shot him a ferocious look and he shut his mouth again impotently while the creature held up a single finger in his direction.
“Yeah, the Hell Gate is mine…I know it’s shit, I did the best I could okay? It was a fucking sacrificial array to begin with, don't take that tone with me, I got lucky enough that it was near a swarm.”
The tiny creature was still jabbering away at the blade as it sprung into the air and soared across the gap to the next closest building, the blade following in a tight orbit around him as he rebounded off of it and away out of sight.