Chapter 2 - Breaks
“So, Solel, ma’am, any idea what these things could be? Have you ever seen anything like them?” Sidan asked.
“No. And before you, ask, no, they’re not demons,” Solel answered.
The unlikely duo continued steadily making their way towards the palace. Without the worry of sneak attacks, the Grandmaster could unleash the full might of her offensive magic, and made short work of any Slicers that came their way. The woman blasted the monsters away with a dizzyingly diverse array of elemental magic, including lightning strikes, waves of acid, blasts of tar-like darkness that entrapped anything it hit, localized tornados, and much more.
When Sidan had previously asked her why she didn’t just stick to one spell that worked the best, she answered that using too much of one kind of magic in too little time depleted her reserves more quickly than if she varied them. He hadn’t personally experienced such a phenomenon, but then again, their magical aptitudes were worlds apart.
The two of them were currently walking up the stairs leading up to the palace at a steady pace. As Sergeant Callahan had predicted, the hill was indeed crawling with Slicers, though they were no match for Solel. Still, there had been several close calls, with groups of them attempting sneak attacks, which Sidan detected at the last moment, so they did not let their guard down. In one of the downtimes when the Slicers retreated to bolster their numbers, Sidan had decided to break the silence to see if the stern mage knew anything more about the situation than he did.
“Yeah, I figured as much already. Still, any guesses? I imagine you’re one of the most knowledgeable persons around on things like these,” he continued, trying to butter her up a bit.
“Monsters are not my area of expertise,” she said, shaking her head. “But I appreciate the compliment.”
She made a pensive sound, before continuing.
“My first guess was an animated construct, like a golem or a wraith. But that doesn’t fit. To operate at a distance, they would need to carry some physical essence from their creator with them, like blood or hair. This would leave an easily traceable magical signature. But when I got my hands on a few of them, I couldn’t detect anything of that sort. You also saw how smart the pests are. Well, maybe smart is the wrong word, but they clearly aren’t mindless automatons. Animated constructs have to be given very specific instructions before being deployed, and they can only remember so many of them. You could theoretically make a set of instructions that led to behaviour this complex, but you’d reach the memory limit long before you were done implanting them all.”
“So… are you saying that these things are alive?” he asked in disbelief.
Solel didn’t answer for several long seconds.
“It’s… a strong possibility. But more likely, and far more worrying, is that whoever is behind them can just ignore all the rules of magic as we know it. See that forcefield around the city?”
He nodded mutely.
“I was having a pleasant evening with my brother at a restaurant on the edge of town when it appeared,” she said, referring to the magical barrier with surprising venom. “I immediately went to investigate it, but nothing I could do made a dent in it. I couldn’t make anything pass through it, I couldn’t dispel it, and I couldn’t trace its caster. Now, forcefields this strong aren’t unheard of. They require a lot of preparation beforehand, and they’re generally not worth the trouble compared to just a simple, competently cast shielding spell, but they do exist. There’s just one big problem.”
“What is it?” he asked. “Oh, and what happened to your brother?” he added, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“He’s barricaded himself inside a shop with other people. He should be fine for now,” she answered dismissively. “Back to the main point, the problem is that it should be impossible to make one this strong and this big. And I don’t mean that in the ‘gathering all the energy necessary for this is impossible’ way, I mean that in the ‘even if you had all the energy needed you still couldn’t do it’ way. I won’t bore you with the details, but in short, we’ve mathematically proven that there’s an upper limit on the energy you can put into a single spell, no matter how powerful the caster is. Even if you could make a forcefield this big, which should also be impossible, then it would have to be so weak that a particularly fat fly could shatter it by bumping into it. There’s also the colour. Every forcefield I’ve ever seen was blue, not grey. I don’t know what it means, but it can’t be good.”
“Could it have been the work of multiple mages? Maybe each of them only created one section of it?”
“Unlikely.”
Solel looked like she was about to launch into another lengthy, yet admittedly educational explanation, but held her tongue due to the arrival of a wave of Slicers.
As Solel resumed her carnage, Sidan couldn’t help but replay that conversation in his head. He tried not to let it distract him too much, lest a Slicer slip past his eyes, but Solel’s speculation was… worrying, to say the least. What could they even do against an enemy that seemed to so casually ignore the foundations on which the universe worked? He recalled how outnumbered they were, how empty of human life the streets had seemed. Had the resistance been crushed so completely already?
And what did they even want with Estrellis anyway? To take control of Morance? It was true that his kingdom was an economic and cultural powerhouse on the international stage, but it wasn’t number one in those areas by any means. Did this have something to do with the Daughter of Light? The mausoleum containing Luciel’s body was in this city, and there were several rumours that artifacts of great power were hidden in there. But hundreds of years of searching had found nothing of particular interest inside it. Besides, it was open to the public. If there was truth to the rumours, surely there were more discreet ways to recover those hypothetical artifacts than to invade one of the most famous cities in the world in such a dramatic manner.
Unless the spectacle of it was the point, and that this was all done to give the rest of the world a sneak peak of what would follow.
Despite his dark thoughts, Sidan continued covering Solel adequately, and the two finally reached the top of the hill, nearly an hour and a half after the attack had started. It seemed that the Royal Guard had at some point barricaded themselves inside the palace. Thousands of Slicers were crawling in the courtyard, climbing over each other in an attempt to force the doors open. A few titans were there as well, repeatedly hitting the walls with pseudo fists in an attempt to break them. Still, for now, the defences seemed to be holding.
Probably reinforced with magic, he thought.
“Get behind me,” Solel whispered, “and don’t move.”
Sidan did as she asked, and Solel formed a glowing purple orb in her hand, which slowly grew as she fed power into it. Sidan had no idea what it did, but given how concentrated on her task Solel seemed to be, it would probably be more potent than the other spells she’d shown him so far.
By the time the Slicers noticed they had company, it was too late for them. Solel threw the orb, now the size of a watermelon, and immediately created a translucent blue forcefield surrounding the both of them. The sphere landed in the midst of the Slicers, and detonated. An intense purple light filled his view, and every slicer that was in the courtyard was suddenly launched away from the palace, flying over the edge of the hill. A number of them were sent on a course directly towards them, but the forcefield deflected them without any trouble. The surrounding architecture was somehow left completely intact.
She quickly finished off the few that had managed to grab on to something, then casually made her way towards the doors.
On the bright side, if I get out of this alive, I’ll have a hell of a story to tell at the bar, Sidan thought to himself.
“It’s me! Open up!” Solel yelled as she knocked on the door.
Nothing happened for several seconds. Then, the massive wooden doors of the palace opened just enough for a person to pass. A middle-aged bald man wearing purple robes similar to Solel’s cautiously stuck his head out.
“Took care of your little infestation. Free of charge, just this time,” Solel said with a smirk.
“Hah!” the newcomer jovially answered. “And to think the others were worried about you. It’s gonna take more than that to put you down, ya crazy wench!”
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“Before you kiss my ass any further, I want to point out that I can’t take all the credit. Archibald, meet Sidan,” she said as she gestured towards the latter. “He warned me of a sneak attack while I was still down there, and I took him with me as a spotter. I might not have made it there as quickly or in one piece if it wasn’t for him.”
Sidan had been left speechless by the totally informal greeting, and took a second to respond.
“Err, Sidan, unit 10, City Guard, sir! Pleasure to meet you, sir!” he saluted.
“Archibald Woods, Royal Guard!” the mage returned the salute with delight in his voice.
“Not that this hasn’t been pleasant, but shouldn’t we move on to more pressing matters?” Solel asked dryly.
Archibald’s jovial mood instantly disappeared, replaced with cold professionalism.
“Right. Come inside.”
Sidan and Solel followed him inside the palace’s entrance hall. Archibald waved his hand, and the doors closed on their own. He then placed his hand on the door, and magical diagrams that Sidan hadn’t realized were there began to light up.
“None of the monsters were able to breach the palace,” Archibald began his report. “At first, we tried repelling them by going on the offense, but eventually we got overwhelmed and barricaded ourselves inside. You’ll be pleased to learn that the defences are still holding up well, and likely will for some time.”
“They better…” Solel grumbled. “Replacing those outdated diagrams cost us a small fortune. I had to pull in a lot of favours to get them approved on the budget…”
Archibald ignored his superior’s complaining and continued, “Ronan captured one of the monsters, and is trying to figure out what it is. He’s not having much luck there, but he still found several interesting things that he’ll share with you later.”
Solel furrowed her eyebrows at that line.
“In the meantime,” Archibald continued, “the queen has evacuated everyone that was in or around the palace at the time of the attack. They’ve been sent to various embassies. Sheand the rest of the Royal Guard are the only people remaining here. They’re currently in the throne room.”
“The queen is still here?” Solel asked.
“Yes. We tried to convince her to go, but she was having none of it. We’re not sure what to do.”
Sidan followed the two powerful mages as they walked towards the throne room, feeling awkward and useless. Acting as Solel’s spotter had made him feel somewhat important, even if his overall contribution was small. Now that he was here, he was torn between his desire for safety, and the feeling that he would be more useful out there. He also felt a bit betrayed that the Royal Guard had apparently no intention of attempting to evacuate the people still stuck below the hill. The more rational part of his mind told him that as powerful as they were, they couldn’t save the whole city by themselves.
The trio entered the throne room. Right in the middle of the spacious hall was an elaborate diagram etched right into the marble floor. At the opposite end of the entrance was an elaborate wooden throne with black and golden accents. Fourteen people in purple robes were standing guard, and looked on with relief as Solel showed herself. Except for one, probably the aforementioned Ronan, who was casually holding a Slicer in his bare hands, and poking it in various places. The young mage was so absorbed in whatever he was doing that he failed to notice their arrival.
The Slicer was desperately contorting its body in all directions, trying to escape, but Ronan seemed to have a firm grip on its central three ribbons. Sidan almost felt bad for the poor thing. Almost.
Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, a girl ran towards Solel and hug-tackled her.
“I’m so glad you’re okay!” she said with a voice that seemed to be on the verge of breaking into tears.
Sidan then realized with a shock that this “girl” was Estrel the Second, Queen of Morance. With her very pale skin and almost pitch-black hair, she stood out greatly from the average Morench citizen. Though two years his senior, her short height and youthful face made her seem even younger than she really was. Her magnificent blue dress and elegant over-the-shoulder braid seemed like attempts to compensate for this, but Sidan wasn’t sure how well it was working.
Still, despite her appearance, the queen was a wise, compassionate, and sometimes shrewd ruler, and Morance had prospered greatly in the 7 years since she had taken the throne.
“I’m glad you’re okay too, Your Majesty,” Solel said, sounding genuinely happy. After a second, she broke the hug with some apparent reluctance. “But this is no time for pleasantries. Why haven’t you evacuated yet?”
“What do you mean, why haven’t I evacuated? I can’t just leave my people here! We were at an impasse before, but now that you’re here, surely we can create an evacuation rou-”
“No,” Solel interrupted her firmly. “There’s just too many of them. It’s not gonna work.”
“And what, just leave them here to die?” the queen replied with a hint of anger. “What kind of ruler would I be to just abandon my people at the first sign of trouble? You lot are some of the most accomplished mages in the world! Surely you can think of a way to do this.”
“And as one of the most accomplished mages in the world, I am telling you that we cannot do what you ask right now,” Solel shot back, raising her voice. “First sign of trouble? We are long past that. This enemy has access to powers that we cannot begin to comprehend! On top of that, they came prepared. The very first thing they did after popping up was cutting off our escape routes. Part of being an effective ruler is knowing when to make a hard decision. The best thing you can do right now is escape to safety, and organize a response once we have a better idea of what’s going on. They want us to remain here! Do not play into their own game.”
The young queen stood there, motionless, as conflicting emotions warred across her face.
“Please,” Solel added, softer this time.
Finally, Estrel sighed, dejected, and composed herself.
“Yes, you are right. I was being stupid,” she admitted in a tired tone. “Everyone, get ready! We will be teleporting to New Jerdel in a few minutes.”
Archibald gave a grateful nod to Solel, then took charge by some unspoken signal between the two.
“You heard Her Majesty!” he announced. “Ronan, dispose of that thing. I don’t think you’ll get anything more out of it.”
“Can’t I take it with me?” Ronan asked. “It could be useful in the future.”
“Absolutely not,” Solel answered in a no-nonsense tone. “We have no idea what these things are truly capable of. For all we know, it could transform into something more dangerous once out of the forcefield. Frankly, I’m disappointed you even brought it here in the first place. You too, Archibald. I thought you had enough common sense to disapprove of this. I’ll have talks with both of you later.”
The two men cringed in shame. Ronan wasted no time in getting rid of his new toy. His hands glowed green, and the Slicer slowly crumbled to dust, thrashing even more intensely than before. Sidan found the whole thing oddly disturbing, and looked away.
The queen had just finished gulping down a magic replenishing potion when she noticed Sidan’s presence.
“Forgive me, I do not think I caught your name,” she said. “You are part of the City Guard, correct?”
“Yes, Your Majesty! Sidan, Unit 10, City Guard. I am humbled to be in your presence, Your Majesty”, he kneeled.
Oddly enough, he felt more confident introducing himself to her than he had with Solel and Archibald. Her unthreatening appearance and demeanour probably didn’t hurt.
Solel lightly slapped in on the side of his head, startling him.
“Stop this detestable habit, boy,” she grumbled as he hurriedly got back to his feet. “I picked him up along the way. I’ll tell you the details later,” she told the queen.
Queen Estrel raised an amused eyebrow at this, making Sidan embarrassed at his own behavior.
She then stood in front of the circle, and placed a hand over her heart. The diagram on the floor began faintly glowing with a white light, gaining in intensity over time. Sidan knew from experience that teleporting circles would take around five minutes of charging to become operational, so all they could do for now was wait for the queen to finish the job.
The only sound in the room came from a quiet conversation between Solel and Ronan, presumably about what the latter had learned from the captive Slicer. About two minutes in, Estrel, who had been staring pensively at nothing in particular, interrupted them.
“Now that I think about it,” she mumbled, “there may be something outside the city that can help us. It might sound like a longshot, but-”
Confusion, then terror washed over her face.
“SHIELD!” she screamed.
The purple clad mage closest to her wasted no time, hastily forming a thick blue bubble around her and the diagram. An instant later, something collided with it, spreading cracks at the point of impact and shaking the entire room, making the queen fall on her butt.
The invisible assailant continued its assault, fissures now rapidly spreading over the entire forcefield. Soon after, it shattered. The queen scrambled backwards in a panic, her wide eyes staring at the unseen threat. However, it seemed she was not its target.
Deep gouges appeared in the floor, cutting straight through the diagram and rendering the delicate apparatus completely unusable. All the energy that had been poured into it escaped into the air as wisps of white smoke that soon dissipated into nothingness.
Just like that, their only escape route had been cut off.
Solel was the first to recover from the collective stupor of the room. She leaped over the queen’s prone form, her fist glowing purple. She punched above the diagram, and it connected, producing a loud gong-like noise, and launching the invisible attacker across the room.
It crashed into the throne, shattering it beyond repair.
“Show yourself, fiend!” she demanded, fury in her voice.
She stomped her foot, and a blue wave spread through the room, breaking whatever enchantment kept the thing invisible.
Their opponent was definitely a Slicer, though clearly a different variety from the ones they had seen so far. Bigger than an individual one and smaller than a titan, it was about as large as a horse-pulled carriage. Its ribbons, a darker shade of grey than the other Slicers’, were also far less densely packed, giving it an ethereal, ghostly appearance. Worryingly, through its ever-shifting body, Sidan could not spot the trio of colourful tendrils that all the others had. It seemed this one had no weak spot that would allow them to easily take it out. And, even more worrying, it appeared to be able to use magic.
The thing chuckled, its voice a grating, metallic sound that made his skin crawl. Seemingly unhurt by Solel’s attack, it began floating into the air, shaping its body into a spinning sphere. It suddenly glowed purple, and flew towards Solel with dizzying speed. Instead of trying to block it, she snapped her fingers, and duplicated at a rapid rate, with dozens of identical copies of herself running away in all directions. The one the Slicer slammed into was apparently not the original, and the illusory copy was snuffed out of existence. Not deterred in the slightest, it extended its tendrils throughout the room, destroying even more of the copies.
“Squad A and B, with me!” all the Solels barked in unison. “Squad C, protect the queen!”
Archibald picked up the queen and carried her over his shoulder, then ran out of the room, followed by four other royal guards. Sidan followed them, eager to get far, far away from whatever that monster was. The last glimpse he got of the scene behind him was of the Royal Guard preparing a variety of spells, and the Slicer growing its own fireball, far faster and larger than even Solel had been able to.
He did not look back as a loud explosion behind him shook the hallway, a painfully hot wave of heat following a second later. He could only hope that the people with him knew what they were doing, and that they could get him out of this hell.