It wasn’t my fault if frozen angels hit the ground and shattered. They were chasing after me with swords. Also, they were only frozen on the outside so most likely they’d just have some broken bones. As long as they didn’t land head first, which would also be their fault if you really thought about it.
Even less responsibility could be assigned to us when a pack of them chased me towards Midnight after they already saw what we could do… and he iced them again. Blizzard covered a nice large area and was probably less deadly than Chain Lightning.
After Midnight there were a handful of angels left, but they were systematically shot out of the sky by Mono. They didn’t fly so good with holes in their wings even though they had to be using magic to begin with.
Everything was wrapping up when I had to land, with Fly wearing off. At which point we had a huge pile of angels to deal with. The vampires had mostly run- though Map had been watching their trajectories. As for Darkstargirl and Gloom, when the angels rudely began to attack me they took advantage of the reduced pressure to fly off.
“None of the burned ones are our responsibility,” I said.
Great Girl rolled her eyes. “We still have to do something with them though.”
“Scoop ‘em into a pile and tie them up,” I said. “They’re basically an invading army.”
Midnight sighed. “Extra is not going to be happy. Halloween is already a busy time for them.”
“Is it useful to know that these are pre-vetted jerks?” I postulated. “Because these guys cursed their world with eternal sunlight.”
“That doesn’t sound… so bad,” Mono said. “Or is it?”
I looked at him. “I’m sure you can think of reasons it would be bad aside from what it’s doing to the vampires.”
“Are the vampires bad?” Mono asked. “Like, apocalyptically bad?” He gestured. “That was a pretty big blood circle.”
“Which wouldn’t have been necessary if they didn’t have to flee the world,” I pointed out. “Well, I’m not saying all the vampires get a pass either. Some of the ones in this batch were jerks. But I have a friend from this world and she’s very nice. Works night shifts, can’t lie. Had humans voluntarily donate blood for her escape.”
Mono nodded. “Is the planet going to overheat? What happens to crops? Seasons?”
“All good questions,” I said. “All I saw was ultra bright clouds so I have no idea. But I did get attacked for speaking a language.” And then closing the portal, but they were just going to send more people who would probably eventually attack me through. I had no regrets.
“Stay down.” I turned to see Great Girl reach out to grab an angel who thought she would just fly off. “Turlough, translate!”
“She said stay down,” I commented as I prepared some of my limited stores of mana so that Great Girl had Translation herself.
“I won’t listen to a demon!” the angel shouted.
The only basis they had for that besides maybe being racist against orcs was me speaking a particular language. I frowned, trying to absorb this new language. I’d heard enough angels shouting at me to try to replicate it.
“I’m not a demon. Stop struggling.”
“I won’t surrender to a moon-cursed werewolf!”
“She’s being racist,” I said to Great Girl. “Against both of us.” I finished casting Translation on her.
“Wonderful,” Great Girl said, picking through the pile and tossing away swords while she held the angel in one large hand. “Can you understand me now, angel?” Seeing the woman respond, Great Girl continued. “I don’t know what you know about this world, but I want to make it clear we’re not limited by the rules of the hero association. We’re mercenaries of the Power Brigade and you’re effectively an interdimensional invading army.” I doubted every word of that translated, but it would get across the general idea. “So stop struggling or I’ll dunk you waist deep in mud. Head first.”
“I will never surrender you giant beast!”
Great Girl didn’t hesitate to follow through on her promise, taking advantage of the supernatural durability of the angel to slam her into a salt pond. When Great Girl pulled her out, the woman’s wings were dripping with mud. Great Girl had actually been rather gentle and only shoved her in a bit past her shoulders, probably concerned about breaking the wings. She wasn’t interested in crippling anyone.
The next hour was spent with Great Girl very grumpily handling our pile of a hundred or so ornery angels. If anyone got beyond her reach Mono took over, and while his attacks came with less total kinetic force, bullets were of course focused more on specific areas. It was difficult for anyone to run or fly away from him.
Midnight and I escorted Map as she took in the structure of the blood portal. “Could more come through?” she asked.
“It’s not actively magical, if that’s your concern,” I said. “I think it might be slightly easier with this here, but it would still require a new connection from their side. Hold on, I can confirm.” Rositsa should be up. She probably needed to know about this incident anyway. “Yeah, pretty much that. Rositsa says she can try to figure out their intentions if she gets a full picture of this thing.” I looked towards the civilian in the distance. “We can talk to Trouble1234 or whatever and see if he’s got any drone shots. We probably need a copy of anything he’s shot anyway.”
-----
A haggard looking Malaliel arrived at our destination about an hour later. Great Girl looked exhausted from wrangling with the angels for so long. She’d started planting them in the mud more permanently- head up, since we couldn’t confirm whether or not they needed to breathe.
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They actually began to converse once they had an angel to speak to. I felt like we were really getting somewhere.
“Will you comply with our restraints until we work out how to handle you?” Malaliel asked one of them- a stronger woman I thought might have been one of their leaders.
“Yes, I will,” the woman said.
Malaliel nodded. She gestured to Great Girl. “Hand me one of their swords.”
Great Girl frowned. “Are you sure?” she still picked it up and reluctantly held it out to Malaliel.
“Absolutely,” Malaliel said. Then she drove the sword through the chest of the angel. The other woman’s eyes widened, but she wasn’t able to get out more than a few gasping coughs. “Lies are unbecoming from the lips of angels. And I have no patience for crap like this on Halloween.” Malaliel glanced over at me. “Do you have enough mana to open a Gate to send these fools back?”
She asked me that after impaling one of them? I was glad I wasn’t much of a liar. Nor an angel, I supposed. “With Midnight… barely one, I think.” I’d already used a lot of mana closing their portal, and I’d spent most of the burst of recovery on Blizzard spells and other defensive measures. If I’d been meditating the whole hour, it would probably have been enough for me to do it alone, though.
“Alright,” she nodded. “You,” she pointed with the sword. “Step forward. Speak the truth like an angel, or receive the penalties of being one of the unhallowed. “Do you swear to comply with our restrictions? If you do, I can guarantee the greatest penalty will be deportation back to your world with a compulsion not to return.”
The man seemed to take her words seriously as he steeled himself. “Yes. I will comply.”
“I sense truth,” Malaliel said. “Return to your brethren.” She might have sensed truth, but I sensed magic. I was prepared to say something when the man turned and stepped away. Then blood sprayed and his head was rolling on the ground. “I am not pleased. Know this, unhallowed fiends in the form of angels. The mere fact that you possess magic meant for untruth will significantly alter your fate.”
I wasn’t sure I’d seen Malaliel angry before. Sure, I’d seen her fight, but that was mostly in my old world. I’d done a ton of things to annoy her but she’d never been angry at me. If I wasn’t her ally, I was pretty sure I would be running. Like some of these angels.
Fortunately, a whole lot of them had broken legs from mysterious falls that happened while they had been covered in ice. So the split between those that turned to flee and those that tried to swarm her had a lot of people stumbling regardless.
Great Girl suddenly sized up and wolfed as they charged, swiping out with her claws in a wide arc while Malaliel simply held her ground. That toppled a couple dozen of them- most of which were already injured. “... I’m not contagious unless I bite, right?” she asked. Even if she wasn’t as much in control this evening as normal, she was still herself at least.
“Right,” I agreed. “So don’t do that.” I was pretty sure angels couldn’t catch lycanthropy, but angels with untruth magic weren’t a thing I thought I’d see either. How did that even work? I’d magically felt the man’s words were true, which was a perfect reason to believe they were untrue. But the angels clearly had a certain amount of pride. Would lying really be acceptable? Was it just a way to emphasize the truth and Malaliel overreacted?
No, there was another option. The magic could make them believe something was true themselves. Thus, it should register as truth. Though that was speculation on my part.
I didn’t hear any more gunshots ringing out, as normal for Mono’s shooting. So I just assumed the people stumbling and falling were his doing. He sure had a lot of ammo, huh? I guess it was pretty much mundane rounds, so it wasn’t that expensive as far as such things went.
There was now a pile of wounded angels out front of their mass, a vague scattering of others who had been running away at the back, and something like thirty or forty of them left standing in place.
Great Girl looked nervously at the fallen angels in front of her. Malaliel stepped forward, keeping eye contact with the crowd as she stabbed the downed angels with a blade of their own people.
“On any other day, we would have the resources to make you comply,” Malaliel said. “But today, I have no spare capacity for mercy. And I will not allow extradimensional incursions to go unchecked. Did you really think you can go wherever you want without consequences?”
“... Yes,” one of the remaining angels said sheepishly.
“Hah! That’s the truth, at least,” Malaliel said as she stabbed yet another angel who had been clawed by Great Girl. Her rage was so calm, but even with it not being directed at me and the remnants of Mental Freedom I was sweating. Great Girl winced with each thrust of the sword, but she also looked relieved. “Since you spoke truth once, you have the chance to speak it again. Will you comply with our restraints?”
The timid angel didn’t step forward, but still spoke again. “Yes. If it will save my life.” I had the feeling there was more left unsaid. Probably about demon spawn or something. But they probably couldn’t keep up their self-righteous fury in front of Malaliel’s wrath. She had a truly oppressive aura.
“I despise your motives, but that is sufficient and truthful,” Malaliel said. She gestured with her sword. “Go stand over there.” Then she pointed to the next individual. “You. Speak truth. Or remain silent until you have committed to a truth you are willing to live or die with.”
One by one we went through people. I was amazed that several more attempted to magically lie. Did they not get it? Was truth such a weak part of their culture? Then again, their world’s vampires couldn’t lie, so perhaps truth wasn’t important to them in that way.
I paid close attention, trying to determine what the magic was doing aside from telling me it was true. Interestingly, it didn’t seem to butt up against Mental Freedom. Were they attempting to make something true? Maybe it didn’t work right here. Either way, whatever they did clashed with Malaliel.
She stopped talking. She merely gestured with her sword, pointing people who spoke the truth- and agreed to be restrained- to join the rest. The others had a predictable outcome every time. It almost seemed unfair, but I knew Malaliel well enough that I trusted her judgment over magically proffered ‘truth’.
Halloween was serious business. And I hadn’t even fought a giant kraken in a park this time.
“You have enough mana now,” Malaliel said.
“We’re sending them back through?” I asked.
“No,” Malaliel said. “We’ll be disposing of unnecessary garbage.”
“I don’t know if we should be using portal magic to dump trash,” I said. “Though I suppose there are some infinite planes that wouldn’t notice.” Malaliel looked me in the eyes, then down at the ground. “Oh. That. This might take more than one portal to clear out.”
“We have sufficient manpower,” she gestured.
True. Maybe Malaliel should have been born an orc. Nah, she didn’t even like fighting. She was apparently just way too good at it.
But before we had to complete such a grim task, the bodies began to combust, starting with the oldest ones that came at the hands of Darkstargirl. However, it wasn’t her dark flames but strange blue ones that transformed the angels’ remains into sparkling light with no ash remaining.
“Weird,” I said. “They weren’t summoned, so they should actually be here.” Were these just spiritual bodies despite having come through a portal? Eh, whatever. It made Great Girl and Midnight look much more relieved, even though I was pretty sure the angels were still just as dead. “So, we don’t need that Gate right now.”
“I suppose not. Maybe in the morning,” Malaliel said. “To return people alive as promised.”