Sidestory: Blue
“To deal with fiends is like splattering your own blood against a canvas. Intentional, and you may paint a great work, involuntary, and all you have is a dirty sheet. Regardless, you will bleed.” - The Thaumaturge, current ruling head of Var’Ah’Bwek.
“You’ve been to the Ardere Lands haven’t you?” Leo conversationally began.
Helen sleepily blinked open her eyes as she floated out of the coral bed. “Yeah?”
“I’ve always wondered something,” he began, “we’ve heard of tales of those mad cities bordering the Canal. They apparently commercialised demon summoning have they not? If so-”
Leo could not finish, as the other triton leapt from the coral bed and hushed the male, “Don’t speak that! What if they hear you? You’ll get demoted or worse!”
The male simply smiled, “Pffft, as if they won’t already do that if they realise I’m laying with you.”
Helen’s cheeks reddened. Though they were childhood friends and hatch mates, their current difference in rank made things… difficult. Even if discovery meant they would both be punished, Helen would get off easier, being a trained Magus while Leo was a mere sergeant. One would get a slap on the wrist, the other would see court marshalling and reassignment.
“Not only that,” Leo pressed, “you may be the only one I may be able to ask this question to, any other Magus or Pontiff would only give me a lecture on how dealing with fiends of any sort is wrong. Regardless of how they make it work in the surface world.”
Helen puffed, a spray of bubbles exiting her mouth and gills.
“Even so, it is a stupid thing to ask, you know how they deal with anyone who even thinks about fiend contracting. By the Blue you are stupid.”
Leo simply shrugged in a way Helen could tell was brushing off the danger. She briefly thought about withholding the information but reasoned knowing it would shy the young triton from searching deeper.
“The answer is rather simple, fiends, and specifically demons, are not made equal.”
Her back straightened, an unintentional habit she gained from surface teachers. She had learned much from them during her short few years in the Ardere, from reading notes left behind by Diabolists of old to attending a lecture from The Thaumaturge.
“Though many demons are capable of reason and forming contracts with people. The desire to do so seems to diminish the higher the Hell Circle the demon originates from.”
“The Circle?”
“Yes.”
Leo was confused, as was she when she first learnt it. “But why though?”
“There are no concrete reasons known, but it is believed it is related to how old the Hell Circle is.”
“Hell Circles are numbered by how easily accessible they are from our world. The first Hell Circle is the easiest to access, the second being the next easiest and so on and so on. The farther a Hell Circle is, the older it is, thus it is assigned a higher number.”
“The older a fiend is, the more dangerous it will be,” she said, despite knowing that every Triton child was taught this from birth. “It is speculated that while devils will retain their willingness to form contracts with people, demons seem to lose this desire as they age. Thus, it is a simple leap to think that the older a Circle is, the older its resident demons will be.”
The next part she made sure to heavily stress, “The fiends the landers make contracts with only go up to the 5th Circle, but it becomes impossible to make a contract with a demon from Circles above the 3rd.”
“Because they become too unreasonable?”
“Exactly,” Helen answered. It was rumoured that the Thaumaturge managed to bend a demon from the 4th Circle to his service, but it was an exception rather than the rule. “The Hell Circle the Gate is connected to is at least the 8th.”
She gently knocked Leo on the head. “So make sure not to ever think about such foolish things again, or at least keep it to yourself.”
“Understood mother,” Leo cheekily said.
“Who are you calling mother-”
Helen could not finish, because at that moment. The scrying pearl in her room lit up.
“ATTENTION ALL CREW SHIP MEMBERS! CODE BELUA! A DEMON HAS TRIGGERED PRELIMINARY WARDS! I REPEAT! CODE BELUA! A DEMON HAS TRIGGERED PRELIMINARY WARDS!”
Both tritons moved. Surprise having long been trained out of them. Hastily throwing on uniforms, assigned protection wards.
“Any idea what’s going on?”
“About as much as you,” Helen answered as she grabbed her staff. “We got to get to our stations quickly, a Code Belua means at least a Greater.”
They were at the door of Helen’s quarters in mere moments.
“Make sure you survive,” Helen said. “You’re assigned to one of Pistris Ships, you will be on the front.”
“Pistris Four,” Leo answered mildly, “and I will, there is no need to worry.” Leo clasped her hand, “Remember your promise for me to take you on a proper date.”
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Glacies Testudo was what the structure covering the Hell Gate was called. It consisted of four walls, each arranged in an ovoid surrounding the Trench. The walls were seventy percent ice, maintained through an elaborate web of computational pearls that took the place of traditional wizards. With a fifty kilometre gap between each wall. Covering the entire thing, was a frozen ceiling approximately five hundred metres thick.
Overall, the structure was approximately two thousand kilometres long and eight hundred kilometres wide.
It was a structure meant to contain, and as Helen swam through the living corridors of the Leviathan Ship Cetus. She could not help but feel slightly nervous.
This was her first Breach. She studied lesser fiends, but at best they were from the second circle. Not impressive things all things considered.
She swiftly reached the heart of Cetus, where the main computational pearl was stationed. The heart was alive with activity, numerous high ranking tritons swam around. Many of them magically inclined, peering over numerous measure devices and scrying pearls.
She quickly saluted the Senior Staff Mage who noticed her presence, “Magus Helen.”
The Mage grunted, “Magus, take your station with Magister Rhea.”
“Understood.”
She moved to take her spot next to the Magister, “Teacher Rhea, what is the situation?”
The older triton briefly looked up from the array of pearls in front of her, “Minimum one Greater Demon. Entropy judging from the damage the wards sustained. Sonar arrays are picking strange fluctuations though. There may be-”
The triton cursed as she as several new readings appeared on the displays. “Fuck! Staffer! It is a duo event!! Another demon has appeared on sonar!”
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In the depths of the Trench, affectionately named the Abyssal Scar by the tritons, a figure emerged from the Hell Gate.
As the thing passed through the Gate, dozens of magical formations lit up, before they broke. Intricate and ordered webs of magic, in an instant, became chaotic. Corrupted to meaninglessness.
Its body was humanoid, ape-like if you ignored the fins, but its head was that of an eyeless fish, opening up to a massive gaping mouth without teeth. Within this mouth, several dozen serpents slithered out, tasting the water.
The demon took its first look into reality, and something approximating a wicked smile carved its toothless jaw.
It unleashed its aura, and the world turned to chaos. Entropy ran rampant, as all order gave way to chaos.
Wards broke, their complex machinery altered beyond usage. Only several remained. The most ancient and made to withstand the passing of time.
During all this, the demon saw above the Scar, several dark dots up high above, release something. Swiftly, huge pillars of ice and frost descended upon it. Striking the ocean bed like thunder, crackling tubes of ice swiftly spreading. Forming a labyrinth of ice. The demon’s aura struck it but did not affect it.
It leapt back, dodging the swiftly spreading ice before all the ice stopped.
As one, the many serpentine heads of the demon turned to the Hell Gate, they saw that nothing had passed, yet something had passed.
Several stones on the ocean bed rose, they spun, until they orbited the largest amongst them, a boulder. The stone of the boulder warped, shaped like clay until it was covered with dozens of tortured faces. As the mouths of these faces opened to scream, they revealed a human eye, held delicately between their lips.
“You cannot affect it, Babon,” the faces spoke in Abyssal.
The many snakes hissed back. A question.
The stones moved forward until one of the orbiting rocks touched the ice.
“I see. They are dumping sub-zero brine. I see. It has a lower freezing temperature, but it is cold enough to cause the seawater to freeze on contact. I see.” The many faces of the demon spoke, “No doubt they intend to freeze us. I see. Stop us in place until a greater weapon descends. I see. And what is this?”
The faces lit up in an expression of supreme pain, “There are bubbles of super-heated water. I see. Maintained by hidden wards. I see. We have adjusted to this freezing temperature. I see. But if we touch this heat, then thermal shock shall break us. I see. Ingenious.”
“You cannot affect the ice, for they are drawing on a lesser aspect of Entropy. The equalisation of heat and energy. You cannot add disorder to the temperature any more than it is already.”
Then, every face screamed and the eyes bled. “They truly are intelligent, to exploit the laws of their world to this extent. But laws will be amended. Exploits covered up.”
The main boulder did not move from its position, but the orbiting stones rose. “I shall correct these oversights. Your hand, Babon?”
Babon lifted an arm and touched the boulder.
At that moment.
Entropy reversed.
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Helen stared in horror as she read the divination pearls.
An extremely hot mass was forming in the hand of the Entropy demon. Energy was getting drawn towards it, but no matter how hot it became, the water around it only seemed to get colder.
Rhea cursed next to her, “Order is also of the Greater classification! Has the ability to alter abyssal aspects!” she yelled. “Entropic ability has been reversed, energy is no longer dispersing down the energy gradient but upwards to where more energy is placed!”
A star was forming in the hands of the Entropy demon.
“Senior Staff-” Helen’s voice broke, “-the average temperature of the Testudo is going down! Heat from up here is being drawn to them!”
Frost began snaking out of the Trenches. The nearby Concha Vessels were able to get out after dropping their payload but the ice continued to snake out, and ever so slightly, Helen began to feel colder.
“Prepare to go in!” the Senior Legate ordered, “Take them out before-”
He could not finish, as at the moment. The demons released the energy. Creating a bubble of superheated gas which slowly floated up. Boring a hole through the frozen labyrinth.
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“Breaking through the first layer!” Rhea yelled.
“Entropy demon moving up!”
The commanding Legate screamed orders through the pearls.
“Ten thousand metres till emerging!” Helen yelled.
The Leviathan Cetus took its place circling the trench. Its starboard side opened to reveal mage numerous mage emplacements.
“Eight thousand metres!”
Concha Vessels reloaded, arming themselves with concussive drops.
“Six thousand metres!”
The mages of Cetus’s sister ship, Hydra were a quarter of the way finished on their attack spell.
“Four thousand metres!”
Surrounding Pistris Ships prepared their weapons.
“Two thousand metres!”
“Emerging!”
The ball of gas broke through the frozen ceiling covering the Trench. Mages aboard Cetus fired a flash freeze spell, cooling the superheated gas before it could damage the ice ceiling above. A hundred different ships fired concussive drops, magical propulsion torpedoes and a dozen other things.
When the demon emerged, they all broke.
Magical shells, torpedoes, all their intricate and ordered wiring, that would’ve each taken an industrial mage a full day to create, they were all corrupted to meaninglessness.
When the weapons hit it, they were naught but mundane stones.
“Concha Vessels retreat!”
“Mages switch to attack pattern six! Status on Hydra’s ritual!”
“Fifty percent!”
“Forward Hastati deploy!”
Infantry spearmen shot out of their hiding spots. Swift swimmers, trained for delaying actions, to slow down the demon until mages could destroy it.
Unfortunately for them, the demon was faster.
It opened its great maw, revealing a writhing mass of serpents. Each serpent shot out with impossible elasticity, biting onto the exposed spearmen. Almost immediately, the tritons began to crumble into dust from the bitten point.
“Fire!” the Legate ordered over the pearls.
Helen’s eyes widened, “There are still-”
Pistris Ships, the fighting Leviathan, the mages on board all of them fired a simple spell. A small, directed explosion that created a wave of force in a certain direction.
Water is extremely close to a concussive superconductor, it is near incompressible, so force was conducted easily in it.
Anything inside the water, however, would not fare nearly as well.
The demon began to contort as white waves of force struck it.
“Confirmed hit!”
“Prepare for the second volley!”
Helen stared uncomprehendingly at the readings, several Hastati got out but many more were simply… flattened, and yet, the remainder kept going.
She felt a hand on her should. Magister Rhea wasn’t looking at her, still staring at the devices, she whispered, “We are Tritons, Defenders of the Ocean Blue. To hesitate is to sign the death of more than us.”
Not unkindly, she said, “Take over monitoring on the Order demon, it has yet to make another move.”
Helen mutely nodded.
Outside, the battle raged on. Most of the Hastati had fallen back, attacking only occasionally when they saw the chance. Leaving only their captain, Caligula to face the demon head-on.
Whenever Caligula moved, he pushed several tonnes of water with him. Even when the demon dodged by large margins, the following shockwave from Caligula’s movements hit it with secondary damage.
The demon was battered. It was time for the finisher.
“Status on Hydra’s ritual?”
“Ninety-eight percent! Hydra is moving in to cast!”
“Move-in! Prepare for secondary volley!”
Cetus circled above the trench, a dozen other Pistris ships with it.
“FIRE!” the Senior Legate ordered.
Then it all went to shit.
When the mages prepared their spells, the force of the explosion multiplied. Backfiring on them and each unleashing a force wave several dozen times stronger.
Entropy was the spreading of energy. That was what the mages were doing. A controlled explosion that unleashed a wave of energy in a specific direction. So the Entropy demon enhanced it by several times. Within the sea, where water already enhanced concussive wave effects by several times?
The results were disastrous.
The sides of every ship facing the demon dented as the extreme force pushed them all back by several hundred metres. The surviving Hastati were obliterated in an instant and every Pistris Ship within two hundred metres were torn to pieces.
The demon did not escape unscathed. It had somehow lowered the forces on it, but still, there was little left of it. Only its upper torso and head were left, the rest mangled beyond recognition. Yet, when its maw opened, one could not help but think it was smiling.
That smile soon disappeared as Caligula shot out of the white foam and stabbed the demon with his lance.
Both his arms and a leg were simply crushed. His chest was flattened, so his body could no longer take in air. He held his lance with only his teeth.
A dead man still swimming. Yet in defiance, he clenched his teeth and held even when dozens of serpents swept out and bit onto him. His body crumbled, but he kept the demon in place.
Just as the Hydra came.
A ritual that took the entirety of the battle and several of the finest mages Tritus can offer. One that would only target demons and not affect others.
Banishing Smite was cast at 8th Level. The maximum of which mortals can reach.
The demon did not even get to scream as its remains were compressed into a cube, only a centimetre wide.
“Confirmed hit!”
Caligula finally let go. He died when he stabbed the demon. Only Will kept him in place.
“Remaining Pistris to the Trench!” the Legate ordered, “Cetus retreat to supporting position! Hydra take point!”
There was no rest. No moment of celebration.
“Order is making a move!” Helen yelled.
The remaining sonar wards detected that the clump of stones the demon had possessed were moving. In a rhythmic up and down motion.
“Press the attack! Do not allow it to entrench itself!”
The Hydra swam towards the breach. The Pistris ships that were still in a relatively functioning state following it. A single Pitris ship left it to retrieve the corpses of Caligula and the demon, as Cetus retreated.
Then, the attacking force stopped. Frozen as they entered the Trench.
“Hydra report!” the Senior Legate yelled. When no answer came, he yelled again, “Hydra!”
“Communications are still online,” Rhea said. “The attacking force is frozen… How?”
“Isn’t time stop,” another Magus called out, “This isn’t the first Order Demon Hydra has dealt with, it should have anti-time-stop measures.”
“No activity on any ship, everyone is frozen.”
“What the Blue is it then?” the Legate yelled.
Magister Rhea left her position next to Helen to stand next to the Senior Staff Mage. Bringing out a variety of measuring implements. Muttering things to each other as they read the readings.
Slowly, the discussions rose in urgency. Until it finally fell to disbelief.
“Senior Legate Ajax, we believe that… the Order demon didn’t stop time, but has made movement impossible.”
“Explain.”
The entire room craned their necks as the Staff Mage continued, “Are you aware of the Twelve Giottian Paradoxes?”
“No, but how are they relevant?”
“Paradox Six, posits that if you cut a brick in perfect half, you cut the half in another perfect half and continue this pattern forever, creating infinitely smaller pieces of the brick.”
“By this logic, Paradox Six claims that movement is impossible,” Rhea continued, “because things travel half the distance between it and something. Then travels another half of that remaining distance.”
“...And you are claiming?”
“We believe, that the Order demon has made this true.”
“But for what purpose? It is affected as well isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. A spell of this scale and speed, it might be able to take it down but that is it.”
“The wards,” Helen blurted out, “what do the wards on the other side of the Hell Gate say?”
They checked, and in horror, saw the gathering horde of fiends.
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“By the Blue, we barely survived that,” Leo said in a light-hearted tone he didn’t truly feel. Instead, he directed it to his squad of five. All of them were newbies like him, and more than slightly shaken at the experience. “I don’t know about you guys but I’m getting laid after this.”
Agata punched his leg, “Who would want to lay with you?” she replied drily.
“No daydreaming Leo, we have a job,” Alcaeus seriously said, but more cheekily added, “but do invite me once we’re finished with this.”
Leo smiled as the previous oppressive silence melted away. “Please, women are simply fighting to get to lay me!”
“You sure they aren’t fighting for the privilege of being the first to lynch you?”
Leo chuckled at Agata’s dry humour.
“No, that honour would go to my mother!” he laughed aloud but did not let it overly distract him. Alcaeus made sense, their squad of four needed to check up on what happened to one of the mage emplacements. Winning back morale should not take the place doing their mission.
“What do you think happened anyway?” Cyrus asked.
“The emplacement was aimed at Entropy when it screwed everything up,” Agata answered. “It wouldn’t be surprising if it were destroyed in the process.”
“Still, it’s strange they only sent three of us,” Cyrus said.
Yeah, it was strange Leo had to admit. Even if he skimmed through the Manuals, he knew the protocol was to send at minimum a squad of five in a situation like this.
“They were shorthanded,” Agata answered, “a lot of tritons fell. That was why they could only spare the two of us.”
“Yeah,” Leo answered as the mood dimmed again and they reached the end of the hallway.
He would be alone. They couldn’t spare any more tritons to check up on every little bit of damage dealt to the ship.
When he saw the doorway that lead to the mage emplacement, he lifted his spear. The door was opened.
There was a slight amount of force damage on the interior, but it likely wasn’t what pushed it open. The damage wasn’t enough. The door was opened by something.
Slowly, he swam inside the emplacement. Clean, there were no bodies here.
Then, he suddenly heard a clicking behind him.
Instantly he turned around, spear pointed, only to see something.
The bodies of at seven tritons, three mages and four infantry units of a lower rank than him, floating in the water. No, not floating. They were attached to something, numerous holes bore through their bodies, and Leo could see thin scratches left on the wall as the bodies moved.
With horror, he began to realise that the bodies were attached to something invisible that impaled them with long spikes to hold their corpses in place. He realised at almost the same time, that the water around him was not clear.
It was a dirty red. Dirtied with blood.
Slowly, Leo began to back off. He did not recognise the infantry but the mages were likely from this emplacement. How did he not notice the thing following him? A thousand questions and fears warred in his mind, but a single order took precedent.
There was a scrying pearl behind him, farther into the emplacement. He needed to get to it and report the breach. Leo could not face this thing, not when it clearly killed seven others.
Unfortunately, the demon seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
Leo could not see it move, but the corpses slightly shifted, as whatever was the head of the thing turned to the scrying pearl.
The scrying pearl shattered. Something like a long spike piercing its side. In that moment, Leo bolted. There was another door leading outside the emplacement. He swiftly reached it, his own swimming speed outstripping anything the demon seemed to be able to muster.
A demon was loose on the ship. Leo had to warn Command about it.
He swam through the corridors of the Pistris Four. There should be another patrol or scrying pearl around here, he had to quickly reach them.
To his relief, he saw another patrol, headed by Euripides, a sergeant senior to him.
“By the Blue, I am glad to see your ugly face!” he exclaimed, “There’s a breach on the ship, we have to report it!”
The patrol passed him.
Leo spent a solid second frozen in shock before he hurriedly turned and swam towards them. “Are you daft! Can’t you hear me yelling!”
They continued. Eyes scanning the area around them. One of them passed by Leo, but he did not acknowledge him.
“Hey! Has old age finally gotten to you!?” Euripides did not respond.
Half in anger, half in desperation, Leo punched the other sergeant, knocking him back.
Euripides looked dazed for a moment before he swam back to the patrol.
None of the five acknowledged the punch or the brief moment Euripides was gone.
Their eyes were seriously scanning every nook and cranny of the hallway. Prepared for potential attacks. Yet they did not seem to even realise Leo was even here or even his attack.
“Hey! Hey! Come one there has to be a limit to how deaf you are right!?” Leo yelled, he yelled as loud as he could.
No one heard him.
Click.
Leo turned and saw clouds of blood. The demon was not visible to him even now, save for the clicking it made as it moved.
“Hey! Can’t you see that!” he screamed. “IT’S RIGHT FUCKING THERE!”
Leo grabbed the shoulders of the furthest back patrol guard, “DON’T GO THERE!” he screamed till his throat became hoarse. Holding the guard back and turning him directly to him.
The guard, Homer if Leo remembered correctly. Looked at him, and saw past him.
“Hurry up Homer,” Euripides called.
Leo turned to see that the demon was right in front of them. It pushed the group to the side, Euripides even hit the head of one of the corpses laying on its back.
It was not acknowledged.
Even when it pushed them aside. Even when the patrol group was on high alert. None of them saw the demon.
Homer brushed off Leo, “Sorry, the wall appeared strange to me.”
As Homer passed the demon, one of the spikes slice his arm, yet he continued, unheeding of his bleeding.
Leo realised what demon this was.
Absence.
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“What happened to Pistris Four?” Helen asked as she looked at several record pearls.
“What about it?” Rhea asked as she sorted a dozen other records. “Hmm…” she muttered as she got to the record. “Apparently it never left the dock. It was kept by the Outer Wall.”
Helen furrowed her brows. “Odd…”
“Do not be distracted,” Rhea said, “Thoroughly check through the records. We have to observe Absence Protocols.”
“I know,” she answered.
Helen just felt like she should’ve remembered something.