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”We will come with you.” Lieutenant Akasha stated firmly.
“Excuse me?” Wisdom asked, caught by surprise.
“The Iron Fists can hold this world for the short time we are gone. They excel at defense. On the other hand, even if we assume that your confidence in defeating the Phaeron is warranted, you’ll likely benefit from having extra hands. The Phaeron will not be alone. And if your confidence is misplaced, then you’ll certainly benefit from assistance while retreating.” The handsome lieutenant explained his reasoning.
“It’s going to be a bit of a suicide mission though, so extra people might mean extra losses.” Wisdom pointed out. “Besides, stealth will be our main method of approach. Having more people won’t necessarily help in that regard.”
“No, but you won’t be able to stealth all the way up to the Phaeron anyway. The Netherworld would never leave their leaders so vulnerable.” He insisted.
“Let them come.” Valor called out from a short distance away where he was gathering his gear. “He has a point, and they can prove to be useful. As long as they understand that they’re coming under their own responsibility.”
They didn’t really mind a bit of reinforcements, and since they would be using Karna’s tower to make the approach, the number of people was rather irrelevant when it came to stealth. The real reason Wisdom had tried refusing was because they couldn’t fully trust the other team. And allies you couldn’t trust were often worse than no allies at all. Still, the other team had proven their competence in the previous fights and the lieutenant was right. They really could use the extra fighting power to actually get to the Phaeron.
“It’s settled then.” Lieutenant Akasha declared with a small smile. “How are we making the approach?” He asked, now focusing on the details. Valor had not really explained the nuances of their plan, partially because even he didn’t know.
“With that.” He stated while pointing at the sky. Nothing happened though. “With that.” He tried again, and once again nothing happened. “Damn it, with..” Before he could finish, Karna’s tower appeared from a twist in space. “Ok, now you’re doing that on purpose.” He accused Karna with an aggrieved tone, though his smile never slipped for a moment.
“That’s what you get from trying to be so dramatic.” Karna laughed. He was right though. She had done it on purpose.
“Would’ve been rather epic if it had worked though.” Envy stated while giving Valor a small mocking pat on the shoulder.
“Your tower?” Lieutenant Akasha asked while looking at Karna. It wasn’t a difficult guess to make from what he’d just seen and heard between them. Karna nodded in confirmation. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s not exactly subtle or stealthy.” He pointed out.
“At the moment it’s not. It can be, when necessary.” Karna responded without going into details. She wasn’t going to reveal that Gem would be the one to make the tower stealthy. “The tower spirit was the one to locate the Phaeron in the first place.”
“I stand corrected.” Lieutenant Akasha admitted freely. “I see a potential issue though.”
“I think I can already guess what that is. You’re about to point out that the Phaeron will not be stationary and would likely have moved since the time the tower spirit located it, right?” Karna asked.
“Exactly. I have a feeling you’ve already considered that though.” The lieutenant guessed.
“Yes. The tower spirit was not the only one to go. We have another spirit keeping an eye on the target from a sufficient distance.” Karna assured him.
“In that case, we’ll be in your care.” The lieutenant and the rest of the team boarded the tower with Karna and her team.
The distance to their target wasn’t too long, but they had to take a circuitous route to it because of their need for secrecy. As they got closer, they gathered on the bridge of the tower to go over the details of their plan. “The main thing making this plan a possibility is that the Netherworld is constantly making attacks against the main fortified position of the Host in this area. When those attacks happen, the defenses around the Phaeron will by necessity be thinner. Many of the most important and powerful immortals from the dynasty will be taking part in the attack after all.” Wisdom explained and a rough map of the area was projected in the air.
Since the forces of the Netherworld were not staging on a planet, the map was mostly empty aside from enemy forces and some environmental hazards, such as spatial storms. The map showed the entire area all the way up to the fortress Wisdom had mentioned, but focused on the part where the Phaeron had been located. The information provided on the enemy forces was rather detailed, which was thanks to Wisdom’s spirit. He was also a spirit contractor, and his spirit was perfect for intelligence gathering.
“That’s…a whole lot of enemies between us and the Phaeron." One of the members of Team Valor said carefully. They learned that the man's name was Avosh, and he was a member of the Golden Order. They were not aware of how prominent of a member he was, but judging by his talents, he had an important future ahead of him. Assuming he survived. “Even if we assume that the majority of the immortals will take part in the attack, that still leaves several dozen for us to face.”
“Tactically not a great situation.” Lieutenant Akasha nodded in agreement. “They also have wraiths with powerful true sight abilities spread around the area where the Phaeron is located to…well deal with something like we’re attempting.”
“Those are just the obviously visible defenses as well.” Another member of the other team, Resmeed scratched his thin and stylized beard. “We can be certain that they have invisible defenses as well. They aren’t stupid after all."
“I’ll have to disagree with you there.” Valor said with a small smirk. “Not about the invisible defenses, those are obviously going to exist. I meant the part about them being stupid. Look at their formation. There’s a glaring weakness to it. I’ll give you a hint. It would be a good formation if we were on a planet, but since we’re not…”
“The formation is two-dimensional." A fourth member, a Dark Elf named Nalred realized immediately. He was one of the few whose race was immediately obvious, as the others had taken a human form, even if they were something else. "They aren't defending properly against attacks from above and below. They have those wraiths spread out in those directions, but their formation is not. Not in a meaningful way."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Exactly.” Valor confirmed. “Now, this isn’t likely just due to stupidity. They must realize the obvious weakness, especially judging by the wraiths being spread in three dimensions, but they don’t have the numbers to cover all directions effectively with immortals. That’s likely where the invisible defenses come to play.”
"As for the invisible defenses, Wrath, would you like to enlighten us?" Wisdom prodded.
“There are obviously traps around, which we can locate and avoid, but the main thing to worry about is the dais the Phaeron is sitting on. The dais itself is protected by a very powerful temporal barrier.” Karna revealed. She had used her own spells and magical sight to study the defenses. It was also impossible to hide the traps with illusions from a bunch of reincarnators that could see straight through them.
Lieutenant Akasha grimaced a bit. “Temporal barriers are rather nasty and hard to deal with. Especially since we have to assume this isn’t one that can be easily overpowered. They wouldn’t use it to protect the Phaeron if it was. The biggest benefit of those barriers is their delaying power. Even if they can be broken, it’s going to take time, which we won’t have.”
“There’s also the fact that we suspect the Phaeron to be one that at least dabbles in time magic.” Valor added. “Luckily, we do have a solution to the barrier, and I assume all of you have some contingencies against time magic.”
Everyone gathered nodded. As skilled and experienced immortals, measures against time magic were a necessity. “Ok, so what’s the plan exactly?” Lieutenant Akasha asked.
“We will wait for the attack to begin. That will thin the numbers of immortals around the Phaeron. We’ll approach from a less protected direction as that will give us a clear shot at the Phaeron. My tower will take care of the barrier, while I’ll attack the Phaeron directly. We’ll strike from a distance, and it will be over in seconds, whether it works or it doesn’t. Here are the important points for the rest of you. You’ll need to clear a path for me to take my shot if we get detected, and even if I succeed, the remaining immortals won’t just disappear and let us go. You’ll need to secure our exit route. Secondly, I can’t have anyone close to me when I make the attack. Anyone too close will get caught in the attack. I’m confident in my attack strength, but not when it comes to avoiding friendly fire.” Karna explained.
“Simple plan with clear instructions and exit strategy if things go fubar. I like it.” Avosh summarized the thoughts of most everyone. Even if the plan failed, at least they had a chance of a clean getaway since the Netherworld’s forces would be distracted by the main attack.
“Let’s get to it then.” Valor declared.
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The plan started off exactly as planned. The attack by the Netherworld happened almost as soon as they arrived, which meant they didn’t have to try and stick around while staying hidden. Most of the enemy forces surged forward, and the tower managed to slip close enough to enact their plan. They had to strike down a couple of the wraiths as they arrived though, which meant their arrival was noticed. The Netherworld showed that they were not idiots as they realized the Phaeron would be the most likely target. They then shot themselves in the foot by being too smart for their own good, because they seemed to suspect other attacking parties still undetected and sent only a handful of powerful rank 12 immortals to intercept them, while the rest stayed protectively close to the Phaeron. That or they didn’t take the attack seriously.
“Remember to keep them out of the line of fire.” Valor reminded everyone, as they split up to distract the approaching enemies.
“You’re going to do the thing, right?” Envy asked eagerly. She and Valor had stayed behind to watch over Karna, as she’d explained that the attack would likely drain her.
"Yes, I'm going to do the thing," Karna said with a small sigh as she levitated forward.
“Excellent.” Envy cheered a bit while gesturing Valor to move back. “We don’t want to be too close. You’re in for a treat.”
“A treat?” Valor asked, a bit confused, not sure why Envy seemed so giddy in this kind of situation. They could sense the power of the Phaeron from all this distance, and the skeletal being of living metal was definitely rank 13, even if not an especially powerful one.
“Yes. You’ll get to see why exactly everyone fears Wrath so much, as well as the reason no one who knows her dares to pick a fight with her once she’s strong enough. Just be ready to catch her.”
The first to attack was Zuellni, with the full power of the tower. All of the tower’s dark focusing orbs lined up and fired the most powerful gravity distorting beam it could manage at the barrier protecting the Phaeron. Gravity was one of the few forces capable of distorting and countering the temporal powers of the barrier, and the spatial forces of the entire area were disturbed by the beam of unbelievably destructive energy. The beam hit the dais directly and crashed into the greenish-grey barrier that suddenly sprung up to protect the Phaeron, that now had to take the sudden attack more seriously. At first, the Phaeron assumed the barrier would be enough, but the cracks that started appearing on the until-now impenetrable barrier forced it to action.
The rest of the fight happened in the blink of an eye as several things happened almost simultaneously. Those that specialized in temporal powers and speed rarely focused on defense, as speed and time were their main forms of defense. That made battles between such combatants very brief as it was a battle between two glass cannons, relatively speaking. Both sides were still immortals, and a rank 13 being would never be easy to kill without equivalent power.
A wave of temporal energy washed over their two teams as the Phaeron tried to stop their time, an obvious first move, but that energy was rendered moot by the artifacts everyone was wearing. The Phaeron had not expected it to work either, and its next attack arrived right on the heels of the first. A scythe of dark green energy crossed the distance in an instant, cleaving the source of the attack directed against the Phaeron in two. They could only watch as the blade of Qi struck the tower, easily overpowering the Blackstone’s natural defenses against magical forces.
That was the gaping hole in the tower’s otherwise superlative defenses. It couldn’t really use its full power to attack and use the full power of the mirror-ring defense system at the same time. It was also the reason why Zuellni had been the first to attack. The tower was a big and obvious target, and it would likely attract the first attack, which they had to deal with. Hope’s job during this fight, now that they had reinforcements from the other team, was to make sure the tower’s core was saved. That would make rebuilding the tower much easier. Karna had planned on refitting it sooner or later anyway, now that they had access to the Divine Plane’s resources.
While the Phaeron attacked the tower, Karna made her own attack. Her gift as Wrath was at the same time very simple, while simultaneously the applications were quite varied. Wrath as a concept was all about two things. Pure attack power and keeping the attacks going after all natural limits had been crossed. The ability the Name Wrath granted her came in three main steps, though all of it was part of the same power. It allowed her to gather power infinitely from her surroundings, that power would then sustain her until the object of her wrath was gone, no matter the wounds she suffered, and it allowed her to use that power to attack her enemies beyond the normal limits of any spells and abilities.
There was a reason she had been so eager to get to the Divine Planes before using this power. There was so much more power in the Divine Planes for her to use without worrying about collapsing an entire plane. In the worst case, she might even tap into the Grand Formation itself, although when used with her Wrath, it would almost certainly burn her out beyond any recovery. She had destroyed too much in the past by overdrawing on the surrounding powers. It was also partially why her Domain dealt with providing her more power to use.
There was also a fundamental limitation in magic, which was one of the main reasons why mages weren’t able to lord over other paths of power despite their versatility. That limitation was that you could only make a spell so powerful. While a simple Qi slash could range from annoying to planet-destroying, a fireball would always be a fireball no matter how much power you put into it, and a simple fireball would not be able to kill an immortal, no matter how powerful the caster. There were some ways around these limits, but one of the most important facets of immortal magical duels was the ability to pack as much power into as small of a package as possible. And no one was able to do this better than she could when using Wrath.
The power in the surroundings seemed to converge on her finger in a fraction of a second, before being releasing a tiny beam that looked like the flame between the horns of her dragon form. The beam moved so quickly that even the temporal powers of the Phaeron didn’t allow it to avoid the attack it hadn’t been expecting. Not that it would consider such a small and thin beam a true threat anyway, considering the attacker was a fresh immortal. That was the last mistake it would ever make.
As it arrived, the small beam punched through the defenses and chest of the Phaeron and suddenly expanded into an enormous explosion of power, consuming the entire portion of the Netherworld forces in the area. It was like a new sun had suddenly been born. This sun was also created from the pure celestial power, one of the most powerful forces of any universe, and even the Phaeron couldn’t survive the powers at the center. The new star consumed everything in the vicinity, and the blast wave threw everyone further away from the newly created star that soon winked out of existence.
The downside of Wrath was that once it was spent, Karna had to deal with the backlash of channeling so much power. This was also why she had been increasing her own powers and her foundation so heavily, so that she could withstand the backlash with as little adverse effect as possible. She’d been very judicious in how much power she had used, knowing how much it would take to destroy the enemy, but Wrath was not a power that was easily corralled and controlled. It was still too much for the current her to handle, which was the reason why she immediately collapsed after the attack.
She was caught by both Envy and Valor, and the trio prepared to make a hasty exit. While the Phaeron might have perished, along with a decent portion of the Netherworld’s forces in the area, not all of the enemy immortals had. And now those immortals were pissed. It was also rather impossible to not notice the event that had just torn out the heart of the attacking forces, and even some of the immortals that had been part of the attack on the fort earlier turned around to enact revenge.
“Well. Time to go people.” Valor commanded quickly, before whispering to Envy. “If that’s what she can do now, what can she do when she reaches the highest ranks of immortality?”
Envy just grinned, excited to see the power of her rival in action. She knew just how overwhelming Wrath’s power could be, and she wasn’t too worried about their future. She was eagerly expecting it. After all, their true enemies were not singular non-reincarnator immortals, but True Gods and old monsters like themselves. Pride would’ve been able to simply ignore the attack, while Gluttony could’ve eaten it whole. She shivered in expectation at what other old reincarnators they might run into.