Soulburned: The School of Souls
Chapter 19 : Widening Cracks
"They're closer today," Magnus said.
Thale said nothing, just continued walking beside the wall of a man. His Shirve Blade chipped small stones off of the parapet as he trudged along, ringing softly and rhythmically as it supported Thale's labored steps.
"Leg still bothering you? I thought Sylane got that squared away."
"She did," Thale responded, breaking his sullen quiet, "but I tweaked it this morning when we spared."
Magnus grunted.
"Sorry about that."
Clink. Clink.
The Kovites were closer today, and there were more of them.
Where do they keep coming from? Thale wondered. Wave after wave of the woodland dwellers had smashed themselves against Sclera's walls, frequently resulting in casualties in the thousands, but there never seemed to be any fewer of them. Sclera always took fewer losses in skirmishes, yet they were the weakening force.
A low, otherworldly, rumble reverberated through the district. Below Magnus and Thale, in the city proper, civilians panicked and scurried about. When the noise didn't repeat itself, and no alarm was raised, the panic died down.
"Soul-Eater?" Thale asked.
"No, that's something else... but there's at least two Soul-Eaters out there. I saw them myself, trying to break through the barrier."
Thale swallowed.
"Two." he shook his head, "We almost lost the city to one."
"Aye. At least they don't seem to be able to make it through this." Magnus rapped the back of his hand against the shimmering dome as they walked. "Though I'm still convinced it's just some sort of trick of that damn Sorceror. I just have a feeling he'll drop this when we least expect it... He claims not to have control of his powers, but... I still don't like it."
"Adler's... strange," Thale said after another long silence.
"Aye. Always has been."
"He's been here long, then?"
Magnus nodded.
"Oh, yes. He was in that first group that wasn't Burned, just a lad when we brought him in."
"Did you 'bring him in' yourself?"
Magnus shook his head.
"Don't remember... maybe. Most years it was only ever one or two unlucky fellows... That year was bad. Hundreds of folks suddenly sprouted the damn things."
"The Thymos Marks?"
"Aye. They don't work quite like the other two. Wizards, obviously have to carve their own. We Mages get the start of ours at birth then have to get the tattoos... Sorcerer Marks just appear. We never figured out why."
"And there haven't been any new ones that appear?"
Magnus, again, shook his head.
"Not after the Archmage started Branding them like that. Still, not a decision I understand..."
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Another rumble shook the wall.
"What is that then, if not a Soul-Eater?" Thale asked
"It's where we're headed... come on."
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Thale clenched his jaw and braced himself against the Wall as the mountain shook. There was a Soul-Eater here, but the true monstrosity was the beast it was riding.
Magnus had led him to one of the far ends of the Wall, where the smooth-cut stones of the city melted into the rocky terrain of the Brow. There were few people this fair from the city center.
The creature resembled an elephant in the same way a fish resembled a shark. It was continuously slamming two large metal tusks into the mountainside, a third jut out from the top of the beast's head like the horn of a rhinoceros. It had a large centralized trunk, but no discernable mouth. Eldritch tentacles splayed out from the thing's face, each probing ceaselessly for some gap in the stones.
The thing trumpeted again, sending a shiver down Thale's spine.
Cracks were beginning to show in the ancient stone.
"Void! What is that?"
"It's new," Magnus said. "Archmage has been calling it a Horrophant."
"Void help us... have the Kovites moved passed sacrificial summoning? There's no way they could have done this without a genocide!"
"Don't know... No new mass graves have shown up in the scrying rituals...but if they're summoning these further south and merely transporting them here... we might not see the bodies."
Just thinking about the amount of Souls that such a summoning would cost made Thale's stomach churn. The sacrifices the Kovites performed to summon Imps and Banshee's were horrible enough. Entire villages had been destroyed to summon a Soul-Eater, and now there were two, and whatever Void-damned thing this was.
"We won't even be fighting humans by the time they're through," Thale said in disgust,
"We're already not fighting humans." Magnus spat. "Kovite's lost the right to call themselves that long ago."
Thale and Magnus stood in silence for a time, watching the Accursed demons batter themselves ceaselessly against the white fire of the dome.
"Why are they here?" Thale finally asked. "There's no one out this far, even if they were to break through the wall here, they'd just run into another... there's nothing to gain here but farmland, and they're not even attacking the Wall!"
"We have a leak," Magnus said. "This section of wall hides an entrance to the Crystalrium, which is buried under that peak..."
Thale furrowed his brow.
Magnus sighed.
"It's where we store the Coals."
Thale just stared at the man.
"Void, lad, you weren't kidding when you said you didn't go much in for the scriptures... The Coals! They're what we made the Shrive Blades from, the Void armor, how we light the Braziers! You think the Void just vomited out pre-forged swords? Why do you think we have the Smithy?!
"Oh..." Thale said.
"It's why Sclere is where it is!" Magnus said. "Void, boy!"
"I thought Sclera was where it is because of the gap in the Brow."
"And why do you think the Gap is there!?"
"Sorry Magnus, I-"
The large man threw up his hands.
"Leave it, lad. Leave it." he sighed, "Obviously, someone who does understand the significance of the Coals has been feeding information to the Kovites. It's the only reason they'd be trying to burst through here, and not closer to the Iris.
"Any idea who?"
"If you'd asked me before this," Magnus gestured at the dome, "I'd have said the Sorceror... but now I'm not so sure. I still think he's involved, mind you, but I don't think he's the mastermind. We've had him under lock and key for weeks now... and this is too recent of a development to match up. If the Kovites had known about the Crystalarium
"She patches me up when Magnus leaves, and sends secret messages to the Kovites."
The memory struck Thale like a hammer.
Surely not Sylane? He thought. He was just trying to get under your skin.
He dismissed the notion.
"So, what's the plan?" Thale asked.
"Well, since you asked. The Artificer's been studying the dome. She said, assuming it's the same composition as the beam that took out the Soul-Eater, she'll be able to design a weapon to use against them, and that hopefully, this monstrosity is just as susceptible."
"She'll be able to build a weapon without Thymos?"
"I didn't ask her for the details, lad, I just asked for results."
"And?"
"It's why we're here. To test it."
Thale arched his eyebrows.
"Test what?"
Magnus pulled a wad of somthing out of the pocket of his cloak.
"What is that?"
"It's a bomb."