Briggs had immersed himself into the heart of the conflict. The beat from Endure traveled throughout the entire battlefield on the wings of Thunder, energizing and uniting everyone in a different, subtle manner that accentuated what Sama was doing with her straight Morale Bonuses to-hit and damage, turning the combatants of their side into terrifying killing machines, while also shaking even creatures that should have been immune to fear.
Neither Fate nor Luck was with their enemies this day, and even if they had endless numbers, this was their final battle if they fell. They were not immortals doing battle here!
The main melee combat focus for the Great Beasts was those forces of Light doing battle, as the undead had an inbuilt advantage with their negative energy attacks. It didn’t mean they didn’t fight, as that was what the vivic flames were for, but they did so behind the slamming punches of vivus-imbued magic that was ripping and rending through the enemy.
Mages were Casting at things out of sight, slamming down crossfires and set-ups, acting as battlefield control and artillery all in one. Raging area extinction and denial softened up anything wanting to come to grips, and that included everything up to Rulers.
The outworld Emperors had their own things they were worrying about. The rejection of the Mortal Realm further suppressed them, despite their masters’ attempts to reach through and join them, and was not helping them in their conflicts against the High Emperors of the Mortal and Beast Realms.
The battlefield ahead of them was only getting bigger and wider as more power was poured into it, the vast majority of which was the Light and the Dark beating on one another mercilessly, while vivic fire rained down impartially from above and made sure those who died did so forever. High Emperors clashed as mountains of light and meat and magical energies that obliterated anything close by, unless other Emperors blocked the conflict. Nirvana and Nether were allowed to punish one another with great energy, all the Mortal forces containing them between the Towers of the Teeth, their perfect battlefield.
Naturally the High Emperors wanted nothing to do with a fight like that, which concentrated all their assets together and rendered most strategy and tactics moot. The Light had the advantage of its Element having slight dominance over Dark Magic, but it was outnumbered in this fight.
Over ninety percent of the incoming forces were butchering one another, and Briggs was making sure the battlefield was a surreal misting heavenscape of vivic flames torching down stacked corpses glowing and gloaming hungrily, constantly pushing the forces spilling out of the Portals into one another.
The Beasts had no problems dealing with the Nirvanan forces, much to their mutual surprise. It was just the Light Element, and its purity was no greater than that of which the Beasts could call upon. They didn’t need Darkness to do anything, and there were plenty of ways to interfere with illumination that didn’t involve Darkness.
There was a burst of something out there, an infinitesimal pressure that most people wouldn’t recognize being released. One of Briggs’ thoughtstreams considered what Fae had done out there in the Aether.
Fae had popped the last Node, and torn open the hole in the Isolation Barrier!
The intruding pressure from the Realm Lords froze for a second as their attention was diverted, as if they expected there to be something outside there, waiting and ready to come in when it could finally sense them.
They were more than a little miffed when there was nothing there, and they realized they had all worried about nothing at all!
Of course, Fae used the opportunity to assail both Realm Lords assaulting her, and landed a Judgement on Ilah, to His immense dismay. Now His Mana recovery was going to be as pathetic as that of the rest of His fellows... unless He consumed His Realm for power.
She was currently flitting back through the Aether, three Realm Lords pursuing her. The Lord of Demons and Beast Lord had parted combat, but the former wasn’t doing too well, either. His opponent had been very prepared for Him, and His wounds were deep, His Mana expended by savage need in the boiling combat He’d been thrust into.
If the Beast Lord was also wounded, His wounds were already being Purified and Healed away by Sevenfold Elemental magic, and the Healing power of a Ki-rin on top of it all, along with the Mana draw of a Realm Lord moving back to His domain.
A domain right behind the Beasts of the Beast Realm gathered to do battle here!
Briggs turned around as the mountainous glory of the Beast Lord materialized behind the massive army of Beasts there. His golden hide was clawed and ripped in many places, gleaming ruby blood shining there like crimson stars, but the Ki-rin Realm Lord was plainly fully functional, and the act of Buffing up His minions from behind took none of His energy whatsoever.
Then Briggs watched Fae pop out of the cracking sky over the center of battle, right between the reaching hands, claws, and weapons trying to tear through the Veil, and the Sublime Chord exploded over the battlefield.
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Alien magic guttered and fell, an instant -4 Caster Level penalty meaning they were unable to sustain their most powerful spells, and so their magic instantly dropped at least a Tier in power.
On their own side, the instant additional +4 to Caster Level meant anywhere from twice to four times the damage getting through on the spells and magic that were being evoked, doubling and tripling the strength of his defense and offense, a welcome addition he adjusted to on the fly with new orders.
The mages waiting in meditative Stances around the circles of mages in Seven Element Formations, constantly gaining Mana back whenever they weren’t Casting, were also boosted by that, the harmonized Mana drawn to them even more quickly.
Fae looked around herself, shining and Singing, everyone on the battlefield seeming to pause for a just a moment before the full power of a Realm Sage’s Aura pulsed out, sweeping out and overwhelming everything else. Anything hostile below an Emperor was crushed to the ground, unable to move, and hostile Emperors writhed in dismay at the horrible power of what they were feeling, even in their massive numbers.
“THIS WORLD IS MINE!” she declared with overwhelming authority.
And so it was.
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I’d done all the harmonization well ahead of time, Worldsinger and all that I was. The planet was plenty happy to become my domain, even if the Broom Closet was my Demesne.
The magic of the whole world spun and locked into me, binding me to it, it to me. The magic here resonated, strengthened as my Awareness spread through the world, and all the little imperfections that didn’t help the flow and spread of Mana were smoothed away so they could contribute to a Sublime Chord mightier than anything I had evoked before.
Plus or minus 6 CL now, Bane to outsiders, Boon to mortals. The feeling of rejection from the world increased dramatically, and all around me the Realm Lords trying to reach through the Veil to me were pushed back with slow, grinding effort as the Weight of the World focused ever more strongly on them.
There was a Holoshade around me as large as any of the Realm Lords, the shadow of my magical power on display as I knelt in the air and held the Veil against their attacks.
Briggs was quick to take advantage of the further crushing of the enemy and the way the Mana was pouring into all the combatants on our side. Elemental fury whelmed in oceans-worth of conflagration, pouring across the battlefield. Nirvanans and Netherworlders alike writhed and died. Mountains of vivus swirled and raged against the reaching Realm Lords, and their momentous Portals began to flicker and glitch as the energies torn from their own slain fed into the Veil and against their own efforts.
A great dark clawed hand and a shining scimitar came down from the Aether above me, struggling to reach me, failing as the Veil held them back and my own power pushed back against them. Seals, Sigils, Glyphs, and Runes began to spiral into existence about me, formalizing and reinforcing the building resistance here, and formed a Theurgic Spell like nobody else on the planet could do.
Realm Lords were reaching for me through the Veil, but they could not touch me, no matter how much they wanted to. To reach me, to overcome the strength and rejection of the Mortal Realm, they were going to have to sacrifice.
Now, it was just how long I could hold them, and how much they were willing to give up as they howled for my blood!
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The lesser forces of the invaders, crippled and paralyzed by the Aura of a Realm Sage weighing down on them, were opportunistically annihilated, leaving only the very pressured Emperors behind to fight... and they were not the match of their quite-Buffed and cooperating opponents. All kinds of Emperors with all kinds of Elements came from every direction, all of them bringing vivic death with them.
The massive outworlder Portals were glitching constantly, but not enough to stop opportunistic mages from sending waves of annihilation into them, consuming countless minions who could not escape the clashing of forces, and were often torn apart even as they tried to transition to the Mortal Realm.
Until... they actually pulled back.
The sound as the Portals zipped back shut was almost organic, like a wound speed-healing and echoing through the Manafield as it did so.
The cacophony of noises was cut by more than half as those creatures left behind were suddenly bereft of reinforcements, bereft of hope, and all will to fight drained abruptly from them as the Weight of the World bore down on them without mercy.
They did not belong here, and the Mortal Realm would be rid of them, that was utter Truth...
Emperors and Sages swarmed to the attack, freely using spells which could wipe away entire cities with both savagery and searing precision. The last of the invaders, no matter how powerful, were swarmed and brought down with a level of teamwork and cooperation among Beasts who usually fought alone that had no precedent in the memory of anything there.
---
When it was done, the vast battlefield was completely aflame with vivus. There was no soil, no ice underfoot, save that gathered upon the disintegrating ashes, bones, and meat of what they tread upon.
It was a place where High Emperors had died, their great bodies Burning away like all the others in this place, their glory and might forever silenced among the heaped corpses of those they had slain in turn.
Not even the eldest of the High Emperors had seen carnage and slaughter like this, and no one knew the numbers of how much and how many had died. They could only look around, exult in their victory and grieve for their dead all at once, and then turn their attention to the sky.
Their end of the defending effort was done. If the armies of the invaders had been able to escape the Towers of the Teeth, then the world would have died while Healer Fae held off the Realm Lords, regardless.
On one side of her, six arms extended out of the darkness like claws reaching for her, trembling with killing desire. On the other side, four shining Weapons poked through fractures in the Veil: a great scimitar, a spear, a trident, and a mace, all stretching for her, trying to smite her and end this standoff.
“Back to the Healing Formation. We Bring Down the full Moon and Stars now!” Briggs ordered heartlessly, trying to ignore the great shining bodies ablaze between the disintegrating corpses from Below and the shattering luminous corpses of the Axiomatics.
Sama was having none of that grief whatsoever. If anything, the guttural rage in her words only seemed to grow as she raised her attention to the sky, even as the mortal forces abandoned the field of slaughter. There was nothing to salvage there, only ages of wisdom and power Burning to white ash now.