Members of all four Corps were dispatched from the Starholder throughout Galador to assist the spaceknights with the containment efforts and damage control. Their job was to focus on defending civilians and controlling the conflict, thus allowing the spaceknights to focus on containing their own.
The Galadoran civilians were shocked to realize that the Wraiths had come to Galador again, and somehow managed to infiltrate their own guardians. They were even less pleased to find out some of their leading politicians and members of society had been slain and replaced by Wraiths. The sharpest among them realized that much of the building tension between the civilian and knightly forces had been stirred up and headed by those people...
General Rogers skillfully took over running the non-cybered military forces of Galador amid the confusion, with the full support of Rom basically okaying the move. In remarkably short time, he cut through the confusion and had people moving to where they were needed, heading with incredible prescience to where they were best used.
An emergency dispatch was also sent out to Darkstar Keep. Mere moments after it was confirmed, Rom, leading ten first and a hundred second-generation spaceknights, came through a Portal and swept into the middle of a pitched battle with Wraith forces at the Keep. The confirmation they’d received back had been either an illusion or a traitor, it did not matter which.
General Rogers went down in person for that one. There was no weapon the Wraiths had that could pierce Liberty, and his silver Mindsword Life moved with a lethal deadliness against all of the Wraith minions, creatures, and Wraiths themselves. The spaceknights of Galador might have been stronger than he, but there was no doubt he was leading the effort as he drove into the Wraiths with superlative speed, confidence, and deadly precision. The Wraiths shrieked to see him and the holy light of the Mindsword coming for them, but their screams didn’t save them.
There were six losses and a score of casualties among the second-generation knights attacking, and over two-thirds of the knights and most of the army stationed at the Keep lost their lives. Despite their greater refinements and advances, it was obvious on analysis that their weaknesses had long been studied, and their lack of experience in direct combat made exploiting them easier. The veteran knights suffered no casualties at all, displaying a smooth and ferocious style of combat against the Wraith forces that simple computations could not emulate.
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“The containment field was altered years ago,” I told them, surveying the massive banks of equipment that generated the field around the Dark Nebula. This was giving me some ideas. “The monitoring equipment has been recalibrated to show nothing is wrong, but easily half the shrouding effect is being plied against nothing. The full force of their magic wasn’t usable, but enough to give them a lethal edge... and no doubt they’ve been accumulating it for some time.”
“We are going to have to go into the Wraithworld, aren’t we?” Rom asked fatalistically.
“We don’t know what they are doing there, but obviously we don’t want them to complete it. They spent this much effort to subvert Galador’s efforts to contain them, waited and worked this long... Galador doesn’t have much choice in the matter, Rom,” General Rogers confirmed.
Rom’s glowing eye-diodes eyed the golden Runework on his arms and hands. The power of it to defy Wraith magic had been incredible. He had driven his way through fusillades of Wraith magic that would have stopped him cold before, much to the dismay of the Wraiths unloading their magic at him, and even their beasts and minions seemed to have problems touching him.
Things would be different this time. Yes, the Wraiths knew more about how to fight Galadoran knights... but they also knew much, much more about how to fight Wraiths now, and the veterans could lead the new generation, which had just received a much-needed if abhorred baptism of fire.
They had finally been exposed to the darkness of the Wraiths for themselves.
“What do you believe we have to do to prepare, General?” Rom asked the Patriot. Like all the knights, he had been incredibly impressed by the man’s ability to command. While knights measured themselves on their individual prowess, his ability to coordinate them and get them to work like a team had turned a group of knights who had never worked together into a terrifyingly smooth combat machine.
“This is the kind of fight the Corps we are assembling are meant to fight, threats to not just our worlds, but all worlds. Are you willing to accept some help in this fight, Rom?” General Rogers asked him directly.
There was no hesitation. “For Galador and for victory, the Knights of Galador would be proud to accept the help of Terra and Xandar, General Rogers!” Rom replied formally, offering his mitten of a hand.
The Patriot took it immediately, and so our next course of action was set...
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Underweb Casting + Voice of Thunder + Sublime Chord is a recipe for yowza. Just add vivus.
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The attack was literally on the other side of the writhing black sun of the Dark Nebula. Galadoran spaceknights were streaming from the Starholder, which had punched through the outer defenses of the Wraiths, leading the way for the small Galadoran fleet.
Pitched combat in space was occurring as Wraith Dragons and Summoned demons clashed with the four Corps and the full force of the Galadoran space knights.
Primus and Callie were here, too, as was Comet and the Lantern. Black magic at this level needed all the light it could take.
And me, I was singing into existence a big arse Rune of Vivus, and painting it onto the abyss-dark surface of the black sun of the Dark Nebula.
This was one of the biggest sources of black magic in the whole universe. How it could even exist was a cosmic-level mystery, but it was definitely why the Wraiths liked it here, and were so adept in dark magic.
It was a tiny little candle before the power of the Underweb.
The sun was trying to consume and overwhelm the Rune, but there was just too much damn power involved at this point, the vivus devouring the darkness faster than it could be devoured in turn. I carved unwhite onto utterblack, and when the last line poured down across space and time, the sun lit off.
It was quite a sight, watching the magic polarity of the sun cancel out. Vivus roared in the silence of the void, spreading from that super-condensed Rune that spanned over a hundred thousand miles, eating up the dark magic that was suffusing this entire star, corrupting its heart and spirit... and then, like all proper Underweb Casting, it drained the excess off back into the Underweb, sending what was taken out back to where it had come from.
The massive diversion of a fight taking place on the far side paused as the whiteness crept around the solar disk, and the entire Dark Nebula churned and writhed, radiant whiteness starting to sweep across the sky and necroic energies burst into ghostly vivus.
The defenses of the Wraiths, spells and Enchantments wrought with subtlety and care over decades, faltered, shattered, and fell as their power source was cut off. Demons washed away in whiteness, corrupted creatures burned away to ash, and the Wraiths themselves felt their minds and souls seem to ignite in existential horror as the power they depended on became their bane. The darkness and shadows that attempted to befuddle the mind, fool the eye, and weigh down the soul lifted, and revealed the ugly truth for all to see, especially the Wraiths themselves.
The Dark Nebula burned unwhite, and its light fell upon the gloom and shadows of the Wraithworld, setting it ablaze as well.
Galador had learned its lesson in the first war, and the horrors of the intervening two hundred years had repeatedly driven the point home. There was no mercy as the Dire Wraiths reeled in defeat and terror, and this time, there would be no fleeing out to the darkness between stars for all those Wraiths who had returned home.
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I watched the Sunrune burn, Cosmic Awareness feeding information to General Rogers and the Marked on the other side of the new ghostly white sun, making sure the spell did not fade until all the Dark Magic here was burned away, fed into the Veil, and dispersed across the manafield.
I could feel Entities in this world and others turning their eyes this way in a mixture of interest, confusion, alarm, intrigue, and anger. Death Herself once again took notice of me, and I could sense the passing laughter as this attempt to harness and concentrate Her power, set up so many hundreds of millions of years ago, passed in no time at all, dispersing it back across the universe where it was meant to be, instead of into a few greedy hands.
This would still be a place of Death, but of ghosts and spirits, not death and darkness. Death had reclaimed Her own, and what mortals made of it was what they did.
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“Are there any implications for this... Ghost Star?” Rom asked carefully, looking up at the spectral sun burning overhead. Despite its whiteness, it was pale, almost more like a moon than a star.
“Death’s realm is still near, but Her power flows naturally, not chained to the star like before, as was the case.” I eyed the largely barren, twisted landscape of the Wraithworld around me, shaking my head. “I think the best thing you can do is seed this place and make it live again. It will still attract mystics and those seeking to commune with the Hereafter, but Dark Magic is dispersed back into the universal manafield. If something tries to concentrate it here again, it will only burn.”
I smiled slightly at a thought. “If there is another invasion of demons or undead or the like, this Ghost Nebula is a nearly perfect defense against them. If they come here, they will Burn, and Death will take them.”
Giving Death once again Her due.
“There are things moving at the corner of my eye, which I cannot focus upon,” Rom remarked, turning his rectangular head.
“The spirits of the slain, lingering until they are drawn in by Death. Leave them be. Every Wraith had several of them caught and held. They are damaged and unwhole, and perhaps can find some peace before they depart.” I smiled slightly. “I suggest planting many fields of flowers for them.”
Rom looked at the white soil, the stain of Wraith magic burned away from it, and nodded slowly. “It will be our honor to do so, letting the roots of beauty feed upon the vanishing darkness, and growing something of worth from its remnants.”
“I do recommend not settling here. This close to the power of Death, this world will still be a place for mystics and spiritualists. It will attract souls from across the galaxy to wander for some time, and there are many who will not take it well.
“Make it live, makes things grow, and leave it to recover. I will bring up some Nature Elementals to start the process of restoring a proper ecology to the place. It will be a very slow process, but the world is waiting for it.”
They had no idea what I was talking about, but they got the gist of it.
The fact I could Summon Nature Elementals with cosmic energy supplements and they’d stick around until the planet was restored was something else.
“Oh, and since this world-threatening dire crisis is over, let’s move on to the next one.” Rom’s electronic eyes blinked once at my words. “Galador has Celestial energy running through it. It’s one of the reasons your Weird Science is so developed, and you’re such a bloody awesome people.
“That means you have a Celestial Seed in your planet, and Galactus is probably going to come by and eat the whole planet down to the rocks unless you make some preparations. I think we might want to get on that.”
“Galactus?” Rom repeated faintly, knowing full well what that portended.