Chapter 11
Not so Simple Observations
~<(0)>~
They had landed with their gryphons above the treeline on a mountain. Aleon rubbed his hands together, trying to warm some part of himself a bit. He could easily use magic to ease the temperature difference, but that would interfere with the sensitive tracking equipment they were carrying with them. The Elven Lord had asked him if he was willing to join this expedition team as he was familiar with the slime, and he had said yes, a decision he was now regretting.
The Lord had taken his advice and apparently set up a network of detection stations, many at the old leyline monitoring outposts that hadn’t been used for centuries. One of these outposts had detected a magic surge that they swore up and down was accurate, and the team coordinating these efforts took things seriously. A magical surge that approached the levels of the Central Leyline Convergence Reserve… the thought made him shiver. He hadn’t told anyone, but he’d had nightmares since that fateful day. Seeing the most powerful person in the world, practically a demigoddess, be defeated before you was rather traumatizing.
There was some chatter from the technicians manning the tracking equipment, and they were pointing off towards a mountain range across the valley. Whatever it was, it looked like it was still a ways off, and they would be moving again.
And then the fog shifted and an enormous figure began to move into the valley proper, leaving a roiling fog layer in its wake. And fire, he realized belatedly. Pillars of smoke showed where it had walked, and he could see the glow from the fires from here. He ran over to the technicians and asked if that was the thaumic locus they were tracking. Getting confirmation that it was, he shuddered as he looked down at the enormous figure again. Once a millennium, give or take a few centuries, there had historically been a convergence of extremely rare events and circumstances that created what had been dubbed a Chimeric Abomination.
He pulled out a scroll and wrote a message directly to the Lord, sending it off with a burst of messenger flame. He wasn’t sure whether or not this was better or worse than this rogue slime. But at the very least, a Chimeric Abomination was a known quantity, even if that quantity was incredibly bad.
A burst of flame signalled a response, and he unfurled the message.
“Stay there and observe its movements for any anomalies. From your description it is heading into human territory and thus is not Elven Responsibility. I will still ready a team of mages ready to destroy the Chimeric Abomination should its course change or other nations call upon our help. Until then, let it cause havoc in other countries and tax their resources. Shadow its movements from a safe distance and do not be seen by the citizens of any nation you are in. If you are seen, do not leave any survivors. We do not need a diplomatic mess on our hands now, on top of everything else.
Signed, Lord Almar Veiedon”
As he finished reading, Aleon nodded and relayed the orders to the rest of the team.
~<(0)>~
They had been tracking the Chimeric Abomination for over a day now, taking flight and landing on a suitable point where they could continue to keep watch on it. Sleep had been in shifts, and everyone was feeling the strain. Aleon had heard Lyrei could stay awake for over a week, even if he’d never personally seen it, due to her reclusive nature. He hadn’t been able to get any sleep, as the instant he closed his eyes he saw the horror of the slime and his heart rate spiked. Thus, he was quite weary from the whole ordeal.
The latest stop had put them in distant view of a small village, that looked human made. It certainly wasn’t elven, as it lacked that certain flair that elves had. The Abomination was heading right towards the town, surely with no actual intention of doing so, nor knowledge that the town even existed. It was bad luck for the town, honestly, but he had orders only to observe, and he didn’t really feel too bad, them being filthy humans and all. His little team had no chance of defeating the Abomination anyways, so it didn’t even warrant thinking about.
He yawned and gazed through the spyglass, watching the distant town guards fire cannons and ballistae at the behemoth as soon as it was within range, with expected results. When he wasn’t in the danger zone for such an entity, it inspired a certain level of awe as it moved through the landscape, burning everything as it passed. He honestly looked forward to seeing it tear through the town. Thus it was with some level of surprise that he watched an elf of all things appear on the wall, apparently conversing with the guards.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He must have been really tired, or it was a trick of the light or something, but the elf looked like Lady Araphine. He wasn’t really surprised that he was starting to hallucinate her appearance now; He saw her face often enough in his nightmares, changing from determination to terror as the slime engulfed her. He looked through the spyglass again. The guards were leaving, but that didn’t make any sense. Sure, they couldn’t hope to defeat the Abomination, but why would they leave? And, that strange elf was staying behind. She couldn’t hope to defeat the Abomination either, especially not on her own, right? There was no way an elf could be that stupid, right?
~<(0)>~
A small crowd had gathered around him, with viewing equipment aimed at the battle below. While she wasn’t doing much, the elf far below was doing an admirable job slowing the progress of the Abomination. It was clear that whatever her intentions, she was protecting the townspeople, an odd action for an elf to be sure. He wondered how much they had paid her, begging her to protect their worthless little town from annihilation.
She wasn’t lacking in skills either, slinging spells at the Abomination at a rate and with such aim it made Aleon envious. Still, it was growing closer to the town, and her assault wasn’t going to disable it before it reached the town. He contemplated flying one of the gryphons down to retrieve her when that happened. He wondered if she would even need the help escaping at that point. Teleportation was a difficult spell to pick up, but she certainly seemed more than capable of pulling it off if needed. Still, the life of such a capable elf need not be left to chance, and he ordered one of the gryphons readied for flight just in case.
He wondered if she had a plan or was simply flailing at the monster. The spells seemed well thought out, such that the Abomination was weak to, such as ice and particle beam spells. She had actually managed to do enough damage to it that it took notice and was attacking back, throwing fire spells that impacted with searing explosions that clearly shook the wall. She wasn’t staying still either, bouncing and flitting across the battleground that was the wall and even the town itself, throwing herself out of the way of spells even as she sent her own towards the lumbering monster.
Then she simply vanished from view, though the Abomination kept throwing fiery attacks at the wall where she must have been taking cover. He wondered if she had been hurt or something and was taking time to try and recover. The longer she remained out of view, the more anxious he got, and he was about to get up and mount the gryphon as the wall exploded from the repeated bombardment, raining stone down all around. What made him stop, however, was the pinprick of inky darkness that tore at reality as it moved through the air, seeming to drink in light as it passed, flying towards the behemoth. And when it hit an explosion rocked the monstrosity, tearing off an entire limb and fragmenting reality in an area that darkened part of its midsection. The arm did not rejoin with the whole.
He was stunned, mind locked at the sight. Such level of spatial manipulation was staggering. He no longer had the faintest doubts that when she needed to, this mysterious lady elf would be able to escape from the Abomination unscathed. He wondered idly if this is how Lady Araphine would have fought, slinging high level spells left and right, flitting like a butterfly from point to point, never in one spot long enough to catch a spell head on. It was impressive and displayed a stunning level of control over her magical ability, as well as special reasoning and fighting prowess. The fact she had lasted this long was far more than simply impressive.
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He refocused on the battle taking place far below and realized the elf had leapt off the wall and was charging headlong at the towering monster, taking great leaps and bounds before firing off another particle beam spell directly into its body at close range. His eyes widened and time seemed to slow down as the Abomination threw itself forward, swinging a limb forward at incredible speed. He silently begged her to dodge somehow, to teleport, shield… anything. But she didn’t.
The impact sent her flying through the air, impacting the town wall and blowing right through it as well as several structures in the town proper if the rising dust and debris was anything to go by. He desperately wanted to take a gryphon down there and find her, help her, anything. Somewhere deep down though, he realized that she had likely died on impact with the Monstrosity. The intense heat at that close range would have likely been enough to vaporize her blood even before she took the hit. He had no real desire to find her mangled, broken corpse.
He turned away and went back to his personal supplies, intent on writing a report on the events that had just happened. He didn’t even want to watch the destruction of the town anymore, the death of that elf leaving a sour taste in his mouth. It wasn’t as though the Empire kept such close tabs on its subjects that it wasn’t reasonable for an elf to be here, but he wondered why she had chosen to be at this town at this exact moment in time. If she had known a Chimeric Abomination would come through here, would she have altered her plans? If she had known she might die, would she have refused the townspeople’s offer?
His pen scratched across the parchment, mourning in written form the sense of loss he was feeling. He wrote of her capabilities and general appearance in the hopes she might later be identified, though he didn’t trust himself to not liken her to the late Lady Araphine, so he kept the description light. It was almost an afterthought that he scribbled down something noting the destruction of the town below.
The keening wails from the tracking equipment caught his attention, and he set his unfinished letter to the side, walking over to the equipment as one of the techs arrived, taking readings from the small thaumic displays. “What’s going on?” he demanded of the tech, “Is it a malfunction with the equipment?”
The tech shook his head, “No sir, we’re getting a thaumic energy surge that is rivalling the Chimeric Abomination in power level.”
Aleon’s face paled. What could possibly be putting out power at the same level of a Chimeric Abomination? The Central Leyline Convergence Reserve had been the largest single concentration of thaumic energy in the world, and that slime had somehow consumed all of it, and eaten the most powerful mage in the world as though she were breakfast. A slime that they had initially been sent out here to track.
He ran over to the still crowded group of team members, passing a couple more technicians as they ran to the equipment and pulled out his spyglass. Would he be able to see it from here? Was it even in this direction?
He could feel it, like how his hair bristled when he got to close to a thaumic capacitor. It tugged on his very core, confirming that at the very least he was looking in the right direction. Then there was no doubt what he was looking for, as an immense shield bisected the town, and SHE stepped into view. Where before this mysterious elven mage had appeared nondescript save for her uncanny (and probably sleep deprivation caused) resemblance to Lyrei Araphine, she now practically glowed with the power that was clearly coursing through her. Arcs of power zapped from her to debris that floated around her, spinning off wildly as she passed.
When she started fighting, it became clear that her style and apparent aim had changed too. This was no longer simply a battle to slow the Abomination down for the townspeople to escape. She was delaying it, yes, and the shield behind suggested she was both protecting the townsfolk and marking half the town as collateral damage, but this was no longer a fight she expected to run away from. Judging from the orbiting rings she had picked up, her attention to the sky, and the pulsing power he could feel growing above, she intended to kill it.
It was impossible. Even Lyrei, the most powerful mage in the world, had only fought former Abominations in a group of dozens of mages, the fights being massive coordinated efforts involving artillery spells and massive rituals, all spread out over weeks and thousands of kilometers. Who was this girl to think that she could somehow defeat one on her own. And yet, she had not only held out surprisingly well against it to this point but had also somehow apparently survived what ought to have been a fatal blow. Not only that, but she was displaying she had the power and tactics to be a serious threat to it. Had she only been toying with it before? If so, what kind of god did she think herself, to play with the most powerful and dangerous entities on the planet?
Her method of attack had changed as well. Instead of slinging greater ice spells or kinetic beams, or even the devastating spatial warping spells she had employed earlier, she modified a cannon into a surprisingly mundane mass accelerator that snapped projectiles faster than the speed of sound.
It was clear due to the reaction from the Abomination alone, that she had done real damage to it. It let out a deafening sound that caused a wave of gale force winds even at this height and distance. This was nothing to the sheer devastation that came next. A wave of fire that practically annihilated whatever it flowed over spread for kilometers, only being broken by the edges of the valley and the city walls, until it eventually petered out so far down the valley that he wasn’t even sure he had actually seen the end. Another surprise was that her shield very visibly took a solid hit, but instead of collapsing it stabilized. Considering the state of everything else the flame wave had hit, this was shocking. When a Ritual based shield of this size took a massive hit like that, the cost could be calculated in the mages that had been turned to paste from sheer thaumic feedback. Yet it was clear that this was no ritual shield, simply anchored to her and her alone, and not only had she survived, but also been able to bring the shield to capacity again.
He almost didn’t expect to see her crest the surface of the partially slagged wall despite the evidence she was clearly still alive. Yet not only did she do this, looking no apparent worse for wear, but she also gathered her magic and shot into the sky like a rocket, passing through the cloud layer up above. He had no idea what she intended to do, yet was stunned once more as the cloud bank as far as he could see glowed with the inner light of magical energy. The secondary, slower changes slipped by him at first however, until he heard the first rumbles of thunder and looked up in time to see lightning bristling across the sky. When rain started to fall on the tortured landscape, it finally clicked what she had been doing.
Billowing steam rose into the air, and he lost view of the battlefield below. Almost instinctively he ran to the readied gryphon and took off into the air upon its back, riding the unsteady thermals as he rode with the intention of circling around the human town far below. She fell from the clouds, catching herself in time to land on the half-melted wall and grabbed her cannon, before running into the town proper to forage for more ammunition for her weapon. When she returned to the wall, she had several more of the rounds she had used earlier and attacked the Abomination once more.
Again, it was evident from its reaction alone that she had done a considerable amount of damage. And like before, it retaliated with another wave of sound that nearly made him lose control, before it let loose another devastating flame wave which finished melting the wall closest to it. And yet, she didn’t even wait for the wall to finish flowing down, firing her weapon through it, and then again shortly after.
The Abomination roared again, and then the searing blue flames across most of its form started to glow like the seething heart of a volcano and even this far up he could feel this was a more devastating version of the earlier attack. He wondered what she would do… what she could do in the face of such an exponentially worse version of the earlier attack.
He was answered by a pulse of magic from whatever was above the clouds, and he had to swing his flight away before he flew directly into the spell’s effects. Air was rushing into the spell’s locus and downward as it apparently dipped well below the freezing point of water. The ground far below solidified and then froze over within heartbeats, turning white with frost.
The wave chose that moment to release from the Abomination and it was clear that this was impossibly more destructive than before. Where the previous waves had left charred skeletons of trees burning merrily, and simply turned the ground to molten slag, this vaporized the remains of the trees, and carved into the valley walls, sending up billowing clouds of vaporized earth and rock as the foothills started to slump from the sheer molten weight.
However, a swath of land was untouched by this latest wave, having been blocked by the arctic spell, sparing the town and a widening area far behind it. As he regained control of his mount, he looked down below, trying to find this truly mysterious elf. She was charging headlong through the widening area of effect from her spell, seemingly untouched by the deadly cold, her very presence causing billows of vaporizing and refreezing gasses that had fallen as snow. She fired upon the Abomination which was starting to get affected by the spell, causing it to stumble and slow even as it backed up, trying to escape. Shot after shot cracked out in the sudden deathly silence of the battle, until she discarded the weapon, having apparently run out of ammunition for it.
And then… she climbed upon the behemoth itself, fearing not its feeble attempts to harm her, and readied a spell. The world darkened around her as it charged, the monstrosity shuddering and shifting below her feet. Entire sections of it flickered and went dark as the frigid conditions spread. It made no difference to her, it seemed. How could it when she might as well have been a god? She lowered the spell into the final remaining cohesive piece, some sort of mining equipment, and the dark void of unreality tore away at the machine, silencing it for good.