-43-
[https://i.imgur.com/LoYByv0.png]
After the ‘battle’ at the Larian crossing our divisions consolidated together in a single massive camp.
It was twice, if not three times, as big as the temporary camping sites we’d set up on our way north, as now we were preparing to house the remaining Aestori forces.
I was looking through reports when someone called my name from outside my tent.
“It’s unlocked!” I called back out of habit.
The many hours sitting in an office back in Tolin were still taking their toll on me.
Julius entered with an amused look on his face.
“It can’t be locked without a door, ya know?”
“Yeah, yeah. My brain is fried, gimme a break. You need me for something?”
“I was reviewing how the camp was coming along. Your communirune was disabled or…” he trailed off, eyeing the small rune on my desk, “Sitting on a desk somewhere.”
“I asked Rias to take a look at it. It’s been acting up since this morning. I’m guessing you don’t have important news, seeing as a runner wasn’t sent.”
“The opposite, actually.”
“A runner was sent, or your news is important.”
Julius smiled smugly, “Anything I tell you is usually important.”
“That is just categorically untrue.” I sighed.
“Mei and her party showed up at the Seeker camp an hour ago. They’ll rest up and then it tear down. Should be with us tomorrow or the day after.”
“That’s certainly something I’d expect someone to send a runner about. They all okay?”
“She lost two knights in their escape but took Elyssia out of commission. Turned out, Renault was using it as a garrison.”
“Shit. That’s pretty good all things considered… Was it anyone we knew well?” I asked hesitantly.
Julius shook his head.
“New Aestori additions. They were both career knights. It doesn’t feel good to lose anyone but this is the kind of thing they spent their lives preparing for. I shook Mei up pretty bad though.”
“Well,” I sighed, “Try not to be a total asshole to her when she returns. Anything else?”
“Yeah, two things. First, I’m stealing Tatsuko into the OSW officially. She’s been really helpful handling the elves integrating into our modified divisional core and a big part of most of our planning—though she never seems to be noticed. I think she has some sort of passive ability that reduces her presence.”
“I’m fine with that if Hanna and Luke are. She was part of their division initially. Make sure you keep in mind that she isn’t an Aestori, though. I’d hate to get a report about how she feels discriminated against because of some comment you make about her dealing with elves well and it being taken the wrong way.”
“The V’alen remains a V’alen. Got it.”
Smart ass.
Great,” I said flatly, “And your second thing?”
“Rias wanted to see you. She’s at S-Four R-Thirty-Seven C-Twelve.”
Julius sounded like he’d just had a stroke.
“She’s at fucking what?”
“That’s her tent number. Section Four, Row Thirty-Seven, Column Twelve. Section Four is the second large grouping if you head south from—”
“Just lead me there. Please.”
“…so that was row fifteen but this is now row twenty? Who designed this system?” I mumbled under my breath.
“You can just look above the entryways.” Julius said, pointing above a nearby tent flap.
There was a mess of characters printed on it: S4-R20-C11-OSW. Julius looked at me like I was dumb.
“That still doesn’t explain the gap in rows.”
“Because across the way,” he pointed to the other tents on the opposite side of camp, “Those rows are set up. But in this section the open area we just walked through. This way all the row numbers are the same for each section. This is all within regulations.”
“I feel like it’s been a decade since I’ve looked at a divisional camp operations manual. Whose bright idea was it to give Rias a tent so far away from mine?”
“It has been over a decade since you ever had to prepare a camp yourself because I’ve always done it for you. And we’re going to the workshop, not her personal tent. Her experiments have been more… volatile, ever since Lira started helping her. I can’t trust her workshop to be in the middle of camp.”
“Ah, that’s fair.”
We reached Rias’ tent a few rows later. It was fairly large compared to the ones nearby. Column twelve appeared to be all on its own, many paces from the main encampment.
“Momma Airis!”
Akari emerged from the tent and wrapped herself around me.
“Hey, kiddo, I missed you. How’s Auntie Rias?”
“She’s making more weird stuff!”
Akari led me into Rias’ workshop by the hand.
Rias and Lira were inside, along with a few other people I didn’t recognize by face or outfit. They both had their hair up with goggles and masks covering their faces.
“Pretty serious-looking work going on in here.” I said offhandedly.
Lira looked up from her workstation and set aside her tools, “Heya, boss lady! You got here quick. We just called the Commander not too long ago.”
“Hi, Lira. I was ready to take a break when Julius came to get me so it worked out.” I pointed at my sister, whose hands were both deep inside another strange device, “What, uh, is she doing?”
“We think we’ve finally got the JPS working!”
“The Jaypiece? Huh?”
“J-P-S.” Lira spelled it out one letter at a time with a pause, “It’s the acronym for our Jewel Positioning System.
“That… still doesn’t explain anything, Lira.”
POP!
A loud noise came from Rias’ device and she cheered.
“Yes! We did it, Lira! Oh hey, sis, check this out!”
She beckoned me over.
“Sure, is this what you wanted to see me about?”
“Yeah and no. We were wrapping this up and I know you wanted me to look at your communirune and that other project you mentioned.”
“Ahhh, yep. Here’s my communirune,” I placed the small rune on her table, “You can get around to it whenever. Now what the gangs all back together, it’s not a huge deal if mine is busted.”
She held up in the light, humming and hawing.
“Huh. Weird.”
Rias handed the rune to Lira, who did and said the same thing as her.
“All this stuff is weird to me,” I cut in, “So, what’s this new Jaypiece thing?”
“That’s not what it’s called!” Lira whined in protest.
Rias ignored her, “You know how all the divisional officers have metallic insignia on their uniforms?”
“Well, most all the divisionals have metal insignia, not just the officers.” I countered.
“Oh, yeah I guess so. Okay, lemme rephrase—you know how all the officers have golden metallic insignias?”
I nodded my head.
“Okay! So, it’s not just gold—which I think is obvious because it would be too weak to withstand wear and tear—but actually a gold-copper alloy with a very small amount of refined quartz.”
“And this relates to your new device here?”
“Yes! That trace amount of quartz can be energized with magicka like a focus crystal and tracked, with the help of one of these.”
Rias produced a handful of runestones that looked pretty much identical to the one I gave her a moment ago.
“With communirunes?”
“Communirunes Mark Two!”
“But I was still right, yeah?”
Rias sighed at me, “Yeah I guess. We added a small additional function to the runes, to take in ambient aether magicka and energize any quartz crystals in a small sphere around itself.”
“And then,” Lira chimed in, “We use this receiver to track the positions of each set of energized insignia in a three-dimensional space projected onto Aethermist.”
“...Cool?”
“It is cool!” Both Rias and Lira responded.
“Julius, is this something you’d want in Command?”
I turned to find my companion already scribbling furiously on a notepad.
“Julius?”
“Yes. We’d want this.”
----------------------------------------
“We have incoming!”
“Battle stations, everyone. Look sharp!”
Cries of alarm sounded from the northern wall.
We rushed outside to find all the soldiers around us hurriedly equipping themselves. Julius touched the runestone behind his ear and his expression turned sour.
“More of those hounds and things like them.”
“That bastard must have sold himself out to the demons. Are they breeding the things within the city now?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
My question was rhetorical, of course.
We set off for the northern wall, and only by the time we were halfway there did I realize Rias and Akari were also trailing behind us.
I was preparing to tell them to go back where it was safe when Rias gave me a terrifying look.
After this morning’s titular event, I’d probably never get a night’s rest without worrying about her. People in the camp were calling it the Heavenly Nova and attributing the spell to both Sara and Rias.
Apparently, the elves had begun calling her the Archmagus’ Apprentice.
My gaze turned to Akari—
“I’m coming with!”
—and I sighed.
We clamored up the earthen ramparts and the sight gave me pause.
A few dozen soldiers armored in blue stood behind a horde of monstrous figures. I recognized demonic wolves but there were many more terrible creatures among them.
Some of these new ones still had the bodies of wolves, but gangly limbs and humanoid-like faces.
“Whaaaat in the Aether are those?” Rias murmured.
“…they look like people. I don’t like that one bit.” Lira took a step back, wrapping her arms around herself tightly.
The creatures darted around ahead of their handlers, crawling over one another like insects would a corpse.
BRAAAAAAAAA! BRAAAA!
Loud horns blared from the Renaultian soldiers and the demons began charging at our defenses.
Akari took a step forward, moving just ahead of me, “There are void-beasts here too. That’s not good.”
“Huh? You know what those things are, Akari?”
She looked up at me with terror in her eyes.
“Mom called them that. They’re real nasty. We lost a lot of friends until she banished them from home.”
TARGET
STATISTICS
VALUES
VOID-BEAST
HEALTH
STAMINA
MAGICKA
666 / 666
542 / 666
666 / 666
» ACTIVE EFFECT: ENRAGE
My eyes lifted to find the blur of void-beasts making contact with our guardians. Their sharp claws shredded metal shields as if they were made of paper and tore into my forces with ease.
In the chaos, the beasts were inflicting damage when they crawled over each other. Some even turned to attack their allies—but the damage these few hundred void-beasts were causing was way more than we expected.
“How did your mom get rid of them, exactly?” I frantically asked Akari.
“She burned them all up with bright golden magick and Ki. They really don’t like that kind of magick.”
Okay.
Ki is chaos magick.
And golden magick is holy magick, usually.
That makes sense because holy magick is effective against demons.
But these aren’t demons, they might related to the Void and Renault like Sagittarius and Virgo revealed to us.
So, is holy magick also effective against void creatures?
I looked around in a panic.
“Ikuye!” I screamed, “Ikuye, where are you!?”
The rush of air and loud beating of wings responded, and Ikuye soared in from somewhere in camp.
I’d have to deal with the aftermath of fainted troops later.
Ikuye landed next to me and Akari, “Sister, I am here! Whoa! Voidlings? Mom’s not gonna love to hear about this.”
“You’ve seen these before too?”
“Not ones made of humans before, but yeah I guess so.”
“Made of…” I trailed off, my words choked in my throat.
What the fuck is going on in Axio right now?
I formed my hands into fists, digging my nails into the palms. “Whatever they are, we need to clear them out. We don’t have enough heavy-hitters that can use holy magicks and you and I are the only ones with offensive chaos magicks. We’re going right in there.”
I pointed into the middle of the raging battle.
Ikuye wrapped her arms under mine and kicked up into the air. She flew right to a group of our soldiers who were getting ganged up on.
“ᛋᚻᛁᛖᛚᛞ.” She cast a spell under her breath and all of them were encased in walls of golden light that pushed the void-beasts back.
“Focus on keeping our forces alive as the priority.” I gave the angelic warrior orders.
“As you wish, sister. I’ll enjoy slaying these beasts in the process.”
I drew Dáinsleif from its sheathe and the cursed blade’s flames licked the air hungrily. The golden walls shimmered, then disappeared.
I brought my blade up and cleaved the first incoming beast in half. It was engulfed in triplicate rings of fire: dark red from Dáinsleif and both golden and reddish-orange flames that were set off from VINDICATION—my double damage dealing Iteria power.
Activating WILD STRIKE, I lunged forward and slashed through another. My blade carved through its hide and ebony-black blood sprayed through the air, darkening the dirt. A ring of dark-red, golden, and red-orange flames spread out from the void-beast and burned all other enemies within a fifteen-foot radius.
The corner of my vision was filled with combat data.
» WILD STRIKE HITS, INFLICTING EXTREME (347) DAMAGE
» VINDICATION ACTIVATES, INFLICTING AN ADDITIONAL EXTREME (173) HOLY DAMAGE AND (173) FIRE DAMAGE
» SOULFIRE HITS, INFLICTING EXTREME (347) DAMAGE
» SOULFIRE SPLASHES, INFLICTING EXTREME (347) DAMAGE TO ALL NEARBY FOES
» VINDICATION ACTIVATES, INFLICTING AN ADDITIONAL EXTREME (173) HOLY DAMAGE AND (173) FIRE DAMAGE
Oh? I haven’t seen a SOULFIRE proc in a while.
The SOULFIRE and VINDICATION combo had devastated the immediate area.
The void-beasts writhed in pain as the mass of flames consumed them. Guttural screams and terrible squeals rang in my ears, but I did my best to block them out and focus on preparing for the incoming wave of monsters.
I willed the font of Capricorn’s magicka open, and let it spill through my mana circuits, “Source of light that dwells among the veiled. Journey with us as we make our way in the darkness. Come forth and guide our way, Radiance!”
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY AN AURA OF LIGHT [CHAOTIC AURA]
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT
I was bathed in the archetypal blood-orange of chaotic magick. It spread out from my body like tendrils, enveloping the nearby soldiers, notably my combat-crazed ally.
Power surged through my body as DIVINE STRENGTH took effect.
Ikuye let out an invigorating warcry in response.
“Alright you nasty-looking voidspawn, I’ll take you all on!”
My left hand held my blade at the ready, while my right produced a jagged crystal radiating crimson light. I launched the CHAOS BOLT into the new horde of monsters and it exploded on contact, shooting bits of crystal shard shrapnel at the whole pack.
VINDICATION activated and flames washed over the beasts. It didn’t kill them all as the triple fire combo had, but did noticeable damage.
“Finish them off!” I rallied the soldiers following after me.
“For the Empire!” “For Her Majesty!”
They screamed in unison, charging the injured monsters with everything they had. Arrows and magick spells soared overhead, piercing and pinning the void-beasts down to be hacked into bits all the better.
As we continued clearing the eastern field, I kept an eye out on Ikuye. She and the soldiers rallied around her had finished mopping up the western field and were redirecting to the Renaultians that had brought them here.
Then, the ground began to shake.
The sky dimmed.
And an empurpled glow clung to the world.
A massive void-beast appeared through a tear in space above the Renaultians—their silhouettes crumbled to the ground like string-cut puppets.
“Awh man! One of those ones now? I really hate those ones.” Ikuye’s cheery voice called down from above.
I glanced up to see her hovering a few feet over me. Ikuye’s forces were retreating, presumably at her command.
“What is that thing?”
“Void-reaver. Used to be one of the Aver’terian planeswalkers by the looks of it.”
“Aver’ter—Haah, nevermind. How do we beat that thing? Can we go smash it with blades and magick till it dies or is it special?”
“Nah. Just a bigger nastier version of the void-beasties we slaughtered earlier. You’ve killed one of those before, don’t you remember? Well, it wasn’t voided at the time.”
“One of those…”
I gazed at the behemoth and silently cast an inspection spell.
TARGET
STATISTICS
VALUES
VOID-REAVER
HEALTH
STAMINA
MAGICKA
6666 / 6666
6541 / 6666
6216 / 6666
» ACTIVE EFFECT: AURA OF DESPAIR
That thing’s stats are way higher than that ettin we fought!
This is gonna suck. Bad.
Its health was lower, but it was on par with the Archdemon Asteryith that occupied Tolin.
Oh. The Archdemon. That’s exactly what it looks like but grosser and with more tentacles.
“That things a Terror Demon?” I asked upwards to my aerial ally.
“Dunno what a Terror Demon is, but sure. If that’s what you called that baddie skulking around those city ruins was. Mother showed me your ᚱᛁᛘᛒᚱᚪᚾᚳᛖ when you were killed. It looked like one of the planeswalkers.”
My whole body shuddered as I relived the impalement and death I suffered in my mind.
Bah!
I shook the thoughts from my head.
“Can we kill it from afar? I don’t really want to get up close and personal. That thing is huge and I have a bit of trauma from going near the last one.”
“Sure you can. Just conjure up like seventy of those shiny crystals that explode and send them off to greet our new friend.”
“That seems too easy.”
“Well, maybe a hundred of ‘em. You might miss.” she shrugged.
I sighed, “You know that’s not what I meant.”
Following Ikuye’s advice, I began to prepare a hundred CHAOS BOLTS. They manifested all around me in the sky, showering the area in their crimson light.
The shining light didn’t go unnoticed, though. The massive void-reaver began lumbering its way to Ikuye and I.
“That ought to be good enough. Any more and I know your body won’t be able to handle it.” Ikuye warned, “Actually, this might be too much as it is.”
“W-What do you mean?” I strained to respond. The concentration needed to maintain all this magick was a bit difficult.
Oh, that’s what she means.
“Never mind,” I murmured, “I’m launching them now. Stand clear.”
Chaos rained down on the void-reaver. Ear-shattering explosions went off one after another as the shards fired off in rapid succession.
The monster’s health plunged into the black and the sky and surrounding area returned to its normal midday glow.
“Alright. That felt anticlimactic but I don’t particularly feel bad about it.”
“I don’t really like fighting those things anyway. They grab you with those tentacles and…” Ikuye shuddered.
I began walking back towards our battlements when my head started to feel light and my vision blurred. My steps faltered and I fell down on my knees.
By the Goddess, I think I’m gonna pass out.
“Hey, Ikuye, I think I’m gonna pass out.”
I felt her scoop me up in her arms and say something, but my ears were ringing.
“Tell Julius that he neeeds to pickuptheeee…shaaards.”
I could feel my words slurring as my consciousness faded.
The last thing I saw before my vision went dark was a single notification lit up in an iridescent wave of color.
» YOUR ITERIA LEVEL HAS INCREASED TO 9