.
In the Huadean version of the game of chess, the knights are ‘flyers’, meaning aerial cavalry, the bishops are ‘mages’ and the rooks, confusingly, are ‘knights’. Only the pawns and king have the same name. And the piece that stands next to the king at the beginning of the game is called the “Fairy” rather than the “Queen”.
The key milestone that the allied commanders had been waiting for had been achieved with the fairy knights fully engaged against each other. They remained a horrendous navigation hazard for the flying forces, but they were otherwise eliminated from the equation. Which doesn’t really match how queens work in chess, but it does speak to how devastating they can be, either in chess or on a real battlefield.
As we battled in the sky above them, Prince Rufin’s cavalry came streaming down into the valley below, and Rod’s flyers came out of the pass above, hugging the terrain as they flew south to avoid us, planning to harass the Berado rear. They needed to be quick and careful, since our clashing weapons were causing serious turbulence.
Probably because she had inflicted serious wounds on Lilhàn to begin the match, Dilorè was holding her own. The sword was her primary weapon, but she had skills with spear, and using it with [Fortification] allowed her to parry her opponent’s blade without damaging the shaft.
I could stop worrying about her and concentrate on my opponent. Who was growing increasingly frustrated, because her demonic blade continued to have no effect on Durandal.
“I’m curious about something,” I told her as we traded a series of blows. Because we were leaning into our strikes, we weren’t getting blown back much by the shockwaves, but the blasts meant I was talking very loudly and had to temper my sentence with pauses as our swords connected, like this: I’m curious… about… something.
“And you think I’ll answer your questions?” she retorted, with similar pauses.
I caught her with a blast of Fire out of the Starfire Jade Writing Brush, forcing her to breakaway as she warded it off with Wind. Then I answered, “You might. Who knows?”
She waved her focus… she was carrying a mithril spindle this time… and a series of Water darts flew at me, too small to be any challenge to Durandal’s [Shield of Oranos].
“I hardly think so,” she stated, then charged forward for a new attack with her sword.
I sent out a blast of steam from the Writing Brush, forcing her off course, then intercepted her to trade more sword blows.
“How’s this?” I asked. “I show you something interesting, and then you can decide whether to comment on it. Doesn’t that sound fair?”
Her response at first was just mocking laughter– I have to admit, Feraen is really good at mocking fairy laughter– but then she sobered and said, “If you have something to show, then just show it!”
“I have your agreement then,” I responded with a smile. “Very well then.”
I let a massive gust of Wind out of the Writing Brush, propelling us apart, then used Vampire Cloak.
Immediately upon disappearing, I sent myself downward, plummeting toward the battle below, then dashed across until I was only feet above and behind the Berado “King” where he was observing the battle from his demon mount.
I had begun [Blood Physique] before the battle began. I initialized [Blood Manipulation] now, then used [Hidden Voice] to send a message to Feraen, who was scanning around frantically, trying to find me.
If you want to find me, My Lady, look at your King Perim!
I let my Cloak drop, then lashed out with blood tendrils, wrapping him up with his arms pinned to his sides. Rocketing back into the air, I dragged him aloft.
Now, as promised, I’ll show you something interesting!
I jabbed the Writing Brush into the lich’s back and poured all the Light circulating within me into him. It was a lot less efficient than a [Break Illusion] spell, but the sheer quantity did the job. He let out a howl– Light mana is pretty bad for demons by itself– and the flood of mana destroyed his disguise, leaving an obvious class B skeletal demon writhing in my bonds.
If it had been a class A elder lich or class S undead king, I might have gone straight to [Purification], but I wanted Feraen to see the animated demon before she saw him reduced to disarticulated bones.
The lich thrashed in my grip, then began chanting in Regaritan. I didn’t want to know what the spell he planned to cast was, so I let all the [Purification] circulating in my body pour out of the Writing Brush into him.
He let out a scream, thrashing violently. Then he crumbled to pieces.
Chaos was ruling on the ground beneath me. Durandal was fending off some random attacks with [Fortress of Gaia], but the confusion on the Berado side, both from what they had just seen and from the sudden appearance of a demonic beast in the middle of the command entourage where their king’s mount had just been, was limiting the number of attacks coming my way.
In the air, Feraen and Lilhàn were both staring, alternating between me and the bones on the ground. Dilorè was not taking advantage of the distraction to attack. The situation called for giving them a chance to consider their situation.
“Care to comment?” I wondered out loud.
She flew closer, slowly, continuing to stare down at the remains. Then she asked, “I swear, he looked like a mortal to me.”
I nodded. “Your cousin in Cara Ita had the same problem. Aenëe couldn’t see through a lich in disguise at all. And your grandmother couldn’t see a gidim that was very obvious to everyone else in the room. It was completely invisible to her. It seems that some strange magic has been cast on everyone in your clan.”
All thoughts of the fight had vanished from her mind, it seemed. She looked around at the various milling soldiers below. “You said there are others?”
I called over at my cousin. My Lady, could you fetch one of the larvae for us?
She nodded, then flew toward the disintegrating command entourage. Pointing the spear one-handed as a magic staff, she cast a Wind spell that sucked a larva from his mount into the air, then flew to us with him helplessly flailing around. She executed a Water spell that wrapped tightly around him, stopping him from moving.
Visually, he still looked like a Tabadan tribesman, but with fairy sight, I could see the skeletal demon within as clear as day.
“You say this is a demon?” Lilhàn asked as she also arrived.
I noticed Durandal was now enclosing all of us with [Fortress of Gaia]. He wasn’t even slightly shaken by the random attacks occasionally coming our way.
“You both honestly cannot see it?” Dilorè asked.
Both fairies shook their heads.
I let out a sigh, then poured a massive dose of Light mana out through the Writing Brush. The demon let out a loud hiss, tortured by the Light as his disguise vanished.
“Can you see the demonic mana now?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Feraen said, shaking her head. “But he’s clearly not human. How is this possible?”
It confirmed my theory. Somehow, something was blinding them to demonic mana.
A voice boomed up from below. “My Ladies, resume the attack! Honor your contracts to our lord!”
I looked to the source and saw a man dressed as an Orestanian general mounted on a horse, riding toward us. Except my hackles rose as I saw the thing that was very wrong about him.
Feraen turned her eyes toward me with dread in her expression.
Nodding, I told her, “Elder Lich.”
A deep, shaking breath let out of her, followed by her shaking her head in horror. “What…. what…”
I took off toward the demon. He immediately yelled, “Defend me!” as he pointed the ball of the magic focus in his hand, a scepter.
“[Lightning Bolt!]” he chanted, which seemed to be a variation on the [Magic Lightning] spell that I knew. The attack arced out at me as [Shield of Oranos] activated to counter it.
I filled myself with a new load of Healing and poured it into the Writing Brush as well, then intoned, “[Purification!]”
Keeping that on hold, I pulled up short of him, then pointed Durandal at him and commanded, “[Holy Smite!]”
“[Dark Fortress!]” he yelled at the same time. A globe of Darkness, combined with Demonic mana, appeared around him.
Durandal’s magic circle formed and fired, sending forth the fist of Earth mana. It smashed through the demonic magic. The fist was weakened by the defense, but still strong enough to punch the Elder Lich straight off his horse.
The shock apparently disrupted his disguise. The undisguised class A skeletal demon groggily tried to pick himself up off the ground as his demon horse began rampaging among the shocked members of his escort.
I landed behind him, opposite the demon horse, and drove Durandal into the Undead King’s back, then fired off the full load of [Purification] into him.
An inhuman howl burst out of him as the spell tortured him, but the initial attack failed to destroy him. I sprang back, commanding, “[Holy Rend!]” and swung my blade at him.
The massive [Wind Scythe] cleaved the skeletal demon in two, splitting top and bottom at the base of his rib cage. He would be able to reassemble himself if I gave him time, but he couldn’t work properly like this. I circulated a new load of Healing mana, this time charging up until my wings became incandescent again.
Meanwhile, the other three fairies had landed around us, forming a perimeter around me to stop the others in his entourage from interfering.
I chanted “[Purification!]” again, and unloaded on the upper half of the demon. This time, the skeleton disarticulated and dropped to the ground.
I repeated with the lower half, since I honestly wasn’t sure if the demon could regenerate from what was left, but could still see demonic mana in those bones. They, too, fell apart.
Looking left and right, Feraen asked, “Are there any more demons among these, My Lady?”
A part of me wanted to pause and consider whether that was the first time she had addressed me properly. But there was no time.
I looked around at the astounded command corps of the Parnese forces, then pointed to one that was fleeing on horseback. “The one running away.”
Dilorè took off, flying above the confused troops, and hit the mounted lich and his horse with a proper [Break Illusion], destroying their disguises. Surprised Parnese militiamen began firing on the demons. She then leveled her spear on him and incinerated him on the spot.
That spear was one almighty hot flame weapon. The demonic beast roasted and the lich’s skeleton became black with carbon. But the lich was still alive. He tried to flee on foot, so she wrapped him in bonds of Water, then began frying him with Light.
The militiamen were disturbing neither her nor us. Of course, attacking four fairy knights would be a career-ending move for most militiamen.
“Were there any other demons?” Feraen wondered.
I nodded. “There were at least a half-dozen larvae among the king’s command entourage. We’ll need to hunt them down.”
The battle was still ongoing, but rapidly dissolving into chaos. I told Feraen, “I take it you aren’t going to fight for them anymore?”
She shook her head. “Until I have an explanation from Lord Parna…”
Chopping off mid-sentence and growing a look of horror, she asked, “Do you suppose Lord Parna is one, too?”
“The last time I saw him, he wasn’t,” I told her. “But I expect that he is being controlled or tricked by demons. His rebellion is an act of eminent stupidity. The only group that it benefits are the demons.”
