§
Clouds of thick Darkness mana and miasma poured in on me from every direction, above, below and all around me, carried within a matrix of billowing Demonic mana. It appeared like a weird black foam, emerging from nowhere, confining me before I could escape.
I didn’t understand what was happening, but I instantly poured the extra Earth I had intended for Durandal into my [Body Fortification] and continued pouring Holy mana into [Purification] as the cloud closed around me. I had already expanded my mind in order to increase my spiritual sense. I now poured Darkness out all around me and used my mental expansion for Will, forming the mana into a barrier in an ad lib recreation of Durandal’s [Fortress of Gaia]. Which, incidentally, he had formed around me as well by the time I noticed.
This was all, more-or-less, reflex. I still couldn’t figure out what was happening.
It blocked all daylight. The only light around me now was myself. The incandescence of my wings and hair from the heavy current of [Purification] within me created a zone of ambient light around me, but the surface of the mana cloud absorbed almost all the light I generated, barely revealing the boiling surface of Darkness.
The cloud met my barrier and squeezed it, forcing it inward on me, until my barrier and Durandal’s [Fortress] occupied the same space and our combined effort finally stopped its advance.
A crushing spiritual voice, loaded with Will intended to break the spirit and destroy the heart, boomed out of the cloud.
WHAT ARE YOU? IDENTIFY YOURSELF!!
I didn’t bother answering. This thing was attacking, and who has time to hold a conversation with their attacker?
Oh, right. Fairy knights do. But screw it, I was too busy holding this implosion of mana back, to prevent it from crushing me.
I fed more Earth to Durandal finally, to insure he had enough. His [Fortress] instantly strengthened, relieving the staggering pressure on my mind. At last, I felt like I could think a little, but when I tried to figure out what I was dealing with, I came up with zilch.
I SAW YOU WITH THE ASCENDANT! YOU ARE A TOOL IN HIS FOUL PLANS!!
I shot back, Bzzzzzt, sorry, wrong answer. You only get two more strikes.
Now that I had the situation stabilized, I could respond, but my mind felt like it was creaking under the load. I continued Willing my shell of Darkness to hold up, but it was starting to feel like I was bench-pressing six hundred pounds.
At least, my attacker had nicely delivered me the first clue. Not too many entities in this world knew about Erebos, the Ascendant under the Green Tower in the Oserian Highlands. He was a name from early in the Ancient Fairy Age, lost to time except in the memory of the gods, or of demigods like Oberon.
And surely this cage had a flaw, a seam I could exploit, so I was also putting my thoughts to that. I would have liked to invoke my committee of former incarnations and put them to work on the problem, but I needed my whole being to generate Will and spiritual sense, so I couldn’t afford it. My mind took in the whole ball of unholy existence engulfing me and found nothing.
My mana pathways were flooded with [Purification], but I didn’t dare touch it. I needed it in case my defense against the crushing pressure finally cracked. I created a new charge of [Purification] instead, circulating it within my spiritual vessel, then waved the Starfire Jade Writing Brush in a wide slash, pouring a large quantity of it out through the brush end, painting a massive stroke across the foul cloud.
It left a brief wake in the roiling surface, but I was trying to gouge out a hole in the ocean. More mana rolled in to take its place.
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!! ABANDON ALL HOPE!!
Not only do you have lines like a two-bit villain, you’re a plagiarist.
The mental effort was actually causing me to physically sweat, something I’ve rarely done in this body.
Outside, I could sense Dian and her warrior squad coming to my rescue, but the rest of the enemy escorts were flying to block their advance. And, with the fairy warriors engaging, the bombers were making another attempt on the fleeing carriages.
Up until this moment, I had simply felt frustrated. Now, I began feeling anxiety, as danger closed in on the ones I was here to protect.
I was multitasking, so I had already drawn a second load of Holy mana from the Immortal Realms. (By the way, scientists of Huade, that’s your mysterious source of ‘Healing’ mana that you couldn’t find. It’s drawn directly from Heaven, where it’s ordinary ‘Fundamental Mana’, the basic building block of Immortal life.) I again chanted [Purification] and sent it out in another gout.
The effect was the same as before, but I paid attention to the total quantity surrounding me and confirmed that a finite mass of mana surrounded me, and I was successfully chipping away at it with these attacks.
The load was still nearly unbearable, but the knowledge I could reduce it slowly helped. A lot.
THIS STRUGGLE IS MEANINGLESS! I SHALL DISSECT YOU AND THEN I SHALL KNOW YOUR SECRET!!
That’s your best offer? Your negotiating technique seriously sucks.
I concentrated and confirmed by spiritual sense that the three fairy warriors were still in position around me. Or, to be more precise, they were now at the vertices of a perfect equilateral triangle surrounding me, and they clearly had something to do with this strange prison, since they had placed themselves exactly at the outer surface of it. Still, I couldn’t see at all exactly how they related to it. I couldn’t identify any magic they were casting, or any magic tool projecting this strange barrier around me. The mana had not seemed to come from them in the first place, but rather from thin air, between them and me.
The pressure increased again, as if I were in the grasp of a gigantic hand attempting to crush me, and it was making a second effort now. But my barrier of Darkness and Will continued to hold up against it. Somehow.
I AM THE TRUE GOD OF THIS WORLD! SUBMIT AND OBEY!!
Well, that was another clue, I guess.
You’re one out of twelve convicted criminals and a fugitive from Heaven’s law.
INSOLENCE! THE FALSE GODS ARE PRETENTIOUS INTRUDERS!!
My bosses came with the authority of Heaven to evict and arrest you. There’s been a bit of a delay, but they’ll get it done in the end.
So he was claiming to be Astaroth, or at least, ‘the true god’. But no such primeval god was present. He certainly remained entombed below the Green Tower with his jailer, Erebos. I could be sure of that, because I did not believe for a second that I could hold up against such an entity directly. I was fighting something similar to a proxy that the demon god had dispatched, and I was facing only whatever finite resources that proxy carried with it. Actually, I was beginning to suspect that the ball of mana and miasma was, in fact, the proxy itself.
I decided to try a different tactic against the barrier. I built up a new extra dose of [Purification], as much as I could circulate inside my spiritual vessel, then reversed the Writing Brush and sent it out in a solid ball from the handle end, targeting a single point in the barrier.
This time, instead of a long divot that quickly filled, I gouged out a massive crater. But it still wasn’t enough to break through, and it, too, filled in, although more slowly.
YOUR STRUGGLES ARE FUTILE! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!!
You’re repeating yourself. A god should have a deeper stock of lines than that.
I sighed and shook my head as if to communicate, How pathetic.
Oops. I actually said it.
I gave Lucy a nudge. I focused my spiritual voice on her rather than speak out loud.
Lucy, call Dilorè.
“No!”
Rather than instant cooperation, I had instant rejection. And no mini-pixie appeared to deliver it; the voice came from the stone itself. She remained tightly curled up inside it.
Of course she did. She’s just a tiny spirit. This situation was probably terrifying for her.
I wasn’t sure it would be possible to connect via spiritual voice through this. Frankly, it was an enormous unknown, since I still couldn’t quite work out how this cage was even being maintained. Since I was definitely chipping away at it, it wasn’t being directly supplied from the so-called god who was shouting at me. But that was my next tactic.
IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW LONG YOU RESIST ME. YOU WILL BE MINE IN THE END. IT WOULD BE EASIER TO LET GO AND SUBMIT.
Ignoring it, I targeted the image of my cousin’s aura and sent my spiritual voice out to it.
Dilorè, can you help me?
To my mild surprise, my cousin’s mental voice replied. I had half-expected I would be unable to connect.
Your Highness? What is it?
Around this time, the entity claiming to be Astaroth made a second effort to squeeze down on me. It might have slacked off for a bit, hoping to get me to relax my guard. The effort failed, but I again began charging another shot of [Purification] in my spiritual vessel. The largest shot I could create.
I told her, I need you to come assist, right away. Can you come fully equipped?
Naturally, she stated airily. I’m wearing my armor under my raiment, and my spear is lashed to my saddle.
Dilorè had discovered, during our stay in the mountain, that the giant’s bone spear she carried could break down into three sections. Which made sense. No giant is actually big enough that a single-piece spear could be carved out of their femur.
The surge of pressure slacked off again, but I had the sense of an effort being made to try something new. Indistinct movements were happening within the roiling Dark cloud.
IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME! AN INSIGNIFICANT BUG CANNOT RESIST THE POWER OF THE WORLD ITSELF!
Come right away, I told her, still ignoring him. There’s a great big ball of Dark and Demonic mana and I’m trapped inside. There are three fairy warriors that seem to be maintaining it. I’m betting you can destabilize it by attacking one of them.
A… big ball?
I can’t describe it better than that. You’ll have to come see it. I need you here immediately, please.
Understood, Your Highness, she responded. I’m already on my way.
The movements within the cloud were beginning to shape into a vortex above my head. And below my feet. The entire cloud was beginning to take on the movements of a whirlpool. A really weird, spherically shaped one.
The distance from Camp Langram had been short, less than a mile. In my spiritual sense, I felt Dilorè coming into the battle zone already. She must have dashed to her horse and assembled the spear while flying.
Can you see the fairies creating this ball? I asked as she suddenly slowed down.
It’s… difficult… I keep flying, but they seem to be getting farther away.
She came to a halt, midair. She didn’t seem to notice that the enemy fairy warriors were now coming at her.
Dilorè, you’ve stopped! What are you doing?
The whirlpool was intensifying. Whatever the attack was, it was clearly getting ready to release. And Dilorè was just hovering there in midair
I’ve… huh?
I realized with alarm what was happening, and shouted, HE’S MESSING WITH YOUR MIND! REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING! FIGHT IT!
Ah… aaa… AAAH! I’m coming, Your Highness!!
She dashed forward again as I directed, Target the fairy on the side of the ball closest to you!
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
I assume her screams were a way to focus her mind against the demonic magic attacking it as she closed in, raised her spear and let loose the weapon’s special attack.
From out of the spearhead, a gout of Dragon’s Breath struck home. The fairy screamed under the fiery onslaught, but then the ball responded, sending out a part of itself to block the fire. But I also responded, sending out the [Purification], but not firing it through the Writing Brush. I poured it out of my body and Willed it to join the Darkness in my ad hoc barrier.
I launched myself into the mana cloud where it had thinned out under Dilorè’s attack.
As I had expected, the [Purification] barrier was destructive to the cloud surface. I bored a hole through it as I pushed forward. And as soon as I confirmed it was working, I poured out Wind from my core to enhance my speed. Then I poured out the Light I still had left, replacing the Darkness. The surface of my barrier boiled with conflicting mana. The Light was getting destroyed, but taking out an equal portion of Darkness, while the [Purification] wiped out Demonic mana and miasma.
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!! YOU CANNOT DEFY ME!! SUBMIT TO YOUR FATE!!
I gritted my teeth and pressed forward. The farther from the center I got, the harder the going got.
I SHALL NOT PERMIT THIS!!!
As I neared the fairy, I prepared to swing Durandal and yelled, “[Holy Rend]!”
Suddenly, I broke free and swung. My opponent was at point-blank range and wounded from Dilorè’s attack. The giant [Wind Scythe] caught her without a defense, gouging a horrible gash across her chest and arms. I dashed free.
In the distance, the defenders were fending off the bombers successfully. Nearer, Dian’s fairies were giving a solid accounting for themselves against the bomber escort. Seeing me coming out, Dilorè was already dashing back to deal with the bombers, correctly assuming I would be going that way too.
Then the massive, now deformed ball behind me warped, bent, and quaked, and a massive impact smashed into me.
