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We would be hidden from most eyes if I cast [Vampire Cloak] on myself and Shindzha, but I would also be hidden from Shindzha, preventing her from following me. Instead, I went to my pixie form and sat on her shoulder, so I could tell her where to fly while she used her [Indifference] spell.
A low-level stealth spell would not work well on a mountain top with no forest cover or shadows and many eyes to fool, but in the middle of a battle, the distractions around us worked to this specific spell’s advantage.
After she picked up a spear which she had acquired at some point, no doubt from a demon she had slain, and drew the Darkness for her spell inside the tunnel, Shindzha cast [Indifference] and ran outside, turning her course toward the ridge. She ran without drawing any fire from either side for most of the way .
For most of the way, anyway. As Shindzha ran, her path clinging like a mountain goat to the sharp slope below the secondary peak, angling for our base camp in the hollow, Lady Elhán quite suddenly appeared, preparing a massive Earth mana attack.
I dashed forward, switching to Stage Two and called, <Durandal!>, while whipping out the [Qi Blade] that was fashioned in his image.
To my shock, rather than one of his divine weapon shields appearing, I heard Sen calling, “[Water Mirror]!” and a broad, dense pane of mana appeared just in time for a stream of [Earth Bullet] missiles to batter it.
Elhán and I stared at each other in shock for a moment, but this was not a situation that would allow for a pause. Above us swarmed a mass of demons on flying beasts. The fairy knight immediately had to defend against a volley of missile attacks, as did I. Or rather, she defended normally while I dismissed the [Qi Blade], grabbed Shindzha and went [Vampire Cloak].
Despite it, the Nanas circled the fairy knight, scolding her.
“It’s Auntie!”
“It’s Auntie!”
“Don’t shoot Auntie!”
It took me that long to realize I wasn’t wearing my own body anymore.
“I’m driving for a moment,” Sen said while shifting Shindzha to a princess carry and growing her wings.
“Mistress?” she asked, confused. She kept her grip on her spear, but quickly shifted it so that it wouldn’t interfere with Sen’s flight.
This sudden development had horribly disoriented me as well, but I had faith that this big sister had things under control, so I just relaxed and accepted the situation as she launched into the air. I wasn’t ‘driving’ anymore, anyway.
“Sorry, but Durandal was busy. This was the best alternative.”
Shindzha remained baffled, because of course Sen’s words were for me rather than her.
She was wearing the “Tia Mona” outfit that my own adventuring clothes were modeled on, except the original version retained Lady Tiana’s backflap, like a short cape, that covered the open back which allowed her wings to work. She had no trouble flying, and of course her physical strength was far more than mine, so she easily carried her hellspawn Servant as she ascended.
<What do you mean, ‘Durandal was busy’?> I demanded. <And don’t talk out loud to me! You’re confusing her!>
<I mean exactly that,> she answered. <We’ll have to make do with me.>
As she said it, I picked up in her thoughts the knowledge that Durandal was, at that moment, focused upon Narses Castle and Lady Tiana, but I couldn’t get more than that, because Sen knew nothing further. And of course, we were busy here.
<You understand the [Water Mirror] spell, right? Should be easy for you, being Water aspect and all. Feel free to cast it if you feel we need it.>
<This is your body, not mine!>
<Fan Li says you should be able to cast your spells, since my body has all aspects.>
It wasn’t necessary anyway. We were in [Vampire Cloak] at the moment. Nobody could see us.
The Nanas, in the meantime, had joined the battle. On the fairy side, of course. They’re chaotic, but not chaotic enough to fight for the demons. And, given the way they avoided actual contact with the creatures despite the way they ping-ponged their course through them, I had the sense they didn’t dare actually touch them. They were doing plenty to disrupt them, though. The amount of Wind mana they were roiling up was intense.
As we spiraled downward toward the horse and Terese, Shindzha warned, “Don’t put me too close to the horses! I’ll panic them!”
<Fairy warriors!> Sen called out, targeting the entire contingent defending the base camp. <Do not be alarmed! I will land Hiléa and my hellspawn Servant Shindzha near the camp!>
<Your Highness, how are you here? What happened to Hiléa?> Elhàn demanded in return.
In other words, Elhàn had seen Sen as Tiana. It was an understandable mistake. They’re basically twins.
To Elhàn, she answered, <Never mind me! Hiléa is fine! Don’t attack my Servant!>
To me, she said, <Really, I use the image of Senhion, so I am closer to an older sister. But Tiana is nearly full-grown now, so our apparent ages differ by a year or two at most.>
As Shindzha has requested, we landed downslope from the horses, more out in the open than in the hollow.
As she set Shindzha down on her feet and stood up straight, I found myself and my normal Stage Two body back in charge.
I drew the [Qi Blade], which had again appeared on my hip, and dropped our [Vampire Cloak].
The effect on the various riding beasts was immediate, but they only became nervous rather than panicked. We had landed sufficiently far away.
Stern and unruffled, Lady Terese stood beside her horse holding a fan which I assume was her magic focus. Fans are the most common magic foci among both Atian and Dorian lady mages as a matter of fashion. I have no idea what sort of magic Mother’s lady’s maid knows, but she was calmly standing ready to use it, and she was, after all, Lady Benedetta’s daughter.
She stared downslope at us, looking prepared to respond, and I immediately called out, “It’s okay! She’s Lady Tiana’s Servant!”
After pursing her lips, Terese simply gave a grave nod and returned her eyes to the skies.
It occurred to me, my [Spirit Sense] was detecting a magically generated dome of sorts over the camp. We were standing just outside of it. Visually, it wasn’t there, but the Darkness mana was strong. The fairies above were engaging enemies, but nobody was attacking the camp, with all its riding beasts laden with supplies.
<True. Attacking your enemy’s supply train, especially when its guard is light, is strategy 101,> Sen mused. <At least for human commanders.>
“Maybe that dome only affects demonic eyes?” I wondered aloud.
“What is it, Mistress?” Shindzha asked. She was also watching the skies, her spear now held with two hands at ready.
“Can you see the horses and Lady Terese, Shindzha?”
She glanced over her shoulder at them, and frowned.
“With great difficulty, Mistress,” she admitted. “This screen obscures them like a fog. It’s very powerful and I can only see them again now that we’re this close. I assume the woman is a Dark mage?”
Ah, hadn’t thought of that. Terese and her fan weren’t standing prepared to respond to attacks. She was maintaining her camouflage magic.
“Huh,” I responded. “Well, I suppose we’ve done nothing yet to decrease the demonic influence within you.”
“I get the feeling I shouldn’t touch it, Mistress. My magic senses are repelled by it rather painfully.”
I nodded. Then I wondered, “How did you know we were headed for the horses?”
“The magic only appeared as we were descending, Mistress.”
So Terese had cast it just then? In response to our approach? How did I not notice her casting it?
<Wait! We were in [Vampire Cloak]!>
<I think she is possibly a much more powerful Dark mage than we realized, Lhan,> Sen replied with a wry tone. <Darkness specializes in stealth, after all. Including disguising its own castings and detecting the stealth of others. And as you just pointed out, yourself, she’s Benedetta’s daughter.>
Shindzha tipped her head, probably puzzled by my odd silence, then returned her eyes to the skies without commenting on it.
Instead, she asked, “Mistress, should I attack if I have the opportunity or simply defend?”
“I’ll leave it up to you. Just don’t confuse our allies. Defense might be safer. I’m going up now.”
To heck with standing here doing nothing.
<I’m a bad influence on you, aren’t I?> Sen chuckled. <You’re barely your meek little rodent self at all, anymore.>
<Who’s a meek little rodent?> I shot back, then used [Water Step] to run upward, back into the sky.
The battlefield remained away from our position, but no longer at the summit. The summit party was now on their way back to our position, so their attackers were also moving our direction.
I joined the fairy battle line and they wordlessly shifted to give me an equal space. It was somehow gratifying that they clearly recognized me as being on their level. And with that, I found myself handling a pair of what looked for all the world like the shadowy demons that flew mounted beasts in one of Robert’s favorite movies.
<Yeah, I get that,> Sen responded, <but these are demonized wyverns and the riders are fiends. And you’re not a real halfling, anyway.>
I couldn’t help but giggle a little as I pressed into the first of them, parrying his lance with my Water-reinforced [Qi Blade] while the other tried coming in behind me. I’m not sure if they had an actual plan for how to handle an aerial opponent who didn’t fly with wings or a mount.
As a shield and lance wielder, he clearly didn’t have a plan to deal with something as unconventional as a fighter on foot in midair. Being already inside his lance like this left him in serious trouble.
Of course, he had an ally.
The demon lunged at me, intent on using his maw full of lizard teeth. As I slammed the pommel of the [Qi Blade] into his face, a pixie voice yelled, “[Tangle]!” from my shoulder.
Until that moment, I didn’t even notice Kiki was with me, but her casting appeared behind my back, a weird snarl of Earth and Wind mana that sent a demonically enhanced [Wind Bullet] stream shooting off in all directions, including back at the caster. The other fiend was a mage!
I kicked sideways, swinging my blade to wound the wyvern’s wing as I scrambled out of the way. Of course, this put me outside the arc of the first wyvern’s lance, which he brought to bear on me immediately. Fortunately, he was not well positioned to actually put the wyvern’s weight behind it as they slid past, and I easily knocked it away again.
<This small one has completed her deductions,> Fan Li suddenly declared as I ran for altitude. <The camouflage hiding the enemy intentions was quite extreme. Please accept this small one’s apology for the tardy results.>
<Never mind that, just report!> Sen retorted.
<The expedition has already successfully thwarted the original plan by destroying the distortion, and the demons have reverted to their plan B. This fact also forced the enemy to hasten their plans in Narses, which is now under attack.>
As usual, I had trouble picking up on or following Fan Li’s thoughts. Her brain works in five or six dimensions. And Sen’s has been getting that way too, lately.
Of course, at the moment, I was more busy descending on the second fiend. He was clearly preparing another Wind attack, but Kiki had just launched herself from my shoulder and somehow torn the mana away from the creature. I met him, sword to staff and he, too, tried hard to fang and claw on me once I was inside his weapon arc. I dodged and decided these creatures were too strong for me to fight in close quarters. I didn’t have Tiana’s brute strength.
“What’s plan B?” I demanded, hoping I might pick up on what the heck they were talking about.
The first fiend was circling to meet me. I raised my sword to point it at him and intoned, “[Earth Bullet]”
Actually, that was Sen, borrowing my arm and my mouth . Her spell slammed a machine-gun stream of mana bullets into the lance-wielding demon and his wyvern, delivering clearly fatal blows to both.
<Killing the expedition entirely,> the sage answered plainly as I ran in the direction the wyvern wasn’t flying. < They went to so much trouble with the goal of capturing the Hero and as many others as they could. Without the support of the archdemon, they must abandon that goal and simply hope to wipe him out. They also hope to capture His Majesty’s body.>
Fan Li had slowed her mind down to explain things to me. As a result, her thoughts filled in the rest. Lord Durash, the archdemon supporting the rebels, using the support of his demon god to create this distortion, sent hordes of demons from his base to three locations.
All the lower demons we had encountered here in the Highlands, the first location, had been the spell’s key. They scouted for the attack, but more importantly, their bodies turned the never-ending flood of free mana in this place into demonic mana that their god could feed upon.
The spatial distortion allowed the demons and Durash’s attack spell to literally be in three places at once. They simultaneously attacked us here, and also Narses and Brigdion, in Parna, where Dorian forces now battled the rebels. As long as the immortal spell was active, all three locations faced the same attack and the same demonic spell preparing to rain miasma and demonic mana down on them.
I didn’t really get it, but it was magic that should be impossible in the mortal world, so I probably shouldn’t be able to understand it.
Once the distortion spell fell apart, the attackers could only be in one place, the way things are supposed to work. Two thirds of that massive horde of demons that I saw went elsewhere, and so did Lord Durash and his terrifying spell.
That’s why Durandal was busy. Narses and Lady Tiana were Durash’s primary targets.
<The one-third remaining may still be too many demons for this small force to handle!> Fan Li warned. <Concentrate on your battle here!>
“No,” I answered, as the corners of my mouth tipped upward slightly. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”
After Sen’s attack, the fiend had withdrawn to a safer distance, leaving me able to see into the distance. Above the horizon, Diurhimath’s black wings were approaching, along with the gray-white wings of possibly a hundred fairy warriors.
