Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 147, 1/2

Half an hour ago, it looked like an easy victory, but now...

Erick watched as Ophiel targeted and annihilated group after group of red-armored soldiers. Kill Notifications scrolled past his sight, and Erick added each one to his running tally. He was up to four thousand, three hundred and nineteen, so far.

Occasionally, he spared a view toward the other powers scything through the red warriors, but not often enough, it seemed. The flying swords of that one guy were not flying around anywhere. Half an hour later, Erick came across those thousands of swords scattered across the land, inert and stabbed into the ground as if they had been tracking a target, and died along their flying path. Some swords stood upright in stone. Most were broken.

Sword guy was dead, for sure. Erick had no idea where he was, but he was dead, and the killer was still out there. In that instant, Erick wondered if Ari and Kaffi’s prediction of an ‘easy war against Terror Peaks’ was true, or if those words had been a boast, to cover their own gnawing doubt.

Erick conjured a [Cascade Imaging] in the sky over Eralis, targeting Raidu, and then he came back to himself and glanced over to Poi. “Their goal was to get Songli’s elites out on the field. Now they’re killing those elites. Right? Or am I reading that wrong?”

It was such a simple concept. Erick shouldn’t have been surprised that Terror Peaks would throw away soldiers to draw out the actual threats of Songli. But he was. Erick could never imagine throwing away lives like Terror Peaks had done.

With tendrils of thought around his head, Poi said, “The soldiers needed to be dealt with, or else Eralis would have fallen, but, yes, the soldiers barely mattered. Terror Peaks’ elites are out hunting now. Songli is still expecting a win, but they knew it was going to get worse.”

“If they have biological material from those elites then I can track them. Have Songli give me those samples; lay them out somewhere. Otherwise the target is on Raidu.” Erick said, “I’ll spend most of my time hunting the red army, but I will attempt to kill every target they give me.”

Poi nodded slowly as he spoke to other people. After a moment, he said, “Please cast your Imaging over Alaralti and Holorulo, as well. Your samples will be in Holorulo— No. They’ll be at Southern H— I’m getting conflicting desir— Your samples will be at the roof of the Sour House, in Darzallia. They’re coming through in a tiny [Gate].” Poi said, “I will be informed when more samples appear, as it is easier to gather samples than it is to actually hurt these people— No. Wait… There won’t be samples. They’re asking if pictures will do.”

That could work, too. Erick said, “Pictures, names, abilities. A short dossier. Defining items on the person. There might be false positives, but we can work through those.” Not exactly true, but Songli didn’t need to know his full capabilities right now.

“Understood,” Poi said, as he sent off instructions.

Ophiel was already over the Sour House, waiting.

Erick tried not to think too deeply about the state of the building.

The Sour House was half gone. The bodies of the proprietor and the wife laid half in the courtyard, and half spread out everywhere else, along with the bodies of others who had roomed there. Terror Peaks had struck this location; they had known Erick had been here.

Unbidden, the names of the proprietor and his wife came to Erick; Derix and Iyolza.

Erick had tried to keep his distance from them, but he recalled their names and remembered who they were, anyway. Nice people. Orderly. Proper. Worried for their future when a Scion came to live under their roof. Normal people. Perfectly normal people.

Dead.

Gone.

Erick did not wallow in misery. He focused.

The Sour House was half gone but a part of the roof remained.

Less than a minute later, a tiny purple-rimmed [Gate] appeared atop that remaining section. It discharged several wardlight images, cast onto the backs of paper, while the fronts held names and brief descriptions. Every single person was listed as a rank in Terror Peaks’ army, most of them as ‘Special Attachment’. Two were captains. Scion Raidu was one of the targets.

With dry eyes, Erick said to Poi, “Raidu is first.”

Poi nodded as he silently communicated with others, elsewhere.

Ophiels lightstepped over to Alaralti, and Holorulo, while another Ophiel went back to the map over Eralis to adjust that one so it wouldn’t interfere with the other two.

Erick briefly marveled at the other two cities of Songli, ignoring the fires and destruction and focusing on the beauty.

Alaralti was like Eralis; cosmopolitan and varied, with massive buildings and a large noble district. The Void Wall perfectly encircled the main city, but it was a hundred meters off of the ground, supported by stones the shape of clouds. The city itself spread out below the wall, like the wall was a tram running around the whole place. There were no demarcations that seemed to say ‘this is Alaralti’ and ‘this is some other city’. Everything ran into each other, and clan mountains sprouted wherever they felt like sprouting.

This second city of Songli was called the breadbasket of the Highlands, and while that moniker wasn’t wholly true, it was true enough. Outside of the main cosmopolitan area, the land was farmland, stretched out as far as Ophiel could see. Rice paddies. Wheat fields. Orchards and lands full of vegetables. Fish ponds that were attached to the Wanzhi River. Everything seemed attached to the Wanzhi River, with irrigation that went everywhere. Normally, it was a beautiful place.

But right now half of Alaralti was on fire and the Void Wall had been broken, its pieces crushing houses underneath.

Erick put up an Imaging for Raidu high above, then asked Poi, “Do they want rain to control the fires at Alaralti?”

“Yes,” Poi said, instantly. “Lighter rains everywhere else, too, if you could.”

Erick obliged. The sky turned dark over all of Songli, but especially over Alaralti’s farmlands as quick casts of [Call Lightning] sped up the process of cloud gathering. Rain began to fall. That Ophiel then moved on to start erasing the few red-armor soldiers he saw still in Alaralti’s streets.

Holorulo was less on-fire than both Eralis and Alaralti, but only because the city had less to burn. The place looked like China’s Forbidden City, but if those architects had had access to magic, effectively infinite manpower, and a penchant for white and gold.

The first thing Erick noticed were the massive, half-kilometer wide, half-kilometer tall towers all around the central space; they seemed like clan mountains, but different. They were scatters of gold buildings atop those clan mountains, with small golden nooks here and there all across that solid white expanse of the ‘mountainsides’. Those balconies and exposed courtyards betrayed the living spaces and hallway’d interior beyond, and the depth of architecture contained therein. From his brief examination, Erick saw individual rooms of some variation, with brown woods and greens and other colors, but the official exterior was dominated by white and gold.

Holorulo had a Void Wall that resembled Alaralti’s tram-like sculpture of Rozeta, which formed a hundred-kilometer ring, denoting the far exterior of the city. The clan mountain towers formed a smaller concentric ring at 50 kilometers wide.

But the inner 30 kilometer radius land was what truly looked like it belonged to emperors.

Those interior buildings seemed ritualistically organized, and ten times the size of what was necessary for normal living. They had exterior walls which were of white pillars, while the roofs were gold and shining. Gardens were sparse, but well maintained and architectural feats in their own right. Golden fire wardlights illuminated the white land from giant sconces, showing the stark beauty of it all, but the red and black ruined it all.

Red blood. Black soot. More soot than blood, for Holorulo was truly underpopulated. The fights which must have happened here were massive. Erick saw no soldiers, anywhere. He didn’t see any people. No doubt if any person showed, they would be targeted by one side or the other.

Erick set up a [Cascade Imaging] in the sky directly above the center of Holorulo, directly above what appeared to be a Void Temple-like space. To the north of that space was a massive building that seemed ceremonial because of its overly large size. Songli actually had a triumvirate, but if Songli had emperors, that’s where they would have lived.

If there were red soldiers here, Erick didn’t see them. Maybe they were inside the towers or the other scattered buildings? Maybe there were only assassins; Holorulo didn’t look like the sort of place that you assaulted with an army.

While the map populated, Erick focused on killing the red army in Alaralti and Eralis.

The maps populated. Raidu never appeared.

Erick informed Poi he was moving the map to the next target, and then he did so.

Almost instantly, a blue dot appeared in Holorulo, north-northwest, not thirty kilometers from the outside edge of the city’s Void Wall. It was close. Ophiel was available. The target maybe didn’t know they were pinged, yet. From what Erick was seeing, the target was inside one of the large, special clan mountains. Near the top.

The man’s name was unimportant.

He would soon be dead.

Erick informed Poi of what he was doing, and after confirmation, he went and did it. Ophiel lightstepped into the area where the blue dot had shown.

The room was empty. Boring. Small enchantments were here and there; upon the board game abandoned by the window, upon the light orbs up above, and in the walls, for silence. Aside from those small bits of the casual detritus of life, the small sunroom was empty.

Which meant, of course, that it wasn’t. The target was a man of illusion and assassination. But still. The room looked empty, to all of Erick’s Sights. Nothing there according to Erick’s mana sense. Nothing there on the [True Sight]. The walls were made of the same not-stone that other clan mountains were made of, so if this guy had an Elemental Body that allowed him to swim in that substance, then Erick might have been out of luck, but he doubted that.

A different Ophiel checked the map.

The target was still there.

Erick didn’t have time to search for the parts of the room that seemed off.

Ophiel abandoned [Greater Lightwalk]. [Fulmination Aura] was the preferred aura, now.

Fulmination Aura, instant, medium range, 26 mana per second

Rip and tear at the constituent particles of reality with a chaining bolt of lightning that surrounds you, dealing 25 + WIL damage and paralyzing all so touched. Deals more damage the more targets there are.

The original spell caused a ring of lightning to appear all around the caster. That lightning would then spark off of every single part of every target it affected, but since Lightning was apparently close enough to Light for [Lodestar] to work—

A mandala of lightning bloomed around Ophiel; layers upon layers of form and function that slowly twisted around the [Animadversion]-coated [Familiar] in the center of the ‘empty’ space. The room lit up like a power station short circuiting.

Something died, somewhere, as lightning touched upon legs and fingers and each individual rib—

Ah. Yup. There’s the target.

Currently fried into ash and crumbling to the ground.

He had been hiding under the gameboard, under the table, as [Air Body] or [Shadowalk]; hiding his own magical signature with that of the game board. Nice trick, but it didn’t save him from the lightning.

Erick checked for a notification— Yup. The assassin was dead. Erick switched Ophiel back to [Greater Lightwalk], and informed Poi of the success.

Erick moved on to the next target.

The assassin was in Alaralti, inside a clan mountain, running away from red soldiers, somewhere in a group of people also running from those same soldiers. From the sky, outside of the mountain, and blending into the destruction as best as Ophiel could, Erick tracked the man who was probably the assassin. The fidelity on his Imaging wasn’t the best at this distance, so he didn’t attack yet, but he needed to, soon.

What was the guy’s goal here? Why try to blend in with a crowd? Was the crowd headed somewhere in particular? Oh! They were headed toward a defensive line—

Ah.

Scion Caina Small Scare was inside that defensive line.

Ophiel moved in and plucked the assassin out of the group with [Teleport Other], slamming the guy directly into the waiting arms of a pair of Ophiel. One of those Ophiels instantly used [Harmonic Counterspell] to shut down a [Teleport] spell from the guy, while Erick cast his own 1000 point [Harmonic Blood Ooze] to ensure that the guy wouldn’t be getting away. Thick bloody ooze wrapped around the guy, cutting into him, preventing every use of magic.

Erick took a second to check on the map. The blue dot had moved when Erick moved the guy, so this was the guy.

[Luminous Beam] checked off another killer.

And then Ophiel went back and murdered the red soldiers and every other red army person attempting to surround Caina, giving the woman some breathing room.

Erick had Ophiel appear beyond their lines, glowing and still small. He called out, “Caina! Need an evacuation, somewhere?”

The dark skinned woman turned his way, her white full armor and twin violet swords shone in the light of nearby fires. She paused, wary, taking in the sight of Ophiel talking to her. Then she said, “We will defend our clan mountain. Thank you for your assistance, Archmage Flatt. Why did you take away one of our initiates?”

Erick almost asked if this really was Clan Small Scare’s clan mountain, but Caina’s last words made him focus. He said, “That man was an assassin. Songli gave me targets and I went after them.”

One of the survivors Erick had rescued yelled, “He was not! He was my everything!”

Before Erick could panic—

Caina silenced the woman with a wave of her hand. “What level was he?”

Erick rapidly checked the notification. “E-17— Level 73.”

The surviving woman startled, as though plunged into ice. Erick realized what she realized in that same moment.

Caina confirmed, “We would never have an initiate at that high a level. He was an impostor.” She said to Ophiel, “Thank you for your help, Archmage Flatt. We will take it from here.”

… Ophiel moved on.

The third person was a woman, slicing through initiates in a different clan mountain in Alaralti. Spells bounced off of her.

[Luminous Beam] cut through that nonsense.

The fourth and fifth targets were in Eralis, assaulting high-value targets in a high-class market. Erick murdered them most violently, for they were in the act of doing the same to merchants and others, as others had done to Spur, not too long ago. And he hated that. He hated it, all over again.

For he remembered how the people of Spur lost the Farms, all because of the evil of one man.

He remembered Caradogh Pogi of Portal, and the Hunters the man sent at Spur, and he remembered the people Caradogh murdered. Valok. Apogogh’s father. Carnelia, the lady who worked at Ruby’s Reds. Savral, Al’s son. And—

So many people, murdered to fuel the ambitions of a small-minded man who couldn’t stand the prosperity of Spur.

Rage filled Erick’s vision, as the next target was at the harbor, where so, so many goods and people came into the Highlands, and to the warehouses, which were currently on fire. People were trying to put out the fire, but flames spread harder when water touched the carmine conflagration.

Erick saw it now.

Terror Peaks was not just killing civilians. They were not just trying to end a civilization they didn’t like. They were doing the same thing to Eralis that those Hunters had done to Spur. They were ruining the chance at prosperity. They were destroying growth, and that which allowed more growth.

The sixth target was spreading more carmine flames, burning everything she could, jumping from warehouse to warehouse, trailing fire everywhere she walked, laughing and killing whoever got in her way. She was the flame, and Erick had no doubt she was in [Greater Fire Body].

Erick broke out a spell he had never used, and cast it himself for 850 mana; the cost reduction after Intelligence. He had never used it before, but it seemed appropriate here. If it worked, it would prolong the woman’s pain, and that seemed great.

Death Spiral Plasma, instant, close range, 17,009 MP

Wrap a target in fire, dealing WIL damage a second until the target dies.

Ribbons of white flame—

Bounced off of the target, because she had a reflective spell active. Of course she did. Well fuck.

“Fuck you!” Erick yelled, to no one in particular.

The woman briefly paused. She had recognized Erick’s spellwork as an attack as white flames spilled away from her and fell into the nearby inferno like so much splashed milk.

The woman looked up, just in time to catch Ophiel’s [Luminous Beam] to the face.

She died.

With their creator gone, the fires started to falter under the light rain already falling across the city.

The seventh target held a sword four times as large as she was, as she whirled and twirled through battle lines, dancing like she was the only power that mattered. She got a [Luminous Beam] to the face, too.

Erick said to Poi. “More targets.”

Poi spoke to someone else, then he turned to Erick, saying, “If you want, you can move on to Terror Peaks itself. The counteroffensive has not yet begun, but you would be a good tip of the spear.”

“Okay.” Erick said, “I will go do that. I won’t kill civilians, but anyone in armor is going to die.”

Poi weighed his own response, resigned himself, then said what he had to say, “They’re all in armor. They’re all soldiers.” Poi added, “If you break their cities, they’ll run. Then the hypervigilance will start, along with shadow warfare.” He said, “Songli desires your help for this clean-up, more than the battle, but by asking you to assault Terror Peaks directly, they are hoping to draw off the Elites currently inside Songli, by threatening them with the lives of their children. Not many would return home, but some would.”

Erick’s eyes went wide.

Ah. He should have realized what was going on. But Poi had needed to explain it to him.

And then…

He understood.

Ah.

Okay.

No.

He couldn’t.

But if he didn’t, then the war would continue, but in a different form.

Wait.

He could do…

Yes. He could do that. Sure. It would be annoying to [Teleport Other] all the kids away from the cities before he murdered everyone there, but that would be fine.

Poi looked at him, and said, “Or. Your [Sunlight Rift] would harm rather fast, too, and without needing to extricate the kids first. Kids can’t cast much magic.”

“… But they would see their mothers die.”

Teressa had listened, but now she said, “And those mothers are monsters. They deserve death, as quick as you can give it.”

After a moment of thinking, Erick decided that he was not going to make that decision. He was not going to fight near kids. Not yet… Hopefully not ever. He put off that whole problem.

Erick looked away from Poi, and said, “I’ve got to find those spears. If I can. I’m going to search for those.”

Poi nodded.

Erick switched the maps everywhere in Songli to those soul spears that had almost killed him—

A blue dot appeared.

And instantly, too?

What! He expected nothing! What the fu—

And then Erick realized something.

He had searched for a specific image of the spear that had matched his memories of both spears he had seen, but, in the same way that every rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] was not exactly the same, surely every one of these highly-magical soul spears were not the same. And yet… they were. Exactly the same.

Exactly.

That meant something.

Erick didn’t know what, for sure, but he would, soon enough.

Ophiels rushed out to collect the target. But then Erick paused, when he saw the target. The spear was sitting out in the open, in a secluded courtyard, outside of Eralis. The location had been made important because the spear was there, laying on the stone in the middle of open ground, but otherwise, the building was boring. The surroundings didn’t matter. This location was a normal, everyday location, that one could find anywhere on the outskirts of any of Songli’s cities.

The spear was alone. It was the genuine article, too; to [Mana Sight], the spear glowed like a red sun, while to normal sight, it looked like a pitted piece of junk that would break at the slightest stress.

This reeked of a trap.

Well.

It could be that they were expecting him to touch the spear himself, or rather, with Ophiel. By extending Ophiel’s lightform past the protections of the [Animadversion], then the ‘invisible wielder still holding onto the artifact’, or whatever the trap was, would then activate the spear and target the exposed part of Ophiel.

Erick had ways around that vulnerability, though.

Ophiel moved in and molded the land under the spear with [Teleporting Platform]. The spear barely jostled as the disk of floating land appeared under it. This way, Ophiel could move the spear without actually touching it. Which he then did.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

While one Ophiel was doing that, others switched the maps to Xangu, thus hiding the spear’s new location.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

The spear went to the middle of nowhere, a field out in the sun, where another Ophiel instantly [Luminous Beam]’d everything around the spear, missing the platform but getting within a half-meter of the spear itself.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

And another [Luminous Beam].

… Okay. Maybe he was a bit paranoid at this point. But seeing that one assassin hide in the magical signature of that board game had messed him up. He didn’t even know that was possible. Some dude could even be hiding inside the spear, with [Air Body], or something like that, just waiting for the moment to strike.

—Oh yeah. He could check for that, actually, based on what it cost to [Teleport] the object, since [Teleport]’s cost was based on people transported. Even moving a [Familiar] like Ophiel cost base-250 extra mana. [Teleporting Platform] was of a similar nature.

Teleporting Platform, instant, 197 MP + Variable, 204 MP per person + Variable

Create a mobile, hovering platform of stone that moves quickly at your discretion. Supports a large amount of weight. Lasts 1 hour.

You and the people or objects on your Teleporting Platform appear in a known location, max 1000km distance.

Weight mattered for that spell, incurring additional mana costs as though extra people were being transported, but the spear weighed almost nothing. So Erick cast his own [Teleporting Platform] through Ophiel, lifting the spear with the cast onto the new platform, and triggered the platform through Ophiel.

Ophiel came along with the blip, costing Erick 10 mana. The spear came along, costing something negligible.

And another 10 mana was spent, as someone else was transported, too.

So.

How to solve this?

Answer:

Erick rapidly gathered his Ophiel and proceeded to cast eight spells in concert; [Stone Breaker], [Air Breaker], [Water Breaker], [Fire Breaker], [Light Breaker], [Shadow Breaker], [Prismatic Breaker], and [Force Breaker], targeting the space near the object. If any of his spells broke the object, then oh well. The hidden assassin was more important to kill.

And to ensure that the target didn’t just reapply whatever Elemental Body they were using, Erick queued up a [Harmonic Counterspell].

Light splashed against the spear.

Erick’s counterspell triggered.

A white-armored woman fell out of the spear, looking like a person from Songli.

Erick wasn’t going to fall for that, though. The woman had a red soul, the same color as the spear itself, which still glowed upon the manasphere with a red radiance strong enough to dim everything else.

The woman snarled in defeat, and Erick’s Ophiel began counterspelling her attempts to use magic. Erick rapidly enacted a few other spells around the space. A [Prismatic Ward], cast as a shell to lock the woman inside. A quick grapple of the spear with [Telekinesis] to take it away. An organization of [Harmonic Counterspell]s to keep her locked down.

And finally, a [Drain Ward], fueled by more hollowing hatred than Erick thought it was possible for anyone to experience at any one time. Erick had no time for emotions at the moment, though. He did, apparently, have time for a new spell, though.

A blue box appeared.

Draining Void, instant, close range, 500 mana

Drain WIL Health and Mana per second from every target in a large area. Lasts 24 hours. Lasts longer based on resources drained.

A shadowed space slipped around the woman inside the layer of dense air.

She didn’t scream, but it looked like it hurt, as blood and red glows flowed away from the woman like drops of light, to vanish into the consuming shadows all around. Still, it would take a while till she was out of Health and Mana, and she could still escape if given the opportunity, so Erick methodically canceled all of the woman’s spellwork with [Harmonic Counterspell]s, and layered on a few more [Draining Void]s for good measure. The dense air around the platform kept her in place. It was only a matter of time before she succumbed.

It was easy to tell when the [Draining Void] stopped working; the red glows flowing from the woman’s body instantly stopped flowing, and her pained face relaxed.

The draining had ended, for there were no more resources to strip away.

She might be able to [Second Wind] for more Health, or [Meditation] to Rest, and recover that way, but Resting would only grant her…

Erick did some quick math. 100 Focus, Scion of Focus as worst case scenario, double mana regen Class Ability, with Intelligence (doubtful), meant: 7 mana per second recovered from Rest.

If she was a Scion of Vitality and she had Blood Mana, or something like that, and since [Second Wind] transformed Health Recovery per day into per minute for a little while...

That meant she could hypothetically recover 400 Health per second.

[Draining Void] only erased 151 Mana and Health every second.

Taking into account Dexterity or Intelligence and—

Yeah. She could get away.

This would be annoying.

Erick filled the box with [Merciful Ether]. When his assassin was fully asleep, Erick left the woman where she was.

All of that had taken a few minutes. He could have simply killed her, as she was obviously an assassin, but Erick wanted some answers about that spear, and the assassin would have them. While she was sleeping, Erick handed over his Crystal Star to an Ophiel and Blessed the woman.

There. Good. He would get answers soon enough.

Erick shoved his hatred away.

Mostly.

Erick took back his Crystal Star, and finished taking care of the spear.

The spear went to a different, boring plot of prairie land. The weapon had lost a great deal of its mana light without the woman hiding inside, ready to release the weapon’s power as soon as she saw an opening. Now, the weapon looked like a spear from a distant age, corroded with time, and diminished from much of what it had once been. Still glowed to [Mana Sight] like a red wardlight, though.

Erick had an Ophiel [Stoneshape] the spear into the ground, entombing it in rock, while a [Sealed Privacy Ward] folded around the object to block the red mana signature, and a [Prismatic Ward] went around it to prevent easy theft.

Erick would deal with the spear later, too.

And then Erick had a most excellent idea.

See.

Erick had a problem.

He was angry at Terror Peaks. Logically, he wanted them all dead. But, he couldn’t bring himself to annihilate their cities, now that he was back in full power, and the forces of Songli were pushing out the invaders. He had killed many of their assassins and powers, and even captured a spear. He was on the rise and Terror Peaks was falling.

And so, even with all Erick had seen, he still couldn’t press that button, and kill all of the people who had wronged him, and who could potentially wrong him in the future. His anger was a fleeting thing when it came time to judge monstrous people in the way they deserved to be judged, especially when those monstrous people were in retreat.

After all, the people of Terror Peaks were indoctrinated to be that way. From the cradle, children were raised in tanks, cut off from the world, and made to harm each other and then eventually whoever their government deemed as enemies.

To kill such people would be as though killing children that didn’t know any better.

Killing soldiers in a war? Fine. Necessary, too.

Killing assassins? Sure! Mulch them all.

Killing high value-targets because if left on their own, they would kill more people? Absolutely.

But killing children and mothers and non-combatants?

Though his hatred seemed to be growing against certain targets, his anger was a fleeting thing.

Even if the mothers and otherwise were willingly enabling the system which produced the soldiers and assassins and high-value targets… Even if! Erick couldn’t kill them. They weren’t actual combatants themselves! They weren’t actual killers themselves.

And that counted for something, right?

So don’t kill the people who cause the system to exist. Just kill the people who participate in it. Words are fine. Actions are not.

Therefore...

What Erick could do, was find every single person who was at that meeting in the sky, who openly participated in the farce that led to Patriarch Xangu using that soul spear, and then kill them. They had tried to kill Erick with their specific actions. It was a grey area, though, wasn’t it?

Ah.

Erick was confusing himself.

It wasn’t a great split-the-difference plan, but it was one Erick felt comfortable with. There were just so many targets to Image for.

Patriarch Xangu! And Raidu! And that woman who was at his side in that broadcast where Xangu took credit for killing priests! And—

Okay.

Erick found his anger again. Hatred and anger. Good combination to keep going in the middle of a war.

Good.

Less thinking.

More doing.

Still not going to annihilate all of Terror Peaks with a few spells, though.

- - - -

A [Cascade Imaging] went up in the sky over a road that linked two of Terror Peaks’ cities, searching for Patriarch Xangu. While Erick waited for the map to populate, he watched the world below. The castle-like cities were ready for war, but no war had come to them. Yet.

Raidu appea—

Erick had Ophiel cast a [Harmonic Counterspell] to lock down any other spell casting, while Erick took a thousand mana of his own and cast [Harmonic Blood Ooze] upon the Scion of Terror Peaks. Raidu briefly stuttered as a splash of shadows canceled his next spell. The red ooze swarmed him, wrapping around his body like a net of constricting blood vessels, canceling his next three spells over the next three seconds. He probably would have gotten something else off, but Erick spent a thousand mana on a [Grand Dispel], and stripped the man of his Elemental Body and a good dozen other defenses he had cast upon himself.

Erick would have simply killed Raidu when he appeared, but the man came to the fight in underwear, with no visible weapons.

And now that the ooze was upon him, wrapping into his mouth and binding his arms and legs together, Erick cast several other spells, fast as needed and with Ophiel’s help, and the man ended up in the same sort of contraption that Erick had put that soul spear assassin under.

Raidu floated, struggling to stay awake, under a sphere of [Draining Void], atop a [Teleporting Platform], surrounded by a layer of Solid Ward, which was probably overkill… Erick replaced the [Prismatic Ward] with layers of [Quick Wall]s. There! No need to go wasting Ophiel’s [Prismatic Ward]s on this piddly stuff.

And in the four minutes it took for that to happen… no one attacked.

Erick was waiting for it! He had [Luminous Beam]s ready to go! Other Ophiel on standby!

So what was this all about, then? Raidu, appearing out of nowhere, looking like he wanted to talk? Yeah, sure. Like Erick believed that. He’d talk to Scion Terror Peaks when Raidu was Blessed by the Crystal Star. But in the meantime, Erick could start slaughtering the people down below.

No.

No no.

… There were still red-armor soldiers to kill over in Eralis. The war was still on, though it had devolved down to Songli cornering red-armored forces before those red soldiers could kill more civilians.

… What was Erick doing here? Planning on killing other civilians?

Erick came back to himself, feeling a profound disgust at himself and at everyone else. He instantly decided to pull back from the counteroffensive. He left the map up, though, searching for Xangu. Might as well, right? If that dude appeared, Erick would very much enact some swift justice. But as for the cities of Terror Peaks, and otherwise… He decided not to do that.

As for Raidu?

Raidu was still struggling to stay awake, and he would likely keep struggling for a little while. But the ooze wasn’t killing him too badly. Superficial wounds, really. And Erick had [Greater Treat Wounds]. The guy could stand to be humbled a bit, in Erick’s opinion.

Maybe… Cut off someth—

No.

No torture, Erick.

Thirty more seconds passed. Raidu collapsed, forced to sleep atop the [Teleporting Platform], never having been able to say a word. Erick still didn’t believe all of what he was seeing, though. He was surprised that all of these spells worked on the Scion. Nothing had been reflected. The [Draining Void] worked exactly as it should have, stripping the man of his resources, while the Blood Ooze kept him tied up, and prevented every spell he tried to cast.

This whole thing was probably some stupid attempt by Raidu to prey on Erick’s willingness to forgive.

Fuck that.

Anyway.

You couldn’t [Teleport] the unconscious. But you could [Teleport Other] the unconscious!

One Ophiel moved the platform and all of the accompanying spellwork. Another Ophiel moved Raidu.

Blip-blip. Blip-blip. Blip-blip. Blip-blip.

Along the way, another Ophiel introduced Raidu to the Crystal Star.

And then Erick left the guy where he was, in the middle of nowhere, under the care of an Ophiel, exactly how he had left the soul spear assassin. And now that he thought about it, he went over and switched out that assassin’s dense air shell for some good, old fashioned [Force Wall]s.

With that done, Erick added some [Sealed Privacy Ward]s over his new prisoners, to hide both war criminals from casual observers, while their platforms themselves were still mobile, if needed.

And then he switched the maps in Songli to ‘people in red armor’, just to be sure it didn’t work, and this next step became that much easier.

… Nope! ‘People in red armor’ was too non-real of a query.

As Erick reattached his Crystal Star to his chest, he asked Poi and Teressa, “Do Terror Peaks soldiers use anything that I hadn’t noticed, that I could search for? Badges, or otherwise? Rings or whatever? Something solid. ‘Red [Conjure Armor]’ doesn’t work.”

Teressa had been about to speak, but then she did not.

Poi shook his head. “Despite the war today, a lot of goods flow across much of Nelboor without care for borders, so anything that you see down there is likely used by people on both sides.” He added, “And everyone who isn’t openly fighting won’t be wearing any incriminating items.”

Erick nodded, saying, “I didn’t think so, but I needed to ask—” His eyes went wide in sudden panic. He asked Poi, “Is Candlepoint or Spur under attack from these guys?”

“No.” Poi said, “I already checked and I have them set up to warn me if that changes. They have been warned, though.”

Erick felt a sudden wave of relief. “Ah. Okay. Good. Then… Let’s keep going.”

He turned his attention back to Ophiel.

- - - -

Every time a red-armor soldier stepped into the light they met the business end of a [Luminous Beam]. Every place anyone fought, Ophiel investigated. Most of the time the solution to the fight was a [Luminous Beam] upon certain red targets. Other times, when the target was surrounded by friendlies, the solution was to check for reflections first and then implement other solutions.

Checking was simple enough. [Purge Water] was a great spell for this. It instantly struck a person with white mana light, and if they were vulnerable, the light stuck, and the person temporarily halted their killing to puke out water. Then came the [Death Spiral Plasma]s. Erick ended three killers that way. Felt pretty good about it, too.

Sometimes, the white mana glow of [Purge Water] reflected against Ophiel, but since Ophiel didn’t have water, nothing happened. For these enemies, Erick had to get creative.

One man in particular was a terror on the battlefield, slicing apart people with impunity. Erick was reminded of that time outside of Odaali, when that one man who would become the Breach Demon was cutting through Odaali’s troops, and no one could touch the man.

This guy in red armor was the same. Not a single enemy weapon touched him, as he slipped around the broken first floor of a multi-story building, wielding his thin sword, stabbing people through their armor, into their hearts with quick, sudden sword thrusts. He downed three soldiers in white in the three seconds Erick found the guy. He would have killed more, but he noticed Ophiel, and immediately moved like air around the battlefield, wrapping a hapless low-level soldier with his [Air Body], to continue to stab at other people while he was himself protected from retaliation.

[Purge Water] splashed away from the killer.

Erick couldn’t just [Luminous Beam], though.

He tried [Air Shape], since that was the best way to kill those in [Air Body]. The guy’s reflection caused Ophiel’s spellwork to flash into impotent turbulence.

The red soldier turned his blade inward, to point at the heart of the Songli soldier he surrounded, daring Erick to attack, saying nothing as the Songli soldier began to panic.

Erick had his Ophiels cast a [Draining Void] along with a dozen [Quick Wall]s, to ensure the guy couldn’t get away, and then he [Teleport Other]’d the Songli soldier out of there.

The air man began to leak green Health and Mana, even through his Reflection. In three seconds, after one [Harmonic Counterspell] to shut down the enemy’s [Teleport], the leaking stopped. The guy was out of resources.

The guy might have been running on fumes, and yet he could still maintain his [Air Body], and his reflection. Even inside the [Draining Void], the man was still air and violence, attempting to slash at his cage to get away. Perhaps he specialized in [Air Body]? And with the Class Ability to reduce the cost of his [Air Body]? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing Erick had ever seen.

But he was essentially trapped now, so Erick introduced him to the Crystal Star, and watched as the man turned back into a man, and started bawling inside of the [Draining Void]. And since he was a person now… Erick wrapped him up in spellwork, and sent the sleeping killer off to be with others like him.

Erick would ask the man how he was able to keep [Air Body] up without paying the costs, but it was probably some silly reason that anyone would know if he asked the right people. Eh. This was fine.

Erick moved on.

Mostly, soldiers died. But when Erick found someone who could do more than routine murder, he turned them empathic. It went against his whole person to only subject the elites to his Blessing, for everyone deserved redemption, but Erick did not have that luxury at the moment. The war was still raging.

Well…

Not raging. Not really.

The sun turned in the sky. People died.

Most of Terror Peak’s elites got dead, due to the efforts of Songli’s elites, but a quarter of the ones Erick dealt with got locked behind [Draining Void]s, and made Empathic. Erick had lots of questions for them, but not yet.

Alaralti desired its rain shut off, so Erick did that.

Holorulo desired more targets to be found, so Erick did that, and let Holorulo deal with those targets.

Eralis needed help. The battle was over, the enemy in full retreat, but they would no doubt strike back with terror campaigns and more assassinations as soon as they got some room to recover. But that would come later, for now, Erick sent out Ophiels, armed with [Greater Treat Wounds], and began healing everyone he saw that needed healing. He was one tiny man in a massive empire, but one man could make a difference, and so he helped as much as he could, but without exposing himself to a possible soul spearing.

That soul spear was simply an awful weapon.

Erick found himself hating it.

Actual hate.

Felt a lot of hatred at the moment, now that he had some time to think of what had happened.

The last time he felt this sort of genuine hate was back when he wanted to murder all the Shades.

That this soul spear was able to elicit that much hate, surprised even him. He didn’t hate it for what it could do to him, physically, or to his soul. That was just part of life here on Veird; death came in many flavors. No. He hated it because if that damned thing didn’t exist, then he could have Ophiels flying around in full sunforms, touching off [Greater Treat Wounds] upon everyone who needed it. Instead, Ophiel were tiny, and they had to get close to their targets in order to heal, but even that was a vulnerability. Erick had to make himself vulnerable, extending his light outside of the [Animadversion] shell, to cast that touch-based spell. Every single time Erick had Ophiel heal someone, he imagined that some [Gate] would open up and Xangu would step through and spear Ophiel in that exact moment of vulnerability.

That thought right there, the fact that Erick was thinking such things, that was why he hated the soul spear. A fucking inanimate object! Drawing as much ire as the Shades!

How comical!

How hilarious that Erick had to make himself vulnerable to help others!

Oh, sure, he had been making himself vulnerable his whole life in order to help others, so that was not a problem for him, except… He had thought that Ophiel’s existence had divorced him from much of the actual threat that was vulnerability, but no! Here was new weaponry, made specifically to stab at how he chose to help others—

Ah. Well.

The soul spear was made to be able to stab at anyone who primarily interacted with the world through a [Familiar]’s eyes, instead of their own. That spear was a true archmage killer. Many people over the last year had said that archmages were never as untouchable as they seemed to be. This new soul spear was just one example of that truth.

And Erick hated it. He hated the spear, and what the existence of such an object was doing to him. With that thought, he flowed into the next, that he hated Terror Peaks for causing this war in the first place. He hated the loss of life, and the disruption to the world. He hated the small-minded culture of Terror Peaks that allowed this war to happen in the first place. He hated being called a Wizard.

He hated that all events conspired to make him a hermit. He hated that he, personally, would be better off if he was alone, and people came to him if they needed help. He hated that by choosing to become a part of the world, he subjected people to death and terror, because people subjected him to death and terror.

And then he thought of the Worldly Path.

He felt his hatred falter, as though overshadowed by something else.

Was this war a result of Fate and Ritual causing reactions that otherwise wouldn’t have happened?

Erick’s instinct was to say ‘no’.

Koyabez had it right; Ar’Kendrithyst’s destruction left a massive power vacuum in the world. It was as though The United States had fallen overnight. Of course there would be people wanting to fill that void with their own power.

But everywhere Erick went, war followed.

But not massive wars, actually, now that he thought about it. The beginning steps of wars. The parts where the most good could be done most quickly.

So, in that light, what had actually happened here?

Erick came to town, and proceeded to help the people here solve their Elixir problem. When that news broke at the gathering a few days ago, Erick stood up and proclaimed Songli as violating its own usual operations by speaking of war instead of peace. Maybe, by speaking up, he had brought some sense to those people—

Nope. That was being naive. He didn’t bring sense to them, but at least he had spoken sensible words and made his mind shown.

There had been a distinct desire for war, for they knew war was going to happen. They had known all along, didn’t they.

Erick felt he had curbed that war, maybe not in that room of the gathering, but maybe later, when he revealed who he was to Zalindi and Ari and Tadashi.

Eh.

Maybe the pressure of the void of Ar’Kendrithyst, and the proximity of the success of Eralis’s chelation treatment, had simply caused that war to erupt in a different way than how it was always going to erupt.

War was always going to happen, wasn’t it?

Raidu had spoken of Goldie and Queen orchestrating something in the background...

But maybe… Maybe, though, Erick’s ‘talk’ with Raidu, before Xangu appeared with his soul spear, had caused a lot of others to not join this war. There had been no sign of the Rain Mage or the Fulmination Spear, yet. And that was good, wasn’t it?

Erick realized:

There was only one real choice he had when it came to this war.

He could choose to mitigate, or he could choose to inflame the atrocities of war even higher.

Back when he had little power in this Worldly Path, Erick had shut down the war between the Shades in Last Shadow’s Feast, by letting it run its course until he had to act, to ensure the right people survived. He needed godly help to survive that himself, too, but he had survived, and, it could be argued, the outcome of that Feast was the best possible outcome for the world, considering the possible outcomes.

And then he went to Treehome, and did the same thing on a much easier scale. He ended a minor battle between shadelings and orcols through a show of force, then he took the survivors back to Candlepoint, and then he pointed Treehome to the Forest, to give them a new target. A new conquest.

Looking back on his time with Tenebrae, the archmage had almost introduced him to a civilization of dragons, which was at constant war with itself… But he had chosen to step down a different part of the Path, taking him away from that confrontation, for Tenebrae would have died if Erick would have continued.

And now he was here, in Songli, perhaps the most stable nation of this land of Nelboor, where everyone warred all the time. Erick had helped to mitigate some of the battle, but he could have done more.

Everything was connected by war and conquest and the fate of the world, for the first step on this Worldly Path had inadvertently been to end the largest Evil that had ever existed on this Veird.

With a dawning horror, Erick saw the Path stretch out before him.

He saw the wars yet to come.

And he knew he needed to find another way. Some different Path he could take. Something more peaceful. Something less high-stakes than the fate of the world.

Something smaller.

But a dark thought made him think of this in another way.

If he acted fast enough, and decisively enough, along every step of his Path, he could end wars before they began. He could save thousands upon thousands of lives. He could end horrors before they had a chance to show. That’s what he had done in Treehome, wasn’t it? He helped the orcols to kill hundreds of thousands of monsters, for the good of everyone else.

If he had made that ‘Kill Everyone’ spell that Jane had brought up…

If he had cast that over at Terror Peaks, targeting ‘people’...

A few hundred thousand people would be dead. But millions would have survived.

Like Silverite once said:

It was simple math.