Forgetting all that was put in place, almost everyone inside the tower was frantically peering out through the shattered windows at the mayhem. Tens of giants had surrounded the tower. Their bodies resembled the bodies of men, but they were far more massive than the largest man. Some of the giants even wore red flames that were of no regular fire. Among the giants were Notherlandian soldiers. Hawthorne could not shake off the dread that she felt. She was looking down at men who used to take orders from her. But now, these men were taking orders from the man she used to send her prayers to.
“Ruben, update the map!”
The boy finally snapped out of his haze, grabbing hundreds of tiny markers and scattering them on the map accurately. Ruben had not only represented the enemy forces, but also the allied forces that based on Azar’s previous discussions, would be best allocated in such positions.
“Viknor, shift everyone to their positions!” Azar ordered barely above the noise.
“Shade, your team will have to start working here,” Azar said, pointing down to the most clustered part of the map.
“Very well,” he replied, then nodded at Wizard and Lyla. Azar gave Vis a bidding glance.
“Remember what is at stake, Wizard,” Vis said, as if in a threat to protect Shade.
“You three, we’re counting on you. Your mission is paramount,” Azar said.
With that, Wizard shifted off with them, and they appeared on three waiting wind dragons.
Viknor had deployed everyone to their stations on Azar’s command. Remaining within the tower now were only four – Vis, Azar, Ruben and Viknor. Everyone else was on the battlefield, grossly outmatched and outnumbered, but keeping the planet’s fickle hope alive.
***
In the time Azar had had to prepare for this war, he had ordered the construction of a few underground bunkers. Because they were so expensive to construct, and the economy had crashed after the Black War, only a few were constructed, but none of them were as firmly built as the Zakatian shrine, which Blade and Kyle guarded, along with the Zakatian swordsmen. Azar had originally wanted Zen or Cyrus, or a magician to fight alongside them, but based on how densely Kizer’s elemental giants were summoned, he deemed them fighting without that kind of help a necessary cruelty.
As far as their eyes could see, ominous soldiers cloaked in a black magic stretched infinitely. There were also a few of the monstrous elemental beasts.
***
As overwhelming as the elemental giants and enhanced soldiers appeared to be, a deadly trio moved across the skies, swiftly uprooting enemies with large scale attacks that took the necessary collateral damage. As the wind dragons took them high across the scarring earth, Shade neutralized the mana around the Notherlandian soldiers, deadening the power of ten or so men with each passing second. With no arcane magic to conjure up defences, none of them could even think to stand against the widespread attacks of Lyla and Wizard. Wizard augmented Shade’s power by using paralysis spells upon all enemies in sight as the wind dragons flew swiftly. Even the animated giants were bound by the paralysis.
“Adamic Art! Seize Parade!” Lyla commanded. Stony hands dug up from under the earth and grabbed the Notherlandians, ripping their bodies apart thoughtlessly. While the elemental giants stood frozen by Wizard’s spell, the hands of stone whittled them down with swift barrages and snaking binds.
***
“Abingush!”
“Anam Resal!”
“Senakken!”
Hawthorne, Clover and Star were together at Notherland, ripping through the elemental giants. There were no signs of the Notherlandian soldiers here, as Azar had predicted, but Notherland faced the heaviest concentration of elemental beasts. Enemies dropped, but their numbers didn’t. While the witches saw no evidence of new elemental beasts rising up, the sheer expanses of the army that had already been raised up seemed limitless.
“Anam Resal Repus!” Hawthorne commanded. Clover and Star slammed their eyes shut as a dazzling beam of raw power wiped through tens of enemies, obliterating several buildings collaterally.
Before this, Hawthorne had always been careful of civilian lives, but in this situation, being too careful would mean being immediately overwhelmed. Saving everyone had quickly become secondary to destroying all enemies.
***
The many armies that had been reactively activated in almost all countries to fight this sudden invasion of giants were caving under the pressure of power and chaos – especially chaos. No one had any idea who or what they were fighting against, and pretty quickly, once loyal soldiers gave up the fight to protect civilians and turned their priority to retreating to safety – but the real problem was that there was no safety. Men ran to the mountains and caves, and locked themselves in safe-houses, but regardless of where they ran to, the giants of wood and stone and metal were there to crush them and everything else in their path. What chance could men with spears and swords and bows have against giants who were far tougher than flesh and blood?
***
With a burst of magical speed, another of the boosted soldiers dashed at Kyle with a movement that caused a slight tremor. Kyle made a defensive swing swiftly. As the two swords clashed, the enemy soldier uttered a cry of great pain, releasing his sword. Kyle sliced through him and moved on to another. Though the skills of Blade and Kyle could hardly be considered human, it was their strange weapons made by Oga that gave them a surviving edge over the mass of super enemies.
In a matter of moments, Kyle and Blade were alone together, facing the Ogal army. The other Zakatians just could not stand against enemies of this calibre, and Blade nor Kyle had any time to look out for them adequately.
Blade spotted one of the soldiers a few meters out holding his hand toward him and Kyle, black mana thickening around him. Blood gushed from the soldier’s guts as Blade reached up to him with a speed that could be mistaken for shifting. Blade and Kyle knew that as dire as things were, they would only get far worse if they allowed the enemies to cast spells. Even with their grand weapons and great skills, a single explosion spell would kill them easily.
With the speed and fierceness of swordsmen from a different time, Blade and Kyle were slicing through a few enemies every second or so. Because of how fast they moved and how effective their strikes were, the two had the presence of a hundred men – a hundred men who never had to strike twice to kill.
***
Sweating and panting, the witches saw more clearly with each second that they were effectively trying to empty an ocean one bucket at a time. As quickly as they cleared through the giants, more converged upon them from all directions.
“Well, at least if so many are coming here to fight us, it must mean that there is a lower concentration of them in other places,” Hawthorne tried to console herself. But her mana was lowering, and there was no real sign of progress.
“What now?!” Clover panicked as there was the sudden appearance of bright yellow clouds everywhere.
“Clover, Star, regroup!” Hawthorne said, and the witches appeared beside her. The giant enemies had stopped moving as well, as if they – or their master – were watching just as curiously as the desperate witches were. With squinted eyes and readied stances, the witches observed as the many areas of brightness dulled to normality, each leaving behind a uniformed soldier with a thin yellow glow. The uniform was mostly black and purple. Though it was from a different age, Hawthorn recognized the time-tested emblem of Notherland.
“Damn it,” she muttered. “Who the hell -- wait…”
Most of the soldiers carried swords and shields. A few of them carried staves. Hawthorne closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she said, “These soldiers are scattered all throughout Notherland. I could be wrong, but I hope they are--”
“We are summoned by Ohm to destroy the giants of Oga,” the all said in a triumphant unison.
“Ohm’s summoning!” Hawthorne rejoiced. “I think we really stand a chance now!”
As q
uickly as the action had ended, it started again, this time with just as many allies as enemies probably.
Ohm’s summoning had turned the tables on the war on Notherland quite a bit. The summoned soldiers were highly skilled and durable swordsmen, and a few of them dangerously powerful magicians, with their magic peaking even at the sixth grade.
***
But just as the allies increased their strengths to match the powerful enemies, the masterminds behind the attack were constantly shifting their powers as needed. With the appearance of Ohm’s army, the gods now needed to make a move to balance the equation and fully regain control of the destruction upon the continent.
***
Ruben shifted around some powerful pieces.
“Azar, what is your order?” Viknor asked immediately.
Vis was still by himself, his eyes closed in deep focus. With his mind, he was combing through the whole earth, even the skies, in search of the three biggest concerns of this war – Kizer, Oga, and Lex. As his eyes reached almost everywhere, he knew more than all how dismal the state of the world had already become.
***
Hawthorne stopped dead in her tracks as she felt, even amongst the massive energies all around, the advent of mana that felt more dangerous than all others on the battlefield. A purple cloud revealed the appearance of a duo that not many would have been happy to fight.
“Who are you people?” Hawthorne struggled to speak.
Standing beside Hilda was a man in strange cloaks, wearing an eerie bird mask.
“That Catherina did have an eye for talent,” Hilda said, looking straight at Hawthorne.
“Who are you?” Hawthorne insisted.
“I am Hilda of the past Ogal Council, servant of God,” she replied.
Hawthorne’s eyes bulged, and she began to shake. “Impossible…”
“As for this one with me, your guess is as good as mine,” Hilda said. “Let’s see how strong the last remaining Councillor is. Just how well did Catherina train you, I wonder.”
“Star, Clover, be careful. These enemies are--”
“Oga Art! Shift Aversion!” Hilda summoned, and a dark mist flooded the battlefield almost instantly. The woman then summoned gleaming purple blades in her hands.
“The Shift Aversion makes us unable to spaceshift,” Hawthorne said, worry clear in her voice, though she tried to sound calm. “They plan to come at us with speed-based attacks that can break through shields I suppose.”
Hilda dashed toward Hawthorn with her purple blades of dense powerful magic tailing her.
“Fire Art!” Falcon began.
***
The most effective of the allied forces swept over many miles, disabling and destroying hundreds of thousands of enemies with attacks that also flattened mountains. Understandably, Azar had ordered them only to attack where the enemy forces were most concentrated, so the ratio of enemies to civilians killed would not be too negative. The team was now sweeping over a very large island. But the masterminds would not allow this team to go on wreaking havoc on the elemental giants and Notherlandian soldiers.
“Wizard! Shade!” Lyla alerted.
“I know,” Wizard said grimly. They looked forward at two quickly approaching things. One they recognized to be a huge white dragon. The other at first appeared to be an ill-shaped dragon, but they soon saw it was actually a flying rock. The wind dragons halted as the white dragon and the massive rock came close, making the enemies clear.
“You were always unpredictable, Wizard, but to betray father like this… You must have known he was going to send me to kill you,” Witch said. The powerful sorcerer looked intently at Shade, from whom she felt a distinctly threatening presence.
“Wizard. It is not too late. Father will forgive you,” Witch beseeched. “My brother… A glorious world awaits us. Do not damn yourself here.”
“You know nothing, Witch,” Wizard said. He walked upon his wind dragon to get a bit closer to her. “In power, we were always on par,” he said. “But the truth is, from the very beginning, you had decided to be a pawn in father’s game. With no mind of your own, with no true sense of self, you never sought a dream of your own. Even when father had disappeared, your only intent was to rebuild his council. For his glory.”
“Do you really think your wishes can ever be above father’s?!” Witch blasted. The air tensed as Witch’s black magic bulged around her, stretching out its stifling aura for miles.
Lyla’s eyes settled for a moment on the calm man who stood with arms folded on the floating rock. His golden-brown eyes seemed to glow. His spiky brown hair seemed a forest of thorns.
“In the end, it is not a superior might that will grant me my victory over you,” Wizard said, rousing his own mana. “You are not fighting for your own purpose. Your lack of will is your inherent weakness. It is a very simple truth. Those who live as pawns shall die as pawns.”
“We don’t have all day, Witch,” the Earth Sage finally spoke. As he spoke, his words touched the ground far beneath them, causing a minor quake.
“For the moment I have stopped neutralizing Oga’s magic on the ground, the balance have been tilted out of our favour and our losses have spiked,” Shade said. “My mission is to cripple the Notherlandian army and make them defeatable. I will have to press on.”
“I understand,” Wizard said. “Lyla and I will handle this on our own.”
“Regards,” Shade said, then zoomed off on his wind dragon, continuing to cast his anti-magic upon the masses of enemies.
Witch breathed more easily.
“Witch, get us on the ground,” Adam said.
“Gravity Flux!” the woman commanded.
Chapter 30: Earthbound
Wizard and his partner stood opposite two enemies that did more than just petty landscaping to the world in the first war. Witch’s long, curly hair and comely black and white dress could have fooled many, but not Wizard and Lyla.
“You deal with whoever this is. I’ll take care of brother,” Witch said. Adam nodded. In a flash that only captured a flicker of movement, Witch reached up to Wizard, a glowing white sword in each hand, golden streaks wrapped around them. Before Lyla’s mind could process this movement, there was a massive burst of waste black mana, and the siblings had vanished. A moment later, Lyla jerked as there was a deafening blast in the sky. She spun around quickly. Miles away in the distant skies was what looked like a massive explosion of yellow lightning.
What the hell just happened? Is Wizard…
“Focus, girl. You won’t have time to worry about him,” Adam said, almost like a strict instructor.
The Earth Sage himself… Lyla thought. If I will eventually face the likes of Kizer and Oga, then I must be able to defeat even sages. She readied her stance more confidently. Her black mana surrounded her.
Adam smirked slightly. There was a deafening blast and what sounded like a collision of lightning bolts in the distant skies once more, which stirred up a strong wind and made debris swirl about everywhere within miles. The ground shook and yellow flickers permeated the skies, but Lyla kept her eyes fixed on her enemy.
“Do you know why we sages are so powerful?” Adam asked.
This apparent conversation starter was surprising to Lyla, as Adam had seemed almost eager to start fighting.
“Humour me,” the woman said.
“Father did not teach us how to use nature. He taught us how to understand it. That is what power is, fundamentally – knowledge and understanding. The more you know about the elements, the less of your own strength you need to rely on.”
Lyla’s eyebrows furrowed. Based on Adam’s rough appearance, she had never judged him as a man to say such things. “Are you about to lecture me, Earth Sage?”
Adam snickered a little. “Did you know that everything that you can see is made up of countless tiny particles? They are so small, that there are far more of them in your fingernail than there will ever be people on this earth.”
Lyla almost hi
ssed at this ridiculousness. “And how could an idea like that possibly be proven true?”
“Unlike you who view the world on the scale of rocks, I have honed my mind to perceive everything on this scale of unimaginable minuteness and complexity.”
Could any of this madness that he speaks be real? The woman now began to wonder.
“Not only are these tiny particles real, but they interact with one other constantly and in a way that you would never be able to understand. For instance, already, millions of these tiny particles from your very body have left you. Some are already at the other end of the earth, while others are now within the ground beneath us.”
“I wonder where you could gave gotten such a crazy concept. And a better question – how would any of this be relevant in the real word? Or in a battle, to be more direct?”
“Well you see, in the last war, I had the trouble of fighting a very powerful witch, whose speed was almost boundless. But even while keeping up with her speed, her constant shifting about was what proved most problematic.”
“Did you defeat this witch?” Lyla asked. She assumed this must have been Kha-Deva.
“I did. But only because I took away her ability to spaceshift, just as I have already taken yours.”
Suddenly, Lyla’s face lost its calm and its colour. He must be bluffing. He isn’t even a magician. Besides, he hasn’t even touched me…
“These tiny particles I told you about have very strange properties – spooky even. The rules of the universe are bent and broken at their scale. For example, these tiny particles, while separated by large distances, can affect each other as if they were still touching.”
“What the hell are you saying?” the now nervous Lyla asked anxiously, feeling indeed that she could no longer spaceshift.
“I am saying, millions of your particles are now under my subjugation, since they have become a part of the earth. By controlling the properties of those particles, I can also control the properties of the particles they connect with in your body. When you spaceshift, all of your particles must move in one accord, or the shift will not occur. But now, so many of your particles will simply not obey your mana anymore. Who knows if you will even be able to move at all?”
The Ancients Page 40
