Escalation

by Matthew Peed

  I channeled mana into my blades so that light coated the edges, giving me unparalleled cutting. I would slice this thing to pieces if I had to. Z2 pulled her weapons out as well, white smoke rising from the edge of her blade and the muzzle of her gun.

  Before we attacked, a voice echoed in my mind: You . . . I know you.

  “That’s right! I created you!” I shouted to the creature.

  “Created . . . me . . . Why?” it echoed. Everything got eerily quiet.

  “You already fulfilled your purpose! There’s no need to kill any more!” I said, hoping it could be reasoned with.

  “My . . . my purpose . . . has been fulfilled . . . A new, a new purpose . . . I must find a new purpose . . . But I must kill . . . But that’s not my purpose . . . I need a new purpose . . . To kill is my purpose . . . Yes, to kill is my purpose . . . To KILL!” The voice seemed to debate with itself, and I swore when it still reasoned to kill more.

  It turned toward us, its twisted face lit up with green and orange light. Spikes of shadow shot toward us. Z2 and I dodged them easily enough, but there were so many that I still ended up getting nicked by one. I focused, then threw a ball of light into the air. It exploded into light that would have rivaled the sun in midday. I wasn’t sure if it would, but I hoped this would reduce the amount of shadow mana he had to work with.

  The creature had grown much larger since the horde camp but was still only roughly five or six meters tall. It still had no legs, as they spread into a curtain of shadow once they touched the ground. We charged it, my blade burning every part that I sliced through, while Z2’s blade froze it. She was firing her gun nonstop as well, causing tendrils that were heading toward her to freeze and break off.

  The density of the creature made it hard to get closer than ten meters without risk of serious harm. We needed to create a containment field using Z2’s ice, but that was easier said than done while trying to stay alive. A beam of energy shot from a distance and burned a section clear off the shadow. Z2 took the chance to charge through the gap, a layer of ice coating her skin.

  As the shadow impacted with her, it froze just before it could do any real damage. But if Z2 had been a mortal, the strikes would have been leaving nasty bruises. I thought fast, then pulled some electrum out of my inventory. I enscripted it to repeat magic and linked it to Z2’s mana, quite familiar with her “signature” after all this time.

  I threw a spike into the ground, then took off in a circle around the creature, inserting a spike every five meters or so. The creature had engulfed Z2 by this point, but I knew she was still alive as juts of ice would punch through every few seconds. When the last spike was in, I linked them all together, then yelled to Z2, “Hit it with your biggest one yet!”

  The strangest sensation happened next. It was as if the very atoms in the air stopped moving. Even I felt cold, and I shouldn’t have had a sense of temperature. The spikes reacted to whatever Z2 was doing and amplified the effect even more as they pulled in all the mana in the area to fuel the spell Z2 was doing.

  No . . . Stop! the creature cried in my head. The shadow convulsed within itself as it condensed in size. I wasn’t sure if it could, but it looked like it was trying to crush Z2.

  “We . . .” I started to say, but the sound couldn’t even leave my mouth, as it seemed just to disappear.

  I watched as its body was iced over, then iced over again. This happened several times until it encompassed the space within the spikes in a giant dome. I was worried about Z2, but whatever spell she had used I couldn’t get any closer to without freezing myself. I’d already had to back off several meters.

  We waited to see if anything would happen and were relieved when after ten minutes nothing seemed to move within the dome. I sent a message to Father that the threat had been handled, but we would need his assistance to finish it off. We had been keeping watch for maybe half an hour when Azra ran into the clearing. She was pretty banged up, but all her limbs were still in one piece.

  “Where’s the creature?!” she asked when she saw us.

  I pointed to the frozen dome. “Z2 was able to contain it, but we’re not sure for how long.”

  “Wow, how much mana would you need to create something like this?” she asked as she examined it.

  “Not sure. That’s why I’m worried,” I said honestly.

  “Something is happening!” Natsuko shouted.

  I jerked my head toward the dome just in time to see a large crack form on the surface. I jumped back when an intense wave of shadow burst from the crack. A hand emerged and gripped the edge of the ice. I would have felt relief, as it was a female’s hand, but it was different from Z2’s. Z2’s hands had been mostly like an ordinary mortal’s, but the one that gripped the ice had claws made of black metal.

  It pulled itself from the crack that was slowly enlarging. On its head, two large horns started above the ears and curved around so that they pointed almost straight up. Steam like you would see on ice wafted from them. Silver-white hair framed a face that had an unearthly beauty. Her eyes were also silver but with a bluish tint.

  The woman who emerged was also a bit taller than Z2 had been, but if she had evolved, then that wouldn’t be a surprise. Wings that appeared to be composed of shadow and ice spread out behind her as her upper body emerged. They drew the light into them and held it in the ice. Where the original Z2 had had the body of a girl maybe around fifteen, a bit on the tall side, this body was in the midtwenties and would have men on their knees if my research of the mortals from town was to be trusted.

  She unfurled her wings and shot into the air. She breathed in deeply, and all the ice in the area started to float as it turned back into mana and streamed toward her. Up in the air, her outfit left little to the imagination, as the material only covered her bust and her waist, where it turned into a skirt. A wicked tail seemed to complete the package. As the ice mana flowed toward her, the aura she was projecting grew denser by the second. I had only seen a few tier three people while in the town, but she was getting close.

  The woman finished absorbing all the mana, then streaked toward the ground. I expected a significant impact, but she landed without so much as a sound. She started walking toward us with a saunter that said she wasn’t afraid of anything.

  “Ah, Puppet, what’s with the face?” the woman said with a slightly condescending tone.

  “Z2?” I came straight out and asked.

  “In the flesh, quite literally,” she answered. As she took a deep breath, her chest looked as if it were about to pop out of the piece of cloth that held it.

  “What . . . what happened?” I asked.

  “Well,” Z2 said, then waved her hand to form a throne-like chair of ice to sit on, “the little beastie and I had a battle of wills inside my subzero ice. I used all my life force to create the barrier that held us. I thought I would die. Luckily for me, the creature tried to stop me. Not sure why but when something kills me, my body absorbs it and turns it to my advantage. Not something I could test until something like this happened.”

  “I can see you’re quite powerful now . . .” I said, not sure what to do with this situation. I couldn’t read her mind to see if it was actually her or not. “Who is most important to you?” I asked.

  “Father, of course,” she answered without a moment’s hesitation.

  Z2 looked behind her, where the remains of the ice that she had yet to absorb rested. I didn’t have to wait long to find out what she was looking for when another loud crack boomed out from the pile. A new hand shot out, then gripped the ice as it started to pull itself out. I jerked back as I readied my weapon. Z2 just looked at me, amused.

  “Calm down. We came to an . . . agreement,” she said with a smile.

  “Agreement?” I asked. I decided not to put my weapons down just yet.

  “That’s right. During the little tug-of-war of wills we had. We learned a great deal about each other. Of course, Lean here was just unable to move past part of the spell tha
t you created, but thanks to me, we were able to break him free of it,” Z2 explained as she watched the body that slowly emerged from the ice.

  The upper half of the body had risen by this point, and I was able to see that he looked much like a male version of Z2, only his skin was pitch-black. His hair was also snow-white and stopped just before his shoulders. Two horns shot up and curled out, releasing smoke that dissipated quickly. On his chest, where the heart would be for most mortals, a chain emerged and was fused with the skin. It stretched off only about a meter, then faded into more smoke.

  He finished pulling himself out, and we were able to see the bottom half of his body. He had gained legs and what looked like a tail with three or four tendrils to it. They were composed of smoke as well, but appeared to contain a bit more mass. He moved slowly, adjusting to his new form I assumed.

  “Z2 . . . are you sure this is safe?” I asked seriously. I didn’t feel as much power from this creature as the last one, but it still had quite a bit packed into it. Not only that but it felt more refined to me.

  “Completely. Oh, Father is going to be so pleased!” Z2 said and squealed a bit. That certainly was the old Z2, in my opinion.

  “Strange . . . the call . . . is gone . . .” the creature or, I guess, Lean said as he moved closer to Z2.

  “Lean . . . what, what do you want to do?” I asked carefully.

  “Z2 has . . . shown me many things . . . that I want . . . to experience.” He paused to consider for a moment. “I would like . . . to see the . . . ocean.”

  “See. I got this under control,” Z2 said with a hint of smugness tainting her voice.

  “I’m sure Father will decide—” I started, but the sound of a large explosion from far in the distance echoed through the forest. Looking toward the direction the horde had moved, I chose the tallest tree nearby, then quickly made my way up to the top. In the distance, large clouds of dust rose into the sky from some kind of explosion. I knew that had to be Father’s work when I considered the amount of power needed to create something like that.

  A few more flashes happened afterward, but nothing I could quite see clearly from the sixty or so meters I was up in the air. I released one of my drones and sent it higher so that it could zoom in on the battlefield. I knew Father had reinforced the town, but I wasn’t sure of the particulars. It looked like the battle was far from over when I saw a drone start to move toward the center of the horde.

  I wasn’t sure why, but I got a bad feeling from it. Jumping down from the tree, I shouted to the others, “We need to create some distance, now!”

  The heli had landed while we watched the ice, so we quickly crowded in. The pilot shot into the sky, then forward once we were barely clear of the canopy. Suddenly, a high-pitched sound hit us like a wave that even managed to knock the heli a bit. The bit of glass in the front started to crack when the noise disappeared. I wasn’t sure if it was over or not, so I had the pilot keep going just to be safe.

  Suddenly, Azra lurched forward in pain. Natsuo was the one who saved the day, quickly covering her with a white light. She breathed easier as the barrier Natsuo put over her gained some strength.

  “Felt like my lungs were about to explode,” Azra said breathlessly, still wheezing a bit.

  I concentrated and was able to sense the extreme control of air particles via air mana. It took a good two or three minutes for the effects to completely clear. Once they did, I ordered the pilot to take us back to the convoy so that we could head back to the town. I had a feeling that Father had just finished the horde—with extreme results.

  Chapter 15

  Louella

  I awoke in the middle of the night to some shouting from the commander’s tent. When I got up to investigate, I found a man being forced to kneel before Ezal and a few of the other party leaders. I noticed Izora and moved next to her.

  “What happened?”

  “Ah, Louella, Wrakras caught this idiot trying to sneak in. He has unholy mana, which has been confirmed by a priest and the Mage Guild, respectively.”

  “What do they plan to do?” I asked, wondering how Ezal would deal with him.

  “I already know about your silence curse and that questioning you would be pointless,” Ezal said, and the man seemed to get smug. “So that means there’s no reason to keep you around.” Ezal’s face was completely serious as she brought the crescent end of Feuer around. Realization struck the man just before Ezal’s blade sent his head flying.

  Ezal turned to the gathered people. “This man was a necromancer! He was trying to bring death, or worse, slavery upon us! We don’t have the leisure of taking care of a rat that has sworn himself to a faithless god!”

  “I quite like the girl’s style,” a voice said next to me. I turned and saw Noir watching the proceedings. “We barely know the surface of necromancy. If we allowed that man to stay alive as a prisoner, not only would we have to assign people to watch him, but we’d also have to worry he might curse them in some way to work against us.”

  “I agree. It’s about time those necromancers get what they deserve,” I said with a nod.

  It seemed the crowd was in agreement as they all cheered. One man even kicked the body where it lay. There had been no blood, as Feuer had burned the wound as he sliced the head off. I glanced at the sky and saw pink dawn about to crest the horizon.

  “At least we can thank this idiot for one thing. We can get an early breakfast!” Ezal shouted to a mixture of groans and laughs.

  A few people came and checked the body’s belongings, but there wasn’t anything of value or any sensitive information. It was moved to a small clearing, where Ezal’s flames turned it into a pile of ash in a few moments.

  ~~~

  The force began to move just after dawn. As Ezal had stated, most of the camp was awakened due to the news that a necromancer had tried to sneak in. Over the last day or so, people had started calling Ezal the Flame Sovereign. I thought it was apt, and she didn’t mind, letting me know about my nickname, The Charmer. I wasn’t sure about it; while it didn’t sound bad, it didn’t quite sound good either.

  I found out it was from me making such powerful allies, and that many people were stating it had some kind of magic behind it. I shook my head as I wondered how long this would haunt me. People were also inquiring about my giant wolf that I rode, but I just told them I got it from a friend. The second day I started to notice that people would mumble “Charmer” under their breath as they walked away.

  We reached a dry riverbed that we planned to lure the horde to around late afternoon. The Terra mages went to work quickly erecting walls that were several meters thick and between four and five meters tall. In the center of the field in the empty clearing, some Terra mages were building what could only be called a fort. It wouldn’t pass any beauty contests, but it appeared quite durable. Some carts carrying large amounts of iron plates were unloaded and incorporated into the fort’s structure and walls.

  I made my way up to one of the fort’s towers. It was nearly fifteen meters up and would give me a good vantage point for my weapons. Not to mention I could use some actual lightning magic for once and rain down some mass destruction into the horde. Wrakras stood next to me. He would protect us from any flying monsters that managed to attack the tower.

  Julie, as Regan had said once a long time ago, was going to be thrown out into the horde. Unlike when the town had been attacked, she would be quite powerful in the middle of a monster horde that was composed of flesh and blood. Even though she annoyed me to hell, I was still worried about her diving into the horde head-on like that.

  I watched as mages of all types mounted the wall and began casting all kinds of spells that would be activated when the horde passed over them. I pulled my guns out and started doing the same. Lightning mages were the flying monsters’ worst nightmare, the instructor at the academy always said. I thought about the tiny mana that Regan had talked about a while ago. I had gotten the hang of it with the guns, but what I
wanted to try was going to be on another level. I sat down in a cultivation pose, then waited for the horde to arrive, comfortable in the knowledge that Ezal would be handling the regular orders.

  ~~~

  It was late in the evening when the mass amount of mana being used around the fort started causing the first of the natural phenomena. Storm clouds began gathering over the fort, stretching for nearly two or three kilometers into the distance. The mana density was also getting heavier. Light bent at weird angles or dimmed randomly, as those mages worked apart from each other.

  I stood up from my cultivation pose after gathering all the mana I could in the time we had. I jumped when I looked around and saw that Ezal was standing next to me. I took a deep breath, knowing that if someone wanted to sneak up here, there would be a lot more death. Wrakras was skilled at infiltration, after all. He would be able to detect anything that could get to this point.

  “Shouldn’t you be closer to the command area?” I asked after I calmed down a bit.

  “Not particularly. I can just as easily give commands from up here as I can from a triple-guarded room. Besides, I want to do a little damage myself.” She appeared rather stressed, though she was doing a good job of hiding it. I felt she was doing a wonderful job of controlling the adventurers. They were notorious for not following orders, after all.

  “Fair enough,” I said as I glanced behind her to see four guards and two messengers. She was ready to get orders to where they needed to go. I supposed being up here would actually be better for getting an overview of the battle when it began.

  “The horde should be here soon, if the scouts were able to draw their attention,” Ezal said, then gripped Feuer hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

  “Don’t worry, we have some of the best adventurers with us. Hell, the meteor guy might take care of them all by himself,” I said to try to assure her. He was known for causing mass destruction. The guild only used him for infestation quests.

  “True.” She laughed, then glanced up to the storm clouds. “I see you and your fellow Lightning mages aren’t going to be left behind.”