Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  “Like you said, this is check, asshole,” Finn said, pulling two metal spheres from his bag, clutching one in each hand. “Now, we just need to keep you distracted while they finish off your hounds.”

  Bilel let out a low growl as he turned back to Finn. Multi-colored energy crackled along the demon’s hand, and his staff flared with fire mana. The debris began to orbit them more swiftly now, picking up speed and creating a funnel of air that whipped at the group and deflected the rain that now beat down upon the ruined throne room.

  “And as for your other question,” Finn said, stepping forward slowly and flames wrapping the two metal orbs, the spheres drifting up into the air beside him. “You’re right. I did make a deal with the Seer.”

  His teammates surrounded him. Daniel’s flaming body drifted just above Finn’s shoulder, streamers of emerald energy curled along Kyyle’s staff, and Brock’s rocky body hovered protectively beside the earth mage. Julia and Malik stood to either side, their weapons held at the ready. And Abbad stood beside Finn, wisps of air magic already collecting around him. Not a single one of them backed down or hesitated in the face of the monster that stood before them.

  “I need that staff,” Finn continued, fire flaring in his eyes.

  “And I… no, we will do anything to retrieve it.”

  Chapter 47 - Mate

  Debris continued to spin around the group in a giant shifting maelstrom, wind pulling at their armor and whistling across the ruined stone tower as the whirlwind picked up speed. Rain soon added to the gusts of air, hurling the droplets into a spinning vortex that pushed the water outward to the edges of the platform.

  “Come and get it then,” Bilel growled, his eyes flashing with multi-colored energy.

  Julia was more than happy to oblige.

  She darted forward, her lance telescoping toward Bilel.

  The demon didn’t even bother to move. He merely smirked at her. A block of stone ripped itself from the debris. Whirling around the tower, it raced forward, intercepting Julia’s blow. Her lance smashed into the stone, causing the block to explode in a shower of dust and rocky shrapnel. Another block whipped at her from behind, but she pivoted on her heel. Her shield flashed with amber energy, and a gust of air sent the stone rocketing over the edge of the tower, where it was swiftly consumed by the storm.

  More and more of the stone blocks that once comprised Bilel’s throne room hurtled out of that maelstrom. They raced toward the demon and flattened into roughly circular rock panels. Finn saw shimmering barriers of yellow energy erupt around Bilel, hovering just behind those rocky shields. The demon was also drawing water from the storm raging above them, the droplets hovering behind the barriers of air and stone before freezing into icy discs. And behind those layers of shields, lances of flame erupted from the ground, encircling him within a cage of solid fire.

  “Pick your elements,” Finn grunted as Julia withdrew, and the group spread out around Bilel in a rough semi-circle. “Order is earth, air, water, fire. Daniel, give us highlights.”

  The AI flashed once, and the barriers were suddenly illuminated in their corresponding colors, glowing brightly as Daniel pushed those combat tooltips to the group.

  The battle was on.

  Finn ignited Julia’s armor, flames springing up along her metal armor. His daughter and Malik darted forward, their weapons aimed at the rocky discs that encircled Bilel. Julia’s lance flashed, breaking apart the stones as Malik’s swords cut at the rock with bands of air – the energy condensed down to a razor’s edge.

  Several of the stone blocks exploded in a shower of debris… and close on their heels were ribbons of air magic. That magically reinforced wind whipped at the amber shields that encircled Bilel as Abbad blasted the barriers apart with supercharged gusts of air. Soon, the shimmering yellow barriers that wound around Bilel disappeared.

  Finn’s fingers swept forward, his flaming orb cutting through the frozen discs like butter. Which left the group facing a fiery cage of energy. As Finn directed his lone orb forward, that cage fanned out and flared brightly, the fires turning almost white. The heat radiated outward as the energy transformed into a solid shell of fire that obscured Bilel from sight.

  Finn’s sphere entered that barrier, but he lost control of the spell as the metal melted immediately. He clenched his jaw and then reached out with his crystalline hand, pulling at that energy. It resisted him at first – a magical tug-of-war as Bilel poured more energy into the spell. Yet a coil of flame leaked away from the barrier and drifted toward Finn’s hand, and the fires settled within the Focusing Prism.

  Suddenly, the flaming shield winked out.

  Revealing that Bilel was suddenly missing.

  Finn’s gaze darted to the side, searching the area with his Mana Sight.

  He saw a ripple of azure energy off to the right.

  “Kyyle! He’s right beside you!”

  The earth mage began to pivot, but it was much too slow. His eyes widened as Bilel reappeared only a scant few feet away, the demon’s hands finishing a final gesture. A barrage of icy shards rocketed from his palms at point-blank range, creating a fan of spears that would be impossible for Kyyle to dodge or block in time.

  Brock surged forward. But instead of trying to block the shards with his body, his torso broke apart, and the stones peeled away. Kyyle’s body settled into that void in his chest, and the stones snapped back around his arms, legs, and torso. The frozen shards slammed against Brock’s rocky body, carving deep furrows in the stone. Yet, only a moment later, coils of emerald energy wrapped around those rocks, repairing the damage.

  “Try again, asshole,” Kyyle grunted from within Brock’s body. The earth elemental stooped and retrieved Kyyle’s staff before facing off against Bilel once again.

  Damn, that’s a cool trick, Finn thought. The earth mage must have realized that he could use Brock as a sort of makeshift rock suit, using his own mana to help repair and reinforce the elemental. He supposed that was one way for the earth mage to get around not having any healing spells.

  Malik and Julia were converging on the demon’s position, and Bilel ground his teeth in frustration. His hands raced through a series of gestures, and he abruptly disappeared in a flash of amber light.

  “Teleport!” Finn shouted.

  The demon forked off to the side, rematerializing a few yards away and already casting another series of spells. Several of the blocks of stone hurtled out of the whirlwind and rocketed toward Finn and the other group members. Finn smashed one apart with an orb, and partially melted stone fragments tumbled to the ground with a crash. Malik and Julia also made short work of the projectiles racing toward them, breaking them apart in a series of rapid-fire blows.

  The chaos had the unfortunate side effect of obscuring Bilel from sight, dust cascading across the ruined tower. Finn just barely detected another flash of amber light before Bilel suddenly materialized next to him. Finn raised his left hand, and the limb transformed, stretching and lengthening into a blade as he parried a sweep of the demon’s staff. Flames curled away from the impact, and sparks flew as the relic crashed against the neurogem material… yet Finn’s hand didn’t falter.

  Bilel pivoted, and bolts of ice erupted from his other hand, hurtling straight toward Finn’s face… only to be blocked by a shimmering barrier as Abbad knocked the bolts aside with a shield of air.

  Bilel recovered quickly, and a beam of fire jetted from the staff, arcing toward Finn. Finn caught that beam of energy in his glasslike hand, crushing the energy in his fist and absorbing it into the Focusing Prism. He let out a hissing breath as he felt his skin redden and welt, but he couldn’t afford to focus on that right now.

  Then he saw a smile stretch across the demon’s face – those swirling eyes staring him down. His form broke apart into streamers of azure energy.

  Another illusion! He must have cast the spell just after the last teleport.

  Finn’s gaze swept the tower, and he saw another ripple of energy
behind the librarian. “Behind you, Abbad!” he cried.

  But it was too late.

  A sword of ice jetted from the demon’s arm and raced forward, slicing at the back of Abbad’s legs, cutting through the cloth of his robes, and leaving a line of crimson in its wake. The librarian stumbled… and then fell to his knees. Julia and Malik were already rushing toward him, but a fresh barrage of the massive blocks rocketed from the whirlwind around them, barreling toward the pair.

  With a twitch of Finn’s fingers, he tugged at Julia’s armor, and she launched up into the air with incredible force, her form blurring and leaving an orange streak in her wake. Her foot touched upon one of the boulders the demon had hurled at her, pushing off the rock and her lance telescoping outward as she rushed at him.

  Bilel sneered as he saw her approaching and darted backward. His body shimmered again as he tried to teleport – ropes of electricity coiling around him. But he abruptly stumbled, finding his foot planted to the stone with a thick ribbon of air mana. From his kneeling position along the ground, Abbad was still managing to cast.

  Lances of stone stretched up from the ruined ground and encircled Bilel’s bound foot, immediately grounding the mage. The lightning leeched away ineffectually into the base of the tower as Kyyle joined the fray.

  Then Julia was upon Bilel. Her lance sped forward, the tip angled at the demon’s heart.

  Pivoting at the last moment, the tip of the lance penetrated his shoulder instead. Sickly multi-colored blood bubbled around impact, staining Bilel’s robes and dripping onto the tower’s floor. In Finn’s sight, he could see that the demon’s blood glowed brightly – an incredible amount of mana stored in each droplet.

  It almost looks like the liquid mana in the well we discovered down in the Abyss… he thought to himself weakly. His eyes shot back to the demon. Just how much mana is he holding?

  Daniel was attempting to update a tooltip in the corner of Finn’s vision – trying his best to guess at the amount of mana in the blood based on the brightness of the energy and an estimate of Bilel’s body mass and volume. Yet Finn didn’t need to see a projection to understand what he was looking at.

  Bilel was carrying a shitload of mana – every drop of blood at least on par with a regular Najima. It seemed they had badly, badly underestimated his total mana pool.

  For his part, the demon barely seemed to notice the injury or the lance embedded in his shoulder. Jerking his arm down hard, he ripped the limb free in a shower of rainbow blood. He then smashed the bottom of the staff into the stone that trapped his foot, flames melting down the constraint in an instant.

  His form flashed once again, and the demon rematerialized another few yards away.

  The group was breathing hard as they watched Bilel warily. That same strange blood was leaking down his torso. Yet his expression was completely unaffected, as though he couldn’t even feel the injury. Slamming the butt of his staff into the ground, flames coiled up his body, encircling that wound in a blinding flash of orange fire. As the group blinked away the harsh light, they discovered that his arm was intact once more – healed in a matter of seconds.

  Bilel laughed at their stunned reactions, a mad cackle punctuated by the crackle of lightning and the peal of thunder above them. “You don’t understand, do you? You can’t possibly hope to win this battle. You are outmatched.”

  Even as he spoke, the demon’s shields sprang back to full strength, and the four elemental barriers orbited him slowly. “I can use any spell… heal any wound… even control the weather itself!”

  Raising his hand to the sky, a coil of lightning arced down from the billowing dark clouds above them, crashing against the stone tower in a blinding flash of light. The attack was almost instantaneous. Yet Finn didn’t feel the searing electrical burn flay his skin. As he blinked to clear his vision, he could see Abbad kneeling on the stone. The librarian’s hands were raised to the sky, and another amber barrier hovered just above them. Lightning forked across that shell and lanced back out into the mixture of debris that still spun rapidly around the tower, the energy deflected and refracted among the stone and glass.

  “Why do you keep fighting?” Bilel growled, his eyes centering on the librarian and the blood that was pooling beneath the librarian’s knees.

  Kyyle was soon at Abbad’s side, still encased within Brock’s rocky form. He lifted him back to his feet, and the air mage, leaning against the elemental’s body, simply stared impassively back at Bilel. Despite the stony resolve lingering in his companions’ eyes, Finn could see a tendril of dark energy ripple through each of their bodies.

  Doubt. Fear.

  And he could feel that worm of despair wriggling within his stomach, pushing back at the fiery energy that coursed through his veins. The demon stood tall and at full health. The energy still circled within his body with an almost blinding light. He had used barely a fraction of the mana stored within him.

  Yet the group had already burned almost half of their aggregate mana. Abbad was also at about 60% health, and their two fighters had used a decent amount of stamina just to ward off those blocks of stone that Bilel had continued to hurl at them with abandon.

  It was true that they had managed to hit the demon – even hurt him…

  But Bilel was able to heal that wound almost instantly. With the maelstrom whirling around them, Finn couldn’t see the state of the fight he knew was raging outside the Mage Guild. But he couldn’t be certain that Aerys could finish that encounter soon enough to depress the power flowing into the relic. He couldn’t assume that she would be able to stop the demon from healing.

  And with that realization came another.

  This isn’t going to work.

  We need to find another way. His thoughts were frantic, racing.

  As Bilel began to cast again, Finn’s teammates launched forward, smashing aside stone blocks the size of boulders, deflecting icy projectiles, and trying to follow the demon as he teleported around the ruined tower. But Finn stood stock still. He barely noticed the shift and shimmer of Bilel’s mana, Finn’s eyes lingering only on the demon’s form and that staff in his hand.

  But how…?

  Finn hesitated as his gaze lingered on that gem at the top of the staff – the heartstone glowing with a bright, glaring energy, reflecting the mana that the hounds had fed the relic.

  Yet it was more than that – more than simply a receptacle for mana. That energy fluctuated. Pulsed. Almost like a heartbeat. After Finn had spent days administering the Forging, he recognized that pattern. It was the same one he had seen in hundreds of Najima. That power was alive. Of course, it was. That was Nar Aljahim’s mate.

  With that realization came the memory of the last time he had faced the staff. That strange void, the flames sucked from his body – taking with them his passion and his memories of Rachael. And yet he had survived – had reclaimed that fire as his own.

  How had he done that? How had he overcome the staff?

  Or had it let him? Had it relinquished the flames willingly?

  “Could… could it be conscious?” Finn muttered aloud.

  “You need to help them!” Daniel shouted in his ear, the AI’s voice frantic.

  Finn blinked, and his focus centered back on the fight raging across the ruined tower. Indeed, his teammates were being beaten back – bloodied and broken already. They circled back around Finn, assuming a defensive formation with Julia and Malik in the lead. Bilel’s body crackled with another blast of electricity, and he teleported across the circle, standing atop the spot where his throne had once rested. He watched them with a cruel smile.

  “Is this it? Is this all you can manage?” he demanded.

  “This might be the first and last time I ever say this… but we could use a crazy half-baked plan right about now,” Julia grunted, sparing a glance at Finn over her shoulder. He couldn’t see her face or her expression, only the fires that consumed her body from his channel, but her tone was grim.

  The othe
rs weren’t in much better shape. Their mana and stamina had only waned further. Abbad was still barely able to stand. They wouldn’t last much longer.

  “I think I have one,” Finn said somberly, taking a deep breath as he readied himself for what he was planning to do next. “I just need for you all to break through his shields one last time,” he explained.

  “We can do that,” Malik grunted, shooting Finn a look over his shoulder. “But you’re going to need to make it count.”

  Finn met his gaze evenly. “I will.”

  “What a touching moment,” Bilel drawled. “But I think it’s time to finish this.”

  “Yes. Yes, it is,” Julia growled.

  Then she was charging forward, flames licking from between those dark metal plates and her lance and shield reflecting the light of the electricity that arced above them. And the rest of the group was close behind, raising that same roaring cry as they raced toward Bilel.

  “What are you planning to do?” Daniel asked in Finn’s ear.

  Finn closed his eyes, feeling that kernel of despair writhe and twist like a living thing. “I’m going to take a really big risk…” he growled in response.

  Then he finished casting Haste and fire rippled across his body, coating his skin and armor. That familiar burn washed away any last trace of doubt. Raising his eyes, the metal embedded in those sockets glowed with an ominous red light.

  And Finn started running toward Bilel.

  Blocks of stone rocketed forward, but Malik and Julia cut them down, barely slowing. Once they were within melee range, their weapons began carving at the stones that orbited the demon. A crackle of energy and Abbad used the last of his mana to blast apart the shimmering barriers of air that encircled Bilel. Kyyle waved his hand and spikes jutted from the ground, each one blasting apart a thick panel of ice.