Crystalline Chaos

by Gabriela Voelske

  With a final reconciliation, they proceeded to storm the compound, swiftly and silently.

  Chapter 15: Tempered Chaos

  Ground was slowly being gained, but the stream of Nightmares appeared endless to the quickly exhausting front line. Even more varieties of the twisted creatures had been emerging; although they all shared similar weak points, the lack of knowledge as to their physiology made the front line susceptible to heightened amounts of damage. Where possible healers tended to their wounds, even while mid-fight if was required, using their magic to patch the tears shut. Those too exhausted were swapped out, but any holes that remained open in the defence for too long resulted in Nightmares sweeping through.

  Kaiser had since dispatched the pinned creature, but the one Iomor had injured was unwilling to allow him close enough to pin it down. Often its legs would collide with those below; a few unfortunate souls had been nearly entirely crushed by heavily placed legs, along with the Nightmare they had been fighting. Now it had opted to start using magic, more out of defence than offence, but it was creating havoc either way. Sharp earthen spikes protruded from the ground, some dripping blood where they had come into contact with fighters when they emerged. The creature enjoyed mocking Kaiser as he tried to grab hold of it, slicing through his skin with newly emerged spikes until he backed down to avoid the stabbing barrage. Iomor had tried a second attempt at its other sac, but he was met only an aerial assault of sharpened rocks and a slammed leg once he had landed.

  Conveniently for him, torn wing membrane was not a fatal injury, but it was a painful and slow healing one. Such an attack as the leg slam he had predicted and set up to dodge; the sheer force of it hitting the ground had knocked him down, however. He was not much use for helping out Kaiser now, though, he had been rendered flightless by the attacks.

  A flash of light attracted his attention as it approached the underbelly of the creature. He was gripping tightly to one of the erected stone spikes, searching for an opening he could exploit with the inability to fly. Iomor watched closely but couldn’t make out what was occurring; he assumed it not to be another Nightmare by the style of its approach, however. Moments passed as the creature continued the back and forth game with Kaiser, the demon was becoming increasingly frustrated but also increasingly injured. With another, much brighter flash of light the remaining bulbous sac exploded open, sending the creature into a panic. Its defence had failed and now pain seeped through the massive body, but losing both sacs wasn’t enough to kill the massive Nightmare.

  Kaiser, however, was not one to wait. He lunged forward and slammed his hands into the creature’s back and dropped it onto the spiky nest it had created below. Spikes protruded through the mottled black carapace before the body turned limp, shattering down to shards on the follow-up blow. Iomor breathed a sigh of relief, watching as the shards slipped off the stone and into the gaps below.

  “You looked like you were having some trouble,” a voice teased, causing him to look up towards its origin.

  “It was about time you started being useful, Sariel,” he growled, but the angel just shrugged the response off, still enjoying the fact that it had been him who defeated the creature.

  “Not my fault that between you two, you couldn’t defeat one of those,” Sariel replied. His sass irked Iomor; the two of them had always been in conflict. Both held similar positions, but Iomor often thought Sariel got away with murder, sometimes in a more literal sense.

  “Oh really? You did less than a third of that,” Iomor spat back, easing down when he saw Kaiser sigh and just shake his head. It wasn’t worth their time to be arguing now; there were more pressing concerns than an angel making himself out to be more important than he really was. “Whatever, I have more to be worrying about than you.”

  Iomor slowly dropped to the ground from his position. Despite the injury, he still used his wings to help lower his body down. Sariel smirked at the torn membrane, seeing the blood drip freely filled him with some morbid satisfaction. If he wasn’t well aware that Uriel was watching, the angel would have soon seized the opportunity to drive a blade through Iomor’s chest. A stricken demon is an easy target for an angel, as much as a plucked angel is an easy prey for a demon. That fantasy would have to wait for now, there would be more than ample time after this battle to act.

  A shrill cry got their attention back to the main front and the front line was curious as to the sudden change in the attention of their opponents. To what they could see past the thick line of writhing bodies, a lone Nightmare had come bounding over; its body was impaled by several arrows, making it wobble as it tried to desperately press on. Once its call had been heard, a harmonious shriek rang out, followed by creatures splintering off from the main group. It was a foolish move, however, with the reduced numbers it became easy for them to break through the thinned herd. With speed and precision they punched a hole in the defence, littering broken shards of carapace everywhere as they went.

  * * *

  The surprise attack from the West had not gone as well as the westerners would have liked, but it had the desired effect, even if the impact had been reduced. Some scouts had remained hidden around the fringes of the stone wall; their presence only became known when they had broken cover to warn those already fighting. Arrows had rained down to try and prevent their escape, but one had managed to avoid being hit fatally. Now they had become harder pressed than they would have been originally, but the heat had been taken off the larger front.

  Steel met magic as they altered their position into a defensive stance, cutting them down with projectiles from the sheltered archers and mages. As soon as the East had broken through, they changed tactics again, sweeping the Nightmares off their feet and shattering them down. Around the complex, the remaining number of creatures was starting to become few, so Amnur seized the opportunity to investigate the crystalline towers alone.

  He turned his body invisible; while it wouldn’t stop one of the creatures from seeing him, it would stop anyone else from becoming aware of his presence. From this side they appeared to have no openings, so he carefully squeezed himself between the gap created by the northern most edge of the spires and the stone wall. Three entranceways became evident as he reached the opposite side, as well as the varied shapes of the eastern army. Amnur scowled at the figures and opted to enter the closest entrance, feeling an abnormal ripple of energy as he passed through. A brief glance down revealed that his invisibility spell had been forcefully removed.

  With a choice selection of words, he quickly turned around but found the entranceway to be obscured. Either something had just sealed him in here, or there was some spell active to mask the inside of the spire to the outside world.

  A noise grabbed his attention back to the opposite side of the room he was stood in; a long snake-like creature was sat watching something, seemingly oblivious to his presence. Carefully, he grabbed his blade and crept forward. The object of the creature’s interest soon became visible; a rift hung in the room, distorting the air and aether around it. As Amnur came closer, the creature regarded him casually. It beckoned him to examine it, touch it. Against his better judgment, he stretched out his hand, feeling the edge of the intertwined aether between his fingers. The aether was distorted, but it didn’t feel unnatural to him. He could feel an undercurrent of something much more corrupted writhing in the tangled mass, however.

  Moving his hand around revealed a minute opening, a window into the Nether Plane. Amnur gazed at it for a moment; considering the creatures that emerged from the plane; the plane itself was notably beautiful. With the excessive amounts of mana that existed there, most of the scenery had been greatly distorted with almost a twisted grace. Rich colours filled the atmosphere and the ground was a lush green, covered in plants of greatly varied size and composition.

  A low whine from the creature snapped his attention back, making him pull his hand clear of the rift. It pushed past him and proceeded to wind up a staircase that lie hidden against the
wall of the spire, pausing occasionally to look back at him. The demon took the hint and followed it up, observing the light as it shone on the many faces of the crystalline structure.

  At the top sat a pillar with a glass orb in a sunken basin. The surface pulsed with a sickly pink light, spreading energy into the crystal tower. Amnur noticed that the pulsing mana didn’t affect him as he passed by; its path had already been predetermined, ignoring any interference that it came in contact with. The creature hovered its arms over the surface of the orb, narrowly avoiding direct contact with the object.

  “You can’t touch it?” Amnur inquired, unsure if the strange creature could even understand his words. It gazed at him for a moment, before placing both of its clawed hands down on the orb, shrieking in pain as mana surged into its body. A defence mechanism that had been sealed to the ball, but was it designed to specifically stop these creatures from touching it? He was unsure, but judging from the wounded look the creature gave him afterwards, it was not too keen on not interacting with it again.

  Gripping his blade hilt tightly, he raised it level to the orb and blessed it with flame. It would give him a few seconds warning if the orb tried to rally a defence against him and help to melt through the glass.

  As he was about to strike, the ground shook violently below him, followed by a resounding crash, knocking him off his feet. Amnur spun around to find a gaping hole in the wall behind him and a monstrous creature stood in the wreckage. Reinforcements had arrived through the rift below, pouring out into the walled courtyard below to the surprise of those outside.

  Picking himself up off the floor, he steadied his balance and debated how to proceed. The creature that had emerged was not a type he had seen before, it resembled a wyvern to what he could see. One with the ability to fly posed notable danger, not only those currently present but also to those further afield, lacking enough defences to deal with something of that scale. If he could stop the influence of chaos magic over the creatures, the impact would affect all of them, though, not just one individual.

  He poised himself, taking a deep breath before pressing the blazing blade into the glass. It hissed angrily but offered no resistance, shooting off multi-coloured sparks as the blade dug deeper, leaving a molten trail of twisted glass in its wake. Before Amnur reached the other side, the orb cracked and the colour drained from inside its shell. Too much damage had been sustained by the container for the spell binding the mana to the orb to continue, causing the container to crack as the mana dissipated.

  “Next tower, second orb,” the creature gasped. It sounded strained and hoarse, so much so it startled Amnur. He stared at the snake-like Nightmare for a few seconds before following its beckoning; part of the wall was rippling, another false wall mirage created to keep passages hidden. It appeared to directly connect to the same room in another tower. They appeared identical, even down to the now gaping hole in the wall. A brief glance outside indicated that he was in a different location, however. From the height he was at he could still easily spot Kaiser, as well as the lighter colour of some angels.

  The creature gestured to the orb and slithered over to watch the events unfolding outside. Without visible eyes, Amnur found it difficult to judge its emotions if it even had similar emotions. He walked up the orb, inspecting it over, but spotted nothing different to the first orb he had encountered. Once more he dug the flaming sword into the glass, eventually causing it to fade and crack.

  “The final link is that mage, residing in the central spire,” the creature spoke, its voice was far softer and formed this time around. “You wonder why I am now able to speak,” it cocked its head, in response to Amnur’s rather questioning expression.

  “I would put it down to that magic restricting your function, but being able to manage conversation at all is a surprise,” he responded. Nothing in the book he had read indicated any sentient creatures, it raised interesting prospects and dangerous realities. Addling their minds to the extent where they could no longer function themselves would likely weaken their strength greatly; someone could not correctly control a being if they did not how to know effectively. Considering the size and power some of these creatures had already shown, to think they could be holding back was worrying at the very least.

  “How come you’re less addled than the others?” Amnur enquired. The difference was bothering him; those below just appeared as mindless drones compared to the creature in front of him.

  “The element of chaos is not unnatural to our home, but in this excess, it damages everything, even ones that specialise in it,” it mused, demonstrating some basic magic by manipulating a part of the crystalline wall into a strange, distorted shape. Amnur noted the change with interest, one of the texts he had rescued from being destroyed by the Magi Council went into detail about the balance of elements and the importance of chaos within a stable aether. Such a theory was not well received by the Council, chaos was difficult to control and dangerous, yet the disruption of order is required to stop stagnation. Stagnant energy can prove just as fatal as overly fluid energy, finding a suitable level between the two was an understudied field of aether research.

  “You lack eyes, but have you seen a young female by any chance?” he said, turning the topic of conversation. Amnur’s voice was tense, unsure what response he was going to get. It turned to face him, aware of the change of tone and began slowly sliding towards his position.

  “The one that lacks mana. She is a hard one to see but I know to whom you refer,” the creature paused. Amnur gasped at what it had said, but the Nightmare merely shook its head. “I hear her screams daily, they are getting quieter, weaker,” it spoke; the strange voice was tinged with sadness. With a swift movement, it found its head being hoisted up. Although it could not strictly see Amnur’s expression, the change in mana flowing around his face told him enough about his emotions. “She is in the main spire, but that one is not so easy to enter.”

  “Then show me how to enter,” Amnur growled, dropping the creature; a move it quickly recovered from with little ill effects.

  * * *

  Once the initial waves had been cleared from the courtyard, the second phase of the plan was put into motion. The selected few began to make their way towards the spires; Sebastian had taken Solomon with him and Uriel had selected Gabriel and later Arariel at Solomon’s request. With the stragglers being swiftly dealt with, the distance was simple to travel, not that many Nightmares would be able to give them much trouble if one did try to stop them. Such minuscule forces remained of the opponent; it almost seemed too good to be true.

  The fact remained that the main target was that mage; any subsequent arrivals of enemy forces would be hindered by removing their controller. Arariel was rather discomforted by the whole thing, although he wasn’t voicing his opinion on it. They had an encounter with the mage previously, one that had left him injured or even dead if Solomon didn’t pull him clear. The demon later told him that seeing through the enchantment, or close enough to that they had on them was an unusual thing. Normal mages can’t see into that plane, but this was no normal mage they were dealing with, that fact had been made obvious several times already.

  He let out a long sigh, he was still wary about Solomon’s plan as well. Necromancy was nowhere near his forte; he barely knew anything about it if he was being honest with himself. Not much literature existed on the subject, what did was generally owned by those who could utilise the element.

  “Having doubts?” Solomon inquired in a hushed voice, barely loud enough for the angel to hear. It took Arariel by surprise, causing him to flinch, before relaxing his body.

  “It’s a bit late to act on them either way.” He forced a slight smile, trying to divert the demon’s attention away from him. Uriel was still unaware of what Solomon had suggested, he would never agree to such a thing. The fact that Arariel had could cost him his life, or worse.

  “They are aware that we’re going to be attacked the second we enter, right?” the ange
l whispered, but he was greeted only by a shrug. Now the entrance loomed in front of them, he felt tenser than ever before; the aether collected at the top of the tower writhed in a distorted mess. Last time they had encountered the mage, he didn’t remember such a sickening mass of aether. Solomon too had picked up on the same fact; he stared at the tower for a moment before breaking his attention away.

  Before the demon could speak up, the northern tower erupted outwards. Shards of crystal flew into the air as a massive creature emerged, spreading its wings wide into the still air. A deep throated chuckle filled the area as it turned around, scouring the field for prey. The gaze turned towards the two mages; they both froze on the spot; moving would only make their position more pronounced. Uriel scowled at the creature, as it was a duplicate of the one that he had fought against previously. At ground level, he was unsure how advised it would be to engage with it, the angel had taken a bad enough hit in the air.

  A well-aimed boulder cracked against the creature’s head during the silence, diverting its attention to its assailant.

  “Hey ugly, pick on something your own size!” Kaiser bellowed, launching another rock towards the oversized monster. After the second impact, the Nightmare decided it was time to silence its attacker. It launched itself into the air, nearly knocking down those stood below the creature.

  “Speak for yourself,” Uriel mumbled under his breath, Gabriel smirked at the remark and just shook his head. The angel’s opinion on the massive demon was seldom positive, his strange appearance was one thing that was highly criticised. Not many angels were keen on him; his brutish appearance embodied everything the demons were known for, savagery, aggression and a rather unappealing physique.