by HDA Roberts
The last time I’d seen it, it was still struggling against the air-flow, so with any luck, I still had a bit of time to prepare a nasty surprise or two...
Nope.
Just as I was turning, I felt the pulse of an immense bit of Spellwork, and I barely got a Will Shield in the way, immediately knowing that neither my regular Shields nor my Affinities’ resistances would have saved me from a direct hit.
Suffice to say, the Prime was back.
The beam was just like the one it had used on the fortress, only even more powerful. It must have been conserving its strength before, and clearly felt that it didn’t need to anymore.
Not good.
My Will Shield caught the beam, preventing it from blowing up my head as I dropped out of the way. Even that instant of contact was enough to draw a significant fraction of the Magic left in my Well, which should give you some idea of just how powerful it was. I reformed my Shadow-cocoon and shot upwards, putting more distance between us and hopefully spoiling its aim
When I was far up enough, I took a moment to look the creature over. I hoped that I might gain some insight into its Magic and maybe understand its weaknesses.
I scowled at what I saw.
I’d known that it was different from the other Hyde, going in, but I hadn’t guessed just how different.
I’d thought it was just a slightly smarter Hyde, maybe with a few extra tricks up its sleeves, but I was wrong.
That thing was sentient, or as close as something like it could get, anyway. I didn’t dare poke at the mind too much, in case it had defences (and if it was made by Myrddin, I should assume that it did), but I certainly felt a dark and incisive intelligence at work behind those soulless eyes, one that didn’t feel human at all. It felt alien; slimy and dark.
But that wasn’t all; I felt something else, too.
Emotions. I hadn’t felt those from any other Hyde, not even from the (what I was going to start calling Lesser) Primes that I’d encountered back on Earth.
And even though those emotions were as alien as its mind, it wasn’t hard to recognise that the Prime was seriously pissed-off with me.
It aimed another beam at me, but its aim was a bit off. I replied with a few experimental Plasma balls. I figured I’d get an idea of its defences if nothing else.
The creature raised a second pair of hands and almost swatted my attacks away with plate-sized planes of solid Will. As it exerted its powers, I got a closer look at how it used its Magic, and the sudden revulsion nearly made me sick.
Those heads it had stuck to its back were still alive, but the Hyde had completely integrated their minds into its own, subsuming their personalities while keeping their Magical strength separate enough to remain intact. That meant that the heads weren't screaming on their own; they were only doing so because the Prime wanted them to, perhaps even because it liked hearing them scream.
It was an utter violation of life, more worthy of the term ‘abomination’ than any Demon I’d laid eyes on.
It had to be destroyed. Before it could do the same thing to anyone else.
Or, more importantly, to me.
I reconnected to the elements and renewed the storm, which had almost completely vanished. I sent the growing winds and banks of lightning towards the Prime, which had scuttled away from the cliff edge, no doubt to prevent my repeating the trick that had sent it tumbling away in the first place.
It replied with more bursts of its siege beam, and I started throwing up great banks of Shadow to catch them. That bought me the time to get my new Dispel Cannons up and running. With Affinities in Low Magic, this was now laughably simple. With barely an effort of concentration, they were there, spewing out little pulses of energy that interrupted the creature's beam and dispersed it before it could hit anything.
The Prime compensated, throwing more and more energy into the attack, and I had to drop out of the sky again. As the latest barrage seared past me, I finally gained some insight into just what sort of attack I was dealing with, not that my understanding made it any less dangerous.
It was, essentially, an Atomic Disintegration Spell, which I hadn’t even thought was possible. It was several different constructs in one, a complex weave of anti-gravity, atomic nullification and a beam of plasma all rolled into one incredibly destructive package.
All things aside, it was a work of Spellcasting art, and I could have stared at it for hours... if there wasn’t a real risk of it blowing me apart. Just the way the Spell affected the atoms in the air around it as it passed through was fascinating. It was so simple and yet so deliciously involved. The disintegration portion would obliterate any matter it came in contact with and the Plasma Beam would carry it through just about any energy-based defence, it was beautiful!
No wonder the Prime hadn’t used any other attacks, this one was all it needed!
Assuming it could actually land a hit, that is...
As I ducked and weaved through the air, the Prime started growing frustrated. Those pitiless black eyes tracked me as I evaded it, returning fireballs, lightning bolts and even the odd Sound Bomb as I searched for a weakness to exploit.
It added a second beam, using a different pair of hands. The Spells seared through the air, trying to bracket me.
I sent another flurry of attacks back at it, adding Shadow Lances and Chaos Balls to the barrage. It barely seemed to twitch in response, conjuring a Will Shield each time to deflect or catch each attack. Even the Spells with an area of effect did it no harm; it always seemed to know what I was doing and how I was doing it well enough to put up the perfect defence.
After another series of futile exchanges, the Prime grew frustrated enough to add a third beam.
That was actually reassuring. It was getting angrier. And if it could get angry enough, it could make mistakes. That third beam was its first big one. Those Spells were horrific power hogs. Not even the combined Wells of all those Sidhe Mystics, plus whatever innate talent it had been created with, could manage three of them for very long, not at the overpowered level it was using.
The energy in the creature began to fluctuate as it pulled more deeply on its reserves, doing it best to skewer me with its attacks. Plasma swept through the air, great swooping patterns that criss-crossed and slashed past my evading form, missing again and again...
Mostly because I was nowhere near where it was aiming.
That ‘me’ was an Illusion.
A necessity, I’m afraid; I had nothing like that kind of skill at aerial-acrobatics. If I’d tried even a tiny fraction of those manoeuvres I’d have thrown up or passed out. Or both.
No, like a sensible person, I was safely tucked up in a Shadow, behind yet another Illusion, slowly making my way around towards the Prime’s back.
It had shown some ability with detecting incoming Magic, so I was being very careful with my emissions while I snuck up on it. I wanted to get close enough so that it wouldn’t have time to skitter its ugly arse out of the way.
I’d used every bit of concealment Magic I knew. I even put in Spells that captured the sound of my breathing and any scents that might be carried by the wind. It didn’t even have any eyes pointing in the direction I was approaching from. Not even the head-spine was pointing towards me.
There was absolutely no conceivable way that it should have been able to sense, smell, taste or see me sneaking up on it.
Except that it did.
Of course it did. If it was as simple as sneaking up on the thing, some industrious Sidhe assassin would have chopped off its head ages ago...
Just as I was approaching the point where it couldn’t possibly have dodged an attack (also the point at which I couldn’t dodge either, incidentally), the monster spun on its creepy undercarriage, faster than they eye could follow, and it turned those three dreadful beams right on the supposedly empty space I was hiding in.
I moved the instant I recognised what was happening, but I wasn’t anywhere near fast enough. My cocoon was blown apart,
my shields were shredded, and I barely got my Will in the way in time to avoid a direct hit.
I was still grazed though. Twice. Barely kisses of energy, and they were still bad enough to shatter every bone in my left arm and nearly carve off my right leg, leaving both limbs little more than charred slabs of useless meat.
The pain was horrible, and I felt the monster’s amusement as I dropped out of the air, vanishing from sight past the edge of the cliffs, trailing ash and blood on my way down. The Prime wasn’t making the same mistake I had, though. It was coming over to finish me off before I could recover, so I had to work fast.
Thanks to my new Affinities, it wasn’t a second before I wasn't feeling much pain. I was left with a sharp ache; just enough to let me know something was wrong, but not enough to incapacitate me. I was in a pickle, though, these weren't minor wounds that I could take care of with some simple cell regeneration. My leg was practically severed and my arm was so badly damaged that a Pureborn surgeon would have amputated the thing.
I needed time, so I let myself drop a bit lower, under the lip of the cliffs. That would get me a little distance and give me some cover while I worked. I would have simply dropped myself into the water, but I didn’t want the Prime thinking I was really dead and turning its attention back to the fortress.
I started with some Shadows, coiling them around my mangled limbs and setting them back into place and something resembling their normal shape. Even with the additional Numbing Spell I’d cast, that hurt.
Flesh Sight showed me that I was missing a good inch of leg meat and bone just above my knee. The only thing keeping the leg attached was a thick ribbon of skin and muscle from my inner thigh. A Shadow-based brace wasn't going to be good enough, I needed something more substantial.
So I cast Shade Armour, which I probably should have done in the first place, but it greatly restricted what Shadow Magic I could use when it was active, and I’d wanted the versatility in my attack Spells. The construct quickly flowed around me, fixing my wounded limbs into their proper place and acting as a perfect splint for both. The arm wasn’t in any real danger, but my lower leg was starved of oxygen and dying. I didn’t have time for anything complicated, so I simply cast a Cellular Stasis Spell on both damaged limbs. That would reduce the local metabolism down to practically nothing and prevent any further damage.
Confident that I wasn't about to bleed to death or lose either damaged limb, I ducked lower to put more rock between me and the Prime while I gathered energy for another attack. Subtlety hadn’t worked on this thing, nor had any attack I’d directed at it. I could probably have worn it down, drained it to the point where its Will-based defences ran out of energy, but I knew that it had some sort of transit Magic, and I had no doubt that it would leave if it felt it was losing.
So I came up with a new plan.
I reached into the water below, and ice began to form by the ton as I drew out as much heat as I could. The ice spread out in a great circle that quickly enveloped the sea between the cliffs and the ruined port, where the Hyde fleet was tied up in a great tangled mass. The Hyde ships were likely damaged by the sudden iceberg, but I can’t say that I cared too much. I thought of burning the ships, just on general principles, but thought perhaps the Sidhe could find a use for the ones I hadn't damaged too badly.
I let my senses spread out further, drawing in more and more heat from the water. The iceberg deepened and broadened, spreading away from the coast and out to sea. I kept drawing in heat until my Well was packed with it, and I’d started to glow with all of that contained energy. I’d expected it to hurt, to burn, but it actually felt comforting; like a warm bath at the end of a long day. Even as an Archon, taking in that much raw thermal energy would have damaged me, but as a Primal...
It felt good!
Finally, I figured I had enough for what I intended and darted above the edge of the cliff and back into the line of fire.
I left behind over nine square miles of ice, thick enough to hit the sea bed. Take a moment to think about how much thermal energy I must have absorbed to accomplish that.
Fun thought, isn't it?
The Prime wasted no time blasting away at me again, though with just the single beam this time. It appeared that it had learned a lesson and was now being more conservative.
Too little, too late.
The beam clipped my Armour and did little damage, which made me feel like even more of an idiot for not summoning it earlier. The suit was designed to ablate (shed layers) under serious impact, which greatly reduced the effect of the plasma-beam portion of the Prime’s Spell. Naturally, the disintegration component was all but useless; Shadows didn’t have an atomic structure to disrupt, after all.
Normally I wouldn’t give that hideous creature credit for anything, but I must say that I rather liked the idea of a Plasma Beam... so I cast one of my own.
The horror bellowed in shock, raising a Will Shield to catch my Beam, cancelling its own so it could divert the power to defend itself.
That left it nice and distracted for my real attack.
You see, I'd only used a small fraction of my gathered heat in that Plasma Beam.
The rest, I dumped into the five square metres of ground under the Prime's many legs.
The result was... hilarious.
It had been quite tricky to apply the heat in such a way as to prevent the rock simply exploding, but I got the balance just right.
The ground glowed and then softened into the consistency of pudding. Distracted, the Prime didn’t realise what was happening until it was too late, and it had already sunk up to its flank in a pool of molten stone.
Oh, how it screamed.
It would appear that whoever had given it thought and emotion had also given it sensation, what rotten luck...
It was out of the molten hole in the blink of an eye, but it was far too late. The searing heat had burned away most of its legs and eaten well into its lower vitals. It collapsed to the ground, desperately pulling itself away from the lava with its many arms and undulations of its crippled lower body.
It was like watching a charred maggot trying to escape a burning coal. It was disgusting, but also rather cathartic. This thing had murdered thousands and thousands of people, devastated an entire world’s ecosystem and violated the laws of nature.
It was a small comeuppance, really.
I could feel it gathering its energy, focussing it inwards to numb pain and begin rebuilding itself, but, once again, it was too late.
I drew my thermal energy back out of the lava pool and threw another Plasma Lance. This time, there was nothing the Prime could do to stop it.
The white-hot beam carved straight through the Prime's head, right through the eyes and down into its torso. Not wanting to take any chances with something that likely had some pretty potent Flesh Magic, I continued applying the Beam until well past the point that the monster stopped twitching.
And I didn't stop until it was completely reduced to ash, and that scattered to the wind.
Finally, satisfied that the abomination was gone, I let myself slowly drift down to the cliff-top.
It seemed so quiet now that it was all over.
The last of my conjured wind vanished, leaving only a gentle breeze to drift over a battlefield once again covered in organic wreckage (the renewed storm had whipped up the mess that had been under my Shadow Wall... yuk).
I couldn’t bring myself to look at it. There were far too many Sidhe faces among the flotsam, crudely stitched onto one abomination or another. I didn’t want any more nightmares.
Part of me felt proud. I’d done it; I’d destroyed an entire army on my own, obliterating a real monster into the bargain. But the more sensible parts of me worried for the future. What would happen if I went bad, now that I could do things like this?
I would be a real danger to the people I loved. Even at the height of the battle, I’d been holding back quite a bit so as not to risk the fortress. What would I be like wit
h no restraints at all?
I tried to push that maudlin thought aside, but it wouldn’t be banished all the way, simply lurking at the back of my mind. Perhaps that was for the best, I could never afford to be complacent about Black Magic again, after all, and if this made me even more careful, so much the better.
I turned away from the battlefield and towards Del-Sora. The walls were lined with Sidhe, all staring at me, all silent. None of them cheered, none of them smiled. Even Evelina looked scared and wary. They were probably worried I was coming for them next. That’s Unseelie for you, no such thing as altruism. They neither practiced it nor expected it.
Evelina probably didn’t even know for sure that it was me. She probably suspected, but just couldn’t bring herself to believe it. I could see her standing at the centre of her defences, her hands gripping the parapet, her eyes wide with a tiny bit of growing hope, warring against the caution so many months of hardship had taught her.
I tried to wave cheerfully at them, at her in particular, but that was a bit difficult to do while encased in a suit of terrifying armour and standing in a field full of body parts.
I lifted myself back into the air and flew slowly towards Evelina’s barrier. The armour was keeping my mangled limbs in place, so it wasn't like I could just Dispel it, but I did retract it until it was just covering the damage and enough of my chest and hip to link the sections into a single construct (though not until after I’d recast my Shields). When I was free of the armour, I pulled down my hood so that she could see my face.
She dropped to her knees, tears flowing down her cheeks, relief finally washing over her face.
I conjured a little sonic energy and amplified my voice.
"Hi Evi," I boomed, loud enough to cover the distance between us. "I missed you."
Chapter 38
It took her a while to dismantle her shield and lower the drawbridge, and I spent that time attending to my injuries. The arm was a relatively simply fix, I just applied a Flesh Magic lattice to draw all the bone fragments back together and begin fusing them. With the Shade Armour keeping the limb in the correct shape, that wouldn’t be too much of an issue.
