Until death?

by Andur

  It should be a great advantage. We can use the fortresses system to teleport people from one location to another. The attacker will always face the optimal number of defenders, no matter from which direction they enter the fortress.

  On the other side. As long as we can keep the forces of El Shaddai occupied, the Nomad can continue to search for a weak point in their city.

  I push a button on my chair to activate a communication link to Nicosar, who is coordinating our forces. “Tell me immediately if there are problems anywhere. I want to go there myself.”

  “You can't! You are the king! What if something happens to your?” Nicosar's voice comes back with a shocked tone.

  “I and Celes are the only ones who have a complete memory. Almost everyone else is just a novice in wielding their powers. So tell me if you spot an extraordinary strong foe!” I insist on this. We may be the defenders, but we are still fighting two on one.

  “As you wish, I'll inform you.” Nicosar cuts the line.

  Then I look at Lada. “I suppose the god of love and harmony is a bad fighter?”

  Lada nods with a pained expression, but suddenly she lightens up. “But I could try to convert them to our side. I am a well known figure after all! If I beg them to stop, some will surely listen.”

  I tilt my head while I think about it. “And how will you talk to them?”

  “She can use the fortress's speaker system.” -Officer

  I nod. “Okay. It wont hurt.”

  Then we have to wait another five minutes until we receive the expected message from Nicosar. “We are being boarded at multiple points. Somehow they managed to break some of our air locks!”

  The voice out of the communicator sounds disturbed. I have to admit that I don't like it either. We designed the fortress with something like this in mind. The regular entrances should be very secure. To break the seals without much problems is disturbing.

  A technician gives us a schematic of the fortress and I watch the tactical view. The enemy chose four points to enter the ship. One is close to the command centre. Another is near the engines. The other two are distributed evenly over the fortress.

  “Set the energy weapons to fire on the entry points. Fire the plasma cannons too and set the trigger to the minimal range. All at once.” -Me

  “But we will damage our own fortress!?” -Officer

  “We can repair it and the hull should be able to take the blast. If we manage to take out a few of them it will still be a win for us. Don't forget the we are fighting a superior force.” To tell the truth, I don't care about losing this fortress.

  If we manage to take out a good number of the enemy's fighters while keeping our own forces intact, it's a win for us.

  The fortress is shaken by explosions and it feels like an earthquake. “Maybe it's time to start your speech Lada.” I nod to her and a technician shows her a console.

  Then I take a look at Celes, who is standing beside me. “Why are you so silent? Something wrong?”

  “The whole situation feels fishy! I am thinking about our position. Isn't it unreasonable for the Council to throw all their forces at one fortress and ignore the other one?” -Celes

  “They operate under the assumption that their city is protected well enough by their shield. So there is no need to split their forces between both vessels.” -Me

  The room is shaken another time.

  “Nicosar requests aid at the breaking point close to our position.” -Officer

  I grab my staff and stand up. “It's reasonable. They sent their strongest force for the enemy command centre.”

  Then I walk out of the room, followed by Celes and Lada. While I walk, I take a look back to Lada. “Given up already?”

  “They are too occupied with fighting! They don't listen at all. I have to be there myself!” Lada answers with an angry voice.

  Shrugging my shoulders, I continue to walk down the corridor. Suddenly a wave of heat hits me. Any mortal being would have been charred to a nice black crisp. But the aura of energy, which is unique to an ascended being protects me.

  I turn around a corner and witness some of our warriors in a tight situation with a few enemy soldiers.

  My men wield weapons out of crystal and are clad in a similar black and white armour as me. The enemy's armour is white and they wield weapons of pure light.

  Another stolen technology?

  The effectiveness of their weapons is proven when one of my men gets impaled by a long spear. I don't stop walking and enter the fight with a wave of my staff. A flash of light sends the enemy soldiers flying.

  One of the enemy soldiers is hit pinpoint by the energy and gets folded up like a sheet of paper. My men immediately use the chance to finish them off while I walk past the scene.

  Farther backwards should be an observation platform. Probably the enemy entered through an air lock there. After a few metres, I arrive in a big room. Heavy fighting is taking place here.

  Many of the combatants use close combat weapons. But others rely on magic. Spells are flying back and forth inside the big observation hall. Someone actually summoned an elemental, which is shooting icicles at everyone who gets too close.

  Our forces are trying to keep the enemy from advancing. It's clear that we are too few. An enemy soldier, who just struck down one of our people, comes running into our direction.

  But he suddenly goes limb and drops to the floor. A crystal hairpin is embedded between his eyes.

  “Oh! Those work better than expected.” Celes skips to the dead body and retrieves her weapon.

  The crystal weapons are able to penetrate almost every mana-based defence. They are a mass of highly concentrated mana after all.

  I enter the fight and smash my staff at the next available enemy. The runes of my staff glow and the soldier is sent flying.

  Another one tries to get me from the side, but suddenly Lada throws herself at him and clings to his feet. “Nooo! Peace! Love each other! Stop the senseless fighting!”

  The startled soldier is stunned by the mesmerizing beauty, who threw herself at him. I use the chance and give him a lesson in fighting. I wield my staff in an arc and hit his head.

  The soldier goes down and I continue to my next target. With a short glance, I witness Celes victimizing a soldier with an acupuncture. She is using one of her hairpins very skilfully and gives extra care to his joints and vital areas.

  Some of the enemies are already starting to retreat. They obviously fear to be her next target.

  After a few minutes of fighting, we manage to establish something like a fortified position. After a while some reinforcements are teleported to our position. It looks good and we start to push them out of our fortress.

  It feels like hours went by. But it should have been just minutes. Slowly the fight relocates to the surface of our fortress. Everyone is using shielding spells now.

  The air is very thin and I have to cast a support spell to ease my breathing. The surface of the fortress is ravaged by our own attacks.

  Cracks are running through the crystal surface of our once wonderful fortress and it seems like some structures broke off. The power outside must have been a little more than I imagined to cause such damage.

  Immediately the fight evolves into a three dimensional battle with the defenders at the surface of our fortress and our enemies trying to get a foothold.

  Suddenly a golden figure and an armoured woman enter the scene. El Shaddai and Enyo! My people are sent flying by them and they radiate an enormous power.

  I fight my way through to them and Celes follows me. El Shaddai wields a spear of light and Enyo has a one handed sword and a shield.

  “Look who we have here! The king decides to enter the fight.” El Shaddai grins at me.

  “Unfortunately I will have to deal with you myself. I wonder how long your forces will keep fighting after you are gone?” Oh the hell? Why do I need to have a third class villain-conversation with this guy?

  “You are ver
y conf..” *Clink*

  I didn't wait for him to finish his sentence and jumped at him. Unfortunately he somehow managed to divert the force of my attack and a few combatants to our side get blown away instead.

  A quick succession of blows follows while Celes takes Enyo as her opponent. While I have my duel with El Shaddai, the fight between our factions is becoming intense again.

  El Shaddai is a fearsome opponent. To every one of my tricks, he has an answer. Celes isn't in a favourable situation either. Enyo's armour is impressive and her hairpins just glide off.

  Suddenly El Shaddai flashes forward and I just barely manage to evade the tip of his spear, which scratches across my chest piece. It leaves a deep scratch behind. It's like my armour is nothing more than paper to that light-spear.

  I try to counter attack, but El Shaddai's spear seems to be everywhere at once. Stabbing to my face, I barely manage to evade it, but then the other end hits my leg. That's going to be a bad bruise!

  If my staff wouldn't help me with a constant flow of power, I would lose this in no time. The staff is my greatest invention. It's a unique mana crystal, which is able to convert its dense mana back to normal mana.

  When you don't use it, it starts to collect mana from it's surroundings and stores it. On top it assists in spell casting and empowers the users abilities through the countless runes.

  But this fight seems to be decided by pure close combat abilities. It's a shame. I can't use my long range abilities properly!

  “Finally becoming aware of your mistake? We didn't rule the Multiverse for no reason!” El Shaddai has a savage look on his face.

  “I had hoped I wouldn't need it. But it seems to be necessary to use incantations for you.” -Me

  El Shaddai jumps at me, but I emit my full power towards him, using additionally the energy within my staff. The old god is thrown backwards like a doll and smashes into a group fighters.

  He is right. If this fight continues much longer, he will win. It's not a matter of power, but one of skill. He is far better in a close combat situation and it's just a matter of time until he gets me.

  This calls for a savage solution.

  “Nier lus vrei oust neben, Nashok!”

  A small ball of red light forms above my hand. It emits an unfriendly feeling and the space seems to distort around it. I smile wryly at the little magic spell, that took me so long to invent it. “Hello. Long time no see.” I talk to the little red ball of energy while I walk towards El Shaddai, who is on his feet again.

  While smiling at El Shaddai, I provoke him. “How interesting. I never would have thought that I could send the mightiest being in the multiverse flying.” El Shaddai's face distorts in anger and he jumps at me.

  I block a stab to my chest. Avoiding mortal wounds is vital during a duel. But if the opponent is more skilful than you, he tends to take every opening you offer.

  You should never forget that only vital blows count. El Shaddai stabs towards my abdomen. But instead of jumping backwards, I jump forward and get stabbed through my side.

  Feeling the fire of pain, I cut my nerves. Taking another step his spear impales my body further, but by doing this I seal his movements.

  El Shaddai's eyes go wide as I sweep him from his feet with a blow of my staff. He doesn't let go of his weapon, even as my right hand with the red orb impacts his chest.

  The spell activates and a howling tornado of red energy erupts out of El Shaddai's chest, ripping my hand apart.

  I jump backwards while the burst of power carries me with it.

  El Shaddai just looks at me with an unbelieving expression, while the unleashed spell shreds his body and soul to tiny pieces.

  I get grabbed at my shoulders and some of our soldiers pull me out of the fight. Seeing El Shaddai's end, some of the enemy's warriors start to flee, while our soldier's intensify their pressure.

  Trying to activate a healing spell, it fails me. The mana somehow disperses before I can form the correct pattern.

  Looks like those light weapons have the ability to stop you from using healing magic. That sucks! If I had known that, I wouldn't have jumped so willingly into that spear.

  “The king defeated El Shaddai! Go forward and drive them off!” Lada's voice carries over the battlefield.

  Two healers immediately start to take care of me while I start to laugh like mad. “Did you see that? What a worthless bunch! They are the rulers of the multiverse and die such a pathetic death.”

  The healers and soldiers around me look really worried while I lose consciousness.

  Little did I know that I just caused another weird rumour.

  Celes

  I see my husband being pulled out of the fight by a few soldiers. El Shaddai's spectacular death dealt a heavy blow to the enemy morale.

  But I have to concentrate on my own fight. Enyo is a tough bitch. Her armour seems to be indestructible. My new daggers can't even scratch it. Angrod insists on calling them oversized hairpins and I have to admit that I use them in such a manner.

  It's convenient and I don't like big weapons anyway.

  Enyo and I seem to be natural counterparts. While I concentrate on offence, Enyo favours defence.

  It's lucky that I am faster than her, so she isn't able to deal any damage either. I am just worried how to end this.

  We exchange another series of blows and Enyo tries to bash me with her shield. But I use the shield as stepping stone and jump over her, while I slash at her eyes. Enyo quickly averts her gaze and my daggers just scratch her helmet.

  During the whole fight she has a satisfied grin on her face. She surely like battles.

  Her sword is a little long, so I force her into an even closer battle, trying to get through her defence. I parry a strike by her sword and tackle her while wrapping my tail around her ankle.

  Stepping back, she tries to regain her balance, but I jerk at her foot and she falls on her back. While I am above her, I thrust my hand downwards and release my inner mana with my full force.

  Our auras waver for a second against each other and then I suddenly concentrate my energy on a single tightly focused spot.

  Her chest-piece vibrates and a spray of blood erupts from her mouth. Another swing of her sword forces me backwards.

  I see. I may not be able to damage her armour, but attacks based on pure power seem to pass through it.

  Having found the weak point, I start to support my normal attacks with outbursts of mana. Angrod's wondrous weapons assist me by adding their stored up power to my attacks.

  A minute later Enyo is on her knees and I am panting heavily. I am not sure if I can take this much longer, but Enyo is in a very bad shape.

  Enyo tries to get up, but I jump at her and stab into a shoulder joint of her armour. The dagger slides smoothly between the protecting layers and Enyo drops her Shield.

  Now being even slower, one of my kicks connects with her head and Enyo falls to the ground like a log.

  I wait for a few seconds, but she doesn't get up. So I strive forward and call for our forces to advance. “The Council's leaders are down! Advance and drive them off of our fortress! Show no mercy!”

  Looking back at Angrod and the healers around him, I walk forward to lead our troops. One of the healers nods to me and I realize that the wounds aren't fatal. I know that he was was wounded, but I have to play my own role.