by Tj Dixon
As the Envoy hits the ground and creates another earthquake the shield around the red plant flickers and then falls completely. The red tendrils writhe violently in every direction, rapidly spreading wider and wider. As they approach us some of the tendrils dart out at the closest elves. The elves quickly evade the tendrils and retreat, but the tendrils pursue them relentlessly. An elf uses lightning on the tendril pursuing him, but as soon as he does so he tenses up and lifeless he falls to the ground.
Some of the red tendrils approach the Envoy too but before they can reach it they wither, turn blue and then black before finally dying. The Envoy looks at the flower controlling the tendrils with disdain that is obvious even without a face and sends a fiery whirlwind at it. The flames cover the flower but a moment later they are gone and the flower is not only intact but has more than doubled in size. The tendrils are no thicker than before, but they seem much faster.
More tendrils thrust themselves at the Envoy and this time they don’t wither until they touch the Envoy. Most of us keep firing lightning bolts at the Envoy, but the elves being pursued by tendrils are focused entirely on evading so have no time to spare on attacking. A tendril wraps around the ankle of a young elf girl too slow to evade it. I cut the tendril with a wind slice and to my relief it doesn’t kill me like the lightning attack would have. To my horror though the girl falls to the ground a lifeless corpse and the tendril darts towards me. I dart away from the tendril and have to turn my focus towards evading it.
The Envoy ignores us and leaps towards the deadly flower, flapping its wings to propel itself onwards before landing directly in front of the flower. With its green gem hands and silvery claws the Envoy attacks the flower, gouging out red plant flesh that gushes to the ground like thick blood.
The tendrils pursuing us dart back to defend the flower, thrusting themselves at the Envoy. Many wither and die as soon as they touch the Envoy but some pierce his red glowing lava body, legs and arms. As the tendrils pierce him though, they burn to ash with the flames racing back along the tendrils to the plant’s main body. The plant emits a faint purple mist wherever the flames reach it. The Envoy staggers as if dizzy but then resumes its ferocious assault on the flower.
Many new tendrils grow from the plant, but this time they are purple and only as thick as my little finger. Whilst much smaller than the red tendrils their numbers are immense. They stab the Envoy hundreds at a time and though they burn to ash none wither. With so many burning tendrils the flames reaching the plant cover most of its body and the purple mist grows darker by the moment. Soon I can no longer see the Envoy or the plant.
As the mist begins to spread, I sense the shield reappear around it. The mist causes the shield to crackle and flicker, but it holds. I can’t help wondering not only which monster will win, but which I would prefer to win. The Envoy is terrifying and death incarnate, but the deadly plant doesn’t seem any easier to kill. As I am wondering though, I receive the answer to one of my questions. The Envoy’s severed head crashes against the shield and a moment later so do its severed limbs and chunks of its body.
“Will the shield hold?” I ask myself the question that is clearly on everyone’s mind. Against the Envoy it certainly wouldn’t and the plant seems stronger than the Envoy, but the shield was holding it back before. Of course it seems like the plant is stronger now than it was before so that doesn’t mean it still will.
Looking down at them, the humans don’t seem worried. At least not about the plant. They seem much more concerned about us, with most of the humans staring worriedly at us. Dairon’s orders were simply to hold out until help arrived, but with the enemy dead I have no idea what to do next. Dairon was clear that we were not to fight the humans, but if they attack us we are allowed to defend ourselves.
As I’m looking down I see a thin red tendril sprout from the ear of the elf girl I failed to save. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her corpse jumps to its feet and then into the air at me. I dodge her corpse but the red tendril, no thicker than a finger but growing longer by the moment, lashes out at me. I manage to dodge it by an arm’s width.
Human mages below send fireballs at the elf girl. Most miss but one hits her. I wince as the young elf girl’s corpse is charred and her eyes and short brown hair are reduced to ash, but a second tendril sprouts from the same ear and the first is still trying to kill me. I manage to keep dodging the first tendril but now the second darts at me too. As I evade both tendrils at once I feel like I’m dancing my death dance.
Dozens of elven wind slices chop the tendrils into tiny slices that fall to the ground. I pray that they are dead and don’t sprout into dozens of deadly tendrils. The two that were attacking me, now much shorter, target two random elves and to my relief ignore me. The girl’s corpse though stares eerily at me with empty eye sockets as if accusing me of failing to save her. Perhaps it would be more realistic to think of it as a monster staring at its prey before it strikes.
It isn’t the first time that I will have been forced to attack a child and she is at least already dead, but she is the first elf child that I will have to attack. Suppressing my distaste I send a wind slice at her, cutting her corpse in half down the middle from head to crotch and with a second wind slice I decapitate her. As she falls towards the ground dozens of tiny threadlike red tendrils shoot out from both halves of her spinning head. The tiny tendrils writhe aimlessly but furiously around both halves of her head and soon cover both halves completely.
A barrage of wind slices are fired up from the ground and slice the many tendrils as well as the poor girl’s corpse. Thankfully the humans have finally realised that fire based attacks are worse than useless and are actually helping now. Elven wind slices again attack the two tendrils that are now attacking my elven comrades. Again both tendrils are quickly sliced up and soon all that is left is a tiny stub sticking out of the girl’s ear.
The two tendrils begin to grow again but now her falling head is much closer to the ground and so they target the humans. Then one large red tendril shoots out from the left half of her body and straight down towards the humans. The humans fly away from the corpse and at the same time bombard it and the tendrils with wind slices to keep the tendrils from pursuing them.
It seems we can keep the situation under control with wind slices, but how can we finish this monster? If only I’d sliced that tendril before the poor elf girl was killed, but there’s no point thinking about that now. I need to think of a way to kill this monster. Fire and lightning are clearly not options and wind slices are probably only going to hold it back. That leaves water or earth based attacks. Earth magic is probably useless against a plant and most water magic would probably make it stronger too, but ice magic might work.
Just as I am thinking it some of my comrades have the same idea. First a few elves fire ice shards at the plant and then the rest of us join them. The humans seem to agree and attack with ice too. In moments the corpse and tendrils are completely encased in ice.
There is an awful creaking sound as the tendrils try to break free but we continue to send ice shards at it to keep it in its icy prison. Perhaps we will only be able to imprison it, but that may be enough. Our job was only to hold out, after all. Eventually though the creaking stops and the tendrils begin to wither, turn blue and then black before finally dying.
I breathe a sigh of relief and silently apologise to the girl I couldn’t save. Not that she’s the only person to die, but my failure to save her leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Thinking that, I look down at the broken corpses of my fallen comrades and the human corpses too.
Most of the fallen humans died during the Envoy’s initial death feather assault. Most of the fallen elves died when the Envoy created the earthquakes. However they died though, human or elf, they died for freedom. We must seize that freedom now for their sakes as well as our own, and once we have it we must never let go. If we cannot do that their deaths will have been in vain.
I wonder how the other elven trib
es are faring. I would like to help them, but I have no idea where they are. Do my comrades feel the same way? Those weren’t Dairon’s orders though. He didn’t expect us to defeat the Envoy alone. We probably couldn’t have without that awful plant’s help. If Dairon had anticipated our victory would he have wanted us, his own tribe, to fight again? I’m not sure. I didn’t know him well enough, but the elders surely did. I look to the elders and realise I was one of the last to do so.
The elders aren’t truly that old by elven standards, because living under the Fallen Angels and Envoys is a suspended death sentence. Elder Tairo is the oldest of the three and like me he looks like a young adult. Elder Jairon is the next oldest and she looks younger than me. You could be forgiven if you mistook her for a child almost at the point of adulthood, though perhaps not by her. Elder Silkine is the only one who looks older than me and she is the youngest of the three. Even she only looks a little older than me.
“Bravely fought everyone. I am sure you are all wondering how we can help our comrades from the other tribes. For now though, it would be wise to remain here and await further orders. Be sure to remain vigilant though. We are not safe yet.” Elder Tairo says but then he gasps. We follow his shocked gaze just in time to see the Envoy, whole again, crash through the shield that had been holding it and the plant back. The Envoy lands face down and the ground shakes but not as badly as the earlier earthquakes.
With the shield gone the purple mist quickly spreads out. I form a wind barrier and a shield to keep the mist away from me and my comrades do the same to protect themselves. The humans though only form a shield and their shields quickly collapse. The humans fall to their knees gasping for breath leaving themselves utterly defenceless as the Envoy pushes itself up first to its knees and then to its feet.
Behind the Envoy now no longer hidden by the thick purple mist is the frozen and shattered corpse of the deadly plant. It seems the Envoy had the same idea as us, unless it saw what we did and copied us. I knew the Envoy would be dangerous even in corporeal form, but to survive being dismembered, decapitated and torn into chunks is even worse than I imagined.
Before we can react the Envoy sends a huge lightning bolt at elder Tairo. He dies instantly as do four other elves that were too close to the lightning. The Envoy then leaps straight up again but this time we are ready and avoid getting too close to either the ground or the green glowing roof.
The ground and roof shake again. No elves die but the humans, already on their knees, are thrown all over the place. The less fortunate humans crack their heads open or break their limbs on the stony ground, or worse, land on the death feathers that fell earlier in the battle. Some of those feathers float upwards into the air as the ground shakes, but we stay well clear of them.
I attack the Envoy with lightning and my comrades do the same, but our lightning pales in comparison to the Envoy’s own. The Envoy forms a lightning crackling whirlwind, which it throws at the humans. In no condition to defend themselves dozens of humans are killed by the violent miniature storm.
Unlike the previous whirlwinds, this one doesn’t dissipate, but instead hones in on the nearby elves. They retreat and easily evade it, but the Envoy forms a second whirlwind again crackling with lightning and throws it at them. Evading one is easy, evading two is possible but then the Envoy forms and throws a third whirlwind just like the previous two. Even evading three is possible, but if it keeps on forming them we’ll quickly run out of space to retreat to.
All of a sudden the whirlwinds dissipate and the Envoy falls to the ground face first. Then there’s a creepy whistling sound. I have no idea what to make of it. Just what is this monster planning to do? As I watch the Envoy pools of red lava form at its feet.
“What is it doing?” A young elf woman asks in terrified bewilderment.
“Crying.” A small voice says out of nowhere.
“Why?” The elf asks whilst looking around for the source of the voice.
“Because we the fourth legion have trapped the Envoy in an illusion. We were meant to feed it to the ancient hell flower once it was defenceless, but it seems we got here too late.” The invisible faery tells us.
“So what now?” The elf asks.
“That’s what I want to know! Why didn’t you protect the ancient hell flower!?” The faery yells at her.
“It was trying to kill us.” The elf protests.
“Lyria, we will keep it trapped until help comes. Stay calm and maintain your focus.” Another faery says.
“Help better come.” Lyria the faery says and then goes silent.
“So now we wait.” Elder Jairon says.
“Who is your leader?” The second faery asks.
“I am now.” Elder Jairon says.
“If a child is in charge your tribe is in real trouble. Not that any of us aren’t.” The faery says.
“I am an elder!” Elder Jairon yells.
“Not so loud or you’ll wake it.” The faery warns her.
“Really?” Elder Jairon asks nervously.
“No, just kidding.” The faery answers. Only a faery could joke at a time like this!
“So can you really keep it trapped?” Elder Jairon asks.
“We can, but only as long as we can maintain our focus, so stop pestering us.” The faery tells her.
“Ok.” Elder Jairon says reluctantly.
Now that the mist has mostly dispersed the humans seem to have recovered from its effects. They are using healing potions to recover from their injuries. Those who have recovered already are helping the humans with more serious injuries. Not everyone still alive can be helped with a healing potion, but they are doing what they can.
There are injured elves too but we don’t have any healing potions. Our Envoy believed that it was better to let the weak die, so we were never allowed to carry healing potions. If we returned alive we could use one, but only if a healing potion was enough to recover sufficiently from our injuries. If it thought we would still be unfit to fight after using one the Envoy would simply kill us.
A human mage flies up towards me. She has the same blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes as most Contractians. She’s a little taller than me at six foot or so tall, whereas I’m only five foot six. She floats level with me.
“Can, you, understand, me?” She asks as if she were talking to an idiot.
“Yes, we have translation magic.” I say with a sigh.
“You don’t seem to be healing your injured. Have you run out of healing potions?” She asks.
“We never had any in the first place.” I tell her.
“We have spare ones. If your injured land down there we will give them one each.” She says pointing at a spot just below us. I’m absolutely shocked that the humans are willing to help us like this so my mouth just hangs open. “Is there a problem?”
“No problem. Just surprised.” I admit.
“If that monster gets up again and starts fighting we’ll need all the help we can get.” She tells me.
“That makes sense.” I say realising it isn’t simple kindness.
“Pass the message on to your people.” She says.
“I think everyone heard.” I say.
“There’s no way everyone could have heard. Most of them are nowhere near us.” She says.
“We are elves. We can hear clearly from this distance and I’m sure everyone noticed you fly up here so they were listening. If you look around you’ll see that the injured have already started to land down there.” I tell her and point at a long line of injured elves.
“You really are the legendary elves, aren’t you?” She says shaking her head with a stunned expression.
“I don’t know about legendary, but we are elves.” I tell her. She just shakes her head again and floats back down to the ground.
“Help is on its way.” A faery says. It isn’t either of the two that spoke earlier, but its words are a huge relief. Moments later I see the help, or at least it had better be the help and not a new enemy.
Approaching us is a giant black cat god and giant is an understatement. It barely fits in here and even stooping down low as it runs towards us its fur brushes the roof. Its eyes are red and its fur is charged with powerful magic. If that thing plans to fight us we are dead.
“Get out of the way!” The cat god hisses at us without slowing down. Everyone, human and elf alike flies to either side. Some of the humans are unable to move so I use flight magic on one and other elves do the same. We are only out of the way just in time as the cat god charges past us, but I don’t think anyone was left behind.
The cat god stops just in front of the Envoy and forms a sphere of black mana around the Envoy. We can still see through it at first, but as we watch the black mana thickens until all we can see is a shiny black sphere. I’d heard that the gods sealed the Envoy’s before they were released by the Fallen Angels, but I never thought a god would seal an Envoy again. To actually see it happen is beyond my wildest dreams. That I have no sympathy for the Envoy goes without saying.
Chapter 30 (Peter)
The last time I came here, the Aurian Mines, I had to take power from every slave and servant in the queen’s castle and use it to constantly shield. Now though, the magic death zone doesn’t even hurt my body. It won’t hurt Azrael either, but it does mean that there’s nobody else anywhere near us.
I doubt our battle will remain within the Aurian Mines, but if it at least starts here that should reduce the amount of innocent lives that are lost. It should also deprive Azrael of any chance to replenish his power whilst he’s here.
The land around the Aurian Mines is a wasteland and the wind is a cruel one, filled with sand. The sun outside is strong, but I’m deep within the mines so it is illuminated only by my burning blue eyes. The mine tunnel at this point is only three feet wide and eight feet high but ahead of me is a large cavern about a hundred feet wide, a hundred feet long and two hundred feet tall.
