Two Necromancers, a Dwarf Kingdom, and a Sky City

by L. G. Estrella

  “What powers do they have?” the king asked. “If we are to fight them, then it would be good to know what we’re up against.”

  Katie wanted to know too. If Sam could remember them, then they must be strong. He rarely bothered to remember his opponents if they were weak or didn’t taste nice. It was one of the traits he shared with Spot, actually.

  “I don’t know,” her master replied. “He didn’t say, and I didn’t think to ask.” Seeing the incredulous looks on their faces, he continued. “We were fighting off other eldritch creatures at the time. It seemed more prudent to focus on the ones that were trying to kill us rather than asking about ones that weren’t even supposed to be on this world. However, from the way he mentioned them, they must have been dangerous.”

  “Wonderful.” The king tightened his hold on his axe. “I liked it better when we just had to fight goblins. At least, you knew what they were after, and you could be confident an axe to the head would kill them.”

  They reached the end of the passageway, and the fungus had grown thicker and thicker as they went along. It was tempting to burn it all – and her master had suggested doing precisely that later – but they needed to deal with the source of the problem first. There was a large door in front of them with an elaborate network of runes and seals on it. King Barin cut his palm and pressed it against the cold stone. The vast door groaned and creaked open, and the sight that awaited them was like something out of a twisted fever dream.

  The massive chamber beyond the door was covered in strange, unearthly fungus that glowed in colours Katie could not describe. It grew on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, and great tendrils of it stretched from place to place while tall, spindly trees of the stuff rose up in other areas. Bulbous, mushroom-like growths protruded from the carpet of fungus, and long rows of foot-long fungus shaped like the fine hairs on a caterpillar waved back and forth in a wind none of them could feel. Worse, all of the fungus was pulsing in time to the beating of some unseen alien heart. She’d been around eldritch entities for most of her life, and this still unsettled her. She blinked and had to reach up to adjust her glasses. The otherworldly light the fungus emitted made her eyes water, and staring at any part of the room for too long made her head hurt. The dwarves were visibly shaken, and no small number of them muttered prayers to their ancestors and their gods.

  “What is this?” The king’s expression was stony. “And what are those?”

  Katie followed his gaze. The Hearthgate was below them at the centre of the chamber, a vast archway that was completely covered in pulsing, shimmering, quivering fungus. But what shocked her even more were the beings that stood beside it. Each was at least nine feet tall, with some almost twice that height. They were shaped like cylinders, yet their bodies seemed to twist and curl in on themselves in a way that hinted at the far more complex geometry of their true forms. Jutting out of their tops and bottoms and from a ring around their middle were hosts of tentacles. Elsewhere, limbs of unusual size and shape stuck out of their cylindrical bodies in seemingly random intervals with no hint of rhyme or reason to their arrangement. Both the top and the bottom of each of cylinder was marked by a round, mouth-like opening filled with great circular bands of teeth. They didn’t have wings, yet they floated in the air, a strange, eerie distortion propagating from their bodies like the air warping over a desert at midday. These must be the cosmic fungi. Some of them were even wrapped around the Hearthgate as though trying to fuse with it. One of them turned toward them, and a dozen ciliated murky eyes appeared along the upper third of its body before more eyes grew from stalks that uncurled from some of its bizarre limbs. Those eyes met hers for a moment and there was a flash of light –

  There was a split-second of disorientation. Katie saw more light. She heard screams. A hungry darkness washed over –

  “Move!”

  Katie blinked. What had happened? She looked around. What was going on? People weren’t in the same places they had been. Was this some kind of –

  “Move!”

  Katie blinked again. What? Hadn’t this just happened? She looked back at the cosmic fungi. She gasped. They weren’t next to the Hearthgate anymore. They were a lot closer to them. She looked around. Why weren’t the others moving? They were just standing there. They had to do something. She saw another flash of light, and a heavy weight settled over –

  “Move!”

  Katie tried to take a step back. This was wrong. This was all wrong. One of the cosmic fungi was right next to her, it tentacles raised to strike and –

  It exploded. Old Man had cut it into hundreds of pieces that tried to fuse back together before falling still. There was another inexplicable moment of disorientation, and Old Man was suddenly no longer beside her but in front of her. His sword swept forward, and his magic surged. For a split-second, Katie could see ghostly images on either side of the swordsman, hazy replicas that seemed to hint at things he could have done but hadn’t. She shook herself, her head clearing, and a pair of glowing projectiles detonated on either side of them. For a moment, she felt her body growing heavy again as her mind slowed to a crawl, but Old Man’s magic surged again, and the feeling passed.

  “What… what’s going on?” Katie asked. This didn’t make any sense. Some of the dwarves were already dead, but their bodies were all the way on the other side of the chamber. How had that happened? And the rest of the dwarves weren’t where they should be. She would have noticed if they’d moved, wouldn’t she? “Master, what’s going on?”

  “Time manipulators!” her master spat. “They’re damn time manipulators! That’s how they took the city! It’s how they won so easily! Those flashes of light you saw are projectiles. When they detonate, they either stop time entirely or slow it down so much it might as well be frozen. But those things can keep moving through the areas of stopped time – it’s how they can kill so many people without taking any damage in return.” He glanced at Old Man. “Your magic let’s you manipulate time too, right?”

  “Yes, although I’ve not had much need for it until now, and it is far more draining than manipulating space.” He scowled. “But we do not have many other options right now.”

  “You’re right. There are ways to defend against time manipulation, but they won’t help if you die before you realise what’s happening.” Her master barked several more words of eldritch power, and Katie staggered as the weight of them settled over the air. He ran his palm along the sharp edge of his shovel and then pressed it to her forehead. “There.”

  “What are you doing, master?” Katie fought the urge to wipe the blood off her forehead. Her master was not the kind of person who went around rubbing blood on people without a good reason.

  “There are several eldritch creatures that can manipulate time. I’ve been unlucky enough to encounter a few of them in the past. The words I used combined with the symbol on your head should help mitigate the effects. I doubt it will be enough to stop a direct hit, but it should minimise the effects of being caught in the general area of effect.” He dragged in a ragged breath. “I wish I could do that for everyone, but using that symbol and those words takes a lot out of me. I can only use maybe two or three of those at a time, and I’ve still got to use one on myself.” He looked at the others. “Don’t let those bolts of light hit you or get too close. They can freeze time when they explode, but these things can still move. They’ll tear you limb from limb while you’re helpless.”

  Her master had hardly finished speaking when the cosmic fungi attacked again. Some of them flew soundlessly through the air while others skittered along the walls, floor, or ceiling with their tentacles or using an assortment of claws and talons. The strange, indescribable light that filled the chamber brightened, and the pulsing of the fungi that covered every surface quickened.

  Katie gulped. Even setting aside their magic, the cosmic fungi were big, and they had enough strength to rip a fully armoured dwarf to pieces. Even a casual swipe of their larger tentacles seemed t
o have enough force to send a dwarf flying dozens of yards. She shuddered. Without Old Man to beat back the initial ambush, they would have been wiped out. On the other side of the room, she saw a dwarf trapped in a patch of distorted space – it must have been one of the areas where the cosmic fungi had stopped time – and the cosmic fungus closest to him simply reached forward and ripped him in half.

  “Son of a bitch!” Avraniel bellowed. “Time manipulation? What a load of crap! Take this, you overgrown mushroom bastard!” Her flame rippled toward the closest of the cosmic fungi, only to strike one of those glimmering bolts of light head on. The two projectiles collided, and her flame froze in mid-air, a miniature sun trapped in time. “Are you serious?” The elf glared. “Then how about this?”

  There was more magic behind her next attack, and the time-stopping projectile it hit wasn’t able to fully contain it. The fire continued its advance, albeit more slowly. Katie nodded. Good. Their ability to affect time wasn’t absolute. It could be overpowered although it took someone like Avraniel to do it. More worrying was the distortion that surrounded some of the cosmic fungi. It was different from the one that let them fly even if Katie couldn’t quite put the difference into words. It was more of a feeling, a sense of a different kind of wrongness. However, the effects were obvious. The cosmic fungi surrounded by a second kind of distortion were now moving far more quickly. Was it speed enhancement? No. They must be using their ability to affect time on themselves – except instead of slowing it down, they were speeding it up to go faster.

  “What kind of crap is this?” Avraniel spat. “Now they can move faster? Fine!” Flames surged to life around her, a veritable inferno of white fire that had sweat breaking out across Katie’s brow. “If that’s how you want to do it, let’s go! I don’t give a damn what powers you have. I’ll kill every last one of you!”

  “This is going to be very tricky.” Her master was watching everything carefully. “Time manipulation of this level is extremely rare and incredibly potent.” He lifted his shovel and began to trace an elaborate rune in the air. It took him almost half a minute to finish. “Avraniel, match your next attack’s timing to mine.” He pointed, and the glowing rune lanced through the air toward one of the cosmic fungi. Another bolt of time-altering power raced toward it, but he was able to activate the rune at the last instant. The time-stopping bolt stopped in mid-air.

  “Did you just stop time?” Katie asked.

  He shook his head. “I wish. That’s a containment rune, an old, extremely esoteric, but powerful containment rune. It confirms a theory of mine. The bolts themselves don’t stop time. They’re like a shell. It’s what inside of them that can stop time. If you can stop the bolt without breaking it, it won’t detonate and stop time, or you could break the bolt early, so you don’t get caught when it detonates and stops time.” He turned to Avraniel. “Now!”

  The cosmic fungus was peering at its frozen attack in curiosity. It had extruded several limbs that were covered in eyes, fine hairs, and other sensory organs. It was so busy trying to understand how her master had stopped its attack that it failed to notice Avraniel’s attack until a bolt of flame struck its side. Searing heat enveloped the creature – enough to reduce a boulder to liquid – and Katie was amazed to see it thrash its way toward them, tentacles and limbs flailing wildly. It sent one dwarf flying and managed to kill another with a swipe of its claws before a second blast from Avraniel blew it backward. It toppled to the ground and slowly began to wilt as the flames grew brighter and hotter.

  “Use projectiles to set the bolts off early!” her master shouted. “Magic, a dagger, a crossbow bolt, or even an axe should do!”

  “Why don’t you use that rune more often?” Katie asked.

  “It’s usually fairly useless,” her master said. “It contains things. It doesn’t nullify or stop them, and you saw how long it took to use. Against someone who suspects it might be a threat, it’s far too slow. It’s also more specialised at containing things that shouldn’t be in our world, which makes it far less useful against things like normal magic, arrows, or even rocks. But these things are eldritch entities. They don’t belong in this world, and neither do their powers.” He looked at Spot. The dragon was on the move, doing his best to avoid the time-stopping bolts as he unleashed blasts of fire. However, the cosmic fungi were quick and while they lacked his grace in the air, they were still able to avoid the worst of the flames. “Don’t get hit, Spot! Dragon’s are mostly impervious to magic, but even you got slowed down before. These things are also strong enough to hurt you if they can hit you.” He turned to Old Man. “Can I ask you to help us out here? You’re the only one with magic that can affect time.”

  Old Man took a deep breath, and his power swelled. Normally, his magic felt almost dull, like an old sword that had been allowed to rust. Now, however, it felt sharp and pristine, a freshly forged blade being used for the very first time. For a moment, Katie understood how Old Man could terrify people without lifting a finger. This was not the magic of a harmless, friendly, old man. This was the magic of a legend who’d strode across the bloodiest of battlefields and left only death and devastation in his wake.

  “I am not as strong as I was in my prime. If I flare my magic, I can buy you a minute or two to strike.” He raised his voice so the others could hear. “After I use my magic, there will be a minute or two where they will be unable to alter time. Use it well.” He took another deep breath and then exhaled sharply as he lashed out with his sword. A shockwave of magic rippled outward. “Now!” It was magic unlike anything Katie had ever experienced. If the time-stopping power of the cosmic fungi had left her feeling disoriented and confused, Old Man’s magic had the opposite effect. Everything was somehow more vivid and real.

  “What did you do?” Katie asked as she unleashed her shadows. The dwarves didn’t hesitate either, and King Barin began to grow as bits of metal flew toward his body. Either Gerald or the dwarves must have brought some along in case they ran into trouble.

  “Time is a river,” Old Man explained. “These creatures are quite adept at damming it for others. My technique doesn’t alter time. It simply makes it incredibly hard for anyone or anything to alter time. Time, after all, prefers to flow freely.”

  When no more bolts of time-stopping energy came from the eldritch fungi, the dwarves’ wary advanced turned into a full-blown charge. However, the cosmic fungi were fearsome opponents even without their temporal powers. Their tentacles, claws, and other limbs could rend steel with ease, and their sheer strength was incredible. But the dwarves had cut their teeth fighting off endless hordes of goblins and the great beasts that dwelt both within and upon the mountains. They were not afraid, and they knew how to fight as a group. They swarmed over the cosmic fungi, hacking and slashing, never mind how tough the thick, fibrous flesh of the otherworldly creatures was. Those with magic struck, and fire seemed to be at least moderately effective. Amanda had forgone her blade in favour of using the blood she’d brought with her to pulp the creatures with great bludgeoning blows. The creatures could heal, but crushing their bodies seemed to either negate their ability to recover or slow it down immensely.

  To Katie’s amazement, her shadows seemed to be especially effective. They were almost corrosive as their mere presence ate away at any of the cosmic fungi they could reach. The eldritch entities rounded on her, their cylindrical bodies flashing in a multitude of unnameable colours. Their tentacles flayed the air, and their clawed limbs reached for her, but Old Man and Spot, as well as her master, were there to intercept them. Even Chomp, the three-headed dog, was fighting his hardest. He might not have a dragon’s fire or a dragon’s teeth or claws, but he was large and strong, and the charms on his collar offered him some measure of protection.

  “I don’t know why your shadows are so effective, lass,” the king roared as his massive construct grappled with one of the larger specimens. Tentacles, claws, and barbed stingers ripped at his metal shell, but the king rammed one metal fi
st the size of a dwarf into the creature’s side and then swung a huge war hammer to crush half its body. “But keep using them! The rest of you, to me! We must stop whatever they are doing to the Hearthgate!”

  But that was easier said than done. As Old Man’s magic wore off, they were forced into an awkward but deadly battle. It soon became clear to everyone that the cosmic fungi could affect time for both themselves and others in the form of projectiles that could impact entire areas. The larger ones even had a shockwave of sorts that they could emit to stop anything within a certain range of them. However, there was also a limit to how frequently they could use their powers. Enough attacks from enough different directions would guarantee a hit if they were timed correctly. The alternative was to overpower them with huge area-of-effect attacks that could trigger the time-stopping projectiles and still have enough power left over to hit, a tactic both Spot and Avraniel embraced without hesitation.

  It was now abundantly clear that these things were responsible for the fall of Diamondgate. The group of cosmic fungi in this chamber could easily have blanketed the entire gate area with their projectiles while opening the gate and then slaughtering those within. The dwarves would have taken terrible damage before realising what they were up against, and by the time they understood what the cosmic fungi could do, it would be too late. The gates would be open, the goblins would be pouring in, and the otherworldly abominations could focus on eliminating any further organised resistance.

  The golems that had accompanied them proved to be particularly useful in this battle. The dwarves could not get too close. Their armour, formidable as it was, could not change the fact that they were flesh and blood. Even if their armour wasn’t breached, a large enough dent could crush a limb or worse. However, Daerin’s golems were another matter. They could weather blows that would have killed dwarves, and they could continue to attack despite losing limbs. Daerin took to sending them in first to draw out the time-stopping attacks of the cosmic fungi before the dwarves darted forward to strike during the small gap before the creatures could use their powers again. And the weaponry the golems wielded – arms that transformed into melee weapons or magical cannons, chests that could burst open to unleash a hail of metal darts, and countless others – was devastating. However, the eldritch creatures were incredibly durable. Bringing down even one of them was no easy task, and fighting their way to the gate was taking far too long.