EA Chapter 40 - The Iudex

Luna took to the air in a sudden rushing whirlwind, ignoring the gasps of shock and alarm from those around her. “L-Luna?!” Syri shouted. “Where are you going?!”

“Hey!” Kiharu roared. “I dunno what’s up there, but it looks dangerous! Get your runt ass back here before you get yourself hurt.”

Luna climbed skyward at an impressive speed, currents of air dancing at her command to hold her aloft. When it came to magic, there were many ways one could give themselves the power of flight. Bending the wind required the least amount of effort, but this was with the downside that the power was harder to control than say, telekinesis.

But, for moving straight into the sky, it was suitable for the task. Precision was not needed.

The higher she climbed, the more the wind buffeted her in response. The rune on her arm itched with the strain, and she found herself summoning a second barrier around herself to ward off the oppressive force. Soon she was high enough to get a better look at the eye of the storm. At least, to an extent.

The figure, humanoid, was wreathed in a shroud of shadows that left little visible to the naked eye. But when Luna focused on it, narrowing her eyes and trying to pierce the illusory haze. Bit by bit that darkness retreated, earning a startled hiss from the figure as they fought to reinforce the veil.

“You dare...?!” the stranger hissed.

“I dare many things,” said Luna, smiling and holding her hands aloft.

“Know your place, scum.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth.”

Growling, the stranger raised her right hand and aimed it her way. With the shadows receding, Luna could see her slim digits were a pale blue hue, tipped with manicured ruby nails. Magic coalesced around her fingers, forming into a great golden fireball that rapidly ballooned until it was twice the size of her whole body. And, despite the blinding intensity of the glow, it did little to burn away the shadows that surrounded her.

“Lowly filth. You should have been content to suffer punishment with the rest of your kin.”

Even from where she floated, a fair distance from the enigmatic figure, she could sense the power from that radiant fireball. It would easily flatten several blocks in the blink of an eye.

Luna thrust her hands forward, rapidly projecting a hemispherical barrier of reddish light. The main bulk of the shield was sturdy, strong enough to withstand a great deal of force. But the edge, shimmering and smoky, was a field of energy that could absorb and nullify a good deal of qi before it was overloaded. The two powers, combined, produced a wall that could endure what the shadowy figure was putting out.

The sky was set ablaze as the bullet of flame headed her way, clashing with Luna’s shield in a wav of force that bathed the sky in streams of red and orange light. Luna grit her teeth her body jolting as the tide struck her barrier, the edges rippling with greater intensity as it fought to offset a large swathe of power.

The fireball fizzled out, sending great heat waves rippling off of Luna’s projected shield. She took a few shaking breaths, her arms shaken numb by the force of the impact. “Not bad,” Luna said, taking in a breath.

The young Arcanist lowered her hands, the barrier melting away into thin air. All the while she kept her focus on the shaded humanoid. Her eyes glowed, unseen tendrils reaching through the ether as she tried to find a path into their mind. As she did this, a trio of spectral duplicates sprouted from Luna’s body, perfect illusions of her body that rapidly swept around, using special enchantments to try and pull the stranger’s shroud of shadows in different directions.

The stranger’s mind was like a steel trap, layered in a miasma of mystical defence that batted away her tendrils. This was not too surprising. Back where she came from, even novice wizards were hastily educated in forming mental barriers to protect from psychic assault. All the power and skill in the world meant nothing if a wizard could be crippled by a basic psychic assault.

Still, she would not be denied.

Her qi burned brighter, adding a greater degree of force to her mental tendrils. They swept and swirled around the stranger’s mental barrier, seeking even the smallest chink in the armour. All the while her doppelgangers swooped around, pulling and tugging fiercely at the unyielding shadows. With the figure fighting off a two pronged assault, eventually one of her defences would falter.

As it turned out, the shadows gave way first.

The shroud of darkness was shredded asunder by the continuous pressure of her zooming doppelgangers, and the strange woman unleashed an explosive pulse of force to shatter the illusory copies. Now Luna could see her opponent in full.

Her skin was pale blue and glistening with sweat born of exertion, her ears sharp and elven, her hair a short crimson mane that floated around her in contempt of gravity.

Luna blinked in shock.

She was just like Tulpa.

Luna was stunned just long enough for the alien woman to strike at her, unleashing a wave of pressure that sent Luna skidding back through the sky. “You dare look upon me with your filthy human eyes?!” Her eyes were alight with rage, her expression a borderline feral sneer.

The storm kicked up around her in a raging tempest, summoning forth great columns of ash which whirled viciously around her. Luna raised an arm to block against the raging whirlwind buffeting her from all sides, her barrier blazing red hot.

A great chunk of black quartz appeared from the ether, growing into a shape larger than a gnoll. Swirling ash surrounded it in the blink of an eye, and within seconds the tides of ash had shaped and hardened into a much more massive monster, one easily bigger than the entire barracks below. The body was leonine in shape, with great ridges of armour on the torso. Two colossal bat-like wings sprouted from the back, holding the mass aloft on magically generated gusts of air.

Three great eyes formed in its sloping head, coloured with the texture of black diamond.

Luna knew what it was at once, her vivid studying paying off. “A gargoyle,” she murmured. A damn huge one at that.

“You should have been content to suffer the original punishment I had planned for your hive of a city. But now, for your insolence...” The enigmatic woman grit her teeth, flashing a pair of exceptionally sharp incisors. “I’ll let my creature turn your capital into a smear.”

Luna narrowed her eyes. These beings, whoever they were or whatever their intentions were, clearly had the power to create and control the Ashborn. Whether they existed solely as a result of their meddling, or were a natural phenomenon being controlled by an outside force remained to be seen.

Well, if Luna wanted answers, she knew who to get them from.

She moved back through the air, looking into the baleful eyes of the gargoyle. Thick clouds of black fog continually hissed from its massive, hooked jaws.

“Who are you?” Luna called out, flashing a glare at the increasingly distant figure behind the gargoyle.

“I am Iudex Kabal, the overseer of your wretched land. To know me is to know death.”

The gargoyle threw its great head back and unleashed a screech that shook the skies and the city below.