Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch40

Note: Chapter 34-40 are being posted together. Be sure not to read them out of order. Commentary will be in Ch40.

Vince stared at Kigenai’s unmoving body. Red and black light played across her pale skin, and reflected off her golden horn.

“I will capture her spirit,” Kiyoko said, breaking him from his trance. “You must attend to the others.”

His eyes widened and his fists clenched despite himself.

Pola.

“Thank you,” he said.

He turned to find Nina, leaving Kiyoko to kneel over the body of her old comrade.

The lioness remained where he’d left her to go fight Kigenai, slumped against a mangled hunk of reinforced concrete embedded in a crater. While unwounded, her heavy breathing and posture made her exhaustion apparent.

“Are you alright?” he asked. His own exhaustion leaked into his tone.

Nina’s ears pricked up and she pushed herself half to her feet. Her eyes scanned the area, then glued themselves to the sky.

“Is it over?” she asked. Uncertainty swam in her gaze.

He noticed what she was looking at. His fire tornado continued to swirl around them like an image of hell trapping them in an arena. Vince reached out and banished the spell.

Slowly, rain began to fall on them once again. It crackled against their barriers.

He reached out to pull Nina up and she took his hand without protest.

“Kigenai’s dead,” he said. “Kiyoko is with her.”

“The spirit thing. Right.” Nina sighed and glanced over at the kneeling tengu. “For an agent whose job it is to kill traitors, she cares way too much about her enemy.”

“Kigenai said the same thing.”

Nina frowned. “All fights between enforcers are kind of pointless, given we’re fighting each other over corporate bullshit we almost never get a slice of. But this fight felt especially pointless. A Korean spirit serving a Japanese magical institution that betrayed all of Asia, now working for a fox trying to become a demigod. Mei was always doomed to fail.”

“I bet if I asked Quintus, he’d mention a hundred instances of soldiers who fought for leaders doomed to lose,” Vince said. “I don’t know if he’d ever be honest enough to admit the soldiers were more worthy than the leaders, though.”

He scanned their surroundings while they talked, looking for the others. Hamelin’s black mist had long faded. The wards still tingled, thanks in large part due to how sensitive his magical senses were.

“I saw Gaby running around the back.” Nina pointed past the loading dock and warehouse. “I’m guessing she carried Fia and Pola to the capos defending the wards. Follow me.”

The trip was short, especially with Vince still caught up in his own thoughts. He wondered what he could have done differently.

Should he have drawn on Daji’s power immediately? He’d nearly lost so much by trying to hold back and help Daji, and then made the effort pointless anyway.

The fox didn’t answer him. Her presence curled around his mind, like a comforting blanket of fluffy tails cocooning his soul, but she appeared to be asleep. He rubbed his fingers over the egg in his pocket and felt a soft, loving emotion wash over him.

Maybe, despite failing, it wasn’t the worst thing to try to protect Daji.

They wound around the back of the warehouse, and rounded another corner that took them between two neighboring buildings. Barely a half-block away, the devastation of the battle was nowhere to be seen. As if Vince had woken from a dream.

The sight he saw in the alleyway reminded him this was no dream.

Fia and the two capos stood around, stress and anxiety writ across their faces. Fia rummaged through backpacks and pouches, searching desperately for something, while the capos talked on their phones or messaged.

Ashley and Hamelin hovered further along the alleyway. Both understood the situation, but visibly separated themselves from it.

In the center lay the devastating sight of Pola, stretched out on the ground and covered in blood. She appeared unchanged from when Kigenai had cut her open. The runes of her jacket still stretched across the gaping hole that stretched from shoulder to stomach. Vince couldn’t see anything through them, which he was thankful for. Her eyes had been closed at some point, and green liquid trickled from her open lips.

Gaby kneeled beside her, face full of determination as she held her hands to Pola’s unmoving chest. Green magic shined brightly around her arms. She pumped healing magic into Pola endlessly, and her horn glowed like the sun. Sweat poured off her, further ruining her already damaged clothes.

“—think I’ve found another,” Fia said, pulling a small green healing infusion out of a backpack. “Do you think we can risk more?”

“I don’t think you can overdo healing magic when somebody is dying,” Gaby grunted. “We’re trying to stitch together a body that is actively falling apart.”

Fia nodded and shoved the vial down Pola’s throat. She massaged her friend’s cold, pale throat in a desperate attempt to make her drink.

Pola coughed and spluttered, her eyes fluttering and body shifting.

“She’s alive?” Vince gasped out, practically shouting.

Nina’s breath hitched beside him, and Fia let the vial slip to the ground in shock.

He took a step forward—

“Don’t move her!” Gaby snapped, glowing golden eyes glancing at him before focusing on Pola again.

He froze. The unicorn winced.

“Sorry. But I’m barely keeping her with us using every ounce of healing magic I have,” Gaby said.

Fia nodded, expression thin and face pale. “I rammed every healing infusion I could get my hands on down Pola’s throat once Gaby got us out. Barely got Pola breathing again, but the wound…” Her eyes closed.

“It’s cursed,” Ashley said. She walked up to them and shifted her weight from one foot to another awkwardly. “Whatever that spell was, it tears stuff apart at a magical level. I saw it blow V’s dragon apart. A divine curse like that can’t be countered just by pouring healing magic into her. The fact those infusions worked at all is a fucking miracle.”

“They’re made by a mystic fox,” Nina said.

“Maybe not a miracle then.” Ashley pointed at Pola’s wound. “Those runes are weird as shit, too. She should be split open and gushing everywhere like—”

“Stop,” Fia snapped, eyes flashing.

Ashley winced and looked away.

“The jacket is countering the curse,” Gaby said. “Barely. I can feel it assisting my healing magic, which makes me think the runes contain various healing enchantments.”

“If we can’t stabilize her here, we need to get her somewhere we can,” Vince said. “Or find someone who can.”

“We have a hospital that can—” Fia began to say.

“I just said we can’t move her!” Gaby snapped. Her eyes shimmered with tears. “If we move her, it’ll put pressure on the wound and increase the healing burden. I’m barely keeping her alive. If the jacket’s enchantment fails even for a second, she’s dead. I can’t resurrect her.”

“What about Ally?” Vince asked. “It’s a long shot, but Kiho can teleport her out here.”

Fia bit her lip. “Bringing either of them out here might be asking for legal trouble. But if it saves Pola—”

“Ally doesn’t have that skill,” Nina interrupted. “She’s a powerful healer, but lacks the skill and expertise to handle this. She took a while to heal my arm even after the curse was lifted. I love her for it, but this is a divine curse. Gaby’s not exactly a shit healer.”

“I’m not comparing myself to a fox,” Gaby muttered. “This only works at all because Pola’s Vince’s mate.”

Vince blinked, but didn’t push her on that information. Now wasn’t the time.

“We need a way to dispel the curse first,” he agreed. “Is there any mobile hospital service that Alessia might have? Any resources?”

Fia said nothing, instead staring blankly at the ground. If Alessia possessed that, Fia didn’t know of it.

Vince’s hand gripped his phone, halfway to calling Alessia to check himself. But something about the jacket bothered him. He knew he recognized the runes, but couldn’t place them. He’d seen too many recently, but they didn’t look Asian to him.

Whoever crafted that jacket could counter divine magic. That line of thinking got his mind churning.

“Does anyone recognize the runes?” he asked. “Anything about them?”

“They’re actual runes,” Gaby said. “But that’s all I recognize.”

Fia and Nina both shook their heads.

“They’re old Germanic,” Ashley said, drawing all eyes to herself. “Like, really old. Pre-Charlemagne old, as they started using Latin script like everyone else around then. I’m not that familiar with it, but you learn it for the same reason animals recognize dangerous colors. Anyone using actual Norse or Germanic runes is as old as Merlin and will fucking destroy you.”

“So, what, the billionaire pupper is being saved by some priceless artifact?” Hamelin asked, then winced when Fia glared at her. “Come on. It’s old, and how many ancient Germans and Vikings do we have hanging around here?”

Vince’s eyes widened. “You met one the other day. Wagner.”

No wonder he recognized the runes. They matched the script Wagner used to protect his car. He’d given Pola this jacket.

His heart soared, and he pulled his phone out, ready to call Alessia and get her to contact her amazing uncle. Then he froze.

Wagner knew their plans. He possessed absurd power and strength, and undoubtedly had watched. If he wanted to save Pola, he could have already done it.

After all, hadn’t the dragon allowed the Lionettis to suffer so much peril already? Pola would have died if Nina hadn’t been soft-hearted, to say nothing of Houou’s assassination attempt. Wagner had never intervened. The ancient dragon held a very different view of life, despite clearly caring for both Alessia and Pola.

“You don’t think he’ll come, do you?” Fia asked.

“I think he would have if he wanted to save Pola,” Vince said. He sighed. “It’s the same problem with the Inaba twins. They’re watching right now, I bet. Anzu said she can’t intervene directly. Maybe if I ask her, she’d help, but…”

“I don’t think leaving Pola in the hands of Houou is a good idea,” Fia said slowly. Her expression darkened as she looked away. “My opinions may have softened a little thanks to the Miuras, but that’s still a bridge too far. I’d never forgive myself if Pola lived just to be used as a hostage, or something worse happened.”

Vince didn’t allow himself to imagine that “something worse.”

He felt cornered. Every option appeared to be a dead end. Maybe he just needed to call Alessia and see if she knew some old, absurdly powerful sorcerers who happened to understand divine magic. There had to be some in Aulfair. It wasn’t like this was the first he’d heard of sorcerers messing with divine magic, or even immortals.

Something clicked in his mind at that thought. The most obvious person to call. A man who he’d recently heard had tangled with gods and bore visible Norse runes at all times.

Before anyone could say anything or realize what Vince was doing, he dialed his contact. His phone barely rang at all.

“Vincent, I understand that you’re busy,” Quintus Hierum answered. “This isn’t the best time—”

“Quintus, I need your help,” Vince said. “I’m certain you have the power and knowledge, and I don’t know anyone else who can do it. Name your price.”

A second of almost terminal silence resulted. Almost every woman around Vince stared at him in a mixture of shock and horror. Ashley’s face warped in terror and awe.

“Understood,” Quintus said. “I’ll be there.”

The demon hung up. Vince blinked and stared at his phone for a few seconds, confused as to how quickly the discussion ended.

He’d been certain a long, complicated deal would be necessary. Quintus wouldn’t even pay him properly for difficult jobs that nearly bankrupted Vince or required him to assassinate a clan head.

“You asked fucking Quinny for help?” Ashley squawked. “Are you nuts? A deal with the literal devil?”

Fia remained silent, but she looked at Pola.

“… he’s old,” Nina said, narrowing her eyes. “You’re thinking about those runes on his leg.”

“Anzu said they’re Norse runes,” he said. “And the ring he gave me blocks even Mei’s scrying. If Quintus can’t help us, then our best option is to call Ally or risk the hospital.”

It was a long shot. No, he was basically praying to Satan and didn’t even know if the devil even possessed the power or knowledge to help him.

An aura of red light erupted at the far end of the alley, beyond Hamelin. The group turned, most of them readying spells. A glowing pentagram usually boded poorly.

Quintus emerged from the pentagram in a flash of red, as if summoned by a dark ritual. He wore his typical dark suit. Vince wondered if he’d needed to get dressed or if Quintus was always ready for work.

While Quintus strode toward them, Vince couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the runes on Quintus’s leg and those keeping Pola alive. While it was unlikely Wagner had anything to do with Quintus, Vince felt certain he’d made the right call. Something connected Quintus to ancient power.

Quintus’s ember-like eyes scanned the situation as he walked past Hamelin. The necromancer gawked at the demon.

“I see,” Quintus said. “I’ll talk with Alessia about sufficient recompense next time we chat.”

Vince steeled himself and took a step forward. “I called you here. I’m—”

“You’re working for Alessia Lionetti, regardless of whatever intimate arrangements you might have in place,” the demon snapped. His expression called Vince an idiot without saying it aloud. “This is her sister. It will be dealt with between businesses, particularly as Immanuel and the Lionettis are presently in partnership.”

Unsure how else to respond, Vince simply nodded.

“Can you help?” Nina asked. “This isn’t a simple wound.”

Gaby remained focused on healing, while Fia looked nervously between Quintus and Vince, leaving the lioness to take the lead.

“If it was a simple wound, I wouldn’t be here,” Quintus said. “I recognize the problem. If it wasn’t in my power to fix, I’d have said as much. Demons don’t promise the impossible. That’s the job of gods and politicians.”

He kneeled down and held a gloved hand a few inches away from Pola’s wound. His eyes narrowed.

“The curse is Korean,” Vince said. “The Sword of Dangun. I don’t know if you have any experience with it, but…” He trailed off and bit his lip.

Quintus rose and chuckled. “My experience with Korean magic, particularly the divine, is academic at best. But much of it draws from the same well. You experience one god, you’ve experienced them all. I’d be more concerned if this had been a native spell of the Qilin’s, but the curse is permeated with the divine magic I expected to find, instead of hers. I assume she used the Mirror.”

Ashley’s jaw dropped. “How the fuck do you know that?”

“Because he just said it.” Hamelin narrowed her eyes, but the grin on her face was that of a mad scientist hearing forbidden knowledge. “The spell is full of her god’s power. Hwanin, or something. And if it’s similar to others—”

Quintus turned his head to stare at Hamelin. Vince couldn’t see his expression, but it caused the mousegirl to freeze. Her dark eyes shrank.

“Vincent, I extend one condition to those present,” Quintus said, voice somehow deathly quiet yet booming at the same time. “Much like Ashley’s special magic, what I do here is not to be repeated to others. And it is not to be used for your experimentation, young necromancer. You tread a fine line, and I’ll ignore your flirtation with Vincent, but I won’t necessarily be the one to destroy you if you meddle with what you see.”

Hamelin hunched her shoulders and scowled. “Can’t I discover some cool magic and not be threatened with nukes up my ass if I mess with it for once?”

A raspy breath escaped Gaby. “I hate to rush you, super big demon boss guy, but if you can hurry it up, I’d love it. Pola is on the edge.”

Quintus merely nodded, to Vince’s surprise. “Continue healing her until I tell you to stop. Take a magic-restoring infusion now if you need it.”

Gaby nodded and looked at Fia. The wolfgirl pulled out an infusion and fed it to the unicorn, allowing her to keep both hands on Pola.

“Ashley, I’ll need your help,” Quintus continued. “If you have one or two of Alexandra Masuda’s healing infusions left, I’ll use them. I brought my own, but the stronger the infusion, the easier this will be.”

Vince produced two infusions for the demon. From the looks of it, Nina was the only other person with one left, and she’d taken long enough to find one that it was probably her last.

“Finally…” Quintus paused and craned his head to stare upward. “If you could tell your foxes to leave us alone, Vincent? Your ring and my own anti-scrying wards will be sufficient otherwise.”

Vince hid a scowl and pulled out his phone again. Before he pulled up Anzu’s messages, it buzzed.

Only for you, Anzu said.

He frowned. “They’re going.”

Quintus waited a few seconds before nodding. “So they are.”

He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a small stack of stone cards. They were roughly the size of his palm and dark gray in color. Holding them in one hand, he popped the cork off an infusion and dipped a fingertip inside it.

With a dexterity Vince lacked, Quintus drew runes on a stone card using the infusion liquid. An eerie red light ignited inside the droplets he left behind, then scarred the stone. A solid white rune remained behind, similar in style to those on Pola’s jacket and Quintus’s lame leg.

“Ashley, infuse the runes with Miss Lionetti’s blood,” Quintus said. “Do not use your own.”

Ashley’s eyes widened. “Uh…”

Quintus shot her a look, and Ashley gulped. Vince had a bad feeling about why this procedure needed to remain a secret.

The fox demon bent down and ran her claws through Pola’s blood on the ground. When she stood, Quintus handed her the runic slate. Ashley carefully traced the rune with one blood-encrusted finger while her eyes glowed blue. The blood shined with a matching blue light, but both the crimson color of the blood and the magic were absorbed into the pure whiteness of the rune.

“Is that enough?” Ashley asked, confused.

Quintus took the card, nodded, then crushed it in his fist. Ashley cried out.

“You could have said no!” she snapped.

But the ancient demon continued his work. “Stop healing her, Miss Vargas. Hold her down.”

Gabriela stopped immediately. Her fears of Pola’s condition turned out to be true, as her eyes shot open and she coughed up blood. Gaby held her down on one side with Fia’s help as Pola spasmed. Vince watched, unable to help.

Quintus poured the crumbled stone over Pola’s wound.

A white flash lit up the entire length of the gaping hole in her body. Pola gasped and arched her back. The runes holding her together shined with prismatic light, and appeared to sink into Pola’s body.

But Quintus wasn’t done. He continued his ritual a dozen more times, carving a different rune each time. Gaby returned to healing between each rune.

Ten painful minutes later, Pola lay unconscious before them.

Unconscious, but whole. The only sign of the hole torn through her entire torso were the runes of her jacket, which had been magically sewn into her skin. Vince swore he saw other, smaller runes, too, but didn’t look too closely.

He sank to his knees and held her. She remained sound asleep, even as Fia gripped both of them. Gaby’s and Nina’s hands squeezed his shoulders.

Footsteps reminded him of Quintus’s presence. Vince rose and caught the demon striding away. The others kept their distance, and Quintus waved a hand and cast an anti-eavesdropping ward.

“You came,” Vince said. “Why? I thought you didn’t intervene in jobs directly.”

Quintus stared at him with narrow eyes. “Your mission was clearly over. I trust you enough not to involve me in them, and the banishment of your meister-tier spells was proof this wasn’t about combat.” He pointed at Vince’s hand. “I gave you that ring as an investment. I’m not here to hold your hand or carry you through it, but I only escaped the divine wrath of La Lupa with the helping hand of my mentor. The scales are stacked against us, so it doesn’t hurt to even the odds sometimes.”

Vince opened his mouth and nearly said something unwise. Then he closed it and nodded.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Quintus had done him an immense favor. Possibly the greatest one in Vince’s life, next to offering work to a poor, dumb teenager in need of money.

“I answered your question, so I’ll ask one of my own,” Quintus said.

“If I’d known we were trading questions like this, I’d have asked a better one,” Vince joked.

The demon cracked a smile, then frowned. “Why me? I’m certain you realize the jacket was gifted to her by Wagner. You have Miss Masuda and her mother. And while moving her was risky, I suspect Alessia could call in a favor to a mage college to have her sister teleported to hospital.”

Damn. Vince hadn’t thought of that. Quintus’s words also made him realize he should have asked Kiho to teleport Pola to a hospital. Gaby’s fear of moving Pola had spooked him too much.

Or maybe he simply didn’t trust hospitals. He’d never have a good encounter with one, and even Nina had needed Ally’s help to heal her arm at an appropriate speed.

“Would a hospital have truly helped her?” Vince asked.

He stared at Quintus. The demon stared back.

“You understand more about divinity than before,” Quintus said.

“I’ve gotten a few lectures,” Vince said. “Including that you’ve had a run-in with gods before. Norse gods.”

A half-smile graced the demon’s lips and he looked up. “It seems I underestimated Knightsgate’s intelligence gathering capabilities. Or perhaps the Inaba twins. It is hard to tell sometimes. What did they tell you?”

“That you went to Scandinavia after Wagner scared you out of Italy, and likely met Norse gods when it Christianized.”

Quintus pursed his lips. “Curious. That tells me it’s definitely the Inaba twins, not Knightsgate. I assume they’re investigating the dormancy of Inari and Amaterasu.”

Vince stared at the demon. “I have a feeling you know the answer to that question.”

“It exists in history itself and the reason we had a masquerade. Think, Vincent. How is it Rome actively worked alongside La Lupa and wolffolk armies to the extent I’ve told you she picked sides in the fall of the Republic, but all traces of magic and non-humans vanished?” Quintus grimaced and let out a grunt. “As I told the necromancer, this is a dangerous topic. Those who believe they stand above all others do not appreciate attempts to scale the barriers they have put in place.”

When the demon tapped his cane against his leg, Vince couldn’t help but grimace.

“So you did lose your power,” Vince said.

A whisper of a smile crossed Quintus’s face. “As an enforcer, you know that keeping your trump card secret is a powerful weapon. The same is true in all forms of warfare. I told you before all this took place that there is a greater world swimming beneath the surface. Be careful, Vincent. Sometimes the first time it reveals itself is to destroy you, and its agents are not always transparent about their goals or identities.”

Quintus tapped his cane on the ground, then turned and took a step away. A red pentagram spawned beneath him and banished him from the alleyway.

- - - - -

Commentary: A small part of me considered ending the bulk chapters with Ch39, but I'm pretty sure you'd murder me if I had, so you get the immediate aftermath chapter, too.

This battle scene took way more work than I ever expected it to, and it's probably the single longest fight scene I've ever written. I think a couple of Spellblade's army battles are bigger, but those are huge battles with armies, whereas the individual fight scenes rarely lasted more than 2 chapters. Kigenai is a beast of an opponent, and I wanted the feeling of a hunting team trying to take down a vastly superior foe to come across.

Also, grandpappy Quintus finally does something other than menace Vince.

There will be a break after this block of chapters. Writing these took more out of me than I expected (I really wanted to have announced the pre-order by now, but it is what it is), so there'll be several days before new chapters. There's still a hefty chunk of book left, but a lot of that will be in the big finale of Mei. Hence why I need the break. The book basically has to be ready before I start posting chapters again.

I hope you enjoyed this extended scene and how it played out.