Heretic Spellblade 8 - Ch2

“Seraph, change of plans. I need you and Narime to contain the hordes of lesser demons Siv will send out through the breach.” Nathan looked at Narime, whose figure-hugging blue robe was coated with blood around her chest. “Narime, I know you’re tired from your wound earlier—”

“I’m healed now, Nathan,” Narime interrupted, her seven silver tails fanning out defensively. “An entire city is at risk, along with everyone in it. Seraph and I work well together, especially with our trigem abilities. We’ll handle the breach. Vala, Fei, and Gareth can work with Reine on plans. You deal with Siv.”

“Glad to be included,” Gareth joked.

He shaded his eyes as he stared up at the raging inferno bursting out of the mountain. The sun hovered just above the mountains, beginning its gradual descent toward the western horizon and out of sight.

“You know Falmir better than most. Adam and Alice will need the help. It’s not like there’ll be many Champions and Bastions who can defend the kingdom,” Nathan said.

A grimace rose to Gareth’s face. “Right. This stretches that far. But if Sofia’s alive…”

Nathan shook his head. Gareth raised an eyebrow, no doubt wondering why Nathan suspected Falmir was suddenly in danger when it had been spared serious invasions previously.

But enough time had been wasted issuing orders.

Narime’s tails shimmered with a teleportation spell, and she and Seraph vanished. Knights continued trooping through the portal while shooting worried glances at the growing inferno. In their minds, they should be heading toward the breach, not away from it.

Nathan raised a hand and it once again turned black with spatial magic. Artemis slipped next to him, taking the opportunity to squeeze his ass. Although she frowned, Ciana showed no response.

The courtyard vanished, only to be replaced by pure white, with flashes of yellow and red. Ciana screamed. Nathan couldn’t see her, but felt the raw panic washing over the mental link.

A sea of fire assaulted them, crashing over their bodies. Even standing only feet apart, he couldn’t see any of the others he’d teleported with him. He suppressed his concern, however.

After all, he barely felt more than the harsh heat from placing his hand too close to a roaring fire. Enough that he felt pain, but far too little to seriously harm him.

The flames vanished after a few seconds, returning Nathan’s vision. A glittering silver barrier stretched in front of him, blocking off the mountainside. Ciana gasped as she held her greatsword aloft while conjuring the barrier.

He’d teleported them to the stone platform on the cliffside, which connected to the main cavern. Going directly inside was too risky, as he had no clue what might have happened to the underground cavern when Siv breached. Not to mention the thousands of demons pouring out of it.

Artemis and Kadria stood beside him. Kadria was cloaked in a misty shadow, indicating she’d used succubus spatial magic to protect herself. Artemis…

Artemis was stark naked. She raised an eyebrow at Nathan as her uniform reknitted itself from thin air. It remained the black and gold Royal Champion uniform from earlier.

“Your regeneration magic regrows your clothing,” he said, dumbfounded. “And you can even pick your clothes.”

“It’s not regeneration,” Kadria said. “Her body is reverting to an earlier state. It’s why she’s nearly impossible to kill, even for… the goddess.”

“Sofia,” Ciana corrected and earned herself a glare for her effort.

“I thought Sofia was a master of spatial magic.” Nathan frowned. “And I keep being told space and time are the same thing.”

“She is,” Kadria said.

“Guess she’s not much of one. Every time she carves me up, it has less effect than the fox’s fancy slash.” Artemis smirked as she shook some ash from her hair and made a face.

The succubus rolled her eyes. “Space and time are intrinsically connected, but you’ll notice there’s a difference between teleporting across space and teleporting through time. The partner is a master of spatial magic when it comes to meddling with time, while my former employer handles the physical element—or even the multiverse element.”

“Astra,” Nathan said, suddenly connecting the dots. “Sofia couldn’t hurt her.”

“Exactly. Her body is frozen in time, preventing anything from changing it. This rambunctious kitty”—Artemis made a throat-slitting motion at Kadria in response to her nickname—“snaps back to some earlier state. I’m assuming she can adjust it, given she changed her clothing.”

Artemis nodded. “I’ve got really limited control. New hairstyles, new clothing, makeup—simple stuff. But I can’t age, add muscle mass, or any major physical change at all, really.”

A wicked grin crossed her face and she ran her long, painted fingernails along Nathan’s chest. She leaned in and nibbled on his earlobe.

“Good thing you already reshaped me to be your perfect fit, huh, Nathan?” she purred into his ear.

A shudder ran down his spine and he felt his crotch react to her words. It was too easy to imagine her riding him. Especially now he didn’t need to worry about her abducting him.

Then his eyes met Kadria’s, and the ear-to-ear grin on the succubus ruined the moment. He groaned and ran a hand down his face.

“What’s that reaction for?” Artemis growled as she pulled away.

She looked at Kadria and narrowed her eyes. Glancing between Nathan and Kadria, she knew they were in on something and she wasn’t. Ciana giggled.

“What the hell are you laughing about?” Artemis whirled on Ciana, who turned away.

Nathan knew his first night with Artemis would be… interesting. Being turned into a Messenger had ensured her body hadn’t changed since the night they’d lost everyone else, but his time in this world had definitely changed his.

“The flames are dying down,” he said, changing the subject. “I guess Siv doesn’t need the distraction anymore.”

As the inferno vanished, a void appeared in its place along the mountainside. The sun cast its rays overhead but they came from the other side of the mountains, failing to penetrate the tunnel leading into the cavern. Siv’s fire spell had just vaporized any lighting system established inside.

A white square glittered in Nathan’s hand for a split second. Wisps of light soared from his hand and bobbed into the tunnel and invisible threads of magic allowed him to control them.

“Can’t you see in the dark?” Artemis asked him.

“With magic, yes, but Ciana can’t.” He ruffled his bodyguard’s hair and she leaned into his touch.

Artemis’s tail swished as she watched his hand. But before he could do the same thing to her, Kadria interrupted.

“Do we need to go over who and what Siv is? I don’t know how familiar you are with our former colleagues. You partner Messengers didn’t fraternize with us much,’ Kadria said.

With a click of her tongue, Artemis strode toward the tunnel. “I know her. In some worlds, she’s part of your little gang. Not willingly. Nathan’s usually in his… Uh, what’s the word you’d weirdos use? His side phase?”

“My what?” Nathan asked, utterly confused.

“Edgy phase,” Kadria said flatly.

“Yeah, that.” Artemis paused at the entrance and leaned inside. “Things can change a lot pretty easily. If stuff starts going wrong, Nathan starts pulling out all the stops and taking drastic steps. But then everyone gets suspicious and it spirals. Or those Twins get into his ear somehow and he becomes…” She looked back at Nathan and made a face. “Well, more like young Nathan.”

“You mean I think with my dick a lot,” he said.

Ciana giggled, then froze when she realized what that meant. Her face paled.

“Realized what happens when this Nathan thinks with his dick? Yeah, I didn’t feel too bad about killing those Nathans. Finally, sometimes you just go paranoid. I think you lose somebody and go way overboard.”

Nathan listened in silence. The idea that he might become such a fundamentally different person bothered him in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

Then again, wasn’t he a fundamentally different person from the man he’d been before Kadria destroyed his life in his old world? Why did Artemis think he was “her Nathan” compared to all the thousands of Nathans she’d found and discarded?

The questions piled up, one after another. Nathan could question Artemis for hours.

But duty beckoned. The void contained a threat that might destroy the Spires. Explosions roared beneath them as Narime and Seraph began battling the first demons escaping the breach. As powerful as they were, Siv’s horde was endless. And every minute she controlled the breach was one she could use to summon smaller portals along the leylines, spawning demons all over the Forselle Valley.

He stepped up to Artemis, who raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? Annoyed to know you can fall just as far as me?” she asked, the tone in her voice unreadable. Frustrated? Taunting?

“Focused,” he said. “You know who Siv is. Kadria’s question was extra pointless, given what Siv did in our world.”

Artemis’s face blanked. Kadria had the good grace to turn red.

“Yeah. Was hoping you’d let that slide,” Artemis said, voice barely audible.

Nathan moved into the tunnel. The stonework had been charred black and begun to meld with the mortar from the raw heat. Small stalactites of stone formed from hardened stone that had begun to melt from the ceiling.

The walk was short, relatively speaking. At the other end stood a cavern large enough to hold a small army.

Last time Nathan was here, the cavern was obviously man-made. Or faerie-made, really. A stone foundation had covered everything as if it had been an underground fortress, because it truly had been. Vast mechanisms had been hidden away, along with barracks, cafeterias, and everything necessary to supply the army that defended the portal beyond a grand gate.

Nothing man-made remained. A crater stood in place of the cavern, stretching well into the tunnel they’d come through and forcing them to make a steep drop to continue. Other dark tunnels stood in the walls, as well as rooms blown open in the chaos of the breach.

The portal now stood in midair, unblinking like a fracture in Doumahr itself. A black and white tear a hundred-feet-tall that thrummed with power. Nathan felt the raw power within it call to him.

Not the call of the void, but some other power. One every sense in his body told him to stay clear of.

“I can look at them now,” Ciana gasped.

Kadria shot her a strange look.

While Nathan hid his panic. “I’d prefer to go back to the migraines. The portals are an extension of your boss, right?”

“Old boss,” Kadria corrected. “But yes. Why are you… You’re pale. What are you sensing?”

“I think he wants me to go into the portal. That tells me not to,” Nathan said.

Artemis’s eyes turned into slits. “Yeah. I’d say not to do what the spooky bastards want you to. But if you can’t go into portals…”

A problem he’d worry about another day. But had he truly become so powerful that he’d attracted the attention of the outer beings directly?

Kadria kicked him in the shin. “This is why I told you it was stupid to draw on the space between worlds. There’s always something on the other side, and you never know who’s watching.”

“Well, maybe you and the Twins can update whatever theories you have on your boss’s interest in me,” he said. “But somebody is waiting for us.”

A bestial humanoid that resembled paintings of mythical dragons leaned on a gargantuan blade in the center of the crater. She was easily seven feet tall, with a pair of glowing foot-long horns—one red, one ice-blue. Scales covered her skin, save her face, and she wore a black uniform with shimmering magic on the metal parts.

Siv.

Her burning eyes locked onto them, but she did little more than watch. And wait.

“Nice of her to let us chat,” Artemis said. “At least she knows it would be pointless to attack.”

Siv’s eyes narrowed, suggesting she could hear them.

Nathan jumped down, and the others followed. Despite Artemis’s words, he kept his magic ready.

Siv’s true power was her ability to cast immensely powerful spells at the drop of a hat. She claimed to have invented the inferno tornado and while her spells paled in comparison to the grand spells used by the spirits and mages together at the Triumph at the Torrovium Fields, but they matched or exceeded the seventh rank spells used by the Lodge against Castle Aleich.

And Siv could cast them over and over again, without pause. Nathan was tough, but even he couldn’t shrug off a seventh-rank spell to the face.

“I’d say it’s been a while, but I’ve seen you more often than I care to admit,” Siv said, still leaning on her sword. “And it’s only been, what, six months for you? New record for me to come back to the same world. Let alone same cycle. Can’t say I expected this group, though. Are you treating us like collectibles now?”

Her eyes latched onto Artemis, who twirled her scimitar.

“Oh, remember me now? You always played dumb when we met,” Artemis said.

“We’ve never talked. We avoid each other in the bar,” Siv said. “It’s weird for one of the partner’s toys to show up at all, so only the Twins wasted time on you. Well, them and Atlas, but he hardly counts.”

Kadria stiffened at Atlas’s name. Siv ignored her.

“Really? You’re going to play dumb about all the times I’ve murdered you,” Artemis spat. Her amethysts flashed.

Nathan placed an arm on her shoulder and Artemis bared her teeth at him.

“Ah.” Siv’s expression darkened. “So, I’m guessing there are worlds where Nathan gives in and claims me by force. You’re new, so you probably don’t know, but if we go rogue—”

A strangled scream escaped Artemis and she carved a chasm in the ground to the side in a fit of rage. “For fuck’s sake, does everyone I want to brutally murder forget who I am? Is this the part where you say you don’t remember burning down my village, killing everyone I loved, destroying my homeland, and fucking my life up forever?”

“Oh, no. I definitely remember that part,” Siv drawled. She pointed a scaly finger at Nathan. “He killed me for it. Hard to forget. Nobody’s ever beaten me twice, although both times he’s had help. One of the partner’s failed schemes cursed me the first time, and the Twins stopped me the last time. This time…” A deep fire burned in Siv’s eyes.

Lust, almost. But not one for sex. One for raw, unyielding violence.

Battle-lust.

Artemis grinned. “Well, I’m happy to be the third reason Nathan beats you. Cut your arms off in a second, let the Twins or Fyre seal your magic, and then he can use you as—”

“Artemis, shut up,” Nathan said.

She spun and glared at him. “You know what she did!”

“I do.”

“Then—”

“I don’t think anyone here has any room to throw stones,” Siv said. “Except the unicorn, I suppose. Does she have an opinion?”

Ciana blinked. She’d been hovering by Nathan’s side, ready to conjure a barrier at a moment’s notice. Her horn shifted between light and dark at Siv’s words.

After Nathan gave Ciana a nod, the unicorn knight bit her lip.

“I trust Nathan. That’s all that matters,” Ciana said. “Whatever he chooses to do is fine with me.”

“Even if it involves deep heresy?” Siv grinned toothily, and the expression nearly split her face in half. “Good Bastions aren’t supposed to have anything to do with Messengers. We corrupt them.”

“A good Bastion is one that defends Doumahr. And what does heresy mean in a doctrine created by a goddess that was once a Messenger herself? One who is our enemy and who brought you here?”

“Urgh. I’m not one for big philosophical arguments. They drive me nuts, and I get the feeling you’ll run rings around me.” Siv made a face. “I assume Sofia’s still alive, then.”

“We killed her. She came back.”

Siv straightened. Her expression turned to stone and Nathan saw her mind churn behind those burning eyes.

“… so that’s why I’m back here so soon. Hell, I bet that’s why our orders have been so weird,” Siv said. “Things are going to hell. But that means you need every ace in the hole you can get your hands on, doesn’t it?”

The draconic Messenger drew her sword and it crackled with flames. Nathan tensed, expecting a spell.

Nothing roared toward him. Artemis reared up, ready to charge at Siv any second.

“Well?” Siv asked.

Kadria stared at Nathan. She knew something or expected something of him.

A faint memory clicked in his mind.

“You mentioned a prize last time,” he said. “Do I get to pick?”

“I’m not that stupid. Honestly, I just wanted a good fight. I’ve seen a lot of you since then. Other versions of our fight. Other fights, from when I don’t battle you at the canyon.” Siv’s face transformed into a wicked grin and raw pleasure warped her expression. “You stand out. Almost unique. A warrior, unlike so many others.”

“I’m a Bastion.”

“Yes. And I want a warrior. You had the power to beat me at any time. Call on the Twins and they’d carve me apart. Risk the villages to defeat me, and guarantee victory. Let Kadria use her power more readily. Stay back and let your Champions sacrifice themselves to stop me. I only beat you when I pulled you into that duel atop the summoned pillar—and you were one of the few to beat me there and survive.”

Nathan recalled how close he had come to death. Barely teleporting away. A mental blast that had slowed her only an instant before she’d killed him. Fyre had saved him at the last moment. Any slight change would have spelled doom for him.

“Being a Messenger bores me. It’s just a job, even if it has its perks. You’ve been the most excitement I’ve felt in millennia,” Siv said. “The prize I had in mind was to enjoy that excitement. Now…” She twirled the sword. “Well, you need help. I can tell there’ll be more excitement to come. If it means going rogue, I’ll deal with it.”

“Oh, fuck off. Nathan, you’re not recruiting her. She…” Artemis made a face when Kadria grinned at her. “Fuck you, goat.”

“You’ll get bored fighting for me,” Nathan said.

“I know. At that point, just kill me,” Siv said. “I’m used to it. But being able to do something fun of my own free will for the first time in… I don’t even know how long. It’s new. That’s why I became this.” She ran a hand down her body. “I wanted to escape a life of drudgery. Packing boxes, delivering food, taking calls—lots of shit work to barely make rent and live a life that barely mattered. Now? I still do nothing but work and drink.”

“You could stay here,” Kadria said.

Siv shook her head. “And do what? I know what I want, Kadria. To fight. Nathan knows what he wants. Don’t you?”

“I do.” He nodded. “You said it last time. To fight, win, and build a place to be happy. It’s up to you whether you want to stick around for the last part, but I’ll take you for the first two.”

“Great.” Siv’s sword lit up with flames. “But I still want that last match. And no help this time. I want to fight you as a warrior, not a Bastion. I saw a glimpse of what you might be, and now you feel more like something I’d feel while waiting for a new job. So?”

“Nathan, you can’t—” Ciana interrupted, her eyes overflowing with worry as she pulled at his sleeve.

He shrugged her off and stepped forward. His sword slid free of its scabbard.

Before any of the others could interrupt, he cast a spatial barrier around them. Artemis growled and slammed her sword into it. A scar ran across the barrier. If she tried enough, she’d probably break through it.

Nathan would need to win before that happened.

“Well, let’s see how long this lasts,” Siv said.

Her red horn surged with a pillar of fire and she swung her sword at him, sending an inferno of flames at him, far hotter and focused than the one he’d shrugged off outside.

- - - - -

Commentary: Putting too many Messengers in one place tends to derail conversations, moods, and topics. It'll be something I need to be very aware of in this book, as there'll be a lot of them, particularly in battles.

With that said, Siv is finally back and Nathan is feeling a little more square-jawed than usual in dealing with her thanks to his recent growth spurt in power.