Heretic Spellblade 6 - Chapter 15

Forgot to schedule this.

Chapter 15

Nathan wisely chose to enter the portal first, along with almost every single one of his elite Champions.

That thought brought a wry smile to his face. His enemies had elite Messengers, and he had elite Champions. Almost all of them were trigems, too, or comparatively as strong. This was also the first time in months that he’d gone anywhere with almost everyone by his side.

There’d always been some reason someone had to remain behind. Fyre had been at Soreaux when he fought Artemis and he’d split everyone up after the battle. Not since he’d slain Thanatos had he brought the full strength of his Champions to bear.

“Stick with us, Reine,” he told her as she walked through with them. “Did you feel anything strange when you walked through?”

She shook her head. “I tested whether the gateway would collapse while you were busy with Rosewald. It seems to be fixed in place until I create another one or willfully remove it.”

“Good to know. Now let’s get clear so the knights can come through. Fei, help the soldiers assemble out here.”

The catgirl snapped off a salute before dashing back through the gateway. Getting his army through would take longer than if he teleported and require more logistics, if far less than marching.

But once his knights did it once or twice, they’d be used to it and wouldn’t need babysitting. Reine’s portal allowed a platoon through at once. That meant his knights would need to march through, clear this side, and then assemble far enough away that more soldiers could follow them without causing chaos. Everyone could see through the portal, so maybe he was overthinking things, but moving soldiers via gateway was new to him.

“Let Fei and the officers handle the soldiers,” Seraph said. “I think we need to worry about the empty fortress.”

“It’s not empty,” Fyre said, staring up at Deverese’s castle with an unnerving gaze. “I can sense soldiers inside.”

“I’d hope so. Fort Arrinsy would be Trafaumh’s closest binding stone to the Pearlescent Canyon now that I’ve seized Prophet’s Hope,” Nathan said. “I imagine Deverese would have caused a cascade rather than let it fall.”

“Short-sighted,” Astra said.

Despite Nathan’s words, Fort Arrinsy wasn’t much to look at. It looked more like a single tall, round tower that rose six or seven stories into the air with a tall wall around it that protected the residents. A road led from the fort to a town at the bottom of the foothills, and farmland stretched out beyond.

If he cared to, he could enhance his vision and likely see the many peasants busy working their fields, unaware of the chaos unfolding around them. Although some might have seen the armies moving overnight and this morning.

“If it’s so important, shouldn’t it be bigger?” Narime asked.

The group of Champions began to approach the empty fortress while the knights slowly assembled behind them. Still no black-clad soldiers appeared on the walls, even as a foreign army appeared from thin air.

“It was in my world,” Nathan admitted. “This is Deverese’s base of operations. He built it up over the years. But he hasn’t had the time yet. In his early years, he focused on fighting us in the war over the Canyon. Then he got picked by Baudelaire as her man-at-arms and has been building up other fortresses, training new Champions, and protecting new binding stones.”

“I’d say that you made Gharrick Pass far more majestic in less time, but that’s unfair,” Narime said.

“Very.”

After taking another glance at the barren, rocky terrain around them, Nathan checked on the leylines.

They remained overloaded with demonic energy. Reine had been right that new cascades had been triggered overnight, as there couldn’t be this much residual energy from last night. It had all been soaked up during the invasions he and his Champions had fought off.

He checked Prophet’s Hope and found that it had absorbed a healthy amount of energy, but remained far from an invasion. Its capacity likely stood far higher than most portals. No doubt due to how powerful Artemis was.

Further south, he sensed nothing. Straub and his fortresses closer to Aleich seemed unaffected by whatever cascade had ripped through Trafaumh.

“Whatever cascade hit overnight occurred further north,” he said. “I can’t tell what direction it came from, as the leylines are too overloaded from two cascades so close together. The flow of magic in Trafaumh is a disaster. Sen, I forgot to ask, but did the Lodge lend us any sorcerers?”

Sen shook her head. “I spoke with Harrum, but he said that the Sorcerer’s Lodge couldn’t risk intervening in literal war. The civil war had been a gamble for them as it was.”

“That makes sense,” Narime said. “The Lodges are supposed to stand above politics and their ability to work with one another is reliant on that, even if they are loyal to their nations. If sorcerers not affiliated with the military fight in wars, it would be devastating.”

“Disloyal,” Astra said.

“Yeah, I gotta agree with Astra here. They’re our sorcerers. What’s the point of letting them hold onto those ivory towers if they won’t use them to help us when the world is burning?” Sunstorm asked.

“Because even with a prophet in my pocket, pissing off the largest collection of sorcerers isn’t a smart thing to do,” Nathan said, ignoring the way Fyre tried to get closer to him—presumably to pat one of his pockets for effect. “We also still need assistance from sorcerers in other countries. Even Falmir, at least until Charlotte shuts them down.”

While they talked, Reine seemed more zoned out than usual. Her body seemed frozen stock still, as if she appeared to be struggling to move and think at the same time. Tarako kept a hand on the wolfgirl as she idly drank sake from a cup that never seemed to run empty.

“By the way, where are you getting all that sake?” he asked the fox.

She blinked at him, then looked at the cup. One of her zoisites glowed and sake filled the container to the brim before she sipped it.

“A gem ability,” he said.

“Indeed. Not to summon sake, but to control a pocket dimension. I have an enormous volume of sake that I thought lost to time. It’s still good. My ability separates it from time and space, after all.” She hummed happily.

“Don’t get drunk.”

She waved him off.

Reine abruptly sprang to life. “There is a possible breach in the far north.”

A shudder ran through everyone present. One word reminded them of their dire situation and how little time they had.

“Possible?” Seraph asked. “From what I’ve seen, breaches are huge glowing explosions in reality from Hell itself. How can you be so uncertain?”

“The circumstances remind me of the Mortiswatch breach. People are evacuating the surrounding area, but there is an eerily ‘normal’ patch of many square miles around one of the older fortresses in the area.”

“Tortoffen,” Nathan said without hesitation. “The huge spire maybe a few dozen miles south-east of the Far Reaches?”

To his surprise, Reine shook his head. “Tortoffen is like this castle and likely fending off some sort of invasion. This is a lesser fort further east.”

Nathan checked the leylines. The Twins and Fyre zoned out as well.

But all four of them looked at each other in confusion.

“I can’t sense anything other than the cascade,” he admitted.

“No strange fog or likely signs of spatial manipulation,” Maura said.

“She agrees,” Fyre said.

Reine bit her lip and bowed. “My apologies. I might be jumping at shadows.”

“No. Keep an eye on it between everything else. If the Inquisition is evacuating the area, but not the villages immediately around that fort, something is wrong. It could be a sign of rebellion or something more sinister.”

A possibility occurred in the back of Nathan’s mind, but he kept it to himself. Once he started seriously considering it, they’d be unable to rule out anything.

“Also keep an eye on Tortoffen. If this is a breach, possibly of a Messenger, that’s the likely next target,” he added.

“Just like how Thanatos immediately sought out Mortiswatch. Yes, I understand.” Reine nodded multiple times. “Is Tortoffen that important? I thought it was merely a relic of a time when the Empire battled beastkin tribes?”

“It’s old. Old fortresses can summon powerful Messengers. It’s one of the few portals old enough to match Soreaux, especially as a Messenger got through and levelled the capital five hundred years ago.”

While few binding stones could support Messengers on the level of Kadria, many more could support ones dangerous enough to devastate swathes of Trafaumh.

Which brought Nathan’s fears to the forefront. He stared up at Fort Arrinsy in front of him.

“We need to prepare for the worst,” he said. “Narime, I saw the foxes assembling earlier. How many came with us?”

“Maybe a hundred. Half are healers, with limited fighting ability. More will likely join us once the casualties of the cascade are properly dealt with. The rest are general enforcers and purifiers,” Narime explained. “You should assume the enforcers aren’t that much better than our knights, but the purifiers are equivalent to an ungemmed Champion that specializes in sorcery.”

“In other words, they’re artillery.”

“A crude way to put it,” Tarako chimed in. “But yes. The old ways of our clan died with Kurai, but enough purifiers survived to be useful. They excel at slaying vast quantities of demons with our spiritual flames and elemental magic.”

He nodded, plans forming in his head. “This is one of the densest areas of Trafaumh when it comes to binding stones, much like the region around Aleich. Especially as they unsealed most of them following the secession. They’re young portals, but with equally young Bastions, especially after the recent war with the Empire. The Inquisition is stretched thin. Any one of these portals could breach, even to mere demons, and tens of thousands will die.”

Nobody said a word. They’d seen what happened following Thanatos’s breach.

Even the Twins remained silent, even if they didn’t particularly care.

“I have seven trigems here, plus a trigem equivalent, two Messengers, and a prophet,” he said, then grimaced as he had left Ciana out. She simply smiled at him. “Any one of you could single-handedly stem an invasion with ease. But if we all bunch up and focus on a castle at a time, we’ll run out of time.”

“You need us to work with Reine, Narime, and Tarako to teleport to nearby binding stones and suppress each invasion,” Seraph said. “That’s obvious enough. Most of us assumed this was just the planning stage. In fact, I assumed you were going to send us to each one directly from the palace.”

He shook his head. “The risk of Trafaumh’s Bastions treating us like enemies is too high. I can bully my way through some, and Fyre probably can as well. But the rest of you?”

“You think we’re going to have trouble?” Maura scoffed.

Everyone looked at them. Then they looked back at Nathan with raised eyebrows.

“That’s a whole other issue,” he drawled.

For some reason, Maura’s entire face turned bright red. She balled her fists. Yet no words escaped her as she simply glared at him.

“Don’t trust. Can’t trust,” Astra said, smirking at the Twins.

Silence.

Nathan caught on to the issue. He’d inadvertently embarrassed Maura. Honestly, he hadn’t expected this reaction given he rather openly pulled her into line so often.

“I think they’ve earned it,” Narime said. “They’ve had countless chances to betray you, Nathan. So many times to seize their own binding stone and wreak havoc.”

“You trust them?” Tarako asked, voice neutral.

“No. But I’m not the one they’re interested in.”

“Hmm. Fair. There are many I’d never accept tea from, yet I know they never poisoned their masters.” Tarako nodded sagely.

“Don’t talk as if you understand us.” Laura flicked her hair behind her shoulder.

“I can see your collars, as metaphorical as they may be.”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’re not the only bitches with collars.”

The Twins and Tarako traded glares. Nathan ignored them and decided to move on from this problem.

“I want to get Deverese’s support before we move out. That gives us three people who can convince other Bastions that we’re on the same side, and he’ll be the most convincing,” he said.

“Deverese,” Sen repeated. “The bald guy who hates you? Reine told us that he broke his hand punching you in the face.”

“He might dislike me, but he cares more about Trafaumh. My main concern is that he’ll react poorly if his pride is pricked. We’ll suppress the invasion quickly while everyone else gets ready to move out.”

Before he could give orders, several of his Champions began talking over each other. In the distance, he saw Fei’s ears perk up.

By now, several platoons had made it through and seemed to be managing themselves. Fei appeared more interested in eavesdropping by now.

“One at a time,” he growled.

Everyone looked at Seraph and Narime, and the fox nodded at Seraph.

“How do we know there isn’t a Messenger waiting for us in there? If Deverese is your old rival—” Seraph tried to ask.

“The portal is relatively young and it never got attacked by a Messenger until much later in my world.”

“But the Messengers know he’s important now, given you’re here.”

He frowned.

Her argument made some sense. By now, the Messengers clearly knew about him. Tomoe hadn’t been the slightest bit surprised that he’d been here, unlike Thanatos and Siv. If the outer beings wanted to thwart Nathan, taking out Bastions they knew he could work with was a good start.

He looked at the Twins, who shrugged.

“Hard to say,” Laura said. “The monk’s notable by your standards, but that’s not saying much. You’re like Generic Bastion #69. He’s more like a guy who’s mentioned by name in a history article but who has no article of his own.”

“If it helps, you’re a really hot generic Bastion,” Maura added.

“Thanks,” he drawled. “Siv got that across to me. So he’s no major historical figure like Tarako.”

“Oh, hell no. Not even on the level of somebody like Leopold or Maylis, who can be a real pain in the ass. Any random Bastion can get lucky and end up with trigems. There’s a reason he died like a bitch against Koji.”

Nathan glared at her for that comment, but she simply huffed in reply.

“Telling it like it is.”

“As fascinating as this is, it only reinforces Seraph’s point,” Tarako said.

“Agreed,” Narime said. “If we want to move swiftly, we should assume there’s a Messenger and enter now.”

“Fine. But I want some of you to prepare to move on the other fortresses, and I’ll call for you if things are bad.” He raised a hand to forestall complaints. “Sen, take over from Fei. You’ve pushed yourself too far against Artemis and Tomoe recently. Tarako—”

“I’m not playing bodyguard if there’s a Messenger,” Tarako said.

He sighed. “Astra, protect Reine.”

The ancient dark elf nodded.

“Fyre, take Seraph with you to another fortress along with a platoon of knights. I doubt any Bastion or Champion will question your aid,” he ordered.

Neither Fyre nor Seraph appreciated being sent away, but they understood why.

With so little time on their side, they needed to move now. Fyre was the only person who could help.

“Could Rosewald help clear up problems?” Seraph asked.

“Perhaps.” Nathan bit his lip. “Bringing her along might raise more questions than answers if I’m teleporting around with her, though. She’s a noble, after all. Haverman might help but I don’t know where he stands among the Bastions. Deverese is trusted by Baudelaire, however.”

“Politics,” Sunstorm said.

“Yes. We might be sabotaging ourselves by bringing somebody that the Bastions have orders to distrust. Especially as Baudelaire knows about Beatrice.”

That had been the reason he didn’t want to speculate about the “breach” to the north. Any possibility of mental magic could unravel everything.

While he kept a lid on the Twins, mental magic could destroy everything far too fast to handle. Arcadia had collapsed almost instantly once Beatrice tore it apart from the inside.

“You have your orders,” he said.

Proving his suspicions correct, Fei waved to the knights before booking it toward them. Sen glared at the catgirl as she kicked up a dust cloud charging toward them.

“You could have at least let me relieve you.” Sen slammed her palm down on Fei’s shoulder, presumably in an attempt to be overly friendly. Fei simply smiled.

“Are we heading inside?” the catgirl asked Nathan.

While she bounced up and down beside Tarako, his other Champions got to work. Astra led Reine down the road toward the assembling knights, while Seraph, Fyre, and Sen followed behind them.

That left Nathan with a smaller, yet still immense number of Champions by any measure.

Ciana stood beside him as his only duogem. Narime, Fei, Sunstorm, Nurevia, and Tarako were all trigems, and individually capable of defeating an ordinary invasion or crushing an army.

Against an ordinary Messenger, he’d likely need two or three of them. Assuming he caught them before they breached.

Then again, Nathan wasn’t even sure what counted as ordinary anymore. While he’d technically defeated the Twins with only monogems and duogems, they’d been far weaker. How would he fare against them at full power? Assuming he didn’t have Tarako, that is.

Which, he supposed, made much of his musing pointless. His selection of Champions, combined with his own ascended magic and the bouncy Messengers next to him, allowed him to handle almost anything thrown at him.

Narime possessed immense magical capability. Fei was a powerhouse capable of consuming magic, regenerating, and destroying entire armies. Sunstorm carved apart enemies of all sizes. Nurevia could now unleash an immensely powerful barrage instantly. Tarako’s power outmatched almost any Champion on Doumahr.

And the Twins could carve apart most enemies if they lacked a direct counter. They’d nearly instantly killed Tomoe, until Bauer interfered.

“Yes, we’re going in,” he said.

Tarako nodded, her sake cup vanishing. Her eyes focused, as if she intended to help.

Before she could, he began focusing on a spatial magic spell. A golden pentagon appeared in his hand.

The spell only took him a few seconds. Teleportation had become almost second nature to him.

The world blinked around them and they reappeared in the courtyard, standing in front of the keep. Sure, he hadn’t needed to teleport them such a short distance, but it saved a lot of time and effort.

Most of the stone courtyard appeared empty, save for covered supplies and some makeshift barracks. A handful of soldiers in black and red uniforms stood outside the double door gate of the keep. All of them reached for their weapons in a panic when Nathan and his Champions appeared.

“Halt! This is a fortress of the Inquisition! How did you get in here?” the sergeant in charge yelled as he approached, halberd raised.

His screaming was interrupted by coughing and spluttering.

Nathan barely had the time to turn before Tarako let out a loud, “Hurk!”

The splattering of her vomit on the stonework caused him to jump away, along with the other Champions. At least everyone’s reflexes were on point. Almost nobody got hit. Except Tarako, who remained doubled over. Her illusion had failed as her tails splayed across the ground.

“That felt… so different to my technique,” she groaned. “Don’t teleport me again.”

“Really?” Narime asked. “I got used to it pretty fast.”

“You’re a baby. I have tens of millennia to be used to how my body works. I feel like I left my stomach a hundred feet away. Urgh.” Lines of blue light shimmered across her tails and the vomit vanished from the ground and her body. “Sorry.”

“Um…” The sergeant stared at them, slowly lowering his weapon. “Your gems…”

“Sergeant, I’m—”

“Revered Bastion Nathan von Straub. I’d have to be blind not to know who you are on sight, with the Champions standing by you.” The sergeant straightened, slammed his halberd into the ground, and saluted with his other hand. “But… why are you here?”

“There’s an invasion isn’t there? Two, I’m guessing.”

The soldiers seemed almost in awe that he seemed to know.

“Yes, milord. One last night, and another right now. Regal Bastion Deverese is in there now. I’ll lead you inside right now so you can aid him.”

Spinning, the sergeant prepared to charge into the keep.

Only for one of the other soldiers to open his mouth and stop him. “How can we be certain he’s the real deal? Isn’t it too convenient for such a famous Bastion to show up like this? And he just appeared out of nowhere?”

While caution appeared in the eyes of the soldiers, they also looked at the many gems in his Champions, which all gleamed like the real deal. Their eyes lingered on the Twins, who showed almost negative interest in their leering.

Ironically, the presence of the succubi almost helped. Nathan’s taming of a pair of Messengers had become famous by now. Showing up with them possibly helped his cause.

“There’s no magical way I can convince you,” Nathan said. “But even if I’m fake, the fact I’m here at all isn’t something you can stop. I’d greatly prefer it if you take me to Deverese so I can help him stop the invasion, but I’m here to stop any breaches no matter anyway.”

Grim expressions overtook the soldiers. The sergeant nodded, understanding the gap in his ability to conduct his duty and the power standing in front of him.

Not that Nathan would have killed the men if they stood against him. If necessary, he could have made them get out of his way with mental magic.

The sergeant opened the gate. A single large round hall occupied the far side, filled with wounded soldiers. A handful of healers assisted them. The entrance to the portal stood directly opposite them with no visible guards.

As Nathan walked toward the portal entrance, he asked, “This is from last night?”

“Yes. There are more in the barracks.” The sergeant grimaced. “Anyone who can still fight is in the portal. A few of us drew lots to keep watch, in case the Inquisition sent more. None of us have a clue when more reinforcements might come.”

“I thought some came this morning?”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I command the Imperial Spymaster.”

The sergeant’s face reddened. “Right. Yeah. A couple of companies arrived, but nowhere near enough to replace our casualties. The invasion… I’ve never seen anything like it. The portal changed a month ago to something different, and the horde was ten times what we trained for. If Regal Bastion Deverese and his Champions weren’t so powerful, we’d have been done for, but today…”

Nathan stopped dead. Everyone else caught it as well.

“The portal changed?” he asked.

Then he swore when the sergeant nodded.

Without waiting another moment, he charged for the entrance. It slammed open when he hit it and then he was inside the portal world.

Beyond it lay the usual vision he expected. A craggy, volcanic world enclosed by massive cliffs. A hazy sky and eerie light shining up through cracks in the rocky ground. This invasion was as monochrome as always, but reversed in color. Usually, the sky would be pitch-black and the light from the ground white, but the opposite was the case.

That was the end of what Nathan found familiar.

High above the clearing rose a series of grand staircases, each wide enough to fit entire platoons of soldiers. They twisted upward to the portal, which hovered in the sky like the floating eyesore it was.

Yet, just below that portal floated an inky bubble. A woman hovered in it, shrouded in white, feathery wings. An army of demons spewed forth from the ivory platform beneath her, charging down the staircases toward the defenders below.

A Messenger was attempting to break through. Not just any Messenger, but one completely new to Nathan.

- - - - -

Commentary: Action, finally. There's also a lot of setup for payoff at various points across the rest of the book (some of it quite soon).

In Book 5, I wasn't sure if I'd introduce many new Messengers. Now, I'm certain I need a bunch more. I basically wrote off the entire existing lot with the Thanatos battle. Sure, Nathan needed his entire crew to defeat him, but that battle established that he'd ascended above the tier of Messenger. While breaches can pose a broader threat, I need something other than just elite Messengers to throw at him (especially given every elite fight will be supremely difficult, and regular Messengers a joke). At the same time, I don't want to introduce a whole raft of characters like the Twins or Thanatos.

I also know some people will dislike that Nathan immediately splits the party, but he has multiple priorities. I'm still mixed on the Rosewald situation and I might revisit it, but I also don't want Nathan to have too few Champions in this upcoming fight.