Irwin's Journey 524: Cone Nullifier?

Daubutim stood on the deck of the Concerto, staring at Irwin. His friend’s eyes were glazed over, which was the telltale sign that he was focused mostly on one of his other bodies. Although he had two full selves, Daubutim had found that as he got older, his friend seemed to gravitate more and more toward giving the full focus of both to a single situation. His guess was that it was because of his time on Scour, where he’d only ever really done one important thing.

It’s not unlike my own issue, he thought.

His first soulcard was constantly buzzing, speeding up his mind. The slight tension of his never-solved underlying condition was always there, in the background, like a constant companion. It rarely caused him issues these days, and even less since he had finally reached his first soulcard. He had pushed it back for a long time, as it wasn’t important compared to all the other things, but now that the war was closing in, he knew it would be time to think about his own personal strength.

A wave of emotions came from Twyl, his raven, which was flying around his soulscape. It rarely came out when he was within the Portal Gallery, seeming to have a distaste for it.

We will return when we can, he said, adding some reassurance.

Twyl sent an image of itself, perched on a tree, eyeing its domain before pulling back.

Daubutim sighed and raised his hand, staring at the sole card he had slotted so far. Anthem of the Havoc Tempest. As happy as he was with his soulcard and the previous hand cards it was based on, this single card was far stronger than those had been. He had yet to find the limits of what it allowed him to do.

I will have to ask Irwin if it is possible to change one of the body double cards to gain a lightning aspect, he thought.

A slight movement in the corner of his eye made him look up, and, as if in slow motion, he saw a young shadewalker step out of the shadows.

His mind automatically provided him with all the relevant information. The man was Henlin Vonac, twenty-one, with one soulcard. It was finished only twelve days ago during Irwin’s first public cardsmithing. His speciality was that he, like Greldo long ago, could teleport across short distances of shadow space.

“Lord Daubutim, the teleporters have returned, and the other ships are too far. Reaching us would take hours,” Henlin said.

Daubutim felt the increase in thought-speed his soulcard granted, allowing him far more time to think.

So, fifty-eight of our ships, against anywhere between four and twenty times as many of theirs, he thought.

Those were bad to impossible odds taken at face value, but he very much doubted the fleet would have anyone able to directly counter Irwin or Greldo. His plan was for them to help Irwin shatter any barriers, then pull as many ships as he could into his soulscape. Once there, they would be left over to his mercy.

He slowed his perception of time to something bordering normal and focused on the young shadewalker.

“Thank you, Henlin. We will act with what we have. Warn the captains of all ships that we might leave at any moment.”

Daubutim ignored the awe in the other’s eyes, but was glad to see that the young shadewalker nodded vigorously before stepping back.

“Immediately, my lord,” he said, before vanishing.

Perhaps I should ask Irwin if I can blend shadow and lightning, Daubutim pondered as his mind sped back up. It would allow him to move far more simply by himself and would free up Lisbeth. The thought of his soulbond made him smile. She had told him many times to focus one of his soulcards on it, and he knew she would very much enjoy it. He put the thought on his list of things to do, near the top.

All for later, he knew as he looked around. The fifty-seven ships that had been at or near the harbor were hovering around the Concerto, all but six made on Scour by Rindiri’s Shipwrights.

It’s a good thing we hadn’t sent out all the new ships and crews on rotation, he thought. They were all out on practice patrols, within a few minutes to an hour of Eluathar Harbor.

I just wish they had more experience.

The unbidden thought caused a tiny stab of worry, as he wondered how many of the fresh crews would return. Zeit had shared with Irwin that their new ships were stronger than the average Chained vessels, but that they would lose against their enemy’s strongest battleships. Greldo hadn’t been able to get close to the enemy fleet before, so they had no idea what they were up against, but the overlapping shields would likely cause issues.

A few more moments passed, though to him they felt like minutes, when Irwin took a deep breath, focusing on him.

“We made it out, but the scouts had already entered the valley,” the smith said, his voice in slow motion.

Daubutim noticed the slight tension in his friend’s face and voice. Even after all these years, he still hadn’t managed to hide his emotions.

Father would not approve, Daubutim thought, realizing he was far too happy about that simple fact as he was about the fact that he so rarely thought about his father and the man’s opinions these days.

He let his mind slow down so he could speak normally.

Irwin began pacing, his hands clenched in fists.

“I had to close the portal to make sure none of them would sneak in,” Irwin said. “Then we got out the Nocturna and ran. A few are chasing us, while others are hanging around the portal. From what I can sense, there are around two to three hundred ships about an hour behind us, constantly under attack from a much larger number of those Shadow Ocullithar. There are six bigger ones.”

“How big?” Daubutim asked. “Can you sense how strong they are in comparison?”

“Greldo was right, they seem about ten times the size of the smaller ones, though those aren’t all exactly the same size either. Although most are as small as we know them, they are clearly growing,” Irwin answered, hands on his hips as he looked at the ships around them.

Daubutim noticed Xi’kroak, who was standing at the helm, glancing at them on occasion.

“So, they are growing,” Daubutim said, focusing back on Irwin. “Which means, they are somewhere else when they start.”

“It looks like it,” Irwin said, his hands clenching and unclenching. “Greldo thinks they are deep in the shadowrealm. We never found that giant one again after it moved into the shadowrealm…”

Daubutim opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut as his friend turned to him.

“I am going to try and pull in the ships,” he said. “I know I can move a few, but I haven’t had to move this much before. I’ll start with one and see how it goes.”

“Start with the Concerto,” Daubutim said.

Irwin nodded.

For a moment, nothing happened, then the entire world around Daubutim changed, and suddenly they were hovering below a sky of gently drifting black clouds with golden edges. The temperature rose slightly, though the ship’s runes and shield quickly compensated.

Irwin had vanished, but Daubutim had an idea of what might happen. He was proven correct a few moments later as a blueish version of Irwin appeared on the deck.

One of his aura clones.

“It worked. It’s a good thing I have those Soulforce Constructs,” Irwin said, just as Daubutim saw another ship appear beside them. “Without them, I wouldn’t have had enough soulforce to do this. As it is, I’ll be draining a quarter of what I have stored in the Ancestral Coperion.”

Daubutim paused slightly as his mind did rapid calculations and gave him a number based on Irwin’s current soulscape capacity and the amount of soulforce he had within the Ancestral Coperion.

His soulforce capacity is almost as high as that of nearly all other people on Eluathar combined, Daubutim thought. If Irwin needed to use roughly twenty-five percent of what he has stored in the Ancestral Coperion to move the small fleet over, that meant there was no way anyone else could duplicate this process.

We need stable teleportation across the main branches for fleets.

More ships began appearing until eventually the entire fleet was hovering there.

“Daub, you are sure you want to come along?” Irwin asked.

Daubutim nodded without hesitation. “Yes. With you there, the risks are minimal as you can take me away, and I need this firsthand information if I am to plan accordingly. Besides this, my ability to speed up my thinking will allow us to act much faster.”

“Then I’m going to bring you to the Nocturna. Ready?”

“Captain Xi’kroak, when you appear, I’ll get you all the information you need, but you are in command of the fleet's actions,” Daubutim said, staring at the Na’xi. “If any of the ships are in trouble, use the signals we discussed. Irwin will draw those ships back into his soulscape.”

The plates on Xi’kroak’s face shivered slightly, and Daubutim knew it was a sign of annoyance. Likely because he was repeating what he had a few times now, he didn’t mind, as he had learned that he couldn’t trust the memories of anyone else, and the risk was too great.

“Ready,” he said, looking at Irwin.

The world around him shifted, and suddenly the deck below his feet seemed to lunge. A howling sound came from nearby, and he saw something glow brightly to the side.

He barely managed to keep his feet below himself, speeding up his thoughts to the maximum. Everything almost froze as he looked around.

He was on the deck of the nearly black Nocturna, the dark sails above stretched and gleaming while a mass of soulforce was propelling it forward at intense speeds. Greldo was behind the helm, face frozen in a wide grin, while Irwin stood nearby. The barrier around the shop was in full effect. Ambraz nestled on the prow and supplied the soulforce. A ripple of something pale greenish was slamming into it, still moving, even with his mind moving at his maximum speed, showing just how fast it was moving. It was currently flowing around the curve of the barrier like a liquid, fading in intensity.

Far behind them were six pale-wooden ships with white sails. At one point, they must have looked beautiful, but now rips and holes marred the sails while black scuff marks decorated the hull.

Daubutim felt his soulforce drain away rapidly from the overuse of his skill, and he quickly released it to a more manageable speed. The sounds turned from a deep, rumbling, and high-pitched squeal to the normal cracking and creaking of the ship and the squealing of the sail under tension.

“Hey Daubutim! Glad you could join us!” Greldo shouted.

Daubutim held back a snort as he walked to the railing, his eyes locked on the incoming scouts. They were flying dangerously close along the rugged mountain, but he saw no sign of anything else.

If we move quickly, Irwin can grab these, and we could even get information before we engage the main fleet, he thought.

He turned to Irwin.

“Can you rush them and bring them into your soulscape?”

“Probably,” the smith said, joining him at the railing. “Are you sure it's smart? If one has a communications skill, he might warn the fleet.”

Daubutim rushed through the options, then nodded.

“You are right, but we need the information they might have. Please capture them. Can you split the crew up in rooms… prisons perhaps, so they can’t talk with each other?”

“Yes,” Irwin said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Daubutim didn’t respond and simply watched as Irwin clicked his tongue and vanished. For a moment, he allowed his mind to move at the fastest he could, and he thought he saw a ripple of something blur through the air towards the ship, then it was too far to be able to see clearly.

Sensing the cost, he slowed it down to exactly a twenty percent above normal, making everything slow but not oddly so, and watched as Irwin’s giant self appeared beside the ship. The shield on it rippled for a moment, and Daubutim saw the tiny figure move, likely in a panic. Then the ship just vanished.

A gonglike sound came as he saw Irwin snap his fingers, vanish, and reappear beside another ship. The ship and the other five were already trying to change course, but they were far too slow. Within a minute, all had vanished, and Irwin reappeared on the deck.

“Alright, let’s go and have a chat with their captains,” Daubutim said.

--

Irwin kept his arms crossed as he watched the Accenti, focusing on the chains within. The man had refused to answer anything, exactly like the other captains, and they didn’t have the time to spend trying another approach. That left the only other way, and Irwin focused on the resonance of the chains before letting his own soulcards resonate against them.

The first time he’d ever done this, it had cost him hours. Now? Within a few minutes, he felt the cracks appear within the chains, and he created a barrier around the man.

He could have attempted to mass unchain them, but he knew that it would take far more time and effort, and he didn’t know what he would need his soulforce for yet.

The moment the chains shattered, a tiny sliver of something smoky shot out, and Irwin wrapped it in a barrier.

“This is the same as always?” Daubutim asked calmly.

“Yes, though the stronger the chains, the bigger the sliver,” Irwin replied, shrinking the barrier as he began squeezing the tiny, rapidly moving tendril of smoke.

Although it was dark gray instead of purple, it vaguely reminded him of the Purple Gass species called Wizteriaz. Similar to them, the tiny dark-gray smoke eventually shattered, dissipating in pure chaotic soulforce.

“Interesting,” Daubutim said, before focusing on the captain.

The man, younger than the others, had been staring at them with wide-eyed awe. His square pupils, a dark blue, almost purple color, had shrunken to tiny spots as he opened and closed his mouth.

“You… you unchained me,” he said, his voice a surprisingly deep baritone.

“Yes,” Irwin said. “And I’ll unchain the others later, when I get time. Now, about those questions we asked before?”

The man shivered, seeming ready to reject. His mouth snapped shut, then he exalted explosively.

“We are the Twenty-Seventh Squadron," he said. “Or, what remains of that. We had been re-gathering our forces to assist a part of the Twenty-Eighth, which is having issues near the north eastern part of this branch.”

“A world with flying anvils?” Irwin asked, eyes narrowing.

“I… yes,” the Accenti said. “We had just cleared out the defences around one of the two largest cities, Dimarintsia, I think it was called, when those… things began attacking us.”

His eyes glossed over as he stared at his hands. Irwin waited, but the man seemed lost in thought.

“What happened then?” Daubutim asked, his voice calm.

The Accenti jolted, then blinked.

“It is so odd… not having that pressure, that constant suffocating pressure,” he said. “I barely remembered how it was when I was a child.”

Irwin felt a tiny twitch of sympathy, then he shoved it away.

“We don’t have time,” he said. “I was told your fleet has overlapping shields. How do those work, and what can they do?”

“Ah, right. Sorry, I… I’ll try and be fast,” the Accenti said. “They are called Anchor Point Shields, and they require a Rank Two warship for every fifty smaller ships. We used to have ten, but they are expensive to run and take a while to set up. When those Tentacled Fiends began attacking us, they wiped out a quarter of the fleet before we managed to set them up. They chased it into these mountains and began picking up the weaker ones. We were sent out as scouts because we lost the Sanahal… That was our Battleship. One of those bigger Fiends just… just ripped it in half! I saw people I had served with for twenty years just splatter across the floor below.”

The Accenti’s hands were clasped around his knees, his eyes hollow. His breathing had become rapid, and Irwin noticed Daubutim beckon him away. A moment later, they were out of the small cell he had made deep within one of the mountains.

“I think his mind is not able to deal with the freedom,” Daubutim said. “I have read about this before, with people freed from decades of captivity. We will need to find a way to deal with this, but not now. How are you holding up?”

Irwin felt his soulforce, sensing it was already rapidly refilling that which he’d used. Between his own increased regeneration and the soulforce flowing from the Ancestral Coperion, he would be fully ready within an hour.

“Fine,” he said. “We need more information on those shields.”

“Can you unchain another? Perhaps an older one,” Daubutim suggested.

Irwin nodded, using his senses to find another of the Accenti, a man who was nearly bald, with only a thin bit of hair on the back of his head, with pale purple square pupils.

“I will not answer any questions! Leave me be,” the man snarled as they appeared.

I feel sorry for them, Irwin thought, focusing on the man and his chains.

Minutes later, he and Daubutim reappeared on the deck of the Nocturna. It was shooting along a mountain ridge, and just as Irwin was about to ask something, a beam of purplish light slammed into the mountain, just missing the ship. A boom rattled everything that wasn’t nailed down, while a ripple passed through the barrier. Tiny debris fell down, and Irwin saw Greldo grimace from the wheel, a finger in one of his ears.

“Glad you finally decided to show up again,” the shadewalker shouted. “The fleet sent out more scouts, so it seems someone warned them.”

Irwin walked to the railing, noticing four new ships. Their barriers were thick and resonating so fast it was almost like they shimmered. He was about to suggest grabbing them when one of the shields glowed a bright purple, and a beam of purple energy flared out of it.

Greldo yanked the helm, and the Nocturna shot up, barely dodging the beam.

“They hit us once,” Greldo shouted, “and trust me, that wasn’t fun.

Irwin frowned, looking at where Ambraz was slotted into the Ganvil seat, a steady flow of soulforce bolstering the shields.

“Ambraz?”

“The hairy kid is right. I don’t know what skill that is, but it’s clearly meant to disrupt barriers,’ Ambraz said.

‘Why didn’t you warn me?”’

‘Because I could sense what you were doing, and we would have been fine even if we got hit a few times,’ Ambraz responded with a snort. ‘Now, can you get these things off our backs?’

Irwin looked at Daubutim, who was holding on to the railing to prevent himself from toppling over.

“Go,” Daubutim said. “I’ll fill in Greldo.”

Irwin grunted and clicked his tongue. He shot across the soundwaves, swapping his small body for a giant one, and reappearing beside the ship that had just shot at them. Two Accenti crewmen who sat on the sail stared at him with eyes wide in disbelief, but Irwin ignored them. He stretched out his aura and soulforce, planning to pull in the ship, only to feel the barrier rebuff both.

What… that was new, he thought, clicking his tongue and disappearing just as a beam shot where he’d been. He reappeared atop the barrier, sensing the resonance almost hum through his soul. Seeing a dozen soldiers on the deck raise their hands, he flared his Aura with all his might, directing it down. The barrier went from a light purple to a dark purple to nearly opaque within moments before flashing a bright white and shattering. A moment later, he felt the soulforce resonances that had been obscured before, just as they all thudded on the deck. With no resistance, he pulled the ship in.

‘Tell Daubutim that they have shields that can repel Aura!’

‘They what?’ Ambraz replied, before sending a wave of annoyance. ‘Of course, they have those. Why not… Bah!’

Irwin grinned, snapped his fingers, and vanished across the soundwaves.

--

“So they were trying to flee?” Greldo grunted, watching the scouting vessels disengage and attempt to flee from the giant that appeared to be devouring them.

“According to the second captain we interrogated, they had detected the exit portal to Mudball,” Daubutim said calmly. “They were hoping to abandon the ships and survive on the world beyond.”

“What about their chains?” Greldo asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought it prevented them from acting against orders?”

“Apparently, the Guidar in control of them, Slaudi, gave them orders to hide in case of imminent destruction and wait for further orders,” Daubutim said.

“He gave them all those orders?”

“Yes,” Daubutim said.

“So, if we can lure the Shadow Oculithar to them, we might force them into hiding?”

“That is one option,” Daubutim said, non-committally. “For now, we will need to find a way to destroy their shields so Irwin can pull them into his soulscape.”

“Can’t he just do what he just did?”

“Not if those overlapping shields are in effect. Also, there’s apparently something called a Cone Nullifier on the seven battleships.”

Greldo frowned. “That sounds bad.”

“They can nullify all soulforce abilities within their range,” Daubutim said.

“Yeah. Bad,” Greldo grunted. “So, why do I get the feeling we aren’t planning to let the Shadow Oculithar just destroy them all?”

“We need the ships and the crew,” Daubutim said calmly. “From what the captain said, this is about a tenth of the entire force they have on our main branch. If we can not only take it out, but turn to our side?”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“Very carefully, and well planned.”

“Right.”

--

It took Irwin only five minutes to gather up the new scouting vessels, placing all of the crew in the growing cellblock he was expanding within the mountain range.  

A moment later, he reappeared on the deck of the Nocturna, beside Greldo and Daubutim.

“Thanks, I was starting to get a bit annoyed,” Greldo said, steering the ship towards where Irwin could sense the large fleet still battling the Shadow Oculithar. “Coal says that a group of seven ships just got destroyed while the fleet is continuing onward. They are making a straight line to where the portal was.”

“Added to the losses of the scouts, that brings their fleet to two hundred and seventy-one ships,” Daubutim said. “We need to attack now, so we can save as many as we can.”

“What about the Shadow Oculithar?” Greldo asked. “Those larger ones are going to be dangerous.”

“How many can you deal with?” Daubutim asked.

“On my own? One at a time,” Greldo said, raising an eyebrow. “I might have gotten another soulcard, but don’t compare me to Irwin, please?”

Irwin didn’t react, watching Daubutim whose eyes had turned to swirling pools of red lightning. It lasted for a few seconds, then Daubutim focused on him.

“Ambraz said, they had aura repelling barriers. Those are probably the reinforced barriers the captain told us about. We can safely assume that means that we will need to break those before you can either overwhelm them with your aura, if that even works, or for you to bring them all in your soulscape.”

Irwin nodded, wondering what his friend was aiming at.

“We are going to be able to see them if we move around that mountain,” Greldo said, pointing ahead at a long, jagged peak, one of the many that surrounded them.

“Can you bring out the fleet?” Daubutim asked. “I need to talk with the Xi’kroak and the others.”

“I can. You still think we should attack them?” Irwin asked.

“No,” Daubutim said. “Not directly. What we are going to do is the following-”

--

A deafening crack rattled the shields surrounding the Battle Ship, Segeorious, and the entire crew flinched.

“We can’t keep taking these hits, or we will join Namnir and its crew!”

Captain Baksi glared at Hunbik, her navigator. She knew the younger man was right, but shouting it this loud wouldn’t help the already horrid morale. Still, she could understand why he said it. She had known things were bad when they had been rallied together, as it meant there was strong resistance on this branch. That likely meant casualties. Things, however, had gotten worse when they had been attacked by a larger number of tentacled monsters.

Two or three were annoying, but this? She thought, looking at the enormous number of tentacled fiends circling their fleet. The shields were holding them back, but for how much longer? They had already lost half their Warships. Soon, the Anchor Point Shields wouldn’t hold.

“Captain, look!”

Hearing the surprise and hope in Hunbik’s voice, Captain Baksi looked up to see a host of the tentacled demons, at least a quarter, disengage and shoot towards a distant mountain where…

“Is that an indigenous fleet?” she snapped, running to the railing.

“Looks like it, captain! But not one I’ve seen or heard of. They definitely aren't those white-masked demons… but whoever they are, they are drawing attention away from us!”

“That’s good,” Captain Baksi said.

But why would they engage us? They could have just waited for those things to finish us off….