[Warpworld] Ch 21 – A Pyramid in Motion

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            I think it rather surprised the waiting elves when their leaders decided not to immediately attack and wrest control of the Pyramid from me.

            Instead, they found themselves undertaking a few entertaining flights along the edge of the Pyramid’s Domain, where vivus boiled and misted against the distorted colors of Chaos trying to invade constantly, and blasted the ever-loving crap out of the followers of the Warp scattered about the place.

            That was something that was never not a good thing to do, and how often did they have great targets like that? They entertained themselves nicely, letting the Warp worshippers feel how it was to not be able to strike back with magic of their own, safe behind the Domain that was devouring anything of the Warp and setting it alight.

            Truly, it was a strange day. Maybe the lack of Warp influence in the air helped? Certainly the elves seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere.

            I continued forward progress, slow and inexorable, waiting to see what they thought up next. I didn’t expect a lot of variety, but the thought of them racing for me with anti-magic up, freezing themselves to death in the cold here as they charged toward the Warpeater Pyramid with crude engines of war to make it up the moving walls did make me smile.

            Not incidentally, that was also why I was coming at them point-first instead of side-first. Maybe they could put up some wheeled ladders that could roll backward, but at an angle, too? They were going to keep losing their anchors, slip off, and get crushed.

------

            I flicked a finger ahead, and the Warpeater Pyramid resumed forward movement.

            The Domain field was fully reinforced now, and it began to expand slowly, losing none of its strength. Given the Warp energies were also getting more intense, this wasn’t an issue as far as power accumulation went.

            The Warped forces camped out in front of us hurriedly got out of the way or retreated. It wasn’t that I moved fast, but it was a wide Domain, and if they wanted to get out of the way, they had a bit of a distance to travel.

            A few hapless fools either dared to venture inside or were forced to do so. They became bright torches of vivus as the unwhite fires of life devoured the unnatural energies of the Warp imbued into them.

            At two miles an hour, the Pyramid proceeded forward on its long and steady voyage toward the North Pole and center of the Warp Zone.

------

            The numbers of Warped forces around the Pyramid increased steadily, even as they kept getting pushed further and further away. I was looking for the anti-magic forces among them, the anti-vivus armor that took such investment, and similar effects. I wasn’t at all above launching my attacks on them before they launched attacks on me, after all, and dumping them all into a hundred-foot crevasse masked by a veneer of dirt was always entertaining, especially when I toppled a thousand tons of rock on them and buried them underneath it.

            Slow and steady won the race. The Elves riding along could fly about and launch attacks on the Warped with almost complete impunity, the Warped at best being able to counter their magic, but nothing so simple as arrow fire. Any siege engines powerful enough to reach them couldn’t be dragged along easily or deployed against them, and actually made wonderful targets for bombardment.

            The elves didn’t go outside the Domain, either. There were a lot of Warp energies swirling about out there, eager to seize them and their souls, and none of them had the urge to indulge in them. They were in careful communication with their compatriots back on their home island, telling them of the adjustments that could be made to the Vortex and what the possibilities were, however.

            It was just as important for them to see this through, however.

            Even the whispers of the demons and the like couldn’t reach in here, laden with Warp energies as they were. It was actually kind of idyllic, if you weren’t aware of the things just outside the Domain waiting to devour your soul.

            The oddly symmetrical ring of mountains on the horizon drew closer. Orbital observation confirmed it was more like an impact crater than anything else, where both the Polar Gate had erupted and a whole chunk of the mantle had gone flying into space and created the Warped Moon traversing the skies, the same thing that now had a little bright spot of vivus Burning on it and slowly, so slowly growing.

            And now, here I was heading directly for it at three kliks an hour, slow but steady and very intimidatingly inexorable, especially as the Warpeater Pyramid’s Domain kept slowly expanding with all the Warp energies Burning en vivus and building it up.

            That didn’t mean the forces of the Warp weren’t gathering. They were streaming in, and then slowly getting forced away unless they wanted to die, which was hilarious to see. They couldn’t even follow directly without waiting for the vivus in the ground to die away, or they’d Burn their own feet off.

            There weren’t any uncorrupted people this far north to send in and try to accomplish something, either. Maybe they could pull in some uncorrupted fanatics, but those people had their own weaknesses, and it wasn’t like I had no plans for them. Collars of Klaw didn’t make them immune to simple illusions, fogs, darkness, or the like, all of which could be fatal if you were an inventive mage... and I did indeed have quite the arsenal.

-----

            Something was coming from ahead.

            There was quite a warhost ahead of me now, thousands of Warp cultists and fanatics mixed in with demons and mutant predators, all of them continually retreating from me, almost like they were my vanguard. Occasionally they stumbled and fell, or were tossed into the Domain and Burned up as a test of its viability.

            If they wanted to rest, they had to ride miles to the sides. Time wasn’t too static hereabouts, except for the fact I was punching a goddamn massive spike into the loose rules of reality here and locking them down. The Warp was trying to shift and bend things around me, and instead the nail I was driving into the edges of it was spiking it into place, and only getting bigger and nastier as the energies raged around me, trying to change things and failing.

            Said Warpzone smaller and smaller as said energies were converted to vivus and sucked away.

            But now, something was coming from ahead of us.

            I hopped onto Feature and we went zipping forward, attracting the eyes of the elves who were either resting or riding lazily around, watching everything that was happening and occasionally pummeling demons from above. Phoenixes and dragons veered my way, wondering what I was seeing.

            The Warped hadn’t really felt it, either. I came near the edge of the Domain, looking through the sparking haze. The elves drew up behind me, and I casually swept my hand back and flicked up an array of Disks, altering them to bars so dragons and phoenixes could alight on them without having to hover awkwardly. The things could easily move forward enough to keep pace, the elves having strange expressions on their faces at the casual thoughtfulness.

            “What are you seeing, Master Aelryinth?” Master Sethanon asked politely from atop the ancient black-scaled dragon that was his mount.

            “There’s a trail of vivus five miles ahead of us, and it is coming this way.”

            Five miles ahead was the start of the valley through the mountains that formed the expulsion crater.

            “Something using this vivus is coming OUT of the central Warp area?” Master Artlis spoke up from atop the coruscant beauty of his Arcane Phoenix on my other side.

            “Hence my own surprise, sir. I didn’t expect anyone else on this planet to be wielding vivus.” Why would I be here, if that was true? Spread knowledge of vivus and the influence of the Warp would drop like a goddamn stone.

            Of course, the Warp would work like mad to bury knowledge of it, so there was that.

            “Also, they are moving considerably faster than we are.” The elves even managed to smile at that. A slow walk was faster than the Pyramid, as many of the elves had demonstrated to their satisfaction and frustration... but the simple fact it could move at all, and right into the teeth of the Warp, was evidence of utterly massive forces at work, so they didn’t complain to me about it.

            And right about then, I turned completely around, looking behind us. The wizards of the elves felt it too, all of them turning to crane their heads back.

            There had been a massive dimensional movement into place behind us, right on our backtrail... one that was not interfered with by the powers of the Warp, but was actually being assisted by it!

            “I believe those are not friends of yours.”

            “That is the magic of the Lizardfolk, Master Aelryinth,” Master Artlis declared firmly. “They should scarcely even know something is happening, let alone be able to zero in on us with such power from so far away.”

            “It’s like something that wants to stop us gave them a lot of magical help and firm directions, probably while totally disguising it as the will of fate or ancestors or helpful gods or magic itself?” I inquired rhetorically, seeing the first quasi-pterodactyls winging their way towards the trailing edge of the Domain.

            They’d come in right in the middle of the fresh trail, so there were no Warped behind them.

            Feature snaked around backwards in midair and began winging his way speedily in the other direction. The mounts of the elves launched themselves off the bars of force they’d been perched on and beat after us, trying vainly to keep up and finally satisfying themselves with just following as quickly as they could.

            “Land on the Pyramid,” I sent back to them before they passed the Pyramid by. “This area is soon going to be unfriendly to those things aflight.”

            There was only a moment of hesitation before the dragons and phoenixes a-wing began to spiral down to join their fellows on the steps of the Pyramid, while hundreds of magical dinosaurs pierced through the Domain edge and headed in my direction.

            The leather-winged creatures definitely used magic to stay aflight, especially with a rider and those proportions. They were also painted in magical patterns to enhance some very sharp claws and jagged beaks that were made for ripping and tearing flesh. Quite eye-catching, really, with the riders using spears of jagged bone likewise reinforced with magic and probably carved from those same beaks, by the look of them.

            Also, they were clutching large slings and preparing to throw rocks, which I was rather incredulous about... except the rocks seemed to be magical and imbued with explosive fire. Magical grenades were a pretty good idea...

            “If you’re coming here in support of what the Pyramid is trying to do, land immediately and approach like honorable sapients.

            “If you’re coming to stop it, keep flying at me and we’ll get down to it.”

            Tongues from my Whiskers of the Wild radiated out through my Magevoice, and the dino-bipeds riding the dino-birds had absolutely no problem understanding me.

            There was a ripple of surprise from riders and mounts alike, as both could understand me. Feature hove to in midair, hovering with effortless, sinuous grace, his Noseblade and Tailmace gleaming even more brightly than his spread claws and flaming teeth.

            Yeah, he looked impressive, and I didn’t look much different, standing atop him like that instead of riding like a normal person. Jet and razor-edges of silver is a pretty impressive combo, even against the paint, furs, feathers, and fuzzy accouterments of the riders coming my way.

            They faltered, and then the gaudiest of them waved his jagged spear. The flocks coming this way broke apart into casual circling patterns as he continued in on the swiftest, if not the biggest, of the painted Terror-dactyls.

            I flicked up a translucent silvery Disk that rolled itself into a casual perch for him as I waited calmly.

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