[Warpworld] Ch 18 – The First of the Last Days

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            “I Bring Your Last Day.”

            They all heard it, were still human enough to understand it, and then I began to reap them.

            Unlike the men in the enchanted armor, they had no such protection against vivus, and the men who were hit basically exploded into white ash as they went from Warp-infused meat and bone to vivic fuel instantly. Thunder rang, rainbows shone, and death came down from above in unending salvos and Chains of slaughter.

            Over two thousand died in the first set of Admixed Paired and Quickened Paired Shards. Then the Echoes kicked in for the second set of salvos, doubling the pace of things, and now it was nearly a thousand dying by the second. With up to sixty feet between Chain targets and twenty-five of those targets, the potential reach of the spells was 1500 feet beyond the initial targets I was aiming at first, in any and all directions.

            The tough guys watched the Chains loop around them and then converge from all directions in the same instant, blowing through their magical shields and defenses, the accumulated damage far beyond what they could deal with. They basically exploded from converging Force and Elemental damage sent off with Wrathfire Kickers of the highest degree.

            Pointedly, I didn’t actually aim at any Casters, as Counterspells were a potential thing, and some of them certainly tried to raise them up. But the Shards came at them from all directions, looping and landing on them, and they could only scream as they died forever.

            It took about thirty seconds, and the entire center of the jRaztil warhost was dead. Then the flanks woke up, realized what was happening, that this was magic of a scale they were not prepared to deal with, and they turned and ran, some invoking dimensional magic to Teleport away as fast as they could.

            I could lightly range out a mile with a volley and harvest them from over a massive area, and I promptly did so without stopping.

            My only pause was to manifest one of the spells as a Greater Arcane Fusion so I could pop up over four dozen Mass Disks, and Magnus could get to work on harvesting their magical Gear for me to Burn away, including these brand-spanking new suits of Life Warded Armor and a whole bunch of magical Weapons.

            Artificing production waits for nobody.

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            The blot of darkness ahead of me was quite literally impossible to miss, even through the increasingly thick explosions of white mist falling from the front of the Warpeater Pyramid’s Domain.

            Another good trick, simply establishing a blanket area Ward against the vivus. Simpler than setting up a true area of anti-magic, which actually would have been their best option, given that my primary form of attack was magic.

            I watched it pass through the Domain’s border, and then start moving towards me with energy and verve.

            A mounted force. Knights of the Warp, so elites of their Human followers. I noted they weren’t using demonic mounts or followers of any kind as yet, probably because the ones who’d tried to endure the Domain had Burned away to nothing, like tossing someone soaked in oil and gasoline into a furnace.

            At least ten different focuses for the thing... probably Banners, I judged, examining the play of magic supporting the shell of anti-vivic protection.

            Well, Silver Magic wasn’t about vivus, and these people really had to learn more about counter-magic. I was sure some of them were prepared to deal with offensive spells, trying to Counter my own spells, Sink them, or Turn them back upon me, but I had plenty of time and plenty of range, if not infinite Valences.

            But then, I only needed two sets.

            The Spellflare ranged out, a spinning orb sheathed in seething multi-hued arcane lightning, designed to rip apart spells and make them go wild. It wouldn’t actually affect a radiated magic from an Item, but they didn’t know that, and the magic rose to Counter it... magic which naturally exploded and went crazy-wild when the two effects met, forming a big, blinding eruption of artfully crazy and destructive magic that checked their progress despite themselves at the sheer glorious show of the unleashed power of magic.

            The Chained Dispel Item hit the first of the upraised Banners and snuffed out the magic within it, before jumping to the next of them with unerring precision.

            The popping effects were only ‘heard’ in the thaumaspectrum, but the cries of dismay as the leading edges of their little Domain vanished and let in the vivus were clearly audible.

            So was the way the lead elements burst into misty white unfires, preying on the Warp energies they had accepted and wielded so eagerly, driving into them hungrily to devour every ounce they could.

            The Land was one big empty hole ready and willing to devour all of this stuff, after all, once it was made palatable.

            The quick-thinking among them threw down the Banners and turned around, galloping back for the edge of the Domain with frenzied haste.

            Oh, they weren’t Countering any more...

            A flight of Greater Shards went hurtling after them, and none of them got more than a half-mile before they and their mounts were blasted into flaming bits. The remnants of their gear and bones Burned on the empty landscape, and as they came into range of his TK, Magnus lifted up the magical stuff and deposited it atop the Pyramid, where all such stuff was being Burned into mana crystals for later Infusion.

            They were sending me free Karma and money, all at once. So generous of them.

            I waited there on the twentieth tier and the leading edge, Feature up on top around the altar, watching our backtrail, while Ices gave me some good eyes forward as needed, watching me take down the attackers with ease while all their mouths were open, drinking in the vivus streaming past us now, the stuff growing in density with every foot we glided onward.

            The Domain wasn’t expanding any more, all the harvested power pouring into fortifying it against the immense Warp pressure that was going to start bearing down on it tomorrow when we reached the true Warp Zone about the Rift there.

            Shouldn’t be an issue. Once it was solid enough, the pressure would start fueling expansion instead. Forward progress would be slow, but the border of the Domain would be a vivic inferno, and their own Warp-fueled power would instead be their greatest weakness.

            Balance in all things, as it were.

            I considered all the ways and means I might use to overcome what was going on here, and smiled slightly.

            The Warp Gods being who they were, the most obvious one would be a Warp Storm, trying to overwhelm the Warpeater Pyramid with pure volume of energy. They weren’t going to like the results when they did that.

            Sure, they could spend the power to press the field back and overwhelm how fast the Pyramid could upgrade itself, or defy them.

            But that wasn’t the true power of the Pyramid. Power absorption was the secondary purpose.

            Igniting the Warp Power was #1. Where all that power went... was into the Land.

            And the Land was very, very hungry. There was no way the Warp Gods could satisfy the appetite of the entire mortal plane, and that’s what they would have to do, in the end. All the while the vivus was reinforcing the Veil, and making it harder and harder for them to keep up the power outlay...

            They’d probably try some sort of sneak attack while doing it, which would be fun. Couldn’t have omelets without smashing some eggs, and these mutated eggs I was going to be plenty energetic at smashing.

            I watched the energies of the Warp detonating against the Warpeater Domain, and waited patiently.

            Ahead of me, Warp Lightnings danced in a mesmerizing, violent display meant to draw in the mind and will, at the same time displaying the ire of the Warp Gods at what I, a mere mortal They couldn’t see, was attempting.

            Too bad for Them. It was much, much worse than They knew.

            Counter-patterns of erupting vivus disrupted their subtle machinations, and the Pyramid continued onward.

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A day later...

            The leading edge of the Domain finally struck the leading edge of the Warp Zone. I could see the planar ripples from the Rift there, continually held open by the flow of Warp energies coming through, staving off the universe’s pressure to close the Rift.

            Well, the universe is going to start getting some help, I thought, as the increasingly thick eruptions of vivus became a misting wall ahead of the Pyramid, leaving anything beyond it pretty scattered in my view. The energies streaming into the Altar at the apex of the Pyramid were now a solid stream, and as we pressed forward, they started coming from multiple directions, pure Burning Warp energy converted to energies of the Mortal Realm here and the residues of it coming back to the Pyramid to further reinforce the Domain.

            Forward progress stopped just past halfway to the middle of the Warp Zone, ability to process the energy pretty much matching that incoming. The forces converging from all directions probably considered it a win for them, and would likely have been really irritated if I popped the Domain out an extra mile or two and swallowed them all, but I fought down the desire, preferring to keep that little surprise back in case of some display on their end.

            There was a fairly constant array of minor demonlings or Warped creatures screaming in fury as they dashed into the Domain, most of them not even making it past the very active border area. Some stronger ones started testing their resistance, dashing in and out, trying to beat out the vivic fires and figure out other ways of canceling them out.

            Collared servants of Klaw were prominent among that crew, but vivic flames were not inherently magical, and their Collars didn’t save them or their mounts from Burning.

            Day and night had quickly ceased to have much difference as I entered the Warp Zone, but that was okay. Rotating Meditation meant I was always awake, and with a Concentration modifier like mine, I never lost focus. Ices and Feature dozed as they wished, knowing I would wake them if I could, while a great host of Warped figures spread all around us and tried to find a weak point or way in, an angle to attack from, wondering what to do.

            In the sky behind me, oddly pure colors danced and vibrated, full of light and life and energy that wasn’t twisted by Warped influences, and the Veil built up slowly and steadily.

            I was trailing hard space and hard time behind me, a nail of Reality intruding back into the gash that the Warp had pushed out into this universe. Just the tip of it for now, but it was going to get bigger and longer as I fed the Land so heartily.

            They were looking at the edge of the Pyramid’s Domain, but I was looking at the edge of the Rift. As of right now, a massive amount of energy normally used to sustain the Rift was being consumed and reversed to bring pressure upon the Rift. A hole that could not be filled was draining the Rift and starting to tighten a noose upon it.

            Just replacing the energy I was sucking in wasn’t going to do the job, they had to basically double that amount to keep the status quo. But as soon as the Domain was solidified enough, I was going to start growing it again in a sphere, and magnifying the amount consumed thereby...

            There was an upper limit, but it was a long, long ways away, and their expense to maintain their Rift in the face of it was going to be ruinous. I hoped they tried.

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