[Warpworld] Ch 17 – A Dome of White Fire

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            Things were moving around us.

            Feature could see forces start to arrive from all directions, be it flying, mounted, or on foot. Clearly word had gotten out, and by the colors, all the Warp Gods were suddenly interested in me and what I was doing.

            I told him to keep a careful eye out for anyone or anything in sleek black armor approaching the edge of the Domain. They’d be a threat. If any areas of blackness popped up ahead of us, I could see it through Magnus or Mortus, even if they didn’t have the magnified vision I usually had with my Mask.

            Not being able to see visually did suck sometimes. I’d have to come up with a solution, somehow.

            The area outside the Domain was becoming increasingly biased to Evil and Chaos, like static in the air that interfered with my ability to see further. Happily, anything wielding Warp magic stood out like light bulbs in a glitchy interface, so spellcasters or things with strong magic items of the Warp were easy to see if they rode by.

            I watched as demons were ordered into contact with the Domain, and were Burned down quite rapidly, indeed. That included Collared Warp Hounds of Klaw, supposedly immune to magic. Vivus itself was no more magical than mundane fire, even if it fed on foreign magic. Those Hounds Burned like anything else, their Collars not protecting them in the slightest.

            The enemy was gathering swiftly, and I was sure dimension-bending was at work, hurried along by the Warp Gods to get into place to do something about me and the ever-expanding Domain about me. An additional mile every day of radius was a foreboding defensive zone, something I was going to settle in at ten miles or so, and then just reinforce the Hell out of it, literally.

            After all, I was basically going to be plunging into a virtual sea of Warped magic and otherplanar influence. I’d need all the help that I could get, and the Warpeater Pyramid here was going to have to withstand immense amounts of the energy. Its Domain breaking would likely be catastrophic to all involved... which was actually a decent offensive tool, as unleashing that much vivus would indeed be catastrophic to the Warp.

            Shouldn’t need to, however.

            I just needed to be patient, Energize materials, Infuse some Gear on the go, and wait patiently for their first probing attacks.

            Aaaand maybe, just maybe, zip out there once a day and obliterate part or all of a Warband or two for some Naming Karma. Never hurt to pour more juice into my own Gear, after all.

            I didn’t like it being a waiting game, but all they knew about me was that I was a powerful spellcaster, I could kill Warbands by myself, and I had a Dragon and a Hydra working for me.

            I didn’t need to give them any more to work with, and Astral Ward VIII+1 made sure that they couldn’t find out with Divinations, while the Warp Gods themselves couldn’t actually see me without manifesting fully... and doing that in a vivic Domain was very, very dangerous to them. They could permanently lose a bunch of power that way, and really help things out for me here.

            It also gave me a chance to set up a few extra surprises, reserves, and other fun stuff, Burning off the Gear I salvaged from the dead to do so was only appropriate, and they’d find out when they attacked how fun that was going to be. Inside my Sanctum I had at least some reserves to do some Artificing, and some quick Crafting for various forms of Constructs was only to be expected.

            They were going to figure out the methods to get in here, if only because their gods told them. Well enough. Problem was, I knew those methods, too, and could I do something about it? 

            Yes, yes I could. Becoming immune to Burning by vivus when you were saturated with unnatural Warp energies didn’t make you immune to a lot of other things. They looked to be focused on dealing with the vivus, and they didn’t have anything to compensate for Heavenly energies, because they hadn’t been exposed to them independently.

            And wasn’t that just a coincidental oversight on my part, darn.

            The best force to attack with would naturally be one not intrinsic to the Warp, as they would not be impeded by vivus at all. Like, oh, elves who suddenly panicked, thinking I was going to destroy the world or something by closing down the polar Rift, spurred on by massive egos and racial distrust.

            It wouldn’t surprise me at all, really. Gods manipulated mortals in all kinds of ways, so I had to be ready for weird shit to happen. However, they shouldn’t know what was happening here, either, and wouldn’t until I actually entered the Warpzone ahead.

            We’d see what was going to happen. It wasn’t all that much different from Korbald’s World, save my own gods were not so distant, and I wasn’t technically trying to bring them here, it would just be a happy side effect.

            Whiiich the native gods probably wouldn’t like, consigned to lesser Status as soon as the Aruan Pantheon got here. Religious conflicts could get nasty, especially dealing with close-minded gods tied to one world, or one people/species.

            Well, it was the way of the Alignments. I wouldn’t have been directed here unless there was a real problem for the Good people here. I was here to represent Good and Get Shit Done. Mithar was an opportunist of the highest degree when it was appropriate, and this was a great, great opportunity.

            Huh. I highly doubted me getting Cursed and sent to the other end of Creation was anything planned, but had He devised all this shit once He saw what had happened?

            Casting His influence to the far end of Creation, either aiding other Good powers there or opening up chances for the Aruan Pantheon to expand its reach and influence, and possibly drawing those mortal souls into orbit with the Pantheon... or expanding the Pantheon in an unexpected direction.

            Or just plain Thwart Evil, Law, or Chaos in their machinations. I imagined the Warp Gods mashed all His grim irony buttons pretty hard. Whatever grand drama of mere mortals contesting with immortal unkillable demons was about to get turned upon its head.

            I was powerful. I knew I was powerful, and had a very good idea of how relative my power was to those below me.

            You didn’t throw someone like me at minor problems. It was complete overkill. That was... what I was raising the people of my Allegiance to take care of.

            Huh. While my communications with Zeben and Einz indicated that there was a LOT of temporal irregularities involved in my path, and I heavily doubted that Mithar would make me sacrifice my time with my kids, it could be said that doing this, instead of just heading straight home, was His confidence that my Allegiance would keep going without me.

            It was a Good thought to have. While I liked being a Monarch, and it kept a huge chunk of my brains busy, what I truly was... was NOT a Monarch. The Words of Creation that I knew were not Stewardship, Responsibility, and Leadership, considered the Words of True Kings. I could glimpse them because I did the job, and I did it well, but it wasn’t where my heart was.

            I knew Truth, Hope, and Valor. Thems was fighting Words! Me being a Good Monarch was just because I was a Good person, but in my gut I knew I was meant to be out here fighting... but I would not abandon the people I was fighting for to do that, and I was meant to be fighting things that other people could not fight, not things that they could learn to beat on themselves.

            This, this kind of stuff... I had to admit I loved doing it. Programmed gamer mindset and everything, I loved it. Undoing grand schemes of Evil, cracking great plans and sending them down blazing in the Wrath of Heaven... yeah, I was Heavenbound for a Damn Good reason, and there’d been no request for me to surrender my Pact to someone else to make use of, despite Heavenbound Warlocks being eminently unsuitable for rulership positions.

            I had been making countless warriors to serve Heaven in my stead, increasing the reach, depth, and breadth of Heaven’s warriors upon Terra-Luna. Allowing a mostly-unneeded Pact to continue to further those goals was totally within Heaven’s remit.

            And I really, really loved the fact that Heaven had my back, was Warding my soul, and occasionally whispered helpful things into my ear.

            This was not the same kind of fight as I’d fought with Korbald, clearing out the oni. This was a true extrusion of another reality into the Mortal World, and I was going to suck it dry of energy, collapse it, restore reality to firmness, and in doing so probably crack and break the true power of the Warp Gods in this world without their little Rift to work through.

            I’m sure they’d just love me for doing this. The amount of juice this Pyramid would be eating should also be enough to bring Aru here, as well, and wouldn’t that just suck for them.

            I should probably leave the world a better place than it was before me, and not just with the Warp Gods reduced to merely another set of players.

            Well, I didn’t know anything about this world and who inhabited it other than those I’d met personally. I know they had humans because Warped humans were among those corrupted by the Four, and I knew they had a species of ‘elves’. I didn’t know if they had cambions or anything around, although Feature said he’d seen some form of mutated Jotun.

            Now wasn’t the time to be engaging in random scrying, however. Time to just focus on the here and now.

            Feature fed his view to me.

---

            The armor of the knight stood out among the colorful attire of the Knight-Schemers for its blackness. It was straight black, no adornments in other hues and shades, and even the vague distortions and twitching magic of those Sworn to jRaztl seemed absent around him, even if the damn suit was still overdone with spikes and pauldrons fit for ogres and the like.

            He spurred his nervous, fang-mawed and horned horse forwards into the misting edge of the Domain in front of him, watched closely by dozens of knights similarly armored.

            There was only the faintest swirl of vivus in reaction to him, and he and his steed both passed unharmed into the moving edge of the Domain that had long eaten away all the plant life in its path, stained with Warp energies as it was.

            Life Warded. The protection from Positive Energy would also keep out vivus, as the energies were closely related, just as negative energy and true necromancy were deeply intertwined.

            A hundred or so suits of them, made so quickly! I smiled slightly. That was not a cheap investment of power, definitely a Ritual of some strength, and it had to have been directly backed by jRaztl, and probably Klaw as well.

            I smiled slightly as the rest of the knights eagerly spurred themselves forward, and galloped energetically through the slowly growing wall of energy that was continually pushing the rest of the Warped forces back.

            They milled around in some excitement, drawing their swords and lances and waving them about in defiance, boasting and calling out to their slavemaster in thanks and promising tribute and victory for this gift.

            Then my Greater Shards hit them, and they all died. After all, I didn’t have to make them vivic, and without the Vivic Kicker making them a Healing spell, the positive energy Boosts didn’t apply, either. It took the damage down some, but not enough to make a difference to these bastards.

            After all, the Holy Metas were still working just Damn Fine.

            Looping Greater Shards hurled corrupted humans and mutant steeds in all directions in prismatic loops and peals of Thunder that sounded like the bells of Heaven rocking the souls of everyone who could hear them. The Thunder drowned out their screams of agony as they were seared by anathemic energies, and perished to a one.

            The cheers of the watching Warped horde beyond the misting edge of the domain faded instantly. Some of the sharp-eyed pointed upwards in shock, to where I was standing in the air with my celeste wings spread wide.

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