[Be Gone] Ch 54 – Lancing a Tumorous Thing

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            The dumbest or slowest beasts didn’t flee, and perhaps some overconfident demons that could feel the purity of the Taint here thought it would hold off the vivus, not realizing it was like purifying gasoline to make it more flammable... or like jet fuel.

            Still, that Taint was still coming IN, not going out, and the dumber demons didn’t have the power to retreat along that path. Most of the ones that could were dead, the few that were able having decisively fled and left the dumber ones behind.

            This wasn’t going to be some sort of self-perpetuating circle of corruption, where the Taint came in and couldn’t be removed, only contained. That was what vivus was for, turning the otherplanar energies into something of this side of Creation. The Taint was ultimately a demonic form of vivus, attempting to take energy and matter from the mortal plane and absorb them into whatever part of the Demonic Abyss was interacting with this realm.

            If it didn’t like the fact the Mortal Plane was hungry and could do the same to it... too bad, so sad!

            Flicking out Shards at range all about took no power, most of mine continuing to go into the Pyramid. The vivus spreading around as Tainted things died would only help the spell we were trying to put together, as the Land wasn’t trying to keep out a god.

            Indeed, given the failure of the Spirits and mortals here, I imagined the Mother Land was wondering what it would be like having gods around. Big upsides, big downsides, definitely interesting...

            My Faith-centered thoughtstream and the Philosopher one were manipulating the combination of vivus, Faith, and pure magical power. It was a shame I could not use X’s, but VIII’s+1 weren’t all that shy of what had to be done here.

            Lose your eyes, work on your Divs, and harden your mind against things mortals can’t comprehend or endure. I had several different variations on Protection from Evil’s influence against Corrupting influences going, just so, oh, my brain wouldn’t mutate and turn against me this time, given my eyes were gone.

            A minor amount of Wrath was sifting what I was perceiving, Burning away any subtle Corruptive influences. I’d sent strict orders down to the Shugenja and Tigers not to have any Divs going, and to keep their perceptive senses damped down, unless they wanted to end up with eyes like mine.

            Nobody wanted to end up with eyes like mine, for some odd reason. That was true even if there was a definite swirl of power in the air ahead of us and the vivus was licking at the sky. Sin was falling out of nowhere from Jigoku, raising pitter-patters of contesting unwhite and utterblack as it hit the ground and waters before us.

            There was an underscoring thrumming in the Land as I lifted and displayed the Sublime Chord. Holy Magic that likely had never been wielded on this planet was starting to rise... and my Druidic senses said the Land was backing it. It wanted Balance, and had enough of this Sin and Taint, heady stuff though it was once vivified. It knew what I was doing was going to restore the Balance that had been lost, and the Spirits it had once used to maintain that lost Balance could do nothing similar.

            Voices and Prayers thrummed, a Sending intended to cross many places and planes and reach the ear of Someone who was doubtless listening for it, and, I hoped, grinning in satisfaction at one of His moves coming to fruition.

            Faith and magic interwove, Theurgic powers combined, rising, reaching out in one direction for what we were hoping was reaching out from the other.

            It was a metaphorical Damn Long Way, sure enough. On the other hand, I’d already traveled the path, so there was a road and trail to follow: my Lived-Line. Cold, hard reality behind me, a power line and cable laid to a distant part of the cosmos, but slicing through all the layers of emptiness in between, courtesy of a Death Giant Lich’s Curse magic.

            Mithar did love Him some Evil helping out the Good despite themselves. Helping Evil shaft themselves was always a satisfying play.

            From a Divine standpoint, this play was opening up the world to Mithar, who by extension would reveal it to the other powers of the Aruan Heavens. What other powers of Law, Chaos, and Evil would take notice out here was something else. There would be a definite delay for Them, as their Names would not be known here, and so Faith could not bring them in so easily.

            I couldn’t weave a true Gate spell and bring in an Avatar of Mithar, which would have been the ideal way to play things. But I could make a conduit for Mithar, and see what He did with it. He couldn’t be ignorant of what I was doing, given my own status as Faithful (and the Symbol I wore bypassing my own Astral Ward for that purpose), so I expected something appropriate.

---

            It was coming, it was building. I readied some other steps of my own which would have to trigger to start my own trip home, saying my last few goodbyes to the Marked, focusing on condensing and magnifying the magic and Faith to crystalline purity as it reached out, out, out...

            And finally found the matching touch from the far end, waaay down my Lived-Line.

            There was a SURGE of incoming power. Everyone felt it, a spike in their own feelings of Faith, and thousands of soldiers and Shugenja held their breaths as a very unfamiliar feeling, that of Silver rising in the soul, came washing back ahead of that influence.

            It was the Answer to their prayers. It was formed not only of their own Faith being returned to them, but that of other Mitharns, hoarded against these kinds of moments as Silver Souls joined hands across Creation to support one another and do the work of Heaven!

            Time swirled and stopped abruptly as that non-finite Entity up there beyond the swirling, shadowy darkness in the sky realized something was seriously wrong. It didn’t react fast enough, as the Divine weren’t subject to Time if they didn’t want to be, either, and all it could do was cast about, trying to find the center of the unease swelling within it, sifting all through the local Astral plane. It tentatively reached into Jigoku, found no real threats there, and then, almost absently, down into the hapless mortal plane...

            The Spear of Mithar rose, and the creature screamed in what passed for horror.

            Mithar’s weapons were the sword, the shield, the spear/lance, and the hand, but the Grand Master of the Gods was also about the right tool for the job. While coming up with a shining silver Sword the size of a mountain would have been nice, this was a thrust, and every soldier here knew what a spear was meant for.

            It came up from every stone of the Pyramid, taking all the stored magic from Burning half of the Shadowlands and countless Tainted and oni, as well as all the Faith of the soldiers below who wanted to Cast Out the creature that had done all this. The silver Lance drove it all up into the sky, through reality itself, and into the Thing out there Between Worlds feeding on the Conjunction of two Planes that should never have touched.

            Oh, yeah, it screamed. Perhaps it was fat and happy sucking away on the energies there, but this was the blow of a true god, put right where it needed to be, and it injected a whole lotta vivus into the creature to boot. Its scream alone would have turned the minds and souls of those within the near Planes to pulp, but at least from this direction, the raging vivus merely ate the scream’s own power and allowed less than a shadowed whisper past, letting us mortals know that the blow had struck home.

            All that feasting by the Thing meant it was full of gunpowder, and Mithar made damn sure it lit off.

            My Lived-Line was flaring as Mithar reached around it, and I distinctly felt Him give me a push back along it as there was a cataclysmic eruption in the astral space. Unbelievable amounts of energy detonated, and while I didn’t know if that Thing was destroyed, I did see the vortex light off, smashing the Conjunction apart like a bomb separating two boulders leaning against one another.

Jigoku and the Mortal World behind me were blasted out of Conjunction, and the feed to the Shadowlands was no more. I imagined even the link to the Pit of Obsidian Screams was going to be wavering right now, and all the oni left behind in the mortal world had no way of getting home safely.

Home, where vivus wasn’t going to consume them body and soul, and where they were Eternal. Here, now, in this dreadful Mortal Plane, where they could die forever...

            Me, I got off my next Sending to my Soul-Shards.

            “Hello, don’t know if you’re getting this, as I’ve received only a couple acknowledgments. I’m finally out of my destination, after some hefty Good deeds and a full reset of my Matrix, and I’m on my way back.

            “Dunno if it will be useful, but here’s how being a Shugenja works where I was at. Somewhere between Spirit and Elemental Theurgy...

            “I’m making a road of Faith across transfinity, and at the end of that road is Korbald and his people! How’s that for not-coincidence?

            “Zeben, if you’re getting this, I’m coming to help.”

            I had the Divs up to guide me along and look for the Soul-Shard I’d cut off, and barring something crazy, it should take me right to them. If they had something for me to home in on, like a Pyramid, that would make things even easier...

            Then again, Mithar’s influence was extending all along my Lived-Line. I sighed as that meant I could easily be diverted here and there on my trip home, and the chance that He would not be making use of this opportunity was pretty small.

            Whatever. I was finally on my way home!...

================

Terra-Luna...

            Diana whipped her head around, as did everyone in the Allegiance of the Steel at the momentary pulse. It was very, very far away, but it was moving now, if barely perceptibly.

            Whatever had been constraining or restricting Ael, or he had needed to recover from, was done, and he was on his way back!

            There was an instant hubbub in Markspace as the news spread, and was reported outside the Allegiance to interested parties.

            Diana clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and prayed in thanks.

            It had not been that long since Ael had been hurled away to wherever, saving the lives of the Paladins as he did. The rapidly receding dot of his will, almost instantly beyond any attempt to contact him, was little more than an acknowledgement that he still existed and was alive than anything else.

            Something big enough to ripple all the way back to them must have happened, and he was on his way home!

            How long that would take nobody knew, but the Sendings sent up the Allegiance link faded into nothingness before they could reach him, so it was obviously an impossibly-great distance.

            There was a great deal of relief for all those involved in the siege of the last redoubt of the undead of Pantera, especially among the Paladins he had saved. Sir Beach, Sir Justin, and Sir White could all breathe sighs of relief, any lingering guilt over his sacrifice dealt with now that Ael was coming back.

            Diana had just told them to invite the family over for dinner by way of thanks when Ael returned, and all would be well...

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