[Be Gone] Ch 53 – The Vortex Before Us

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            Our forward progress continued. The slaughter ahead slowly wore down as the demons ran away as fast as they could, and the numbers in my range dwindled precipitously.

            Vivic fire raged wildly in all directions, occasionally popping and spurting as it ran across nodes and concentrations of Abyssal energies. The ground was like gasoline to the stuff, and the waters were shot through and black with Taint, so thick the vivus could not help but keep spreading in our wake as the Walls ignited everything in front of us and left the ground white and waters crystalline behind us.

            Anything living in range was killed without exception. Korbald’s crew came back aboard the Pyramid with a whole bunch of oversized heads, to the awe and enthusiasm of the soldiers below me. Vivic flames began to lick at the skulls and clean off the bone and meat, while threads of molten metal were etched upon the trophies from Oni Lords and their spawn. Those massive skulls began to shrink as the anathema of the Land boiled around them.

            Self-empowering Dreadskulls and Greater Baneskulls were pretty cool toys to get ahold of. I couldn’t work on them myself, but Korbald assured me the one from the Black Void Moth Kukanchi was for me. I wasn’t going to turn down a Dreadskull, so sure, and we weren’t moving very fast.

            Be there in a couple days. About a hundred miles to go.

            Behind us, Elementals of Water and Earth were rising from purified soil and waters, pushing the vivus out in flows and channels, helping it surge across the Tainted marshy lands. Swathes of Tainted reeds and grasses were being cut down and bursting into unwhite flames, hillocks were being submerged and igniting in mistfire, and the Tainted creatures dwelling in both areas were fleeing as rapidly as they could, or they would join the purity.

            It was okay. The Elementals were drawing rings after rings, played out over miles, and the fleeing creatures were finding themselves encircled again and again as the Pyramid continued forward.

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            The distorted Skull of an oversized carnivorous moth, the bone a translucent and soapish black-gray now agleam with Runes of platinum that were slowly building in power, was handed over to me.

            I checked it over once to make sure there were no errors on it, and nodded to Korbald. I popped the existing Oni Baneskull off my Staff and handed it back to him to give to someone else. Kukanchi’s Dreadskull to Jigoku/Demons/Oni was fit onto Mortus Dius. The black-yellow-green demon-blood Banefire lit up instantly, only it was twice as strong as the Baneskull previously had been, almost alive with hungry wrath waiting to be unleashed.

            It was useless against anything not touched by both extraplanar Chaos and Evil, but unlike a Fiend Baneskull, it would work on anything with Abyssal Taint!

            +4/+4, +4d6 damage. +4 to Spell Penetration, too, although that was rarely important, and it explicitly helped bypass the Damage Reduction of demonkind by satisfying any material conditions, like adamantine, silver, Holy, Lawful, or whatever, in addition!

            The Shards I sent out into some of the living mounds, massive Tainted wako, and other Corrupted Beasts looked like great burning Spears falling from heaven. All those colors of Elements, Holy power, Primal energy, Divine scorn, and other forces rained down for just massive Kicker damage.

            Vivic bonfires were rapidly scattered around the area, but I left off shooting anything but the area directly in front of us, letting the Elementals crawling and burrowing around do their thing without me messing up stuff.

            Korbald sat down on the edge of the altar, his eyes naturally going to the waves of vivus flowing backwards from the front and sides of the Pyramid like a ship forcing itself across a Tainted lake, leaving a misting white wake behind us. Here and there, tongues of the mist sped ahead of the wake-line, prodded by coldly hungry Elementals rising from the purified ground as the Land fed.

            “What’s your final play going to be?” he asked me quietly.

            I tilted my head. “Well, part of it depends on the soldiers down below,” I admitted.

            “How’s that?” he asked, arching his eyebrows.

            “You and the Tigers are going to lead them in a mass prayer to Mithar as I set that damn Vortex on fire. If it works, I’m going to dump a whole lot of Valences for Mithar to use, and stab the bastard that started this whole thing with the sword of a god.”

            Korbald’s eyes widened. He looked down below, thinking. “Can you store up Faith? Knowing they are going to be part of something awesome like that, we can start the prayers up a little early. Heck, we should go back to the fortresses and see if the koro back there can help us out!”

            “That’s a good idea, actually,” I nodded. “I can store Faith indirectly. The Divine spells of an Ur-Priest are basically stolen Faith energy. So, I can take all the Faith they are offering up, focus it, and deliver it to Mithar in one big explosion of Faith energy in the form of Valences sacrificed directly to Him.

            “This Altar can store a bunch as it stands, and I’ve been filling it up right along when I didn’t have anything else to Cast. There’s a lot of juice in here for Him to use, we just have to get Him here.”

            Korbald nodded shortly and sharply. “Leave that to me! You’ve given Him the biggest sell possible, certainly more than we’ve done over the years! Let us do that job!”

            I just nodded, and let him head down to get that working.

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            The rampaging hordes of Shadowlands creatures in the Emerald Empire were fleeing desperately now, making their way towards the Serpent lands and the Pit there, so they would have some place to flee to if things went bad.

            There weren’t many Vivic Weapons around, just enough to burn the demonic dead and prevent them from Tainting the landscape as they rampaged about and fought the native elves with the ferocity of the underworld, spread plagues, Tainted everything they could, killed the commoners who couldn’t run away fast enough, and so forth and so on.

            The Bear Clan didn’t much care, as they and their people were engaged in a mass exodus to their ancient tribal lands, ‘pursuing the attack upon the great foe’, which was their response to many a request for reinforcements and the like.

            The remaining Horse Clan had joined the demon-killing effort, of course, and even the Leaf, the Phoenix, and the Pangolin Clans had come to join in the fighting with what armies they could muster. It was truly the grandest force the Empire had managed to whelm against a single attacker for hundreds of years, at the least!

            For some reason, the news that the Bear and Tiger Clans might be shutting down the core of the Shadowlands was taken with something resembling disdain and disbelief. If they could do such a thing out there in the worthless Shadowlands, surely their efforts would be of far more usefulness here in the Empire, would they not?

            The korobokru did not agree, the many Shugenja were uneasy at the implications, and yet the fighting continued, not caring about Imperial opinions on the matter.

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            There was no fighting, at least on our part. What killing had to be done the archers took care of, if the oni or Tainted creatures were so incredibly slow as not to be able to flee us... or were that stupid, which was usually the case.

            Fleeing was what most were doing, ever more of them choosing so as the vivic fires spread behind us and stretched from horizon to horizon. Whiteness devoured black, crystal waters replaced murky ink, and green, green was growing in places that it had not dared show its face at for nigh unto a thousand years.

            They could not go around us, because the vivus was Burning and coming for them, the purified Elementals rising and pushing it on and out to do its task, finding ever more fuel for it.

            I was sitting up there, pouring a lot of pure, raw power into the Pyramid. Sword Emblem Runes carved into the stone were glowing silver with energies, growing down the Pyramid as they filled up, running around each level one by one as they were topped off and the next set of blocks continued the process.

            The warriors knew that if they prayed, this war might finally be over, and a god might come to save them. And so, the Tigers held services, and they told stories of Mithar’s might, and justice, and wisdom. Of the Paladins he called Brothers and Sisters, of the Silver Souls that heard the Call to serve, and His mighty and faithful friends and companions.

            The center of the Shadowlands was ahead, and that Entity was still feasting on the conjunction of the planes, unaware that the tide had massively changed underneath it...

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            “I’ll be taking my leave soon,” I told Korbald, who nodded slowly up on the altar with me. The Vortex was visible now if you had the right Sight, a swirling maelstrom of dimensional friction, seething with unnatural energies as two worlds which should never have met collided.

            The area of the once far-flung Shadowlands had fallen precipitously, and continued to do so, eaten away ever-more quickly as the vivic fires Burned misty behind us, growing exactly as quickly as the Shadowlands were receding.

            The Empire had also been informed of the effect, which meant they might be able to close the huge Pit in their own lands... if they could slay enough demons and Burn enough Tainted stuff. The Snakes were sure ready to try...

            The Bear and Horse, and even the companies seconded to us, all praying to the Silver Sword to come and chase off the thing keeping the worlds Conjoined, was still not something the Empire wanted to hear, however. After all, the Elders of the elves were supposed to dominate the afterlife, too!

            It didn’t matter what they thought, this was bigger than them. They were probably perfectly happy to sabotage this effort, or barring that, kill me once all this succeeded, but the potential assassins had all died or never been allowed aboard to begin with... and I still didn’t disallow the possibility some were still hidden and waiting to act.

            They didn’t have to worry about me staying here. I wanted to go home, and that hadn’t changed in the slightest.

            Korbald clapped me on the shoulder. “I never imagined I’d see the kind of slaughter you unleashed on these things, Ael. You put on a damn motivating show.”

            I smiled thinly. “It’s a fucking shame that the great show is all about annihilation, Korbald. I think the best thing I did is make this floating hunk of rock for you, however.”

            “I can’t disagree with that,” he admitted after a long moment. “Butchering the oni was nice, but...” he waved his hand at the burning horizon behind us, “that was really the clincher, wasn’t it? Killing the oni was just so you could do that.”

            “Yeah. The butchery of a million oni was the diversion.” He took a deep breath at the thought. “Remember, you’re Powered. Feel free to put on the show, but it’s what is NOT part of the show that is the most important.”

            “The Primos and Forsaken side of it, right,” he nodded.

            “Or, to put it in very mundane terms, clean-up.” We both smirked.

            “You’ve got everything, huh?” He looked at the sky ahead with a complex expression.

            “Yeah, pretty much.” There was a Whole Lotta Juice being carried in this thing right now, enough to draw Mithar’s full attention wherever He was. “Remember something. As soon as the Aruan Pantheon gets a foothold here, the metaphysical distance between here and Earth starts to shrink VERY quickly. You might not be able to go home, but going right next door and meeting up with people will become a whole lot easier, eventually.”

            He clapped me on the shoulder. “Then, I’ll wish you luck on your trip, hoping you make it home, and blaze a trail for the rest of us. You really changed everything here for us, you know?”

            I waved it off. “Good things to good people, Korbald. You made great things of yourselves. I’m just a latecomer adding some finishing touches and speeding some things along for my own selfish reasons.”

            He smiled again at the obvious exaggeration, but said nothing as he headed down the Pyramid.

            The troops down there were approaching the area of the Vortex they could not see, but as opposed to getting ready for a big fight, it looked like they were meditating.

            Meditating, and listening to preachers.

            “Mithar is not a god of Humans. He came to our world on the winds and words of another spellcaster from a far-off place, as did knowledge of the gods He served with, and so He aided us in our moment of great need. He is a Patron of divine warriors, those who protect others and wish for them all the best in life, while knowing that there are others who are not satisfied in knowing others have good things of their own. Your race and your birth do not matter to Him; He only requires that you be of Good heart and mien, and willing to share that with others also of Good heart, and He will take note of you.

            “One of His people has brought us all the chance for Him to come here, but it is up to you to bring Him and anchor Him here, for there are rules even beings like Him need follow, or there will be consequences.

            “So, let me tell you of the Silver Son, the General of the Armies of Good, the Grand Master of the Gods, who plays at Eternal War on behalf of Heaven, and guards the Destiny of all that is Good from those who would seize it for their own selfish purposes...”

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