Chapter 35- Mal

Destruction’s head appeared in the dark void before I could work out what had happened. Now the answer was obvious. I was in her Void Storage.

Her voice was hoarse, her words fast. “I’ve escaped, but we’re still running.”

“Running where? Oh, and thanks for saving me back there.”

“Of course. And I’m obviously trying to get back to the Administration Hub. But neither Hakan nor Death are foolish and they’ve made sure to block our retreat. I might be able to burst through, but alone it will be difficult. With your shields, I feel we have a chance.”

“And you’ll have them,” I said, flying out of the portal into the night sky beyond. “Did you see my last shield killed the undead.”

“I saw them fall, but I ran. Do you think it permanent?”

I nodded. “Necromancy is fueled from the…”

“I know how Necromancy works, Mal.”

“Alright then,” I huffed. “Work it out for yourself if you’re so fucking clever.”

She flew off at my words and she made me work to keep up with her. After a while she allowed me to draw level with her, but didn’t speak, so neither did I. I liked to think I understood the games of women pretty well and I wouldn’t fall into that trap.

Five awkward minutes later, she changed course, taking us even further away from our target. She never said why.

I ached to ask, to talk, anything. But I didn’t want to be the one to break first. It was her sulking after all. Finally, after around fifteen minutes in total she spoke.

“You absorbed the Decay through the shield. You found a way to draw it from their corpses and incorporate it into the shield so it couldn’t be used to reanimate them again.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement and I had to admit I was impressed she got it dead on. Yet I didn’t reply. And no, not out of being difficult. I was trying to come to terms with the fact that she hadn’t been sulking, but actually trying to work out what I’d done. So much for me understanding women. Though did Destruction really count? An inadvertent glance at her body reminded me that she definitely still qualified.

“Well?” she boomed. Turning her deep yellow eyes on me.

“Huh? Ah yeah. That was it. Well done for working it out.”

She nodded, satisfied. “I have an affinity with Decay, so I may be able to turn what you did into an attack. It’s more insidious than my usual direct approach, but we are in desperate times. Come, we will allow some of our pursuers to catch up with us, and I’ll practice.”

“Don’t you want to practice now? Before we face the enemy?”

“We don’t know who’ll be watching, and I don’t want to give any of our secrets away.”

I shrugged. “Makes sense I suppose. Do you want to talk through it at least?”

“When we land,” she said pointing to one of the tallest high-rises ahead of us. She’d already proven herself to be smart and reliable, so I followed her without question.

We touched down on the roof and Destruction faced me. “I have wracked my brains trying to devise an attack that would drain without having a tendril from my core exposed, but I have come up short. I feel I’m either missing some vital piece of knowledge, or it can’t be done. Tell me how your shield works?”

“Rather than boring you with all the details of that, tell me what’s wrong in your mind.”

She frowned, but answered. “There’ll be no where to put the Decay. I think I could syphon it into the ether, but I fear that will either re-enter the enemy or weaken the attack. Most likely both. The only way I can see it being effective is if I maintain a tether to the attack and drain the Decay directly to me. But that has its own weaknesses and I really don’t want to risk my core to kill a few undead.

“Yeah, I mean I like Talitus, but it’s not where this war’s gonna be won is it? Now, with my shield it will become stronger and reinforce itself, the more undead it drains, but like you said that’s not an option for you unless you shoot mini shields at them. I’m not sure if even that would work as the shield needs a tether.”

She fell silent again. A silence I now recognized as her thinking. A moment later, she clicked her fingers. “I have a plan. I will try the other options I’ve devised first as they deserve a trial run, but, is there a way for us to work together? Perhaps attach my attacks to your shield in some way so the power they take has somewhere useful to go?”

“I honestly don’t know. And I have no idea how something like that would even be possible. But it’s the dawn of a new era with what we can do with the power, so I say we give it a go. If it works, then it’s a hell of an idea.”

“It is, yes,” She said folding her arms and staring at me. “Many people make the mistake of underestimating me, but I am not just some mindless demon hell bent on destroying all in front of me.”

“You’re not?” I asked with a wry smile. “Not at all. I like to experiment with many different styles of destroying things. From slow and stealthy to the more flamboyant.” She pointed to the sky. “They’re coming. Prepare your Shield.”

Above us, the unholy cries of black-winged monstrosities signaled their approach. Around sixty in total, but I could tell by the power pouring from them that they weren’t the bargain basement undead. These were more alert and used a little skill in amongst their ferocity.

“Defensive around us first!” I yelled. It was a simple construct and could be formed in a second, which gave us immediate protection while allowing me to work on the more complex draining shield.

A brief nod was all I got from the incredible Goddess as Fire and roiling Dark Neuma flew from her hands. It was enough.

“Second Shield going up now!”

And it was a close run thing, springing to life only a fraction of a second before the first of the attackers reached us. They died on my new shield, and this time I got to watch the show.

Well, at least for a few short moments. They quickly became wary and pulled back, reverting to firing at our defenses from a distance while dodging Destruction’s attacks.

Unfortunately, even a direct head shot only dropped them for a minute or so before they rose again, fully formed.

“I’m going to try the attack that will dissipate their Decay, Mal. Will you watch for the effect of the attack as well? I might miss something important.”

“You got it,” I replied. These guys who’d caught us couldn’t actually affect my shields, so I did have some time on my hands.

I watched what Destruction created and winced at the simplicity of the attack. With the benefit of my shield building experience, I seriously doubted it would work.

She’d tried to interweave Gravity to her own Decay source to draw the Decay of her targets away, but there was no real outlet for the Decay beyond the Physical explosion she’d wrapped around it all. For me, it was the equivalent of digging hole with a twig.  

As she loosed the blast, I still watched with bated breath as it crashed into a particularly ugly creature with four uneven tusks jutting from its mouth and a bloated body that looked like it had been pumped full of marbles.

The attack struck, and exploded immediately. Which meant the Gravity Decay construct hadn’t even had a chance to work.

Worse still, the only thing the blast had managed to achieve was to provide the undead target with more power. So much so, the thing had the nerve to actually roar in ecstasy as its entire body glowed with a pulsing copper light.

I turned to Destruction. She was quicker to speak. “If you value your life, say nothing. I think I know where I went wrong.”

I remained silent as more of the enemy showed up. One was a familiar dark robed figure that attacked our shield last time. They failed until Death showed up, but that didn’t stop them from immediately putting their focus on our defenses again.

I was ready for the onslaught and held the shield intact as Destruction fired another attack. It was subtly different from the last, but destined to fail just the same, judging by the weaves she’d used. Like me, she’d seen that the previous explosion had happened too quickly and altered for that.

“Gah!” I screamed as the newcomer suddenly ripped at my shield with more strength than they had last time.

“What?” Destruction growled, spinning on me as her attack failed again. This time she managed to absorb Decay into the blast only for it to flow back into the zombie once the explosion went off.

“The alive dickhead in the cloak is having a go at my shield. Dunno what’s changed but he’s more competent than last time.”

“How long can you hold him off?”

“I don’t bloody know. And if another of them comes along, then probably seconds.”

“Then it’s time to try and link our efforts.”

“I can’t do that,” I grunted out. “I’m trying to keep us alive.”

“Then what?”

It was an interesting question and one I suddenly had an answer for. “Role switch. Kinda. “If you can focus on the cloak and prevent him from attacking me, I’ll go on the offensive.”

“Do tell,” she said with a flicker of amusement despite the dire situation.

“No time. Just watch. And when this royally backfires be ready to run.”

I expected argument. Instead, she merely nodded and turned back to the black cloak.

With a gulp and a prayer to no one in particular, I reduced my purely defensive shield down to just a few feet around Destruction and myself. Then began reducing my Decay drinking shield in very slowly allowing the black cloak to weaken it a little when they weren’t avoiding Destruction’s wrath. I was careful to sell the idea that he was pushing me back.

After an agonizing few minutes, that was exactly what he took from our mini battle, and he let out a roar of success.

“What’s going on?” Destruction snapped. “Has he dropped it?”

I was under great strain, but I managed a grimacing smile. “Not even close. Watch.”

She looked back to the horde of undead flying in, ready for the moment we were exposed. That moment never came. Instead, with the energy I’d conserved, I pushed the shield outward. Expanding it like a balloon on a broken helium pump.

I forced all of my focus on that one single task, barely conscious of what was happening around me, and just hoping I’d achieved what I hoped.

I didn’t stop pushing until Destruction laid a hand on my shoulder. “Incredible, Mal. I’ll be back in a second.”

I opened eyes that I hadn’t even realized I’d closed to see that the shield had swept all of the undead around us away. Better still, they were dead and they weren’t getting back up. Next my eyes landed on the red rocket that was Destruction, streaking through the sky and colliding with the Black cloak who was desperately trying to escape.

She moved so fast that I didn’t see exactly what happened between the two of them, but I did see his body fall and what I was certain was his head being tossed casually into her Void Storage.

I chased after her once the danger was clear. She was grinning like a cheshire cat.  “We need to trap the rest like that! I imagine we could clear the planet soon enough with that attack Mal.”

I wasn’t so convinced. “They’ll cotton on to the trick soon enough. That only worked because they came close enough. We might manage to do it once or twice more, but they’ll find a work around if we stay. I say let’s just get the hell out of here and speak with Clive about what we do next.”

“That’s probably the wisest course, but we still have to get out of here. Your new trick will help with that, and even if it doesn’t work again, there is still a combined attack between us to try out.”

“Eventually. Destruction, I’m absolutely wrecked after that battle. And the one before that. I need to rest.”

Her face soured for a moment, then softened. “It’s easy to forget you are but a babe, Mal. Especially after that attack. But fear not. I have just the place to hide until you recover.