Chapter 15: Thinning The Swarm I

Cassie had seen his fair share of Outsider horrors back in Albion, when the cultists in control of the town had stopped pretending and had started openly exerting their influence on the population. But even so, what this Caulder guy could do was beyond the pale. Outsiders were horrible and alien and terrifying but this guy's creations were all that and also infused with a vileness that could only be achieved with human intellect.

However, seeing Outside horrors daily had let him build up a resistance to the worst of it. Gaining the power to fight back against the monsters had been both terrifying and exhilarating. Exhilarating because he wasn't helpless any longer and could fight these beasts but terrifying because now he was expected to fight them. Either way, the last months had been gut-churning and scary and disconcerting but here, for the first time, he felt confident. He could fight back against these beasts. While his powers weren't particularly good at destroying those thralls his magic allowed him to be useful in a defensive capacity, deflecting the Darklight attacks that were otherwise so devastating.

Elaine had told him about the way Evelyn had been hurt thanks to one of those attacks, had told him how she'd lost her shit when Evelyn had tried to sacrifice herself for her, and Cassie knew that he was going to do his damndest to keep something like that from happening again.

But not only was his magic terrific at warding off the Red Rider's attack, he could also feel his First To The Fray ability radiating out from him, making everyone around him stronger. Just the fact that he was here was making it that much more likely that everyone else would make it out okay.

It gave him a confidence that he only felt very rarely, the confidence that usually only came from being on stream, from being all dolled-up and in his element while his fans cheered him on.

**

“So you're interested in ritual magic then?” Ophelia asked Prudence.

The two of them were still busy taking care of the walking ritual circles. Ophelia had already destroyed three of the six and Prudence had confirmed that the spells they'd been set to cast had been nasty stuff. So far they'd found a spell that would summon hair-thin wires that would carve apart anything that tried to move through them, a rain cloud of Aqua Regia – the strongest acid in the world, capable of dissolving even gold – and one very nasty spell that would create a new pit trap filled with poisonous stakes every couple minutes.

Had any of them been left unchecked, they might have slain most of Project Divinity. Of course, that made it all the more important for the two of them to hurry up and take care of the remaining circles. But the urgency didn't mean there was no time for small talk.

“Where's this coming from?” Prudence asked.

“Just curious what kind of person you are. You don't strike me as the kind of person to pour over magic textbooks for hours.”

“You'd be surprised,” Prudence said. “Magic is a fascinating field of research. I am a soldier, you're not wrong about that, but studying magic is still interesting.”

“Did you just call magic a field of research?”

“It is. In Heaven and Hell most people can do magic. And when magic is commonplace, it becomes just another science. It has rules. Of course magic can create all kinds of amazing effects, but it's internally consistent. But I will admit that part of why I like to study magic is sheer utility. Case in point, ritual magic.”

“How so?”

“In most fights you don't have time to think up complicated spells. You just have to work with what you've prepared beforehand. But with ritual circles you can prepare very complicated magic before battle. And then all you need to do is pump power into it.”

“Okay, but still, I've never seen you work ritual magic before.”

“Pull out my sword,” Prudence said.

Ophelia did. “Okay, still not seeing any ritual circles.”

“Press the buttons Gimel, Bet and Resch.”

“The what?”

Prudence rolled her eyes, reached over and pressed three buttons set inconspicuously into the guard of the sword. Immediately three ritual circles made of light popped into existence, encircling the blade parallel to each other.

“The blade can create virtual ritual circles with light magic, kinda like a computer emulating another device. Then all you need to do is pump Winds into the circles to activate the spells. Please don't do that now, though, that spell could burn a hole into our Gospel.”

Ophelia yanked her hand away. “This is pretty impressive stuff. Are these things common in Heaven?”

“The general idea is in use but this sword is custom-built for me. I came up with the idea and asked Leonardo to make it for me. He continuously refers to it as a toy, which is annoying.”

“I get the feeling that Leonardo can be a very annoying person,” Ophelia agreed.

“He's a great guy. Most of the time,” Prudence countered.

“So you and him...” Ophelia trailed off.

Prudence chuckled. “Nope. Never.”

“Is it because you're gay?” Ophelia asked.

It was a very blunt question and it shook Prudence a little. In the past she would have angrily denied the accusation but these days she was perfectly fine with what she was, and with how she appeared to other people. Normally she would ask why Ophelia thought she might be gay but in this case she could guess. When the vampire had opened that bedroom door stark naked Prudence had eaten the eye candy and asked for seconds. So instead she said: “I'm bi and that's not the issue.” Ophelia was about to open her mouth and Prudence continued: “And before you ask, no, the rumors aren't entirely true. Leonardo isn't gay. He's bi as well. I'm just not attracted to him and even if I was, he thinks I'm too young for him.”

“Too young?” Ophelia asked.

“He's centuries old, I'm only decades old.”

“That... that's a thing?” Ophelia asked, flabbergasted. Even pureblooded vampires weren't that uptight.

“Not really,” Prudence said. “Most angels and demons don't give a damn so long as everyone's of age and willing. This is just a Leonardo thing.”

“Huh...” was all Ophelia could say to that.

“Look alive, there's the next circle.”

**

Abigail was part of the second line of defense, which let her observe the fighting taking place in front of her. These thralls were way too tough for rank and file troops. They weren't particularly dangerous and Abigail hadn't yet had to use the Font of Soma she'd borrowed from Evelyn but still, they made for a great distraction. Because while the front line wasn't in any danger of falling they were also unable to focus on the swarm of Yellow Wraiths surrounding the Red Rider, both of whom were steadily advancing.

The strands of energy the Yellow Wraiths used to connect to their zombies were normally so thin as to be invisible but this was different. Not only were these hair-thin strands of necromantic energy wrapped up in the red haze, there were also so many of them that they looked like some sort of bizarre crimson spiderweb or, if she unfocused her eyes just a little, it looked like an obscene parody of a halo, as if the Red Rider was back-lit by the most unholy corruption of divine energy.

Thankfully she, as well as the rest of the second line, weren't bogged down in thralls and so could focus on thinning out that swarm. Everyone around her was either firing bows or guns or was chucking spells downrange. Abigail herself was using Evelyn's Deva Arms and could therefore use her harp to play a song to buff everyone around her while using those two phantom arms to hurl light and fire magic.

Each Yellow Wraith was surrounded by its own personal shield bubble but the bubbles seemed weirdly fragile to Abigail. She wasn't sure whether this was due to them giving up most of their shielding capabilities to keep the Red Rider safe or whether she'd just become that much stronger that enemies that used to be tough to kill suddenly died like flies. Either way, she wasn't going to question it so long as it worked.

**

Elaine was acutely aware that while everyone was doing their best to get rid of the thralls, this wasn't actually getting them any closer to stopping the Red Rider.

The beast was using a classic tarpit tactic against them, forcing them into combat with enemies that were tough to kill and just dangerous enough that they couldn't safely be ignored. The fact that her crystal blades were nearly useless against these creatures made it even more vexing. She could carve and slice and sever as much as she wanted, unless she turned those things into ground meat the red haze would just hold them in shape and keep them in the fight. She needed something decisive, something that would allow them to wipe the thralls out en masse so they could focus on the actual threat.

And anyway, her magic had gotten an order of magnitude stronger even without activating her Higher Form, so what better time to test out just how powerful she'd become? She reached out with one hand and typed a message to Alexis.

Elaine smiled.

And then she opened herself up to all the anger, all the fear and all the determination swirling around her. Dozens of people were fighting to protect one of the last remnants of humanity from the monsters that had taken over the world. Most of them had family in that camp behind them, making the struggle even more desperate for them. The emotions made for a heady cocktail and the Winds of Magic flocked to them.

This was the stuff ritual magic was made from. Get a bunch of people together and make them feel similar emotions, then channel all the Winds they attracted into some huge working. Ritual circles were helpful for that purpose but they weren't necessary, especially if the spell wasn't too complicated.

And Elaine didn't need a complicated spell. She just needed something that could destroy a whole army of mindless monsters. Of course, the fact that occupying all those Winds would also make it that much more likely that Ophelia and Prudence had time to destroy all the ritual circles before they could set off their payload was a nice bonus.

And so she drew on air, drew on fire and drew on Typhon's crystal powers, weaving the tapestry of Winds into one enormous working that would help her strike a decisive blow.

When the strain of keeping the magic in check was almost too much to bear she let go and unleashed the power.

Instantly a whirlwind of fire and crystal shards popped into existence in front of her, whirling and sucking in the thralls that weren't yet locked in combat. Not only was the fire hot enough to burn them into ash, continuously fueled by the funnel of fresh air, but the crystal shards being transported by gale force winds shredded and tore, carving the thralls up even as they burned.

Despite the display of wanton destruction this was not an uncontrollable cataclysm. Elaine had perfect control over the spell and directed it to catch as many of the thralls as she could while minimizing the risk to her allies.

“Throw the thralls into the whirlwind!” Alexis called out, the cute blonde somehow managing to make herself heard over the ruckus of the fight. “We can get rid of them altogether!” And to demonstrate she waved her shiny new sword and blasts of wind picked up three thralls and threw them into the whirlwind, where they were instantly torn apart and incinerated.

After that demonstration the entirety of Project Divinity started pitching in. Air magic, force magic, shadow magic and a dozen other elements were being used in creative ways to chuck thralls into Elaine's tornado. Later she would learn that Abigail had decided to flex her new space magic by teleporting thralls directly into the tornado.

Just a couple weeks ago the sheer thought of casting such a spell would have been enough to cause Elaine to faint but now not only could she cast it without keeling over, she could also sustain it perfectly well. Of course, there was absolutely no way she could do anything else and she had to rely on Alexis and Cassie to make sure nothing attacked her because she couldn't defend herself without dropping the spell but she was able to hold it while everyone else supplied it with fresh enemies to shred.

Soon, the ranks of the thralls had dwindled to nothing and the tornado had become pitch black from all the burnt particles swirling around inside it. She didn't know if that soot was dangerous and she wasn't going to risk it.

Typhon, can you hold that for me?

What are you planning?, the ancient god inside her asked.

Trying out that space magic Abigail gave me.

Okay then. I'll keep the spell together. Don't expect me to move it, though. I need more of your brain functions for that.

That's fine, just keep it where it is, Elaine said.

Handing the reins of the spell over to her Soul Shards felt bizarre. It didn't feel unpleasant or difficult. Rather, it felt bizarre because even though she'd never done this, never even considered it, it felt like the easiest thing in the world to do it.

When she had let go of the spell she spent a moment waiting for it to collapse in on itself. When it didn't she started reaching for that brand new space magic.

Space magic was a bizarre branch of magic, entirely different from anything she was used to casting. While it wasn't inherently more difficult to cast it was harder to wrap her brain around it because it felt so much more abstract. Without her vastly enhanced brain functions she likely wouldn't have managed to make her next spell work but as she was she did.

She reached out and then used her magic to compress the entire tornado down, squeezing it more and more, applying force equivalent to a couple hundred Gs on it, and it shrank in on itself.

This wasn't too terribly different to what she could do with air magic but it was so much more efficient, so much more feasible. As the swirling air was compressed more and more it turned to plasma, hot enough to vaporize the soot. Except thanks to the space magic pressing in from all around the vapor had nowhere to go and kept being squeezed into solid form. Eventually Elaine reached a point of resistance and she kept straining for a moment longer before she realized the problem.

Let go of the spell, I've got it from here, she told Typhon.

Alright, letting go... now.

From one moment to the next the resistance vanished and the space spell compressed everything down as far as it would go. Perhaps it was a testament to the way Elaine's brain was wired or perhaps it was due to Typhon's Soul Shard but when her spell finished a blade clattered to the ground. The blade had the exact same shape as the swords she usually created but instead of being made of clear, transparent gemstone it was made of a dark substance and threaded through with streaks of red.

She reached out to touch it and before her fingers could come within a foot of it she reflexively jerked her hand back. The blade radiated heat to the extent that the asphalt beneath it was bubbling.

She hadn't expected to create a sword. She'd just wanted to compress the soot of the dead thralls into a mass that wouldn't be able to give anyone any nasty airborne Outsider diseases. But this looked like a weapon. A scary weapon but a weapon nonetheless. She gave the thing a scan.

“Evie?” she called out. “Can you make sense of this?”

With no enemies left in their immediate vicinity Evelyn hurried over and used her own scan on the thing.

ChrisLensman

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