Disclaimer. I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.
While waiting for the edits of chapter 5 I decided it would be a good time to rewrite chapter 1 to more or less bring it up to standards (whatever those are in this case).
I still recommend the Metal Gear Rising OST and for something more Berserk related I do the same for Battle Beast.
The Heir of the Void has edited from chapter 2 onward. I'll reupload this chapter when he finds the time to give it his treatment.
The state and grammar and general readability should be better than before though.
All that said and done, please enjoy the following madness.
I lay on my back looking up and I was treated with the sight of the smoking hot woman who was cradling me. The warm light of the forest fire we were in the epicenter of highlighted every curve, every contour, and every detail of her almost naked body. From the full, perky breast to the writhing, fleshy dreadlocks or the patches of smoldering skin being ignored. My hand found my trusty revolver and a bullet obliterated the puzzled look on her face while the back of her head exploded in gore.
The corpse started to fall backwards and for once I didn't have to worry about collateral damage.
"Fuego!" I roared, incinerating as much of her body as possible, launching the rest in the mysterious inferno surrounding me. The distance between me and said inferno had widened as I had pulled residual heat from my immediate proximity to help me fuel that knee-jerk spell.
I had to deal with it somewhere in the near future, kind off inconsiderate of people to set fire to forest and disappointing Smokey Bear. For now though, I was content lying there and trying file away the sights of the grove that had previously occupied the spot of cleansing fire.
Hell's bells, I have to spend some quality time with Maggie to get that out of my system.
"Harry! I somehow expected that following the trail of destruction would lead to you." Chimed the pixie hovering mere inches over my face and disregarding physics by doing so horizontally without really doing much with his wings.
I immediately sat up with a manly grunt. It wasn't a startled squeak at all, don't listen to the mischievous wee-folk.
"Why is it that if there is a fire, I'm always the prime suspect?" I muttered, Toot-Toot merrily laughing in admiration of my masculinity. "But you are a sight for sore eyes, Major-General Toot-Toot Minimus. But returning to more pressing matters at hand; why are you here and where's 'here' exactly?"
I saw Toot think for a while making a striking figure with the light dancing off his custom made silver and composite carbon armor. He measured 20 inches tall nowadays, all strong, lean musculature. The customized box cutter and his silver sword adding to the image of a fierce warrior prince. Even with the tuft of purple hair coming out from under his helmet and the surprisingly graceful dragonfly wings growing out of his back, nobody would have blinked an eye if you'd told him he was a direct descendant from king Leonidas or some equally impressive figure.
Especially if you considered his growing list of achievements against enemies way outside his weight class.
"Well I was coming back from the Nevernever after I went hunting with Lacuna." He began, making me wonder what exactly they were hunting and wondering whether or not I wanted to know. "We wanted to go back separately, I didn't want to be publicly associated with a leek-eater and she was saying something about clogged arteries and contagious stupidity. Anyways as I was close enough to my pizza rations to smell it, I was suddenly yanked in to the outer edges of the Nevernever and then I followed the trail of fire to find you!"
"So we're still in the Nevernever?" I asked, the spatial gymnastics that lead to my displacement left me a bit disorientated. "Either I've just met trolls with extremely good logistics or there is something more going on here. Also this is the first time the amulet isn't giving me any information."
Which was a scary thought. I had gotten the amulet, or more specifically the gemstone set in the pentagram from my mother Margaret Lefay. She had spent enough time in the Nevernever, much more than many normal wizards combined, to map out a large portion of it and getting to the point where she could predict shortcuts and where danger lurked on the other side. She had stored all that knowledge into the gem before my birth, before she was killed.
And now it wasn't giving me any information.
"Technically speaking we haven't left." Toot-Toot replied, probably using the multidimensional navigation system that came standard with the Wee Folk. "That said, it doesn't really feel right."
I however didn't come with a dimension-dar so I had to rely on experimentation for my primitive mind to understand.
"Stand back, I'm going to try to open a portal and I have no idea what might happen." I recommended the head of my personal army.
"Aparturum." I said, clawing my hand down with the intention of ripping open the very fabric of reality.
The good news was that we weren't bathed in boiling acid, we weren't crushed by endless amounts of water rushing out and nothing tried to rip my face off.
The bad news was that nothing else happened either. No tear in the air showing alien landscapes and giving reality the finger. Of course the normal version of the spell had safe guards to prevent me going in to deep into the Nevernever and ending in hell in one form or the other. A precaution I had taken after literally invading Hades for a burglary not too long ago. It was the first time it failed me entirely though.
I saw Toot-Toot look at me shaking his head in pity. "Could you give me your theory to explain this malfunction, Toot? For the sake of convenience, assume I know nothing."
"Very well, Jon." The major-general started, pulling a large flipchart from behind his back. Somehow. "It appears that earth, or something similar enough, has fused with the nearest layers of the Nevernever."
My head was already hurting from the events that lead to this and the explanation wasn't helping that. I was busy trying to keep track of where Toot was pulling the robe, the cane and various teacher paraphilia from on top of keeping attention to the flipcharts. Which in turn were showing an earthy ball falling through a sticky layer of something, being coated with it and hanging to the layer by a small tube. Then other, different colored layer came, fusing partially with the first one, building tube like structure and then it devolved into six or seven dimensioned madness.
"This means that I would advise against opening random portals around the place. As it stands it would open a door to heaven or hell." He looked pensive for a short moment, a slender, elegant finger tapping his chin. "Strike the heaven part in my last statement. I get the feeling that it would almost certainly be one afterlife dimension of eternal and unimaginable torment."
Stars and stones, I was getting a foreboding sense of dread at that point. It started to sound like I'd be stuck here for a while. Speaking of which.
"So if I understand you correctly we're stranded one something that may or may not is earth as we know it, after some kind of literal world changing event and it's very likely we're stuck. Meh, I've had worse."
As soon as I had uttered that last sentence a cold shudder ran along my back and I could feel the air somehow tense up. I had to keep my running mouth in check.
"I haven't been able to detect any pizza in a hundred or so miles around us, so either we somehow travelled back in time." I shuddered once more, this time because of having possibly broken the sixth law. "Or we're on some parallel earth."
"So we only have to find that connecting bit between this earth and the regular Nevernever on foot."
Toot-Toot looked like he wanted to object, knowing him it would be to remind me that he'd just fly.
Now that my adrenaline levels had returned to normal, I was reminded of something I noticed before the fight. The air was charged with latent magical energy. Previously I thought that I had been transported to another part of the Nevernever but even though latent, the magic was somehow livelier than over there. It somehow seemed positively playful, which might be a point towards bizzaro-world instead of time travel and chance on decapitation.
I stood up and prepared myself to face this unexpected roadblock between me and my recovering social life in Chicago.
"So let's get going then. The quicker we're back the less punitive stories I have to read to Maggie and the sooner you're able to do something about that massive case of dandruff you developed over here." I suggested to the Pixie, who was now examining himself in wide-eyed wonder.
"Let's do that. I can't wait to rub in the fact that I'm now producing fairy dust to Lacuna." The pixie answered with mischievous glee.
They might have their differences, especially dietary ones, but his denial was starting to get painful. Lacuna and Toot had grown close since we capture the female pixie blood knight during an attempt to assassinate me with iron needles. They sparred, they quarreled and apparently they terrorized the Nevernever together. And still they didn't want to be seen exiting a dimension together.
It was times like these that I sympathized with Thomas over my actions.
Before doing anything however, we had to get out of the fire. I locked onto the conglomeration of magic I was heading towards before the incident of the ex-grove happened. I gauged the distance the fire would have spread with my considerable and accidental experience and formed my spell.
"Perimo!" I declared, the spell ripping the energy and heat out of the fire in 20 feet wide highway towards and beyond the edge of the forest fire and storing it in the vast reservoir of the Spear of Destiny that adorned my staff. Or spear now, as it was a competent poking tool.
Reaching out to the reservoir in the Longinus I formed a second spell that would keep me from getting smoker lungs. "I'd stay close to me if I were you, Toot. Ventas externa!"
A gentle wind came down on me, providing me and Toot with fresh, cool air before flowing away from us. I had it centered on the Spear, letting it feed off its reserves to keep it going and allowing the spell to be mobile.
Having turned one of the most holy and magical artifacts into a makeshift air conditioners I made my way towards the accumulation of magical energy. It wouldn't be too far, considering the size and intensity of it.
I should have known better.
OoOoO
I had to make a choice. Do what's right and suffer the consequences or do the smart thing and simply let it happen.
It would mean the end of our bard. The evidence was stacked against her they had produced a laundry list of charges, including thievery, arson, treason and jaywalking. She had done all of those things except the last one.
She, however, had not given up. With skills honed by years of writing reports, she defended herself, coming up with cover stories for everything her judge, our game master threw at her.
The fire burning in the hearth my living room illuminated the rest of the players and managed to give Injun Joe a menacing aura. I knew it wasn't going well and I realized they were doing too much of what my barbarian couldn't stand.
"ENOUGH TALKING!" I boomed, startling the occupants of the big table.
"I take the sword of the guard and throw it at judge Turpin." I continued in an indoor voice, eliciting groans all around me.
I succeeded with the first part of my 'plan' but missed miserably. "Oops." Was all I had to say to as chaos ensued, a sheepish smile plastered on my face.
Maggie, sitting on my lap fell into a giggling fit at that.
Murphy gave me the evil eye, apparently not appreciating my attempt at saving her and I started to fear the machinations she would come up with together with Maggie while I was out on patrol later that evening.
"Guards, seize them!" Injun Joe declared and as GM began elaborating on their actions. Somewhere in between I could have sworn I could hear him muttering. "And he still wonders why the white council mistrusts him."
He was ordered by the Merlin to keep an eye out on me when Rashid and I announced my return as the Winter Knight. He tag-teamed with Ebenazar and sometime Rashid. At least he finally knew that I behaved much better when I actually liked the persons watching me. The reason of this precaution had probably something to do with me being the Winter Knight and thus difficult for the Merlin to control. Even more so than before. Somehow. Also if something went wrong they'd probably need something of Senior Council level to stop me.
"I cast fireball" announced Georgia, the situation devolving ever more. It failed spectacularly, annihilating a supporting column.
We were able to recruit him for our roleplaying sessions while training under him in the arts of shape shifting. Tera West had put in a good word and it allowed him to fresh up his knowledge on psychology with Georgia.
I decided to join them as a bonding exercise. The end result was that the Alphas in Chicago were able to wear fitting clothes once more and I was able to become the big bad wolf.
My almost seven foot frame, clad with rippling muscles that came with my Winter assisted training regime translated in a more than three foot tall, 5 foot long entity of black fur, fangs and claws. It would do just fine with dealing with mortal enemies in a non-mortal fashion.
I had been able to push the iron from my revolver and the Spear of destiny into my fur when transforming, isolating it from my Wintery side. It accumulated in pattern similar to the runes of my duster if I was wearing it, making me look rather snazzy. Also those runes were still active in this form. Moving hadn't been a problem, after all the counts of caninefication and the Mantle's natural affinity to this form.
We would probably leave for our patrol sooner than expected as Andi, our ranger, was down to throwing knifes and the Hellhound she had somehow be able to charm. Butters, our paladin, had taken a wound and was slowly bleeding out.
Waldo Butters had grown since he became the Batman Jedi Knight of the Cross. Muscles had grown on his wiry frame from the training under the Michael. The Sparring he did with the Einherjaren certainly contributed as well.
Karrin, Butters and I had gone to the BFS building after he had learned the basics in sword fighting. He had to make good on his promise to the Soldiers of Valhalla of joining them in the ring after obtaining a lightsaber. I used the time between admiring the tenacity of the small medical examiner facing against outhouses made of flesh to learn the finer points of smashing and poking things with a pointed stick under the strict tutelage of karrin.
Said knowledge was tested in the ring as well. Besides the experience it gave me I could help to temper Winter with, it also provided Winter and outlet to vent. Butters quickly rose to questionable stardom through his underdog victories against century old warriors whereas in my case it was the sheer ferocity of my attacks.
The lay on hand spell of Bill the cleric had used on me had apparently misfired in such a spectacular fashion that Listens-to-Wind deemed it appropriate to make my barbarian's armor disintegrate.
And thus began the epic of the stark naked barbarian fighting the elite guards. It was enough to make even our walking shaggy carpet to 'haroomph' in amusement. For the rest of the crew it was possibly even funnier as they knew I had done free fighting more than once myself.
Thomas would have probably laughed the hardest if he was here instead of scheming, backstabbing and whatever else the White Court did.
The idea of letting Winter vent was his suggestion and I had actually listened to him. I know, I was also waiting on the end of the world but at least the sky hadn't come down just yet.
The combination of sparring with the Einherjar and the nightly patrols had proven to be enough to keep the Mantle from affecting me too much.
Karrin had managed to buff our group to the point we were getting the upper hand all the while she 'found' valuable items on guards she had convinced to not attack her.
It didn't matter in the end.
"That last attack took out the remaining pillar. Rocks fall, everyone dies." Injun Joe solemnly announced before cracking a grin. "But do invite me for the next session if you will."
"What happened?" Toot-Toot asked having just come in through an open window and surveying the mess of cards, sheets and furious scribbles on them. "Wait let me guess. It has been another case of 'enough talking', hasn't it?"
The laughter, was enough to answer that particular question. Said question also caused the wooden skull on the table to giggle and snort in ways physically impossible for her anatomy.
"Back to business, the Winter Queen has need of your services, my liege."
Nodding, I carefully lifted the sleeping Maggie from my lap and carried her to her bed. Mouse curled up beside it and saw Mister strutting into the room as I left. Karrin had said she'd stay before starting which allowed Maggie to sleep over in my new house. It wasn't particular large but it was close enough to the Carpenter's. Michael had left after dropping Maggie off and returned soon after. He had more agents of chaos at home and Charity would be glad getting some help dealing with them.
We had gotten into a rhythm with Maggie alternating the place she slept and Karrin helping out whenever I had a patrol planned that evening with the Alphas. Or when Mab wanted something.
Working under Mab as her problem solver wasn't as bad as expected. Up until now she had only sent me to deal with warlocks who had summoned Outsiders. I hadn't much qualms executing them, as outsider summoning was pretty much at the end of a successful warlock's path and almost always needed human sacrifice to work. On top of that Mab, after inquiring about it, paid very well and it generated brownie points with the Counsel. Not like they dared to move against Mab but at least they could pretend I was also their weapon.
Everyone in the room knew that it most likely wouldn't last. One day or another Mab would force me to make another choice that would make me despise myself.
I hugged Karrin and gave her a kiss before turning to leave. She was doing her damnedest to make her recovery a 95% instead of the, according to the doctors, optimistic 90%. The least I could do was try to keep up with her.
I grabbed my bag of arcane paraphilia and revolver and put on my beloved duster. The heavy, silver infused blasting rod had a reassuring weight as I hung it in its loops inside of my duster. Finally I grabbed my staff, the Spear of Destiny, out of the umbrella stand.
The reason why I learned how to fight with a short spear was simple. After the heist of Hades I vowed to learn how to use the holy relics we had 'taken' from within to use against the outsiders. The spearhead had been an obvious first choice.
The Longinus greatly helped me focusing any spell I casted and it cut through flesh and enchantments as well if not better as the Holy Swords or the enchanted silver swords of the wardens. From what Alice, Bob and I had been to learn it did what it did thanks to Faith but mostly thanks to the reservoir of magical energy contained inside of the spearhead. This also allowed it to be used as an anchoring point for wards.
The staff was made from the same tree as my old one, the wood from Ebenazar's estate. After finishing carving it and taking it on several test runs I had paid the Svartalven handsomely to infuse my staff and blasting rod with silver and reinforce on non-magical ways. While I was splashing around more money than I ever had before getting the Winter Knight gig I also ordered silver swords and armor for my army of wee-folk.
After the Svartalven had finished the job and had even installed a mechanism that would allow me to attach and detach the spearhead to the staff that managed to be strong enough to be me-proof, it was Lucio's turn. She hadn't regained enough of her strength to do all the enchantments on the swords she made before falling victim to the body snatcher. It, however, was enough to strengthen both staff and rod to a point I could use it to bash people and monsters alike with Winter infused strength all day without breaking.
The end result were two sticks intricate lines of silver runes running along their length with bands of silver crisscrossing them to improve magic conductance. Anyone or anything that touched the spear without my explicit permission would be zapped. Those who persisted after that would be zapped harder until finally they'd only leave a grease stain on the ground.
Of course Elaine had laughed at my persistence of clinging to traditional and now blinged out tools. It also didn't help that I now could penetrate things with one of my phallic objects.
I hadn't looked back as I left the house, my house. I would return.
I even found myself wondering whether or not I'd learn a new language this time. I had had my second daughter, the spirit of air and knowledge, scion of a mortal and a fallen angel, AKA Alice rewire some of the unused parts in my brain. She was the reason I was managing my full program as well as I did without neglecting Demonreach and Alfred. She would let me practice that which I had learned that day while I slept. I also occasionally took her with me when I was running about in the city. I even trusted her enough to let her ride along with me, which improved my learning ability even more. I reckoned that the Winter Knight would be an international job and thus I took a gamble and let her rewire my brain just enough that I could pick up languages much quicker. I had learned plenty of French curses while I was hunting a warlock who had chosen to terrorize France.
I reached the street and got into the Munstermobile II that was waiting for me with running engine. We took off without talking a word, off to ensure the existence of reality for at least a few more days.
OoOoO
It was another nasty one. The warlock I was stalking through the Siberian forest in the Nevernever had gone the traditional route. He had found an ancient tome and used it to gain power. The mess the sudden extinction of the Red Court had allowed him to fly under the radar for long enough to break most of the Laws and gather power. That he operated in Siberia proper had helped him in that regard.
Then he decided he needed a pet Outsider of his own. He controlled the minds of seven young, female virgins and made them collectively commit "suicide" in a ritualistic fashion to summon and bind to him the beasty. I was angry, furious even at that senseless loss of human lives. My inner caveman was testing his the smashiness of his club and pointiness of his spear as I inched my way closer towards to his camp.
I had been hunting them using the stench exuding from the Outsider. It reeked both physically as metaphysically.
He had made at least on fatal mistake. He had fled into the Nevernever after acquiring his otherworldly servant straight into the domain of Winter and had trekked to the borders of that. His summoned muscle had kept him save from the predators in here. I didn't need that, I was the alpha predator at this place and moment and I was left alone. Even the very land was subtly helping me to remove the taint that had come to it. The shadows seemed to purposely hide my four legged form and shrubbery bent out of my way as I approached them. Even the wind had turned as I was stalking them to keep the Outsider from smelling him.
Looking at the back relaxed back of the warlock I wondered if he knew just what he summoned and what the consequences would be. Hell, he probably thought that the Outsider simply was a demon and that stories about faery were simply that, stories.
He would learn the error of his ways soon enough. And then there will be silence.
I soundlessly charged him and shifted back to human form to deliver a decapitating strike with the Spear of destiny. The only warning he got was the small magical pulse of me transforming and that only managed to startle him slightly. I felt a slight resistance as my blade cut through protective spells, flesh and bones with ease. The lifeless body collapsed in a puddle of fresh blood and excrements and his head rolled towards his summoned monstrosity.
I had killed him without giving a chance to retaliate. It was foolish to try and kill a wizard that saw you coming thanks to how devastating the Death Curse could be. My mother's had prevented the White King to gain power from feeding on humans, weakening him until he was supplanted by the help of yours truly.
The monster, Reek I decided gagging on its abysmal stench, began to stir as I used the leftover momentum from my strike to impale something that might have been a shoulder. With a vicious twist I ripped the spear out, nearly severing the limb that it was connecting to the main body.
I saw its retaliation coming and I ducked under the heavy handed but none the less deadly swipe at my head and used that new position to lay asunder two of his three legs.
A tentacle came down on my with the intention to both crush me and to stabilize itself.
"Too slow." I snarled the worlds mangled as I transformed while rolling out of the strike that menaced the ground I previously knelt.
His remaining leg, at least the remaining one that seemed structurally important appeared right in front of my muzzle. I bit down, ignoring the mucus drenched moss that covered it, and with a sharp snap of my head, ripped it out of the socket. I noticed that Winter had covered the insides of my mouth with a protective layer of frost. That probably meant that the mucus was pretty bad.
I dashed away as the asymmetric caricature of anatomy toppled over and shifted once more to face him, my staff squarely pointed at the thing.
A defensive bubble flickered to life as I channeled energy through my newest model. The top of the line materials improving speed of said action.
The head of the warlock bounced off harmlessly, the force behind the throw visible deforming it.
"I have to thank you Wizard. Freeing my of the bonds of servitude has earned you the right of…"
"Infrigia!" I shouted, cutting him off. The second biggest annoyance of the job had to be hearing the monologs of those things. The biggest one would be that spells sliding of their skins, harmlessly. As Reek demonstrated ever so kindly.
"… being killed painlessly." The Outsider continued, its voice as pleasant as nails dragging over a blackboard. He burst into a raspy, joyless laughter as my attack hit him. "Do you really think that an attack of that caliber would harm the great and mighty…"
I really couldn't stand to listening to this jackass. I shifted back into wolf form to get back into the melee, shifted back to being a human mid jump and impaled him with the Longinus.
The grotesque form fell once more as the tentacles that had pushed it upright jerked upon the holy relic deeply penetrating the torso.
"Negate this." I muttered before adding, louder. "Ignis!"
A miniature sun sprung to live in the depths of his torso, the place where any self-respecting stored his vital organs, greedily devouring the Outsider from the inside out.
Here in Winter you don't go the sun but the sun comes to you.
I stepped out of the reach of its death throws and felt a satisfaction radiating from the Mantle tinged with a certain sense of disappointment, mirroring my own feelings even though they had different sources.
For the mantle it had been a satisfying hunt even though the final enemy didn't give much of a fight while I was glad to rid the world from another monstrosity. Too bad people had to die before I was able to do something about it.
I considered a bit of wisecracking but decided it would be a waste of time. Even though I despised the cliché ways most of the supernatural baddies behaved I knew that I'd be in trouble if people read the evil overlord list and suddenly stopped giving monologs while being blissfully unaware of the Wonder Ball nature of their defenses.
Just look how far it had brought 'gentleman' Johnny Marcone and he was a vanilla mortal butting heads with supernatural forces. He even ran a bank that stored wealth for entities such as Ferrrovax and Hades, for fucks' sake.
With one last look at the black spot on the ground and the grown miniature sun dying a sputtering death as it had run out of fuel, I started to make my way back home. And here I thought the spell to be useless in combat situations
A thunderous roar was heard as gravity suddenly shifted ninety degrees broke trees in two. 'Falling' parallel I was treated by the sight of the landscape ahead twisting and folding up upon itself. The shapes it formed would be enough to give Escher nightmares. A second pulse hit me and blackness ensued.
OoOoO
As I finally decided to return to the land of the living I found myself stuck somewhere in the canopy of a tree. The close proximity of the tree enabled to determine I was in a different forest than I started in.
For starters the trees had leaves instead of needles. Also the snow and bitter cold had been traded in for warmth pollen. The air was too charged with magic for any place on earth so I concluded that I had probably been traveled to somewhere in Summer. That might prove itself to be a tad dangerous as Titania didn't exactly like this harmless wizard and Winter.
Also, if I read the signs correctly the dawn of a new day had just been upon us.
I felt an aura of dark energy and after climbing higher I saw a plume of smoke at the horizon coming from the same direction. I could feel a source of magic beyond the smoke. I figured I might as well go in that general direction as my amulet wasn't telling me anything. If I was lucky I'd find an outpost of the Council and I'd be back in time to make breakfast for Maggie and Karrin.
Yeah right.
My descent was slowed down by claws of ice I had rammed in the side of the tree and I started walking as soon as I hit the mossy forest floor. I decided to give the source of black magic a look as well, it being on the way and all. If it looked like something I could manage easily enough I might be able use it to cheer up the sullen Winter and thus preventing future problems.
I reached the source not even five minutes later and was greeted by the sight of a lush grove bordering a cave system. At least if you featured noxious fungi, rampant decay and an ungodly smell in the description of a lush grove.
It looked like something that would be too much trouble for what it was worth especially after having dealt with the stench of Reek all night long. I surveyed the scene one last time.
It was then I saw it. Covered in flies I saw a red fleshy mass near the entrance of the cave. Upon closer inspection I was able to make out a human corpse.
Collapsed with the remains of her face pulled in a grimace of agony and despair I could barely identify her as a woman. Flies were crawling in and out of large cuts all over her body, maggots were wriggling in and out of the smashed remains of her nose and eye sockets, concentrating on the ruptured remains of her eyeballs. As I came even closer I scare away the flies and they took off in a swarm of madness. She was sprawled on her belly, her intestines spilling out besides her. Large chunks of flesh were missing from her legs and at least one breast was torn off with enough force to take surrounding flesh with it. I could now see clearly see her lungs inside her ribcage. I could see blood on her thighs that didn't originated from any external wound. Her arms were simply broken. They twisted in unnatural angles, they had too many bends in them. The still managed to point in a direction.
They pointed to the corpse of a small boy in mangled to a similar degree. The stench of blood and feces started to overwhelm me as I realized what was covered by the writhing, buzzing black mass. Tens of bodies, a hundred corpses their density growing the closer they came to the entrance of the caves.
I closed my eyes and Listened. I have wondered for a long time whether that particular skill was something anyone could learn or it was something you had to be a wizard for. I was able to follow a conversation across the mall and I noticed it was enhanced since I had acquired the Mantle. I Listened and could not hear anything besides the grunts and guttural sounds of the wretched creatures that did this. No sobbing, no wails of agony and despair.
There were no survivors of this killing frenzy.
I shot right past the hot furious rage I had felt so often right to tranquil fury that promised utter annihilation of the enemy and I was greeted by the Winter.
I took a step forward, rime blossoming from my footprint and ice starting to cover my duster. And then another, towards the entrance of the cave the cold growing bitterer as I went.
There would be now screaming coming from me and there would be no survivors amongst the monsters that did this.
What goes around comes around. And something you get what's coming around... and sometimes you are what's coming around.
Micheal said that to me when I was agonizing over the destruction I had caused when dealing with Bianca. I did it mostly out of vengeance, that of my own as well as that of those who were killed at her hands. I didn't really buy it then and I avoided thinking about it as such as these thoughts are a very slippery slope in wizardry.
Now was time to test that particular theory as I reached the entrance and saw the sheen of several pairs of sickly yellow eyes focus on me from the darkness within.
Ice wouldn't do it I thought and Winter agreed.
I pointed my staff in the entrance and energy came to me as I readily prepared my spell
True focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity? That theory would be put to the test that day.
"Fuego." I whispered and I drew the needle thick beam of white hot flames across the entrance.
I had to brace myself as the sudden expansion of the air inside the caves rushed out hot enough to neutralize the aura of frost I had going on and to set trees nearby connected entrances ablaze.
The inside of the cavern was illuminated as trolls and ogres were incinerated by the thermal bloom alone, some of them gnawing on human remains as the killing field hit them. The rock wall exploded outward where the beam hit it scattering the ashes of nearby monsters. I also saw tunnels leading down even further.
I felt something hit my duster and calmly turned around to eviscerate the troll that attacked me. The one that came after was cleaved in two with similar ease and the one with after that.
I left a trail of corpses as I made my way to the edge of the area that was steeped in the repulsive black energy that was born from death and despair.
I turned around and focused at the earth that lay before me while causally slaughtering any and all trolls that came to close.
"Gravitus." I stated as I stabbed the earth, anchoring me to it.
The air was filled with alarmed cries of wildlife and the straining of trees dealing with the sudden lack of gravity. Then came the thunder as I the gravity of a two mile radius came down on an area a mere three hundred feet across. Trees near and on top of the troll nest exploded in flaming shrapnel as they were exposed to the heightened gravity running through trolls and ogres that barely made it outside the blast zone. Some of the shrapnel even managed to reach me and encountered the defensive bubble I had put up as I activated my spell.
The thunder of exploding trees and spreading fire was accompanied by a loud, low and unescapable rumble of the cave system collapsing under the enormous pressure.
That took care of the inhabitants of the cave now I had to deal with the stragglers and the lucky survivors.
"Flammemurus." I spoke and using the rebound of the earth after finishing my spell forced magma out of the ground, creating a liberal ring of magma spouting fonts around the nest. Now the trolls were trapped and the extermination could began.
"Now, you're locked in here with me." I muttered as I stabbed the troll that approached me, panicking.
I went to work stealing the heat of groups of trolls, freezing them in place and shattering them with force spells only for the stolen heat to be used in flame spells that set others and the environment ablaze. I impaled enormous ogres with even larger icicles. And the ogres that were standing behind them. Seeing the impaled ogres still struggling, they were treated with a bolt of evaporating lightning.
Attacks delivered by weapons, no doubt pilfered from their previous victims, bounced off my duster ineffectively before their owners were removed from this world by my hand.
I strolled around the growing, burning wasteland of splintered wood, ash and gore, systematically eradicating the trolls I encountered. It seemed that the land was helping me, boosting the power of my spells and greatly lessening the burden upon me. Even though the reservoir in the Spear of Destiny was being used it was at a far lesser rate than that it should be.
I juggled thermal energy around, alternating flash freezing areas with setting fire to the foliage inside and beyond the ring of fire. All the while Winter was singing in my veins driving me to utter ruthlessness.
The last monsters standing were a pair of ogres. I decided to take care of them in a more personal way.
Transforming into wolf me I charged the nearest one, it starting to shout in dread. I hamstrung the screaming ogre as I ran past it turning around and shifting as I made it past it. I sliced the back of the unharmed ogre open and jumped on the back of the toppling monster as I shifted. My claws digging deeply into the blood covered impromptu platform, I launched myself at the throat of hamstrung survivor. I bit down deeply, letting my momentum whip me around the neck of the ogre, ripping out his throat in the process. I shifted once more, midair, barreling towards the bleeding and convulsing ogre. With every bit of force I could muster and the added force of flight I impaled the skull of the last breathing ogre in the area with the silver but cap of my spear with a sickening crunch.
"You've just been parkour'd to death, you ugly motherfucker." I said to its remains as I pulled my spear out of its head.
I noticed how the wound was faintly smoking and filed the information somewhere in the back of my mind. It looked like somehow silver was filling in iron's role as the Bane.
I looked around the wasteland that had been my battlefield in awe of the sheer destruction I had been able to cause even seeing weird patches where ice and fire existed side by side.
I decided to vamos before someone, somehow made the innocent wizard do the cleanup.
I wanted to go, I was even moving again towards the accumulation of magical energy I had felt beyond the horizon.
But it was not meant to be. I could barely see a black shadow moving out of the corner of my eyes before one bruised and battered and especially tired wizard was tackled to the ground without any thoughts of his wellbeing.
I was suddenly found myself lying on the floor, my hands sprawled above my head. A naked woman was pinning me down by sitting on my and I had the feeling probably that she didn't have anything planned I'd enjoyed. It had to do with how her dreadlocks seemed to move on their own accords.
At least I had front row seats to a pair of truly magnificent tits.