Chapter 84: The Deep Labs
Perspective: Shadow
While Glibby and the surrendered endermen were being restrained, Shadow gathered her Coven. They were about to descend into the science-focused section of the Tower's underground, where the density of the anti-magic lamps was much higher than anywhere else.
She gave her instructions: "Danann, Iridia, Pallas. You will each command a third of the mages we have here, your main task will be to sweep any side rooms and corridors we come across. From what Fire told us there should not be as many lamps in the rooms compared to the corridors, few enough to overwhelm with a focused effort. I'm less debilitated by magic suppression, so I will accompany the main martial force on their push."
The Coven mages answered with a united "Yes Master!" and divided themselves into three groups. Some Vanillan mages joined them as well, but others seemed to prefer going with the push force.
Only a moment later, Fire walked up to her, still visibly reeling from the battle. This had been way too close for comfort.
He said: "I expected a lot of things from Glibby, but not for him to throw me across the room. Whatever strength potion he is on, it can't be safe." A flask appeared in Fire's hand. "Speaking of…"
One after the other, Fire downed several potions, strength, speed, resistance, and several others. He finished with a healing potion that sent a violent jolt through his limbs, restoring him back to fighting shape.
As they walked towards the staircase, Kay approached Shadow.
"Shadow, I know I'm the wrong person to say this but…" He cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders. "Are you holding back? That guy was crazy for sure and Thaumaturges are tough, but they're also just tough. He was not in your weight class."
He suddenly didn't seem to know what to do with his hands, stroking his chin, then scratching his head before settling on planting them on his hips.
Shadow stopped, contemplating. "Back at the Shelter I tried using Void magic, and it seems that now with the Entity gone any damage I do to reality is permanent. But that's not really it. I… suppose I have been holding back. Making absolutely sure not to hit any of our people would be what I'd like to call the reason, but that's not it entirely either."
She was not entirely sure when it happened, but somehow, she had developed a sort of mental block, the kind that is only possible when someone's magic is as interwoven with their existence as hers was. What was it? Was she afraid? Shadow clenched her fists, now was not the time for hesitation, she was an ascended archmage, a far cry from the scared little girl she had been at the start of her life!
With renewed resolve Shadow turned to Kay, demonstratively sending a wave of luminescence across the runes in her skin.
"No more holding back from now on. We need to see this through."
Kay hesitated a moment, running a tongue along his teeth, then a grin exploded across his face. Shadow could tell it wasn't wholehearted, though. It was the same grin he used back during the election.
"I'm glad to hear it, Shadow," he said. "Hit them hard."
They continued towards the staircase, joined by Tyron, Rathina, Amanda and Warnado. Shadow threw a look at her apprentice, he responded in kind.
Warnado said: "Let's go, we have Tower butts to kick!"
He started shadowboxing as they moved on. In the corner of her eye, she saw Tyron swallow a laugh as he recognized the moves he taught the demon-child.
And with that, they descended the staircase. Down at the bottom the battle was already in full swing. A row of earth Mencur-Besh pushed itself through the hallway, then splitting apart to make room so the other Shelter soldiers could aid them in the attack. Shadow immediately felt the heavy magic suppression field projected by the lamps, three to five of them were affixed to each segment of the corridor wall.
Their group surged forward to join the battle, Tyron and Fire at the forefront, cutting down any Tower troops in their way, Rathina, Warnado and Amanda weren't far behind. The malleable blade flowed into Shadow's hand, taking the shape of a long dagger and she joined as well. Almost immediately she was locked in battle with a Tower soldier several heads taller than her, but the difference in size only amounted to Shadow having a better angle to stab through gap in the soldier's armour.
Then, for just a moment Shadow felt the oppressive aura of the lamps disappear, only for it to immediately return, but before it did, a surge of lightning cascaded across a group of Tower soldiers. A quick look confirmed her suspicions. The Mencur-Besh mages were casting synchronous spells to temporarily overwhelm the lamps and using the gaps to attack. She'd be ready for the next one.
More and more enemies fell to their onslaught, three cloven apart by Fire's zweihander here, two more executed by demonfire weapons there, several more trampled underfoot by the Shelter troops' relentless advance.
The others flashed into view around her in a swirl of battle. Warnado put his hand on Amanda's shoulder, allowing her to fell a giant with an endless stream of aethereal bolts. Kir trilled with excitement as Tyron disarmed an officer. Kay brandished his sword atop a fallen lamp, ushering on the hunters and his handful of remaining loyalists. Lupe stood back-to-back with Komplex, the Brotherhood fighter with two swords and a diamond skin, shredding their way through a particularly dense knot of Tower soldiers.
Shadow felt a shift in the ambient energy, the lamps would fail in a few moments. She catapulted herself into the air, then once the window arrived, let loose a wide-sweeping disintegration ray.
After a while, the enemy reinforcements became a trickle and then dried up completely. Room after room was secured by her Coven mages, several times there had been a Tower mage waiting in ambush among groups of civilian personnel, but just as often had the civilians decided to take the intercom announcement to heart, and quite literally kicked the partisan mages out of the door.
Ahead of them the corridor widened almost to the size of a cathedral, at its end sat an absolutely massive circular gate comprised of several interlocking segments, like the aperture of an oversized camera. Off to the left was the inactive frame of an equally large portal, according to Fire any sensitive off-world materials deliveries were shipped directly into this part of the Tower without going through external portal facilities. This also explained the behemoth of a gate, it made sure that anything that went further did so because it was allowed to.
Fire said: "The opening mechanism is on the other side. Can you tell us if there is anything guarding it, Shadow?"
Shadow expanded her senses beyond the door. She had expected an assortment of Tower soldiers, but that was not what she saw. Instead, the other side of the gate was packed to the brim with zombies and skeletons. There were no magic-suppressing lamps, or any other light source on the other side. She could engage the mechanism magically, but another fight would break out immediately after.
She said: "There's an army of undead on the other side. We should take a few minutes before we open it."
Coven mages fanned out, providing healing to anyone who needed it. Despite their clear victory, they had taken losses as well, nowhere near as many as during the battle outside, but a combination of fatalities and troops staying behind to secure their retreat had diminished their numbers significantly. Nonetheless, the soldiers they had left were of elite quality, and were currently taking up defensive positions.
"Ready?" She asked.
Shadow was met with series of nods and raised thumbs. She reached out beyond the gate and flipped the switch. With a hissing sound the gate's arms disengaged their interlocking mechanism and very slowly slid apart. The moment the arms were far enough apart, undead already tried forcing their way through, slowly at first but as the gaps widened the horde came streaming in.
Warnado stood at the forefront, wielding an oversized demonfire chainsaw in each hand, cackling uncontrollably as he dismembered undead after undead. Even with his enthusiasm, the dead were too numerous to be easily pushed back. They crashed into their ranks, clumsily grabbing, and biting at whomever they could reach. The undead mercifully did not leave behind corpses, instead disappearing into puffs of smoke as they died again.
The Shelter troops held fast, the combined strength of their soldiers and mages allowed them to slowly advance further into the corridor. Sadly, it was never that easy. Shadow soon felt the presence of more lamps, and a look ahead confirmed her feeling. Further towards the back of the undead host were skeletons with magic suppressing lamps chained to their ribcages. Next to them walked, not shuffled, skeletons equipped with tower shields and spears. It became clear that the mindless horde was only the vanguard.
The moment they lost the support of their mages, they were pushed back. Shadow didn't have to think twice to know what this meant, she needed to do something, or they'd all be dead. She took a wide stance and commanded her robes to change shape. As comfortable as their normal form was, what she was about to do required significantly more leg freedom than they allowed. Her pitch-black robes quickly morphed into brilliant-white gi, a slightly-darker-than-should-be-possible belt wrapped around her waist as a finishing touch.
If she understood the lamps correctly, they could only suppress magic that was out in the open, otherwise her magic-powered muscles would have failed the moment she stepped foot in the Tower, now it was time to find out just how far she could push this loophole. Shadow launched herself forward into the undead horde, throwing a punch at the first zombie she encountered, the moment her fist connected she pushed as much energy as she could into the contact surface. A shockwave exploded outwards from the impact point, tearing through the zombie and several standing behind it.
With practiced movements she flowed from undead to undead, delivering explosive punches and kicks as she went. Wodahs assisted where she could, but due to the poor lighting conditions, she was unable to do more than crush the occasional skull during the bright flashes of the explosions. Behind Shadow, Shelter forces began pushing back against the undead, immediately filling the gaps she created, leaving no room for the undead to form large groups. Warnado revved his chainsaws with renewed vigour and followed shortly behind Shadow, cutting up anything that wasn't outright destroyed by her.
As Shadow advanced, she encountered more resilient undead, zombies wearing diamond armour, the skeletons with tower shields. Some of them did not go down in one hit, requiring multiple focused attacks, despite the explosive force. They were guarding the lantern skeletons, naturally. Instead of fighting the tougher undead head-on, Shadow leapt up and forwards, directly on course to the cause of their problems. The first lantern skeleton was crushed beneath the force of her impact, multiple more fell soon after. With quick punches the lanterns shattered, and the crystals contained in them were turned to dust.
Just as Shadow stood up to continue her rampage, she realized that while she had been crushing the lanterns, the tower shield skeletons had surrounded her. Several spears pierced through her torso. Unfortunately for the skeletons, this did very little actual harm to Shadow.
She quipped: "Fire had the right idea. It really isn't a fight until I get impaled by something."
The skeletons, entirely unfazed by her comment, simply held their spear in place. Shadow brough her foot down on the ground hard, unleashing an explosion that rocked the walls, shattering both her assailants and their spears. Shadow wasted no time in pushing further into the horde towards the next group of lantern skeletons. However, it turned out that this set would prove to be a little more challenging. Instead of the normal-sized zombies that guarded the previous group, this one was guarded by a hulking giant of a zombie, its arms were long enough to simply swat her out of the air if she tried her previous manoeuvre again.
Before engaging, she took another look behind her, the Shelter forces were faring much better, now that the first set of lanterns was destroyed. Fire swung his zweihander in wide, flaming arcs, cutting down undead by the dozen, right next to him was Tyron, using Kir to attack while shielding himself with his stone wings. Shadow turned forwards and delivered several quick punches to clear the way towards her target, the shockwaves sending the lesser undead flying.
The giant zombie swung at her with surprising speed, Shadow did not evade the punch, instead meeting it with her own. The force of the explosion blew the zombie's hand backwards and even made Shadow lose her balance for a moment, preventing her from capitalizing on the situation. Before returning to her foe, Shadow first had to clear out the horde that was rapidly closing in around her. Each stomp only bought her a few seconds before new undead replaced the ones she had just killed. She needed full access to her magic back, and fast.
Her next punch did not create an explosion, instead a shower of white mist erupted from the impact point, freezing several undead solid. That was the key, as long as they did not die, they would not disappear. Shadow rapidly threw more punches, creating a solid wall of frozen flesh and bones around her. The undead behind the wall began climbing but were slowed down significantly. Shadow ran up to the giant zombie, the moment she got close enough it threw another heavy punch at her. This time she leapt over the decaying fist, landed on it, and ran up its arm, each step creating an area of necrotic ice.
The zombie was unable to react when Shadow froze its head with a chop to its neck. It was not dead, but now Shadow was in a prime position to destroy the next lanterns. Moments later, the skeletons lay shattered in a cloud of purple dust.
"Alright, now for you." Shadow murmured as she turned back around to face the giant zombie.
She launched herself upwards to deliver a high kick to the zombie's frozen head. The resulting shockwave completely vaporized the zombie's body and carried on upwards until it reached the ceiling, which promptly collapsed in on itself, the debris crushing many undead where it fell. Instead of revealing a layer of rock, the hole in the ceiling lead to a wide-open room, which prominently featured a glowstone chandelier. It looked suspiciously like an arena. Only moments later the unmistakable lamenting screams of agitated ghasts echoed throughout the hallway.
From a distance she heard Kay call out: "Oh Mods! I hoped I'd never see that place again."
Tyron yelled: "We breached their Dangerous Containment area, prepare for more mobs!"
And just that moment a group of seven blazes descended down the freshly torn hole, sparks already flying off their rapidly rotating rods, quickly developing into fireballs.
Now again in full possession of her magic, Shadow flew upwards and back to the main battle line. While she could definitely wreak havoc now, her first priority was preventing additional casualties. The relentless barrage of blaze fireballs harmlessly bounced off a shield Shadow projected, instead shooting towards the undead horde, creating small explosions where they impacted.
Shadow commanded her Coven: "Go on the offensive, I will take care of shielding!"
She did not have to say it twice, Danann immediately levitated upwards and began his own barrage of fireballs, Iridia followed up with a series of electrical discharges directed at the blazes, which proved to be both highly conductive and highly vulnerable to electricity.
A ghast descended through the hole in the ceiling, but Wolfric promptly shot it down with a magic-enhanced arrow, the only fireball it managed to shoot was deflected by Tyron and sent off into the far reaches of the corridor.
They soon had pushed up far enough that one of their fast-builders was able to pillar up and plug the hole in the ceiling, allowing them to focus on the undead hordes once again. Said hordes had only gotten stronger as time went on, while there were still plenty of weak undead around, a significant number of them had been replaced by armed and organized skeleton soldiers.
Off in the distance Shadow saw the purple light of a lone lantern and decided to take care of it before it would become a problem. She landed in preparation for having her flight cut off and traversed the sea of bodies in multiple long and quite literally explosive leaps. When she got closer, she was surprised that it was not a skeleton carrying the lantern this time, this lantern was carried by a man, though with his withered face he could have passed for a zombie, were it not for the fact that his skin was not green. As soon as he spotted her, he immediately put down the lantern on the ground next to him and instead raised his fists. Two rings of disembodied, pale, slimy hands began to rotate around his robed form.
He called out: "You! You wanna throw hands? Cuz I'll throw HANDS!"
Shadow had no time for this man's gimmick, instead of replying she simply ran forward and punched him in the torso. The explosive force immediately scattered his limbs in all directions, only his head fell down in place. Shadow crushed the lantern underfoot.
Just before his miserable existence was ended by a disintegration ray, the man's disembodied head muttered: "Damn… she got hands."
With the last lantern shattered, the Shelter troops redoubled their efforts and pushed forward. Suddenly Shadow felt a strong magical signature ahead, a green glow flared up in the distance. Far back in the corridor now floated a skeleton with glowing, green eyes wearing a dark cloak and a weathered iron crown. In its right hand was an obsidian staff, at the tip of which a glowing green cube hovered. The skeleton's other hand was raised like a claw, as if clutching some invisible object.
Shadow had been around for long enough to know a lich when she saw one, and even if this one might operate by different rules than the ones she was used to, it certainly was not to be taken lightly.
A raspy laugh echoed throughout the corridor, the lich clasped its hand shut, and in a shower of embers, five skeletons with shields and spears appeared, reinforcing the horde.
Shadow's Coven had moved forward in the ranks and were now actively bombarding the undead with spells. A fireball found its way towards the lich, but instead of striking it, the flames were absorbed into the glowing cube at the tip of the staff.
Danann called out to his fellow mages: "It's absorbing the spells, don't shoot it!"
Shadow yelled: "Focus on the horde, I'll take care of the lich!"
She soared through the air, rapidly approaching the lich. Upon closer examination, there was a faint distortion in the air around it, a physically protective shield if Shadow interpreted its magical signature correctly. To test this theory, she yanked the skull off a skeleton she flew past and hurled it at the lich with full force. As expected, the skull was stopped and a pulse of green flashed across the shield.
Strong enough that I can't break it with brute force, not without Void magic. Shadow thought.
When the lich didn't take any immediate action to fight her, Shadow took the opportunity to speak.
"So, you're one of the Tower's off-world allies. I assume you're not interested in surrender like the Ape?"
The lich replied: "I slew a whole world's worth of heroes, I slew the sun, you will not stand in my way."
Shadow sighed. It was always the same with these arch-villain types, though at least this one at least had the courtesy of being forward with its intentions.
The lich swung its sceptre and the green cube at its tip seemingly split in two, the copy flew at Shadow at high speed, taking her by surprise and striking her in the leg. Bones shattered and muscles tore, leaving the leg hanging limply. She'd fix it later, there were more pressing matters.
Shadow unleashed a barrage of energetic orbs on the undead surrounding her, if she couldn't fight the lich directly, she would do her best to thin the horde, maybe the shield would weaken if the staff's energy was used to summon more undead.
Another green cube came flying in Shadow's direction, but this time she was prepared, projecting a shield of her own, dissipating the blast. Another swathe of undead fell before her. The lich raised its hand and dozens more armoured undead appeared from thin air. Shadow felt no change in the shield's energy, either she was wrong, or this was not enough.
The Shelter forces were drawing closer by the second, Kay and the hunters had pushed far into the undead horde, but before he could get the idea to launch another suicidal attack, they were joined by several Mencur-Besh.
Shadow gathered a ball of compact fire between her palms and sent it towards a dense group of undead, which was promptly reduced to ashes. More embers, more reinforcements, still no change in the shield. However, it seemed that the lich was no longer content with his passive role, with a flash of green, several identical copies appeared everywhere throughout the horde. The copies were not shielded, but apparently possessed full offensive capabilities. A barrage of green cubes went flying towards the Shelter troops.
Some missed their mark, others were absorbed by shields, but most of them struck true. Each hit enough to dismember, if not outright kill. Several of their frontline troops, among them at least one Mencur-Besh, were killed. The undead horde surged forward to exploit this newfound weakness.
Shadow grit her teeth. Two could play at that game. She summoned up projections of herself all over the room. Just like the lich's copies, they did not possess the resilience of the original, but they were enough. Several projections swarmed each lich, attacking and blocking its shots. Shadow continued her assault on the horde in the meantime. Fireballs, lightning, wither magic, disintegration rays, every offensive spell she had.
Gradually she noticed a change, as the lich summoned more undead and created copies of itself the shield remained the same, but the frequency of its attacks lowered, it was clearly being pushed to the edge of its capabilities. The Shelter forces had pushed forward almost to Shadow's position. With the lich this close, it became more difficult for her mages to protect against the incoming cubes.
Shadow saw Danann float upwards to get a better angle, just before he was about to cast his spell, a green cube struck him in the chest. Blood sprayed out as his arm and a good part of his shoulder were ripped from his body. He immediately dropped downwards in shock. He was barely caught by Iridia, who immediately projected a shield sphere and desperately tried to stop the bleeding. Shadow lost sight of the two when a group of earth Mencur-Besh pushed their way through the undead.
The lich was straining, maybe now was the time to try to break through its shield. But Shadow would need more than her fists if she wanted to exert enough force.
She yelled: "Fire!"
Her brother replied: "Yes?"
"Give me your sword!"
Without hesitation, Fire tossed his zweihander in Shadow's direction and immediately resumed his attack on the horde with his claws. Shadow caught the sword telekinetically and gripped it firmly. The damn thing was twice her size and probably weighed as much as she did, but such physical limitations were for those without a way around them.
Magic surged into Shadow's muscles, steadying the zweihander. She swooped downwards towards the lich, winding up for a huge swing. The blade connected with the shield, a radiant wave of green rippled across its surface, but it held. When the lich shot another of its cubes at Shadow, she took a page out of the late Ender's book and teleported, using the previous momentum of the sword to prepare another swing. Another impact on the shield, another wave of green light.
Shadow attacked again and again, each time the shield turned a bit opaquer, but its integrity held. While plummeting downwards again, Shadow examined the shape of the shield now that it was visible. That was when she finally saw it. The shield protected the lich, but for it to be able to cast spells, the cube at the tip of the staff needed to be outside of the shield. Shadow put all her strength into her swing, but as the zweihander collided with the shield, she let go. The reaction force catapulted it into the horde, impaling three zombies together as it impacted. Shadow reached out towards the cube, her left hand clasping down around it.
"Nice staff." She taunted the lich as her fingers dug into the cube, which shattered moments later in a violent explosion of emerald sparks.
Shadow's left arm was in a similar state to her leg, hanging down uselessly, but she only needed one arm for what came next. She delivered a devastating strike to the now unprotected lich, a second explosion ringing out as she made contact.
The moment the lich's bones were scattered through the room, it seemed like the horde lost some of its cohesion, now no longer commanded by the lich's unifying will. Within minutes, the Shelter troops had wiped out the remaining undead.
After they had made sure that there were no more enemies near, they regrouped. Shadow took that time to repair the damage to her body she had sustained during the fight, which thanks to Nexus' energy density went quickly, back home the same would have taken her days.
This time Warnado was the first to approach her. He grinned. "Wow, Shadow. You went through at least three different anime character archetypes in just a few minutes. Didn't know you could fight like that."
Shadow smiled at her apprentice. "As opposed to the megalomanic pile of bone dust over there, I used my millennia of life to try a lot of things. Overreliance on a single thing gets you killed, especially as a mage."
Nearby, Kay was talking with Fire and Tyron. He asked: "Well, now that Glibby and the Tower's ringer are out of the game, how bad do we reckon the last stretch will be?"
Tyron cocked his head: "Distance-wise, it shouldn't be long until we're at the machine. Difficulty-wise, we've one major obstacle ahead, but the emphasis is definitely on major."
Fire nodded. "The bedrock golems, there will be no small amount of them down here. Sadly, I don't know anything about their capabilities. They encountered one topside but that didn't tell us much, other than that they're extremely resilient and have some sort of ranged attack, similar to Shadow's disintegration ray."
Shadow and Warnado joined them. Shadow asked: "Any other threats?"
Fire replied: "We're entering the absolute inner sanctum of the Tower's science division. These people are quite devoted to what they're doing, so we should expect at least some resistance from them. However, they shouldn't be much of a problem, especially compared to what we faced already. The golems are the main issue. On the positive side, no more lanterns from here on out."
Tyron asked: "Something about sensitive equipment, right?"
Fire made a wide sweeping gesture. "This entire inner research area is encased in a protective structure to shield it against what is being done in the adjacent magic facilities. Most equipment is not affected by magic, but there are some things that can be disrupted by even the energy gradient the lamps create. They must have been quite desperate to deploy that lich down here." He paused. "Then again if the machine activates, all of that research equipment would be worthless."
Shadow expanded her senses once again, hoping to see whether there were any immediate threats ahead.
"I can't see past the walls, whatever they have in there, it's good. Sadly, that also eliminates our emergency plan of teleporting into the machine's chamber. I am not risking a blind teleport, not into a room with that many dimensional crystals in it."
Tyron said: "Time to move then, the soldiers are as recovered as they can be."
He raised his hand and gave the signal to move out. The Shelter soldiers returned to formation, this time their lines were protected by a series of shield bubbles projected by the Coven mages that were still with them. Shadow joined her mages in the middle of the formation, reinforcing the barrier with a shield of her own.
They took off at a fast marching pace, always vigilant for anything hiding in side paths or doorways. For the first few minutes they encountered nothing, only their own footsteps echoing through the halls.
Their first encounter with resistance, if it could be called that, was a lone scientist bursting out from a door, brandishing a makeshift energy weapon before being quite literally swatted out of the way by a Mencur-Besh. A few more scientists tried attacking them this way, but they all met a similar fate.
Shadow instructed her mages: "Stay vigilant, we know for a fact there are more dangerous foes here."
As if on cue, flames erupted from a side path ahead of them, rolling over their barrier harmlessly but obscuring their sight. When the smoke cleared, a red-robed mage with white, fuzzy hair floated ahead of them. Between his hands hovered a blue orb, six more orbiting him at the height of his torso. This had to be Archmage Wisp. Wisp was flanked by four armoured scientists, each carrying what looked to be energy rifles. The group wasted no time and attacked.
Wisp and the scientists wasted no time and immediately attacked. The initial shots from the scientists deflected off the Coven's barrier, but several of Wisp's orbital orbs surged forward, their combined impacts shattering it. The look on Wisp's face was anything but confident, more like desperation and barely suppressed panic, a cornered coward was a dangerous foe.
Archers and mages immediately returned fire, taking out one of the scientists before Wisp could raise a shield of his own. Shadow broke formation and flew towards Wisp. With a hand gesture, one of his orbs disappeared and reappeared as a barrier around Shadow, stopping her dead in her tracks. A containment spell. Not a second later Fire and Tyron found themselves similarly imprisoned.
"No fair!" She heard Kir cry out.
Shadow wasted no time in trying to undo the spell holding her in place. This wasn't the first time she'd been subjected to something like this, these spells always had some kind of release mechanism. While she inspected the nature of the orb around her, the Shelter forces below charged. Another scientist fell, this time to a blast of demonfire from Warnado.
Their advance was promptly halted by Wisp summoning a strong wind blowing them back. Only Mencur-Besh held their ground and slowly advanced against the storm, taking fire from the two remaining scientists. Some of the hunters clawed their way forward by plunging pickaxes into the walls and pulling themselves along, but they were too slow to meaningfully approach Wisp.
Kami had taken charge of the Coven mages in creating a counter spell, twirling her staff, both to direct the mages and to fling showers of magic towards Wisp. The gale force winds slowly mellowed down, giving their soldiers another chance of attacking. Several arrows flew towards the scientists, many of them charged with magic mid-flight by Wolfric. Wisp tried deflecting all of them but could only focus on so many at once. Several struck true and moments later, Wisp was alone against the Shelter troops. With a now definitely panicked look on his face, he wildly flung spells at whoever he could.
Several of their soldiers had not been prepared for such an explosive onslaught of magic, they could not take cover fast enough, and died a gruesome variety of deaths. One was incinerated on the spot, two struck by lightning, several more succumbed to a sudden surge of gravity.
Moments later, Shadow finally figured out the containment spell. With three quick pulses of magic, the orbs holding her, Fire and Tyron. Even with them released, Wisp's ceaseless barrage of spells claimed more and more lives. But before Shadow could mount a counter offense, several wither Mencur-Besh began sprinting towards Wisp, completely unaffected by his spells due to their innate magic immunity. Wisp retreated back into the side corridor he came from, still wildly firing off spells.
Kami yelled: "Go ahead, we'll handle him. Wolfric, you're with me!"
In a joined effort with the Coven, Kami and Wolfric projected a shield across the side corridor entrance, making it possible for the soldiers to pass. Sadly, they had to do so over the bodies of their fallen comrades, an activity that their soldiers had become intimately familiar with over the course of the past hours.
Even if they wanted to, there was no time to catch a breath. Just a few corridors down they encountered their next threat. It was a bedrock golem patrolling the halls. The moment it spotted them its head swivelled around and its cycloptic eye began glowing as it charged towards them.
"Shields!" Tyron called out.
As opposed to Wisp's attack, this time their mages had time to properly reinforce their defences. The death ray dissipated on the shield and sent glowing aberrations rippling across its surface.
"How do you kill something made from bedrock?!" Screamed one of their soldiers.
That was the question, wasn't it? Apparently Herobrine had done it topside, but they had no Herobrine down here, or anything comparable to his bedrock sword. Fire's zweihander came closest, but at the end of the day it was just a regular weapon, even if it had been used by the Entity in the past. Of course, Shadow could do it with Void magic, but was the risk of collapsing local reality worth it? Not currently, Shadow decided.
Instead, she answered the golem's attack with one of her own, a disintegration ray aimed at its eye with pinpoint precision. The golem stopped for a moment, but then resumed its charge.
The golem battered through their shield and ploughed through their ranks. They were able to scatter fast enough that only a few were trampled, but this was not sustainable. If they couldn't kill it, they had to make it unable to hurt them. Shadow concentrated and summoned a magical cage around the golem, the same kind she had captured Silver and Kay with. The golem threw itself against the walls. At first they held, but after the third bash they started deforming.
She called out: "We need a better way of keeping it down, anyone got an idea?"
The female hunter chief yelled back: "Topple it and pin it, it's too massive to get back up. Done it to plenty of monsters before."
The hunters got in formation, looking to Shadow's mages for help.
"We need a low barrier, like a rope. We make it charge and trip, then bind it in place so it can't throw its weight around."
Pallas and Iridia, the sole remaining members of Shadow's channellers, nodded to the hunters. They started by projecting a thin line across the corridor, then progressively reinforcing it to become stronger. Meanwhile the soldiers moved forward to get some distance on the golem. Only Shadow remained close.
"Ready." Said Pallas.
The male chieftain roared: "Release the beast!"
Shortly before the golem could throw its weight against the cage again, it disappeared. The golem immediately began its charge towards the assembled hunters, its eye glowing intensely again.
Shadow thought to herself: "If I won't use Void magic, I'll just have to make use of my other strengths."
The moment the golem fired its ray, Shadow teleported directly into its trajectory. The red light burned through flesh and bones, but only got about halfway through her torso when it was stopped by an opposing force. Shadow focused as much energy into her physical form as she could, keeping the ray from erupting out of her back. At this moment, she was very glad that she did not feel pain from physical injuries.
The golem continued its charge unperturbed, completely ignoring the forcefield. It wound up for a running punch against one of the hunters but caught one of its disproportionally stubby feet on the magical tripwire. The golem slammed into the ground with force, even slightly embedding itself due to its unnaturally high mass. The hunters were quick to act, driving metal spikes through the stone floor and attaching enchanted chains to tie the golem down.
Initially the golem buckled and thrashed, but soon was completely immobilized, its head unable to turn far enough to do harm.
One of the hunters let out a satisfied chuckle. "Just because we don't have all that fancy stuff you other worlds have doesn't mean we're dumb."
Iridia quietly muttered: "Nobody said that you were…" but then let the hunter have her moment.
Pallas turned to Shadow. "We'll guard this thing, if we find a way to kill it, we'll join you up ahead."
Shadow nodded and flew forwards, quickly catching up with the push force. She landed next to Fire. "Tripping and pinning seem to work. They don't seem to be significantly stronger than your standard iron golem."
Fire acknowledged Shadow with a nod, apparently in the middle of a conversation with the Mencur-Besh collective. Kay stood nearby somewhat awkwardly, intentionally at a distance to his loyalists.
He averted his eyes from Shadow. "Uh, Shadow. Would you mind covering up the anatomical showcase? It's a bit disturbing."
Shadow glanced downwards, the hole in her torso was still there, only slowly beginning to mend itself. She commanded her clothes to cover the hole in the meantime.
"There. Thought it'd be a good idea to take the beam, so it won't hit anyone else."
Kay nodded slightly exaggeratedly. "Right, good. Good thinking. Did something similar myself, once…"
Their numbers had significantly dwindled, between people dying and staying behind they only had a few dozen soldiers left, including anyone higher up in the chain of command. They had to be close now.
Two minutes of marching later, their next opponents presented themselves. At first it looked like more golems, but instead it was two scientists wearing large, enclosed exoskeletons. They did what every opponent before them had done as well, that was attacking immediately. One of them approached at high speed, but before coming close to the foremost soldiers, the scientist raised his arm and an energy tether attached to the ceiling, allowing him to swing up and over, detaching to slam down, crushing two of Kay's loyalists, then immediately jumping at a wall and somehow running along it. The second scientist attacked with a similar strategy, always staying out of reach, and only going for actual hits in opportune moments.
Shadow pointed at one of them and fired a disintegration ray, only for it to be directed around the exoskeleton and strike the wall behind the scientist.
She yelled out in frustration: "Is everything here equipped to counter me?!"
Then she thought back to the village when she met Dr. Mercury. Suddenly it sounded like a much more logical possibility that people had in fact developed countermeasures to some of her magic. She sighed, they couldn't have thought of everything.
Suddenly Kay pulled on her sleeve. "We need to get to that machine! Our people can handle these two."
As if to prove Kay's point, Rathina lunged forward and cut into one of the exoskeletons, severing a hydraulic line and leaving the scientist with only one usable arm.
She yelled: "You go with them Tyron, we have this!"
Shadow raised her hands and dense smoke spewed forth, completely obscuring the view into the corridor ahead of them. Six figures dashed through the smoke, one of them being Shadow herself, the others were Fire, Kay, Tyron, as well as Warnado and Amanda.
A short sprint later the corridor took a bend, even if they looked now, the scientists were too caught up in combat to notice someone had slipped past them.
Warnado said: "So, now that Titanfall One and Two are out of sight, the machine has to be close right?"
Shadow chuckled. "You know, Warnado, there's something you should know."
The demon child tilted his head. "Yeah, what's that?"
"I get most of the references you're making."
Warnado's eyes went wide as saucers. "Whaaat? I don't even get those myself!"
Amanda lightly punched Warnado in the shoulder. "I thought he just likes to spout random, endearing nonsense. Couldn't have guessed that there is a deeper meaning."
"Golem ahead!" Kir screeched in their minds.
At the end of the corridor was another large gate, several sizes smaller than the previous one but still massive. In front of said gate stood a bedrock golem who just now noticed them and began charging its eye. Shadow projected a shield in front of them as they ran to close the gap, deciding that taking the brunt of the attack was something she only wanted to do once. The red beam dissipated against the shield, and they continued forward. Once they got close, a cage slammed down around the golem, halting its own charge. However, the Tower had one last nasty surprise in store.
The walls behind them exploded as five bedrock golems came bursting out of adjacent laboratory rooms.
Kay screamed: "Cage them, Shadow!"
"Can't!" She replied. "Only so much energy in this place!"
Now was the point when Shadow decided that the danger outweighed the risk. She looked deep inside of herself, slowly and carefully bringing the Void to the surface. Just before it could break its shell, she heard Warnado's voice.
The quarter-demon spoke with conviction, just like he had done before fighting Glibby. "I have this."
Warnado was already halfway across the corridor.
"Helix, no!" Amanda and Kay screamed in unison, then briefly looked at each other, Kay shrinking visibly. Both ran after Warnado, followed by Tyron and Fire with a brief delay.
Warnado's pursuers were suddenly pushed back by a wave of demon magic, a barrier of lava manifested from nothing to block their way.
Warnado said: "I've never had anything like this my whole life. Trust me."
As he spoke, demonfire erupted from the gauntlet and spread all over Warnado's body. It quickly took the form of a body, limbs, horns. It was the same form he had taken after Fristad died.
Warnado's voice rang out again, deeper and distorted, but undeniably his: "Come get some!"
The golems obliged and shot their beams right at Warnado, the demonfire burned brighter on the impact points but otherwise refused to react. He grabbed the nearest golem by the head and slammed it into the wall. Another one struck his demon-form in the jaw, and he responded by punted another one into the opposing wall.
Shadow turned around. She had her own golem to take care of. Once again, she reached for the Void, and this time it broke through. Her hair lifted, her skin went beyond black, her eyes gained their distant-stars quality. This was not like when she found out that Claw had taken over, she did not feel empty. There was a different feeling, one that could be compared to walking on eggshells. She felt the fabric of reality strain against every bit of her body, one wrong move and it would tear.
Shadow slowly raised her hand to point above the imprisoned golem's head, which seemed to have given up its escape attempts, its automaton routines wholly unprepared for what they saw. A thin blade of nothingness extended from Shadow's hand before it moved downwards, gliding between atoms like a knife through butter. The two disabled halves of the golem hit the ground with what should have been a loud bang.
However, the impact of bedrock on obsidian was quiet in comparison to the noise that came from behind Shadow. With a thought, she pushed the Void back, and the restrictive pressure of reality was gone. She did not have to turn around to know what happened, but she did nonetheless.
Behind them the entire corridor had collapsed, it was now filled with rubble from the ceiling and the rock above. The implications were clear.
"Helix!" Amanda cried out.
Kay muttered to himself: "He just… brought the ceiling down."
He gaped, touched his fingers to the goggles on his head, then pulled Amanda in close. She offered only the most token resistance, pressing a hand to his breastplate, then letting it fall.
Both Fire and Tyron were silent. Shadow knew that her brother had at least a dozen things he could say to try to console Amanda, but in reality none of them would achieve that goal, and he knew it too.
Amanda pushed Kay back with marginally more force. He backed away as though he had dropped a fine glass ornament. She looked off at the rubble.
"The gauntlet exploded…" she whimpered.
Shadow felt the sadness of loss as well but decided to suppress further mourning until everyone was safe, the machine had priority. Shadow and Fire approached the gate. Fire almost routinely placed his hand on the scanner next to it, no reaction.
"She wiped the biometrics data, figures." He said. "Up to you now, Shadow."
Shadow took a deep breath. She once again reached for the Void, this time only bringing it close enough to shift herself slightly out of sync with the rest of reality. She floated straight through the gate, dismissing the Void as she emerged on the other side.