Chapter Fifteen
A Dragon's Requiem
Dynast whistled quietly at the view. "So that's Valred's fortress, is it? He never struck me as someone this cautious. Or tactically intelligent, for that matter."
Trent shook his head. "I don't think he IS a tactician; my guess is that Larth and Tios gave him the design for this place based on what he told them he wanted and how far he told them they could go."
Fortress is not a sufficiently descriptive word for the building serving as Valred's base of operations. A far better term would have been citadel, perhaps. It wasn't just some lone building with heavy walls, it was virtually a city, devoted to the single purpose of keeping Valred safe. They couldn't tell much at first glance; just that it was huge, and surrounded by walls that took more stone to build than some cities.
Eris skipped over to where Trent, Dynast, and the others capable of planning an assault were waiting. "So, what's the plan? Are we going to go down there and just blow the crap out of the place?"
Zelas turned a tired glare on her minion. "No, we're not going to 'blow the crap' out of the fortress. Firstly, we don't know WHERE Valred is. Second, we don't know exactly how powerful he is. And finally, if Larth and Tios built this place, then it's probably got its fair share of traps and defenses meant to make our magic and powers useless. So sit down."
Sulking, Eris turned to go and trade complaints with Kashura. Dynast sighed as his priestess and Zelas's minion started bitching. "Alright Shadowlight, how shall we begin?"
Trent winced. "I'm not quite sure. I have some ideas, but I've never taken a fortress like this before. I was kind of hoping you might have some suggestions."
Dynast looked at him quietly for a few minutes, then shrugged. "As Zelas said, this Valred seems to have a bit of a trap fiend, so a simple frontal assault is out of the question. We need to gather information first." He looked at Trent with false calm. "I would have expected you to plan for that yourself, being an assassin and all."
Trent shrugged. "Not that kind of assassin; long-term planning and reconnaisance were never my style. Besides, there were a LOT fewer ways on Lodoss to stop a breaking and entering. Anyway, as to the information gathering. Lina's obviously not an option, what with the bounty hunters. Gourry and Zelgadis likewise. Valgaav might be an unknown, but I'm not sure if we should risk it. Definitely Kashura; she's an unknown, and knows how to act human enough to not pass any real notice. GOD not Eris, and Xellos will probably be recognized too."
Dynast nodded. "Filia's also not an option, but Jilis maybe. That leaves you, myself, Zelas, Delphine, and Scherra." He gazed at the citadel. "Realistically, how long do you think we can wait before we make our attack?"
Trent sighed, shaking his head. "We want to attack as soon as possible, definitely. Problem is, we need time." He smiled gratefully as Zelas squeezed his hand reassuringly. She was nowhere near as evil as she pretended to be. "Anyway, lets see what we can find out about the defenses, then worry about a timetable."
--------
Two days later, the verdict was in.
Lina swallowed nervously at the sight of Trent and Dynast in quite simply black moods. "Pretty bad, huh?"
The dark elf flung himself to the ground. "That's a bit of an understatement. The place is a god damn lock box; the vaults in Atlas City holding the information on Dragon Slaves and Burst Flares has less security than this place."
Valgaav looked them over, then sighed, sinking to a crouch. "Look, everyone is here. Let's go ahead and outline what we know, then figure out a way to defeat it."
Dynast turned to Trent briefly. Not getting any response, he nodded. "Alright, I'll start." Raising a hand, he started to manipulate the moisture in the air, building up a fairly large, scale model of the citadel. "Like Trent said, this place is designed to withstand any possible attack; magical, physical, or in Trent's case, assassination and subterfuge. The first problem," he said as his model started to show definition, "is the outer wall. It's even bigger than we thought; it covers a radius of six hundred meters; roughly a third of a mile. The entire thing was originally built using a modification of the spell Bephis Bring and Dug Haut; it was ripped out of the ground itself like a cliff face. Perfectly seamless, so climbing is going to be pretty useless, and also making it structurally stronger." He grimaced. "The REAL problem with the wall has to do with its integration into the second line of defense." New walls sprang up further inside the rest of the model."
Amelia stared. "A magical seal?"
Trent nodded irritably. "Just like Seyruun, the whole damn city is a white magic seal, the lines of force being contained in those secondary walls. They're not just a seal against outside intrusion though, they're conduits for leylines."
Dynast nodded. "It seems that the dragon/elf isn't the only one with an irritating trick. The wall is a little bit less than three thousand six hundred meters long; every twenty meters, there's spell traps, woven with the spell Guumeon. And for Gourry, it basically creates a bubble that blocks ALL magic. Useless to defend against a sword or arrow, but against a spell or say, the sword of light? Perfect, flawless defense."
Lina shrugged. "Is THAT all you're worried about? Guumeon is a short- range spell; it couldn't possibly cover the whole place."
Trent glared at her. "Do you think we'd be worrying if that were the case? Don't forget, this thing's powered by a seal almost a mile wide; it can cover a LOT more. And before you mention an air attack, it gets worse."
Kashura took over. Pointing at the six-sided star of the secondary walls, she spoke. "The six points along the outer walls where the secondary walls meet each hold a bigger spell trap. Apparently, the spells for Guumeon keep the whole network fluctuating like a strobe light. So that even though any given area in a dome shape covering the citadel will be free about 80% of the time, it's still covered for at least a fifth of a second every second; enough to make attacking it with magic like trying to throw a dart through a storm of leaves without hitting any of them in the process. Doable, but almost impossible."
Trent sighed. "That's not even the worst part. It's only made so that hostile spells can't penetrate the shell; mana still flows freely through the city. So that even though an attacker can't use magic to break through the defenses, Valred's forces can fight back using magic of their own."
Lina stared. "So magic and an assault by the Darkstar weapons is out of the question; how about those swords of yours?"
Trent sighed. "Not an option either; using the Opposing Swords together only works for defense or if you're physically in range of striking the target. And worse, the target has to be ONE something fairly simple. The swords won't do the trick here, and I'd prefer not to use them anyway."
"Why not?" Lina asked.
Trent turned to her. "Why don't you cast the Giga Slave more often? I mean, it has to be some kind of a rush to be possessed by the goddess of your world?"
Lina winced. If THAT was what using the two swords was like...
"What about that trick Xellos has?" Gourry asked. "You know, where he disappears and then stabs you with his staff?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "Guumeon is like the defensive version of a Ra Tilt; it bends the astral plane around the source to block out magic. Xellos teleports through the astral plane, so not even he can safely pass through that barrier. What with the flicker effect, the odds are he'd get sliced in half if he tried by one of the sheets of spell energy."
Dynast coughed to regain their attention. "If I may continue?" He nodded to the model. "Valred didn't just bother to make it hard to get in the citadel, nor did he just make it able to shrug off normal assaults. He also made sure that he could fight back; the walls are dotted with self- loading ballista designed for dealing with heavy horse troops. Oh, and directly outside of the walls are barracks of about a thousand stone golems the size of a small cottage."
Lina groaned. "Oh great, what next."
Jilis grinned weakly. "Funny you should mention that. Not counting the golems, 'e still 'as about five thousand mercenary troops working for him. About two hundred are worth worrying about, and another three hundred are decent mages."
"Not counting the final wall around his mostly subterranean inner sanctum guarded by walls of orihalcon-veined granite and the twelve towers equipped with spell-traps designed to fire Rune Flares," Delphine added.
"Or the zig-zagging, maze-like streets to said sanctum, designed to force an army through thousands of bottlenecks, or the enchantments preventing us from tunneling into the city or sanctum," Scherra added.
"And finally," Zelas quipped, "you CAN'T forget the ten levels you have to go down through in the citadel, each one a lovely little deathtrap of ballista, flame-throwers, acid-sap-exuding living tentacled plants, living ice golems, and the things no one else knows about in the first place."
Amelia stared at them. "And you expect us to break in and beat this guy?"
Trent allowed a grim, hard smile completely devoid of humor to cross his lips. "We have a FEW ideas."
--------
The next day...
"Alright, let's report on how we're doing," Dynast said. "Jilis?"
The harried-looking werefox rubbed a fist over a bleary eye. "I managed to get all the stuff I'll need, but it'll take some time to get it put together right proper. I figure another two days just to mix the bloody stuff."
"Unacceptable," Dynast said. "We'll have to assign some people to work with you; the attack is scheduled for three days from now." He turned to Eris and Kashura. "Do you two understand your jobs?"
Kashura sighed. "We're trying to get the mercenaries comfortable with us; just enough that they won't attack us as a simple matter of principle. We should have everything done in time."
"Lina?"
The sorceress winced. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. Now shut up and let me get some ice cream..."
Dynast rolled his eyes. "Alright, Trent, Valgaav, and Xellos, you go help Jilis; you're the only ones I trust around that stuff." He turned to the dragon priestess. "Well? Have you got the items ready?"
Filia sniffed disdainfully. "This kind of thing takes time, you know. I'll HAVE it ready in three days. Now get off my back."
Dynast shook his head. This was getting undignified.
The plan was simple, at least in concept. The anti-magical defenses were centered in six different locations, each one with its own failsafes. Taking out one would be useless; it would take a total failure of the magical power fueling the city to make it work at all.
The magical power fueling the city was generated in the same six locations, and were under heavy guard. Fortunately, they were made in such a way that a non-magical assault of sufficient power would be enough to take them out.
Once the anti-magic was out of the way, it would be the simplest thing in the world to let Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, and all their other mages just blow the everliving crap out of the walls and other opponents. Reducing large numbers of cannon fodder into corpses was how they made their living, after all.
Now they just needed time.
--------
Kashura took a deep breath, calming herself. She had probably the most important job in the entire assault; she and Eris would be making the initial attack.
There were only two gates through the perimeter wall, one in the east, the other across the city in the west. She had the eastern one, Eris had the west. Everyone was searched their for weapons of any kind; no one who hadn' sworn oaths of fealty was allowed to have any way of hurting those in the city.
They were in for a bit of a nasty surprise.
The guard lazily raised his hand. "Hey Kassie. You know the drill. No weapons allowed; please leave all swords, spears, axes..." he droned on in a carefully rehearsed and memorized speech.
The blue-haired mazoku smiled sweetly, fanning a few of her knives in her hands; you know, maybe a hundred or so. They abruptly shot out of her hands to begin orbiting her quickly, point-first, only to be replaced by new knives in the fanned shapes she was using, again and again, until a good thousand were rotating around her. "Stuff like this, maybe?" The guard's voice had trailed off into stunned silence at the sign of the first blade. "Holy Shit."
Kashura just shrugged perkily, and sent her first knife through the man's head. The other guards staring at her in similar states of shock were quickly filetted as well, all but one. Quite deliberately so.
The survivor quickly grabbed a minor enchanted item, one designed for communication. "HELP! WE NEED MORE TROOPS NOW!"
Within thirty seconds, a platoon of maybe a hundred men were jogging into the gateway. "Surrender now! We have you surrounded!"
Kashura just grinned as (for reasons which elude me), a techno-track started playing in her head. Unconsciously, she quoted another dangerous female of anime, though one with a somewhat different MO. "Foo. More of you just means that there's more of you to KILL!"
Her spinning knives exploded towards them like automatic weapon fire, ripping through armor and flesh to continue into the stone walls behind them.
Then the golems arrived, and things got FUN.
--------
Eris hadn't managed to wait quite so long. The guard who'd tried to disarm her had been bisected by her Knife. The platoon that had been summoned to deal with her was currently running away, screaming for a mage to deal with this obvious demon as she chased after them, cackling wildly as Scissors started cutting off more than hair.
Between her and Kashua, no one noticed a certain trickster priest slip through the western gate. Nor did they notice the dragon/elf in the east.
At least not until the explosions started to occur.
--------
Filia sighed in depression as plumes of smoke started rising from the targetted city. "Honestly, I don't see why I'm stuck here; I could be of help, couldn't I?"
Jilis patted her arm sympathetically. "Don't you worry your pretty little head over that, ducky. You're doing a job just as important as those blokes settin' off all 'o me bombs."
The plan was going as hoped for, if nothing else. The big hole in Valred's fortress was the assumption that only magic could have stood a chance of destroying his walls even if they weren't enchanted for defense. Perfectly true, but he'd made a mistake in his assumptions. The spells depended on six different locations that had to be simultaneously destroyed by pretty hefty blasts. While as Zelgadis had once pointed out, "gunpowder is a useful curiosity, but it can't get anywhere near as powerful as an explosion spell."
Not completely true; enough gunpowder would do more damage than say, a Mega Brand. The problem was that the bomb would have to be about the size of a human torso to pack that kind of oomph. Valred had assumed that no one could have actually gotten something that big through his guards, and hadn't bothered with anything more than the most basic shields for the shield generator areas.
Unfortunately for him, Jilis had recently started to improve the basic mixture of normal black powder into something a bit stronger; dynamite. Rather than just mealy black powder, this stuff was potent enough that a book-sized mass would have the same power as a Mega Brand or a decent fireball. Small enough to smuggle in, powerful enough to get the job done.
Even then, there were still problems with the assault. Breaching the walls would have been a great move if you had an army, but when you only had maybe sixteen people in the fight, what was the point? I mean, besides the therapeutic effects that reducing several million kilotons of rock into rubble?
For one, if done properly it could make them THINK they were under attack by an army. Soldiers defending against an army would worry about large numbers; who cared if a dozen people got through when they were defending against hundreds, if not thousands?
In short, the whole thing was one great big distraction. The real fighting would be done by perhaps two.
--------
Lina grinned as the number of smoke plumes over the city reached six. "Alright, the spell barrier should be toast. Let's test it with a bang." Flipping her hair back, she raised her hands to charge up her main gun, her signature. Sure, the dragon's lance was more effective, but there was just something so...HER about the old version. "Darkness beyond Twilight, Crimson beyond blood that flows; buried in the flow of time, in Thy great name I pledge myself to Darkness! Let the fools who oppose us be destroyed by the power that You and I possess! DRAGON...SLAAAAAAVE!"
Gourry sighed as he watched the ruby beam of light turn a chunk of the city walls into rubble. It was really kind of...you know, it was kind of relaxing. Nice and familiar. Dusting his hands off, Gourry hefted his glowing sword. "My turn." Nodding to Zelgadis, the two clashed Gorunova against Ragudezaius, producing the signature bonfire of light. Gourry spun twice, building up proper momentum, then unleashed his brand new attack. "CANNON OF LIGHT!"
Zelgadis paused from where he'd been preparing a Dug Break to deal with the golem troops. "Cannon of light?"
Gourry shrugged. "Hey, you guys get to yell things whenever you attack; I was feeling kind of left out."
--------
Amelia pointed a finger in the general direction of the fortress. She'd just watched Lina and Gourry attack from the west; now it was her turn to strike from the east, get the opposition confused. "You pitiful wretches of darkness; how could you oppose such righteousness? While god may forgive you, know this! I! Amelia wils de Seyruun, shall not!" She raised her hands to fire off one of her few spells designed for large-scale property damage (she usually tried to avoid them, as Lina managed that quite nicely on her own thank you very much). "Vice FREEZE!"
The ball of pale light streaked into the wall, freezing it as the strongest attack in water shamanism struck. From there, it was simple to fire off a quick Dimilar Wind and reduce the place to shattered stone.
Filia nodded in approval. Quick, simple, efficient, and visually spectacular enough to get Valred's forces good and startled. "Alright Jilis, your turn."
He grinned as he strolled over to a straining rope threaded through a LONG series of pulleys. Raising a dagger with a flourish, he swiped it through the rope, releasing a good hundred simple catapults, each flinging four of his standard grenades. Not much damage, but it created lots of smoke and noise.
Now if only the others would hurry up and do their parts.
--------
Dynast watched the ensuing chaos, and nodded in satisfaction. Excellent food, panic, and so easy to generate. A few fires in a city, a single mazoku pretending to be a corpse in a crowd, and you had a full meal. Simple, really.
More specifically in this case, the plan was going perfectly. Virtually everyone in the citadel was a combatant; the tavern-keepers and street- walkers who weren't (soldiers of all kinds demand some things) had long since grabbed anything they could and started running. That left only the soldiers themselves, and for the most part they weren't all that worried about him and Scherra.
To the south, he could hear snarls and explosions as Zelas's mazoku started sweeping up to start dealing with the cannon fodder. To the north, Delphine was coordinating the use of all the spell traps (minor ones, flare arrow enchanted) that Filia had been making to make a magic assault seem to be on all sides. It was a beautiful symphony of chaos.
"Hold it right there!"
Scherra looked up in surprise as they neared the inner sanctuary's gates. The three hundred or so warriors Jilis had felt skilled enough to worry about had been held in reserve on the final walls to Valred's citadel. Oddly enough, they hadn't run away or to other fighting yet. Most likely they had orders to serve as the mage's body guards or something.
"You are to evacuate the citadel immediately. If you do not, you will be assumed an enemy and executed."
Dynast raised an eyebrow at his general. "Jumpy, aren't they. Just get them out of the way; don't kill them if you don't feel like it, and don't bother trying to convert them. They're just one more wall."
Scherra nodded calmly. Her sword COULD have turned them all into more cannon fodder monsters for Lord Dynast, but he didn't seem interested. She simply charged negative energy and started sweeping bolts of electricity across them. Her estimations of them raised significantly as their armor held. "Orihalcon. We simply HAVE to find out how to procure these kinds of quantities."
Dynast shrugged as he brought out his weapons of choice; pinwheel knives, each one sporting a trio of crystalline blades. "As I understand, it's fairly common in overworld. Most likely, we'll only be able to recover what's left behind." Setting his daggers to spinning like a pair of power circular saws, he took an easy stance. "We'll discuss this later."
In seconds, the ground began to rain blood and scraps of metal.
I won't go into any more detail; I'm trying to keep from getting to gorey.
-------
Trent let out a deep breath as he started down the fourth set of stairs. The last trap had NOT been what he'd considered fun. Valred had set up a couple hundred spears on springs and cogs; the walls kept popping out spears sharp and strong enough to pierce steel without much worry at random intervals. It had been like walking through a meat-grinder.
Dynast and he had agreed that he should be the one to actually confront Valred; if worse came to worse, he could pull out the most powerful attacks, and more importantly, HE would have the sense to run if things got too out of hand. Thus his current location, walking through the booby- trapped levels leading down to the as-yet unseen Boss Villain.
Trap level one had been simple; just gas-based flame-throwers. A bit uncomfortable, but not enough to actually harm him. Heck, Gourry probably could have walked through relatively whole. Level two had been insulting; hidden crossbows had shot poison darts when you stepped on the trigger mechanisms. Not terribly effective when your feet didn't touch the ground.
Three had been a bit worse; the whole place had been an acid bath. The fact that it was fed not only by rivulets pouring down the neutralized walls but also by steady streams from all over the ceiling hadn't helped a great deal.
And now level four, the meat-grinder. He'd managed to use wind brid to cut through enough of the spears that getting through was possible, but he was still kind of nervy. It had NOT been fun.
Now he was ready for level five. Pushing open the creaking doors (done for deliberate effect rather than any actual lack of use), he found himself in a completely bare room save for one occupant. Said occupant turned out to be some kind of giant were-tiger; it looked somewhat like a Rakshasa. It grinned at him, hefting a wicked-looking halberd. "Step into my den, roared the tiger to the hare."
Trent stared at him quietly for a few minutes as the thing started a rumbling laughter. "So quiet, little hare? Don't worry; I believe in a swift kill." Without further ado he charged, leaping into the air to deliver a swift, powerful overhead blow.
It didn't amount to much; a scalpel in the throat and each eye tends to slow down just about anything alive quite easily.
Trent looked down at his opponent, then turned to silently walk away. He hadn't been fighting anyone like this for quite awhile; he wasn't killing, he was assassinating now. No talk, no remorse anymore, just quick and efficient slaughter.
Level six was a simple affair; the ice golems that Zelas had mentioned four days ago. For some reason, Valred had been an idiot with them; they weren't even REMOTELY resistant to fire magic; flare lances and they'd been toast.
He was beginning to wonder if any of this was anything more than just a distraction.
Level seven was the first real challenge.
His opponent bowed to him formally, steepling her hands. "Greetings, honored adversary. My name is Makina (ma-KEE-na), the Blood Weaver. It is my privilege to face one capable of killing the Rakshasa." She raised her weapons calmly. "Shall we begin?"
In the above paragraph, I mentioned that she steepled her hands. I neglected to mention that she had twelve of them, and looked like someone had taken the torso of a Japanese Geisha, given her the arms you'd expect on Kali or Shiva, and attached it all to the eight-legged cephalothorax of a black widow spider. As for weapons, she had eight swords, two axes, and a single spear, the swords consisting of five katanas, two longswords, and a heavy scimitar.
All in all, a bit harder to deal with.
Trent calmly raised a hand. "Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, gather in my hands."
Makina raised an eyebrow quizzically (she only had two of them). "A spell of light? I hope you don't think it a weakness of mine. And judging by the application, you aren't even bothering to try and blind me. Why then that spell?"
Trent grinned harmlessly as he sent the glowing ball of light to hover next to the ceiling. "Useful little thing."
Makina continued staring him down, then nodded. "I cannot fathon why you chose that spell, but so be it. Let us begin." She blurred forward, her vairety of weapons churning the air into a maelstrom of razor edges. Trent calmly danced backwards away from the strikes until he had been pressed almost to the far wall. Only then did he attack. "Freeze arrow."
Makina jerked her body upward, dodging the attack, simultaneously bringing one of her katanas towards him in a vicious thrust. Trent waited until the last possible moment, then abruptly snapped his hands together, catching the blade bare-handed. The force was more than he could counter, and he fell backwards.
Directly into the shadow his spell of lighting over Makina cast, sinking easily into the ground and into the realm of night.
He could have simply arrived in the next level, but he felt that he'd need to conserve his energies against Valred. As such, he completely ignored levels eight, nine, and ten, appearing instead on the final level itself to confront Valred.
The chamber was a large hollow in the ground, as though someone had taken a divine auger and cut a gigantic pit in the ground. Around it were a trio of rough crystal pillars, each one glowing with an eerie, blue/white light. His eyes widened as he recognized the flare of energy. "Larth." He stared at the other two. "Then - "
"Karlimanthos and Tios," a voice came up. "Or at least, the energy released by their death. I would have little to no use for their souls, if that's what you're worried about."
Trent turned to regard the blond man. "What's this all about? Why go to all this trouble?"
Valred's eyes widened as he took on an expression of mocking surprise. "What? No speeches about 'how dare you do that to their souls?' No complaints of any kind?"
Trent's face didn't waver. "Why are you doing this?"
Valred smiled. "Well, it IS a bit of a cliche; the villain always tells the secrets. And in this case, withholding information doesn't gain me anything. So to be short, I originally wanted the five darkstar weapons for their great power; I was able to recruit quite a few useful people for that purpose. When I came back to this world to chase after Sirius however, I found something in the desert; an old relic of Phibrizzo's that not even HE had dared to try and use. It required the energies of three creatures in their death; one mazoku for evil, one dragon for good, and one human to bridge the gap. This," he said, gesturing around him at what was beginning to be recognizable as an altar, "is merely the culmination of that desire." His grin turned evil. "Three guesses as to WHAT that desire is?"
Trent rolled his eyes. "Let's see...ressurection of a god? Ultimate power? Ruling the world/Everything?"
Valred laughed. "Yes, that IS a bad cliche, isn't it? And perhaps worst of all, true. All three. The power, the god, and the world; all mine with this simple little ritual."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Well, I'm almost done with Book Two; all that's left is the final fight between Trent and Valred. This is going to be the last update for awhile; I'm not going to post the final chapter until I've also started the prologue and first chapter in Book Three: Bolero. And as noted in an earlier review, it's going to be set in X/1999. I watched the feature film and have read about half the manga; I thought the plot was good, the characterization excellent, the artwork fabulous, and the follow- up use of the plot Raw Sewage (actually, something more colorful, but look at the rating; PG-13). I mean come on; you spend an hour and a half in the movie developing these characters just so you can kill EVERYONE? No no, that has to be changed.
Dynast whistled quietly at the view. "So that's Valred's fortress, is it? He never struck me as someone this cautious. Or tactically intelligent, for that matter."
Trent shook his head. "I don't think he IS a tactician; my guess is that Larth and Tios gave him the design for this place based on what he told them he wanted and how far he told them they could go."
Fortress is not a sufficiently descriptive word for the building serving as Valred's base of operations. A far better term would have been citadel, perhaps. It wasn't just some lone building with heavy walls, it was virtually a city, devoted to the single purpose of keeping Valred safe. They couldn't tell much at first glance; just that it was huge, and surrounded by walls that took more stone to build than some cities.
Eris skipped over to where Trent, Dynast, and the others capable of planning an assault were waiting. "So, what's the plan? Are we going to go down there and just blow the crap out of the place?"
Zelas turned a tired glare on her minion. "No, we're not going to 'blow the crap' out of the fortress. Firstly, we don't know WHERE Valred is. Second, we don't know exactly how powerful he is. And finally, if Larth and Tios built this place, then it's probably got its fair share of traps and defenses meant to make our magic and powers useless. So sit down."
Sulking, Eris turned to go and trade complaints with Kashura. Dynast sighed as his priestess and Zelas's minion started bitching. "Alright Shadowlight, how shall we begin?"
Trent winced. "I'm not quite sure. I have some ideas, but I've never taken a fortress like this before. I was kind of hoping you might have some suggestions."
Dynast looked at him quietly for a few minutes, then shrugged. "As Zelas said, this Valred seems to have a bit of a trap fiend, so a simple frontal assault is out of the question. We need to gather information first." He looked at Trent with false calm. "I would have expected you to plan for that yourself, being an assassin and all."
Trent shrugged. "Not that kind of assassin; long-term planning and reconnaisance were never my style. Besides, there were a LOT fewer ways on Lodoss to stop a breaking and entering. Anyway, as to the information gathering. Lina's obviously not an option, what with the bounty hunters. Gourry and Zelgadis likewise. Valgaav might be an unknown, but I'm not sure if we should risk it. Definitely Kashura; she's an unknown, and knows how to act human enough to not pass any real notice. GOD not Eris, and Xellos will probably be recognized too."
Dynast nodded. "Filia's also not an option, but Jilis maybe. That leaves you, myself, Zelas, Delphine, and Scherra." He gazed at the citadel. "Realistically, how long do you think we can wait before we make our attack?"
Trent sighed, shaking his head. "We want to attack as soon as possible, definitely. Problem is, we need time." He smiled gratefully as Zelas squeezed his hand reassuringly. She was nowhere near as evil as she pretended to be. "Anyway, lets see what we can find out about the defenses, then worry about a timetable."
--------
Two days later, the verdict was in.
Lina swallowed nervously at the sight of Trent and Dynast in quite simply black moods. "Pretty bad, huh?"
The dark elf flung himself to the ground. "That's a bit of an understatement. The place is a god damn lock box; the vaults in Atlas City holding the information on Dragon Slaves and Burst Flares has less security than this place."
Valgaav looked them over, then sighed, sinking to a crouch. "Look, everyone is here. Let's go ahead and outline what we know, then figure out a way to defeat it."
Dynast turned to Trent briefly. Not getting any response, he nodded. "Alright, I'll start." Raising a hand, he started to manipulate the moisture in the air, building up a fairly large, scale model of the citadel. "Like Trent said, this place is designed to withstand any possible attack; magical, physical, or in Trent's case, assassination and subterfuge. The first problem," he said as his model started to show definition, "is the outer wall. It's even bigger than we thought; it covers a radius of six hundred meters; roughly a third of a mile. The entire thing was originally built using a modification of the spell Bephis Bring and Dug Haut; it was ripped out of the ground itself like a cliff face. Perfectly seamless, so climbing is going to be pretty useless, and also making it structurally stronger." He grimaced. "The REAL problem with the wall has to do with its integration into the second line of defense." New walls sprang up further inside the rest of the model."
Amelia stared. "A magical seal?"
Trent nodded irritably. "Just like Seyruun, the whole damn city is a white magic seal, the lines of force being contained in those secondary walls. They're not just a seal against outside intrusion though, they're conduits for leylines."
Dynast nodded. "It seems that the dragon/elf isn't the only one with an irritating trick. The wall is a little bit less than three thousand six hundred meters long; every twenty meters, there's spell traps, woven with the spell Guumeon. And for Gourry, it basically creates a bubble that blocks ALL magic. Useless to defend against a sword or arrow, but against a spell or say, the sword of light? Perfect, flawless defense."
Lina shrugged. "Is THAT all you're worried about? Guumeon is a short- range spell; it couldn't possibly cover the whole place."
Trent glared at her. "Do you think we'd be worrying if that were the case? Don't forget, this thing's powered by a seal almost a mile wide; it can cover a LOT more. And before you mention an air attack, it gets worse."
Kashura took over. Pointing at the six-sided star of the secondary walls, she spoke. "The six points along the outer walls where the secondary walls meet each hold a bigger spell trap. Apparently, the spells for Guumeon keep the whole network fluctuating like a strobe light. So that even though any given area in a dome shape covering the citadel will be free about 80% of the time, it's still covered for at least a fifth of a second every second; enough to make attacking it with magic like trying to throw a dart through a storm of leaves without hitting any of them in the process. Doable, but almost impossible."
Trent sighed. "That's not even the worst part. It's only made so that hostile spells can't penetrate the shell; mana still flows freely through the city. So that even though an attacker can't use magic to break through the defenses, Valred's forces can fight back using magic of their own."
Lina stared. "So magic and an assault by the Darkstar weapons is out of the question; how about those swords of yours?"
Trent sighed. "Not an option either; using the Opposing Swords together only works for defense or if you're physically in range of striking the target. And worse, the target has to be ONE something fairly simple. The swords won't do the trick here, and I'd prefer not to use them anyway."
"Why not?" Lina asked.
Trent turned to her. "Why don't you cast the Giga Slave more often? I mean, it has to be some kind of a rush to be possessed by the goddess of your world?"
Lina winced. If THAT was what using the two swords was like...
"What about that trick Xellos has?" Gourry asked. "You know, where he disappears and then stabs you with his staff?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "Guumeon is like the defensive version of a Ra Tilt; it bends the astral plane around the source to block out magic. Xellos teleports through the astral plane, so not even he can safely pass through that barrier. What with the flicker effect, the odds are he'd get sliced in half if he tried by one of the sheets of spell energy."
Dynast coughed to regain their attention. "If I may continue?" He nodded to the model. "Valred didn't just bother to make it hard to get in the citadel, nor did he just make it able to shrug off normal assaults. He also made sure that he could fight back; the walls are dotted with self- loading ballista designed for dealing with heavy horse troops. Oh, and directly outside of the walls are barracks of about a thousand stone golems the size of a small cottage."
Lina groaned. "Oh great, what next."
Jilis grinned weakly. "Funny you should mention that. Not counting the golems, 'e still 'as about five thousand mercenary troops working for him. About two hundred are worth worrying about, and another three hundred are decent mages."
"Not counting the final wall around his mostly subterranean inner sanctum guarded by walls of orihalcon-veined granite and the twelve towers equipped with spell-traps designed to fire Rune Flares," Delphine added.
"Or the zig-zagging, maze-like streets to said sanctum, designed to force an army through thousands of bottlenecks, or the enchantments preventing us from tunneling into the city or sanctum," Scherra added.
"And finally," Zelas quipped, "you CAN'T forget the ten levels you have to go down through in the citadel, each one a lovely little deathtrap of ballista, flame-throwers, acid-sap-exuding living tentacled plants, living ice golems, and the things no one else knows about in the first place."
Amelia stared at them. "And you expect us to break in and beat this guy?"
Trent allowed a grim, hard smile completely devoid of humor to cross his lips. "We have a FEW ideas."
--------
The next day...
"Alright, let's report on how we're doing," Dynast said. "Jilis?"
The harried-looking werefox rubbed a fist over a bleary eye. "I managed to get all the stuff I'll need, but it'll take some time to get it put together right proper. I figure another two days just to mix the bloody stuff."
"Unacceptable," Dynast said. "We'll have to assign some people to work with you; the attack is scheduled for three days from now." He turned to Eris and Kashura. "Do you two understand your jobs?"
Kashura sighed. "We're trying to get the mercenaries comfortable with us; just enough that they won't attack us as a simple matter of principle. We should have everything done in time."
"Lina?"
The sorceress winced. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. Now shut up and let me get some ice cream..."
Dynast rolled his eyes. "Alright, Trent, Valgaav, and Xellos, you go help Jilis; you're the only ones I trust around that stuff." He turned to the dragon priestess. "Well? Have you got the items ready?"
Filia sniffed disdainfully. "This kind of thing takes time, you know. I'll HAVE it ready in three days. Now get off my back."
Dynast shook his head. This was getting undignified.
The plan was simple, at least in concept. The anti-magical defenses were centered in six different locations, each one with its own failsafes. Taking out one would be useless; it would take a total failure of the magical power fueling the city to make it work at all.
The magical power fueling the city was generated in the same six locations, and were under heavy guard. Fortunately, they were made in such a way that a non-magical assault of sufficient power would be enough to take them out.
Once the anti-magic was out of the way, it would be the simplest thing in the world to let Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, and all their other mages just blow the everliving crap out of the walls and other opponents. Reducing large numbers of cannon fodder into corpses was how they made their living, after all.
Now they just needed time.
--------
Kashura took a deep breath, calming herself. She had probably the most important job in the entire assault; she and Eris would be making the initial attack.
There were only two gates through the perimeter wall, one in the east, the other across the city in the west. She had the eastern one, Eris had the west. Everyone was searched their for weapons of any kind; no one who hadn' sworn oaths of fealty was allowed to have any way of hurting those in the city.
They were in for a bit of a nasty surprise.
The guard lazily raised his hand. "Hey Kassie. You know the drill. No weapons allowed; please leave all swords, spears, axes..." he droned on in a carefully rehearsed and memorized speech.
The blue-haired mazoku smiled sweetly, fanning a few of her knives in her hands; you know, maybe a hundred or so. They abruptly shot out of her hands to begin orbiting her quickly, point-first, only to be replaced by new knives in the fanned shapes she was using, again and again, until a good thousand were rotating around her. "Stuff like this, maybe?" The guard's voice had trailed off into stunned silence at the sign of the first blade. "Holy Shit."
Kashura just shrugged perkily, and sent her first knife through the man's head. The other guards staring at her in similar states of shock were quickly filetted as well, all but one. Quite deliberately so.
The survivor quickly grabbed a minor enchanted item, one designed for communication. "HELP! WE NEED MORE TROOPS NOW!"
Within thirty seconds, a platoon of maybe a hundred men were jogging into the gateway. "Surrender now! We have you surrounded!"
Kashura just grinned as (for reasons which elude me), a techno-track started playing in her head. Unconsciously, she quoted another dangerous female of anime, though one with a somewhat different MO. "Foo. More of you just means that there's more of you to KILL!"
Her spinning knives exploded towards them like automatic weapon fire, ripping through armor and flesh to continue into the stone walls behind them.
Then the golems arrived, and things got FUN.
--------
Eris hadn't managed to wait quite so long. The guard who'd tried to disarm her had been bisected by her Knife. The platoon that had been summoned to deal with her was currently running away, screaming for a mage to deal with this obvious demon as she chased after them, cackling wildly as Scissors started cutting off more than hair.
Between her and Kashua, no one noticed a certain trickster priest slip through the western gate. Nor did they notice the dragon/elf in the east.
At least not until the explosions started to occur.
--------
Filia sighed in depression as plumes of smoke started rising from the targetted city. "Honestly, I don't see why I'm stuck here; I could be of help, couldn't I?"
Jilis patted her arm sympathetically. "Don't you worry your pretty little head over that, ducky. You're doing a job just as important as those blokes settin' off all 'o me bombs."
The plan was going as hoped for, if nothing else. The big hole in Valred's fortress was the assumption that only magic could have stood a chance of destroying his walls even if they weren't enchanted for defense. Perfectly true, but he'd made a mistake in his assumptions. The spells depended on six different locations that had to be simultaneously destroyed by pretty hefty blasts. While as Zelgadis had once pointed out, "gunpowder is a useful curiosity, but it can't get anywhere near as powerful as an explosion spell."
Not completely true; enough gunpowder would do more damage than say, a Mega Brand. The problem was that the bomb would have to be about the size of a human torso to pack that kind of oomph. Valred had assumed that no one could have actually gotten something that big through his guards, and hadn't bothered with anything more than the most basic shields for the shield generator areas.
Unfortunately for him, Jilis had recently started to improve the basic mixture of normal black powder into something a bit stronger; dynamite. Rather than just mealy black powder, this stuff was potent enough that a book-sized mass would have the same power as a Mega Brand or a decent fireball. Small enough to smuggle in, powerful enough to get the job done.
Even then, there were still problems with the assault. Breaching the walls would have been a great move if you had an army, but when you only had maybe sixteen people in the fight, what was the point? I mean, besides the therapeutic effects that reducing several million kilotons of rock into rubble?
For one, if done properly it could make them THINK they were under attack by an army. Soldiers defending against an army would worry about large numbers; who cared if a dozen people got through when they were defending against hundreds, if not thousands?
In short, the whole thing was one great big distraction. The real fighting would be done by perhaps two.
--------
Lina grinned as the number of smoke plumes over the city reached six. "Alright, the spell barrier should be toast. Let's test it with a bang." Flipping her hair back, she raised her hands to charge up her main gun, her signature. Sure, the dragon's lance was more effective, but there was just something so...HER about the old version. "Darkness beyond Twilight, Crimson beyond blood that flows; buried in the flow of time, in Thy great name I pledge myself to Darkness! Let the fools who oppose us be destroyed by the power that You and I possess! DRAGON...SLAAAAAAVE!"
Gourry sighed as he watched the ruby beam of light turn a chunk of the city walls into rubble. It was really kind of...you know, it was kind of relaxing. Nice and familiar. Dusting his hands off, Gourry hefted his glowing sword. "My turn." Nodding to Zelgadis, the two clashed Gorunova against Ragudezaius, producing the signature bonfire of light. Gourry spun twice, building up proper momentum, then unleashed his brand new attack. "CANNON OF LIGHT!"
Zelgadis paused from where he'd been preparing a Dug Break to deal with the golem troops. "Cannon of light?"
Gourry shrugged. "Hey, you guys get to yell things whenever you attack; I was feeling kind of left out."
--------
Amelia pointed a finger in the general direction of the fortress. She'd just watched Lina and Gourry attack from the west; now it was her turn to strike from the east, get the opposition confused. "You pitiful wretches of darkness; how could you oppose such righteousness? While god may forgive you, know this! I! Amelia wils de Seyruun, shall not!" She raised her hands to fire off one of her few spells designed for large-scale property damage (she usually tried to avoid them, as Lina managed that quite nicely on her own thank you very much). "Vice FREEZE!"
The ball of pale light streaked into the wall, freezing it as the strongest attack in water shamanism struck. From there, it was simple to fire off a quick Dimilar Wind and reduce the place to shattered stone.
Filia nodded in approval. Quick, simple, efficient, and visually spectacular enough to get Valred's forces good and startled. "Alright Jilis, your turn."
He grinned as he strolled over to a straining rope threaded through a LONG series of pulleys. Raising a dagger with a flourish, he swiped it through the rope, releasing a good hundred simple catapults, each flinging four of his standard grenades. Not much damage, but it created lots of smoke and noise.
Now if only the others would hurry up and do their parts.
--------
Dynast watched the ensuing chaos, and nodded in satisfaction. Excellent food, panic, and so easy to generate. A few fires in a city, a single mazoku pretending to be a corpse in a crowd, and you had a full meal. Simple, really.
More specifically in this case, the plan was going perfectly. Virtually everyone in the citadel was a combatant; the tavern-keepers and street- walkers who weren't (soldiers of all kinds demand some things) had long since grabbed anything they could and started running. That left only the soldiers themselves, and for the most part they weren't all that worried about him and Scherra.
To the south, he could hear snarls and explosions as Zelas's mazoku started sweeping up to start dealing with the cannon fodder. To the north, Delphine was coordinating the use of all the spell traps (minor ones, flare arrow enchanted) that Filia had been making to make a magic assault seem to be on all sides. It was a beautiful symphony of chaos.
"Hold it right there!"
Scherra looked up in surprise as they neared the inner sanctuary's gates. The three hundred or so warriors Jilis had felt skilled enough to worry about had been held in reserve on the final walls to Valred's citadel. Oddly enough, they hadn't run away or to other fighting yet. Most likely they had orders to serve as the mage's body guards or something.
"You are to evacuate the citadel immediately. If you do not, you will be assumed an enemy and executed."
Dynast raised an eyebrow at his general. "Jumpy, aren't they. Just get them out of the way; don't kill them if you don't feel like it, and don't bother trying to convert them. They're just one more wall."
Scherra nodded calmly. Her sword COULD have turned them all into more cannon fodder monsters for Lord Dynast, but he didn't seem interested. She simply charged negative energy and started sweeping bolts of electricity across them. Her estimations of them raised significantly as their armor held. "Orihalcon. We simply HAVE to find out how to procure these kinds of quantities."
Dynast shrugged as he brought out his weapons of choice; pinwheel knives, each one sporting a trio of crystalline blades. "As I understand, it's fairly common in overworld. Most likely, we'll only be able to recover what's left behind." Setting his daggers to spinning like a pair of power circular saws, he took an easy stance. "We'll discuss this later."
In seconds, the ground began to rain blood and scraps of metal.
I won't go into any more detail; I'm trying to keep from getting to gorey.
-------
Trent let out a deep breath as he started down the fourth set of stairs. The last trap had NOT been what he'd considered fun. Valred had set up a couple hundred spears on springs and cogs; the walls kept popping out spears sharp and strong enough to pierce steel without much worry at random intervals. It had been like walking through a meat-grinder.
Dynast and he had agreed that he should be the one to actually confront Valred; if worse came to worse, he could pull out the most powerful attacks, and more importantly, HE would have the sense to run if things got too out of hand. Thus his current location, walking through the booby- trapped levels leading down to the as-yet unseen Boss Villain.
Trap level one had been simple; just gas-based flame-throwers. A bit uncomfortable, but not enough to actually harm him. Heck, Gourry probably could have walked through relatively whole. Level two had been insulting; hidden crossbows had shot poison darts when you stepped on the trigger mechanisms. Not terribly effective when your feet didn't touch the ground.
Three had been a bit worse; the whole place had been an acid bath. The fact that it was fed not only by rivulets pouring down the neutralized walls but also by steady streams from all over the ceiling hadn't helped a great deal.
And now level four, the meat-grinder. He'd managed to use wind brid to cut through enough of the spears that getting through was possible, but he was still kind of nervy. It had NOT been fun.
Now he was ready for level five. Pushing open the creaking doors (done for deliberate effect rather than any actual lack of use), he found himself in a completely bare room save for one occupant. Said occupant turned out to be some kind of giant were-tiger; it looked somewhat like a Rakshasa. It grinned at him, hefting a wicked-looking halberd. "Step into my den, roared the tiger to the hare."
Trent stared at him quietly for a few minutes as the thing started a rumbling laughter. "So quiet, little hare? Don't worry; I believe in a swift kill." Without further ado he charged, leaping into the air to deliver a swift, powerful overhead blow.
It didn't amount to much; a scalpel in the throat and each eye tends to slow down just about anything alive quite easily.
Trent looked down at his opponent, then turned to silently walk away. He hadn't been fighting anyone like this for quite awhile; he wasn't killing, he was assassinating now. No talk, no remorse anymore, just quick and efficient slaughter.
Level six was a simple affair; the ice golems that Zelas had mentioned four days ago. For some reason, Valred had been an idiot with them; they weren't even REMOTELY resistant to fire magic; flare lances and they'd been toast.
He was beginning to wonder if any of this was anything more than just a distraction.
Level seven was the first real challenge.
His opponent bowed to him formally, steepling her hands. "Greetings, honored adversary. My name is Makina (ma-KEE-na), the Blood Weaver. It is my privilege to face one capable of killing the Rakshasa." She raised her weapons calmly. "Shall we begin?"
In the above paragraph, I mentioned that she steepled her hands. I neglected to mention that she had twelve of them, and looked like someone had taken the torso of a Japanese Geisha, given her the arms you'd expect on Kali or Shiva, and attached it all to the eight-legged cephalothorax of a black widow spider. As for weapons, she had eight swords, two axes, and a single spear, the swords consisting of five katanas, two longswords, and a heavy scimitar.
All in all, a bit harder to deal with.
Trent calmly raised a hand. "Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, gather in my hands."
Makina raised an eyebrow quizzically (she only had two of them). "A spell of light? I hope you don't think it a weakness of mine. And judging by the application, you aren't even bothering to try and blind me. Why then that spell?"
Trent grinned harmlessly as he sent the glowing ball of light to hover next to the ceiling. "Useful little thing."
Makina continued staring him down, then nodded. "I cannot fathon why you chose that spell, but so be it. Let us begin." She blurred forward, her vairety of weapons churning the air into a maelstrom of razor edges. Trent calmly danced backwards away from the strikes until he had been pressed almost to the far wall. Only then did he attack. "Freeze arrow."
Makina jerked her body upward, dodging the attack, simultaneously bringing one of her katanas towards him in a vicious thrust. Trent waited until the last possible moment, then abruptly snapped his hands together, catching the blade bare-handed. The force was more than he could counter, and he fell backwards.
Directly into the shadow his spell of lighting over Makina cast, sinking easily into the ground and into the realm of night.
He could have simply arrived in the next level, but he felt that he'd need to conserve his energies against Valred. As such, he completely ignored levels eight, nine, and ten, appearing instead on the final level itself to confront Valred.
The chamber was a large hollow in the ground, as though someone had taken a divine auger and cut a gigantic pit in the ground. Around it were a trio of rough crystal pillars, each one glowing with an eerie, blue/white light. His eyes widened as he recognized the flare of energy. "Larth." He stared at the other two. "Then - "
"Karlimanthos and Tios," a voice came up. "Or at least, the energy released by their death. I would have little to no use for their souls, if that's what you're worried about."
Trent turned to regard the blond man. "What's this all about? Why go to all this trouble?"
Valred's eyes widened as he took on an expression of mocking surprise. "What? No speeches about 'how dare you do that to their souls?' No complaints of any kind?"
Trent's face didn't waver. "Why are you doing this?"
Valred smiled. "Well, it IS a bit of a cliche; the villain always tells the secrets. And in this case, withholding information doesn't gain me anything. So to be short, I originally wanted the five darkstar weapons for their great power; I was able to recruit quite a few useful people for that purpose. When I came back to this world to chase after Sirius however, I found something in the desert; an old relic of Phibrizzo's that not even HE had dared to try and use. It required the energies of three creatures in their death; one mazoku for evil, one dragon for good, and one human to bridge the gap. This," he said, gesturing around him at what was beginning to be recognizable as an altar, "is merely the culmination of that desire." His grin turned evil. "Three guesses as to WHAT that desire is?"
Trent rolled his eyes. "Let's see...ressurection of a god? Ultimate power? Ruling the world/Everything?"
Valred laughed. "Yes, that IS a bad cliche, isn't it? And perhaps worst of all, true. All three. The power, the god, and the world; all mine with this simple little ritual."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Well, I'm almost done with Book Two; all that's left is the final fight between Trent and Valred. This is going to be the last update for awhile; I'm not going to post the final chapter until I've also started the prologue and first chapter in Book Three: Bolero. And as noted in an earlier review, it's going to be set in X/1999. I watched the feature film and have read about half the manga; I thought the plot was good, the characterization excellent, the artwork fabulous, and the follow- up use of the plot Raw Sewage (actually, something more colorful, but look at the rating; PG-13). I mean come on; you spend an hour and a half in the movie developing these characters just so you can kill EVERYONE? No no, that has to be changed.
