Chapter 37: Shock
All was quiet inside the belltower on the far side of the Azorius territory. The entranceway was tightly shuttered, the vestibule deserted, and the fifty stories of carved stone steps remained untrodden except by the fleetest of vermin. The lamps were all extinguished, leaving only the bare flickers of airborne lights to cut luminous swaths from the darkness. Despite the striking of the hour, there was neither man nor machine left within to toll the bells. Near-perfect silence permeated the spire, filling the space with an almost enrapturing placidity. The only things that dared to disrupt this harmony came trickling down from the tip of the spire: the far-off sounds carried on the wind filtering through the open window, and the gentle hum of the Interplanar Beacon as it dutifully continued to send its signal across the Multiverse.
The belltower, it seemed, was an eye of the storm, a spot of calm amidst a swirling torrent of chaos and destruction. Were there any living beings inside, there would be little evidence for them to know that a war was raging just beyond the wizened wooden door.
Sadly, all it takes is a single pebble to disrupt a still pond. Rather than a serene splash sending calming ripples to the water's edge, the inner peace of the belltower was demolished by a single, thunderous CRACK that echoed from the doorway straight through the steepled rooftop.
Though the door had been sealed earlier that day and its weight was significant with early Ravnican craftsmanship, it could not withstand the might of the impact. Its hinges were wrenched from the masonry and the door flew from its frame, carried by the armored skull of a charging dinosaur. Pinned in between, a practically bifurcated Eternal stared the beast down as the necromantic light gradually drained from its eyes. The dinosaur would have likely smashed the door against the far wall had Huatli, astride its back, not dug her heels into its flanks to signal its stop. The dinosaur skidded to a halt, and the door fell to the ground with a BOOM that shook the rafters.
Huatli's face, grimly set with a warrior's fortitude, did not react to the sound. Her focus was solely on maneuvering her prehistoric steed back towards the belltower's entrance, where she had barely escaped with hell on her heels. As she looked upon the threshold, she saw the full might of the advancing Dreadhorde closing in.
"The tower's empty!" she bellowed. "Come on, let's move! Now!"
From just beyond the portal, filtering through the unholy clatter of lazotep footsteps, rattling sabers, and electrical discharge, a voice managed to funnel down the small thoroughfare Huatli and her mount had created.
"A path's been cleared!" yelled Ral Zarek. "Get close, let's go!"
The storm-mage hastily followed Huatli into the tower, entering backwards so he could continue to push back the encroaching Eternals with haphazard blasts of lightning. He nearly stumbled on the slightly raised step of the entranceway, but he managed to stay on his feet, even if it sent an arc of electricity up to the sky.
Ral quickly planted himself a few steps from the doorway. The space created by Huatli's charge was closing fast, and while both Narset and Kasmina were running at breakneck pace behind him, he could see there was not much time before the ocean of Eternals swallowed them whole.
"Get inside, come on! I'll hold them off!" Stinging sweat dripped into Ral's eyes as he fumbled with the settings on his Accumulator. He glanced at the gauge, a motion that had basically become a nervous tick since he saw just how low his reserves were dipping.
3% left? Shit, did I really let out that much charge getting here? Those Golgari, if they'd invested in any amount of technology I could've recharged at Svogthos. Well, I guess this is it.
With a resigned purse of his lips, Ral unleashed a rapid burst of lightning bolts, tracing around the door's perimeter to give his allies space to move. The discharges worked just as he hoped, obliterating one Eternal before daisy chaining to another to exact a similar fate. Unfortunately, for each Eternal that Ral dropped, it seemed two more were prepared to step into its place.
"I can't hold them off for much longer! Narset, Kasmina, come on!"
Narset flew through the doorway, wisps of blue energy evaporating from around her feet. She was stopped suddenly as an Eternal grabbed onto a flowing trail of her robe, but she tore herself free with a swift pull as soon as her feet landed on the stone floor. She turned, reaching her hand out to Kasmina, who was running unaided just a step behind. The redheaded mage grabbed hold, allowing Narset to pull her the rest of the way. She only made it halfway inside, however, before she let out a pained shriek.
"Aah! My ankle! It's got my ankle"
Narset grimaced as she yanked Kasmina through the threshold, dragging along the extra weight of the jackal-headed Eternal whose fingers now gripped around her leg. Its eyes burned bright with primordial magic, and its hand began to pulsate with the vile energy of the Elderspell.
Ral's eyes went wide. "Hold on, I've got you!" Tearing his aim away from the advancing horde, he pointed at the Eternal, who remained horrifically steady against Kasmina's desperate flailing and quickened screams. He tried to summon forth a blast of electricity, but he felt nothing but a faint buzz of static.
No. No, no no no no! He looked at the gauge again, and before he even saw the crimson circle, he knew what it would say. I can't be at zero, not now! What am I going to do? He could feel his thoughts start to fall into a panicked spiral. Come on, you're leading this mission, think of something before Kasmina…
Before Ral could filter any coherent ideas from his mind, he saw Narset let go of Kasmina's hand, her focus fully shifting to the Eternal. Her opaline eyes started to radiate with periwinkle light as she pulled her body into a tight martial stance. She raised one hand, with two fingers pointing out, over her head. It instantly alit with misty energy, and she brought it down on the grasping Eternal's arm with enough strength and composure that the rest of her body remained still as a statue.
The zombie's arm cracked clean through from the impact, with Narset's magic readily matriculating into both sides of the severance. While the disarmed Eternal reeled back as the ominous lights in its body were steadily snuffed out, Kasmina let out a deep gasp before slumping to the ground.
This sight snapped Ral's mind back into action. He quickly dove to Kasmina and grabbed her outstretched hand. As he drew close, he noticed that, though she seemed relatively unscathed, her face was slightly more pallid, and her eyes had lost a hint of luster. He did not have time to dwell on it, however, as his attention was pulled to the massive surge of Eternals that were now knocking on their doorstep.
"Everyone, clear out of the way!" Huatli yelled. "We've got to drive them back!"
Ral looked over his shoulder and saw that her dinosaur mount had lowered its head at the doorway, guided by Huatli's fanlike blades. Its nostrils flared and legs bent in anticipation, and once she let out a strident war cry, the beast charged forward with a resounding roar.
Ral barely had time to process what was happening, and had it not been for his periphery picking up the image of Narset pushing herself away from the doorway, he might not have followed suit in time. Retightening his grip, he pulled himself and Kasmina off to the vestibule's side. The severed hand, still inertly clamped around her ankle, let out a series of knocks as it glanced across the stone floor.
Gritting his teeth, Ral shifted Kasmina's arm around his shoulder in a single continuous motion. "Here, I've got you," he reassured as he pulled her into a standing position. "You okay?"
She winced as she tested her weight on her afflicted leg, but then offered Ral a curt nod. "Yes, I should be fine. You needn't worry."
Ral opened his mouth to protest, but he was cut off by the deafening cry of Huatli's hammerskull preparing to attack. Just before it reached the threshold, Huatli leapt from the creature's saddle, propelling herself back while pushing the dinosaur even faster into the oncoming Eternals. The beast's crown met their lazotep shells with a sickening crack. The sheer number of Eternals slowed the dinosaur, but it was not enough to stop the dogged creature. With a single defiant growl, it pushed back against the wave, momentarily leaving the doorway clear.
Huatli's voice pierced through the animalistic cacophony. "She won't hold them back for long. We need something to block them!"
"I've got an idea," Kasmina grunted. She struck her crooked staff into the ground, dividing her weight between it and Ral's supporting frame. Blue light suddenly engulfed the hand that slung around his shoulder, matching the glowing aura of her eyes and the pendant on her chest. Ral watched as this same light appeared around the body of the Eternal that had attacked her, now hollow from Narset's magics and slightly trampled from the charging hammerskull. As the light seeped into the inanimate corpse, it began to change.
A symphony of snaps and crunches rang out as its frame ballooned in size, limbs growing and rearranging, facial features contorting grotesquely as some aspects shrunk while others grew. It took only a few seconds before Ral recognized the humanoid Eternal's new shape was that of an elephant.
As it transformed, their view of the approaching army shrank and shrank, but they could see Huatli's mount had finally been stopped. They could hear as its roars turned from aggressive to panicked as the mob engulfed it. As the elephantine corpse expanded to block the belltower's doorway, they could still hear the beast's frightened moans punctuated by the tearing of flesh until the sound suddenly, chillingly stopped.
The vestibule fell silent for a moment, save for the ragged panting coming from the four planeswalkers. It lasted just long enough to lull Ral into an odd sense of calm, only to summarily shatter as the sounds of the Eternal horde reignited. The transmogrified corpse knocked against the jamb as claws, blades, and bursts of magic struck against its fortified hide, unsettling the dust and spiderwebs that had accumulated within the building's abandoned crevices.
"It won't hold them for long," Huatli said tersely. Though she spoke and carried herself with a soldier's discipline, there was a definite trace of sadness in her eyes, likely over the fate of her former steed. "Only a matter of time before they realize they can't hack through it and organize enough to push it out of the way."
Ral nodded. "Hopefully that time will be enough. We can figure out how to deal with them once we get to the top." He looked to Kasmina, who was examining her ankle as she leaned into her staff. "Kasmina, are you going to be okay to keep going?"
Without looking up to him, she summoned another corona of cerulean magic. It surrounded the disembodied hand wrapped around her ankle, and then, with a flick of her wrist, it began to recede. The limb shriveled in size, with several fingers being absorbed back inside while a membranous film connecting those remaining. It soon lost its grip, and what now looked like a frog's webbed hand clattered to the floor.
Her leg now free, Kasmina tentatively shifted her weight onto it. Despite trying to hide beneath her cowl, Ral saw a flash of pain race across her features. It disappeared almost immediately, however, replaced by a warmly reassuring smile that stood out against her pallor.
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine." To demonstrate her condition, she lifted her staff from the ground, this time keeping her face under tight control to not show her discomfort. "It seems, Narset, that you were able to counteract this Elderspell before it could do any harm. The sensation certainly wasn't pleasant, but I don't feel any diminishing effects on my spark."
Narset sagely bowed. "I am glad. I was unsure if my nullification abilities would work against magics even older than my master's, but it seems that it was effective. This will serve us well."
Ral knew Kasmina was underplaying her discomfort, but as the clamor beyond the doorway continued to grow, he reasoned there was little time to fight her on it. Instead, he clapped his hands together, gathering the attention of the other planeswalkers, before gesturing to the stairs.
"Alright then, let's get up there while the getting's good. Sooner we reach the Beacon, sooner we can shut it down."
The others nodded, pausing to let Ral take the lead. As he started moving, Huatli, Kasmina, and Narset fell in behind, and the group swiftly ascended the belltower's spiraling stairwell.
Their hard footsteps echoed up and down the central column, eventually drowning out the noise from the entranceway below and the mechanical hum leaching from above. Small windows were intermittently scattered along the way, giving them brief glimpses into the events unfolding just outside. The sky was still suffused with silent storm clouds, lit only with the passing souls of the dead. Airborne Eternals continued to swoop through the air, dropping from the sky with precise lethality. Accompanying them, swarms of silvery thopters patrolled the area, mounted floodlights giving them purview into every nook and cranny in the Azorius territory.
"There's a lot more of these mechanical creatures that I expected," Huatli commented as a thopter's light swept over them from an adjacent window. Her pace slowed as she tentatively wielded her blades in its direction. "Should we send out a counterattack?"
Ral did not bother to slow down, knowing that he and his group had not exactly been subtle with their trip through the sector. "I don't think that's necessary. They already know where we are, probably just tracking our ascent. If we get to the Beacon first, they might not have time to fully mobilize."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Huatli give him a resolute nod as she lowered her weapons. "At your command."
Ral's spine stiffened a bit, and he hoped that it went unnoticed. "Um, yeah… right. Let's, uh, let's keep moving."
Channeling his nervous energy into his legs, Ral redoubled his pace, rocketing up the treacherous stairs as fast as he safely could. Through the echoes of his tromping footsteps and the rattle of his empty Accumulator against his back, he heard the others match his speed, following his lead towards the belltower's peak. Despite all the dangers plaguing him today, it was this sound, the sound of three pairs of footsteps deliberately falling in line with his own, that burrowed under his skin like a disturbed hellion. He tried to shake the sensation off, but he could feel it persist.
Come on, get it together. It's not a big deal. You led them through the district without incident. Home stretch, right here. Then Niv can come back and set things right. Right? For now, though, they're counting on you. Oh gods, they're counting on you. Krokt, Jace, why did I have to be put in charge of this gods-be-damned mission?
Ral felt his brow reflexively furrow. Stupid question, I know why. I basically volunteered. I did assemble that stupid thing, now I just gotta figure out how to disassemble it. On my own. We couldn't spare any artificers for this mission. Couldn't even get Varryvort, or hells, this is a job for Maree now, isn't it? But it's no problem, right? All I gotta do is outsmart the design of the most intelligent being on this plane, who died standing up to the dragon we're trying to take down. Easy. And if I don't, the whole plane's doomed, and everyone will know it's because I couldn't figure out the one thing I both needed to and was supposed to.
Feeling his heartbeat uncomfortably rise, Ral plunged his hand into his pocket and grabbed hold of the awaiting tear of white fabric. The silky strip of Tomik's robes wove in and out of his fingers, and he forced out a sigh between his teeth.
No pressure, right?
An anxious shudder ran down his spine, prickling at his legs as they carried him up the last flight of stairs towards the massive wooden landing that obscured the belltower's spire. The trapdoor had been left open from his previous visit, allowing the air to fill with the calibrated whine of the machinery. Ral paused just outside, craning an ear to listen for any signs of an ambush. Hearing nothing, he gestured to the others to follow him into the awaiting belfry.
The scene was exactly as Ral remembered, though not from his last departure earlier that morning, but from the stormy tumult of the previous night. At once, his attention was consumed by the Interplanar Beacon, the chrome and glass obelisk that steadfastly stood in the room's center. It continued to belch forth its multiversal signal, which bathed the immediate area in luminous gold, oblivious to the doom it was inadvertently bringing upon those it touched. What had once been a sign of hope for Ral, a symbol of scientific triumph, now loomed over him with obstinance, practically daring him to try and save the world again.
As his eyes brushed past the Beacon, averting a bit faster than Ral had planned, he saw the remaining evidence of their fight with Bolas. The large window lay open to the world, allowing the clouds hanging just overhead to fill the space with an unsettling wind chill. The remains of the stained glass lay scattered across the floor, occasionally transforming the Beacon's light into a cascade of color. He could still see the spaces where he, Kaya, and Lavinia had woken up, the outlines of their bodies traced in the haphazard shards. And between those spectral shapes, Ral stiffened as he spied the prone body of Hekara, still face-down in a pool of her own dried blood.
There was something uncanny about her body, and it took Ral a moment to realize what it was. Throughout their time working together, he had never seen Hekara stand still. Her wild brown hair that spiked around her devilish crown was always fluttering in a self-made whirlwind. Her spiked boots that rose to her thighs were constantly swinging in all directions. Her leather bustier, her flowing red skirt with the promiscuous slits, her slender arms that still managed to bleed through the three layers of wrapped bandages, they all seemed tailor-made for movement, for the performances both on and off the stage. Now, seeing her in this deathly repose, it just felt unnatural. It was the tension between the thought that she could jump up at any second and take a blood-soaked bow and the knowledge that such an act would simply not happen.
"How terrible," murmured Narset, who Ral had not heard appear at his side. She had followed his gaze to Hekara, her jeweled irises glinting with sympathy. "She was your compatriot, yes?"
Ral thought for a moment, then merely offered a halfhearted shrug. "Yeah, though most of the time she was more hassle than helpful. I guess that's just the Rakdos way."
"I doubt that she would have risked her life had she not intended to help you to the best of her ability. She must have truly believed in your cause. Such sacrifices are rarely made so idly."
Ral's mouth crinkled to one side of his face as his eyes glanced over the fallen razorwitch one more time. "Yeah, you're probably right. Wish I could've done more."
In his periphery, he saw Narset's gaze shift to him as she gave a quiet nod. "The past is not so easily altered. All we can do is use it to inform our future."
He nodded, mirroring her sagacity as best he could. "Here's hoping, at least." He let these words hang in the air for a moment before turning away from Hekara to address his allies, who had gathered in various positions around the Beacon.
"So, this is it?" Kasmina said as she craned her neck up to observe the device's entirety. She spoke between gasping breaths, the toll of the staircase seemingly exacerbated by the injury she now kept hidden beneath her cloak. "It's certainly impressive. Even now, I can somewhat feel the energies resonating in my chest. Fascinating. And you're quite certain we can't simply destroy it?"
Ral shook his head. "Unfortunately, this thing's indestructibility is basically a guarantee. If Niv engineers something, it will always work exactly as he says. Reinforced hull, magic dampening alloy, full array of elemental shunting apparatuses, this thing's got it all."
"It was designed to stand up against Bolas, after all," added Huatli.
"Exactly."
Kasmina put a hand on the machine's chassis, both in awe of the invention and to give herself a brief support as she caught her breath. "So, what manner of plan have you concocted to shut it down, then?"
Ral winced, then immediately tried to play it off with a sardonic waver of his hand. "I'm tinkering with a few potential ideas, but nothing guaranteed. It'll take some time to go through it all."
"How may we be of assistance?" Narset asked.
"By buying me as much time as you can. Narset, you keep watch by the stairwell. It's faint, but I can hear the Eternals figuring out how to get past that roadblock of ours. When they start getting up here, I'll need you to knock them back down. I know it's a lot to ask, but…"
Narset folded her hands at her waist and nodded. "I will not allow a single one to broach this sanctum."
"That's what I'm hoping," Ral smirked. "Huatli, I need you to cover the window. Those thopters will be getting up here any second now. Take as many out of the sky as you can."
Huatli struck her closed fist against her chest, her bracer resolutely ringing against her plate. "It will be done."
He nodded appreciatively. "Great. And Kasmina, I'm going to need another pair of hands. I built this with the help of my chief chemister, so there's a lot of things installed only within goblin reach. Think you can help with that?"
The mage pushed herself off the Beacon's façade, meeting Ral with sapphiric eyes that shone with impassioned curiosity. Her pallid lips curled into a strained smile. "I can never turn down a chance to learn something new."
Looking around at the three women's faces, all set in their own form of conviction, be it meditative, ferocious, or inquisitive, Ral felt his chest swell with an unexpected pride. He made sure to tamp it from his features, instead offering a last nod to them all. With this acknowledgement, the group split across the belfry, leaping into their newly established assignments.
The blue light of Narset's magic quickly disappeared as she descended the staircase, choosing to meet any approaching Eternals before they could make it to the top. The trapdoor remained open, a precaution in case she found herself overwhelmed.
On the other side of the space, Huatli swept through the broken glass and leapt onto the empty windowsill with sylvan grace. As she stood overlooked the Azorius district, the automated buzz of thopter wings started to fill the air as they swarmed to the large opening. Huatli did not falter as the air before her filled with dozens of filigree pests, instead staring them down while she pulled a small, silver drake from her pack. A gift from Saheeli to aid in their mission, the cogwork reptile instantly awoke and bolted from Huatli's open palm, carrying out its creator's orders to devour as many thopters as it could. As it bit clean through its first meal on its way to the next, the thopters scattered enough to give Huatli an opening. She jumped from the windowsill with eyes aglow, and just as she started to fall, a sun-colored pterodon appeared beneath her feet. Standing astride its back, Huatli held her blade aloft and let out another singing cry of battle, urging her new mount to carry her into the fray.
As the warrior-poet disappeared in a whir of violent action, Ral turned his attention to his own task. At his instruction, Kasmina used her magic to manipulate her proportions to that most resembling Varryvort. Ral watched her face, ready to ask her to stop if the spell looked too overwhelming, but it fortunately went off with only minor visible exhaustion.
Once she was prepared, Ral hurriedly told her about the spots of potential subterfuge within the complex machine. While Ral worked from the outside, going through his own mental checklist of possible weak points, he guided her through the inner tangle of wires and panels, making sure she arrived at each subsequent destination with minimal exposure to the dangerous chemicals and synapses lurking inside.
When Ral's first shutdown idea did not work, he felt only a minor annoyance, one that was easily brushed aside so he could move on to the next option. The second failed option was also pushed away relatively quickly, even though Ral could feel his jaw subconsciously tighten. By the third failure, however, the dissatisfaction began to take root, strengthening its hold in his mind by intertwining with the fuguing tentacles of deep-seated dread that reemerged. With each subsequent attempt, and each subsequent failure, the pit in Ral's stomach grew. His body increasingly stiffened, his manipulation of the machinery grew more aggressive, and his commands to Kasmina become louder and harsher.
Still, in a twist of cruel irony, it was the Beacon that dismantled Ral's preparations. As if taunting him, it showed him nothing but perfectly welded panels, immovable levers, unbreakable metalwork, and irreversible reactions. Each rebuff from the implacable device drove him ever more inward. The clatter of the Eternals figuring their way past the elephant corpse, the staticky shriek of thopters being torn from the sky, and even the omnipresent, almost scornful hum of the Beacon, all faded from Ral's attention, drowned out by his own frustration.
Ral lost complete track of the passing minutes, so he did not know how long he had been working by the time he reached the end of his list. The Beacon still stood, and with the final potentiality snuffed out, Ral felt hollow. As a mounting pressure coalesced behind his eyes, he balled his fists and expelled his sentiments in a single burst.
"KROKT!"
He doubled over, allowing his shoulders to slump as his frame caved into the cavernous void where he once felt his abdomen. His frame heaved with impotent anger. Upon hearing this outburst, Kasmina crawled out from the Beacon's chassis and returned to her regular size. This mostly escaped Ral's notice until she spoke up, her voice filled with concern.
"Ral, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? I'm afraid I'm no good at healing spells, but I could get one of the others to…"
Hearing her worried, almost professorial tone, Ral drew in a quick, deep breath, did his best to wipe away his rageful countenance, and straightened himself. "Sorry, sorry about that." He tried to force a flippant tone, though he could feel the keen edge of his words slicing against his gums. "I'm fine, Kasmina, really. Just had to vent some steam, like any good Izzet invention. I'm not hurt, just… out of ideas."
He tentatively met her gaze, expecting some form of disapproval that their appointed leader had already come up short. Instead, he saw her luminous eyes soften as she leaned into her staff.
"Oh dear," she sighed. "Well, are you sure that you've exhausted all your options? Perhaps another look over will help. I don't know much of your organization's technology, but a fresh pair of eyes can often lead to new solutions."
Ral pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to relieve the looming headache. When that failed to help, he ran a hand through his silver-streaked hair and let out a deflated hiss through his teeth. "I guess, but I'm not even sure what there is left to look at. Niv basically burned this thing's blueprints into the back of my skull when we were working on it. I don't know what I could've overlooked, but it…"
Suddenly, Ral's grousing was cut off by a massive CRACK echoing up from the ground floor. He paused, straining to listen past the Beacon's hum, and he heard the unmistakable clatter of goosestepping up the belltower's stairs. He knew at once what it meant, which was only further confirmed as Narset yelled from beneath the landing: "The Eternals have entered the tower!"
"Already?" Ral muttered, eyes falling to the floor. In a flash, all the restraint he had put on his emotions broke down, flooding his mind and body with a torrent of built-up anger. It searched for an outlet, but it did not have to look for long. Propelled by acerbic frustration, Ral slammed his fist into the Beacon's hull.
The chrome plating let out a brief ring, which sent minute shockwaves up Ral's arm and into his tense jaw. Though his knuckles vibrated uncomfortable, he knew immediately that his punch had done nothing. Still, his ineffectuality dredged up more bitter disappointment.
"Gods-be-damned…"
Kasmina yelped in surprise, having just turned away from Ral to look towards the trapdoor. She immediately turned back as the metallic reverberation quickly died down. "Ral? Is everything okay?"
His head hung parallel to the floor, and his shoulders slumped enough to almost unseat his Accumulator. Though the proof of his impact had dissipated, Ral continued to hold his fist against the Beacon. The cool metal buzzed atop his skin, completely oblivious to his efforts.
"Unfortunately, no, everything's not alright," he spat back at Kasmina. "The Eternals will be up here within minutes, and I've managed to accomplish jack shit with this thing!"
"Then we should start looking over it right away. It will have to be fast, but I think…"
Ral quickly cut her off. "We don't have time, and even if we did, there wouldn't be a point. If Niv said he made this thing unstoppable, then that's what he fucking did. I've studied the schematics, I assembled the damn thing, and no matter how I look at it, it's completely closed off. No way in, no way out, which means no way for us to do anything." Past the sounds of the Beacon, he could hear the Dreadhorde growing closer, along with the telltale screeching of airborne Eternals eschewing the stairs entirely.
Kasmina's brows knitted as she straightened her posture against her staff. "I refuse to believe anything can be truly impossible. I've spoken with plenty of old dragons. They always seem to know something we don't, and that dragon seemed to truly believe you could fix his mistake."
A hefty, pained sigh fell from Ral's lips. "Well, maybe he's wrong. Maybe he really did create the perfect defense mechanism and was just hoping I could figure something out. Great plan, Niv. You're a real dracogenius after all. The entire city is going to be burned to the ground, except for this stupid Beacon, which can sit atop the ashes until its battery dies. Sorry I couldn't figure something out, you…"
Suddenly, Ral stopped. Everything stopped, at least in his mind. It was as if a storm above had struck down a bolt upon his head, alighting his own thoughts while vacuuming away anything else. The noise and chaos coming from below, without, and within, all burned away from his consciousness, leaving him with only his own words ringing between his ears. He turned to the Beacon and stared at his fist still pressed against its frame. Feeling the grips of an inspirational stupor start to take him, Ral's lips parted just enough for a single, breathless message to carry through.
"That's it…"
Kasmina cocked her head to one side, craning an ear in his direction. "I'm sorry, are you okay? You were saying something before, but I don't think I caught th-"
"That's it!" Ral cried out, his voice filled with enough manic energy to nearly send Kasmina off her feet. He did not notice this, however, as he turned his entire body to the Beacon, pressing both palms flat against its surface, feeling the electric whirr dancing along his skin. "By the gods, why didn't I think of that sooner?" He spoke over his shoulder to Kasmina, who had just finished righting herself. She leaned closer, listening tenuously from behind. "There may not be a physical space for either of us to interfere with the machine's operations, and it's been almost entirely warded against all external stimuli, but there is one thing that it isn't guarded against, one thing that needed to be let inside for this whole thing to work. A back door that was never closed."
"And what is it? What can get inside?"
"It's me." As Ral felt his ingenious pride seize control, he watched his reflection in the Beacon's gleaming chrome side, seeing a rueful smile spread across its formerly stony face. "In order to first get the Beacon running, I needed to jump-start the battery array. We tuned it to a specific lightning frequency so I could transfer my power into it. The plan had been to seal off even that frequency just in case Bolas found it in one of our minds, but we never got a chance, and by this morning, it had completely slipped my mind."
With a sudden jolt of energy, he pushed himself off the Beacon, wheeling around to Kasmina. "Loading more electricity into the Beacon is too dangerous, it could accidentally set off the mizzium cores and turn the whole district into a blast zone. But… but given the ionic flow necessary, the connection must pull in both directions. My powers should be able to reach inside and draw the electricity out, using my body as the conduit!"
"Is that safe?" asked Kasmina.
"Not particularly, but a good Izzet plan rarely is. I can filter the current through my Accumulator. It's on empty now, but it'll fill up fast with how much juice this thing is running on. I'll need to precisely regulate the intake. If I let too much charge slip in, I'll probably blow myself up and send the Beacon crashing to the ground floor. Not that it'd do anything to it. Still, given the circumstances, I think it's worth the risk."
Ral clapped his hands together with a gleaming freneticism. "Kasmina, I'm going to need you to get Huatli back in here as fast as you can. Then, you both go join Narset and hold those Eternals off as long as possible."
Kasmina's glowing eyes turned dubious. "Are you sure? What about the thopters?"
"Trust me, with what's about to happen, they're not gonna be a problem."
He half-expected her to press further, but instead she grasped tightly onto her staff, gave a quick nod, and raced to the window. With a flash of blue mana Kasmina summoned a pair of owls and sent them out towards Huatli, who was now caked in oil and filigree shards as she continued to hack and slash her way through the unending waves of thopters. Speaking through her familiars, Kasmina drew the reluctant Sun Empire champion back into the belltower, where she dispersed her haggard pterodon and dismounted with a firm thud.
As the two passed Ral on their way to aid Narset's increasingly loud stairwell defense, Kasmina gestured out the window. "I've kept a few owls circling outside, just to keep watch. I can see what they see, so I'll let you know if anything unexpected is coming our way."
"Thanks, just be sure to keep them a good distance away from the window. They sound helpful, I'd rather they not get fried."
Kasmina let a wry smile slip as she nodded in agreement before continuing past to the belfry's landing. Once she and Huatli disappeared into the din of battle happening just below the boards, Ral turned his full attention to the Interplanar Beacon. He took a deep breath through his nose and forced it back out his mouth, all while watching the golden light flicker above his head like a blazing lighthouse. He slyly noted how, what had just moments before seemed like a looming, impassable barrier, no longer held any menace. He saw it now as he had seen it days before, nothing but an assemblage to parts, bound by only that immutable Izzet creativity that just as easily destroyed as it created.
He looked down one last time at the Accumulator's gauge, confirming its 0% charge reading.
It'll fill up fast, but any extra time to adjust is worth it. Guess it all worked out. Alright then, let's get this done.
Ral flattened a gauntleted hand against the Beacon's side. Reaching down into his chest, his eyes suddenly alit with white-hot light as he summoned the power of his spark. As wisps of electricity arced along his eyelashes, Ral concentrated, attuning his senses away from the ambient energy of the world and towards the Beacon's beating mizzium heart. It took less than a moment to find it, and with his hand pressing into the machine's hull, he took hold of its power and began to drag it out.
The internal electricity powering the Beacon readily flowed, as if his hand had broken through a dam that pushed against a river's current. The voltaic tingle raised every hair it touched as it went up his arm, through his chest, and into the Accumulator. It was a euphoric sensation, one that Ral relished after all the trouble the day had brought, but he did not let it overtake his senses.
He kept one eye on the gauge, carefully watching the number exponentially rise. He had already done the mental calculus, priming himself to recognize the number that would indicate the danger threshold. When the display eventually ticked up to that value, Ral immediately thrust his other hand out towards the open window, where an angry hive of thopters were about to breach the belltower's perimeter. Before they could enter, Ral split the electrical flow within his body, let out a strained grunt, and launched a massive bolt of lightning from his fingertips.
It arced through the window, hungrily searching for the cloud cover above to establish a stable nucleation tether. The thopters caught in its path were immediately overwhelmed by its power, succinctly exploding like fireworks. This caused a chain reaction, aided by the errant strands of electricity that jumped from the snaking bolt's back, which proceeded to detonate every thopter within its radius. The sudden cacophony of miniature blasts shook the steeple, but Ral held his position, keeping his feet firmly planted and his arms outstretched. In his chest, he could feel his heart erratically pumping in tune with the swirling galvanism, yet his mind remained cool and collected, managing the electricity's release with honed precision.
It's working, he internally beamed. It'll still take a good few minutes to drain this thing enough for its functionality to shut down, but it is working!
Were his teeth not tightly clamped to keep from rattling against his skull, he would have smiled. Instead, Ral simply held his ground, siphoning the lightning from the Beacon's core back to the sky where it rightly belonged, his mind gladly falling into the alternating rhythm of the rushing current.
His concentration was so deep, he almost failed to notice when a tickle of telepathic force made its way into his ear. The voice on the other end, however, was enough to snap him to attention.
Ral, are you there? Kasmina asked within his head. Despite it being nothing more than a psychic projection, she sounded both exhausted and irritated. How's the Beacon coming?
It took him a second to adjust his mind, compartmentalizing the electric regulation and the conversation. Going as good as it can right now. Still have some time to go though. How's staving off the Eternals?
We've managed so far, but it's not getting any easier. They just keep coming, and they're slowly pushing us back. We'll keep giving you the time we can. Her voice paused for a moment, which Ral imagined was her taking the time to help Huatli and Narset in their battle, before quickly returning. Anyway, my owls picked up something outside. It looks like all your commotion has attracted some unwanted attention.
Ral's eyebrows raised in understanding. I expected as much. I'm not worried about the thopters, they can't get near me, but how many Eternals are we looking at?
Well, it's not exactly an issue of quantity. It's more of… Here, I'll transfer my owl's sight to you so you can evaluate the situation for yourself. Good luck, team leader.
Kasmina severed the telepathic connections before he could respond, then introduced a new one into his mind. Ral's eyes, which had glossed over with the intense white of his abilities, now filled with an ebbing aerial view of outside the belltower. The sudden shift of equilibrium was jarring, but he kept himself steady.
He could see downy wings flapping in his periphery, and the hooked tip of a beak was just visible at the tip of his nose. Gradually, he felt his vision assimilate to the owl's soaring view, and once it fully focused, he saw what Kasmina was referring to. The sky was still teeming with thopters, winged Eternals, and the occasional raven, but they all paled in comparison to what loomed on the horizon. A massive bird-faced Eternal, as tall as a Ravnican skyscraper and bearing a dual-pronged spear, was streaming through the darkened sky on wings of spiked gold. The sea of airborne threats parted as it flew, carving a path across the skyline directly towards the belltower.
Oh shit, Ral thought with a mix of awe and trepidation. That's definitely not a normal Eternal. That must be one of the God-Eternals that Beleren was talking about. Krokt, if that overstuffed runewing gets here before I finish, it could just level the entire tower! It's moving fast, but maybe I can time something with its path… to…
Ral's thoughts started to trail as he focused more on the displayed view from the owl's eyes. Despite the enormous danger that seemed to be beelining for his ruination, something else grabbed his attention. A small, flitting shape on the horizon, also seemingly coming his way. Though it was tough to see as the owl constantly dodged and wheeled through the air, the shape, made up of grey and white, stood out against the blacks and blues of the day.
Wait, what is that? If this owl would just look for a second at… Wait. No, no that can't be…
As the unidentified shape came into focus, Ral found himself utterly flummoxed. What had been unknown was now perfectly, horrifically known. The bleached white of the robes, the brown sweep of the hair, they grey stone of the gargoyle mount, and the unmistakable shape of the rider's face, were all both the first and last thing Ral had hoped to see.
Tomik, what in the gods' names are you doing!?