Chapter 10: Dreadhorde Invasion
How is this even possible? Jace's thoughts were urgent in his teammates' ears. They continued to watch the mindless Dreadhorde march out of the Planar Bridge, filling the streets without reacting to the myriad Ravnica citizens who had yet to retreat. How are the Eternals just walking through the Bridge?
What even are those things? Teferi asked. They look like corpses, but why are they blue?
They are corpses, Gideon answered, his words harsh to mask his disgust, but they are coated in a magical mineral, lazotep. We found Bolas' operation when we were last on Amonkhet.
Where we were beaten into submission, Chandra added. A frown creased Gideon's face at the reminder of his, of their defeat.
Jace huffed in frustration. That doesn't answer my question as to how creatures, living or dead, can pass through the fifty-yard magic barrier in front of us.
Well, Chandra offered, the Planar Bridge lets inorganic matter through its front, so I'd guess the lazotep is shielding the corpses.
So, this is Bolas' plan. He's going to try and tear down the city with an undead army. How dare he underestimate me? Gideon's grip on Blackblade tightened, and he readied to unsheathe it and cut down the Eternals marching before him.
Wait! Jace yelled, putting out a hand to block Gideon's path. We cannot just go rushing into a fight. That might be exactly what Bolas wants.
Gideon balked at his ally. We cannot just let his abominations fill the city. Enough civilians have died from Bolas' machinations already, but now he has a way to turn accidental deaths into a genocide!
As Gideon threw these words into everyone's mind, a sudden shift in the air washed over them. It grew cold and stiff, an almost imperceptible aroma of malevolence present. It was as if the specter of death himself has passed through them, deeming them unworthy of his attention while still leaving a lasting imprint. It was magic, and as Chandra, Gideon, and Jace all locked eyes, it was clear they recognized the sensation.
That's Liliana's magic, Chandra thought, her surprise obvious to all listening. She did make it here after all.
But what kind of spell was that? Jace's voice was measured, too measured to fool Gideon and Chandra. They knew that, of the three of them, no one could be chilled more by Liliana's abilities, or why she would use them.
It was only a moment after Jace posed his question that he received his answer. Though the magic merely passed through their bodies, the Gatewatch saw the waves of necromancy enter the Eternals. It phased through their mineral husks, and the bodies underneath stiffened with its influence. Their vacant eyes sockets lit up with Liliana's distinct purple energy, which also illuminated the cartouches the zombies wore around their necks.
The air was still and heavy for a few seconds, with neither the Dreadhorde nor the Gatewatch moving a muscle. Anticipation held like a thick fog between them, with Jace, Chandra, Gideon, and the rest adopting aggressive stances in case they needed to spring into action.
Maybe they're stopped? Gideon thought, breaking the uneasy silence. If Liliana is here, there's a chance she's fighting with us, against Bolas. She could be holding these things back.
I wouldn't get my hopes up, spat Jace. I know you don't give up on anybody, but Liliana's a lost cause.
Chandra kept quiet, but internally she nodded at Jace's words. They could feel Gideon's disapproval in their minds even before he spoke.
There's always time for someone to change. You know that all too well, Jace. Until I see for myself that Liliana is working against us, I won't give up on her.
Jace was prepared to respond, but he quickly cut off his thought as he sensed movement near him. He turned, and they all saw the Eternals now breaking rank and moving to civilians. Those with weapons brandished them, while those with claws or teeth bared them. The citizens of Ravnica, who had stayed in the Plaza out of curiosity, or fear, or even courage, were soon beset by the monsters.
Sword and hand, axe and spear, and tooth and nail struck innocent flesh. In an instant, the streets were splattered red as the superpowered zombies cut and ripped into the ordinary people caught in their path.
"No!" Gideon screamed, breaking the oppressive silence. His instincts for battle kicked in, instincts honed from years as a street urchin on Theros and as a warrior across the Multiverse. In one clean motion, he unsheathed Blackblade and charged forward with a guttural howl.
Dammit Gideon, Jace called after him as the rest of the Gatewatch tightened their formation and activated their magics, what are you doing?!
Protecting these people! What else would you have me do?
You need to put away that sword! We can't afford to tip Bolas off that we have the one thing in the multiverse that has killed an Elder Dragon. If Eternals' souls are suddenly being sucked into it, Liliana will know and tell him!
Gideon pushed a heavy breath out of his nostrils. Very well. With a deft hand, he slid Blackblade back into its protective sheath. Then, with a flick of his wrist, three tendril-like whips emerged from the bracer on his left hand. The whips glowed white with Gideon's aura, leaving a streak of light as Gideon leapt forward to the nearest Eternal he could find.
Jace sighed, reluctant to let Gideon run off alone but knowing that he could not stop him. He'll be fine, at least his indestructible aura should shield him.
At this point, Jace severed the psychic connection between the Gatewatch members, thinking it more necessary to conserve his magical strength as the Eternals encroached on the group. Their movement was slow and methodical, but they advanced nonetheless on the six planeswalkers.
"Anybody got any ideas of what to do?" Jace asked, his eyes shifting between the ten or so advancing Eternals in his field of vision. "My suggestion would be retreat for now."
"We can't just run and hide while people are dying!" Chandra reprimanded him. "These people can't defend themselves, so we need to help."
Instantly, Chandra's hair and eyes ignited, her teammates feeling the heat radiating from her body. With both hands close to her chest, she produced a ball of flame between them. It grew to the size of a watermelon, and then, with a hefty grunt, she flung it toward a minotaur Eternal about to bear down on them.
The blast struck the Eternal square in the snout, exploding on impact with a torrent of flames. Chandra smiled as the minotaur reared back for a moment, but her hope quickly dashed as she noticed its stride was unimpeded. It kept moving forward, the same speed as before. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the fire on its face extinguished, leaving the Eternal unscathed.
Chandra's mouth hung open for a second. She quickly shook it off. So, just one fireball won't do it, huh? Guess I just have to turn up the heat.
She pulled apart both hands and held them before her. Two balls of flames appeared in each palm, smaller and hotter than the previous one. She quickly lobbed them both in succession at the same minotaur zombie. They splashed on impact, dousing its face and chest briefly in the flames, but it remained unaffected. She tried again and again, throwing twenty or so fireballs in a dizzying volley, but not one proved effective.
"Wait, what is this? How did that thing stand up to all of that? I've melted frickin' rocks with fire weaker than that!"
"It's the lazotep," Jace answered, his brow furrowed. "It looks like it doesn't just shield the Eternals from the Planar Bridge. It's dissipating the magic as it touches it."
"Blasts like that aren't going to do much, Chandra," came Jaya's fierce critique.
Chandra's eyes hardened with a sudden burst of anger. "Then what the fuck are we supposed to do?"
Jaya's voice, while stern, remained calm in opposition to Chandra's outburst. "If the magic is dissipated, then we need to make sure that our attacks are smaller. The less area of lazotep the attack hits, the less it can be dispersed."
"Your senility's showing, Jaya," Chandra quipped, attempting to cover her anger with a thin layer of humor. "Using weaker attacks isn't gonna get us anywhere!"
"Who said anything about weaker attacks?"
Jaya pulled her goggles over her eyes and gave a dramatic flick of her wrist. She held up her pointer and middle fingers, and a bright-red flame appeared on the tips. She then leveled her fingers at the head of the minotaur Eternal that Chandra had flung her fireballs at. The fire shot from her fingertips like a bullet, and it struck the minotaur directly in the forehead. The lazotep cracked on impact, and the fire burrowed through the creature's decaying skull before exploding out the back of its head. It stopped moving, then fell to the ground with an unceremonious whump.
Jaya turned to Chandra, who was enraptured with the display. "Chandra, when you're not focused, your fire is strong but spread. You just need to concentrate. Pack all your fury into a little space and send it out."
Chandra nodded. "I think I can do that."
"Great, get on it," Jace said curtly. He was occupied at the moment attempting to penetrate the Eternals' minds, just in case his telepathy could override Liliana's commands. The endeavor was proving fruitless, as the brains inside the crystalline shells had long since rotted away. They were more puppet than conscious being, and Jace's magic couldn't wrest the strings away from Liliana's hands.
Crap, I'm going to need a new strategy.
As he broke his focus for a moment, his vision caught a scene in the distance. Gideon was advancing through the crowd of Eternals, but Jace could see clearer than him that he was slowly being boxed in by the hoard. He quickly reopened the telepathic channel with his teammate.
Gideon, you need to get out of there now! The Eternals are closing around you. Your aura can only do so much if you suffocate under a pile of walking corpses!
Gideon's voice came back gruff and haggard, as if his thoughts were also running out of breath from the exertion. I know that, but I need to get these civilians to safety and these damnable things won't go down!
Jace squinted, trying to see what Gideon meant by this. In the distance, he watched Gideon move, and a sudden realization hit. Gideon's whips, while suffused with magic, were designed to slash across bodies, buffeting them at worst and flaying them at best. Unfortunately, the lazotep deflected both the hieromancy and the whip's lashing. Thus, Gideon pushed the Eternals out of his way as he charged forward and cleared a path for the civilians, only for the corpses to stand back up and advance on him from behind. He had unwittingly ensnared himself, and with only his whip, he would be overwhelmed in a matter of moments.
Gideon, you're going to need something more effective than your whips, Jace said reluctantly. You need to use Blackblade. I'm going to reorganize how I'm using my powers, then I'll set up an illusion to mask Blackblade's power from Bolas.
Excellent, Gideon responded, his thoughts sounding rejuvenated at the idea. He snapped his wrist back, causing the whips to retract into his gauntlet. With his hand now free, he firmly grasped Blackblade's hilt and felt the sensation of its hunger flow up through his grip. He pulled it from the scabbard with a flourish and severed the head from a jackal Eternal behind him in a single swing.
He allowed himself a small smile. Now that's more like it.
With a renewed fervor, Gideon let loose a frightening war cry that rang in the Gatewatch's ears. He began furiously slicing in all directions, the demonic blade reaching out to any Eternal that dared to step into his periphery. What had previously looked like a dire abyss of blue plating now became the eye of a hurricane composed of whirring steel, fetid blood, and dismembered bodies.
As Gideon hacked and slashed across the cobbled stones, freeing a path for a goblin mother and child to escape home, Jace concentrated his mental magic to masking Blackblade's presence. Perspiration was starting to build beneath his hood. The strain on his mind from splitting between Blackblade and the Eternals surrounding his allies was taking its toll. He looked around to see how the other members were doing, but the sight did not fill him with hope.
On all sides of their compacted group, the Dreadhorde closed in relentlessly. Teferi's time magic was slowing their advance, but there was only so much he could do with the zombies coming from all sides. Jaya was taking out Eternals with small jets of fire, dropping them one at a time. Ajani roared as his axe buried itself in necks and shoulders, needing only one or two swings to cleave an Eternal down. Karn used his strength to rebuke the onslaught, grabbing the Eternals by the head and tossing them aside, his robotic fingers crunching through the lazotep shell. His movements seemed reserved, as the former pacifist reluctantly spilled blood that he knew needed to be spilled. And then there was Chandra, who was still having trouble conjuring a fireball concentrated enough to deal with the zombies. Jace could see the frustration plastered on her face, each impotent shot only spiraling her further.
They're all fighting, he remarked inwardly, but it's not good enough. Their attacks can only take them out one at a time, and I can't do much in a fight like this. Shit, we need help!
It was at this moment that Jace thought of something, a resource he had been too distracted to utilize. Though he knew the Eternals would be spreading throughout the city streets by now, they weren't the only new entities occupying Ravnica today.
There must be hundreds of other planeswalkers here by now thanks to that Beacon. If I can send out a telepathic signal across Ravnica, maybe we can get some backup.
Jace took in a deep breath and tried his best to quiet his thoughts. He pushed out the Eternals surrounding him, tucked away his enchantment on Blackblade into a quiet corner of his mind. With his head cleared, Jace reached down into his chest and pulled at the magical energy stored in his planeswalker spark.
I can't burn up too much magic in one go or I'll never survive the day. Just one message to every living creature should be enough.
His face began to glow with white and blue light, cerulean swirls falling from his eyes and hands as he harnessed his innate magic. The falling petals of energy floated through the air to Jace's head, where they accumulated into a growing ball of light on his forehead. Once it was the size of an apple, Jace closed his eyes and assembled his telepathic message in his mind:
If you can hear this message, please listen. My name is Jace Beleren, a planeswalker and the Living Guildpact of Ravnica. You no doubt see the current threat invading the city. For any Ravnican citizens listening, you must take shelter. Find a secure place to hide and wait until you hear from me again, or these things will kill you with no remorse. Stay hidden, and you will survive this day.
If any planeswalkers hear this, we need your help to stop this. This invasion is caused by the Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas. He wants to destroy this city and extinguish all life on it. We cannot let this happen, but we need your help. Find me, and together we can stop these zombies and that foul dragon before his plans are realized.
With the message fully formed, the glowing sphere on his forehead popped like a soap bubble, sending a circular wave of ether across the city.
"Jace, what was that?" Chandra asked between uneven breaths.
He looked at her, his face grave with concern. "A beacon of my own."
"You can't waste your energy like that," Teferi said through clenched teeth. "We're only barely keeping these things back!"
"I know, and I just gave us a chance to survive. I just sent a message to every consciousness in Ravnica. If no planeswalkers can help us, then Bolas was always going to win."
"Hopefully these reinforcements come soon," remarked Karn as he tossed another broken Eternal over the crowd, "we can't make any headway by removing these things one at a time."
"How is Gideon faring, Jace?" Ajani asked in a short reprieve between axe swings.
"He seems fine now, though it's hard for me to maintain the shroud over Blackblade. Hopefully he can get everyone here to safety."
"Yeah, maybe then he can give us a fucking hand!" yelled Chandra. She hurled a fist-sized fireball at an Eternal's chest and yelled in frustration as it was rebuked once again. Jace could feel the intense heat radiating from her anger. He wanted to offer some comfort to keep her rage in check, but he knew it would only be met with contempt at best and a blast of fire to the face at worst.
Jace's eyes darted to everyone's face, and he saw the blood-splattered grimaces of warriors in a fight for their lives. Feet dug into the ground as magic flew and bodies dropped. They were battling, and all Jace could think was: Why am I here?
I'm not a fighter, not in a fight like this! I'm the idea guy, the guy who plans out twelve steps ahead. And yet here I am, two steps behind the rest of my team and gods-know how many steps behind Bolas. They're going to keep fighting until they drop. They need a plan to get out, and I don't know what I can do.
It was then, in the midst of Jace's mental self-flagellation, that his eyes caught a glint of something high above the madness encircling him on the ground. He looked up, and amidst the sound and fury on the ground, he saw a flying Eternal casting a winged shadow above them. It was an aven, human body with a bird's face, wings, and talons. Jace watched as it hovered over them for a moment, purple-lit eyes glaring down at the Gatewatch. Then, it folded its wings close to its body and began to rapidly descend on them, razor-sharp beak and talons poised for attack.
Jace's eyes widened. "Shit! Everybody, watch out above!"
He had barely screamed out his warning before the aven closed in, falling with the speed and force of a meteor. With danger swiftly incoming, Jace could feel the gears in his mind finally come unstuck, if only enough to get out of the scrape. He summoned a holographic illusion of himself directly overlaying his position, then he dropped to the ground under a blanket of invisibility. All he could do was watch as the aven banked its trajectory slightly, an indicator that its plan was to claw and peck at them in one swift motion without touching the ground. He silently prayed that the aven would fall for his trick.
It did, and the aven's outstretched talons slashed through the illusion's face, immediately destroying the projection. Jace breathed a sigh of relief and deactivated his cloaking. He looked behind him, and he instantly regretted allowing himself to feel any sort of relief.
While he had dodged the aven in a timely manner, his warning had been drowned out by the heavy footsteps of the Eternals surrounding them. The rest of the Gatewatch only reacted to the aven's attack when they saw Jace's image suddenly scatter to the winds, revealing the lightning-fast attacker. Everyone saw it, except for Chandra Nalaar, who was too wound up in her own fiery frustration to notice anything else.
The aven quickly saw the easy prey and bared its talons, ready to slice through the unaware pyromancer. It opened its beak and let out an ear-splitting SKRAW. Chandra heard it and whipped her eyes forward just in time to see the beast a few inches from her face. Without thinking, she shot two blasts of fire at the aven that wound around one another in a dazzling helix. The wind from the aven's speed easily dispersed the fire, and for the first time in their fight with the Eternals, Chandra's internal fire burned just a bit lower. The monster closed in and flung its claws forward in a deadly arc, and Chandra could do nothing but watch.
Suddenly, she felt a hand violently shove her back. She fell to the ground, eyes gaping with surprise, and she hit the cobblestones with a hard thud. Whatever focus she had was broken, and, along with the rush of air from the aven just above her, the fire atop her head was soundly blown out. She turned her head to see who it was that pushed her, then gasped as Teferi's outstretched arm was cut off before her eyes.
All watched as blood sprung from Teferi's severed arm like a geyser, dousing the cobblestones in a slick red finish. He clutched at the stump and fell to his knees in agony. His staff clattered beside him, cloudy magic no longer streaming from its tip.
Jaya's eyes snapped to the aven as it flew away, Teferi's bleeding appendage dangling from its mouth.
"You son of a bitch!" she roared, and a bolt of flame blasted from her fingers. It struck the aven through the back of the skull, its face subsequently exploding in a miniature inferno. Its wings ceased flapping, and the Eternal fell uselessly to the ground. It landed in a heap, smoke from its missing face and Teferi's smoldering arm wafting into the chaotic Ravnica air.
Jaya wanted to rush and recapture Teferi's arm, let Ajani try and use his healing magics to reattach it. But she couldn't, because as soon as Teferi fell to the ground, all hell broke loose.
Without Teferi's chronomancy, the Dreadhorde circling around them was no longer slowed. Their advance returned to normal speed, and the buffer between them and the Gatewatch started to rapidly diminish.
Ajani knelt down to Teferi, his paw glowing white as he stemmed the profuse bleeding. Karn stood between them and the oncoming Eternals, his silver feet digging into the street as he tried to protect his injured friend. Jaya stooped down and bent over Chandra's prone figure. She continued to whip javelins of fire through Eternal skulls, but her attacks could not outpace their onslaught. All Jace could do was crawl backwards on his stomach until he was next to his allies and watch in abject terror as the Dreadhorde closed in.
This can't be it! There's gotta be something more we can do!
Jace felt his pleas shrivel in his mind as the zombies drew closer. They were close enough now that he could truly take them in. He hadn't noticed before, but they stank of rotted meat and exposed metal, like an old set of butcher's tools. He briefly wondered if he really wanted his last thoughts to be about rusty cleavers.
A sandaled foot stomped in front of him, mere millimeters from the tip of his nose. He looked up and saw an Eternal human wearing a flowing golden robe and wielding a dual-pronged scepter that gleamed with magic between its horns. Jace thought about how this person had probably been an exceptionally strong wizard on Amonkhet before Bolas' plans caught up to them. The Eternal raised its staff and leveled it at the Gatewatch, the soft hum of magic drumming in Jace's ears.
He considered closing his eyes, but he decided to face his destructor head-on. If I'm going to die, I won't die a coward. So, he locked eyes with the Eternal and waited for its magical blast to hit.
But the Eternal's blast never came. Instead, Jace watched as a streak of green energy penetrated the zombie arcanist's skull. Then, a snake made from verdant energy burst out the other side of the skull as if it were hatching from an egg. It hissed violently before disappearing into the wind, and the once-again dead Eternal dropped to its knees.
"Wh-what was that?" Jace muttered to himself. He barely had time to ponder this question when another bolt of green energy landed in the chest of another Eternal next to him. This time, it morphed into the shimmering form of a tiger, which proceeded to carve a hole in the Eternal's torso until it fell to the ground, motionless.
This shot was followed by another, and another, and another. Thin streams of emerald magic zipped through the air and transformed into all manner of fearsome beast. Bears, wolves, jaguars, and some creature that Jace couldn't readily identify materialized before his very eyes, and each one swiftly dropped another in the Dreadhorde ranks. Jace could hardly believe it, but then a sudden terrified thought bloomed among the newly found optimism.
What about the others?
He didn't hear any shots being fired behind him, nor the cacophony of any animal calls. Worried for his fellow Gatewatch members, he spun around, ready to urge them to run through the minor gap that his mysterious savior had paved for him. Instead, he saw the same look of disparate awe on the others' faces that he assumed was plastered on his own.
On the other side of the circle, he watched as Eternals' heads flew from their bodies, severed by a thin flash of orange that made its way around the circle in a matter of seconds. Other Eternals seemed to melt before his eyes from a ceaseless torrent of red flame, while still others were seemingly punctured through the skull by tendrils of water.
In a flash, what seemed like the end had turned around, and the circle that trapped the Gatewatch opened before them. Jace stared in awe, his body transfixed on the sight before him, until he heard a harsh voice cut through the air.
"C'mon, the lot of you, we need to move! We've cleared out a path, but more'll be here soon!"
Jace shook his head, clearing his mind of the stupor brought about by his sudden reversal of fortunes. He stood up and turned around to find the source of the command. Standing at the mouth of the circle of Eternals, Jace saw a dark-skinned woman dressed in a vibrant green dress. She was tall and muscular, and she wielded a longbow that was notched with an arrow made of green magical energy.
"Quit standing around and get a move on!" she yelled at the Gatewatch, gesturing with her bow for them to follow. She began to run from their position, moving in the opposite direction of the Planar Bridge.
Karn picked up Teferi and began to run as fast as his heavy robotic frame would allow. Ajani, Chandra, and Jaya followed suit. Jace took a few running steps forward, then hesitated for a moment.
We can't leave without Gideon!
He could still feel that Gideon was close by, as he had managed to maintain the damping illusion on Blackblade throughout this ordeal. He could trace the blade to the opposite side of the plaza, but it was moving. Moving back and forth to cut down Eternals, sure, but also moving away from where the rest of the Gatewatch were. Jace was sure that Gideon's path was one that stopped the most Eternals or aided the most civilians, but they needed him for whatever plan they would come up with to stop Bolas.
Without Gideon, there is no hope to kill that dragon. The Gatewatch needs all its members!
His mind made up, Jace turned on his heel, ready to run and grab Gideon from whatever quagmire of death he was no doubt entrenched in. He was met, however, by a hulking minotaur Eternal baring over him, blade already poised to strike.
Jace froze in place, eyes fixed on the glint of the Eternal's khopesh reflecting the muted sunlight. His brain screamed for his legs to move, for his magic to ignite for an evasive maneuver, but these calls went unanswered. The minotaur reared back its arm, and readied to strike, but just before its blade could fall to its victim, its head fell to the floor. The rest of its body soon followed, revealing a white-skinned woman standing behind it. Jace recognized her as a kor, a humanoid race native to Zendikar. She wielded an impressive blade that glowed like solidified magma, and she had an enraged scowl etched into her marble-like features.
"What are you still doing standing around?" she growled as she flicked the blood from her sword. With her free hand, she roughly grabbed Jace by the arm and started to pull him in the direction of his allies.
"Wait!" he called out in protest. "We need to go back for someone! Let go of me, uh…"
"Name's Nahiri, and I assume by your lack of upper body strength that you're the Jace Beleren who sent out that psychic message."
"Uh, yeah, that's me. But we need to go back for my friend, we need him!" Jace tugged at his arm but was unable to free himself from Nahiri's grasp. Instead, her fingers only tightened around his forearm, causing him to wince.
"No can do, hoodie. We all got your message, and we're willing to help, but only if it makes sense. We got you all out, but going back to the source of these things is grade-A idiotic. I already put my ass on the line saving you once, not gonna do it again. If your friend is as necessary as you say, he should be strong enough to survive until we can come up with a plan."
Jace knew that if anyone could survive amongst those things, it was Gideon, but he still felt uneasy abandoning his companion. He wanted to reach out a psychic connection, but he feared Liliana, and subsequently Bolas, intercepting his communications and pinning down their locations. Reluctantly, he turned away from where he felt Gideon's presence and began running in stride with Nahiri.
"So, why are you risking your life to save me?"
Her features softened as she noticed his lack of resistance, but they still carried a quiet intensity. Her voice was the same, softer now, but not by an appreciable margin. "You said in your message that you needed planeswalkers to help you stop this invasion and kill Nicol Bolas. I can't just turn away from that, especially if I'm gonna be stuck on this brick-and-mortar outhouse of a plane."
Jace blinked in surprise. "Do you know Bolas?"
"Not personally, but I've worked with others who've told me just how bad he is. From what I've heard, we need to get to him soon or this whole plane will perish. We'll catch up to the others and find a quiet place to start planning."
Jace nodded, and for the first time that day, the light of hope in his chest was reignited.