Chapter 22
"Sure is a lot of dark mana collected here," Emil remarked as he gazed out across the landscape.
"The mana flow has stagnated," Ratatosk agreed.
Emil could feel the Summon Spirit's frustrated desire to put it right, though doing so would require a lot more work than just a wave of his hand. They had left Fennmont and traveled as a group out into the squelching wetlands to the north where Alvin and Ivar had left their wyverns. Marta was walking ahead with Jude, quietly talking about something after he had handed over a bottle of pills. Deciding that it was his job to keep Ivar under control, Emil stuck next to the silver haired man leaving Aster and Alvin to walk in the middle of the group. Aster was questioning Alvin incessantly about spyrix and Elympios technology. The poor man was trying to answer the best he could but it was obvious that he wasn't a scientist and didn't know how a lot of it worked. Aster was too excited about talking to an Elympian that he wasn't taking "I don't know" for an answer and thus drowning out whatever Jude and Marta were discussing.
"I don't get why he has to come along. I could take you to the Hallowmont just as easily," Ivar muttered.
Deciding now as as good a time as any to put their plan in action, Emil cleared his throat. "You didn't defeat him."
"He cheated. He's a cheating phony." Ivar clenched his fists and teeth and hunched his shoulders as he stomped.
"No," Ratatosk said. "You are too easily swayed by your emotions and thus could not anticipate his moves. That's why you lost."
Ivar straightened, initially offended. He looked down. "Everything I know I learned from watching Lady Milla. She never took any interest in actually training me."
Taking over again, Emil smiled slightly. "You have potential to be a very strong fighter, but it doesn't matter how much power I lend you if you're just going to walk into Jude's traps and let him do that zip-behind-you thing over and over. He wasn't 'cheating' but you were making it pretty easy for him to take advantage of you."
Getting mad again, Ivar raised a fist as he turned towards Emil. "Then," he suddenly stopped and clapped his hands together as he bowed. "Will you train me, Lord Ratatosk, Lord Emil? I want to defeat him."
Emil stopped, flushing with embarrassment.
Ratatosk took over and looked down at him disdainfully. "In the interest of being rid of you sooner, Emil and I will train you." He leaned in. "I have very little patience for idiocy. Keep that in mind."
"Yes master," Ivar said and bowed again.
The others had gotten ahead some distance and gathered at a spot. Aster had his gun out and was explaining it to Alvin as Jude and Marta moved back some distance. Aster handed his gun over and jogged towards Marta and Jude where they stood near the two wyverns. The wyverns looked generally displeased to be soggy, since it had rained recently. Ivar's wyvern shook himself, flinging water out of his feather-fur crest, splattering the two humans. She objected with a cry and tried to shield head with her arms.
Emil joined them just in time to hear Alvin say, "So quick to move out of blast radius. That fills me with so much confidence." The tall brunet rolled his eyes and turned away, taking a side stance, arm out at length aiming the gun at a rock. When he pulled the trigger, Emil felt a tingle go down his spine at the sudden surge in mana that was created and used in a blast of lightning that obliterated the rock.
"Try channeling an arte through it," Jude said. "Something non-lethal?"
"Right." He considered a moment, then aimed again.
The hair on the back of Emil's neck stood on end.
"Guardian Field!" Alvin called. The spell glyph that formed erupted from the gun, twisted back on itself and engulfed Alvin in a bright light that extended nearly to where the other five were standing.
"Alvin!" Jude called, worry in his voice.
The light faded and Alvin turned to face them with a stunned expression. "This thing packs a punch all right..." He looked down at the gun. "Kind of want one myself now. Any way I could buy this off you, Aster?"
"Not that one, but I might let you have mark two," Aster said and approached, taking the weapon from him. He popped the casing off and inspected the insides. "I'd like to see if I could make it more compact. Everything is still intact," he announced to Jude.
"Lord Ratatosk, did any spirits die during that?" Jude asked.
"Ah - no. It created its own mana and arte," Ratatosk said. "It didn't involve anything except the user and itself as far as I could tell."
"Success!" Aster claimed, snapping the casing back over the vital bits of his gun.
"How... exactly does that work?" Marta asked.
"I used the booster to ramp up the mana, the aspyrixis and spirit fossil are used to create the arte instead of a spirit doing it, and then the user directs the output with an exsphere or lillium orb," Aster said and holstered his gun. "We should get moving though."
Emil nodded and while Ivar and Alvin saddled their mounts and checked straps, he summoned Judith and belatedly realized Jude was staring at him.
"Absolutely fascinating," the doctor said.
"I hope these pills work," Marta said as she took a swig from her canteen. Once Emil had their packs tied to the saddle, he mounted and pulled Marta up in front of him. She had washed out the bag he had given her before and had it ready in her hand. Jude climbed up behind Alvin and Aster clutched Ivar around the waist.
Judith took off first, launching into the air with a great leap, her wings pounding the heavy humid air as she tore towards the sky. Marta clutched the front of the saddle with her nails as they climbed steeply. Emil kept his arms around her, tucking them both down against the wyvern's neck until she leveled out and began a slow turn. Ivar and Alvin's mounts joined them seconds later, Ivar taking the lead with a sour glare at Jude.
"Oh wow," Aster said, looking down. "I always wondered what it would be like to fly! This is amazing!"
"Just watch out for flying monsters," Alvin said.
"Don't start that," Jude said. "I don't think Aster scares as easily as Elise."
"Gotta admit it was funny." Alvin shrugged.
Shaking his head, Jude said, "Only to you."
Falling into formation with the other two wyverns, Judith lazily glided in their wake. The abundance of water mana in the air made for windy skies until they reached the edge of the Fennmont night clime. By then, they were out over open water.
"You know, Aster," Jude said, "My father developed the aspyrixis. He might know more about how to modify one to make it smaller. I only have access to outdated models."
"Ohh can we go there next?" Aster asked, leaning to look at Ivar, then twisted to look back at Emil. "Or at least stop by at some point? It would really be helpful."
"We'll have to see," Emil said. "Depends on how things go at the Hallowmont."
Aster nodded, adult enough to accept that answer without fuss even though Emil could tell he was disappointed.
"Emil," Marta said. "Can we do something crazy?"
"What?"
She turned to look back at him with a wide grin, twirling a finger in the air. "Loops?"
"Really?" he blinked. "You're up to that?"
"I feel great!" she threw both hands in the air, her hair slapping him in the face.
Laughing as he tamed her wild locks, he tightened the saddle strap that held him and Marta to the wyvern's back. "Okay Judith. Show her what you've got."
The wyvern screamed with glee and suddenly dived. Emil and Marta leaned over Judith's neck to cut wind resistance and were pressed against her as she changed the angle of her wings, pulling up into a steep climb. At the top of her climb, she stalled out and began falling. Emil briefly saw that they had sped ahead of the other two wyverns and they were desperately trying to catch up. Alvin was shouting and waving like he was trying to warn them but Ratatosk felt nothing dangerous in the area.
Spiraling downwards in a tight, out of control tumble, Judith waited until the last second to snap her wings out, catching a gust of air off the waves below and getting blown like a leaf back into the sky and flapped a few times to fall back into place in their formation.
Marta shrieked in joy. "That was amazing!" she thrust her hands into the air.
"You realize that's how her last rider died," Alvin said. "That one likes to do stunts when you don't expect it."
Jude was shaking his head. "I don't know much about how to ride these things but it almost looked like they were a single creature."
"Of course I knew what she was going to do next," Emil said, confused. "She belongs to Ratatosk."
Alvin sighed. "Just, don't get cocky."
Marta straightened from her hunched position in front of him and Emil had to capture her hair again, sitting back to braid it into a single tail to keep her from complaining later about tangles. She smiled at him in appreciation and leaned against his chest when he was done. "How much farther is it?" she asked.
Emil could feel the mana saturation of the air shifting from a neutral mix to something that felt far more wild and irritated.
"There's a tear into the demon realm ahead," Ratatosk said.
Ivar looked back with wide eyes. "We need to hurry then!" He bent down over his wyvern's neck, urging him faster.
Ratatosk was actually in agreement with the man and tucked Marta down with him as Judith took off, breaking into the lead, leaving the other two to struggle behind.
As they approached a small town built in the foothills of a tall mountain. Ratatosk stared at the craggy peak, knowing that to be their ultimate destination. He could feel the thin veil between the human realm and that of the spirits. Their first destination was just beyond though, in the foothills where a a tear, darker than the deepest pits of the earth, fluttered like ripped cloth near a small village. A large demon had already been attracted to the gap and was halfway out, it's squirming appendages reaching for people as they fled the hoards of minions.
"Judith, take care of Marta," Ratatosk ordered, unhooked the belt tying him to the saddle and shifted sideways, sliding off the wyvern's back into free fall.
Drawing his sword, Ratatosk pulled on the ambient mana in the area, infusing it into his sword as he drew back.
Turning his body midair, he slung his arte, fiercely shouting, "Ain Sof Aur!" The blinding light slammed into the demon's neck with an explosion that knocked it to the ground and flattened much of the surroundings. Changing his grip on his sword, Ratatosk braced it to plunge straight into the stunned demon's body, driving his blade and body halfway through it before the resistance stopped his fall.
The darkness of the demon surrounded him, closing its wound to entrap the Summon Spirit. Thrusting his sword out, Ratatosk began cutting his way out in a different direction.
Shrieking, the demon clawed at itself, writhing and beating its chest with its own appendages.
"Ain Sof Aur!" Ratatosk cast again, blasting a hole that ripped away the left side of the demon's body. He slid free and rolled to his feet in the grass just as Ivar came darting past, his sword slicing a hunk off one of the demon's appendages.
Taking a second to check the battlefield, Ratatosk spotted Marta, Aster, Judith and Jude fighting the smaller demons. Alvin's gun sounded off, opening three holes in the large demon's face. Summoning the gun tortoise and two skunkys, he sent them to join the fight in clearing the minion demons and cast out a call for more monsters. In response, Ivar and Alvin's wyverns screamed and began picking demons off the ground and shredding them with beak and claws. Monsters from the nearby forest answered his call as well and began approaching in a sizable hoard, already moving to take out demons that were attacking the humans who had fled that direction.
Emil sprang backwards as one of the large demon's many appendages slammed into the ground where he had been standing.
"Ivar, link," Alvin called.
"Right," Ivar said. A bond formed between the two men that Ratatosk could feel through his connection to Ivar. The man in white ducked in, slashing at the underbelly of the demon as it writhed, trying to gather its obliterated left side back together. Alvin fired several shots with his gun, then sprang in with a sword to block an appendage that was coming Ivar's way while he pressed his attack.
"That's handy," Ratatosk admitted. "We should split as well."
"If you want to." Emil agreed and dodged another attack. He felt Ratatosk detach and he rolled forward to dive beneath a sweeping appendage, then rushed in with an upwards leap to attack the demon's face with several quick slashes.
Ratatosk's multi-tailed squirrel form zipped past, sprang onto the demon's back and began ripping it apart with claws and teeth. Too distracted by all four creatures attacking it, the demon flailed, failing to do more than sweep Ivar and Alvin away with one appendage while Emil dodged an attack and cut off another. Ratatosk scampered around the demon's body, ripping off appendages, then burrowing down into it again. A blast of his Ain Sof Aur shot skyward, blowing the demon's head off completely and sending it flying.
Writhing like a dying snake, the demon thrashed and wallowed across the ground.
Emil was flattened twice by an appendage before he could roll away and cut it off to keep from getting hit again. Ivar and Alvin made their return and each hacked at a tentacle, divesting the demon of ways to attack until it finally lay motionless in a smoking heap. Ratatosk climbed out of the corpse and shook smoking black ooze off. Lifting his clawed paws, he began gathering energy.
Approaching, Emil stood beside his other self and held his hand out, channeling his energy into sealing the rift as well. Threads of power wove out of their palms, stitching the hole closed. With a sucking noise, the rift disappeared and the corpse of the demon was cut off at the waist. It began dissolving into black smoke.
Ratatosk dropped to all fours and shook again, slinging black slime all around.
The sounds of battle had faded, monsters loitered in the area and Emil turned, looking at them all in wonder. The human survivors were huddled in a group near Jude and Marta as they cast healing artes on the wounded.
"Ivar! Thank Lord Maxwell you came when you did," an older man said as he approached from Jude's group.
"Elder," Ivar bowed politely. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner."
The man looked from Ivar to the monsters shuffling uncertainly amidst the ruins of the town. "Are these monsters under your control?"
"No. They are controlled by Summon Spirit Ratatosk, Lord of Monsters," Ivar explained and gestured to the giant squirrel beside Emil who was still grooming himself, picking bits of goo out of his fur with a disgusted expression.
Ratatosk muttered, "I can't decide which is more disgusting and messy; humans and half-elves or demons."
The elder, though Emil guessed him to be about fifty or sixty, bowed politely to Ratatosk. "We thank you, Lord Ratatosk. How may we repay you?"
Ears quirking towards the man, Ratatosk tilted his head, focusing an eye on him briefly before snorting. "Do what you want. Name your kids after me, I don't care."
Emil sighed gustily. "Manners," he said. "You have them, I know you do."
Ratatosk fixed a look on Emil. "Then you use them," he said and went back to grooming.
Giving another put upon sigh, Emil shook his head and stepped forward. "Elder, Ratatosk appreciates your respect but doesn't need any sort of offerings right now. We're glad we got here in time to save at least some people and hope to mend the fabric of the world entirely in a few hours." He shifted uncomfortably as the elder bowed to him.
"As Lord Ratatosk's Handmaid says, we shall offer our mana to him."
"Handmaid?" Emil asked, but the man was already bowing and backing away to return to his people. Marta was finding survivors in the rubble with Judith's help and healing them. "Ratatosk, either take these monsters or send them away," Emil reminded.
"You are being annoying," Ratatosk said. "Deal with them yourself."
Alvin caught Emil's eyes and gave him a half grin of sympathy, as if he knew something of what it was like to be yoked to a Summon Spirit that was bound and determined to be a pain in the butt.
Deciding that maybe some time away from Ratatosk was actually sounding pleasant, Emil gestured at Ivar. The silver haired man followed him to one of the tree monsters where it stood next to a building that was partially intact. It was holding a terrified child in one hand while the other was covered in demon goo. "Ivar, I'll show you how to make bonds with multiple monsters," he said and turned to the tree creature. "Please put her down," he requested.
The monster shuffled and slowly lowered the child to the ground. She rushed over to Ivar and clutched his pant leg, sobbing in terror.
Ivar gently caressed her hair and knelt. "It's all right now," he said gently, gathering her up.
Holding out his hand, Emil began the process of forming a bond with the tree, aware that Ivar was also, somehow present in the link. Once he finished, he lowered his hand. "You can gather its mana like this," Emil said, holding out his hand again and proceeding to pick apart the bonds that held the monster together, gathering them to himself.
The gun tortoise lumbered around the side of the building, splattered with demon goo as well, but she looked generally pleased with herself.
"I'm guessing you had fun?" Emil asked.
Rumbling her affirmative, the tortoise squinted at Ivar briefly before wandering on. The child in his arms stared in shock.
"You call a monster back like this," he held his hand out to summon the tree again. "You'll be able to build bonds better with monsters that have the same elemental affinity to yours and you can strengthen other monsters who have the same elemental affinity."
"What's my elemental affinity?" Ivar asked.
"Fire." Emil gathered the tree to him again. "Let's find another. This time you bond with it."
Ivar looked down at the child in his arms. She tightened her hold on his shoulders. He looked helplessly at Emil.
"She can come," Emil said.
"Okay." Ivar sighed in relief and followed Emil to another monster loitering in the area. He caught sight of Ratatosk and found Marta assisting in cleaning his fur.