Chapter 6
If you can get them, before they get you
We headed out the next day to investigate the Ice Craig, where the reports of the "flying creature" were coming from, and piled onto the enlarged Malachite as usual. It wasn't long before the mountains in the distance became the mountains right next to us, and we all started looking around for any large, flying creatures or large cave entrances big enough to hide such a creature. Malachite gave a shout and pointed, it seemed he had spotted something interesting instead. Near an area that seemed to have suffered a recent landslide and smashed the path to pieces were what looked like elemental demons, specifically some brown and some white, so probably earth and ice. There were some other indistinct figures milling around down there but we were too far away to see what specifically they were. The demons though, they were clearly visible, being "made" of their element.
"Hang on!" Malachite called. "I'm going to flame them!" He swooped down, making me squeeze my eyes shut but that just let me more clearly visualize him getting shot out of the sky, smashing into the mountain and killing us all. Snarly was also carrying on at my side, it didn't seem he was any happier about the situation. "Didja see that?" Malachite whooped as he soared up again, banking to come around for another pass. "Got them!"
He's not going to drop you, get hold of yourself and help, I chided myself. I had to cast my spell to aid his precision in striking several times as it didn't last very long, even at his speed, but as we completed the second pass he had indeed hit them all again. Several arrows and elemental attacks came our way, as Hanz fired down as best they could, but Malachite was looking around.
"Hit my wing," he explained. "Have to set down!"
We found a place and tumbled off him, he was clinging to the side of the mountain as best he could in his larger form. I expected to feel the spell leave me, given it usually lasted until we landed, but this time it seemed content to remain. Of course, because I now need him to be smaller to do a proper healing, the magic doesn't cooperate and keeps him big. He's used to it going away by now though, so he won't know the difference. "Get ready!" I called up to him. I can't effectively heal him like that. Much easier to heal him at his normal size than this huge size, given how it works. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, this scratch on his wing might have torn it off in his original size.
He nodded, and I cut the spell off. He scrambled down to us.
"Those were draig like me!" he announced, clearly put out. "Working with those elemental things? Like the cultists? I don't believe this! Humans, sure, I can understand that but we're supposed to be better than that. Present company- are you even human, strictly speaking?"
Anyone can be seduced by power. Look at me! Or better yet, don't, thank you very much. I opened my mouth to answer that curse or not, I probably still was, despite my longevity.
"Worry about it later," Hanz cautioned, cutting me off. "But perhaps not too much later?" They pointed, and there were figures in the distance, possibly three of them, winging their way over to us.
I really hope this 'big, flying thing' we're after isn't part of the cult. I mean give us a break here! "Keep an eye out, I'll get Malachite healed up," I told them.
"Of course!" They stuck out their arm, clearly aiming. "They will be in my range long before we are in theirs. Arrows being what they are. Ah, those were the days."
"I'll… do nothing," Snarly announced, looking around but not really seeing anything to do at the moment.
Malachite stuck out his wing, which was a bit torn up, and I started my Sun spell to take care of it, drawing upon ambient mana as usual. I hope it isn't too bad, I really need to look into a healing spell that doesn't care about how much damage a person has taken. We found a repair spell so there must be a similar healing spell. Before we go looking for the nexus I'll have to look into it. Uncertainty in healing is not ideal, especially when facing the unknown as the poem suggested.
I focused on healing the wing, which seemed to take just fine, while Hanz took care of our defense. Two shapes dropped out of the sky, and while they were sighting on the third it started getting smaller again, not bigger. "Retreating," they announced. "Sorry Orchid."
"What?" I managed, but they were already firing again.
"Clipped the wing," they announced as the figure fell. "He could survive, I suppose."
We watched as he fell out of sight. I sighed. Another stain upon our souls. I should have protested more strongly, but then I needed to heal. And would that excuse be accepted by the arbiter of my soul? Probably not.
"I'll go see if I can find them, make sure they're-" Malachite looked at me. "Brought back for medical treatment if still alive?"
"They're cultists, clearly," I told him. "But they're your people first. I can't affect what you do if you leave, it's your own soul that is in peril if you find them alive and do nothing." Or finish the job when I'm not around to see it. Might be nice to question something not an elemental demon though.
"I guess we'll have to see." He flapped and took off.
"There'th thomthing I can do," Snarly decided. "Help Malachite look!" And he promptly jumped from the path and started waving his arms around as he slid down the mountain.
What are you doing? It's kilometers away, where they fell. It would be hours before you got there-
"Thith may have been a mithake!" he screamed, losing their footing and careening down the slope. He caught on a fairly gnarled looking old tree and skidded to a halt, looking unsure of what to do next.
"You going to do anything about that?" Hanz asked, gesturing to him. "Oh lifter of ships and bears and whatnot?"
I shrugged. "I'll think about it. Clearly we've forgotten the whole dragon cave traps situation and can do with a reminder. He's not hurt," this time, "let him ponder the implications of his actions for a bit, and where not 'looking before you leap' can lead to."
"Ah, the old King Koopa training method, eh?" they decided. "Pain is the best teacher, and all that? Pity you don't play the piano. Peaches peaches, peaches, peeeeaches!"
"What are you going on about now?"
"Never mind." They hopped down the path themselves, taking the four or five steps to Snarly who they picked up in one hand and climbed back up. Setting Snarly down he dusted himself off.
"At leath I can say I twied," he told us.
"That is not inaccurate," I had to admit.
A moment later Malachite landed beside us again, and shook his head. "Couldn't find them. Sorry, Orchid."
"Well, their sprites despawned once they were offscreen," Hanz told him. "So I'm not surprised you didn't see them."
"Huh? Talk sense!"
"They're in a mood," I told him. "And for some reason craving fruit, even though they don't eat? Come on. You'll have to cling to the side if you want to be big again, this path is pretty narrow."
"We can make it from here, the path winds around."
"I guess if you don't mind me holding everyone back." I looked to the side. "Maybe no horse, but my other friends can now join the party." I got out Besom and Boline, who went invisible, and we headed up the path. Malachite first, though in reality Besom was in the real lead, hovering and darting back and forth ready to attack anything that moved. At least the non-lethal attack will work on any more cultists, if not on the elementals. If only I could fit both a lethal and non-lethal attack into one of my little ones! But I've had that thought before so concentrate. Maybe I should just make another that has the lethal spell and choose between them as the situation requires? Right, concentrating…
I closed my emotions up into the box and watched my footing, and some time later Malachite put up a hand and stopped us.
"They left?" he announced.
"Elaborate?" Hanz asked.
"I can see the cave, no one is in front of it."
"That makes me all the more suspicious," they announced.
"Agreed. Let's take steps." He held out a hand to me.
Ah, the old astral trick. Suits me. I got everyone touching me and moved us into the astral, where we still were cautious about moving forward because of the shenanigans related to that lately. This was fortunate, because after a moment of peeking into the cave, Snarly peeking around his legs, he motioned us back and we headed down the path a few meters.
"A few things don't add up," he began. "There's two ice elemental creatures in there, standing by the other entrance as far as I can see. Along with two draig, arrows out."
"You didn't thee tha earth type onths?" Snarly asked.
"What earth type ones?"
"Tho you didnth." He looked pleased at that, drawing himself up to his full height. "Theth three of them, near tha wallth to jump out at uth."
"Great." He rolled his eyes. "More things to worry about."
"What doesn't add up though?" I asked.
"Looking at the elementals, it's like they're more solid. But not solid like we're solid, being all the way here. Does that make sense?"
"No. I mean your explanation makes sense, but there's nothing in my experience that would allow a creature to exist in more than one plane at once. Which would be what you would be describing. Which is nonsense. How would they even do such a thing?"
"We don't know their exact capabilities," Hanz cautioned.
"So what are you saying?" I asked curtly. "That these elementals- guarding something high up in the mountains as they are- are somehow in contact with the others who have noticed us popping in and out of places and just happen to have an ability no other creature on this planet has to occupy both the astral and the material plane at the same time?"
"...Yes? The evidence is before us, after all."
"You're sure they look different from before?" I asked Malachite, hoping it had been some trick of the light or something, and not some further complication from these stupid things we would have to deal with.
"Pretty sure."
"Well, that's convenient for them." I muttered. "Fine. We'll go a little bit further away and go 'down' instead of up. We can ambush them just as easily popping in from purgatory as astral."
"Is ambush the plan, then?" Hanz asked.
"They must be here for some reason," I decided. "I don't like the thought of killing the draig, who have souls, but we can't leave these elemental demon things running around like- say, wait a minute." I brightened.
"You have a plan?"
"If they're partly here, I bet they would be damaged. We can ambush them, striking from our 'high ground' if you will, and not have to worry about the draig. We can then take them from behind and possibly force a surrender!" Can their abilities work here? I've already underestimated them once, let's not do that again. Dodge anything you see coming your way.
"The battle is over, once you have the high ground," Hanz agreed. "Ah, Obi-Wan, you old rascal."
"That's why having wings is so great," Malachite agreed. "So is that the plan?"
"Let me at least see what purgatory looks like," I decided. "I want to see if they are just guessing we come from there because that's the usual mortal- I don't want to say compulsion- to seek Heaven and not Hell."
"Tendency?" Hanz suggested.
"That. I want to see if we still can take them by surprise. That might still be better, even if we have to deal with the archers."
"I'm with you," Malachite told me.
"Let's back off a bit more then."
Sadly, this plan left me even more enraged than I had been before. Malachite had reported back they looked the same. There was a clear difference in the elemental demons and the way the draig looked.
"They're here too?" I spat. "Just who do these things think they are?"
"It is curious," Hanz admitted. "Even my visual systems would be overwhelmed with sensory input from so many places. They are, in essence, seeing five realms all at once. How can that be worthwhile for them?"
"Hopefully we can get close and take them out before they can react," Malachite decided. "I didn't see where the earth ones were, are they closer to us now or over there?" He looked to Snarly.
"They're nearer us," he reported.
"We can cross the landslide," I decided. "Attack from the other side. There better be something good in here for all this..."
We got into position. Malachite picked Snarly up and flew him across, while I simply used telekinesis magic on Hans and myself to get us across. We were now nearly in position and discussing our final strategy.
"I'll empower your weapons," I told them. "It won't last long, so rush them. Hopefully you cut them down in one swipe, and we only have the three earth elemental ones to deal with. Hanz… I don't know about empowering your beam weapon..."
"I will attack with the ax," they announced, getting it out. "I would rather strike them physically anyway, and if luck is with us, they will count as undead enough to trigger the blessing."
"Fair enough. I'll follow and keep supporting you as I can."
"Shouldn't we be invisicable?" Snarly asked, a hand on his dagger.
"I want to see if they can see us," I told him. "If this is just for show, and they just stand there and take it? We know it's a trick in the future. Us striking from hiding invalidates that effort." We got lucky this area is so rocky and they're in a cave and such that we can ambush them like this. The next place we see them will be some featureless hallway, if things keep going the way they're going.
"Okay."
"And what if it doesn't work?" Malachite asked. "What's the plan then?"
"We'll have to drop out," I admitted. "I'm not doing any kind of combat maintaining the spell that keeps us here. I've tried maintaining a spell in combat before, it doesn't work."
"That's fine, I just want to know what to expect. I'm ready, do your thing."
"Okay." I relaxed, made sure my emotions were safely in the box, and cast on both. They rushed forward, quietly, and Hanz did the sensible thing of going for the head. The ax passed through, while Malachite hit the leg.
"It didn't work!" he called out. "They're hurt but still up, like only this part of them got hurt not their main body."
I sighed, of course it has to be the hard way. At least we know they're somewhat vulnerable in this state.
I dropped us back into the real world as Hanz pulled back the ax for another strike.
"Elemental Strike!" I cast, figuring I wouldn't have enough time to pull ambient mana before they struck again. Hopefully they're strong enough on their own, and it would only be a bit more magic in the end anyway.
It seemed it was fine, the head of the thing shattered and it started to vanish. The other one, acting offensively, used its cheap ice attack on us, the usual ice spears from the floor flew at us. I dodged back, I was outside the cave anyway but this meant I was now separated from my friends. Neat. Besom and Boline sprang forward, trying to tear the ice apart so we could get back to the fight, but it was a lattice of individual icicles, and they weren't making much headway. I stepped up, casting phase on us all and they went still, allowing themselves to be shifted slightly out of the physical. I headed forward, keeping one hand on each, and looked the situation over as I got past the ice. With the door blocked the cave was even dimmer now, but I could see the ice elemental was gone, Snarly was hiding behind some boxes at the far end of the cave, while Hanz was smashing apart an earth elemental. There was one of them to go, and the two draig left.
Huh, they were busy. I didn't think I was gone that long.
The earth elemental looked like it was about to do something, and was too far away for Malachite to reach. It wasn't out of my range through, so I gestured at it. Two wind needles hit it in the face, causing it to crumble.
"Welcome back!" Malachite said to me in passing, boosting himself forward with his wings. He chopped into the one draig while snarling "traitor!" which killed him. I saw the other hastily booking it out of there, he was past my line of sight before I could do anything though.
Great, they get to report we took this area. At least all the elementals are gone. Was my letting that ice one go the reason they developed this 'technique' of being everywhere, all at once? As they weren't using it before. But one gave a report on us and now this is the result? But I can never be sure.
"Is that it?" Malachite asked, looking around warily. Nothing else jumped out at us, so he tossed the body out the cave and let it roll down the mountain.
Too far gone to reanimate. Besides I have my pets now, I don't need the zombies quite so much. Almost wish for a speak to the dead spell, maybe we could have gotten more answers from a cultist than from a being of elemental energy.
"Leth get looting!" Snarly announced, as I dug out a light token and lit it up. "Must be thomthing fun here." He started prying open boxes while the others looked the place over. It was clearly a camp, but why? What's here they were guarding?
"There's a passageway back here," Hanz announced. "We may have more fighting to do."
Oh joy.