Chapter 132: Don't feed the animals
Rhea was finding, with increasing occurrence, that her mornings were becoming more chaotic as the days and weeks were passing her by.
And she was rather certain it frequently traced back to Goetia and whatever he might have been involved with.
Was it fair to blame him for everything? No, and she did not.
She just blamed him for what he was responsible for.
Which, as it happened, turned out to be a majority of the happenings around the Monastery and it was often because they were harmless and otherwise amusing that she did nothing to intervene and found that they often made her days rather interesting.
All of which was the reason why she found herself rather unsurprised - beyond a reflexing jolt - when a bright light opened up in the middle of the courtyard. She spied it from her balcony and stared down with nothing more than a raised brow as half a dozen figures came tumbling out not even a half second later in a mass of limbs and shouts of alarm.
The bystanders went completely still at the scene, likely shocked as to what happened, before the light vanished as quickly as it had appeared and she was left staring down at a rather chaotic mess in the courtyard which consisted of…
A frown quickly creased her face as she stared down and started to discern who was actually part of that mess of limbs.
Manuela, she recognised quickly and that alone was starting to send some warning through her mind, there was a twitch which jolted through her as she realised that there was little reason for them to be there in the first place.
She stepped away from the balcony rather abruptly and turned on her heel, marching across the room and flinging the door open. Unheeding of the guards which were glancing around at her rather sudden departure before a couple broke away and followed after her. She could hear their steps and she felt it was best to quickly walk rather than run.
Despite the rising feeling of urgency that the situation called for.
Throwing open doors as they crossed her path, she pushed through them and shouldered through the corridors - there must have been some expression on her face - as people dived out of her way and she was rather certain one person might well have slipped over as they caught sight of her with how quickly they tried to duck out of the way.
By the time she actually reached the courtyard where the healers and Manuela were still present, they had long since drawn a crowd where a knight at the front was desperately trying to calm them down enough that he could actually get some words.
Managing to catch the tail end of some of the conversation.
"-ot sure what I can actually do to help here, so if you just start from the beginning please-"
"From the-" Manuela gaped at the knight and then scowled, throwing up her hands in a clear show of frustration. "I don't know what the beginning even is. One moment I'm trying to treat someone and the second it sounds like there's a thunderstorm around us before Goetia suddenly appears and then we're all being thrown around and end up here!"
Rhea noted, as Manuela raised her arm, of the grazes which covered her forearms from what had doubtless been a rather unpleasant landing.
Her arrival was noted by the knights closet, one of them stood to attention and then leaned towards the lead knight speaking with Manuela.
"Sargeant."
The knight - a Sergeant - turned to them and then switched gazes towards her, quickly assuming the same alert stance and inclining his head in a polite bow before bringing it up and frowning.
"Lady Rhea. We have a situation that I am still trying to understand but I believe that something has transpired in Remire…and that Goetia is also present."
Less focusing on his words as she was his voice, it took her a few seconds to place where she had heard it before it clicked into place. Internally putting a…well, not a name to a face as she knew neither, but at least grasping where she had heard this person before.
The knight who had been assigned to Goetia and was rather unorthodox with how they followed her orders.
It was only later she supposed that she realised that Goetia and this man were friends.
Perhaps it would do to learn his name, but other matters took priority first.
Her eyes moved from the knight and to Manuela as the woman clenched her jaw and took in a calming breath, then switched gazes to her and stepped forwards.
"Which is what I was trying to say." Manuela began with a strained tone of voice, but there was no disguising the apprehension. "We're not sure what happened - I'm not sure what happened - because it was just…"
Making several rather rapid gestures with her arms, there were no words that materialised and then she was just dropping her arms and her shoulders, making no effort to hide her unease and then wetting her lips.
"I know something is happening in Remire and then Goetia was there just throwing us all out and back here…"
Rhea's frown had only deepened as the words reached their climax and trailed away with a look of unease.
There were few reasons she could imagine for why Goetia had suddenly departed the monastery and gone right the way to Remire to evacuate everyone present and none of those reasons were all that appealing to her. Or anyone else, for that matter.
With a single nod of the head, she turned to the Sergeant and looked at him.
"Gather the classes and a contingent of knights. We shall be moving to Remire village immediately to assess the situation and render aid."
Nodding his head, the knight turned and started barking out the orders as she had given them, telling them to pass along messages to the class leaders and to gather them and the knights as swiftly as possible. Knights went scrambling and before they were even out of sight, the man had turned back to her with some evidence of concern on his face.
"Lady Rhea…" He began hesitantly before taking in a breath. "It will take hours to reach Remire village even on horseback."
And she was pointedly aware of that fact, as well as the fact they would also likely walk into nothing more than a clean up.
That was to say, if they were taking such long methods of transportation.
Fortunately for those involved, it was not just Goetia who had a talent for teleporting great distances at any one time. Even if it had been quite a while since she had done anything close to that level of feat, she supposed.
Desperate times called for desperate measures and such.
In response to the clear worries of the knight, she offered a soft smile and an inclination of the head.
"I am certain Goetia shall manage until we can join him. Ensure your men are ready for the worst…just in case."
He looked as though he wanted to say something more, then decided against it and bobbed his head up and down, turning on his heel and marching away without another word and at a rather brisk pace.
Turning back to Manuela, she thinned her lips, losing the smile in the process.
"I would advise that you and your colleagues see yourselves to the infirmary and see if your landing has not caused some minor injuries beyond the obvious."
Manuela blinked once, then slowly turned her eyes down to her arms and twisted them over, staring for quite a while at her grazed elbows before a frown started to crease her face and then she gave a rather indignant huff. Pulling her arms back and then stalking away and muttering some rather unflattering remarks about Goetia as she went.
Rhea listened with a placid smile.
Her mind was elsewhere, namely to the problems that would likely face them not too far from now.
If Goetia had deemed it important enough to not only leave without a single word of warning but also to throw out anyone who might have been in danger…or in the way…then it was clear to her that this was a very serious situation indeed.
Had…had something happened to the people of Remire that Seteth warned her off?
Narrowing her eyes, she turned and made her way towards the person she knew had been placed in charge of the continued observations of the afflicted villagers. She needed to know quite what the problem was before she arrived. It would be better to know their potential enemy.
In the meantime…she believed in her words.
Goetia could handle himself and had proved as such.
So really, what cause was there for worry?
Solon was staring rather blankly as the words were delivered to him and then, after a moment of silence, pulled himself away from the chair he had been seated upon and gave a single nod of the head towards the speaker, then started to hobble away.
It was a true challenge to not burst into laughter in the room then and there as the words registered with him.
He knew what this meant, what was happening.
And the very best part was that the source of so many headaches was present as well, he stalked towards the far corner of the room where Kronya was currently busying herself with her 'job' as it were.
He snorted.
Such a position suited her, he thought.
With a single glance spared to the direction of the messenger all but throwing themselves from the room, he took in a breath and lost his hunch, rising to his true and proper height before he stalked much faster to Kronya and was by her side in a moment.
He did not need to tell her, but this was too good an opportunity to refuse.
And, quite frankly, this was a long time coming that he needed to be there to see.
"It seems as though my plan in that little den of beasts has finally come to fruition." He boasted, earning a jolt from the girl as she turned around and faced him, casting a glance across the room before she lowered her arms and pulled them away from the shelves.
Solon raised a brow and glared down at her unmoving limbs before jerking his head back towards the shelves, a smirk spread across his lips at the indignant expression she wore, her shock faded and was replaced by thinly veiled anger as she went about her task with a sour glare aimed his way.
Wisely, she cut that out before long.
He was in a good mood, so he would allow her a little tantrum.
"And that fool is present as well." He continued onwards and Kronya went completely still the second it seemed to register with her who he was talking about.
She very quickly whipped her head around and looked him straight in the eye, complexion paling by the second.
He frowned at her. "Surely you are not of the belief that such a nuisance can endure such overwhelming numbers?"
Kronya opened her mouth to reply, but all she formed was some hacking gasp as she struggled for breath, her arms trembled and he curled his lip in disgust. Was this truly how feeble she was that even on the hour of their victory - minor a victory it might have been - that all she could do was panic and weep like some frightened pup?
"Control yourself." Hissing in her face, her jaw clamped shut. "His fanciful spells might earn him some power but it is nothing. Besides…I was assured there would be some additional support for the weaponised beasts for when the trap was sprung. If that thing can be trusted to deliver and if not…well…a successful test remains just that."
Kronya was still deathly silent.
It would have been a vast improvement upon her usual temperament, if it wasn't for the fact it seemed to be motivated by some delusional sense of fear. Over what he could not say but that thing had hardly made so great an impact that she was terrified of his mere name being used. Unless she somehow thought he would be able to link what happened in Remire to the two of them.
Still…
Leaning his head back, Kronya was forgotten as he mulled over his options.
While it was true that a horde of beasts could be dispatched by Goetia, and perhaps even that mongrel pet of their partner might not be up to the task…Solon was quite sure that his placement there could tip the balance further in their scales.
If it worked? Then Goetia would perish.
If not?
Well…it was hardly as though Tomas could be capable of such things.
Yes, that sounded like quite the appealing plan.
Lips spreading into a sly grin, he turned on his heel and marched away, stopping and calling over his shoulder towards Kronya. "I shall depart for the field of battle. It would hardly be right if my former employee was to perish without my oversight."
Uncaring for whatever drivel would come out of her mouth, he brought up his cane and then drummed it down into the ground a single time.
Confidence and might spurred him forth and carried him away from this foul place.
It would be good to walk in his own skin once more.
His sternum shattered, bones fragmented under his skin-
His sternum was fine, all was well.
Goetia slammed his knuckles into the nose of his latest attacker, a burst of magical energy erupted from his fist and sent them flying head over heels in the opposite direction. He grunted as a weight settled on his back, arms clawed around him and he reached up.
Hands clambered to restrain his single remaining arm.
With a twitch, he superheated his body.
The smell of burnt skin met his nose, a pungent aroma.
Lashing out with a kick, he drove his foot into the knee of whatever happened to be nearby to him - a woman who had been attempting to sink her teeth into his arm, now sporting burn scars along her lips - and knocked her down. His glowing hand cut short, the spell fizzled and popped as it was countered and broken.
All the same, he clasped the front of her head, turned and wrenched her from the ground and hoisted her into the air. Pivoting on his heel and spinning her about as a weapon of his own, he hurled with as much force as was allowed to him and bowled over a small collection, it looked like no more than three of or four-
A blur leaped over them, his eyes tracked it and he stepped back.
A child, no more than eight, turned on him and lunged.
He kicked them in the gut, feeling something breath, and punted them far from his sight and through the wall of the closest house. In doing so he caught a punch to his jaw, staggering from the blow, countering with a sharp elbow jab in the same direction and feeling a connection.
There was a rumble, loud and deafening, he turned and braced himself.
The top half of a roof crashed on top of him, burying him under the debris and throwing a cacophony of noise into his ears. Vision darkening under the mass of rubble, he flexed his energy and loosened a shockwave, hurling the weight from his body and slamming his foot down, he righted himself at a sharp angle.
Right into the line of sight of the monster, it charged towards him with flames pouring from its mouth, illuminating the darkness and showing off the glowing eyes of the many others who were throwing themselves into the fray. The citizens who were pointedly aiming for him and him alone.
Goetia stamped his foot down and twisted, the ground turned to liquid and then hardened a moment later, not before it sank those around him to their ankles first.
A skip and then a press down, he threw himself into the air and away from the burning maw of his attacker. It threw itself into the air after him, claws outstretched and flames chasing him down, licking away at his skin. He twisted and threw a kick, stopping it just shy of touching and instead letting the wind flow past his limb and right into the jaw.
Bone cracked and shattered, he watched the bottom half of the mouth tear away from the top half as flames spilled down without control. The brief lack of control was all he needed, turning his lone hand and flashing a light which was as bright as the sun itself right into the eyes, they burned away in the darkness and turned everything into a pure white.
For him, it was nothing.
For the creature? He assumed it was agonising and it was proven correct.
Hands flew towards its own face and it scrambled to claw at its burnt out eyes.
Goetia thrust his hand, holding it in place and hovering in the air, then twisted and swung his arm in a pendulum, hurtling the creature towards the ground and then spreading out a flurry of spells.
The activation of pain receptors, the severing of nerves, the freezing of blood, explosive decompression.
All at once, the spells fell upon the creature in a brutal and somewhat gruesome manner.
In the brief moment before they impacted, he spied the briefest twitch in the body.
The monster roared, flames poured out from their body and he watched a visible distortion form in the space around them. The air pulsed and shifted, then ballooned outwards as pure magical energy burst out from the epicentre. His spells slammed into the expanding mass and broke apart before they even reached the monster.
So he attempted something different.
Lancing a beam of superheated plasma instead, he threw it down and pierced through the skull and right into the earth instead, dropping down in the moment before it impacted and throwing himself into a sprint.
Bright light burst through and cut the scream short, turning it into a wet guttering.
He slammed into the body in the next moment and pulled, digging his fingers into scales and hoisting them up. Grunting with effort as he did so, he pushed off the ground and did much the same as had been done to him in the past. He bent his spin and pulled himself backwards, keeping his feet planted and slamming the head of the creature into the earth behind him.
Releasing them, he turned and raised his-
"Gug-?" Confusion and irritation washed through him, arms blurred around him and settled around his neck in a headlock, the sudden tackle had him swing to the side and grip the arm around his throat, tugging it free.
Then another blur slammed into his waist in a tackle.
He flexed, hardening his skin to be akin to steel.
A movement which proved correct, he felt teeth pinch at him and try to break through, tugging and pulling at whatever they could find and fingers clawing at him. There was no pain, he had prevented that already, but there was the sensation of being touched and pulled at.
…More so when they raked their nails over his scars.
Goetia felt himself go still in complete defiance of what he wished for himself to do, the feeling of them touching those parts of his body - of making them worse - had him go utterly silent before he acted. Driving his knee up into the one in front of him and prying them from his body.
He reached around-
A hand clawed at his face, he snapped his eyes shut too late for it.
The movement had come from somewhere at his left and his vision went black, something pulled and suddenly he was needing to regenerate an eye as well.
He did not turn to who had stolen half his vision, instead he threw his head forwards, slamming his face into the open mouth of someone - an elderly man - and shattered their teeth and jaw with the movement. They fell backwards with a hacking noise.
A sharp tug at his hair yanked him further back.
Suddenly he was airborne, his eyes tracked the kick from the creature as he flew and then fell to earth, the resistance of whatever he landed on lasted no more than mere milliseconds, he crashed through it and dragged broken stone and wood along with him, smashing down and then through it.
Goetia stared through the hole that went right through the home he had been launched through.
He was still flying, he willed himself to stop and he did just that.
Skin knitted together, his eye was in place once more and he blinked and circled it around in his skull, then rose back to his feet and stared straight ahead. Watching the flood of ravenous berserkers come bounding through and over the house right towards him.
…He had been trying not to kill them, the entire point of this was to avoid killing them.
But it was becoming increasingly difficult to spare their lives with that creature hampering his movements.
If he was to just start killing them it would be just him and the creature but then…
…Then what would have been the point?
And it would be to admit defeat to the one who had stolen his bounded field.
Goetia narrowed his eyes, straightening his spine and tensing himself.
No.
He was not going to have his options forced onto him by anyone else.
He had made his choice and he was determined to see it completed, even if these humans did not understand what he was doing was for their benefit.
Goetia raised his hand and focused his mind, visualising what he wished to see.
Curling his fingers, he takes hold of something not quite there but very much here. Eyes fixed on the humans charging towards him, foaming out of their mouths like animals, he fixes his sight upon that which cannot be healed.
Something not even the cancellation of his magic can revert.
It's a single motion.
He drags his hand back, imagining himself tearing away the fabric of their minds and peeling out something valuable. The strands which keep it are snapped as one and it is a motion which can be described as brutally efficient. The results are quick and visible, the humans drop to the ground, snarling and spitting.
But they do not move.
They cannot move.
Even as their bodies are in pristine condition, without so much as a single scratch.
His fist closed and the invisible object in his palm was crushed.
There are many things they can heal from.
The deprivation of knowledge was not one of them.
Raising his eyes, he looked beyond them and through the remains of the house he had been launched through, narrowing his eyes as the shape pushes through what is left of the building. Emerging in a shower of dust and rubble, spitting snarls from crooked fangs. Goetia steps forwards and launches himself off the ground.
Rocketing past the humans who have forgotten how their limbs work, he makes it two steps and is then upon his foe.
Fist cocked back, he throws it forwards.
Light flashes directly in the eyes once more, it screeches and lurches backwards.
He's teleported behind them and continues the blow, slamming his open palm right into their spin and then curling it into scale. Power floods his veins and emerges from his skin, burning hot enough that even his own skin is reduced to ash in the instant he activates it. Already he has seen what can be tolerated by the affected humans, he knows the upper limits of their regenerative abilities.
The heat which floods the world, which incinerates the house they stand beside and reduces it to dust, pushes to within a hair's breadth of that limit.
Curling his fingers around the base of a spine which was little more than black char, Goetia turned and pulled, lifting the beast from the ground and over his head, his muscles screeching in protest as the counter to his enhancement floods.
It's unstable and he is fighting it now.
Strength abandons his limb, warmth splatters over the side of his face as he completes the throw and he watches for mere seconds as the beast goes sailing through the air, but it is not quite enough yet.
His eyes burn like suns.
Focused through his optical nerves, pure bolts of crimson light burst from him and slam into the body, furthering its motion through the air and sending it careening into the far corner of the dome. His rock barrier contains it, even as fractures spread out across the length of the surface and he watches the shape drop back towards the ground.
He feels the impact under his feet.
Goetia chanced a look down to his arm which had yet to obey him.
It is a hideous and gruesome sight, about what can be expected from unstable reinforcement.
His upper arm looks as though it has been dragged from the body of a days old rotting corpse.
A faint tingle is all he feels from it, however, and he turns and flexes his mind. His muscles pull themselves together, blood climbs from his fingers and rolls back into the closing arm until the skin is perfectly smooth as it was before. Without evidence that there was anything amiss in the first place.
He rolled his shoulder and felt it work as intended.
Excellent.
Then he strides forwards and stops, a flicker of power on his left and he forms a shield as a mere afterthought from noticing the burst.
Violet light pops over his defences, doing nothing more than acting as a torch for the darkness and he turned his head rather slowly, disinterestedly, towards the owner of such a spell.
Goetia was surprised, if only for the audacity of Tomas - no, Solon - to come here.
Now, of all the times he could have picked.
In any other instance, perhaps Goetia would have entertained a conversation with them. If only to drive the point across that whatever conflict they had with Seiros meant nothing to him, but at this juncture it has been made rather apparent that they do not care for his neutrality in this conflict.
But that is fine.
He can handle this problem easily enough.
It would take no more than a twitch, a mere blink, and he could reduce Solon to nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground.
Solon unleashed another ineffectual flare against him, Goetia flicked his hand as an afterthought, a wholly unneeded gesture, and brushed the attack away from him with all the ease of knocking aside a stray leaf. Keeping his disgust and irritation from showing upon his face as he stared down the man.
"So silent?" Solon sneered with arrogance that flew in the face of the previous demonstration, as if he had witnessed his might knocked aside and proclaimed it a mere fluke without using the words. "Are you so shocked at seeing my true form that you cannot even muster the words?"
Advancing, he unleashed another burst of violet from his fingertips, spikes rained down upon him that were…
Goetia spared only a glimmer of interest towards the attack but only in comparison to what he had seen Lysithea accomplish.
…Solon was barely her superior.
He was undecided whether that was disappointing or a testament to her affinity for curses that she was almost the equal of one who had clearly had a great many decades to hone his talents within the art.
Deciding neither was relevant anymore, he kept his arm by his side this time and did not even bother with the physical effort of blocking the attack. Instead he just broke the bindings of the spell before it came into contact with him. Targeted against the foundation of the attack as it manifested, the dark spikes turned to nothing where not even the residuals lay upon his uniform.
Speaking of which…
Goetia turned his eyes down at what remained of his clothes, little more than multicoloured scraps which adorned his body.
Further annoyance, he had been partial to that appearance.
His fingers brushed over the scraps, the damage became undone in seconds as the flutter of fabric in the breeze heralded the reformation of his clothes. The familiar weight of the banded collar across his neck and shoulders settled on him once more and he raised his head up, realising that Solon had not stopped his attacks in the time it had taken him to repair his clothes.
Solon was, for some bewildering reason, still here.
"It seems," Goetia began. "that humans of every era, regardless of the form they take, shall beat their skulls against the inevitable without acknowledging the futility of their venture. Not that I expect your efforts to herald you some unforeseen success in this particular objective of yours-"
"Silence, pest!" Solon all but roared at him, furiously unleashing a rather expansive array of dark spells upon him which seemed to be far more than he had been led to believe existed. If nothing else, this effort was expanding his repertoire of what he knew Lysithea could learn in the future.
"I have spent too long gazing upon your mongrel hide to let your meagre tricks-"
Goetia ceased paying attention to him and instead glanced away towards the direction of the creature.
A shockwave rolled over him and he narrowed his eyes, the signature of the creature was drawing closer and closer.
Turning his body, he drew in a breath and glanced to the ground, eyes flashing and overlaying a dozen assortment of traps and spells in the space between himself and the creature. It would charge right into all of them and leave the damage confined to the small space.
He looked back up and waited patiently.
Only truly looking back to Solon at a slightly larger flash and a pulling sensation.
A rather powerful pulling sensation at that, one that required him to anchor the humans down lest they be dragged towards whatever was-
Goetia staggered with wider eyes, turning his head up and keeping his feet rooted to the ground as light burst before him.
The image of the moon hovered in the air right in front of him, then it started to twitch - glitching - and crackle.
A momentary flicker of shock ran through him as the weight started to pile higher and higher, far more than he was otherwise expecting as chunks of earth were wrenched upwards and towards the image of the moon. Goetia frowned and raised his hand, aiming to cut short the spell-
The moon collapsed inwards, a gaping maw took its place.
He leaned backwards as his hair flew forwards, keeping a tight hold on the humans and stopping them from being pulled towards what could only be described as an artificial singularity.
Though he was left truly baffled that such a thing was even possible.
Evidently he had underestimated just what Solon was truly capable of.
Stepping backwards and gaining more distance, more of the earth around him was dragged and uprooted, brick and mortar flew past his head, falling into the lightless chasm and far out of his sight. He pulled back and then raised his own hand, clutching his fingers around it and squeezing downwards.
The direct combat with the singularity slowed the strength of the gravity.
The pulling turned into a milder sensation before he clenched his fist, crushing it in one go.
But that had taken actual effort from him, not much, but enough that it was worth elevating the level of Solon's danger.
Goetia snapped his eyes down onto the man and flared his vision red-
Something tricked his senses, for only a single instant, but he felt it all the same.
His bounded field went active once more.
Something flooded through and then vanished before he had time to analyse, it was a billionth of a second and much faster than he was prepared to process. Rather, it has been faster than he could have noticed otherwise were it not for the fact it was used with his own bounded field.
The indignation flared within him again only to realise something else.
Without a doubt, someone had disseminated something to the humans once more.
He turned at the faint growl, he stepped back to avoid a lunge-
Why did he need to avoid movement? Why were the humans standing up?
Goetia frowned, the pieces of the puzzle click into place quickly-
The air ignited directly to his right and he turned his head, the mass of the beast-
That was not the beast.
It was the remains of an entire house.
What was left reached him as nothing more than dust, but the cloud obscured his sight alone, so Goetia turned his head skywards to the sensation of magical energy as the creature launched itself upwards and over the detonations. The display of intellect and problem solving was disturbing to him, further evidence that this thing would need to be killed quickly before he-
Light flashed again and he brushed Solon's attack aside-
"Gah-!"
He was tackled in the back and nearly knocked down, hands clambered and tried to tear into his clothes and body, ripping at the fabric in an effort to undo his repairs. Goetia spun and knocked the interloper away from his person, a short-lived freedom and half a dozen more took their place in the next moment.
A mass of bodies writhed over him, clawing at his face and skin.
Goetia snarled, a true sense of irritation, and flared strength.
They were thrown from him-
A hand slammed into his head and held firm, pushing down and pushing him to the ground, Goetia swung his hand up and pressed it flat against the wrist holding him. Superheating it and burning through scale and bone. Cleaving the hand away from the body and cauterising the wound, he kicked up and felt it land against something-
Pressure tightened around his ankle and stopped him in his tracks, spinning him and rolling him to the side.
Goetia clambered upwards with his lone hand, driving an elbow back and feeling the connection with his attacker once more. He turned and pushed up, pressing his fingers against the jaw which loomed over the corner of his eyes and shoved away. Magical energy-
It collapsed.
He felt a momentary shock.
It collapsed before he could manifest it into a spell?
How could that-?
…His reserves could not be so depleted, could they?
Impossible.
"I can see it, skinwalker."
A hot voice breathed over his face, breath like toxic fumes.
But he was more surprised at the intellect behind the voice, an intelligence that was almost human.
"The flow of your power. The way it writhes under your skin."
He turned his eyes up at the voice as he pushed the jaw back further, the hands were pressing down against him and still clawing away at him. He tried once more, the flow was faster and more precise, he managed a shockwave which lasted a mere microsecond before it collapsed as well.
"I can feel it wane." The creature leered over him, Goetia felt a twitch of disgust at the sensation of saliva dripping down upon his face. It sizzled and burned as he heated his body hotter and hotter. "I can endure until you are nothing. Then I shall tear you-"
Goetia bucked a knee straight up.
Reinforcement flooded his leg at the last possible moment and he drove it up.
His leg briefly moved faster than the speed of sound.
It was why the thunderclap reached him by the time the beast was already slamming into the roof above his head, the dome above cracked as fractures spread further and further out. Goetia sealed them shut and reinforced the dome to a greater extent, rolling onto his shoulder and pushing himself upwards, glancing up as the beast started to fall.
Vacuum blades shredded it into messy lumps of flesh.
It healed from those.
But he looked beyond the flesh and saw something more important.
The heart, the core, of the creature.
…It was stronger than that of a typical dragon.
A disturbing notion.
Another attempted tackle, he threw up a wall of dirt between himself and his attackers, then thrust forwards and sent it skating across the ground, knocking them down and flattening them under the mound of earth.
Solon was blocked.
Fire rained down on high, he blocked those and jumped when his shield popped, leaping from the scorched earth and hitting the ground for barely an instant before he was skipping backwards once more. Spending not even a second in one place as he avoided the claws and jaws of the creature chasing after him.
Earth was thrown high, spread over the invisible barrier.
Goetia plucked it from the air, hardened and condensed it, then hurled the spikes of mud back towards his enemy, heavy thuds echoed from each impact. Another mana burst shredded the ground in the same moment his defences buckled and weakened, Goetia felt the shockwave and then was airborne once more.
He struck the ground on his heels, digging them down and taking in a sharp breath.
A brief examination of his magical energy reserves rewarded him with an unpleasant answer.
This conflict had drained thirty percent of them.
A not insignificant amount.
Problems not shared by the beast, drawing in massive gulps of the mana in the air and remaining ahead of him now. A gap that was widening with each spell he failed to land and with each attack that was cancelled. Goetia could tell, rather easily, that this was going to be a war of attrition that he could very well…
…No, it was not as though he would lose.
But he would be drawn into a state that was below what was acceptable.
His hand danced with light, drawing it back and thrusting forwards, striking dead centre and carrying his foe through the air with the ray of crimson and gold, it pressed them into the face of rock covering the village. He twisted and gripped the light akin to a rope before yanking forwards, drawing the beast towards him.
Goetia pivoted, raising his foot off the ground and sweeping his leg in the same movement.
His heel struck with the force of a hammer, bone shattered.
In his leg and in the maw of the beast, teeth broke and were knocked free as he felt the bones shift in his foot and require a rather immediate healing. Before his foot even touched the ground, the wounds had been recovered from.
The creature bounced twice, striking the ground and twisting onto all fours, bounding towards him like its appearance would denote.
Goetia prepared himself-
The familiar tug pressed on his mind, he turned and stared.
Solon deployed a second Singularity.
Goetia lashed out faster this time, clutching it with a gravitational distortion of his own and closing it around. Collapsing both of them-
The mass of the beast slammed into him and lifted him off the ground, smashing him back into the ground, looming over him.
A pricking sensation was in his shoulder, Goetia barely had a moment to turn before he felt a tugging and then a sudden sense of loss.
There was no pain, but he felt as though his arm just went numb.
He blinked, staring up as he watched the beast wrench its taut jaws away from his left side, trailing a spray of crimson warmth which splattered over his face and unblinking eyes. The realisation came upon him without even needing to so much as examine the damage, instead he felt his pupils constrict and he drove a foot up into the throat.
The trachea was pulverised, he watched it fold inwards, and the arm was spat out.
Goeta lunged, driving his head into the same spot he had kicked and moving to swing a punch - realised he had no arm - and instead twisted and landed an axe kick from above and shattered the spinal column instead. Or assumed as such from the way his own leg broke under the impact.
Another kick landed against-
He staggered, something pressed against his side and started to pull away, another weight settled on his back and Goetia staggered forwards.
Another sharp sensation like pushing, he jolted backwards as red sprayed from his chest and he rolled back into the air, spinning around and detaching the weight from his body as he hit the ground and pushed further back. It was a scrambling mob which chased him down, faces covered in bright red.
He felt a brief pang of confusion before there was a cold understanding as he watched the faces lap up at the blood which covered them.
Then he looked beyond them to the beast and the claws which were drenched in redness.
Goetia spared no time in looking and instead scanned his body.
…The damage done to him was unfortunately bloody.
As evidenced by the fact he inadvertently supplied the humans with a food source for a brief moment.
And he was still missing an arm.
She turned to the gathering.
It had taken longer than she would have liked for them all to get assembled but it was still better than nothing.
And that feeling of urgency had only increased since the initial warning from Manuela came in, at this point she was debating taking what was before her and heading down there without waiting for the others. Though she was aware that was a risky manoeuvre which could well end poorly for all of them.
Ignoring her unease, she paced along the front of the line and watched the students first before her eyes landed on the Professors. Both Byleth and Hanneman were front and centre with their class, the Golden Deers making do with Jeritza as their leader in this instance, but she had heard good things of his skill.
Rhea stopped and turned to face the knights, Jeralt looked back at her with Catherine and Shamir flanking.
As always, Catherine could be relied upon for a hasty response to an alert of danger.
They would need to wait longer for-
Her eyes flicked up as a brief hint of magical energy caught her senses, but she allowed herself to relax as the small blot in the sky drew closer and closer to them. Diving down and rushing right towards her, she raised nothing more than a brow and experimentally raised her hand upwards and extended a finger.
If this worked, she would be surprised and amused.
The blur that fell from the sky slowed its descent and moved right for her hand, coming to a dead stop on her finger and sharply turning to face her.
Flauros tilted their head and watched her for a brief moment, then turned and looked around to see everyone else.
She could hear some hushed whispers, making out enough of them to know the students recognised the little bird which followed Goetia around as though he was its mother. An rather amusing and somewhat heartfelt notion, even if he would certainly deny it with every ounce of his being if accused.
"Rhea."
Such thoughts fell when the bird turned to her.
That was Goetia's voice.
She leaned back quickly in shock, not so alarmed as to shake the bird free but enough that she was jolted. Head spinning around and searching for the voice, she furrowed her brows and found that there was nothing in the courtyard save for herself and the party she had assembled.
Yet without any sign of Goetia, where would the voice have-?
"This is a message I have sent to Flauros to transfer to you or any available person."
Her head swung back around and she stared down at the little finch on the tip of her finger, beak open and with the deep voice of Goetia resonating out from such a tiny mouth. She blinked several times, opening her own mouth to say something, then stopped and closed it again.
Rhea was many things, but she did not quite believe she was going mad just yet.
Her eyes rose to the others.
Yes.
They were all staring at the bird as well, with varying levels of shock which told her they heard the voice all the same as she had.
"I do not have time for a more detailed message, my mind is occupied with other matters." Flauros continued on, drawing her eyes to the bird once more. "As you have no doubt surmised from Manuela, there has been an incident at Remire village. I have returned her and the guards to the monastery to prevent obstructions and pointless loss of life."
"Y-yes, thank you." Rhea replied, then caught herself in realising she had just spoken to a bird.
The bird said nothing in lieu of a response to her words and continued on.
"I had hoped Flauros to find you earlier, but I can see that you have been unreachable until now. No matter."
Flauros ruffled their feathers, mimicking the same sort of head drop that Goetia would have done if exasperated.
It was rather…she could not decide how this sight made her feel.
"My bounded field has been usurped by an as-of-yet unknown entity and the villagers have been awakened. I have sealed the village and am attempting to quell the uprising and return them to slumber…Unfortunately I have been engaged in battle by what appears to be a Demonic Beast of human intelligence and-"
Rhea would have first answered such a thing being impossible, but she stayed her tongue until the end of the message.
"-and with an ability to disrupt the formation of magical spells. One can easily surmise that it is currently my natural counter. It is-"
Flauros stopped and went silent, then twitched rather suddenly and almost violently.
Rhea brought her hand up then stopped just short of touching, bringing her fingers back and watching as the bird righted itself.
"...The situation is currently salvageable." He continued onwards. "And it would be my advice for you to remain in the Monastery while I deal with Remire."
Rhea narrowed her eyes instead. "What was that twitch?"
Flauros went deathly silent.
"Goetia." She demanded again. "What was the twitch?"
"...I can recover from my injuries, it merely disrupted by connection for a brief instant. The mind partition will remain strong. As-"
That sounded as though he was in more trouble than he cared to admit.
"I see." Rhea took in a shallow breath, then glanced towards the Professor to see how she was reacting to all of this.
Byleth looked first to Flauros, then to her before giving a subtle shake of the head.
Yes, Rhea was inclined to ignore the words of Goetia as well.
Not least of all because it would be better for him to have some help and also because from the sounds of things, he was becoming distracted. The very least the Knights could do was make an effort to uphold the peace.
Rhea moved her finger to her shoulder, Flauros stepped across all while watching her.
Then the voice of Goetia came through once more.
"What are you doing?"
It was a mixture of shock and confusion in his words, Rhea stepped forwards and started to circle her hands.
To the others, she said. "Forgive me for the rough treatment, it has been some time since I used the spell to quite this extent. But I believe it has been made clear that time is of the essence…if any would care to lend their abilities to me in this teleportation spell, it would lighten our collective burden."
She was hardly surprised when the Professor was rapidly moving towards her, as though she could not get here fast enough.
Flauros let out a rather indignant noise. "What is the point of a warning message if not a single one of you will heed it? I am not providing you with these words as an invitation to get yourselves killed."
Students took themselves to the front now, watching her movements and throwing forth their own magical energy to fuel the spell.
"Words?" Rhea replied with a tilt of the head. "What words? I am afraid all I have been hearing is the cheeping of a concerned bird which is missing its owner terribly."
"...I am utterly surrounded by suicidal fools."
Then he sighed.
"...Remain beyond the dome, if you are to ignore me in large part, at least send in those who could fight a Demonic Beast and win. That would at least secure them decent odds of survival against the bloodsuckers which have been harassing my person."
Rhea blinked and turned her head ever so slightly.
Bloodsuckers?
Oh, yes, she had received word of that from Seteth.
Rather grizzly, she supposed.
The spell burned in her fingers, she held up her hand and moved to clap down-
"Wait for me!"
A shrill voice met her ears, her eyes snapped up towards it as Flayn forced her way to the front of the group.
Rhea slapped her hands down.
Blinding light consumed them all.