"Should we head into the mist when we arrive?"
He could not see it, his magic sense not quite as long distance as a normal person could see. It didn't matter because he knew Mordred wouldn't disappoint. "They have chosen to stand and fight, let us teach them it was a mistake to do so."
He sped up, hitting full speed as he left the other three racing to catch up to him, and then they fell behind his notice. Pure speed crossing the length of the city in minutes as the scene at the entrance appeared in his mind once he was close enough. Twelve little flames stretched out and hovering like fireflies over the mass, yet they were much less interesting to what dominated the street. A dome of ice and mist spreading out over the buildings in his presence for hundreds of meters.
It wasn't just physical, but a construct made in magic as well. No it was something more magical than physical, a presence sapping all the energy out of its surroundings and holding it close, the fog just the presence of water trapped in the sphere as it cooled.
An act of sublime control over the magic even after it had left their body to carve the world around them in their own image. But a sphere was too simple that he wondered if it was a trick, were they so good that they weren't actually at the centre of it?
He let his second set of arms exude a javelin filled with power of its own. Eyed the shape of the sphere the edges pulled off the edge of the ground to the height of a building. One quick moment done calculating it all and he let loose the construct of magic and slime firing off like a rocket. The magic inside it prepared to erupt the moment it hit anything solid as it careened off into the mist.
The entire fog bank was pulled back along with it confirming his hit, it wasn't Mordred he knew that much. The flames had been Mordred.
But who knew maybe whoever it was would be an even better warm up as the fog shifted, rocketing towards him as it formed into a giant hand moving to enclose around him. He waited and pulled his own power in because in the end it was only mist.
At the instance of impact the mist changed, hardening as the entire lattice of magic controlling it solidified into ice under the weight of his blow and crashing into his fist blasting them both backwards.
He bounced back feeling it with his senses as it returned to a thickly bound fog retaining the full expanse of power contained within even after his blow. The fog rippling outwards as it expanded into a hand reaching out towards him.
He danced out of reach easily enough and eyed it even as more air around them began to coalesce slowly growing the nature of the embankment itself. So it was flawed as the kind of technique you needed time to set up before it was truly useful in a fight. Probably slow to move in as well to the point it would only work if you couldn't walk away.
Still in defending a single point it was a good technique and now he just had to figure out how to break it. Between one step and another he let the slowly advancing fog chase him just on the edge of its reach. Until the last step took him within reach of a fragment of Mordred's power the self-contained explosion resting just behind him.
Without even looking he reached back and grasped the flow of magic and power within shattering Mordred's control and tossing the construct into the fog. The two flows of magic bursting out against each other even as layers were pulled free of the dome and he felt the lattice making it shudder.
Disruptive and yet not enough. More magic slowly being pulled in to replace what was lost even as its chase against him slowed to a crawl. But he had eleven more grenades to throw as he stepped off of the building and leaped towards the next one.
Mordred was more ready this time though and fire crashed down before he even reached it a torrent bursting into reality. With a swift touch of the air around him it cascaded down instead touching at the fog below and rippling across its surface as the magic within trembled.
More layers were peeled away and he grinned behind his mask watching the unsettled area flow out of the wielders control. Setting his feet and charging into the midst of it as he poured out a fraction of his own magic to disrupt it even further. His scythes returned to is back.
They fought for control even as the web around him condensed on his position, more mist swelling inwards and freezing his breath around him to become a cage. It was a truly massive amount of magic they could bring to bear. He let his body be held in place even as his arms extended, ten grasping hands rocketing at full speed across the buildings around them for the remaining ten orbs crushing their cores and dragging them back in.
Four broke and he let the flames consume him as warmth and the sudden influx of magic turned back and shattered the cage of mist surrounding him. The other six he palmed in a coating of slime just waiting to explode in a moment. "Is this your first time fighting together by chance? The two of you lack rhythm and poise and it shows."
A ripple of magic showed as Mordred tensed holding himself in the shadows far enough away to think he might be unseen. But he was the less competent threat, and it seemed the wall of mist was better at keeping their cool. A light soft voice echoing out from it. "Bluster can never replace power, come closer and I will prove it."
He eyed the fog shrugging. "Do I need to? A brisk walk and I can escape easily enough, maybe kill Mordred first and dangle his corpse in front of you. If you don't learn to produce a proper offense as well your technique will end up worthless."
"Perhaps so, do you really need to provoke this fight though if you can walk away. I would be quite open to setting down our arms for a moment and talking it out. Would you like another option than a fight to the death?"
She didn't because what she was actually doing was dragging a single tendril of fog free of the mass beneath his plane of sight. Slithering through the building below him as it snuck up on him in a surprise attack. He settled down and tilted his head as though considering it. "I have an oath to free this country from his clutches, if the two of you were prepared to leave." He still wouldn't let them.
A light voice returned his plea. "I would truly love to be able to." A spear of ice erupted through the roof and he let himself get thrown backward, all ten of his scythes arcing forward even as he showed his back to Mordred.
The man did not disappoint, an invisible blade careening through the air towards him tearing into the slime coating his body. A simple twitch of his hand ripping his form apart for a brief moment as he let his arms on the right side go limp as though he was struggling to regenerate.
The mist walker would not give him that time. The fog spreading out into a dozen blades seeking to overwhelm him while he had only his left side to defend, pouncing on the moment of his weakness.
He let himself frantically struggle with it five scythes twirling around him and it was not enough, first one blade scoring a glancing blow, then two more knocking him back. And then the torrent of mist expanded outwards more twelve blades becoming hundreds of droplets in a rain of ice and magic to shred and tear him apart.
Stretched thin enough that he could even begin to make out the shadow of the person trapped within he grinned in his mind. With a simple wiggle of his side the wound was gone. And the last six grenades he'd made flew forward in a single mass, fire searing outwards to shatter her defence.
By the time it had already died he was passing through in its wake as his towering form blew her aside. A single longsword swinging up to divert the first scythe, giving ground to the second, diverting the third.
Magic pulsed around her as she dragged the fog back in and he let himself spin as the winds grew four scythes blasting the construct further away as he made space around them for just a moment more. Fighting against the last tethers holding her to it as she pulled her sword up in a desperate block. The eight and ninth scythes dragged the blade from her hands in one fell swoop and with the last he plunged it through her chest to hoist her body above him like a demented trophy. "It was a good game."
But her magic still thrummed in the air around him so it wasn't over just yet. Her arms reaching out and dragging herself further down the blade even as she spat blood magic intwined with her own life.
He let it encroach as the cold sapped away at his flesh. Feeling it with his own magic as the nodes formed and each small nexus of magic branched out until it became a whole web binding him in place. A quick flex of his hand and the scythe she was hanging from fell free as she stepped back away from him, to the edge of the mist. "It seems you spoke too soon, overconfidence can be a terrible thing."
Then Delta slammed a fist into the side of the girl's head as overwhelming force dragged her free of the construct and every speck of magic around him fell free of her control. His own magic racing back out into the world as the winds swirled around him.
For no matter how nice a trick it had been pumping all of your magic into the atmosphere around you was fatal when it was parted from you. With a wave of his hand it collapsed fired away into the air around them as nothing more than a parlour trick.
With an idle glance he saw the world around him, the broken building they'd come for gone as Mordred collapsed everything beneath it. The wreckage of his goal a forgone conclusion that would take too much effort to dig through.
He stepped up even as wisps of mist began to reform just for his scythe to slam her back across the street. Pi crashing into her a moment later to send her careening into Delta as the two of them batted her around without a chance to regenerate fully.
"I failed to stop Mordred from collapsing the entrance." Nu settled down beside him waiting with her head bowed.
"It is fine getting one such combatant on the first day is more than enough to call it a win, now just how to hold her in place." He let his body split as slime poured out and at her next pass through the air it rocketed forward like a net holding her in place.
It was a good start to lock her off from the air, but right now it would take more mana to control and he didn't want to miss out on the action. "Nu hold this for a moment."
With a simple touch her mana replaced his own holding their opponent in place. Even as he pulled forth one of his last two remaining limbs from his fight with Surtr, the cloak manifesting into a silent shade of Aurora hanging behind him. A moment later he let it flow over to Nu instead a surge of power accompanying it. "Make sure to watch over her for the moment so we can interrogate her at a later date."
Nu nodded in assent behind him. Grasping the cocoon with both arms.
Mordred was going to have to come out sometime and he had plenty to show off why the mission he'd lead had been the most successful. And anyway he'd felt it in the night air, the power he'd left with Sir Panza having burned itself out in a single massive torrent.
Perhaps he should turn up there as well and see if he had a chance to show off.
Gaunt looked down at the pit beneath the building.
Like a chasm into the darkness, the tunnel stretched down into the abyss. It had always been the case that Mordred kept the secret of how to get into his base close to his heart. That the other Rounds were only ever told to leave messages with one or another trading company in the knowledge it would reach Mordred eventually.
That to meet with him directly would be in any one of the palaces the lined the streets of the diplomatic quarter. It was frustrating because last time when he'd been a Rounds he'd investigated the towns around the capital expecting Mordred's base to be located within one of them. He'd wasted all that time and effort for nothing.
Now it was a boon though in this race against time. He'd pushed the people Azrael had given him hard, to the point where their third member had actually begun falling behind. Petos, and he was sure that was who Father Fusk actually was had just about managed to keep pace and now they might be the first group to have reached their base.
Mordred had his letter, if he could be the first to reach him they could turn on and kill Petos for his betrayal. Seal the path Azrael was taking, then strike out and kill off the second squad lead by the old knight captain and with just a bit of effort they would have whittled down most of the Black Rose at the start of the war.
Petos settled into place beside him at the doorway. His guard was up as expected for dealing with a new member but that was fine. "A breach against a prepared enemy is a thousand times harder than when you have the initiative. I intend to push through at full force before they have a chance to react if you think you can keep up." He left the sneer in it unspoken because if there was an achievement that had gotten Petos into the Rounds. It certainly hadn't been combat ability and in the close confines of the tunnel. He grinned maybe he should kill Petos first and hand his head to Mordred as a gift.
Petos paused to peer into the darkness eyes hidden beneath the mask they'd each been given but the discomfort was obvious. That hesitation was supressed a moment later, the answer filled with false bravado. "I'll be following right behind you."
He readied the Eye of Avarice even as his feet carried him forward, a glimpse of power ready and waiting to be unleashed hanging on the edge of his senses. And then he pushed it further because they were expecting combat anyway as he pushed himself too fast for Petos to keep pace.
For a second he would look like he was slowing to accommodate him, and before Petos realised it he would be lunging to take his head.
And even as the two of them raced down the path a single pulse of magic moved faster through the walls. Small and tiny that it felt almost like a flicker as it passed through the construct built into the walls, outpacing the two of them in an instant as it reached the very end of the passage before they could make it halfway.
An intentional setup built and designed that way as the tunnel ahead began to collapse. A quick glance back showed it was doing the same thing behind them leaving no exits. Their third member the servant girl… Elaine stood at the beginning just out of reach of the collapse.
"My master sends his regards to you both."
A light mission far from the actual combat. A chance to test out the abilities of these other new members in a safe environment far from any danger.
All you have to do when you find the empty building is poke around a bit for fun.
Fun had ended five seconds in when the vampire had breathed in and tore her way into the depths of whatever this compound was supposed to be. His hand had dropped to his sword as no less than ten opponents had stood against them nervous for his first taste of actual combat in more than a decade.
It hadn't been needed as the corridor turned into a hundred blades made out of blood tearing the ten asunder before he could even get his sword free of its sheath. Even Beatrix had only managed to draw her sword without having a chance to swing.
No, he was pretending so it wasn't like he'd been unable to draw his sword, but that he'd realised that his own comrades outclassed the enemy so severely that there was no need for him to draw his sword. Right now all he needed to do was to sit back and let the two blenders get to work annihilating everything in his path.
"Come Faustus into the depths we go." The other man had some hesitation but that was fine. He had lots of hesitation, and he was still here. They could be the normal two in a group of monsters. "You will be safer with me than on your own."
Both of them would be safer in the carnage of places the others had already murdered than standing out in the open. Even if there was a survivor left maybe they'd assume they were that dangerous as well.
Five minutes had turned to ten and then even longer. A small base wrapped in death and bloodshed and a long deep tunnel into the abyss that seemed to go on forever. He followed the sounds of the fighting walking in their footsteps terrified and masking it with an air of indifference.
And then silence. The sounds of fighting giving way to the silence of the grave as only his footsteps sounded across the stone floor as they advanced.
The stench of rotting meat was overpowering. An abattoir sitting and waiting beyond the doorway even as the other two seemed to be waiting for him. The small number of bodies on the floor unable to explain the scent coming from behind it even as he steeled himself. "Breach it."
Nothing could have prepared him for what lay on the other side. A veritable garden of rotting and mutated flesh that quivered at the sound of their entrance, lined up and stretching on until it couldn't only be one, but perhaps hundreds of the possessed. Writhing screaming limbs echoing back at them as he baulked.
The vampire recoiled further fleeing the room, Beatrix staring on with an expression between horror and sadness. Only Faustus was unaffected walking straight into the carnage without a second thought as his hand trailed through the blasphemy and he plunged into the centre of it all.
Beatrix looked back to him. "We should do something to take care of this."
He stared back from behind the mask he'd been given. His mind whirring as he struggled with what he was supposed to do. They hadn't bought anywhere near enough flammable material to burn this many of the possessed and his own magic was completely insufficient. "It is important to secure the facility first and then after that we will have them taken care of."
That was harmless enough wasn't it?
"You would leave them like this?" Beatrix looked on at him with disappointment as she said it. But there was nothing else he could do, nothing else anyone could do except to give them peace in death one day.
Yes it was the right solution until they could convince Father Fusk to take care of it was best to leave it all alone. "Faustus watch over this room and do what you can, the rest of us will advance to end the maker of this place."
He ran from the abomination to give himself time to think.
One thing he had asked for. In the depths of Mordred's base safe from any invader he had wanted only one thing. Space to work in peace and quiet on the key, a place apart from the world so there would be no distractions at such a critical juncture.
He set it down on the desk in front of him and sighed, because Mordred was no Ulthar and could not provide him even that as the noise came closer. The next stage would brook no interruption in his work and so he would hold off on it for now and clean up the mess first.
Deep in his chest he felt his second heart begin to beat. The one stolen from the corpse of the original Diabolos even as its master hovered in the shadows around him. Resentment and terror entwined as his old ally struggled against the bonds binding him.
The gates opened and he drank in the noise of a battle, no a slaughter as the pathetic whelps he'd borrowed from Mordred proved that dying was all they were good for. Wastes lacking in talent or training, but such a thing was only expected. He was young and afraid of those who might covet his position, how pathetic. "Hildr, Thrud do you know how many of the enemy there are to cause such distress?"
"Two." In perfect unison as they should be. A soft bow from each of them as he walked forward towards the fighting. "A vampire, possibly a progenitor and one of the awakened."
He advanced his pace. Well at least they weren't being slaughtered by children who'd barely gotten their ears wet. A Progenitor he'd thought the last of them was dead under the red moon, and that all that was left were the dregs of their society and Hel. This might even be fun as a torrent of blood poured round the corner, dozens of blades seeking his head in an instant.
Blood was such a funny thing, the inherent nature of a vampire descended from those touched by the original Diabolos turned to the destruction of those around him. And as the blades hung limply in the air in front of him he smiled. "Not a progenitor where do I place you?"
Blood poured free of the vampires body and it was such a pity. The same trick he'd already seen uninspired compared to Hel's experiments. Were there no more tricks even though she had so much power? Still, he caught the next set of blades much as he had the first splattering them harmlessly against the wall beside him.
She had red hair reminiscent of Crimson an old pawn. "You are one of Elizabeths brood aren't you, and the lack of recent experience are you perhaps one of the old guard. Those old enough to remember Arcadia before she had its streets run red with blood. How quaint that you hold to her wish to not drink blood freely even after it brought you nothing but ruin."
The awakened caught up and rather than blood both of them brought steel, swords swinging for his head with abandon even as he turned a flicker of blood against them, the tiny droplet whizzing between the two of them and countering every blow as he relaxed. "I guess you would be the war goddess Beatrix then such an esteemed figure for this century."
"Closer to Olivier than Beatrix in fact some might confuse you for her twin." It was a nice short trip down nostalgia lane as he eyed the two of them and yet they were also such disappointments. More than a thousand years to build up for revenge and yet so weak. A weaker copy that had arrived only after he'd reclaimed the original.
He let the darkness pulse up from the core of his being, a fragment of an existential horror birthed from the nightmares of the first demon to enter the world growing forth first as a tiny creature before swelling up until it filled the corridor. "Neither of you are interesting enough to fight myself it seems but rest assured. This little one will play with you both for a while enjoy your last moments while you can."
He turned back as it would be more than enough for the two of them. Yes he could just collapse the entrance to his workshop and leave Mordred to his games going forward. The gate and the trap were much more important.
Every time it looked like he might have to fight it had ended in a blink. His own gait growing in confidence even as he felt he'd done nothing to deserve it.
He had done nothing. In the last ten minutes he hadn't even had a chance to see the enemy as Beatrix and Mary had slaughtered everything in their path without a blink of hesitation, just a simple overwhelming truth that neither of them could be stopped.
But now that first sounds of battle echoed back along the passage they'd taken and every second that passed saw it come closer. Common sense told him to run, and the back of his mind laughed because anything that could fight the two of them would catch him in seconds.
Either they would win before he reached them, or they would all die. It was a simple as that when he was so severely outclassed by everyone else who seemed to come.
From the corner a thick blood red mist flowed outwards even as his hand trembled on the edge of his blade, the next it reformed into Mary the vampire becoming solid just long enough to catch Beatrix from where she'd been flung as the two of them retreated down the passage towards him.
He barely registered either of them, barely registered that his own feet were still moving forward as his mind filled with panic. Like a twisted centipede with hundreds of legs as sharp as swords the beast tore its way round the corner. It's bulk so huge that there was no room to manoeuvre around it as it tore the sides of the corridor in its rush to crush them.
Even if that had been enough there were countless writhing tentacles dragging alongst the walls beside it, to dodge would just leave him caught between them. The sword at his hip felt so frail compared to it, to the point that the only movement he made was to tremble.
Absently his body working on autopilot he pulled his sword from his sheathe in a futile gesture as though a man could fight it. But he'd signed up to be a knight and if he was going to die he might as well swing his sword at least once.
Every last drop of power he'd been given was channelled into the blade, the wave of power it unleashed melding and controlling his own flow as the sword in his hand broke in an instant, an existence of pure magic trembling from the edge of the hilt in its place.
He swung and a wave of pure destruction devoured everything in the path of his swing.
The monster vaporised in a single instant, the supports and structure of the tunnel torn from their place as the earth above it came crashing down. Cracks racing back along the walls towards him until it came to a stop a handful of feet in front of him.
Awkwardly he let the broken hilt fall to the floor stepping away from the now ruined passage they'd been intending to use. "Only one swing."
Azrael hadn't even seemed drained after pouring that much power into him, had merely moved on like playing the piano was a greater exertion. As though it was an afterthought to be able to destroy everything in front of his eyes. He understood right now why Raphael was giving him freedom to do what he wanted with their forces.
It had never been a choice like is it worth letting him do it. Only a truth he could do what he wanted and whether they were taking his side. He clamped down on the hysteria and shock even as he eyed the collapsed tunnel in front of him. "Such a frail thing in the end."
Like his own worldview collapsing around him with every passing moment.
The gnawing terror wailing up and being crushed by his own helplessness as he turned back to the way he had come from. The two other knights staring at him with something resembling understanding. Respect that he hadn't earned as he stuttered in front of it. "This way is closed we should head back to the surface."
The two of them nodded even as Beatrix spoke. "We met Mordred in the depths, and he summoned that demon from the air itself. We should assume he can pull even more out in the future."
Ah. More creatures like that had been lurking in the underbelly of Orianna for as long as he'd been alive. Long ago he had planned to lead this fight and when that had happened he would have just been presenting his neck to have it hacked off. "Azrael suspected as much which was why I have been conserving my strength."
"The Saint when the divine teachings first started killed one like it." The vampire held a thoughtful tone as she pushed past them both. "And again when Arcadia fell a number of them appeared touching at the outskirts. This is the first time though that I have seen the monster behind them."
Beatrix added her voice. "He controlled blood like you do."
"He was not a vampire of that I can be certain. Perhaps closer to the possessed given how many of them he seems to keep."
He kept his own counsel as the two of them discussed. Better to let them think he was musing on subtle and important thoughts than to reveal his own sheer ignorance.
But Beatrix had other thoughts and turned towards him. "Now that has been taken care of can we work on saving the Possessed upstairs."
It was an odd way to refer to burning them but in a way perhaps it was true. That if their bodies could not be saved at least their souls would be put into the Goddess care and it would prevent their damnation. "Yes now we can work on taking care of that travesty."
The trek up was too short for his liking, because more time not being in that room would always be a mercy. But soon the stench of rot returned to his senses, the unassailable feeling of decay and misery.
Faustus was revelling in it. The masses of rotting flesh free from their chains as his own now mutated limb pressed lightly against the surface of one of the monsters. As one hundreds of eyes turned towards the three of them. The misshapen monsters bristling even as Faustus looked back in quiet contemplation. A calculating gaze as though wondering if he could kill them all in that single moment.
Panic welled up inside him and he crushed it. Even if he couldn't win he had two monsters of his own and with just a word the two of them could stop whatever plan the man had formed before he had a chance to act. The words coming to his mind as he pushed himself forwards.
They died on his lips.
"I am here." The massive form tore through the room in moments, Azrael's own mutated flesh turning into a mass that expanded in all directions through the rotting flesh garden it had become. Hands reaching out to touch whatever mass they could find as he was everywhere in the room at once.
Where he touched it ended.
The divine curse bestowed by Diabolos, the very nature of an unchangeable fate that not even a goddess could cure and that had stymied the Divine Teachings for centuries was unmade as every outstretched mangled limb returned to a mixture of elven, therianthrope and even a few human girls caught amidst the mess. "It was wise of Sir Panza to wait for my arrival for when they are that far gone it would have been difficult for him to cure them at any reasonable pace."
It was even perhaps true if rather than the word difficult you instead used impossible. "Yes that is why I awaited your coming Sir." Did it qualify as Sir when the person before you was an existence that could wipe out all of Orianna?
The figure turned and patted Faustus on the head and moved on. Towering more than just physically above him as he turned away from the huddled girls. "Nicoletta take care of them and get them clothed so they can be transported back to the castle. We have already found two tunnels so anything Lutheran found is merely a bonus at this point."
"The tunnel you found is still intact." The words were out before he even thought about them but that was fine.
Azrael did not even deign to look in his direction. "It collapsed as well. But while the tunnels back towards the main base are not quite straight lines, they are close enough to it. You will find if I just draw a line from each entrance and dig where they meet we will find the nest where these vipers reside. I will check on the third team as they have fallen out of contact myself the rest of you are on standby for their counterattack."
He'd left Nu, Delta and Pi behind to deal with moving the sick to somewhere more secure. The rest of his pickup group had also been left behind with plans for where to start digging. But first there was something more important for him to take care of.
He wanted to see the results of Gaunt's betrayal a fraction before he had to explain it to anyone else. If it had gone off without a hitch he could be Shadow and congratulate him on a job well done. If it had failed he could be Azrael and drive off the traitor.
Somewhere in between and he'd play it by ear and all of that required no one else to see before he'd made his call.
One moment he let his momentum carry him forward, the light coating of his magic seeing the entire city spread out beneath him. A perfect picturesque view of the world where he could contemplate every detail, and nothing was hidden from his sight.
The next it activated, magic pulled from the air around him along with his sight. The image all that he had to guide him through and the sound of thunder crashing in from his side.
A single shape caught in the air wreathed in light even as it was pulled away from them both rocketing forward and aimed for his centre of mass. The sound of thunder crashing down as he swung all ten scythes up creating an impenetrable wall between himself and the strike.
He let her push him back, following the trail of his vanishing sight even as he pumped out pulses to get a brief glimpse of the world around him. His move was met by a bonfire raging and sputtering even as the flame was pulled away from it. Overly extravagant and wasteful even as she spilled magic across his line of vision so bright he could see nothing else.
Weak and ineffectual as he crashed through with more force two scythes locking her blade in place even as a third arm crashed into her sternum and fired her back.
Hidden in the wake of her shadow, a dozen more blades fired out barely entering his vision before they'd drawn blood, or slime as the case may be. Her own magic too dim beneath the flame for him to make out as he pulsed his magic once more, the effect breaking before he could make out his assailant.
The artifacts at least would mean Eta, was the dagger thrower Zeta or someone else. But first he had to take care of the device draining his sight, he let his form expand with slime the arms lengthening as he became a whirlwind of death surging towards it.
The thunder of a fusillade of guns met his charge and he laughed as he marched through them heedlessly. Like rain the bullets pattered against his slime coating, the impacts dragged into his flesh as their momentum expended itself harmlessly against nothing.
Like fire the phosphorus rounds ignited searing holes in the extra limbs he'd bound them to and wreathing him in a halo of flames, sputtered gasps tearing their way back out as he was forced to drop four broken arms their wreckage falling behind him.
The other six came crashing down on the artifact ripping it free of its restraints and shattering it. His sight restored as he felt the world around him once more. The lines of cables that had channelled the drained magic leading off into the distance where he found Eta. The darting shadow hovering out of his reach half questioning whether to continue or flee.
The plate that he'd stepped on to reach the artifact, and the explosives resting underneath as understanding flowed through him. Pellets from a claymore, wires that would fire out it had been a worthwhile trade.
He left his legs behind on the plate the extra second they gave him letting him pull himself clear the moment before they were torn apart by the explosion. A grin flitting across his face as he turned to the next incoming attack. With his magic sight in full view it was almost too easy to catch the blade of thunder Victoria brought crashing down casually tossing her aside without a second thought. The bonfire was too slow and still getting used to her weapon and he tossed her back as easily.
The real enemy as he laughed in his mind, a spear plunging up to try and hook past him deflected easily. The returning scythe caught without even looking back by his kama.
It could only be Zeta, never once keeping to the same weapon before discarding it. Even as he struggled to adjust to her dim magic after the bonfire before. A heavy blow that was easy to deflect would morph into a dozen smaller ones in an instant each one probing as he gave ground and stepped back.
But if he couldn't see her while adjusting that was fine because Zeta was ruthless in a fight just like he'd taught her to be. The upper arms covered his head, the lower arms going wide to try and pin her in.
And just like her she plunged straight for his heart, magic swelling up in her blade into the opening even after he'd moved the organ away, the explosion rippling out through a slime overcoat without touching his vitals at all.
Magic poured back from his chest into her slime weapon as he took control, lifting her up with her own bodysuit until she was suspended in front of his face. "So Shadow Garden thinks it can take me out with such a little amount of power does it?"
Zeta responded by sniffing the air in front of his face. He paused because he had washed himself multiple times, so it was fine. "Delta?" The confusion in her whisper was audible, the horror in his own thoughts even more so. Because even if he scrubbed himself raw Delta hadn't and it seemed he'd spent too long near her and picked up her scent.
Then it was time to wrap things up and let Eta get her trump card out before Zeta blew the game away. He tossed her aside with full force over the building next to them even as a pulse of magic tore away her words with the breath from her lungs.
His own figure rising up on tentacles of power and he strode in his full glory to the huddled location where Eta was, power radiating forth as he looked every image of an eldritch horror.
Eta was calm even as he advanced her magic not quite at the level she could hide from him. And that meant she felt she had a trump card and what would it be if not her poison that could kill a dragon. But he already knew how to deal with it, would casually cure it before her eyes and then let the ruse drop in laughter.
Eta stepped out, the full depth of her magic focusing itself into a single point.
Not enough even if the attempt was impressive. Not quite dense enough or potent to make the effect work.
Then the artifact on her arm extended crushing it further. Dragging every last fume from its surroundings until blood flowed form Eta's body into the centre of the sphere. Pushing it that last little bit until it became unstoppable.
He felt the surroundings with his magic lightly, the behind him was the merchant's corner of the city, To his left a residential district, to his right some kind of monuments.
It didn't really matter because the sphere in her hands was going to wipe all four corners of the city off the map and then some as well. A miniature sun going off in the centre of a city wasn't something that could just be brushed off.
"Atomic." A single word from her as she fired it, the rapidly destabilising force of nature rocketing towards him even as she collapsed.
He let the slime fall away, dropped everything as he surged forward his own magic burning out as the tiny sphere started to expand crashed his own hands down on it instead. More magic pouring in as he forced it back from a city slaughtering nuke into a tiny sphere in his hand.
But every second just meant that resulting explosion would be vaster, and it wasn't like he could just pour magic enough to level a city endlessly. He wrenched the tiny sphere upwards aiming it straight up and let loose.
A light as bright as the Sun rose into the sky in the distance.
A single brief spark like in Midgar after the dragon had shrouded the world in darkness. A thunderous explosion that rocked the world even from this distance even after she'd felt it once before it was still terrifying.
But it was not like Midgar had been.
For it did not end, the very world breaking under the strain as in its wake the sky itself was torn. A tiny window in the sky to a world of fire and ash that hung above the world they lived in. Then that too was obscured as a single massive eye gazed out upon the world from the other side.
"They are trying to open the gate by force." Mary spoke from her place in the front, the vampire holding position just long enough to capture their attention. "I will be going ahead to meet up with Azrael there."
Gone in an instant, to the point even her eyes could barely catch a glimpse of her as she disappeared. The two therianthropes were gone a moment later racing to catch up with her and she joined them, pushing to get to the source of the disturbance before it could get away.
"Why?" Mordred gazed through the mirror at the sky above, even as Ragnarok raged on the other side of it. "Weren't they supposed to be trying to stop us from opening it?"
The shadows grew around him and in a moment he heard Vafthrudnir's voice. "They were trying to destabilise the gate, render it inoperable. But nothing they can do can change the fact that I made it, and even this slight disturbance will not stop me opening it fully." The words became a chuckle. "But there is meaning in this for you, that attack if it were to strike Ragnarok while you were trying to fuse with him… at that time you would become a corpse no matter what."
Two hundred years of preparation wasn't going to go down the drain in one day. But he had already lost Freya and now all he could do was go hat in hand to a monster who might just as easily throw him away for the failure. Still he had no choice, so he answered to the shadows. "What would you have me do?"
"Burn everything of course." The voice was mocking him. "Throw your organisation into the fray and have them slaughtered upon the enemies' forces, sacrifice everything you have built these centuries upon the fires of your ascension. At that time we will sneak you up through the gate where you might undergo apotheosis safe from their eyes."
"Then I shall open it and let you into the world to annihilate our enemies."
Running on fumes like this was awkward but he could work with it. The mask had to go and he let his own eyes see the world again once more. "Zeta here."
She appeared behind him a look caught between horror and concern as she glanced between him and Eta. A quick glance showed Victoria equally stricken and former Princess Iris looking nonplussed back at him. He turned his eyes back to Zeta as she spoke. "I didn't intend."
He held up a hand to silence her. "I needed the extra force to examine the gate, so you didn't make a mistake." He'd made a mistake true but that wasn't her fault. And the giant flaming hole in the sky at least looked like something he should be concerned about later. For now it was just an excuse for him to use and that was fine.
He had a few more important things to do as he picked Eta up from where she'd fallen. The last of his magic poured away to stabilise her in her current condition, not even enough to fully heal the internal damage in his current state. "Azrael's disappearance here will leave Mordred guessing ever fearful that his next move will have me turn up behind him and take his life. For that I will need the three of you to act as my hands is that understood?"
Zeta and Victoria dropped to one knee in an instant and affirmation given before he'd even finished. And if Iris ended up not working that was fine he could always get rid of her when the time came.
AN: I'm happier with how the trap went off more than the Freya fight to be honest which I got kind of stuck on. But that is now done and the chapter can be posted go me.
And from what I have written yes Freya is getting the title Ymir amongst the Knights of the Rounds. As unsubtle as that was going to be.
Aniisomeone Now with two i's: I hope the Eta Zeta ambush met to your expectations. I had fun with it and there will be even more Zeta next chapter.
Borredgodillion9: Wait no longer, although it was kind of a long wait.