Millennial Mage-Chapter 534: Death and Destruction

Tala waited for Alat’s signal, the alternate interface having coordinated with Master Meridius in the few moments between the first magics flying and the optimal time for her dissolution breath.

It had been decided to take out the middleman and not have Master Clevnis call Tala’s use of that attack.

There were already clashes happening in the air above them, Rane and Master Girt in particular flashing around to obliterate the lesser flying creatures. Though, ‘flashing’ for Master Girt was only to Tala’s threefold sight as the man was entirely invisible, even as he moved through the air, supported by his rocks.

He’s gotten better.

Thankfully, none had come from directly above, so the aerial conflict was more like dealing with the top edge of a rising flood than struggling to support a collapsing dome.

Still, the two men were straining their coordination and skill to keep the lesser battlefront in check by themselves.

On the ground, Mistress Cerna was weaving massive magics of incredible complexity, though not the most complex that Tala had seen the woman work.

Still the ‘thread’ she used was more like rope—which now that Tala considered it, would be made up of threads, so she supposed that it made sense—knotted and woven together.

Each working that she triggered seemed to drain her dry of power even as more streamed in through her gate. The workings even burned up all the material used in their creation, which had to be costly for such massive constructions. Even so, the next was always ready as soon as her body had refilled to the point of activation.

The first sent a lance of hardened air cutting through a thicker knot of incoming magical creatures. It impacted against an oddly powerful, large white rabbit with red eyes. The lance hadn’t hurt the rabbit—it was too advanced and toughened, unfortunately—but the impact had caused the attack to blast apart, shredding the lesser threats around it.

That, in turn, exposed the rabbit, so that one of the Paragons could engage it at a distance.

Apparently, these were Arcane Hunter Paragons, which seemed to put Master Grediv’s assertion about ‘battle-oriented’ Paragons in question, but it was hardly the time for such thoughts. So, Tala put her incredulity aside for the moment.

Mistress Cerna’s second attack had rushed out into the very ground below the oncoming horde, causing the plants to rise up, transforming into razor-thorned vines that tore through the rank and file.

-You’re getting distracted. Three, two…-

Tala reoriented on her target, a large group that had been uncontested as of yet, and which was approaching the human fortified position from almost due east.

She set her feet, gripping the wall and getting an odd look from Meallain. “It looks like you’re about to have a very unpleasant… movement.”

Tala ignored her.

-Now!-

Tala opened her mouth and a portal within it to her artificial lung. The inscriptions and growing natural magics in her throat and mouth caused manifestations in Reality which glowed so brightly that they cast a blue-white brilliance to either side. The iron that lined them allowed them to be far more powerful than un-lined inscriptions could have been, given the other factors at play.

-Did I mention that I was able to get a greater density with the dissolution magic now that we're Paragon?-

The thin column of invisible—to mundane sight—power lanced outward toward the northeast, the containment magics coming apart at precisely the right place, just before the leading edge of the oncoming threats.

With a concussive roar, a triangle of obliteration grew outward, flame delighting at the edges. She then began to sweep toward the south, immolating everything that was approaching from the east.

Only one creature in the nearest ranks withstood the initial onslaught, and even it hunkered down, heavy armor-plated arms linking up with those on its head and back to grant it greater protection.

Some sort of magical… armadillo? Is that right? It doesn’t look ball-like enough to match the pictures I saw.

-Magic does strange things to a creature? Is now really the time for this contemplation?-

I mean… I’m just breathing out…

-And there’s a whole battle surrounding us to keep an eye on.-

…Right.

Master Limmestare was directing massive blades of glass to scythe through the enemy ranks, also focusing on thinning out the numbers of ‘lesser’ beings. 𝖗åƝÔ𝖇Êȿ

Tala almost laughed aloud at that. In fact, she probably would have if her mouth weren’t otherwise occupied.

The ‘lesser’ beings were all at least equivalent to the midnight fox she’d encountered on her first caravan trip. Before Refined and Paragons, such creatures were nothing but chaff, but in any other circumstance? Any one of them would have been a walking disaster.

-Oh, the harvests from this are going to be incredible… well, not from in front of you. Your attack leaves no remains and all that.-

Yeah… that’s true. Still, even with three quarters of the creatures, it will be a pain to collect everything of value. If only we had thousands of ready workers, able to lend a hand?

-...I’ll inform Lyn that such would be useful, so that she can be prepared when this concludes.-

Confident, are we?

-Well, either we succeed, or it isn’t our problem?-

Tala did huff a laugh, then, continuing to strafe along the front of the eastern quarter.

Beside her, Meallain’s eyes were… Well? They weren’t any bigger than usual, but they held a look that was between over-awed, shock, and undisguised glee.

She might be a problem when this is over.

-Might?-

…Fair.

Master Clevnis wasn’t engaged in battle, yet, being a mostly close-range fighter, but he was prepared, sword in hand and practically hopping from foot to foot.

The magical creatures had ranged magics as well, but they were being essentially entirely negated by the combined aura and authority of the seven Paragons on their little hill. That and the defenses inherent to the walls upon which they stood were preventing any of the remnants from bothering them.

I really need my walls… She could have used her iron spikes, creating a field in which to anchor her authority, but she wanted to hold that back for when she was sent forth. It wasn’t as if they were struggling without that addition either.

Meallain had initially tried to lend her aid and authority as well, but her soul had immediately spasmed, causing the woman to clutch her chest and stagger slightly before catching herself against the wall. Losing the soulbound protian weapon had truly lacerated her soul. Likely it was only her Hallowed advancement that allowed her to be upright at all after that severing.

On other fronts the various Arcane Hunter Paragons were working their magics to great effect.

Master Meridius wielded magnetic fields as Master Cazor did, but to a far greater degree of fineness and power.

He placed bolts of ferrous metal into any magical creature who survived the culling of the lessers in this initial portion of the attack.

No wonder Master Cazor is walking that path so confidently.

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-You know… they look a bit alike.-

…Oh! Oh, you’re right. They could be related at that.

Even with all the coordination and slaughter, the speed and number of the oncoming response to Meallain’s desecration of reality meant that the creatures that were still a threat were drawing closer by the second.

Even on the eastern side, Tala’s side, there were now a good fifty creatures advanced, armored, or otherwise resistant enough to have weathered her storm of dissolution.

That finally petered out, and she opened a portal on her back—after closing the one in her mouth—to draw in air once again for a potential need later on.

Just for the fun of it, Tala allowed Alat to alter the shape of the intake portal so that it gave off a low, ominous hum.

-Teach our enemies to fear that sound, then in a time of need, we can recharge without giving such an indication.-

Very well.

Meallain was practically hopping in place, her eyes gleaming. “My girl… you are magnificent.”

Tala shook her head. “I am not your girl. In time, we might… but not right now. Too much divides us still.”

The elf nodded, almost nonchalantly. “True, true. I will do what I must to ensure the legacy of my patrons and benefactors, regardless of the disappointment their final scion turned out to be.” The words seemed to almost physically pain her at the end, and Tala saw her very soul shudder at the statement, but she continued regardless. “I will have much to atone for in your people’s eyes. We shall see what comes of this… new path.”

Tala grunted, taking a moment to check in on the ongoing encounters.

Some of the Refined and lower equivalent creatures had made it to the walls on some of the other sides. Not many though, and those that had were met with the walls’ own innate—more aggressive—defenses and Master Clevnis’ blade, extending as he lashed down in precise, vicious strikes.

Terry was flickering around, but he was being an especially good terror bird by staying within the defenses at the moment, as he had been requested to do.

Mistress Vanga was clearly monitoring everyone with a critical eye, but blessedly, her services had not been required, yet.

Master Limmestare was still cutting through the ranks of enemies, but he had moved from massive, crowd clearing attacks to more precise strikes at the more powerful opponents.

Rane and Master Girt were still moving about in the air, working in concert to keep the skies clear. She wasn’t sure exactly what all they were doing, but there was a building thunder coming from somewhere up there.

Mistress Cerna was still building spellforms, using them as fast as her body and gate could facilitate their activation. If Tala was seeing things correctly, the woman was drawing from her husband’s gate as well. Though it was hard to tell as the power still seemingly came from her own soul, regardless, if via the soulbond rather than directly through the gate there. Some were defensive in nature, countering the few magics that either breached or bypassed the defenses that the redoubts were using and the auras and authority of the defenders.

As for the Arcane Hunter Paragons? They were sowing death.

Master Meridius was seemingly focused on something in the distance, but even so, spikes and blades of metal were churning through his portion of the battlefield. Occasionally, he’d form a temporary shield of steel when a smaller, more powerful attack came too close, as he was on one of the corners, often leaning out beyond the defensive workings to get the exact right perspective or angle on his target of the moment.

The other four were different. The first two had ventured entirely beyond the walls, seemingly to engage a Paragon level opponent which seemed to be wielding targeted gravity magics, if Tala’s senses were to be believed.

Oh, mark that one for harvesting afterward. I want to study its magics.

-I mean… I’ll try?-

Thank you.

The two were using different magics in harmony. The man seemed to be calling forth fire that burnt so white-hot it looked black to Tala’s eyes, the light-sensing cells in her eyes shocked into instant, temporary non functionality, leaving only an absence of light.

The other was using ice magics so cold that she was literally creating her material by freezing the air. This, of course, caused a constant torrent of airflow to be whipping toward her creations, bringing in more material for her to cool and wield.

Fascinating. I wish we understood that well enough to use it effectively. Our own version only really works within Kit.

-Yeah. If only we had powerful abilities at our disposal. It’s a shame, really.-

Hush you.

Another woman—having stayed on the ramparts—was casting lightning that danced among the ranks surrounding them, acting more like a ball that bounced from place to place than a tree that branched out and weakened with each successive target.

The last man was firing off what looked to be beams of purple light, but felt like so much more. There were hints of Void in the attacks, but they actually felt more connected to true, pure Magic than any working that Tala could recall feeling.

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Each was the master of their chosen area, bringing death and destruction to the creatures that their eyes fell upon.

In a way, it was inspiring, witnessing some of the best that humanity had to offer.

Tala began to work with Alat to pull air into her artificial lung faster. In truth, her method was more efficient than many others for clearing out the lesser opponents but it amounted to the same thing in the end. Unfortunately, the beings of true power were so magically and physically dense, their own authority so stalwart, that they were for all intents and purposes essentially unaffected.

Those who equaled her in advancement—and those few who surpassed her—were essentially unaffected. And like with the other ‘clearing’ methods, those most defensive in nature were able to weather her area of attack even if they were a step lower than her. The dissolution breath was simply too spread out to be more effective than that.

She, herself, would likely have been able to weather such an attack from a beast one, maybe even two steps—

-TALA!- Master Meridius had seemingly conveyed an urgent need through Alat, and the alternate interface was taking the urgency to heart. -Breathe exactly fifteen degrees—- She cut herself off, instead displaying an obvious visualization to Tala’s perception. -There! Right there, right now! Dissolution breath, as much as you can.-

Without hesitating, Tala spun, lining up her magics with the indicated trajectory—which was quite a bit more upward than she’d have expected—and opening her mouth and portal as one, dumping the proper amount of power into the containment scripts to keep the magics contained exactly as long and as far as Alat had indicated.

Only as the line lanced out did Tala see the reason. There was a glowing spot in the air, and a rushing, roaring sound filling the whole region around them with a resonant thrum.

An asteroid was coming straight at them, clear lines of blue-tinted magic wrapping around it and guiding it toward their battlements with precision and power.

-I think once it enters the atmosphere, it’s a meteor, not an asteroid. Right?-

Timing, Alat! This is not the time.

-...Fine.-

The magics cut off as one of the fire and ice Paragons slew the beast which had been harnessing space debris that magically happened to be close enough.

-Focus… We don’t need the statistical chance of this being possible. It’s happening, so we deal with it.-

Right.

-Stay on target.-

Regardless, that attacker was slain, but its final vengeance was upon them.

Tala almost changed the amount of power going into her containment magics, noticing that her dissolution magic would begin to spread out before it even contacted the wagon sized rock.

-Don’t!- In that one word, Alat conveyed that there was a purpose to the specific instruction, and that Tala, alone, was in a position—and free enough—to do what needed to be done, here.

Thus, Tala resisted the urge to change mid-strike, and she was immediately glad that she did.

Her magics had just begun to expand into a cone of dissolution and fire—the air providing essentially no resistance and allowing her working to spread out far and wide—when a spike of metal slammed into the meteor almost directly head on.

The metal had passed through her magic so quickly that it wasn’t too badly affected, and the impact absolutely shattered the incoming projectile, turning it from a monolith into just so much gravel.

High speed gravel.

Heading right toward them.

That might actually have been a very bad thing, given that it turned one large attack into uncounted smaller death balls, and most of the defenders weren’t as durable as Tala was.

But it was the right call as, instead, with Tala’s magics already in effect, the meteor debris passed into the expanding dissolution zone and went up in a great ball of fire that momentarily put the sun to shame.

Meallain cackled again, flexing her one remaining hand as her protian weapon coiled and extended at her unconscious will.

A few of the Refined and lower level magical beasts were still reaching the walls, the defense incorporated into those ramparts turning aside the weak attacks that tried to come at those defending their tops. None made it over, and those few attackers were soon dead.

Then, there was suddenly a lull, and all that were left were those of Paragon and Reforged level, and unfortunately, there were twenty of the first and five of the second.

Blessedly, none were fliers—at least not that they had shown thus far—and the fliers that there had been among the lower ranks had been dealt with.

Tala was already recharging, the ominous hum filling the growing silence as the surrounding creatures regarded the defending humans with all too intelligent eyes.

The five Reforged level threats were a cyclops that was actually not much bigger than the one Tala had ‘helped’ Master Grediv with years earlier, a conglomeration of limbs that seemed almost to roll across the landscape, a large lizard that did not have wings, a hunting cat of some kind, and a scorpion-like arachnid, venom dripping from its tail.

The twenty Paragon level threats didn’t interest Tala. She knew others would take care of those. In fact, the Talons would be ideal for assaulting most of them, especially as they could work in groups to bring them down with relative ease and safety.

But the five greatest threats?

Any one of those might end everyone there on their own.

Well… rust…