Ch. 2.35 | The First Breach
PoV: Sanya
“I guess I'll need you to go to Hope after all, sorry,” Aisha said. “No relaxation or casual studying sessions for you at this time.”
It was only a matter of time . . . Sanya just hadn't expected it to be so soon.
Whatever.
With her eldritch magic, she would not need to spend long nights studying. She had endless knowledge of being an infiltrator-herald and eldritch magic.
Still, she had barely gotten any sleep the last two nights. Yesterday had been a day somewhat of relaxation . . . but without sleep and everything that had happened in the morning, couldn't Sanya get some rest?
None of that when the entire world rests on your shoulders, I guess.
Sanya nodded.
“Sanya “ Mai squeaked out. “Stay safe.”
She paused. “Of course.”
“Esmat, go with—”
“[Globetrot Anchor - Hope].”
Sanya appeared to the west of Hope, away from even where the buildings were thinnest.
Westward more was the site where Sanya had obliterated Zulfaqar's forces, may they rest in peace.
Above, the sky had been bored open, and a writhing mass began to pull itself out of a hole in the sky. Yeah, because that was possible, whatever.
A bit ironic that the first breach would be so close to where this all started, with Nur and the academy opening up the large portal to the Abyss.
Was this where things would end, too? Or was this just a beginning?
The entity screeched in communication, fully emerging out of the portal and plopping down onto the ground in front of Sanya like a mass of sludge the size of multiple buildings.
It would have to share itself and get used to this world's technicalities—gravity and oxygen levels and things of that nature. Other strange knowledge that had been imparted onto Sanya with her eldritch brain that she did not want to think too deeply about. Science and stuff, probably more advanced than whatever those people had found out thus far.
And so the first scout broke past the barrier and entered Sanya's known reality.
Good job, infiltrator-herald. Slower than we would have preferred. Are you pathetic at gathering life force? How is it our weakest infiltrator-heralds were the ones to remain against that cunning mortal?
We saw you've mimicked a mortal form to try and blend in. How curious.
Sanya ran through a bunch of different spells in her head. Unfortunately, most of them caused widespread destruction.
Hmm . . . There had to be some spells that could fight another entity.
Wow—[Eldritch Sundering] and [Eldritch Ultimatum] spells, Sanya definitely did not want to use that one. It took more life force than she had, anyway. Just neat that she could translate the spell and it followed the pattern seen on magic here. It probably just was her translations trying to find connections.
Ah, look at all that life force, right here. The entity communicated.
The scout formed into something more solid. Something utilitarian.
Something that could sow destruction.
Eldritch entities were not slow, lumbering things. There was a reason they conquered worlds. They were so good at everything and required such a high energy upkeep. They were an endless feedback loop between an unstoppable hunger and an unrivaled power.
After coming into shape, one blink and the thing was already on top of a building in Hope, then crushing a second. These buildings were one-story, constructed of rectangular stones and topped with slanted thatch roofs. There were also tan buildings with flat roofs like the old cities.
Sanya teleported herself over there with an [Organic Displacement] and then placed herself into the air above Hope and stayed there.
The entity screeched at her again.
What are you doing here? Will this be a collaborative meal or are you just going to watch?
As long as you're not in my way . . .
“[Eradicate Pest],” Sanya cast.
Something drained from a storage inside Sanya, then, nothing.
Suddenly, a boom sounded as the eldritch scout was pushed back by some unseen force, shoving them against another building and toppling it over.
Screams and the like had been happening for quite a bit. The crash had stopped some of them, likely those turned to silent and staring in shock.
The entity had a gash along its side, both leaking internal fluids and yet also having left the surrounding flesh and skin scorched—of it could be described as eldritch entities using either.
You . . . You dare to strike me, insignificant one? This is your only warning. If you linger or strike again, I will deconstruct you to your very atoms and take the life force you've stored for my own.
The first breach is open, the entity continued. And now we can handle the rest. You are nothing. So go be pathetic elsewhere.
A second spell cut deep into the entity—not Sanya's. She glanced around and—there! Esmat stood on the rooftop of one of the flat buildings, hand outstretched, staff pointed towards the entity.
They winked at Sanya.
She nodded back, in appreciation and acknowledgement.
While most people ran further into the city, some mages in robes pressed forward to get to the entity.
Brave, but none of them knew just how outclassed they were. Sanya wanted to go down to them and tell them all to run. Their efforts would be futile.
Both of you? The scout entity shrieked. It must have been livid, the two remaining infiltrator-heralds had turned against it—against the rest of the entities. It probably did not know or could not comprehend that Sanya and Esmat had seized those pieces of them for their own, entirely. Any part of their brain that was on the eldritch side or gave in to those urges had been disintegrated.
You would make me use the life force I just harvested . . . Very well. [Scour the Filth].
Sanya teleported out of the way with an eldritch portal, simply because she did not need to incantate for that. [Organic Displacement] would use a precious second.
A blade of pink mana sliced through the air, from the scout entity to where Sanya had been floating.
The air where Sanya had been then simply ceased to exist as the blade died out, and more rushed in to fill the sudden vacuum.
[Inescapable End]. The entity cast. A cluster of beams sprayed out from the entity, curving into Sanya's position.
Yeah, no. Sanya was escaping that. It was a homing attack that could very possibly tear her to shreds. Also unfair that this one small attack for the scout could be more efficient than Sanya's entire single-target arsenal. Why would an infiltrator-herald know so many big area-destruction spells? Wasn't her whole thing to be subtle and undetected? Big destruction spells were kind-of the opposite.
Sanya teleported away, then threw up a bunch of shields. “[Defy Destruction]. [Delay the Inevitable]. [Starfield].” The last one was a Celestial Summon, just in case it could do something.
Ethereal shields surrounded her, and beyond that, a dozen star-like objects orbited her.
Barely a breath after that spell, the air around her exploded a dozen times. Each piece of her [Starfield] collided with an otherworldly force. Sanya noticed that the stars had barely held back the spell. Perhaps they had done a non-zero amount of help, at the least?
She had cast all of those spells, only for something to graze her shoulder. Internal fluids flew out and then spilled down. A chunk of her flesh and bone-equivalent splattered down onto the ground behind her.
Instead of taking the brunt of the attack all at once, [Delay the Inevitable] would slowly damage her over time. Hopefully [Defy Destruction] had reduced the entity's power, and [Starfield] would have stopped some amount of the spell.
Through alleyways and streets, fireballs and blades of air attempted to damage the entity as it lumbered through buildings, crushing any human or other living thing around them and subsuming their life.
Esmat unleashed another attack, further damaging the scout. Esmat probably could not cast a whole lot of spells. Mages were probably worth more life force, but not by much. Forty-eight souls was not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Sanya had the amount from twenty-thousand individuals.
So act like it. Sanya told herself.
“[Your Demise is My Command].”
You—! The entity screeched.
It tore open a portal and fell through it, into whatever lay beyond.
The portal closed behind the eldritch entity. Not that it would stop another entity from following it, which Sanya and Esmat were.
A ping in Sanya's eldritch sense fizzled out—the one that had made her aware of this scout's presence in reality.
Sanya's shoulder dissolved, and her right arm fell off. She felt only the most minor of pains from that.
Anyway, that really wasn't good.
Out of curiosity, Sanya followed the entity. Where had it tried to escape to? What remained of it?
She found herself in the black eternity by the barrier. The entity lay sprawled out, injured in some spots and decaying at a rapid rate. It had one appendage reaching into the outworld, a breach mending itself until it snapped shut, cutting the appendage with it.
The barrier would still be weak here, merely a bandage over a festering, gaping wound.
Anyway, being here was good. The closer to the outworld she was, the quicker she would regenerate her mass. This had probably been the entity's idea too . . . or to just straight-up flee into the outworld to dodge Sanya's spell. She had used something like two thousand units for that spell, it better not have escaped! And it hadn't.
Sanya sat there, trying to coax her regenerating mass into rebuilding her shoulder and arm. Unfortunately, [Delay the Inevitable] was eating at her at an almost an equal rate.
She sighed.
Esmat portaled into the . . . between? Sure.
Reality, Between, and the Outworld.
Esmat winced upon seeing Sanya. “Are you okay?”
“I'll live,” Sanya shrugged her only shoulder.
“Sorry I didn't do more. I'm out of life force . . . So, uh, how would we best get more? We can't kill people for this stuff, we're trying to save those.”
“We'll have to get by on plants and livestock . . . and whatever the entities retrieved before we could kill them,” Sanya pointed to the scout. “Take from its stores before it decays.”
Esmat nodded, walking over. Green wispy trails floated into Esmat from the dead entity.
“I barely got back what I used,” Esmat said as the green stopped not a few seconds later.
That was good. That meant the entity hadn't killed many. Unfortunately, it had still killed people, and that was tragic. Yet, it didn't sound like very many in the grand scheme of saving the species or the world or whatever.
Blip.
Sanya's—okay, she would refer to it like [Spatial Sense] and call it [Eldritch Sense]—[Eldritch Sense] informed her of another entity. Her stomach dropped.
“You're joking, another one already?” Sanya complained.
Sanya peered around the darkness of the Between. This place was so weird, she could not see any deviations from the endless black. There was nothing that looked like an entity or it breaching through. She would have assumed it would behave like a flat plain, and she would be able to see any changes for kilometers, like a house sticking out or the gleam of armor—but no, nothing.
Blip.
Sanya cursed. A second entity had emerged through a breach.
Blip.
That made three.
“It seems like we have our plate full today, doesn't it?” Esmat asked.
Blip.
Sanya sighed again, dread building up in her torso.
“Well . . . I did promise Zahira that . . . I wouldn't let her death be in vain. Let's go kill the Outworlders, yeah?”
Sanya stood, she did not have her arm back, yet. She could connect with Esmat about losing arms, and eventually, regrowing them, too. “Let's go lay our kin to rest.”
“That's still so weird.”