Ch. 2.42 | Facing the Unfaceable
PoV: Lania
Lania and the other three moved through the streets towards their next victim—
—another massive eldritch entity that could almost blot out the sky.
Lania was going to murder it like she had the first one. No longer would these otherworldly intruders continue to lay waste to their city and kill the people that called it home. Lania had power now, and she was going to use it!
She frowned at the destruction around her. Probably fifty percent of the city was destroyed now. Maybe even more. Certainly more as the two remaining entities continued to work, while Lania and the others still moved there. The sadness and distraught became anger. How dare these entities show up and destroy the world like this?
Lania's group of four were under one of Nadiyya's time bubbles. The quicker they got there, the more lives would be saved. The quicker they were, the less likely they were to get hit by one of the entity's murderous appendages.
Unfortunately, the time bubble still felt too slow.
Mai would not be able to do much teleporting with all the large structures blocking her view. She could teleport them all down one street until it just turned again. Perhaps it was better than nothing, though.
There was another form of travel . . . Although it would leave most everyone else behind.
“After this, teach me how to turn into a bat,” Lania said to Joia.
“Yes, of course. Consider it taken care of.”
“Thanks.”
“You are supposed to respond with ‘much obliged’.”
Lania glared at Joia. “Oh. My sincerest apologies. I will take that into consideration from here on out. I will make an attempt to be a shining example of proper nobility.”
Mai struggled to contain a giggle.
“You are getting there. You show promise.”
“Nope, sorry. If I have to talk all high-and-mighty I'm going to stab you and then myself,” Lania shuddered.
“That is fair. Your civilization does not seem to distinguish the bourgeoisie from the proletariat much. The difference is often in wealth and little else, with no distinct subcultures of their own. How peculiar. Ah well, we will have to go shopping at some point and get you out of those . . . commoner clothes.”
See, the world almost getting destroyed and then a hundred and seventy years later that happening again seemed to destroy that rich-poor cultural distinction. They were all just people trying to survive the end, some with more than others.
“I can't tell if you're joking or not,” Lania said. Were Lania's “commoner clothes” simply not good enough? Hmph.
Joia smirked.
“And, go shopping with what money?” Lania added.
“One thing imperative to learn is that nobles are the most dubious members of society. They hide ill-gotten gains like squirrels to their winter stashes.”
“What's a squirrel?” Nadiyya asked.
“Yes. It is edible. If you cook it. I would not suggest it.” She added in a mutter, “I forgot you do not have squirrels.”
“Sooooo what you're saying is you have a criminal income,” Mai said.
“I will admit to no such thing. How dare you baselessly accuse me?” Joia was grinning now.
“You're a strange kind of insufferable. I don't know whether to hate you and show scorn for your actions and words or if you're actually endearing,” Lania said. Was Calinichia's . . . disdain for the average lifestyle real? She had to have said those things about wanting to make Lania a noble as a joke, right?
“Why not both?”
“I'm going to cast my spell on you and not the eldritch entity,” Lania muttered.
The entity came into view—more so than the occasional glimpse or moving appendage.
The entity was sowing its path of destruction towards Lania and the others—roughly. It was taking its time destroying and consuming indiscriminately, green aura flowing its way.
Still, it would reach them far too quickly.
“I hope you're ready to cast the spell,” Mai said.
“And on the correct target,” Joia added.
Lania rolled her eyes. Joia was the correct target, as far as Lania was concerned.
They were in the middle of the end of the world. Yet, Joia continued to talk with humor. Lania almost felt like laughing. Mai basically already had.
Why?
Were they even allowed to? It just seemed so weird.
Could Lania really be allowed to laugh and have fun when the whole world was falling apart around them?
Well, it had distracted her. It was fun. Calming.
Maybe there was a method to Joia's humor.
A row of buildings became a row of assorted stones and thatching. With a dash of human bodies for good measure.
All this death was kind of making Lania want a meal . . . Not that corpses tasted good. They tasted better when they were alive, before Lania drained them to their deaths.
Lanka shook her head, not now.
A shadow loomed over them. Wow, it was big. And by “it”, Lania meant the eldritch entity. And not anything else—Lania was a lesbian, anyway. She wasn't interested in—
“Uhhh, Lania? Do you want to do that spell again? Like, now? . . .” Mai's voice shook.
Lania nodded. She raised her right arm and pointed it towards the entity. “[Judgment of Twiulrie].”
Lania waited . . .
. . . She waited for the purple-pink glow. For the blinding white light. For the entity to disappear.
None of that came.
The two suns shone down as normal. The eldritch entity continued its streak of terror, as scheduled.
And this was how Lania knew her class was connected to a god in name only. If she really was a Twilight Emissary, then Twiulrie would emerge from whatever dark hole it slept in to come smite all the eldritch entities destroying its domain.
“Uhhhh,” Mai said. “Was—?” Mai cut herself off with a squeak. Lania heard flesh against flesh.
“Did I use all my favor already?” Lania looked towards Joia.
Perhaps there was a weaker spell that she could use instead?
“Maybe it just did not deem it dishonorable,” she could almost hear Joia say.
Instead of seeing Joia once she turned to face her, Lania saw a massive appendage slam into her own face.
Pain laced through her body, although especially through her face.
She felt the air rush around her as the blow pushed her back and swept her off her feet. She crashed into the ground some meters away, air escaping her lungs.
Her face throbbed. She might have broken her nose. Or maybe annihilated it entirely.
Lania saw a red sky, blood seeping into her eyes. She had cracked her forehead open, too.
She pushed herself off the ground, her entire body protesting. Had she broken ribs, as well? Had any part of her body come out of that unscathed?
She looked around. She stood in a field of rubble. To the east, the rubble continued. To the west, the buildings looked half-destroyed. One more errant appendage and those buildings would fall.
There were bodies all around. A green mist flowed out from them and towards the looming entity.
Blood dripped from Lania and pooled onto the ground. Her eyelids drooped. Her red vision danced black at its edges.
She tried to wipe the blood off her forehead, but it continued to flow. Her hands were also dirty, so, not exactly the best things to touch her wounds with.
Nadiyya rushed towards Lania.
“Lania!” She cried. “Are you owo-kay?”
“What does it look like?” Lania croaked.
Nadiyya proceeded to take off her tunic, turn it inside-out, and hand it over to Lania. “For your wounds.”
Lania’s brain broke. Nadiyya stood there, top less save for her chest wrap. Out here. In public.
Not that public decency mattered much when the world was ending.
“Uhhhh,” Lania said. “Sure. Thanks.”
Lania took the tunic and cleaned her face with it, then wrapped it around her forehead like a bandage. She was wiping her face and protecting her wounds with Lania's tunic—it smelled like her. This was so weird.
She was missing a bit of nose—or rather, it had been crushed inward.
Lania yelped. “Watch out!”
An appendage swung towards them. Lania and Nadiyya ran in opposite directions as it crushed the ground where they had been standing moments before. Thank Nadiyya for the Temporal bubble.
The same appendage got up off the ground and then swung sideways.
Lania dropped to the floor as it cleared overhead, air rushing around her.
The sudden drop just made her head throb more and her chest ache.
Lania stood back up, and ran in the direction away from the entity, to the safety of a particularly high pile of rubble.
A bat descended and transformed into Joia. “What's the plan?”
“The plan is to run? Can we do a ritual for more favor?”
“That will take time. Either Sanya or Esmat save us or the city will be ruined by that time.”
Nadiyya turned the corner and found Lania and Joia. “I can—chirp—try to tame it.”
“Can you?”
Nadiyya shrugged. “It is worth a try.”
“I do not exactly count on that confidence,” Joia said, eyeing Nadiyya's shoulders. “Can you send a bird to Sanya or Esmat and urge one of the two back here?”
“Well—thank you for believing in me-ow,” Nadiyya snapped back.
“Uhhh,” Lania said. “Where is Mai?”
“I shall go look,” Calinichia transformed into a bat and flew away.
Ah. Okay, then.
“I'll attempt to tame it. Cover me?”
“Cover you? Do you want your tunic back?” Lania joked. She was a hypocrite. Had she not just been complaining about Joia speaking humorously?
Nadiyya rolled her eyes at Lania’s poor joke.
Lania sighed. “Okay. I'll try.”
Nadiyya nodded. Without a count, she rushed from behind the rubble and aimed her twig towards the entity.
Lania stood by her side.
“[As a channeler of Fauna magic . . .]” Nadiyya started.
The problem with Twilight Emissary spells was that most depended on death.
She supposed there was a lot of that happening around her.
Whatever.
“[Bloodshed Ritual],” Lania cast.
It would store her power for a duration while things died around her. Then she could release it for an effect of her choice.
The mana gathered around her and locked into place. It cast.
So, how much favor, exactly, did she have left?
“[. . . I beseech this child of nature . . .]” Nadiyya continued.
Lania cursed. Another appendage lashed towards them.
What could she do? . . . Fast! Think fast—how could she stop that appendage from hitting Nadiyya and breaking her concentration, or worse, killing her?
“[Bloodcraze Bound],” Lania cast. She dashed towards the appendage in the blink of an eye. A handful of paces were covered before Nadiyya could say three words.
“[. . . to offer its talents in service . . .]”
Lania and the appendage met. The force slammed into her like a flock of camels. Her body screamed with pain. She felt her skull cracking. Her already wounded face got even worse.
It knocked her out cold.