BECMI Chapter 535 – Creche and Collapse
The Carnifex snatched up bows and slings, and hurriedly began the shooting.
The flaming and Slaying Arrows whistling out at them were no threat, batted away and deflected by Shields without missing a step. Some of the sling loads were of acid, or rot grubs, or rusting powder, or deathsmoke and similar things, and ran into the fact that all of these were Forsaken Masters, had Vajras, tons of ki, and could actually catch the damn things and throw them right on back.
Which they didn’t bother to do. They just tossed them over their shoulders to shatter harmlessly on the stone behind them.
Those behind watching didn’t even bother to get rid of the crawling worms or powder or smoke, just watching them disperse and letting the grubs and larvae die rapidly upon the stone.
Spells began to slam out. Anything that Summoned a creature or object was useless, and they knew it. Likewise, anything that moved anything else was useless. So, direct attack spells.
Fireballs in a dozen forms, lightning Bolts from above and in front, acid Rains and Fogs, ripping sonic attacks, pounding hailstorms or massive Cones of cold, shooting Rays and Missiles of force, serpentine Fangs and Lashes of energy, manifested Fields and Weapons of Divine energy trying to bar the way, Walls of stone and fire and ice trying to stop them or slow them down, trying to alter the stone beneath them, trying to Curse them, trying to alter their forms to something harmless, necromantic attacks trying to kill them outright.
The Walls cut off line-of-sight for both sides, but bought time, or so the Carnifex thought. A second after they erupted into being, Weapons sliced through, and Null Strikes sent them back into the ether they’d been Evoked from, gone in an instant, not interfering with their pace for even a step.
The attack spells vanished into their Nulls, water into a lake, gone with barely a ripple. The only ones that had a prayer of affecting them were augmented with Pierce Any Defense from the Magi… and Spellcutting strikes lashed out on those spells, splitting them apart harmlessly.
Except the ones aimed at the Imperial Family, which all went bouncing back in the direction they’d come from.
Those Carnifex were more than a little alarmed as their Defense-punching spells slammed right into them, and shrieked in agony as necromantic killing spells ravaged them solidly.
Then a tumbling Greathammer came whirling in with the Mage-Slaying Shot, shattered a dozen protective spells and sent Zaestershellim hurtling backwards like a toy from the impact as its chest caved in under the impact.
The Carnifex next to it shooting at his sons got the same treatment from those Hammers, too.
The flung Hammers tumbled back across the ground as the Forsaken continued to advance into the face of the missile fire and spells, clearly unbothered by any of it. The Hammers hit the boots of their masters, flipped up into waiting gauntlets, and were lifted again.
The Carnifex couldn’t run, and kept up the barrage until the Forsaken were halfway across the hundred-yard wide field.
Weapons flashed up, certain Runes flashed, and this time when the Hammers came down to be thrown, forty-eight Shardings arced out with them.
The Shardings couldn’t carry a Null Strike, of course, but that was fine for at least four of them. Thor and his three Hammer-using sons were nice enough to pick different targets, smash their defensive Buffs out of existence, while those four lads next to them were happy to cut at the four Carnifex who were trying to get back to their feet.
Not all of the Shardings hit, particularly those going at the Magi and Voices, who did indeed have a large number of defensive spells up to avoid, evade, and deflect attacks.
All five of the Shardings from Sif and her daughters struck home without fail, ripping across the robed Magi opposite them and tearing through their Defenses with the Ways of the Seven Dragons and One Strikes. Blood blossomed and flamed with Dreadfire as the Magi staggered in disbelief.
In Markspace, the other Forsaken clucked in amusement, but hey, it was a long-range Sharding attack, the next one would be more accurate, then the next one more yet…
Swords, Hammers, and a few Axes rose together again as the thrown Hammers returned once more, poised, and in the face of even more desperate explosive spells, were hurled out once more, a wall of Shardings coming with them.
Zaestershellim was startled to find it wasn’t dead, as the four Hammers found other targets. But the other three Magi were cut in two by the whistling arcs of force coming in, unable to reapply all the shielding spells they needed, and the second set of four was also cut down where they stood, magic flaring on their fingers, Staves falling from their hands.
It wasn’t a spell, it couldn’t be Turned, or Countered, or even Dispelled. It was a weapon attack transported along a force arc to its intended target!
Thor just flicked Mjolnir at the Carnifex Mage, and sent it tumbling back further again, energies crackling around it and interfering with any spellcasting, making it plain that if it did any Casting it was going to get a full power throw and that would be the end.
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The Warriors, Voices, and Tricksters had enough. Magic swirled in the air, spells of motion and speed and prayers resounding to cover them all, and they charged the incoming Forsaken quickly, unwilling to weather another round of attacks without being able to fight back.
They couldn’t reach the Forsaken in time to stop one more Sharding volley sllicing out at them, this time biting deep into all of them, and then it was to arms.
Half of the charging Carnifex died almost instantly, as the slicing weapons abruptly snapped up and waited for them in perfect form, impaling themselves on the Archer Stands Thrust.
The rest died a heartbeat later, wounded as they were, as those who weren’t impaled were sliced and hewed down, their own attacks largely ignored as they rang on Armor and crashed against their targets… but could not slay or meaningfully wound.
All of the Weapons had poison upon them, most had Human-Slaying or other effects that erupted as they charged in.
All of those effects hit the Nulls and vanished, as did their speed and the Buffs from their Voices. Charging into the set Weapons ready for them was mostly lethal, and the follow-ups were universally so, especially since those next to them were happy to contribute against a Carnifex moving through their reach looking to be cut down.
Corpses going vivic slumped to the ground behind the Forsaken, incredibly powerful and deadly Weapons clattered to the ground. Despite the finest of magical Gear, the Carnifex couldn’t even enter a proper duel with their enemies.
The Magi had their own problems, Null Strikes chewing through and instantly disrupting any solid Walls they managed to put up, and they could bring up no creatures to get in the way of the coming Forsaken!
Their companions and meat shields were already fallen and gone, unwhite fires Burning and mist beginning to fall from them indicating they were dead.
Less than twenty Magi were still alive, all of them were wounded, the Forsaken were still alive, all of them looking at them and-!
Shardings hissed down, not a sliver of attempt made to give them a fair death.
Powerful Staves tried to parry, were chopped apart as the Carnifex Magi were sliced apart in pieces, gore and pieces of magical Robes flying as the Shardings or slamming Hammers did their jobs.
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Zaestershellim got slowly to its feet, its chest caved in, barely able to breathe, feeling a pain in its heart with every beat. It made a movement towards its Staff, and Mjolnir rose while Thor just shook his head.
It would not be breaking its Staff and attempting to kill the Emperor that way, either, nor would any of its kind, many of whom bore similar Staves.
There were many Curses and traps put into their Gear, to be inflicted on any who chose to claim them. Alas, it was fairly sure all of their Gear would simply be Burned without question, none of it trusted in the slightest and nobody caring what unique powers or effects that they might learn from them.
The Empire had learned long ago to trust nothing the Carnifex made.
Emperor Briggs came to a halt.
So did all the other Forsaken, all looking at the one Carnifex who stood, still taller than even the Emperor, but somehow looking shrunken and smaller before them.
“Turn around,” the Emperor ordered grimly, and Zaestershellim slowly turned around to peer at the mountain of the Last Creche behind it.
A line of gold suddenly shot up from the stone, circling around the mountain, Runes and Sigla rising into the air with tremendous magical power.
Zaestershellim recognized it instantly. A powerful magical Circle, but to what-
It saw the dust spurting from the cracks first, then rolling down towards them at supersonic speeds. The Circle flared, and the sound of the explosion rose as fire and light burst through a thousand thousand cracks and holes, the whole mountain in front of them shuddering as a vast explosion lit off below the surface.
Geysers of flame blew into the sky, in all directions, including out the very tunnel the last Carnifex had dug out of the mountain. But they all hit that golden Circle and were flung into the sky, the dust and ash and rubble crashing and stopping as the ground around them kicked once, making everyone stumble slightly… except the Forsaken there standing an inch above the ground on the Waveskating Step, of course.
Zaestershellim’s eyes dimmed appreciably. “You detonated one of your atomic weapons underneath the mountain,” it hissed out with serpentine calm.
“Aye. One treated with vivus, too.” The Emperor’s Voice was unaffected by the rumblings and grindings as the mountain in front of them began to settle down several feet deeper than it had been resting before. “Whatever magical surprises you’ve got down there just got introduced to a magic-eating sun, and were crushed by a mountain coming down on molten rock.
“I thought you’d find that fitting.”
Zaestershellim turned to regard the creature that had led the defense against its kind for twenty-five centuries, somehow enduring all this time, living as long as the Carnifex could without faltering, and even winning in the end.
It still could not truly believe that this turn of events was possible, but it did not know what they had done wrong to reach this place, and it, it was the last of the Carnifex.
It started to say something, but there was a flicker at the edge of its vision, and something cold and dreadful shot up its spine… the Dreadflame, going after its heart and brain, but it couldn’t feel the former, because its head had just been severed.
Not even allowed last words, just one last thing to be removed, Zaestershellim thought, and then its thoughts went dark.
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Thor grabbed the head as the corpse of the last Carnifex collapsed. Slowly he turned around, and raised it high for all to see.
“Wait for it.” He tilted his head back and looked up at Heaven.
At the moon, waiting up there. At the Immortal City upon it, phased in a sidereal realm, and also looking down at them.
He imagined the acid rising in all those throats.
He pictured the looks of defeat and desperation on their faces as they realized that all their efforts, all their scorn, all their disdain, and all their sacrifices were for nothing.
The mortals had won.
WON!
The Glory Award slammed down, and every living being of the Bright Empire, of the Island of Heaven’s Reach, who had worked for so many generations, sacrificing their blood and labor for victory against this foe who simply would not quit, screamed as they felt it.
All the sacrifices of themselves, of their mothers and fathers and ancestors, had finally come to a conclusion.
The Carnifex were dead. Every single last damned one of them.
The Mortal War was over.
The Eternal War yet remained.
Dragons and giants and nearly a hundred thousand throats here screamed to the skies as a crushing load no one realized was there was lifted from their shoulders. Across the Empire, millions more fell to their knees and did the same, tears streaming from their eyes.
For a moment, at least, they had won a War.
Now, they had one more to finish.