Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick hovered in the middle of the sky, seeming like an imitation of a sun, surrounded by light and made of light himself. Nine Ophiel hovered around him, some in replicas of Erick’s own sunform, others running other spells, like [Hunter’s Instincts], or one of the Sight spells Erick had recently unlocked and bought. He was as prepared as he could have been, and yet, he wondered at what else he could have done. Tried to make [True Sight]? That would have been useful. What did he need to get that one? Maybe he could have had each of his Ophiel grab a rock, and then each of them could put a weak [Prismatic Ward] on them, and then each Ophiel could each run [Pure Reflection Ward] in their sunforms, while keeping the [Prismatic Ward] at their center so they could remain high-mana.

Ah. He should have done that.

He also only had nine Ophiel around him. The last one had been watching Hollowsaur, but it was time for him to come back.

Erick had that one grab some supplies on the way, and then light step it back here as fast as he could. Shit was about to hit the fan. And yet… Erick just wanted to enjoy the view for at least a moment.

The Dead City really was quite beautiful from this angle. Erick and his Ophiel were a good 15 kilometers up, above Ar’Kendrithyst. They could see the entirety of this once-great wrought city. From horizon to horizon, where the black solid-lace Feast Barrier cut them off from the rest of the world, the crystal city glowed with radiant reds and puissant purples, almost looking like some modern city, while the space below was an arena of light, with depths far too deep to see, and sides a good 50 kilometers from edge to edge.

And then there was the Edge of the Script, up above. The barrier that held the mana of the Old Cosmology to Veird, that enabled Veird to function as a planet, hovered a scant several kilometers higher. Maybe less.

Lapis was already up there, hoping for the start of a new life. Farix had joined her, and surrounded himself with blood magic of the highest order; dark red orbs, just waiting for a target. Goldie was somewhere in that dark sky, too, but none of Erick’s various Sights revealed her location. But none of that mattered, for a part of the fight had already started.

Right in front of Erick.

Fallopolis One looked much the same as Fallopolis Two. Both of them wore tattered black dresses; the same one from the last time Erick had seen the woman. Both had a broken kendrithyst staff in their hands. Both had frazzled, burned hair, and burned flesh.

Fallopolis stared at Fallopolis, as the crystal city in the distance exploded with varicolored lights and fires, hinting at fights far out of sight.

“This bitch!” Fallopolis One yelled, “I knew we shoulda killed you first! What the fuck you doing with my face!”

Fallopolis two almost responded, but—

Erick threw a pair of [Luminous Traps] at both of them, catching both of them in the effect. Fallopolis One and Fallopolis Two swirled into utter darkness. Erick dismissed the spells right afterward.

Fallopolis Two tumbled out of the broken black void with a disjointed, “ARGglee gabble! Fuck! That HURTS!” And then she laughed, for she saw who had tumbled out of the first [Luminous Trap]. “AH HA! Fuck you, Perri!”

The grey orcol woman tumbled out of the first trap. Barely a moment later, a splash of shadows, the triggered [Dispel] that the Witch had used before to escape Erick’s [Luminous Trap], struck the Witch’s back. It did nothing.

And then she vanished into another [Luminous Trap], cast from a second Ophiel. The very second she fell back into the void, another Ophiel threw all of himself into counterspelling Blood Ooze which he then flung into the black void, while a third Ophiel, currently in sunform and running [Pure Reflection Ward], surrounded Perri’s new prison. Some of that Ophiel slipped into the black void it protected, but another Ophiel cast a [Perfect Mirror] on the black void, turning the lightless sphere into the world’s shiniest, 4-meter wide ball bearing. The reflective Ophiel settled down around the mirrored space, perfectly molding himself to the surface. Erick was barely fast enough. Three more dark splashes of [Dispel] magic struck that Ophiel’s reflective coating, soaking in, but accomplishing nothing. The blood ooze poked out from the bottom of the silver sphere, but otherwise remained inside, trapping the Witch under a great many various spells.

Erick was down to 8 Ophiel, so he summoned another, bringing him back up to 9, just in time for the tenth Ophiel to step into the space, carrying some rocks for Erick’s [Prismatic Ward] plan. He had his currently unoccupied Ophiel give out the stones to the rest, as they began enacting his will, all on their own.

Fallopolis had barely yelled her dislike of Perri by the time Erick had solved the problem. She had been about to tell Erick to do something; he could see it in her wide eyes. But now she just kinda stood there, in the air, growing more gleeful with every passing second. She laughed, then asked, “What was that red thing I saw?”

“Counterspelling ooze.”

Fallopolis gasped, then cut her gasp off. “Ah. She’s probably already out of that. Good spell, but I doubt it works well against her. I’m going to kill her now.”

A black beam ripped out of Fallopolis’s chest, to impact the reflective Ophiel surrounding Perri’s prison like a protective shell of glowing water. That part of Ophiel scattered like so much radiant rain, though the rest of him remained attached to the ball bearing. Erick almost said something —he wasn’t really sure what he was going to say, either— but Fallopolis had acted too fast, and now he just wanted to see if she could actually get through his spells. He had little hope for his [Familiar] holding up against Fallopolis, since Ophiel wasn’t exactly a real boy; not yet anyway. He had less hopes for the [Perfect Mirror].

But then the [Perfect Mirror] proved better than the [Familiar]. Fallopolis’s black beam scattered wide. She frowned. She kept her beam going for a good five seconds, before she stopped, in a huff.

All this while, Erick had been watching Fallopolis, from every angle, and with every sense he had going.

She was the real one.

Erick said to her, “Let me, Fallopolis.”

With a thought, Erick had the sunform Ophiel surrounding Perri’s prison turn real again, and stick a feathered wing through the edge of the silver sphere, and into the black void beneath. From that wingtip Erick cast a spell of pure light that bounced around inside that protected space, becoming a laser without beginning or end as it crashed through the trapped Shade.

Erick didn’t see it as it happened, for all the power of [Luminous Beam] was trapped as solidly as Perri, but he got the notification of the kill.