Chapter Two Hundred and Fourteen - 214
The screams below were rising louder and louder below, Tempered lungs proving their worth as Inquisition cut a bloody swath through the horde. But the Revenants weren't holding back either; Teine watched in rapt fascination as the beasts rallied with all the fury of a hive protecting their queen.
Teine looked at the Broodmother, his Analyze enough to tell him its name and level, but it's Type was tantalizingly out of reach. Just as all the others. He had his suspicions, but until proven they were only guesses. The writhing abomination belched out another dozen eggs as he watched, it's immense form made up of curling tentacles, studded with fleshy nodules and glistening with ichor. It was simply...
"Beautiful," he murmured.
"Sir?"
Teine looked at his guard. The boy was wracked with terror, but still he stood fast. Mervin knew his place, and with the incentive of Essence Draughts he'd become far more enthusiastic toward their work. So what if those draughts were developed with Revenant parts? Even if the boy knew, he'd have jumped at the chance to advance. Everyone always did.
"Elder! The Inquisition is pressing forward!" LeQuin said, pointing below. "The Inquisitors have taken the field!"
Teine panned over the horde, toward the furious battle being waged along one side of the massive chamber. Even had the Eyrie still stood, the place could have held all of the Guilders within it and still have room for an opposing force. Teine gathered what he needed from a glance, his powerful Mind and Intelligence sorting and processing it all.
"Ten thousand Revenants, give or take a score, versus what seems to be two thousand redcloaks. Most of them Acolytes," Teine mused, more or less to himself. He spoke loud enough to be heard, though, as he was their leader. One must always demonstrate dominance on the battlefield, else your underlings will begin to get...ideas. "With the Inquisitors joining the fray, however, they'll likely penetrate the horde in short order. We cannot have that."
The Tin and Iron Ranksthose that survivedwere still firing at the Fiend. Their pathetic Sparkbolts and Ice Arrows shot out with regular bursts, cutting through the crimson fog but unlikely to hit anything. The Fiend wouldn't be taken down by them, and Teine hadn't the energy to spare for the creature, not yet.
"Keep the Fiend occupied! Distracted, hm? Under no circumstances is he to engage the monsters!" Teine made eye contact with the fledgling mages, getting nods from every one of them. "The last thing we need is another win in the Revenant's column."
Teine regarded his "guard," though he had no need of their protection. The older one, Piotr was looking a touch peaky. He'd have to keep an eye on that one; he'd been the first to complete his Tempering with the Revenant draughts. Mervin, swiftly becoming his favorite, was watching the mage's Mana bolts sail into the sky. He seemed nervous. "Mervin, come here please."
As the nascent Apprentice Tier approached, Teine took a moment to take out his etheric device. The small, inscrutable box had been practically humming ever since they'd entered the Nymean ruin proper, and Teine's Manasight could pick out the red-yellow energy radiating from within. The crimson haze it released was indistinguishable from the fog around them, a fact that tugged at his scarred cheek.
"Something funny, sir?" Mervin asked. Teine looked up to see the young man step forward and rest his spear against the smooth tiles.
"Ah, no no," Teine waved a hand dismissively, but didn't miss how Mervin scratched at his forearms. Interesting. "Simply reflecting on the majesty of our surroundings.
They are...something, sir.
Indeed. In fact I think Teine stopped suddenly, running his hands near the railing once again. Teine gasped. He laughed then coughed and clutched at his cane. "They're wrong..."
"What was that, sir?"
"The sigaldry led us here, but I thought it vanished the moment we came into contact with the true weight of this creature's aura," Teine gestured at the Broodmother. It squelched titanically, releasing more eggs. "They didn't vanish, however!" He ran his finger along a groove in the stonework, and his touch briefly ignited a rune that glowed a vicious yellow-red. It faded quickly. "They're hidden. Protected. Come!"
Protected how? Mervin asked, before belatedly offering, Sir.
Teine barely noticed. He was following the nigh invisible markings along the bannister. They swirled in complicated flourishes that made little sense to him, despite his time with the strange, alien language. "The array is inverted, pulling it its frequencies inward to hide them. But it's also...blind gods. That's it."
Sudden revelation hit him like a thunderbolt. The language itself was inverted! It was twisted against itself! That was why it contained so many inconsistencies, so many incomprehensible gaps.
Teine snapped his fingers, and while his Body wasn't the most powerful, the sound made the Tin Ranks flinch.
"Bronze Ranks, follow me. We're to find the source. We do that, and we find the true Nest."
Onward, he smiled through his scar. To destiny.
"WATCH OUT!"
Evie held on tight as the team of avum charged through the battlefield. The wagon jostled behind her, kicking up over each corpse she trampled but not slowing a bit. That was partly due to the redcloaks that chased them, hurling bolts of light all the while. The already terrified birds were mad with fear, nothing could stop their frenzied charge.
Except maybe a wall of Acolytes and Revenants.
"Supplies," Cal said, nodding at the characters along the side. Redcloaks were good at being orderly, at least. "But why is it here? The redcloak line is further up."
A slight figure landed atop the wagon, trailing a bladed chain that almost floated in the air. Cal felt her chest clench and release at the sight, only to have her senses blaze warning when a man in white armor led a battalion of Inquisition closer and shouted at Evie. Beside her, Vess sucked in a breath.
"Him," she pointed at the older Initiate. "The one in the lead. He fought Felix to a standstill."
"Oh really?" the Hand said, eagerness in his voice. "And only Journeyman? How fascinating."
"Good, then you can take him out, Reed," Cal barked. "The rest, we need a distraction."
"I...have an idea," Atar said.
"My Lady! We've spotted another force form the upper levels!"
"Report, Klark," DuFont demanded. She shoved a hand forward and let loose a torrent of heat Mana, burning through the Revenants before her. They died before they could even scream. "How many?"
"Only eight, but they recognize the Guilder known as Onslaught among them," the boy said breathlessly. His own sword was out, burning with the Order's flame and cutting into the horde that never stopped coming. "They're cutting a path to our rear guard, as if they're trying to flank us."
"Harn Kastos and Calesca Boscal," DuFont scoffed. "They finally arrived. But only eight? Was one of them a young man with blue eyes?"
"No ma'am, the only younger male was blonde. A fire mage."
"Damn." Eliza dragged her other hand through the air and let her own brand of flame pour out of her gauntlets. It baked the root-covered tiles before her, igniting many of the Revenants pressuring her men. "Then where is that bastard? Pass the word. We're too close to the Broodmother now. We'll not be taken off course by the Fiend's entourage!"
"What of the rear guard?" Klark asked.
"They stand at least three hundred strong," DuFont snapped. "Do you think they'll fall to eight fighters?"
"No, ma'am."
DuFont and the two other Inquisitors had pushed their troops forward as quickly as possible, forming a path lined with their shields and bodies. Acolytes were falling by the dozen, but there were plenty to spare. The Initiates more than made up for the loss of meat shields, taking up the fight against the Revenants and Ghouls. DuFont had spared some of her precious Mana to push back the horde, but it was an impossible task. She had to take the Nest firstshe hadto; before that need, all else was meaningless.
Then they were there. The base of the Broodmother and its field of noxious eggs.
Eliza paced ahead, joining Inqusitors Daur and Rutger at the head of the procession. She took the lead, eyeing the both of them, almost hoping they would try and challenge her right to be there. They simply looked away, though Rutger looked quite bitter. DuFont let a smile slip across her face.
"Come, men. Time to take the Authority we deserve."
That I deserve, she amended.
Without warning, a strange hornblast cut through the air, and only steps ahead an aquamarine wall of light rose up over the eggs and Broodmother. It shimmered in the crimson light, almost painful in contrast.
"No!" DuFont screamed. She unsheathed the hooked blade at her side, the one she'd claimed from the Foglands expedition. She struck at the shield rapidly, but the enchantment on the blade did nothing to the shield.
"That is a Master Tier shield," Daur gaped.
"The Sorceress is here!" Rutger hissed.
"Indeed she is," a voice said.
DuFont spun toward the sound, sword and gauntlets up and ready. A woman with pale blond hair and a crooked iron rod leaned casually against one of the man-sized eggs.
"Nice to meet you at last, Eliza," the woman said and aquamarine light rippled down her arms. "I've been meaning to have a chat with you."
