Abyssal Road Trip - 358 - Crashing down (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

Amdirlain moved between a few scores of towns whose locations she’d learned while travelling through Zozzuth’s city. She left devastation in her wake at each mining town that supplied the city with ore. The town wards cracked and shattered when the ground gave way beneath their anchors. Buildings were scooped up and crammed into mine shafts, open pits, or occasionally stuffed full of demons, and she filled the stone with primordial flame. She’d destroyed millions of demons when she appeared on the rim of an open-cut mine and caught a theme within a pair of succubi that showed potential messengers.

“I’ll need to conceal your appearance,” warned Amdirlain. “There are a couple of demonesses whose presence I’ll use to my advantage.”

Silpar frowned but didn’t object, so she concealed both his presence and her auras with True Song. She almost teleported the two succubi to her but stopped to transform into an Anar with white-blond hair and set up barriers to prevent escape or communication.

“That form certainly wouldn’t still Rahka’s accusations,” observed Silpar drily.

Amdirlain’s lips twitched. “Good thing I intend for her never to see it. I am bringing them to me. Attacking will break the concealment. Otherwise, you’ll sit in a mental blindspot. I expect to arrange mercenaries to maul Moloch’s forces deployed away from this Plane. Also, to see if their primogen can provide a former sisterhood member who might have been into the depths.”

His chin lifted, and Silpar paused with a question on his lips.

“You can ask,” reassured Amdirlain as she kept her smile constrained.

“How would you pay them?”

Amdirlain’s smile bloomed fully. “I’ve got stockpiles of energy I harvested from the damned. That’s all I need to create abyssal coinage, and that won’t get them anything they can’t already buy.”

Silpar frown from earlier hadn’t faded. “You harvest energy from the damned?”

“I’ll take you to the facility later,” demurred Amdirlain. “It’s likely easier to explain after I show you.”

“Now I’m curious,” admitted Silpar.

“Right, I’ll show you those after we deal with a Demon Lord. In the meantime, it’s time to handle these two succubi,” stated Amdirlain.

The dimensional restraints locked around the necks of two succubi fell from their ebony-skinned throats. She allowed them time to rip apart the demons they were with before Amdirlain yanked the pair to stand before her. Neither waited to ask a question; they lashed out at her, and Amdirlain swayed just beyond their reach. One tried to reposition and flank her, but Amdirlain slipped sideways and stonewalled the attempt. The other tried to flee with Teleport only to find her Power suppressed.

“Stop,” snapped Amdirlain, lacing her words with Dominion’s control. She hadn’t used the Power in years, but with her increased Charisma and Willpower, she froze their bodies with sheer intent. “I will give you instructions for a mercenary contract and return you to your Home Plane. Ensure it gets to your primogen or someone who can contact her. Clear?”

As she delivered her orders, they stiffened further at the snap in her tone. The elder of the pair looked at her with dark bedroom eyes and gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

“Get word to your primogen that I’d like to hire her huntresses to make Moloch’s life miserable. I’ll also pay a bounty for a senior Sister who has been into the primordial depths with Balnérith,” stated Amdirlain. “She can leave the Sister and the details of the hiring cost where she picked up the toys I gave her to help hunt Balnérith. After a time, I’ll send a gift to remind you of the cost of your current freedom. I will make you regret it if she doesn’t leave anything at the drop point I arranged with her. Do you understand?”

The same Succubus nodded again, and Amdirlain immediately used a Dismissal Spell to send the pair back to The Hunting Grounds.

“What do you plan to give them?”

“You’re worried about what I’ll give two succubi?” asked Amdirlain with a spark of amusement in her gaze.

Silpar remained motionless.

“I was considering sending them adamantine weapons of Demon slaying,” clarified Amdirlain. “However, if I don’t hear from them, they will gain an aura that makes it impossible for them to hunt stealthily—a bright pink glow or something that can’t be masked.”

Initially, it was a startled hiss before Silpar’s laughter erupted to echo within the barrier. Once he stopped, Silpar still regarded Amdirlain with amusement. “Providing demons with weapons to slay other demons is interesting. It normally takes Celestial weapons to bear such an enchantment.”

“To make it even more confusing for them, I’m going to make it so only they can activate the weapon’s enchantment, and it’ll only help them against weaker demons,” clarified Amdirlain. “That will give them a better chance to avoid being taken captive again.”

“You have a strange attitude towards succubi,” observed Silpar.

Amdirlain shrugged. “I’ve had a wide variety of interactions with them, though I’ve wanted to destroy many, like any other Demon.”

“I can think of only one Succubus primogen you wouldn’t want to name,” stated Silpar.

“One of her granddaughters, named Ebusuku, and I got on. She hated the Abyss and spent time as a mercenary out of it, and she’d been working to ruin the sisterhood,” replied Amdirlain. “Some of what happened is a bit complicated.”

“I won’t pry further,” replied Silpar.

“Sorry, it’s not just my history to share,” advised Amdirlain before she relocated them to the next target.

More towns were destroyed before they arrived at her first important target. With the walls just a line on the horizon, Amdirlain created a crystal spire to hover far out of sight above an enormous city. The modified version of her normal surveyors projected an illusion of the city’s interior to a crystal plate Amdirlain passed to Silpar.

Silpar frowned at the distant city walls.

“I’ve kept the concealments around us,” advised Amdirlain. “Just in case you find the pendant too restrictive. The next Demon Lord likes to keep his palace on the low side.”

Showing him how to operate the device, Amdirlain brought up the city’s layout. She adjusted the image to centre on a palace with tall, irregularly placed towers that jutted up from four-story structures. In contrast, the city’s buildings around it featured densely packed high rises and cast the palace grounds into shadows.

“Are you going into the city to fetch him?” enquired Silpar.

“No, I’m going to try a bit of distant landscaping,” replied Amdirlain, and she caught his confusion. “I’ll undermine the structures anchoring the palace wards and then bring him to us.”

“How far can True Song reach?”

Amdirlain smiled. “Across the planes if I need to, as long as I know the theme to target. That illusion is just a visual one to you, but I can hear enough details of the place’s melody from the crystal plate.”

“It has been some time since I last saw an illusion used in such a fashion, and it was to present a place from memory,” mused Silpar

Giving him a helpless shrug, Amdirlain could only offer him a theory. “Given that every Celestial and Fallen possesses True Sight, perhaps the usefulness of illusions doesn’t get explored.”

Silpar tapped a clawed finger against the crystal plate. “How strong is the Demon Lord you’re targeting here?”

“Stronger than the first one. He’s been through a Transformation Site twice, but he’s not that much stronger,” explained Amdirlain. “He must have gone through the first time without having three prestige classes, or they were far less than Tier 5.”

[Name: Kirnith

Species: Demon Lord (unique)

Class:  Overseer / Slaver Lord / High Corrupter / Hexist Lord

Level: 32 / 62 / 62 / 43 / 42

Health: 1,823,430

Defence: 2,409 (Incorporeal)

Magic: 1,890

Mana: 4,213,848

Melee Attack Power: 1,582

Combat Skills: Body Weaponry [GM] (247); Various powers and spell lists.

Details: Kirnith started his existence as Hezrou, warping dretch and manes into other lesser species at the command of balors. His first trip through a Transformation Site altered his species into a Feargast. He learned to manipulate minds instead, pushing them to bend them to his will. Moloch seized his services when he destroyed Kirnith’s previous employer.]

[High Corruptor.

Details: This Tier 5 Prestige Class comes from combining Sorcerer and Hexist, having already combined them in a previous Prestige Class.]

[Hexist

Details: These corrupt casters are a variation of sorcerers but channel abyssal energies to inflict physical degradations on foes, from opening wounds to inflicting hereditary injuries and afflictions.]

Amdirlain projected the details to Silpar, and his gaze widened momentarily before he blinked. “You can see a foe’s imprint.”

“As long as they’re not appreciably stronger than I am,” clarified Amdirlain. “Though the reaction I get when I attempt that is enough to let me know that being elsewhere is a good idea.”

“I’ll leave you to handle him unless you look hard-pressed,” advised Silpar.

Nodding happily, Amdirlain activated Ki State, and feathery armour formed from white primordial flames emerged from her flesh to sit atop her clothing.

Silpar grunted. “Yet more tricks up your sleeve.”

“Same again. The concealment will prevent all perception but sound,” said Amdirlain.

With what she had planned, Amdirlain decided to err on the side of caution and moved them a few thousand kilometres away.

Though Silpar backed up to give her space, Amdirlain’s songs had already surged beneath the city. Vast voids opened beneath the outer walls before follow-up melodies added hundreds of gravities of pressure. When the first wards fractured, the songs that swept across the city removed the few slaves across the planes and into a temporal safehold. The targeted themes cut wards with surgical precision one region at a time. When all that was left were demons at the bottom of the rubble-filled spaces, Amdirlain set portals that reached deep into a volcano on Furnace. The pressure within the massive magma chamber burst upwards, driving the rubble skywards.

The spire signalled the palace wards breaking, and Amdirlain yanked Kirnith into her containment barriers.

Kirnith was an incorporeal entity, but his ghostly presence appeared composed of smoke and bone fragments swirling in a looming cloud. His futile mental assaults couldn’t break through her protections, but he relentlessly continued stabbing at her with various mental powers. As his presence washed over the environment, it further warped the already sickening abyssal atmosphere. A tendril of the cloud struck at Amdirlain, and though she swayed out of its way, its motion bonelessly followed hers, and she had to spin away before it. The attack power reported by Analysis didn’t seem like it should be a threat, but Amdirlain avoided contact all the same. While spells began to take shape within its interior, scores of tendrils erupted from its formlessness and lanced towards her. The energy within them hissed and screeched to her senses, but she rode the tempo of their songs and slipped ahead of them.

Gusts of ash and obscene curses ran over Amdirlain’s body, but couldn’t get a hold of her flesh through Ki State and the primordial energy it carried. Amdirlain didn’t pause even momentarily as she spun and swayed. She’d started to duck low only to spin or tumble in one direction or another—Teleport repeatedly kept her a fraction out of Kirnith’s reach. Spells ripped at the ground and altered it to pull her beneath, but Free Movement slipped her from the magic’s grasp. As she adjusted to his attacks, she changed the challenge to avoid his touch by the slimmest of margins. The rage-filled Demon Lord didn’t consider her continued avoidance a threat but rather an opponent slowly being worn down by attacks getting ever closer. Through it all, Amdirlain kept her Wood Elf form, just another addition to the difficulty against the erratically moving tendrils under Kirnith’s control. After twenty minutes of the frantic dance, Kirnith’s pace slowed, and Amdirlain caught his sudden spike of wariness.

When Kirnith fell back instead of pressing the attack, Amdirlain sensed him trying to overwhelm the smooth mental protections she had in place. As his approach shifted again, Amdirlain unfurled her Charisma in a tidal wave and drowned him beneath her presence, and he knew the fear he’d loved to inflict on others.

When she pulled in her Charisma, a groan emitted from his incorporeal form; the sound was a ghostly murmur from bone scratching against bone. “You’re playing.”

Striking out with a Spell of her own, Amdirlain hit Kirnith with a Planar Attunement and listened as the Spell ran like a tuning fork through his essence. Taking in the change the Spell had applied to her foe, Amdirlain struck with multiple songs until one caught hold. The melody strained to fracture the link between the Demon Lord and one of his home planes, but despite the impact, the Demon’s essence shrugged it off.

It might be something in the fundamental rules related to its species. At least I cut down one trip Even if I’ll have to track it to eight more home planes. From its age? Maybe the trips through the Transformation Site, retaining the ones from its old species?

“You seem to have caught on. Being so used to controlling others, I had expected you to figure it out sooner,” noted Amdirlain, and she channelled memories of Naz’rilica to give an insanely malicious smile.

Her willingness to talk gave Kirnith further pause, and his focus split between her and the distant flames and clouds of pyroclastic flow now visible on the horizon. His attention wouldn’t have changed what came next; multiple songs flayed his essence from the inside, and Kirnith exploded.

[Combat Summary:

Demons by Tier

Least x 17,210,726

Lesser x 4,917,350

Standard x 2,950,410

Greater x 602

Named x 5

Demon Lord x1

Total Experience gained: 47,662,571,364

Ostimë: +23,831,285,682

Ontãlin: +23,831,285,682

Dance [S] (168->169)

Free Movement [M] (14->16)

Note: It’s hard to catch the strongest demons in one place. They tend to have options to Teleport away when the ground starts to melt and explode.]

[Achievement: Demonic Metropolis Crusher

Details: Single-handedly destroy a city with a population over twenty million and catch at least ninety percent of its population in the event.

Reward:

• 200,000,000 experience
• Multiple siege warfare classes are now unlocked.

Note: Destroying all these demons isn’t even a drop compared to the untold trillions that spawn each minute.]

Yeah, I know.

“Or did he finally notice the eruptions coming from what remains of the city?” asked Silpar.

“Just a bit over twenty-five million demons dead,” cheered Amdirlain. She sent a set of songs after Kirnith to apply a dimensional lock and stop the absorption of Mana, though his strange essence would make its effectiveness questionable.

“How?” rasped Silpar.

“I used portals that reached into the depths of one of Furnace’s volcanoes. I had to modify them slightly so that material moving through them was charged with Primordial Mana. Because otherwise, all the succubi would have just had a warm bath,” explained Amdirlain. “Experience-wise, it gave me a bit of a jump over the same time spent making demi-planes, and I gained progress in Dance.”

Silpar smiled, which gave his face a distinctly predatory edge. “Only because you were using him as a whetstone.”

I’ve got them close enough to cheat and spend the points. I can get Dance and Devouring Cacophony across that threshold now at any time, so I need to push my True Song higher. True Song Architecture is going to be the challenge again.

“Do you think he’ll want to play again on his next Home Plane?”

Snorting, Silpar emphatically shook his head. “No.”

Amdirlain sighed and let her shoulders slump dramatically. “It’s not fair. Are you sure you want to continue keeping me company? I feel like I’m wasting your time.”

“Rest assured that I don’t see this as a waste of my time,” replied Silpar. “It only takes one mistake when you’re alone for things to go very wrong. What is this fellow like?”

“I’m not going to stick my hands into this fellow. Intentionally doing that might have lingering effects I don’t want to deal with.”

Silpar motioned for Amdirlain to proceed, and she opened a Gate to their next stop. With the example provided by Zozzuth’s last arrival point, she took them right to where Kirnith would manifest. Around them was a forest filled with ash-covered trees where the bodies of millions of dammed swung like macabre wind chimes in the breeze. With necks or other extremities caught in the forks of branches, insects crawled into orifices and along their skin; the workers, in a frenzy, sought to strip the damned’s continually healing flesh down to the bone.

Melodies from Amdirlain stretched out and tagged the damned here for retrieval, and she set up crystal relays to tag future arrivals.

“Where do we go from here?” asked Silpar.

Amdirlain pointed to an empty spot between the trees ahead of them. “The Plane is still putting him together.”

“The music you hear tells you so much,” commented Silpar

“If it had been a hard fight, I wouldn’t risk appearing so close to his arrival point,” clarified Amdirlain. “He’ll manifest without Mana, and I can block his powers. Once here, I’ll crush him and we’ll move along to his next stop.”

Amdirlain set a barrier to prevent any attempt by Kirnith to use his Oath Link or dimensional abilities to flee.

“Then onto another Demon Lord,” chuffed Silpar.

Checking the list with Analysis, Amdirlain found Gideon had thousands more songs waiting for her.

“Not yet. I need some time in the sunshine. Would you care to see a few planets?” asked Amdirlain.

Silpar blinked. “More work from Gideon?”

“Yeah, those have been helping me steadily improve, and they help the worlds he directs me to” replied Amdirlain.

Silpar nodded approvingly. “Your Oath sister and friends worry about you. It is good to see you have such friends to keep you grounded, though it sounds like you hold even them at arms’ length in some ways.”

“Sarah was very involved in the project on Qil Tris,” protested Amdirlain.

“At your invitation or did she invite herself? And the others? Because it seemed like they were aware that you don’t tell them much of your plans,” observed Silpar.

“I’ve tried to be better about sharing, but there are still things I’m learning myself, which puts things in question,” advised Amdirlain, glaring impatiently at the point where she could hear Kirnith’s song coalesce.

“Ahh,” murmured Silpar, his tone understanding. “Are you experiencing the same effect Cyrus mentioned about how Immortals regain memories of past lives?”

“Something like that but more fragmented from what he and another have explained to me,” replied Amdirlain. “Including this one, he has seven more home planes.”

“He must be old for a Demon Lord,” said Silpar.

“He’s been through a Transformation Site twice; it might be through reaching Named Tier in two different species,” proposed Amdirlain.

Silpar nodded. “That would take time in itself.”

When Kirnith finally manifested, Amdirlain sealed him inside a tight barrier. The Demon Lord’s body of smoke and bone fragments swirled and churned about, fighting to find a way out.

Amdirlain took in the melody of his Oath Link and hummed thoughtfully. “I wish I knew if what I’ve been doing is even making an impression on Moloch. Won’t experiment with this fellow and risk anything since there are plenty more demon lords in Moloch’s service to destroy.”

Kirnith exploded under a burst of melodies carrying primordial flames, and Amdirlain nodded in satisfaction. One Plane after another, they were atop his location or nearby when he arrived, and she sealed him away to kill him cleanly. Ignoring Kirnith’s pleas to stay her hand, Amdirlain followed through on his destruction. The best accomplishment from the trip was it let her find more damned to tag and locations to set crystals to monitor for more.

Six planes later, when she received the last notification, Amdirlain gave a disgruntled huff.

“If Orhêthurin is even stronger than you, why didn’t the Anar and Lómë just destroy the demons as they formed?” enquired Silpar.

Amdirlain grunted in disbelief. “The primordial’s experiments had already inspired the Abyss. Trillions of them came into existence every second until the Abyss had drowned the lesser primordials in them and caused the stronger ones to retreat.”

“Those legends are true?” asked Silpar. “That it was the Abyss that created them, not the action of a greater primordial seeking to humble those lesser?”

“Yes, the Abyss did it directly. Once the primordials’ experiments showed it the potential of the damned, it made use of them all on its own,” clarified Amdirlain.

Ori took other actions to block the demonic expansion, but I’ll not comment on those to anyone.

Opening a Gate to Limbo, she ushered Silpar through, and they proceeded to another demi-plane facility. This one wasn’t for providing medical care. Rows of crystal tanks show damned souls being stripped of their memories. When the flawed and damaged souls had been stripped back down to their foundations, they were renewed to a clean state and queued for Sarah’s training through the psi-crystals.

Silpar walked in silence as Amdirlain proceeded down the hallways. At first, his theme rang with confusion, but then understanding took hold.

“You are turning putrid souls into the most basic of Celestial creatures,” stated Silpar, looking at the rows of thousands of slimes infused with Celestial Mana. “Do they evolve into other creatures later?”

“No, this is just the processing of the souls. The weaponry is prepared somewhere else,” explained Amdirlain.

“Weaponry?” asked Silpar after a pause to consider the tanks again.

“I don’t do this for free. Each soul is now innocent of its past crimes, but it still added to the evil in the realm, so I make them earn their new start,” explained Amdirlain. “The slimes are taught to react to the presence of demonic and undead forces. Sarah built a control matrix for them to interact with weaponry like an extended pseudopod. Once they reach a certain level, the Soul is released from the slime and transported to the heavens. I’ll show you a battlefield. Hold on a minute.”

After exchanging a series of messages, Amdirlain had a location for the final piece of the explanation.

Hopping through Limbo, they emerged on a ravaged world. Nested lines composed of thousands of towers blasted away or blocked the strikes from Orcus’ arrayed forces. More towers rose from the front ranks and pushed back the legions that stretched out of sight across the plain. Interspaced among the towers were hosts of celestials who—freed from the need to defend by the towers—freely added their spells and blessings to rip the undead apart.

Silpar’s gaze roamed the towers and mortars, watching their unrelenting attacks upon the undead that bore Orcus’s sigil. “Weaponry indeed. You said you opposed him. Is this another of your projects?”

“I’m not in charge. At most, I’m supplying a helping hand,” denied Amdiralin.

In a flare of brilliant white wings, a Planetar landed near them, their four wings disappearing as the familiar Celestial shrank in height to match them. Once he finished shapeshifting, Admirlain fixed him with a beaming smile. “Sage. I didn’t expect you to meet us in person. Silpar, Sage is a Planetar serving Lerina. Sage, Silpar is my mentor from the Cloister of the Fallen.”

Sage coughed and started to object, but Amdirlain raised a finger to halt his words. “No. Let’s leave it at that explanation.”

“Very well. It’s just Lerina received word from Bahamut that Silpar was trustworthy,” replied Sage.

Amdiralin felt like face-palming but kept her face composed. “Operational security, let’s discuss that later.”

“My apologies. I’m not used to having to conceal your name,” offered Sage.

Silpar displayed his empty hands. “I’ve already inferred much that I’ll avoid enquiring into as I already hold enough of your secrets, Am. It’s not a concern to hold secret this Angel’s respect for you.”

“Fine,” sighed Amdirlain.

“Before she lost her divine Mantle, I and many celestials served her in the Outlands,” explained Sage eagerly. “I, like many of her initial celestials, was rescued from the Titan’s Maze because she offered Ebusuku, who became Lerina, the chance to undergo the trial within it. I emerged from it an Astral Deva, and the others were hound or lantern archons.”

“No half measures,” murmured Silpar in amazement. “Ebusuku was the name of the Succubus you found to differ from others?”

“Yes. I had gained a Mantle through my interactions with mortals,” explained Amdirlain. “When she swore to my service, I had the opportunity to send her through the trial to free herself from the Abyss. Later, I had to give up my Mantle to keep those who had entrusted me with their faith safe, so let’s leave it there.”

Blinking, Silpar tilted his head and considered Sage. “Would you object to help from Fallen in this battle?”

Amdirlain gestured to the hordes. “There aren’t any mortals left alive on this world. It’s just a way station for Orcus to keep troops outside the Abyss.”

Silpar shrugged. “If we help destroy them, then he doesn’t have these troops for other invasions, and it might free souls if they aren’t just animated flesh.”

“Some are just malicious constructs, but many do contain imprisoned souls,” confirmed Sage.

“The Redemption’s Path might not count such a deed as helping a Mortal, but I know some that would help all the same,” stated Silpar.

Sage smiled. “We could assign them an area to strike from, the same as celestials from other deities that help here.”

“Let’s arrange that without me being in the picture. I get enough questions as it is,” said Amdirlain. “Silpar, why don’t you look around a bit? I’ve got to organise the next worklist.”

Leaving the two to talk and tour the battlefront, Amdirlain created a memory crystal and prepared the list for the next piece of work. Among the pieces she organised, she found music that wasn’t for a place but instead for someone she recognised from Orhêthurin’s memories.

While she considered the implications of the discovery, she held off organising the rest and created billions of abyssal coins. The stacks of them were shunted off to the dead drop location where she’d left Naamah’s toy. It was hours later before Silpar returned, Amdirlain having listened to a distant Gate release a thousand Fallen against Orcus’s horde.

“I hope you didn’t involve my name,” said Amdirlain.

Silpar nodded towards the distant Gate. “Does it sound to you like I did?”

“No,” snorted Amdirlain. “It sounds like they’re glad for foes where they can safely vent some rage.”

“You’re right,” responded Silpar.

Amdirlain shook her head, and the pair vanished.