Spellheart 9: Chapter 24 (Patreon)

The first thing I did when I established contact with Mac was get a threat report.

[Good, bad, and worse news,] Mac began. [The bad news is that there are five of them this time. The good news is that only one is a demigod. The rest are sorcerers.]

“Can we hit them with the Level Reducing Sentry Towers again?” I asked hopefully. One clean hit from those, and I could slay a demigod.

But Mac soon crushed my hopes. [That’s where the worse news comes in. Somehow, they saw what happened to Tivar and stayed clear of the towers. Then, they tried to take me offline again with an energy pulse. Fortunately, Argona was there to reboot me in seconds rather than minutes this time.]

“Okay...” I ran my hand through my hair, thinking furiously. “Rally all our sorcerers. try to get the Ancient Tree Temple Twins if you can. With Tivana, Comela’s teacher, the former Golden Sword Sect Leader, Yillinarena from the Auqualian Isles, the twins Teilinith and Feilinith, and me, we should have the sorcerers beat in numbers. Also, I need to know where Sava is.”

I popped back through the portal, hoping my companions there could talk to Sam and Dean’s companions aboard the airship. Surely some of them had a way to contact Sam in a hurry. Dean might be better at dealing with a hostile demigod, but Sam would be more discreet about it.

While Mac rallied our allies and vassals, I headed straight for Sava.

I burst into the Alchemist’s Laboratory and found Sava working on her usual experiments. She saw me burst through the door, pulled the goggles off her face, and smiled.

“Just in time! I need more vitality for the experiment I’m running!” She grinned wide and started untying her apron.

“Not now, Sava. I’m afraid the Satyrs are back at it again. We need to get you out of the Hearthwood. Come on, we’re going to the Teleportation Array.” I picked Sava up over my shoulder and started running through the halls. After a bit of flailing, she settled down and let me carry her along.

“They’re coming for me again, aren’t they?” Sava asked. “I... I don’t want to endanger everyone else in the Hearthwood. Do you think I should just talk to them?”

“No.” I growled. “I know what they want, and they aren’t getting it. Lay low in the capital. If you need to, you can flee to the Primordial World. I doubt they’ll follow you there. But if they do, I’d wager I can go places even a demigod won’t.” I planted a kiss on Sava’s forehead. “I’ll come back for you soon. Be safe.”

“...You too...” Sava said, voice trailing off as the Teleportation Array whisked her away.

Once I was certain Sava was safely away, I turned to the allies Mac had gathered for me. Tivana had already been in the Hearthwood, so she was the quickest to arrive.

Being already in the Hearthwood, Tivana, and the Golden Sword Sect Leader were the first to arrive. Yillinarena arrived soon after. The twins from the Ancient Tree Temple, Teilinith and Feilinith, arrived soon after.

“Alright, everyone. Mac says we have four sorcerers and a demigod headed this way. I’ll take on the demigod. I need the rest of you to hold off the sorcerers as long as you can. Are you up for it? I won’t force anyone to fight for me. I know that wasn’t in the contract I had with some of you.”

But there were nods all around.

“Good. Those of you who owe me, I’ll slacken my restrictions on you and your factions. So you’ll have earned some trust from me. Everybody else, I’ll just have to owe you one.”

Moments later, we were off. But before we could see the faces of our enemy, they made their presence known.

Mac hadn’t been kidding when he mentioned our assailants were nervous to stray too close to the Hearthwood. Perhaps they didn’t know exactly what killed Prince Tivar, but they were wary enough to steer clear of it.

So instead of entering the city, they kept their distance and threw rocks.

And by rocks, I meant boulders the size of houses.

I jumped, extending my grasp over identity to decrease the mass of the incoming boulders to the point where they struck the side of the buildings they were hurtling toward and bounced off as though they were made of foam.

I could only use that trick so often, though, so for the next set of boulders, I had to catch them the hard way. I wouldn’t have been able to get them all without help.

Everyone pitched in, but Teilinith and Feilinith proved the most capable. The green-haired twins raised their arms, fingers intertwined. The forest came to life around them, and the branches of the Hearthwood’s massive trees stretched out like an interwoven basket.

Reinforced by the magic of two sorcerers, the wood became strong enough to stop even the enormous rocks flying our way.

“Teilinith, Feilinith, stay behind and protect the city! Catch up when the boulders stop,” I called over my shoulder. “Everyone else, with me!”

The twins gave me a silent nod of understanding, and the rest of us surged forward in the direction we’d seen the boulders coming from.

I could see the demigod amid the group of Satyrs. His aura didn’t just suppress the rest of us, his physical body seemed far larger too.

Satyrs seemed about the same height as humans, not counting their horns. But I would have barely come up to this guy’s chest if we were standing face to face. Body cultivators had dozens of techniques they could learn that increased their body size, but I wasn’t so sure about Satyrs and their Sacred Groves. Perhaps he drank an alchemical potion to enlarge himself so much.

“I’m with you!” Tivana shouted from behind me. With her guarding my back, I rushed in to confront the demigod. The two sorcerers with me peeled off to stop the four sorcerers accompanying the Satyr demigod. All of them were Satyrs, each well dressed and with a confident sneer adorning their faces. It reminded me of the look Prince Tivar had worn shortly before I turned his face into a paste.

Tivana was the first to strike at the Demigod. She drew a line in the air, and space fractured before her. That line of incisive power instantly struck the Satyr Demigod, who crossed his arms to block the attack.

“Not bad,” the demigod said. “But don’t think a weak little elf can hurt me!”

A bit of blood dripped from his crossed arms, but the wound quickly healed.

“Well, then, try this on for size!” I growled as I charged, body blazing with power.

My heart pounded with increasing speed as I raised Spell Eater and drove its tip toward the demigod with all the might of my body and magic. Tivana remained at a distance just as before, graceful fingers tracing intricate patterns in the air as she unleashed wave after wave of spatial magic.

The Satyr Demigod clearly found her attacks annoying, but I couldn’t let him close the distance with her. I could take a punch from a Demigod; she could not. I wanted him to attack me, leaving Tivana free to rain down attacks as she pleased. Already, bloody lines were accumulating on this Satyr’s back. That was clear evidence that Tivana’s spells were working.

Either we’d gotten better at this, or the Demigod we faced wasn’t as strong as Prince Tivar. This guy didn’t strike me as another princeling, so perhaps he was simply one of the Satyr King’s lackeys.

I used my mind magic abilities to accelerate my reaction time as far as I could push it. Finally, after working so hard for so long, my mind moved as fast as my body, and I made each movement count.

The Demigod was still measurably faster than me for all my body and spirit cultivation. But he was also noticeably clumsier than me. With my enhanced reaction time, I made sure to dodge every bare-knuckled punch he threw my way. A dodge was still a dodge, even if just by a hair, and the Satyr was growing frustrated that he couldn’t hit me despite being a whole level stronger.

For a moment, I thought we might actually manage to take this guy down. Teilinith and Feilinith had arrived and were keeping the sorcerer-level Satyrs busy. As long as our allies held their positions and we won our battle, we’d slay this demigod and then fan out to wipe out the rest of these Satyrs.

How dare they come into the Hearthwood thinking they could take one of my women? I’d show them!

Then the Demigod tapped into his Sacred Grove magic, and I realized he’d been holding back the whole time.

“You’re strong for your level,” the Demigod said. “But not strong enough!”

In his hand, an elven wisp appeared. This one was a deep earthy brown. I sensed the power of the Wizard realm emanating from it, and I dove back for cover.

Tivana and I had seen what a Satyr could do with a wisp that strong, and neither of us wanted to be struck by whatever ability the Demigod was about to unleash. But instead of attacking either of us, he slammed the wisp into his own chest.

A lifetime’s worth of cultivation dissipated into the Satyr’s body, flowing through his veins and filling them with newfound power.

“That’s better!” The Satyr Demigod let out a content sigh. His eyes were bloodshot, and his muscles swelled with new strength. He’d been large before, but now he grew before my eyes until I barely came up to his waist.

The blood vessels pulsing along his arm twitched as the muscles beneath grew as wide around as my chest. Within moments, he’d gone from merely being impressively built to looking like he was ready to wrestle a dragon.

He wasn’t the only one who could turn into a giant, though. I activated Might of a Giant, and Earth Zeal swirled around me in a billowing dust cloud. My form grew larger and taller than the Satyr Demigod’s enhanced form.

And while the dust stirred the air, I called out to Tivana. “Follow my lead!”

A plan was forming in my mind. I wasn’t sure when Sam was going to arrive, but I wasn’t about to bet everything on him showing up just in time to save us. Nevertheless, I had the seed of an idea. Something that had trapped someone far more powerful than me before.

If I could lure this Demigod into The Wanderer, I could keep him inside indefinitely. That would give plenty of time for my comrades to return and help me teach this guy a permanent lesson.

With a plan in mind, we attacked again. I probed his defenses, switching between projectiles made of stone and magical attacks. I didn’t get what I wanted until I tried Petrification. Enhanced by the concept of identity, the spell actually started to work.

“That won’t stop me!” the Satyr Demigod growled as he withdrew another elf wisp. This one was at the very peak of true mage and shimmered the silvery color of space zeal. He crushed it in his hand, creating a bubble around the demigod.

All physical attacks that came next came to a sudden stop.

“Ha! Fools...” The Satyr Demigod snorted. “Give up. You are no match for my power...”

I barked a short laugh. A kinetic shield was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

“Now, Tivana! Attack!” I charged the Satyr Demigod, slamming my fist into his shield. Doing so knocked him slightly backward. Then I activated my spare Pocket World passage. I had to be quick with this since the other end was open on the airship where I was meeting with the Satyr King. I had to knock him through the passage and into The Wanderer as quickly as I could.

Before the Satyr Demigod could turn on me or prepare another ability, Tivana hit him with everything she had. A beam of spatial zeal as wide as a wagon struck the Satyr Demigod, and I kicked his feet out from under him from behind. Between the two attacks, he tumbled backward into the open portal.

“Again!” I shouted to Tivana as he fell through the portal and into the Pocket World passage.

Tivana fired one more blast, just like the previous one, and then I closed the passageway. Hopefully, she’d be enough to help the others finish their battles. Now it was just me and an angry Demigod.

I was in tight quarters against a hostile demigod, ready to fight one-on-one. This would be the most challenging part of the battle yet, and I wasn’t sure if I’d make it out alive. But I would give it my all and—

The Satyr Demigod’s shield winked out the moment the passageway closed as though it was never there.

“My powers!” the Demigod shouted in alarm and fear once inside The Wanderer and separated from ordinary space. “They’re gone!” He turned to me with sudden fear-filled eyes.

I stared back at him, just as shocked as he was.

Huh?

<Note>

One of you guys predicted this as one of the weaknesses of Satyr Sacred Grove cultivation a few chapters ago. Great minds think alike!