Spellheart 9: Chapter 38 (Patreon)

The coffee shop erupted into chaos. Panic-stricken elves screamed and darted about, their coffee cups knocked over and forgotten. I quickly dropped the modified Unnoticability spell shrouding Ethan and me, and my power filled the room, gripping every panicked elf.

I opened my mouth to speak words of reassurance and calm the populace when Ethan cast his own spell. He extended his hand, and a wave of Mind zeal washed over the room. One by one, the panicked elves fell asleep where they stood.

“This will be faster than trying to calm them down,” Ethan explained. “Are trans-dimensional monster incursions of this magnitude common around here?”

I grimaced, turning from the sleeping elves. “Unfortunately, yes.”

Ethan and I exited through the nearest window, not bothering with the door. On my way out, I tossed a handful of Macmarks on the counter. I wasn’t about to dine and dash, even with everyone else in the establishment knocked out by a sleeping spell. I overpaid by several times since many others would probably forget about something as small as their bill after an attack like this.

This was a good coffee shop. I didn’t want them to go under just because a rift leading to a pocket dimension filled with enormous killer monsters opened up next door.

Outside, the situation was already dire. This rift was larger than before, likely because I’d opened all but one nexus and weakened our connection to the Devilbeast Wilds almost to its breaking point. I hadn’t opened the final nexus because I didn’t want monsters spilling out into the Hearthwood, just like what was happening now.

The streets would soon be overwhelmed by a horde of monstrous beings of various sizes and species. This rift was bigger than last time, letting bigger things through accordingly.

First, there were a few canine monstrosities wreathed in flickering flame. Each was the size of a wagon, and their eyes shone with feral intelligence. I scanned them as they appeared.

Scaled Hellhounds (Mid True Mage, Level 25)

• These ferocious beasts are savvy group hunters who access with fire magic and are capable of casting spells such as fireball and fire whip. They prefer to toy with their prey, making their hunts quite sadistic. They are vulnerable to users of water magic, and if their flames are completely extinguished, they die.

Next were a few hulking humanoid giants already stomping through the streets. They were covered in rock-hard skin and looked like they’d be tough to put down. Each of them wielded a tree trunk in one of their brutish hands. Most were well worn and seemed like they’d seen heavy use. Between their six-story height and the tree trunk clubs, I had no doubt they could smash down half the Hearthwood if given the chance. They would need to be put down even sooner than the Hellhounds if I wanted to keep casualties to a minimum.

Stoneshell Trolls (Early Wizard, Level 32)

• Towering over the average sapient, Stoneshell Trolls are renowned for their formidable physical strength and rock-like skin, which can easily deflect most physical attacks. Coupled with their ability to manipulate earth zeal, they can summon stone spikes from the ground and create barriers for defense. Despite their sturdy exteriors, they possess a significant vulnerability. Due to their dependence on the earth element, they struggle against wind or poison magic users. Sufficiently powerful gusts or vacuum-based attacks can disrupt their balance, and poison can negate their powerful regeneration, making them easier targets.

But last was the greatest threat. Not one, but three Sorcerer-realm beings had emerged from the rift. They looked downright puny between the Hellhounds and Trolls, but their aura made it clear that they were the most dangerous of all. They looked like ordinary elves covered in ragged robes that hung draped over their heads and shoulders. But I knew better.

Within the robes, I could see pale and desiccated faces like old corpses caught midway through rotting away. Their empty eye sockets glowed with eerie luminescence as their gazes swept over the streets of the Hearthwood.

Soul Eaters (Late Sorcerer, Level 48)

• The Soul Eaters are spectral entities that thrive on absorbing life energies from their victims. They are created from malformed death-aspect wisps and permanently destroy any elven wisp they encounter. Most powerful elves are reluctant to fight Soul Eaters, as to lose to one means true death.
• Despite their ethereal forms, they can manipulate dark magic to launch powerful energy bolts or create shields. Their most horrifying ability is their life-draining touch. Anyone coming into contact with them risks having their vitality siphoned away. However, they have a glaring weakness. Soul Eaters are highly susceptible to sunlight zeal. If exposed to concentrated light, their form wavers and attacks lose potency. Powerful sunlight zeal can even dissipate them completely.

“Mac! Call my Matriarchs!” I shouted. Korra could probably do a number on those trolls. Assyrus could probably take care of all the Hellhounds on her own as well. And though Nela wasn’t yet a sorcerer and would have trouble against these Soul Eaters, she could provide some much-needed backup.

“I suppose I should lend a hand at a time like this,” Ethan said, dusting his shirt off and turning to the Hellhounds. “Down, pup.”

Mind magic flooded out of him, as well as something... else. I couldn’t quite place what it was, but it was much like the concepts of Gravity and Identity. I’d already touched upon such ideas myself, and from my understanding, such ideas were the path to Demigod hood. I wasn’t surprised to discover Ethan possessed something similar.

The nearest three Hellhounds came to an abrupt and sudden stop. They stood in the middle of the street, faces blank and dazed as they stared straight ahead. Their eyes were vacant, and their expressions were blank. Their minds were far away, assuming anything remained of their minds at all after whatever Ethan did.

“Any chance you could do that on those Soul Eaters?” I asked hopefully.

Ethan grimaced. “Afraid not. I might be able to slow down the trolls, though.”

“Here I thought you were a demigod...”

Ethan sighed. “I suppose I should point out that mind magic is not exactly an aspect suited for direct physical combat. You’ll have to hold the frontlines. I will provide what assistance I can to you and your elven allies.”

“Just watch my back,” I said, rushing ahead.

“Mac! If you can hear me, tell Argona to activate Dean’s Orb!” When Dean had locked up the Devilbeast Wilds, he’d forged a steel orb with enough Soul Fragments to drain their power. The orb had proved very useful to me back in my day, and I intended to use it to finish off the Devilbeast Wild’s monsters. Only those monsters had come for me before I was fully ready for it.

I no longer needed the raw zeal to progress, but that wasn’t true of Argona. Perhaps she could make something of this attack.

I was first on the scene, which meant it was up to me to hold the line until everyone else could arrive. While I was pretty sure I could handle any one of these foes one-on-one, fighting all of them at once was going to take heavy-duty spells.

I decided that it was better to lose a few buildings now than a lot of buildings later, so I whipped out my Late-Sorcerer Earth magic right away.

The ground trembled in all directions as treat obelisks of stone rose up in a circle around the invaders. They cut right through the nearby buildings, forming a cage around the rift. One of the trolls smashed his tree-trunk club into the rising stone pillars, only for his attack to bounce right off.

Behind the pillar, the windows to the nearest storefront shattered from the force of the blow.

“You’ll have to do better than that, troll! Those Stone Obelisks are full to the brim with earth zeal!” I shouted at the monster.

I received no response. These creatures seemed to be far dumber than the Shadowblade Beast had been at their level.

Unfortunately, the trolls were the least of my worries. The obelisk cage would hold them for a time, but those Soul Eaters were the real threat. I just hoped the cage would hold long enough for my companions to arrive. Otherwise, we were going to start losing parts of the city.

As I feared, the three Soul Eaters phased right through the obelisks and came out the other side like ghosts. Earth magic would be useless against them. A normal Earth aspect Sorcerer would be forced to run away in face of a threat like these Soul Eaters. Fortunately, I wasn’t nearly so limited.

“Minerva, can you do anything against these guys?”

[Now that I am at the Sorcerer realm too, I have a few tricks. My Death Touch should compete with theirs. If nothing else, they will not be able to drain you so long as I am here. I wouldn’t want to wrangle with all three at once, though. I might be able to raise some ghostly undead that can attack them directly.]

“Do it. And it looks like I’m going to have to do this the rough and tumble way.” I cracked my knuckles while Minerva summoned a pair of wizard-realm ghosts. Each had a build and stature surprisingly similar to mine, looking tall and well-muscled compared to their stronger foes. They curled their ghostly hands into fists and charged alongside me.

I’d never seen ghostly bruisers before. Normally their kind of undead was more of the spellcaster, summoner, or draining variety. It was a bit weird to see something without physical form hit like a ton of bricks, but the ghosts Minerva created seemed to pack quite a punch.

Unfortunately, so did the Soul Eaters, and soon the two wizards were in a losing grapple with their foes.

They wouldn’t last long since they were a full realm weaker than the monsters they were up against. But all I needed was a few moments to deal with my foe before turning to help them. I may have only been a sorcerer, but I was a four-fold sorcerer. In a way, I kind of outnumbered these Soul Eaters four to three.

The last of the Soul Eaters came for me, and I met it in a grapple without fear. Its touch was like ice, and I felt zeal draining away from me. But the flow came to an abrupt stop when Minerva started draining the Soul Eater just as it was draining me.

Worse, the little it had drained from me seemed to be interacting badly with the Soul Eater’s internal biology. The vitality-rich essence of a human had been enough to fry a vampire from the inside, so I wasn’t surprised to discover this undead also had problems with it too. I was tempted to ask Minerva to let up with her spell so more of my vitality could pour into the Soul Eater, but I preferred to give away my essence on my own terms.

I spat on the Soul Eater. My saliva splattered across its ghostly face and melted away its phantom form like lava pouring down a glacier. Its body hissed and turned to steam, burning as the lights that illuminated its empty eye sockets started going dim. It let go of me to clutch at its face.

“Not so fast!” I grabbed its face. It phased through my hand at first but then came to a stop when it pressed up against my World Titan Fiendbody. While it could pass through flesh just fine, it couldn’t pass through the dense network of energy empowering my body just beneath my skin. I grabbed the ghost between my hands and squeezed. I felt resistance as it screeched and clawed at my hands, and so like a shark-smelling blood in the water.

I’d become pretty well versed in what it felt like to crack a skull between my fingers, so I knew when I felt something break. The ghost’s body shattered into a million pieces, and I was about to celebrate when those pieces reformed nearby.

“Oh, come on!” I groaned, but then I noticed the ghost I was faced with was noticeably weaker than it had been before. If it had been a late sorcerer before, now it was just a mid sorcerer. “Well, if crushing you once didn’t do it, I’ll just have to go at it again!”

I raced forward, not noticing until the last moment that the reforming ghost was an illusion. Without the recent boost to my passive mental enhancements like Quicksilver Thought, I would have snatched nothing but air. But my reaction time had grown with the rest of my magic, and now I caught the faint flicker of zeal that told me I was looking at nothing more than an illusion of woven shadows.

The true Soul Eater was... there!

I abruptly shifted my footing and twisted, grabbing at the being’s real form and ignoring the illusion. It screeched and tried to drain me again, clearly having not learned its lesson from last time. I grabbed its head and squeezed once more, crushing it into the death zeal it was made from.

It died and reformed again, a bit weaker than before, and I raced after it. This time I didn’t bother grabbing it. I just kicked it like hitting a soccer ball, and its head exploded on contact. I felt energy being drained from them as well from some place far distant, which was good. It meant Argona had gotten to Dean’s Orb and was pulling zeal out of these monsters.

The Soul Eater was getting weaker too. It dropped from the Sorcerer realm to the Wizard realm, and its descent was likely to speed up if I continued fighting it. But whatever Ethan was doing to reinforce Minerva’s ghosts while helping deal with the other monsters wasn’t enough.

One of Minerva’s ghosts went down, freeing a Soul Eater to pile on the remaining ghost and make short work of him. I had to shift targets, but that meant this wizard-realm Soul Eater would be free to wreak havoc across the Hearthwood.

Only a few seconds had passed since the battle began, but my Matriarchs had to have heard from Mac by now. Where were they?

The moment I had that thought, a beam of golden light shot through the air and slammed into the Wizard-realm Soul Eater. I recognized that spell, the Sunfire Lance. It was a specialty of the Songstone clan. This beam was a bit weaker than her usual, but broken and battered as the Soul Eater was, it was enough to put it on its last legs.

“Nela, my dear, I’ll have to reward you tonight! Now--“ I turned, but it wasn’t Nela hovering in the sky overhead. It was my daughter, Comela. She was panting and exhausted. That blast had taken a lot out of her. I was surprised she could even muster that kind of power since a weak Sunfire Lance from Nela should have been impossible for someone of Comela’s level. And yet she’d managed it all the same.

“Sorry, Dad...” Comela panted. “Mom’s in the orchard. It’ll take a while for her to get back. You’ll have to make do with me.”

I cursed. Comela? What was she doing here?

“Stay behind me!” I warned. “These aren’t the kind of foes you’re supposed to be fighting.”

I was tempted to send Comela away completely. After all, she was only a True Mage. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near a fight between Sorcerers. And yet she’d been first on the scene anyway. And there was no denying that her Sunlight Zeal was particularly effective against these things.

“Fly back and put some distance between you and them!” I pointed in the direction of the Level-Reducing Sentry towers. Standing there, Comela would be safe. These Soul Eaters seemed to be limited to strictly melee attacks, so if they came close enough to hit Comela, Mac would blast them enough times from the towers that she’d be able to take them down on her own.

I jumped on top of the remaining two Soul Eaters before they could escape, grabbing both of them at the same time. They struggled in my grip, but my arms were like steel as I bashed both their heads together, destroying them just like the first.

They tried to reform again, though wrangling both at once would be harder. That was where Ethan finally came in. I sensed his Mind Magic at work as he conjured two separate illusions of me. The two Soul Eaters ran from the illusions, not realizing the real me had gone unnoticed until the last moment when I grabbed the two of them over again.

“Missed me that much, did you?” I chuckled as I slammed both their heads together again.

That was when everybody else started arriving. My messages through Mac had gotten through. Tivana appeared in a flash of spatial magic. When one of the remaining Soul Eaters appeared, it found itself locked in a circle of twisted space. That was something too powerful to escape, no matter its phasing abilities.

I flashed Tivana a smile. “That’s a new one!”

She flashed me a smile in return. No doubt this was a spell she’d been working hard on mastering as of late.

From there, more of my matriarchs started showing up one after another. The battle was over in moments. Assyrus took down the Hellhounds before they could escape my cage, blasting them with water zeal until they gasped their last breaths. Korra and Eltiana teamed up to deal with the trolls. Everyone else was on cleanup and support. Nela arrived in time to see her daughter helping me dispatch the last of the Soul Eaters with a Sunfire Lance. She collapsed to her knees right after, exhausted and panting. Argona, meanwhile, had sucked all the zeal she’d drained into her latest project.

I had no idea what that project was, but whatever it was would hold an enchantment like no other. Draining this many monsters was a tremendous feat.

All in all, we’d weathered the attack quite well, which was a far cry from the last monster outbreak. That had taken us hours to clear up completely, and a big chunk of the Hearthwood had been wrecked. Now, there was hardly any damage at all. It was a testament to how far I and my women had grown.

“How are things looking, Mac?” I asked.

[Minimal damage. We lost a few buildings, and two of the Level-Reducing Sentry towers were toppled, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a day or two of effort.] Mac replied.

“Good. Get those repairs started. Those Level-Reducing Sentry towers are important. Even if only two of them are down, I want them fixed.”

[Points allocated. Repairs are underway.]

“Congratulations, one and all,” I said, scanning the small celebratory group. Mac was calming down the townsfolk, and Ethan was waking up all the elves he’d put to sleep to stop a panic. For a Demigod, he’d done surprisingly little, but at least he’d been there. I was probably just spoiled with Dean battering down our enemies with reckless abandon or with Sam literally resurrecting the dead.

Speaking of Dean, he arrived just as we finished the fight with a beer in one hand and his axe in the other.

“I’m here! I’m here!” Dean tilted his mug up, drained everything left in it, then tossed it aside as he prepared for battle. “Sorry. Got caught up in a poker game. You know, these ladies here in the Hearthwood aren’t very good. I keep winning every hand!” Dean laughed and waved his axe about, scanning for monsters only to find them all already dead. “Aww, man. I missed the fight?”

I placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “It’s the thought that counts. But my matriarchs were able to handle this one. Also, there's a fine for littering in the Hearthwood.”

Dean shrugged and picked up his discarded mug. “Okay. Hey, I think I recognize some of those guys. Weren’t they in that pocket world I sealed up? Man, that was a ball-buster of a project. There’s stuff in there even I didn’t want to fight. So I just ran a big circle around the Devilbeast Wilds, used that fancy orb to collect as many soul fragments as I could, and then tucked it all away.”

I glanced at the rift in space. It was slowly starting to close, but there were still things eyeing us from the other side.

“We’ll need to clean it out sooner or later...” I muttered. “I have no intention of dealing with incursions like this on a permanent basis. Your pocket dimension is starting to fail.”

Dean hefted his axe over his shoulder, but he was squinting at the rift before us. “Damn. that’s a big gash. Clean one too. You’re right, my pocket dimension is failing, but this wasn’t a natural tear. Something made that gash with a blade.”

I followed Dean’s pointed finger. Tivana nodded along. “You are right, ancestor. That isn’t a natural rift. It was cut open from the other side by something powerful.”

“One of the Soul Eaters?” I asked.

Both the spatial cultivators shook their heads.

“No blades on them. And even if they had them, they’d be too weak for a blow like this. It’d take someone with demigod-level body cultivation,” Dean explained as he flexed his biceps. “I could do it. Don’t know many others who could outside the World of Struggle and Strife, though.”

“Hmm...” I ran my hand through my hair, thinking. Perhaps I needed to cut an early end to the celebrations. My matriarchs all looked terribly happy, though, so it was... “Wait a moment. Where’s Sava?”

I scanned my group. Yorik, Melise, Illiel, Assyrus, Eltiana, Nela, Tivana, and Korra were all there. But where was Sava?

A bad feeling crept up my spine.

“Mac! Where’s Sava?” I asked.

[She isn’t with you?] Mac seemed confused. [Last scan, she was headed in your direction to help with the monster attack. Oh dear, I just used the scanner again, and I’m not picking her up anywhere in the Hearthwood!]

<Note>

Hey guys! If you've read Amazon Apocalypse, please take the time to leave a review! They really help. Plus, the more successful book 1 is, the more books I'll be able to put in the series!