Spellheart 9: Chapter 50 (Patreon)

The Satyr Demigod let out another hearty guffaw. “Big talk, Sorcerer! Alright, I’ve had enough playing around. Grab him. We’ll search the castle for the elf, and then we can torch this dump.”

I was already running by the time the Satyr started talking. I debated heading straight for the Level Reducing Sentry Towers to make my stand, but there were a few stops I could make first.

They’d be a gamble, but if they paid off, I might be able to thin my attacker’s numbers down to where I could actually have the tiniest, faintest chance of winning. More importantly, doing so would massively improve my chances of holding out until my friends arrived.

I set my sights on the ruins of a familiar building. Previously, it had been the external entrance to the Alchemist’s Laboratory.

The building was little more than rubble, but the structure had been connected to the room inside The Wanderer. Even the power of ten Demigods couldn’t dent the ship’s creations, so the door stood.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” I shouted back. Soon, the Satyrs took off to chase me. The Unblinking Eye Cultists stayed behind. Good. I didn’t want them getting in the way.

Behind them, their subordinate mind-controlled Sorcerers and True Mages fanned out behind them and locked down the entire area.

I sprinted toward the unassuming door, standing tall amidst the ruins around it, casting one quick glance to ensure the Satyrs were following close behind.

Sure enough, they looked just as confident as before as they roared in fury and lunged after me. Zeal coursed through their overgrown bodies as their muscles bulged with new energy, though they hadn’t yet taken to utilizing any captured elven wisps to utilize more power.

I led them on a merry little chase, letting them think they were gaining ground on me and that I was growing desperate. After several turns to trick them into thinking I didn’t know where to run, I ran up to the ruined doorway and opened it wide before scrambling through it.

“You can run, but you can’t hide!” One Satyr shouted.

A viscous smile split my face. While I intended to run, I had no intention of hiding. I burst through the door and skidded to a halt inside the stark, sterile interior of the lab. I spun on my heel just in time to see a Satyr barreling through the door.

I smiled at the sight.

His eyes widened the moment he crossed the threshold. He’d likely never seen such a smooth transition from the real world to regular space.

The doors The Wanderer created were such that they left no indication that those entering were stepping through into a pocket space. But a pocket space was exactly what it was, and Satyr Sacred Groves held no power within them.

“It’s a tra--“ Before the Satyr could cry out to warn his comrades, I jumped up and grabbed him by the throat.

He was still larger than me, but his body had no zeal. He’d been cut off from his power source and was helpless within my magically enhanced grasp.

I clamped a hand over his mouth to silence him, then, with one ruthless twist of my arms, snapped his neck. One Satyr down. Six more to go.

I stood there a while, like a mantis, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

The next Satyr was warier than the first, looking around the entrance for an ambush.

“Hey? Where’d you go?” the Satyr asked.

He stood at the entrance for a while, and I realized I needed to take a risk. I lowered my voice and let out a single sharp grunt in a tone that hopefully passed as the dead Satyrs’.

“Here! Quick!”

I waited a moment, and to my delight, the Satyr rushed in after his fallen comrade.

He realized his mistake when he crossed the threshold past the doorway to the Alchemist’s Laboratory. The pile of rubble that should have greeted him had been replaced by white walls and strange machines.

He stepped back as his magic fled beyond his reach, but it was too late. I grabbed a hold of his arm and yanked him in.

I dispatched him quickly and silently, just like the first. These Satyrs were going to spoil me. If only all Demigods had a weakness as easy to exploit as this one. Maybe I really could do this?

But my trick didn’t last much longer. I knew sooner or later the murders would be discovered, but I had hoped for later. One of the other Satyrs must have seen their comrade disappear.

I didn’t want them figuring out The Wanderer’s tricks quite this soon, so I slammed the door to the Alchemist’s Laboratory shut.

“Mac, disconnect the Alchemist’s Laboratory. And how are the rescue efforts going?”

[Done. And your matriarchs have saved as many as they’re going to save. I think we rescued most of the city’s population, as well as your entire family. The Satyrs don’t appear to know about the Undercity, and I am preparing the full forces of all my captured Dungeon Cores to greet them should they attempt to search the passages out. It won't stop them, but it may dissuade them. Or at the very least buy you time.]

“Good. Tell people to be prepared to push deeper for shelter. We know there are things beneath the Hearthwood even Demigods would fear. We'll just have to risk the lesser evil and take shelter near them.”

I grimaced as I issued orders. The old me would have prepared contingencies for an attack like this. Monsters from the deepest depths of the world are ready to be unleashed. Hidden traps or legions of powerful allies. A dozen more tricks I couldn’t name. How had I ever allowed myself to grow so soft?

I opened the door to the Drafter’s Study. I had to shove a small mountain of rubble out of the way of the door just to get it open, but that was all the better. I wanted to be seen opening this door.

“There he is! I heard him!” Another Satyr Demigod pointed in my direction. I let him come, shuffling rocks like I was scrambling to escape. But nothing could be further from the truth. I wanted him closer.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite so lucky at grabbing this third Demigod. The door I was using was at an odd angle, so he had to jump over some rocks and place one foot inside it.

This Satyr must have been quicker-witted than the rest. Either that, or he was better in tune with his Sacred Grove than most Satyrs were. When he felt power fleeing his leg, he moved to pull it back.

Only I already had a firm grip on his ankle.

I pulled him in, but he placed his hands on either end of the doorway and heaved himself outward, screaming all the while.

“Trap! Trap! Help!” He screamed. He thrashed and kicked in my grasp, but without his magic, my grip was as solid around his legs as iron shackles. His eyes went wide as I continued to pull. Blood poured from his screaming mouth as I tugged so hard his lower half tore free from the rest of his body right where his torso crossed the threshold into The Wanderer.

Blood poured through the entrance, pooling oddly as gravity changed directions once it crossed the threshold.

“Gross,” I muttered, tossing half of a Satyr Demigod aside. “Three down. Four to go.”

Unfortunately, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to pull off my trick with The Wanderer's rooms much longer. I heard a voice ring through the air. I placed it as one of the human cultists, who’d been hovering overhead without interfering until now.

“Don’t run in there, you idiots! He obviously knows your weakness and is hiding inside a pocket space. We need to flush him out. Elves! Attack!”

Shit...

The Cult of the Unblinking Eye intended to send wave after wave of elves at me until I capitulated. And unlike the Satyrs, they could enter The Wanderer without losing their powers.

The elves came for me one by one, led by three of the Sorcerers.

That wasn’t so bad, but I knew it would be harder to fight them than the Demigods. I could handle three Sorcerers at once, but backed up by a small army of Wizards they'd be tough to take down. And if the Cult of the Unblinking Eye Demigods joined in?

No matter how weak mind magic was in a direct confrontation, with this many bodies to cover for them, they'd be hard to hit.

The first elf stepped over the threshold. She was slender, though taller than most elves, with a deep tan complexion and eyes that looked like they should have been sharp and determined.

Battle scars lined her arms and legs, and she had likely been a fearsome warrior in a former life. But now her eyes with glossy and distant as she gazed far past me.

Behind her and overhead, the Cult of the Unblinking Eye member controlling her like a puppet issued his orders. I held my breath and waited for his approach, but he seemed content to hover outside the doorway on a floating platform, waiting and watching.

“Attack with everything you’ve got!”

The elf threw herself at me. Zeal filled her palms in the shape of two brown spheres. That was Earth zeal, though the way she used her powers was nothing like my own techniques.

“You’re pretty good.” I grinned as I blocked her attacks one after another. In terms of skill, she was probably a little better than I was with Earth zeal.

If I was just an Earth aspect spirit cultivator, I would have been forced to withdraw and fight at long range. But by now, I’d stacked powers on top of powers. My World Titan Fiendbody was more than enough to keep me in the fight, even without resorting to my Spirit Cultivation.

She had a brutal, fast-paced fighting style that favored direct physical combat. Her larger stature probably gave her an advantage in that regard. A bit of extra reach in a grapple went a long way.

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t help her here. Though tall for an elf, she was still half a head shorter than me. And despite being physically stronger than most elves, I could toss her around like she was probably used to tossing others around. She overextended herself to reach me, and I grabbed her wrist.

With a twist, I broke it. She came at me with the other arm then, but I snapped that wrist too.

“I could use someone like you,” I said as I disabled her. She didn't respond. She couldn't with the amount of mind magic coursing through her.

It had become clear to me within the first exchange that she was highly dependent on her hands and the zeal flowing through them for her combat style. Without them, handling her was much easier. Easy enough that I could restrain her and wrap a zeal-restricting collar around her throat.

With any luck, I’d be able to fix her up the same way I’d fixed up Teilinith and Feilinith. Heavens’ knew the Hearthwood could use more powerful and loyal elven sorcerers like the two of them, especially after a day like today. And if I could liberate them from the Cult of the Unblinking Eye, that was just killing two birds with one stone.

By the time I finished collaring the Earth cultivator, two more were already on top of me. The first was as fast as the lighting she cultivated. She was probably used to moving quicker than her opponents could react.

She’d have been tough to catch if she had full control over her own senses. But the total mind control the Cult of the Unblinking Eye used to build their armies had robbed her of any spontaneity she might have had. She zipped around the room in a circle, not erring from her path in the slightest.

It made her predictable enough that I clipped her in the middle of her charge with my outstretched arm. She folded like a wet noodle, and soon, I’d captured her, too.

The other was an armored water cultivator. Sharp eyes of an unnaturally bright shade of blue bore into me as she ran straight toward my waiting fist.

I might have punched her, but the obvious way she ran straight into my attack told me something was amiss. Like the lightning cultivator, the Cult of the Unblinking Eye’s mind control meant she lacked subtleness, but this was too obvious for even that explanation. No, this was simply the way she fought.

I realized just in time that she was like Assyrus. She must have specialized in redirecting the attacks of her enemies back at them. I had been planning to throw quite the punch, so landing my blow would have ended badly for me as the force of my own devastating right hook came back at me.

So, instead, I caught her and flipped her upside down. Grabbing her ankle, I swung her overhead into the next approaching pair of attackers.

Sure enough, her innate magic and techniques activated when the two Sorcerers tried to defend themselves, and the attacks they used were reflected right back at them. One used blood magic, and her own burst of blood zeal struck her so badly that she fell to the ground, skin flushed red but with no apparent wounds.

The other was completely engulfed in her own fire, but besides filling the Alchemist’s Laboratory with the scent of burning hair, it seemed otherwise alright.

I flipped the elf I was using as a club around in my other hand, readying more zeal-restricting collars. There was enough iron in them that I could levitate the collars around purely with my magic and use them to seal my attacks one after another.

If this was all the Cult of the Unblinking Eye had to throw at me, then victory would be mine. I wouldn’t even need to flee for the Level-Reducing Sentry Towers. I could just hide in The Wanderer until my friends arrived.

The only question was how to deal with the rest of the Satyr Demigods and the three members of the Cult of the Unblinking Eye.

With them out there, I was trapped within The Wanderer. Even if Sam and Dean arrived, they wouldn’t be able to fight so many enemy Demigods in a fair fight. But if I could get rid of all the Satyrs, the three of us would be able to deal with the three Cult of the Unblinking Eye members hovering overhead.

The problem wasn’t so much either the Satyrs or the Cult of the Unblinking Eye. It was the combination of them fighting together. Each force had its weaknesses, and if I were fighting either on their own, I could come up with an effective defense. The two groups of enemies synergized surprisingly well, making their unified force a tough nut to crack.

But as the victories added up, my despair melted away, leaving only resolve and determination behind. I could do this.

I would do this!

My brows drew tight, thinking even as I fought the elves piling through the doorway one after another.

This fighting reminded me a little too much of battling the Corpse Collector Company deep underground beneath the Hearthwood. They’d piled in just like this, practically on top of one another as they poured into our kill zone one by one.

I was so focused on fighting and planning for the next fight that I almost didn’t notice when I was the only one fighting on the side of the Hearthwood. Mac must have realized what I was doing and sent in reinforcements. Tivana and Yorik appeared. At first, they were just dragging away the helpless elves I’d disabled and captured, but once they weren’t in the way, they joined the fighting as well.

We held the Alchemist’s Laboratory against a constant wave of assailants. Despite their numbers, we defeated them quickly enough that they could never gain a real foothold within the chamber, and so though they greatly outnumbered us, we were able to fight them all off.

I wondered if we’d take care of the entire elven army the Cult of the Unblinking Eye had at their disposal this way when I heard orders echoing from outside. Apparently, their losses were stacking up too high for even the Cult of the Unblinking Eye to endure.

“Enough! We’ll drive him out some other way. Everyone! Attack the castle! He has a clan in there and will protect them if they’re in danger!” shouted the same man from the Cult of the Unblinking Eye from before.

I grimaced. This would have been a lot easier if he was a bit dumber. That man was both smart and ruthless.

“Theo, what do we do?” Sava asked as she stood by my side.

“Is the evacuation complete?” I asked as I stood. I finished off the last of the elves who’d tried to storm the Alchemist’s Laboratory and wrapped a zeal-restricting collar around her throat.

“Yes, the whole family is in The Wanderer.” Sava picked up the wisps drifting around the room. Despite our best efforts to capture our attackers, it wasn’t always possible, and our enemies had a lot of losses to deal with.

“Then we can rebuild the Castle.”

[One minor problem with that,] Mac interjected. [The Castle leads directly to the Undercity, and it bypasses the defenses and diversions I've been setting up. It heads straight into the underground markets, where most of the city is located. The citizens there aren’t finished filing into the bunkers or going deeper into the dungeon. If they’re discovered by angry Satyr Demigods who’ve just destroyed the castle, they will certainly be slaughtered.]

I cursed. It looked like I’d have to fight up close and personal. This time without my tricks.

<Note>
I ended up just deciding any more stuff after chapter 63 will go at the beginning of book 10. I may just get myself started on that with a chapter or two, then jump over to AA2 for however long it takes to write that.

Anyway, I'm reading over the last couple of chapters. Higher tiers will get a big chapter dump of the rest of the book soon, since, as usual, I was too lazy to maintain extra tiers on more than a superficial level.

Everybody else will get it at 3-4 per week until we hit the end at chapter 63. At which point I'll hopefully have a head start on AA2 and we can dive right into that.

I'm still juggling some Amazon/Audible stuff, but once the publishing business junk is off my plate maybe we can hit 5 chapters regularly again. That was pretty nice earlier this year, and I know people are very anxious for both Spellheart 10 and AA2.

Plus, I have a new series idea that I'm excited to share, but I don't want to spend time on it until I get ahead of schedule.