Spellheart 10: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

“Any of you ladies have something for Yeminel to wear?” I asked as I held the naked Demigod in my arms.

“Preferably something with fire resistance?” Yeminel asked hopefully.

Tivana eventually produced a long, flowing blue robe. Yeminel threw it on, then promptly tore the sleeves off and hiked the skirt hem up. Soon it was looking considerably more sensual than anything Tivana ever wore.

“I’ll get you a replacement at some point. I need to feel the air on my skin to be at full power. Even if much of that air is on fire,” Yeminel explained.

With her dressed and ready for a fight, I led the way through the flames. She stayed close behind me, pointing out the right direction.

This trip would have taken considerably longer if we didn’t have three space-aspect Demigods with us. As it was, all of them twisted space, so every step we took carried us through the flames. Eventually, we burst out on the other side of the wall of fire.

“There they are!” Yeminel pointed, though she needn’t have bothered. Now that the roar of flames was behind us, I could hear the screaming.

“Release her!” Came Lyssandra’s voice, though it wavered by the moment.

“It’s no good. She’s finished! I’m almost out of power. We need to flee!” Melaris panted as she held an energy barrier up around herself and Lyssandra.

“It’s been five hundred years since I’ve fled from anything. I won’t start to--“ Lyssandra didn’t finish speaking before the barrier protecting her and Melaris shattered.

Then I heard the words.

“Burn,” said an elven woman I didn’t recognize. She spoke with unyielding confidence as though her words were heavenly law. Perhaps it was because now that I sensed her, I realized this could be nothing less than the Immortal Ascendant we had expected.

The moment the barrier shattered, and she said the words, Lyssandra’s entire body burst into flames. The fire consumed her skin, turning it to light and ash in mere moments. I watched zeal flow through Lyssandra to quench the flames, but these fires were powered by a concept, not simple zeal. It wasn’t something zeal alone could quench.

If I had been closer, I could have used Identity to save her. But that power was already taxed from saving Yeminel, and it would be some time before it was fully replenished. Besides, getting into a contest of wills over Yeminel had been hard enough. How much more difficult would it be when the Immortal Ascendant was right there in the flesh?

I looked her up and down. She had long red hair pulled behind her head. She held a dagger that glowed a sinister shade of crimson in one hand. In the other, a naked flame flickered in her fingers.

She probably had a gorgeous figure, but her bulky armor did her no favors. The lines inscribed along it were bulky and ugly, and it covered her entire body. I only had time for a glance, but none of those looked like defensive enchantments to me, which made the bulk of the armor seem strange.

The Immortal Ascendant’s face was also placid and distant. She seemed to be staring straight through Lyssandra even as she burned the other elf alive with her power. It was like she was sleepwalking as she fought.

I used the scanner to see if there was anything the Wanderer could catch that I hadn’t.

Liora Starwhisper (Level 60, Immortal Ascendant)

Based on the Wanderer, this was the very woman who’d reported us to the local law enforcement. Probably so she could pull off something like this. If we’d stayed in our cells, would we have eventually been ambushed, just like Yeminel, Ariel, Lyssandra, and Melaris were?

I glanced behind me. An Immortal Ascendant was a powerful foe. But we had a lot of Demigods here, and she was only at the earliest stages of Immortal Ascendant. I’d killed Demigods when I was just a Sorcerer. Could I do the same with Immortal Ascendants?

Heck, I’d killed the Satyr King, who’d been an Immortal Ascendant, though my method for going about that had been somewhat roundabout.

“Look over there. Ariel is already a wisp.” Dean pointed at a blue ball of light hovering over the Immortal Ascendant’s shoulder. It was surrounded by a sphere of fire that was eating away at the wisp’s mass, very similar to the state we’d found Yeminel in. This woman was trying to kill my new Demigod allies.

“Lyssandra is about to die as well. But as long as we can free their wisps, I should be able to revive them,” Sam said.

“Then it’s settled. I won’t have our new friends dying on my watch.” I braced myself for a fight. I was the toughest out of all of us, so if we were going to take on an Immortal Ascendant, I would have to hold the front line.

I should have been nervous or scared, but as the potential battle grew into certainty, I felt my heart beating faster. When I’d absorbed my evil twin, I’d taken in his lost bloodlust, and now I found myself more eager to test my powers in battle against powerful foes. Powerful foes like the one that faced us here.

“Retrieve them. I’ll keep her busy, though if any of you can help me out, I’d appreciate it.” I called Spell Eater into my hand.

[Minerva, I need disposable summons. Throw an army of undead at her,] I said, sending the mental thought to my elemental spirit.

[Understood, Master. My undead don’t do well against fire-aspect cultivators, but I’ll summon the most resistant things I can. They might be able to keep a little pressure off you.]

Seconds later, several enormous Sorcerer-realm skeletal beetles started forming in the air around me. Minerva really was giving this her all. I could sense her nervousness as she poured as much of her power as she could into summoning these undead.

Behind me, Sam and our spatial cultivators were working hard to retrieve Ariel’s wisp. Dean wiggled his hands, twisting space with the help of his daughter and granddaughter. Ariel’s wisp struggled from inside the barrier, fighting through what no doubt was crippling pain to break her way free.

“I’ve got your back!” Yeminel said, jumping to her feet. The wind blew at her back, sending gusts of misty, cool air over the area. Yeminel had an aspect that mimicked the salty smell of the ocean, and as it swept around me, it quenched the nearby flames. That was probably the reason Yeminel had been killed first. Her aspect was uniquely suited to counteracting this powerful flame cultivator.

“Keep those big beetles alive!” I ordered as the first of Minerva’s beetles charged toward the Immortal Ascendant.

Liora, the woman robed in fire, ignored my beetle entirely as she focused on burning Lyssandra down to a wisp. That bought Melaris enough time to disengage and retreat with little more than a few burns, but that time cost Lyssandra her life.

Even when the first of Minerva’s beetles clamped its mandibles around the Immortal Ascendant’s torso, she didn’t stop casting her spell. I felt a fire concept spring to life around Lyssandra’s wisp. I tried to block it, but when my budding concepts met this fully realized one of fire, I was shouldered aside like a rabbit in the path of a charging ox. Blood poured down my nose.

I recovered a moment later. A second of Minerva’s beetles wrapped mandibles around the Immortal Ascendant. Both her arms were restrained, meaning I had a free shot, so long as I could land it. No warrior would miss an opportunity like this one.

I charged in, weapon in hand and battle cry on my lips. The World Titan Fiendbody roared within me, and my Earth cultivation rose to join it. Zeal and muscle worked in harmony for a perfect thrust aimed directly at the Immortal Ascendant’s face.

For an instant, I thought that maybe I could end this fight with a single blow. But only for a moment.

A second later, those hopes were crushed. The Immortal Ascendant’s gaze snapped onto me, finally registering her perilous situation as a threat. The hand holding her flickering flame was grasped tightly in the mandibles of an undead beetle, but that didn’t matter as the fire grew into an inferno.

Undeach chitin, animated by Death zeal, turned to ashes in a moment. Spell Eater landed, and I felt the tip of my weapon draw blood. But then, a second later, the fires reached me.

I had gone for a swim in a lake of molten lava and emerged without so much as a burn. Since then, I’d lost all fear of hot things. I’d reached directly into the burning coals when forging since they were harmless. I was beyond fire, or so I thought.

As my flesh turned to flames, every memory I had of burning myself came to life one after another. I grit my teeth as the fires roared along my skin. I focused on drawing on Identity again. I was me, not a mass of fire. I had to focus on that concept. Thankfully, here I had the home ground, so I wasn’t contending with the Immortal Ascendant’s will directly. All I had to do was focus on restoring myself to normal.

The flames went out, and I breathed a little easier. If it had been a perfect success, I would have instantly returned to the way I’d been before getting attacked, but as it was, the best I could manage was reducing my injuries to a few blisters. This was the same attack that killed Lyssandra and presumably Yeminel and Ariel as well. Thankfully, the World Titan Fiendbody made me a bit tougher to put down.

The other beetle died a moment later as the Immortal Ascendant twisted her hand and brought that crimson dagger around. The beetle’s mandibles snapped apart beneath her strength. A moment later, it was consumed in flames, just like its twin nearby.

I finally got a better look at those enchanted plates on the elf’s body. As I had suspected from afar, those few had very little to do with enchantment or defense. In fact, they weren’t pointed outward at all. All the zeal contained within the enchantments was directed inward toward the wearer.

Were they some sort of energy stabilization armor? That was possible, but another theory was taking shape in my mind as I examined the armor more closely. It was riveted on the woman, with no latches or seams to speak of. The armor wasn’t intended to ever come off. She was stuck in that suit and probably had been for a long time.

There were visible signs of rust on the equipment, which meant there was incorporated heavily into the enchantments. This certainly wasn’t elven work.

It seemed that I’d underestimated the Cult of the Unblinking Eye once again. Somehow, they’d managed to enslave an Immortal Ascendant.

“Why do you work for the Cult of the Unblinking Eye?” I demanded of the Immortal Ascendant.

She was silent, eyes bearing down on me as she held her dagger up and slit a furrow into her other hand. Blood dripped onto the ground, caught flame, and spread in all directions. I jumped clear of it while keeping her attention fixed on me.

I had to remember the goal here wasn’t to land hits. It was to buy time for my friends to recover the wisps of our fallen allies.

But try as I might, the Immortal Ascendant wouldn’t respond.

“They’ve gotten into your head, haven’t they?” I asked. “I can help you. Save you, assuming there’s anything left to be saved.”

There was no response. Nor did the Immortal Ascendant slow the progress of her spell. Whatever hold the Cult of the Unblinking Eye had on her was firm enough that no words of mine would sway her dedication.

I imagined the Cult of the Unblinking Eye had pulled some extensive tricks to dig their roots so deep. The elf before me had probably been captured by Demigod and put in that suit of armor. Perhaps even earlier than that. Only once she was completely under her thumb would they have allowed her to reach Immortal Ascension.

It would explain why Sam thought her aspect and use of concepts was crude compared to what they were used to from Immortal Ascendants. This woman literally wasn’t all there when forming her cultivation. A simple aspect and concept were probably all the cult could manage.

That suit of armor was an impressive feat of magical engineering, assuming it did what I thought it did. It might be worth grabbing if I had a chance to recover it. There were plenty of Immortal Ascendants out in the Ten Thousand Worlds, and knowing how one could be restrained could save my ass one day.

But as I dodged that crimson dagger swinging through the air as fast as a lightning bolt, I realized that was a vain hope. There was no way I was restraining this woman. Not here, at any rate.

“I’ve got you, Theo!” Elara jumped forward. Blue electric arcs cut through the fire and slammed against the armor the Immortal Ascendant was wearing. Runes lit up along the length of the armor, forcing the Immortal Ascendant within to freeze for a moment as her body twisted unnaturally.

“Whatever you’re doing, Elara, keep that up!” I said as I darted in with Spell Eater again. My spear grazed her cheek, cutting off a lock of hair and drawing blood.

We were doing it! We were taking on an Immortal Ascendant!

Then she finally spoke.

“Hostile forces exceed current power levels. Requesting restraint reduction to level five.” Her voice seemed monotone and eerily calm.

A moment later, the runes on her armor shifted and changed. The heat around us doubled in intensity, growing stronger and brighter. My concept had been strong enough before, but was that still the case?

Two of the plates on the Immortal Ascendant’s armor flaked off and tumbled to the ground, revealing bare patches of skin on her arms and the sides of her stomach.

There were still bits of metal on her wrists, but now that the rest of the armor was gone, it was clear that those weren’t part of her armor. They were manacles. And the band around her neck was likely a collar.

“Got it!” Dean yelled to me. “We got the wisps! Theo, let’s retreat!”

“Elara, Yeminel, time to disengage! Minerva, send in the rest of those beetles!”

Elara slipped out of combat as quickly as she entered it. Yeminel was a bit slower, though, so I wrapped a hand around her waist and hauled her off behind me.

The Immortal Ascendant turned to chase me. She was faster than I was, but Minerva had just enough time to set the beetles on her. Those wouldn’t stop her for more than a moment, but a moment was all I needed.

I opened up a Pocket World Passage. “Everybody through, now!”

Sam, Dean, and Tivana had all seen the passage before, so they scrambled through. Tivana pulled her mother in behind her. I threw Yeminel in, then grabbed Melaris and Valanda under either arm as I barreled straight through to the Hearthwood.

I dropped both of them the moment I was thrown and turned to the entrance. A wave of fire engulfed my Pocket World passage, and I closed my eyes and shielded my face with one hand as I slammed the barrier shut behind me.

“Whew. That was a tough one...” I sighed as I arched my back and stretched. “Immortal Ascendants really are something else.”

My smile fell from my face when I saw the state of Melaris and Valanda, both badly burned. They wouldn’t be in any shape to do much of anything without intensive care. Yeminel still had lingering wounds from her recent resurrection. No doubt Ariel and Lyssandra would be in similar shape when they were resurrected.

All their followers would be arriving shortly, and they wouldn’t want their subordinates to see them like this. I had to get them all to the Medical Bay quick.

“Alright, both of you, with me.” I picked them back up and ran down the hall until I found the Medical Bay. I flopped the two of them down on the nearest open beds. “I know the robots are big and scary, but if you let them poke and prod you, you’ll feel better much faster.”

“More conquests, patriarch?” asked an elf in the Medical Bay. I recognized her as Katiana, Sava’s older sister. She’d reached True Mage some time ago, and now she was pushing Wizard.

“Friends, more friends!” I waved my hands.

“Of course...” Katiana flashed me a coy smile.

I left the Medical Bay after that to reunite with the rest of my comrades, only to find them looking up at the sky with pointed fingers.

“What?” I asked. “What’s the matter?”

Dean pointed up at a massive crack in the sky. “Theo, you wouldn’t happen to have another hidden pocket dimension waiting to break loose and spill monsters out into the world?”

I grimaced. Sure enough, there was a dimensional tear right up above our heads.

“I’m pretty sure it was just the one. Whatever this one is, it isn’t mine.”

Dean let out a breath and hefted his axe. “Looks like whoever sent that Immortal Ascendant after us really doesn’t like us.”

“Mac, sound the bells. I hope those upgrades were finished because we’ve got another fight on our hands!”