Unruly Summon Chapter 28: Purification (Patreon)

It wasn't long into the second day of travel before the landscape started to change. The fields grew even less healthy, thin stalks twisted at strange angles, with no signs of anything suitable for harvest. And then the plants just cut out completely. There weren't even any weeds.

The road continued through the barren landscape, albeit in obvious disrepair. Presumably it had been built at a time this land was viable living space, and it had been corrupted since. A subvocal cast of Maius Omnia Visus showed the strands of miasma threaded through soil and rock alike, the feelers waving in the air. Just like in my dream, except here they were far less dense.

"Incoming," called Philip, the leader of the Blue Sparrows. He was one of the scouts, but was a rather taciturn guy, along with the rest of his party. Unlike the other two parties, they'd gone the entire previous day without introducing themselves, so I still didn't have their names. "Three giant rats."

"Small fry," declared James, unsheathing his massive sword.

As the name suggested, the monsters that approached had the appearance of rats. They were simply giant, their eyes level with my waist. With my active mana sight, I could see miasma running through them. In fact, it looked very much like a human looked while using body strengthening, which I doubted was a coincidence.

James performed a simple forward thrust, despite the unwieldy appearance of his weapon. The massive sword stabbed into the first rat's open mouth, skewering it.

"Pesky vermin," muttered one of the mages, smashing the second rat over the head with her staff and caving in the skull.

Christine killed the third with a casual thrust between the eyes, pushing her sword through the skull with no apparent difficulty, despite not using body strengthening.

"This area will do," said Christine. "Researching the effect on monsters isn't part of our remit, but since a few decided to deliver themselves to us, we might as well make use of them."

"We thank you for your noble sacrifice," sarcastically spat Wendy, giving one of the corpses a kick.

I could see the cause for her displeasure. Blood flowed from the dead monsters, still containing miasma, and where it soaked into the soil, it remained, adding to the density of the poison. Had these monsters been slain on fertile ground, it would become just a little more toxic. The harvest reduced, and the corrupted lands expanding, pushing out the humanoid races.

"Let's just get this over with so we can go home," sighed Benjamin.

"Right. We all know our roles," declared Wendy. "Form up."

We five 'mages' stood in a circle, holding hands. They did indeed know their roles; to stand there and do nothing.

Okay, perhaps that was being a little harsh; my mana sight had shown mana flickering around them all, and I had no doubt they'd activated perception spells of their own, ready to watch the experiment. They'd also have an important role after the fact—assuming I managed to do anything—investigating the results.

Doing something was on me, so I imagined the mana ripping out the corruption and erasing it.

It wasn't enough. The magic simply wasn't there. Pursing my mouth for the 'm' was enough to feel that the usual involuntary rendition of the name of a spell simply wasn't happening.

Things were going to get really awkward if it turned out I couldn't even cast the spell, let alone use it to purify land.

When I'd cured Mary, my image had been dead simple. I just wanted mana to make her better, and indeed, it had affected her in ways other than removing miasma. Was I trying to overcomplicate things here, then? I tweaked my image from a concrete removal of miasma to a broader 'make the land better', but there was still no response.

What else was different? The neon flashing obvious difference was that I was trying to cast it on the landscape instead of a person, but if that was the problem, we were screwed. I needed to work through the other possibilities first.

Emotion? I'd been angry and desperate back then. Wendy had never mentioned emotions having an impact on a spell, but it was the next largest difference I could come up with. But how was I supposed to make myself that angry and desperate on demand? Realistically, I couldn't.

I tried to do the next best thing, imagining what would happen if I failed. Mary starving to death as the survivors killed each other over the last scraps of food. And yes, Wendy and Christine as well.

... Maybe not Christine. I could imagine the king giving an order to cull half the population, and Christine obeying, because it was the only way to save the other half.

Apparently, I could make myself that angry after all. It started as a simple stray thought, but I could instantly picture it happening in perfect clarity. The king, feeling bad about giving the order, but giving it anyway. He'd say something about how as a father he was torn up inside, but as a king he had no choice but to do his duty. The knights would follow it for much the same reason. How would they decide who to kill? Random lottery? Would they take out whole families? Would they start with the elderly and infirm? Criminals? What about people like Mary, who didn't directly add to the productivity of the kingdom?

There was no way in hell I could let that vision come true.

"Miraculum!"

That was the image. It wasn't a spell for purification, or even for healing. It was a spell to save the innocent. A spell to correct injustice. It was a spell to bring hope when all hope seemed lost. It was a spell to cause a miracle.

The other four mages gasped, unlinking hands as if stung. Mages and slayers alike started swearing. In the wide open space, the spell's name didn't echo, but it was still impossibly loud and full of alien harmonics that made it difficult to believe it came from my throat.

Not that my throat was having a good time of it. Just like the previous casting, I broke into a coughing fit, splattering the ground with blood. Still, at least I managed to remain upright; my mana capacity had obviously grown again.

"Sanatio," I gasped between coughs, managing to heal myself up enough to stop showering the dead soil. "Urk. First lesson learned from this experiment; we need a healer on standby who isn't taking part in the casting, ready to undo the damage."

"Subvocal casting?" suggested Wendy.

"No way. With the force behind it, trying to do it subvocally would rupture something."

"More importantly, did it work?" asked Christine.

"Yup. Not a single shred of miasma visible within range of my mana sight. Even in the monster corpses."

The slayers stopped cursing. "Magus Visus!" rushed out one of the mages, before emitting one last extra-colourful swear word.

"Did you seriously just..." started James, stopping before the end of the sentence. No-one seemed to want to say it out loud.

"Purify a patch of corrupted land," finished Christine. "Yes, we did. And now I hope you understand the need for secrecy around this mission. In any case, our work is not yet over. We need to measure the area of effect. Would someone also drain one of the corpses; we need to bring one back to test if it has been rendered safe for consumption. Mages, how is your..."

"Demon!" screamed one of the healers.

The purified land was instantly forgotten as everyone drew weapons, the slayers expertly sliding into formation.

"No, Toby!" continued the healer, causing everyone to spin round towards Crizantis.

The mage of their party—who I'd previously spotted had ears and a tail visible to my soul sight—now had them for real. So no-one had mentioned beastkin because they called beastkin demons?! Dammit, if not for the lack of privacy, or had someone ever described demons to me back in the castle, we could have discovered him yesterday!

Was Bill working with him? He'd certainly been asking me lots of questions.

"What?" asked Toby, who looked genuinely confused. "Why would you... accuse me...?"

His feline ears twitched atop his head. He carefully felt behind him, poking his own tail.

His expression instantly hardened. "Caligo!" he shouted, and a dark fog rolled out of nowhere above his head, pouring down, enveloping him and rolling towards everyone else.

"Ventus!" shouted Wendy, conjuring up a heavy wind that kept the fog at bay. A stronger wind would have been better—maybe even uncovering the demon—but would risk throwing our own side off balance.

"He's over there!" I shouted, pointing at where I could still see him with my enhanced vision. The fog did a good job of blocking visible light, but not anything else. I could see him clearly in a half dozen overlays.

"Why are you helping the taboo breakers?" came a voice out of the fog. "I wonder what lies they've been filling your head with. But then, you aren't completely sure, are you? "

"T... Toby?" stuttered Bill. "Are... Are you really...?"

"What? A spy? What does it look like?! I cut my own ears off and cursed the wounds to pass as one of you evil creatures, and then the kingdom's pet hero goes and spoils my disguise by curing them despite the curse. I have to admit, though, part of me is thankful; I thought I'd be scarred for the rest of my life."

"Hero?!" questioned Bill.

"Stop engaging with him," demanded Christine. "He's buying time. There must be a support squad nearby, and he's no doubt signalled them."

An annoyed tongue click came from the fog.

"Procella!" shouted Wendy, and the bank of fog twisted, leaping into the air in a miniature whirlwind, but Toby dodged, evading the magic. It did, however, mean that he left the camouflage of the fog, and Christine instantly blurred, employing body strengthening to close the distance.

Toby dodged with a dexterity I wouldn't have expected from a mage, matching Christine for speed.

"Incoming!" shouted Philip. "Not demons. More giant rats."

"Seriously? What's with this timing?!" complained James.

"Over here, too!" shouted Lindy, the scout from James's Posse. "A dozen rats!"

"The hell? Did he do something to attract monsters?!" exclaimed Wendy.

"No!" denied Toby, still locked in a lethal game of tag with Christine. "This isn't the time to fight. I'll leave, so concentrate on protecting your hero."

"We can't have you delivering whatever intelligence you've gathered today," denied Christine, not stopping. "Besides, you'll just return after linking up with the rest of your group."

"Damn you, human dog! You're going to get the continent's last hope killed!"

"Conflagratio!" shouted Wendy, and one group of rats burst into flames. Even with the blood boiling away, miasma still leaked from them, polluting my freshly cleansed land. "As if a few rats could pose a threat."

"Hey..." complained Taylor. "This trip wasn't supposed to be dangerous! This wasn't what we agreed to!"

"We're at war, you idiot!" shouted Benjamin. "Sitting in your own home is dangerous!"

As irritating as the guy was, I had to admit he was prepared to stick his neck out. He did his job in the castle's ritual chamber, even when it became obvious his side was outmatched, and he had no intention of bolting here, either.

The other two, who'd leapt from a window to get away from me... I could only hope they weren't about to do something stupid.

"It's not just rats!" shouted someone, but in the mounting chaos, I didn't see who. "Incoming wolf pack from the north!"

"Still small fry, but I can't believe this is coincidence. I don't see any signs of magic, though. What about you, Thomas?"

"I haven't seen anyone cast any spells I don't recognise, and no-one but Toby has used any enchanted items."

"Huh? He's way out of Magus Visus range!" complained one of the mages.

"I'm not using Magus Visus. He crushed one of his earrings while he was in the fog. It was definitely enchanted."

"Dammit, so it was him."

The slayers finished dispatching the rats and turned on the approaching wolves. Their fur was matted, their eyes enlarged and pitch black, giving them a somewhat monstrous look even without the aid of mana sight showing the miasma pumping through their bodies. Nevertheless, a wind blade and an arrow tore through the air, instantly killing two of them.

"I can't say. I have no idea what it did, just that it was enchanted."

Even if Toby could hear us, he no longer had the leeway to respond. Fast as he may have been, Christine obviously had him beat on stamina, and he was flagging. He was already bleeding from several nicks.

"Giant boar from the north!" yelled someone from the middle of the melee with the remaining wolves.

"Dammit! That settles it. There shouldn't be any giant boars this close to the border of the corrupted lands."

"More demons! Twenty of them from the south!"

"W... What...? We can't fight that many!"

"Prospectus!" I chanted, deciding the time for disguises had long since flown. By whatever method, Toby had already worked out I was a hero, so giving him more evidence wouldn't hurt. Either the demons died here, and hence couldn't tell anyone, or they didn't, in which case the cat was firmly out of the bag, whatever I did.

I opened a window high above, looking down, projecting its view onto the floor. Through it, I could see the charging boar, eyes of fire and fury. Getting a sense of scale was difficult, but the thing looked bigger than a horse.

On the other side was a group of twenty humanoids, each with distinct animalistic features. Some simply had fluffy ears. Others were far less human, with animal heads stuck to bodies that were only vaguely humanoid.

Toby was giving his all to defence, trying to cling to life until backup arrived. Christine was equally adamant that was not going to happen.

"Well, this sucks," I complained.