Unruly Summon Chapter 29: Stand Off (Patreon)

Toby's strategy changed, performing a fighting withdrawal as he shifted the fight in the direction of his teammates. The shield of a Scutum cast appeared in the way of Christine's blade, and another in front of her ankle. She burst through both, but it was a momentary delay, enough for Toby to take some distance. Still casting subvocally, he conjured up a blast of wind in her face, slowing her further.

Most people didn't have the mana capacity of me or Wendy, so I knew what I'd seen in training wasn't a good guide to regular mages. Quick-firing spells like that would leave him exhausted in minutes, or maybe even less, but he obviously no longer cared, having already bought enough time.

The moment they came into range, fireballs and blades of wind were launched from the demon side, driving Christine back.

"Dammit!" she swore, giving up on her pursuit and returning to our group. "He was way beyond C rank."

"Sorry to disappoint you, missy," called Toby, smirking.

On our side, our escorts had finished dispatching the wolves, but the giant boar was visible to us all, only seconds away.

"James's Posse, take the boar. Everyone else, form up," shouted Christine, taking back command.

Everyone did as ordered, leaving us with twelve facing twenty-one. And I was fairly sure a couple of ours didn't count, with Taylor and Juan looking on the verge of panic. If all of theirs could fight on the level of Toby, we didn't stand a chance.

Thankfully, they didn't attack, stopping at a distance sufficient to need to shout to be heard. And shout they did.

"We request parley!"

No-one on our side seemed to be expecting that. Taylor even showed a glimmer of hope.

"Thomas, how much mana capacity do you have remaining?" asked Christine.

"Maybe half? I'm not good at guessing."

"That's enough. Hit them with Maius Conflagratio repeatedly. With them bunched together like that, you can probably take a bunch of them out, or even if they can defend, you'll exhaust their mages."

"What? No!"

"They're here for you!"

"They want to talk!"

"Only because a frontal confrontation puts you at risk. They want access to Miraculum and to ensure you don't fight them. Nothing else."

"What do you want?!" I yelled back, ignoring Christine.

"Your safety!" replied their apparent leader, a lion-headed demon whose bulk put even James to shame. "Our scouts report all monsters they can see are converging on this location, and we have scout positions miles out! There's a flock of wyverns minutes away! There are groups of crawlers and giant spiders not far behind, and who knows what's coming from outside the radius we have under watch."

"You're lying! Or if you aren't, you're the ones who brought them here," interjected Christine.

"Open your eyes, woman!" yelled back Toby. "You know full well what attracted them, and it wasn't us!"

"We propose a simple armistice," continued the spokes-lion. "All of you, clear out of here. Get your hero to safety! We'll defend your backs for long enough for you to escape."

"Why would you do that?!" I shouted back. "You'd be risking your lives to let the humans have me back."

"I don't know what you've been told, but we're fighting a punitive war. Ricousian used taboo magic against our citizens, and we will see to it that they pay dearly enough that no-one risks doing so again. Your existence is orthogonal to that objective, and if you have the ability to purify corrupted land, it's a benefit to the entire continent. As long as you don't interfere with us, we have no need to interfere with you."

This time, it was Wendy's turn to interject. "What taboo magic?" she yelled back. "That's the first I'm hearing about this!"

"It wouldn't surprise me if they're lying to more than their hero. If you want the details, question your people yourself, since I doubt you'll believe anything I say."

"I dunno about anything else, but he's right about the wyverns," said the Blue Sparrow's leader. "I can see them now. There are... quite a lot..."

"What stops them attacking us from behind?" asked James, returning from the fight against the boar, and apparently having heard the shouted conversation.

"Thomas stops them," sighed Christine. "They're trying to talk him over to their side, and apparently doing a damn good job of it. They won't attack right after saying they wouldn't, because it would destroy his trust."

"Is he telling the truth about taboo magic?" I asked.

"... Not that I'm aware of," replied Christine after a moment's hesitation.

"I assume that by taboo magic, they mean things like mind control, that you described as lines that mustn't be crossed?"

"Yes."

"Let's leave," I declared.

Christine glared, but soon slumped. "If you are unwilling to fight, we have no hope of victory. There's no choice, then. Let's return."

She turned and shouted back at the demons. "Very well. We accept your offer!"

And so our group fled, abandoning the purified monsters and the healed land.

"Let me warn you about one more thing!" yelled the demon's leader. "Two days ago, the human king tried to surrender. Your presence here means we cannot accept it. Stripping Ricousian of its farmland was intended to cause the kingdom immense hardship, but having the ability to make more undoes that. We have little choice but to continue to fight to ensure Ricousian is suitably punished. If you want to avoid that, I suggest you move to dwarven or elven lands, to deprive the humans of your abilities."

"Then let me give a warning of my own," I replied, stopping and facing the demon leader. "Punishment should be dealt to the people at fault. If you slaughter innocent civilians under the guise of 'punishment', you'll find that my neutrality won't last very long."

"I will be sure to pass that on," he replied as the wyverns began their descent. The last I saw before I turned and resumed running was him grabbing one out of the air, his fist closing around its neck.

"Damn them," complained Christine as we ran.

"What was that about a hero?" asked James, staring at me.

"Before that, bind Bill and David."

"What?!" exclaimed Bill.

David—the second fighter of Crizantis—was too shocked to even respond.

"You were working together with a demon. Furthermore, yesterday I heard you questioning Thomas, and implying that you believed his story to be a lie."

"Only because Toby was talking about him, saying he may not be a real court mage! He was using me!"

"Feel free to give your explanations to investigators back in Odimere. Until then, I must assume you were willing accomplices."

"Binding and carrying them will slow us down, and I think it would be advisable to get back to the capital today," said James. "I agree we should take their weapons and keep watch over them."

"James!" shouted David. "How many seasons have we known each other?! This is hardly the first mission we've done together!"

"I thought I'd known Toby for ages, too," replied James sadly.

David fell silent.

"He could have been replaced recently?" suggested Bill, but he sounded doubtful. "Fine, take my swords, but you damn well better take care of them."

David—very obviously frustrated but seeing no way out—handed over the short spear that he'd been using as a weapon, the extra weight not seeming to burden James at all.

"I... I can't... keep running... at this... speed," panted Juan.

Christine grabbed him, throwing him over her shoulder. A touch of body strengthening ensured she wasn't bothered by the weight, either.

"Ventus," chanted Wendy, summoning up a tailwind at our backs.

"So, Christine, about that little pause?" I asked.

"What little pause?"

"Don't play dumb. You know exactly what I mean."

"The whole Mary thing proved you haven't been telling me everything, either," said Wendy. "Please, please tell me King Edward did not approve the use of taboo magic."

"I am not aware of the use of taboo magic."

"You don't know, but you suspect something," I suggested.

Christine remained silent.

"Come on! This is serious!" shouted Wendy.

"Let me help," I suggested. "I was told the war was started by nobles of the Chiral Plains stealing a fraction of the demon's harvest. At the time of the explanation, I had no idea how they expected to get away with it. There was no way the demons wouldn't notice the theft."

"... I have had the same thought," admitted Christine. "The nobles involved were not incompetent, and I assumed there was more to the story. I did not expect it to be taboo magic."

"You think human mages brainwashed demons to hand over a fraction of their harvest?!" exclaimed Wendy, aghast.

"We're letting the demons get to us," sighed Christine. "Ignore their mind games. More important is what we do next. Our experiment was spoilt, and if the demons refuse to accept our surrender, I don't see any way forward for the kingdom. Land will mean nothing if no-one is left to live on it."

"If they refuse to accept surrender under the original terms, think up something else. Offer a fraction of your harvest or whatever," I suggested.

"You told the demons you wouldn't let them slaughter innocents. What difference does it make to you if the demons kill them directly, or if they are made to starve over a period of weeks or seasons? If anything, letting the demons slaughter our cities would be kinder. The suffering would be over quicker."

"Then trade tariffs! Gold! Labour!"

"Far be it from me to play devil's advocate, especially if our side did use taboo magic, but do you really think what the demons are doing is proportionate? If our side did everything they accused us of, then it involves half a dozen nobles, the mages that directly report to them, and probably some of the less savoury sort of slayers. Maybe one hundred to two hundred people. Tens of thousands have died in the fighting already, and we have no idea as to the state of our captured settlements and the residents who couldn't evacuate in time. Even if the demons didn't purge or enslave them, I doubt they'll be donating their own precious food supplies."

That was a valid point, but King Edward had already admitted hostilities hadn't broken out immediately.

"I think this turned into a battle against the kingdom itself at the point King Edward tried to cover it up instead of admitting fault and handing over the perpetrators. But yes, I think humanity has been suitably chastised already. Since my cover's been blown, maybe my name will help force a ceasefire."

"You're really going to have to explain this hero thing," grumbled James.

"The experiment wasn't completely spoilt, by the way," pointed out Wendy. "In this direction at least, the range of the spell was substantial. It's possible it was less in the opposite direction, deeper into the corrupted lands where miasma was denser."

Oh, right! Our perception spells were still running. We were out of the corrupted lands already, but the fields on either side of us didn't contain a trace of miasma. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the plants already seemed a little healthier.

How far had we run? Had it been a mile? Two miles? I had no idea, but hopefully the others did.

We had to continue a little further before any signs of miasma reappeared.

"And you said you had half your mana left..." whistled Wendy. "Impressive. So, if you could cast that twice a day, and making the assumption the effect was circular... Urk, is it my imagination or is maths harder while you're sprinting? Anyway, a very rough estimate, I think purifying the continent will take you... umm... somewhere over five thousand seasons."

"Uh..." I said. "It sounds a lot less impressive when you phrase it like that. And you're not accounting for the fact that we seemed to summon a horde of monsters."

"Well, yes, obviously you won't be able to do the entire continent yourself at that rate. You were asking about staves, and I think this is the perfect opportunity to make one of your own, with this spell embedded. We'll need to produce several, and send teams of mages around with each one to supply the mana. Or if your mana keeps growing, I suppose you could just invent Maius Miraculum and do the whole kingdom at once."