Stronger Together chapter 209 (Patreon)

The rest of the journey to the city was more of the same. Get  attacked, kill attacked, occasionally eat the less gross ones. We  managed to get water by boiling the blood of the various hell beasts we  killed and collecting the vapor. Took a bit of trial and error to get  right because I couldn't remember the details of how it was done. We  most likely would have died drinking it if not for the purification  power of soulfire. That said we didn't have that much of it, and I was  kind of pissed I never bothered with water magic.

I could  probably have summoned a ball of elemental water or something we could  drink instead of this barely chokable swill. We spent weeks walking. At  first I was freaking out about how everyone would be feeling, but after a  while I accepted that they would know we were alive or they wouldn't. I  was betting they would though, there were spirits that could find  things like that out. I became more angelic by the day as we walked.  Doing my klurkor workouts  produced ten times the results here, with the  energy dense meat and disgusting but potent blood water fueling my  recovery.

Yang had been evolving faster too. It was more  obvious without the godsteel in her body to push her to a higher level,  and day by day her skin got clearer and softer, her hair grew smoother  and silkier, and her lilac eyes darkened to a deep radiant violet.  Finally after three weeks or so (hard to tell time with no sun) of  walking we reached the gates of the city. Now, when most people say  gate, they mean a gate in a fence, or maybe a drawbridge. Maybe  something like a city gate from a fantasy novel at the very most.

The  gate to this city wasn't any of those. It was barely a gate. It was  more like an iron wall as tall as a skyscraper that happened to be  slightly different than the iron walls it was set into. Maybe a bit  thinner and easier to move. Maybe. There were small doors set into the  gate, but they were about two thousand feet up, so we couldn't reach  them even if they could open. Atop the walls were figures, but they were  so far away not even Yang or I could make them out. Just specks in the  distance.

You would expect us to have been shocked by the  size of the place, but after weeks of walking it had become completely  obvious how enormous this city was. I didn't know what it was or why it  was here, or how walls this size even stayed up without collapsing the  ground under them, but we had long since know about it. Despite that  knowledge and the slow reveal though being right there below it was,  while not at all surprising, still incredibly intimidating. Someone had  to open that fucking gate, and anything that strong would make Fenrir  look like a fluffy puppy.

Of course the rules in a place  like the nevernever were different. If we had fought the big bad wolf in  his own territory we might not have walked away, but that didn't change  the fact that the beings in this city could possibly kill us. I turned  to look at Yang. "So, any plans for getting in? Because I have one but I  figured I'd see if you have a better idea because it's going to be loud  as fuck." Honestly I hoped she didn't, I had a really fun plan, and  while it might not be the most mature way to get their attention it  would definitely make an impression.

Unfortunately for  them this was Yang, who was every bit as immature as I was, and she gave  absolutely no fucks about whether I scared or bullied a city full of  demons. She smirked at me in response. "Nah, do you worst hot stuff. I'm  just along for the ride. You're the boss man who signed the magic  paper." She winked, letting me know she was just busting my chops and I  stepped forward, striding up to the gate. I could feel myself being  watched of course, they knew I was here, but the assholes didn't feel  like talking. So I did what anyone does when they're stuck outside the  door. I knocked.

I pulled back my metal fist, triple  stacked my a force blow on my fist, cranked my lightning aspect to max  and then fucking punched their shitty metal gate with every ounce of  power in my incredibly sturdy body. I expected to punch through the dark  metal easily, but to my surprise it just kind of rippled. They had  clearly enchanted the gate with some kind of binding magic, spreading  the force of impact out over the whole surface at once. The huge slab of  demonic metal (or so I assumed) essentially spread the force of my blow  out to the size of a fucking city block.

For any normal  being that would have been it, hell even for me normally that would have  stopped me from proceeding. There was a slight creak I could barely  hear and then nothing. Unfortunately for these assholes, they weren't  dealing with your average Cameron Beddows anymore. My concentration  angelic power was much higher, which meant I could resist the godsteel  spread much more easily. The one second of the seventh form I'd had  weeks ago had turned into ten, and at my speeds that was more than  enough for a solid punch.

I shifted into my seventh form.  The energy flooded through me. Blazing through my metallic veins I could  feel the power erupting into me as I set my feet and triple stacked  another punch. A much bigger punch. I funneled all the energy of my  seventh form into my punch, supplemented by my more powerful flesh and  with every ounce of frustration and anger I'd been feeling over the past  few weeks packed into it. The soft fragmented ground actually played to  my benefit here because the impact from my feet rippled out much less  destructively. As soon as my fist hit the gate I dropped the form.

I  didn't need it anymore. The binding on the gate caused another groan,  this one much louder, almost torturous. It sounded like the gate was in  pain. Then, without any warning it just collapsed. The spell seemed to  have spread the force across a much larger area same as before, except  this time the force was much, much greater. Instead of dispersing to  manageable levels it just broke the gate in literally a million or so  place and the fucking thing disintegrated into countless small shards  that floated down through the air like shimmering metal rain.

Yang  turned and gaped at me and I just smirked back, trying not to show my  irritation externally. The seventh form was too much for what appeared  to have been a weirdly large and heavily enchanted gate made of slightly  higher than acerage quality metal. To confirm I picked up a single  shard and squeezed with my metal hand. Sure enough it was some kind of  super dense iron, but nothing too special. The gate's size had been the  biggest factor in it's defense. Providing incredible surface area to  disperse the blow. With a blow two forms stronger than the one I used to  punch Fenrir it hadn't stood a chance.

Still I pocketed a  shard to bring home to my master. If he could figure out how it worked  maybe someday I could make a godsteel gate. With it's insane durability  and crazy magic amplification this spell would let me eventually make a  barrier that would put the outer gates themselves to shame. That thought  was appealing as hell. Imagining stonewalling the entire outside with a  big ass gate was intoxicating, but it would be a long time before I  could make that much godsteel. Maybe if I could make some kind of scaled  gate I could manage with the forms, then reforge it into a whole over  time.

I made a mental note to talk to the boss before I  stepped toward the now missing gate. The specks above us came barrelling  down on us, faster than most would have believed, but I still have my  lightning aspect spun up so I could follow them. As they drew closer I  noted something disturbing. They were people. Or rather they were people  with wings. Black wings. Black feathered wings. Fallen angels. Granted  these were probably stupidly weak ones, nowhere near Lash or Anduriel's  level, but still, fallen angels descended upon us.

There  were dozens, maybe more, but they descended carefully and slowly. Light  show aside I just punched out the gate to their entire city, and if I  was them I would have been a bit worried too. That blow was so powerful I  was pretty sure I could have dropped Fenrir with it in one blow.  Considering the god wolf was my measuring stick for powerful enemies it  said a lot. Honestly even I was a bit spooked by how much power I'd put  into that. Aside from being generally annoyed I'd overdone it there was  definitely an undertone of "holy shit" mixed into my inner thoughts.

Despite  that I just gave the bird brains a casual smile. These were pretty weak  fallen I could tell. Rank and file shock troops. That still made them  about as strong as someone like Lord Raith at the top of his game, but  more than just me, Yang had taken a level in badass herself. Between the  two of us I wasn't worried about wall guards, though whoever was inside  that was in charge of them might be a problem. The fallen circled us  like buzzards, unwilling to get too close for fear of my strength.  "Halt! Who attacks the city of Dis?"

That...sounded  weirdly familiar. I think I'd heard it mentioned back home in  something. The Divine Comedy I was pretty sure. Well that definitely  proved we were in hell. Joy. Regardless now wasn't the time to look  shaken. I just shrugged. "I didn't attack you. I just knocked. Not my  fault your door is shitty." That had the benefit of being kind of true. I  honestly hadn't meant to break it, and if they thought it was a casual  effort and their huge ass gate was just too weak to hold up they were  less likely to fuck with me.

They  didn't seem to have a response to that. Which was fair, what do you say  when your most terrifying defense crumples like wet tissue paper and  the person who did it says it was weak. They couldn't very well point  out that I was just too strong, that would put them on the back foot,  and as the high and mighty city guards they needed to keep up at least  the pretense of superiority unless they wanted whatever the occupants  were to decide they were weaklings and rebel. Even having not seen what  lived in the city I was positive that literally nobody wanted that.

Finally  after turning to have an honest to god huddle in the air they spun  around to face us. "You will be granted entry to speak to the Lord of  Dis. Prepared your explanation intruder, for the Lord is a powerful and  merciless being. You had best tread carefully." The speaker looked back  at the others, as if to check that he hit all the talking points, and I  tried not to smile as they nodded conspiratorially. Then speaker fallen  lead us through where the gate used to be and into the city proper. I  glared at the guards as I walked by, just for good measure and because  it made them flinch, fallen were mostly dicks in my experience, then we  hurried to catch up so he didn't lose us in the crowd. Guess we were off  to see the wizard.