Rebirth of the Nephilim

Syd protectively cradled Amarantha against her chest as her other two selves dealt with the Demons who were trying to push through the new breach in Nonia’s walls. When the powerful lightning blast had struck the village’s fortifications, she had immediately rushed over to help. Her Syd self had been hit by the magic directly, and she knew from the firsthand experience that the lightning the trio of shells were shooting out was no joke. She had been worried that she would find the bodies of one or more of her companions among the rubble, since Tegwyn and his team were directly helping with the defenses, but her Jay self was able to locate all but the already accounted for Cora huddled around the Dryad. The man had immediately called for his team to gather, to make sure that none had been struck by the lightning blast, showcasing just how caring of a leader he was.

It was only thanks to a lucky glance and a glimpse of a familiar fiery tail that Syd had realized that Amarantha had been caught in the destructive explosion. The plan had put her in the village, but she hadn’t realized Amarantha had been so close to the fighting. She was glad she had managed to get to the Lares in time to save her from an attacking simulacrum. The Mystic had proven to be a good friend, and Jadis would have been grief-stricken to lose the clever little fire kitten.

In response to her flippant question, which had been asked to distract the Lares from what had to be a painful break in her back leg, Amarantha spat the bottle out of her mouth and glared up at Syd.

“What’s with the face? I mean, where’s your helmet?”

“Lost it when the lightning hit me,” Syd admitted as she began backing out of the rubble-strewn breach. “It’s going to be a pain in the ass to find later.”

“Oh, ah, right,” Amarantha mumbled uncharacteristically before letting out a high-pitched exclamation. “Wait! My Ketty! It’s buried under all that stone and dirt!”

“I see it,” Syd assured the small and cat-like avatar. “I’ll extract it when I can. Right now, we need to get you to a healer.”

Jadis’ word was as good as action as she used her Syd self to rapidly transport Amarantha to where all of the healers were with just a few flight-empowered hops. In moments, she was within the protective barrier that Jocelyn had created to keep any hostiles that might have gotten past the wall away from the injured soldiers being brought to the triage station that she and Eir had taken charge of from the Voltonian army. The moment she was within the barrier, Syd felt the tingle of Cora’s healing ritual wash over her, working its Divine magic on her many wounds. While she had been putting on a brave front for Amarantha, Jadis was internally groaning with pain. The damn lightning blast the Demon shells had hit her with had done almost two thousand points of damage to her with a single blow. That was nearly two thirds of her total health, gone in a single second.

Jadis wondered if the effectiveness of the lightning damage had been increased thanks to the fact that she was encased in metal. She honestly wasn’t sure, since she didn’t know if the fact that the electrical attack was magic in origin made a difference or not. She set that question aside as one to ask Aila later, and depending on the answer, to also follow up with Sabina on potential solutions for the weakness.

“What happened?” Eir asked with a no-nonsense tone as she took Amarantha from Syd’s arms.

Despite the fact that the saint’s hands were already glowing with healing magic, the Lares was oddly reluctant to leave Syd’s grasp. She only put up a moment of struggle, though, before she slumped weakly into Eir’s waiting arms.

“The lightning spell those shells are using is powerful. It must have some kind of cooldown, or the magic cost is insanely high, since they aren’t blasting it non-stop, but they blew a hole in the village wall. Amarantha was caught on the edge of the attack.”

“I assume that is how your health also dropped so low?” Eir said as she rapidly healed Amarantha of her injuries, including fixing her broken leg. “You need healing as well.”

“Yes please,” Syd agreed without argument. “The faster you can get me to full again, the better. Wilhelm and the others need my help to deal with the shells.”

As Eir pumped hundreds of health points into her Syd self at the aid station, Jadis’ other selves continued to fight the Demons who had opportunistically rushed for the new opening in the village wall. Most were still attacking the first breach, where Ludger and Noll were holding the horde at bay, but far too many to ignore were rushing to the second breach. Tegwyn and his team were moving in to reinforce the location, but Jadis didn’t want to leave the spot just yet. Not until—

A rumbling shook the earth under her Jay and Dys selves as a wall of rock rose up to fill the gap that had been created by blast of lightning. Jadis didn’t need to see the Arch Wizard to know that Tiernan was responsible for the sudden appearance of the rocky barrier. The powerful gnome was somewhere in the sky, keeping far out of reach of the lightning blasts, and was using his magic to change the battlefield in their favor.

Perhaps not to be outdone, a nearly silent blast of transparent, fireless explosions tore apart the field of mire hounds who had been charging towards Jadis’ position at the breach. Aila was in the sky as well, thanks to Severina, and was cleaning up the edges of the Demonic force and keeping them from spreading out to the north. Her area attacks were proving to be devastating to the bunched-up mire hounds, and if they were the only threat, Jadis was certain that the battle would already be over. Unfortunately, the impenetrable shells were still a dangerous and yet undealt with factor. So too was the large stone object being transported by the simulacrum huddled in the middle of the domes.

Jadis had spotted the unidentified object from above after the miasma had been cleared by Amarantha’s potion. She wasn’t sure what the thing was, as the flickering light of bonfires and the surging mass of Demons made it difficult to see details, but she was certain that the unrelenting simulacrums were carrying something among their numbers. Succubus Eyes told her that it was magic, though, and not an unsubstantial amount. Jadis assumed that it was likely some kind of new weapon, a horror thought up by the Playwright that needed proximity to be used. That, or the item was somehow aiding the shells with their magic power. Either way, she wasn’t sure why the object was outside of the protection of the domes, but she imagined it was a necessity. The new surge of demonic creations were too clever to have overlooked the obvious weakness of leaving a valuable piece of their arsenal exposed and vulnerable to attack.

In a way, they hadn’t, since getting to the item was proving to be far more difficult than expected.

“Jadis! Let us take over from here!”

Tegwyn’s shout was accompanied by the Dryad’s empowered minotaur-like form leaping over Tiernan’s improvised wall and crushing a mire hound under hoof. Villum landed spear first on an approaching simulacrum a moment after, before leaping away as Terrance and Humbert struck the stunned Demon from two sides. As a trio of mire hounds leapt at the human and orc, a spiked whip slashed through the air, knocking all three to the ground as the weapon elongated and moved in a way that no natural whip was capable of. As the mire hounds bounced across the rubble, a dapper gnome wielding a rapier struck each one with a killing blow to the head, finishing them off before they had even stopped bouncing.

“I’ll leave this to you!” Jay shouted in response to Tegwyn’s team arriving.

She knew that the temporary breach wall would stand so long as her friends defended it. The only thing that could truly threaten them was the lightning blast that the Demon shells was throwing around, and Jadis aimed to put a stop to that threat imminently. With her health replenished thanks to Eir, all three of Jadis started to move out, but her Syd self was stopped before she could take flight.

“Jadis! Take this!”

Amarantha used her mouth to toss the small potion bottle her way. Syd easily snagged it out of the air and gave the strangely sparkling mixture a look.

“It’ll boost your Strength temporarily,” Amarantha told her. “By half again as much! Use it if you need it!”

“Thanks,” Syd grinned at the Lares. “I’ll get Ketty to you as soon as I can.”

With a parting wave to her and Eir, Syd leapt into the air and joined her other two selves in the skies over Nonia.

From above, Jadis had a good view of the battlefield, and her three perspectives rapidly assessed the changes that had been made since she had flown down to plug the breach and inadvertently rescue Amarantha. For one, it looked like Wilhelm, Halvor, and Rein had been stalled in their attack. Tiernan’s stone-shelf trick had given them access to the vulnerable underbelly, but the three men still hadn’t fully breached the forward dome. She wasn’t sure what was causing them so much difficulty, but from her view, she could see that Wilhelm and Halvor were hacking away at something that was just inside of the gaps, while Rein was leaping back and forth from either side, protecting them from concentrated attack.

Ludger and Noll were handling the original breach well, though Jadis could see that even those two powerhouses were letting a few Demons by just due to sheer numbers. Fortunately, Kerr was standing on one of Aila’s floating arcanist platforms about thirty yards back and twenty yards into the air, sniping any enemies that got past the forward duo. Jadis would have liked to have Kerr riding on the Leviathan rather than the transparent disc platform, but with the danger the lightning blasts presented, Sabina and Maeve were keeping the airship far back and out of range.

Jadis’ third set of eyes spotted a sudden eruption of blue flames fifty yards south of the breach, and she let out a little chuckle to herself. Bridget’s explosive new skill was being put to good use as the orc helped secure the southern edges of the berm wall. Thea was with her, acting as Bridget’s shield, while Meli and Sorcha hung back and provided tactical support. The idea for the goblin to ride on the Dryad’s spider form had come from Meli herself, and it appeared to be working out well, but a part of Jadis’ mind was pondering over the possibility of a different rider for the arachnid mount. Didn’t Thea have a mostly unused Mounted Melee skill?

Thea riding on top of Meli was a thought for later. Jadis had taken a handful of seconds to be sure that everyone was accounted for, and the only three who she didn’t see were Severina, Aila, and Lucia. The Seraphim was carrying the mage through the dark skies and the two were acting as a mobile magic strafing duo, and The Paladin had been given flight by Tiernan to help her cross the battlefield quickly and cover where needed. The miasma around the domes hadn’t returned yet, but there was still a dark fog surrounding the area, making it easy to lose track of those not lit up by fire or magic. Jadis had every confidence that the three women were well and doing their part to repel the attack, just as everyone on the ground were doing their best to do the same.

Enough seconds had been spent on assessment. Jadis firmed her resolve and focused her attention on the impenetrable Demon shells. It was time for her to put an end to the attack.

Spreading out in a circle overhead, Jadis focused on the rear northern dome of the Demon’s formation. She had a theory that had yet to be tested, and she wanted to confirm on a shell other than the one Wilhelm was assaulting. She didn’t want her attack to interfere with his efforts if things went wrong. As one, Jadis dived at the dome, aiming for the metal spike sticking out of the top.

A bolt of lightning sizzled through the sky, aiming directly for Jadis’ Dys self. Rolling to the left, she barely managed to dodge out of the way of the magic attack, though she still took some damage as the electricity arced across to her armored body and caused her muscles to seize up. However, part one of Jadis’ test showed fruitful as she confirmed that the trio of domes could only target one enemy at a time, as no other lightning bolts were cast at her other two selves.

Using her speed to her advantage, Jay swung her hammer while Syd swung her sword staff at the metal spike in a flyby. She was hoping that the change in design of the shell made it so that the offensive portion of the construct was not protected by the formidable defenses of the rest of the dome. Unfortunately, when her hammer and sword connected, the same resounding concussive force paired with blinding light as before met her attack.

A disappointing result, but not unexpected. Jadis had been prepared for the rebound, and she did not lose hold of her hammer, nor was she blinded by the flash of magic. Her vision was a little spotty, even with eyes closed and heads turned away, but still, she wasn’t blinded. Circling around the domes again, Jadis took a brief moment for her bodies to meet up. Her Dys self tossed her axe to Syd while her Jay self helped quickly remove Dys’ gauntlets.

It only took her seconds to prepare, and once she was ready, Jadis flew down low with her Dys self to grab as large of a rock as she could find and still be able to maneuver with. What she came back up from the ground with was a small boulder about the size of a beachball that weighed several hundred pounds. With weapon in hand, Jadis circled the northern dome once more, before diving in.

This time, Jadis made sure that her Jay self led the charge, though she had no intention of attacking with that body. Her attempt at drawing focused fire worked as another bolt of lightning struck at her, though this time it hit her more directly. Jay felt like her left arm and leg were on fire as the power of the Demon’s magic assaulted her body, but she persevered and avoided being blasted out of the sky like had happened to her Syd self earlier. She was still tossed aside in a spiral as her body lost some control, but she at least stayed airborne. Checking her health, she sighed with relief that she hadn’t taken as much damage as before. She still had more than two thousand health points, so even another direct hit from the lightning wouldn’t be enough to kill her. Regardless of how her Jay self fared, it was her Dys self who needed to succeed.

Flying at a downward angle, Dys struck the metal spike sticking out of the top of the dome with her rock with as much strength as she could muster. There was an earsplitting clang of stone on metal, but no flash of defensive magic, and no force pushing her back. Jadis’ initial theory proved true. The dome’s impressive defenses only responded to attacks powered or enhanced by magic. There was no counter for plain old brute force.

Well, Jadis thought as she eyed the bent yet not fully broken metal spike, perhaps there was some defense against unmagical attacks. The spike’s durability had to have been increased in some way, otherwise there was no chance it would have withstood Dys’ flyby stoning. In fact, as Dys came around from her dive, she found that she was holding two smaller rocks, one in each hand, rather than one big boulder. The solid stone had not held up as she would have expected. Still, Jadis had discovered a means of attacking the domes directly, and she was going to exploit that weakness immediately.

As the three of her circled up again and prepared for another dive against the northern dome, her Jay self spotted Lucia rocketing through the night sky. The therion was heading to the front of the forward dome in a determined dive, though her angle didn’t put her in line with the Demon shell itself. As Jay watched, another massive bolt of lightning lashed out at the Paladin, who deflected the magic with a shield of sparkling energy. She was still sent spinning out of her dive by the blast, but Jadis doubted she had taken too much damage from the direct hit.

Jadis immediately used the opportunity to have her Dys self dive at the northern-side dome, since it wouldn’t be able to fire another bolt of lightning at her so soon after attacking Lucia. While it was good fortune for her, a sudden gut feeling had Jadis’ nerves tingling. Why would the Demon shells attack Lucia, when the therion wasn’t even aiming her dive at them? If the blast had gone after Wilhelm and the others assaulting the forward dome, it would have made sense. They were a direct threat that was just as dangerous as Jadis herself was. But Lucia? Why bother casting at the Paladin when whatever entity was controlling the domes had to know that Jadis was about to attack again?

As her Dys self aimed for the metal hexagon that capped the shell, Jay and Syd turned her eyes in the direction Lucia had been flying towards, looking to find what the therion had been aiming for. It took a few heartbeats for her to recognize the change, since the dark and the smoke of a chaotic nighttime battlefield obscured her vision, but when she did see the problem, she swore in angered disgust.

The object that had been concealed within the mass of stone simulacrums had been moved out from between the domes and was now visible. A flat, hexagonal stone altar at least ten feet wide on each side was being carried by the Demons. On top of the enchantment-etched altar was the naked form of a young woman, bound in chains, with an iron spike driven through her stomach. While Jadis was too far away to hear anything, the truth was easy to see.

The woman was alive. And she was screaming.