Rebirth of the Nephilim

“Hold onto this,” Sorcha grumbled under her breath as she struggled to extract the piece of bone that had been lodged between the two pieces of Jadis’ pauldron.

“Here, I can—”

“Shut up and put your head back down!” Sorcha admonished the overgrown lummox. “You’re supposed to be resting, and I’m not talking to you anyway. I’m talking to Paddie.”

“Alright,” Jadis sighed and settled back onto the ground, her head cushioned by her Eldritch Bloom’s leaves. “Thanks, Sorcha.”

“It’s fine,” she grunted in response as she yanked hard while her enchanted plant used its twiggy appendages to hold the other side of the armor piece.

With one final grunt, the bone shard pulled free and Sorcha fell back against the wooden bucket where she had been tossing the various bits of debris and refuse she had cleaned out of Jadis’ armor. The piece of bone soon joined the rest of the garbage in the bucket, and Sorcha gave the pauldron a quick double check to make sure that there was nothing else stuck anywhere it shouldn’t be. Satisfied that everything had been removed, she moved on to cleaning the armor off with a fresh rag, since some of stink of the giant leech that Jadis had killed was still lingering on the black metal. Once the gunk was gone, she set the pauldron down to reach for its opposite twin.

Before she did, however, Sorcha sensed that the cooldown on her Instant Stamina Replenishment Wand had ended. Picking the curly wand up, she pointed it at the Nephilim and gave her another boost of fifty stamina, then set the tool aside and started cleaning the next pauldron.

“Thanks for the help,” Jadis murmured tiredly.

“I said it’s fine,” Sorcha replied quietly while trying to keep the scowl off of her face. “We all want to see you safe. I’m just doing my part.”

When Jadis and all the others who had left the assault force’s main formation had returned, they had been in a terrible mess. Sorcha had been near Eir and Jocelyn, so she had seen the worst of it up close and personal. While she had ultimately slain the Essence Leech Matriarch, Jadis had suffered incredible damage from not only the terrible slug, but also multiple other powerful attacks that had been directed at her from every other hostile opponent in the city. Lightning strikes, stone spikes, explosions, and only Jadis knew what else. Eir had, of course, been able to patch her back up, but when the Jadis who had been carrying most of the wounds on her person first took her helmet off, Sorcha couldn’t help the flinch of sympathetic pain that had crossed her features. Her beautiful winter goddess whom she had found in the woods all those months ago had been marred by blood and acid, disfigured to the point of being barely recognizable.

Sorcha didn’t know how much it had cost Eir to put Jadis back together, but it had to have been a lot.

Wilhelm, while less visibly disfigured, had actually been in a far worse state by the time Jocelyn had gotten her hands on the Hero. The glowing black spike of energy that had pierced his shoulder had been some kind of enchanted spearhead which had broken off in his body. The object had continually delivered a powerful paralyzing agent into the man, an effect which he had only managed to keep at bay due to his high Resilience and various skills and enchantments that bolstered and healed him for long enough to get away from Kastoria and the Demon he had been fighting. Unlike Jadis, Wilhelm had not been able to slay his opponent, though he did deal crippling damage to the Demon, he was confident. If the skyborne illusion and the spear had not forced him back, the Hero claimed he may well have killed Twisted Desire.

Demon Prince Desire, Sorcha corrected herself. The thought of the damned Demon sent a flood of fear and anger through her, and she scrubbed extra vigorously at the stubborn residue staining Jadis’ armor. Desire had her sights set on Jadis; there was no doubt about that considering the shit she had pulled at Lyssandria’s temple. If the Demon Prince had managed to pounce on Jadis while she had been fighting the Essence Leech Matriarch, if Wilhelm had not defended Jadis and taken up the monster’s attention himself…

Sorcha shook her head. She didn’t want to think about that possibility.

A commotion of soldiers running nearby caused a welcome distraction from her morose contemplations. Watching the line of men jog past the open flap of their tent, Sorcha judged them to be part of the auxiliary force that was managing the logistics. Sure, the siege of a Demon-infested city was ongoing, but any soldier who didn’t die was going to need to eat eventually. Eat, sleep, rest, find a place to piss; it was all a necessary function of a working military. Sorcha didn’t know much about being a soldier, but she’d been around all the planning and discussion that had gone into the attack on Kastoria, so she understood the operations well enough. Looking at those jogging soldiers, she guessed that the dense, high-energy soup that the Voltonians favored for trail rations would be making the rounds soon. Sorcha didn’t like the taste much, but the stuff was admittedly invigorating. Hopefully Jadis would rest long enough for her to get a few bowls.

Sorcha let out a sigh. The idea of Jadis resting for another hour was fanciful at best. Maybe another twenty minutes, if she was lucky. Maybe. That she had gotten this long so far was a blessing. Sorcha had no doubt that soon enough, someone or some thing would happen along and take Jadis away. There was still so much to do before the battle could be called won. At least they were off to a good start.

No, Wilhelm hadn’t been able to kill Demon Prince Desire. But he had wounded her while taking one of her weapons away from her. And he had likely forced her to use one of her last-resort spells, something that either required extremely limited resources or a very long cooldown. After all, if that giant cloud of… wrongness was something that she could do whenever she wanted, why wouldn’t the Demon do just that and use it constantly? No one would be able to fight in that mess except for maybe Thea, who had said that she had been able to see through it. If Thea was the mark on that scale, then everyone else was destined to fall short. But Desire had only used the spell after she had been dealt grave injuries by Wilhelm, which meant that she had been saving the spell.

Saving it for Jadis, most likely…

Well, inconveniencing the Demon Prince ruling Kastoria hadn’t been the only success. Jadis had killed the Essence Leech Matriarch. Aila had completely destroyed two of the impenetrable domes, and Sirio and his team had apparently partially disabled a third one on the eastern side of the city during all of the commotion on the western front. Severina hadn’t defeated Vitus, not fully, but she’d driven the possessed Seraphim out of the sky before being forced to retreat herself. In fact, pretty much all of the flying Demons had been eliminated thanks to the efforts of those who fought in the skies. Noct especially so. Apparently, she had torn some sort of mutated, possessed wyvern to pieces all by herself. Sorcha hadn’t seen the fight, but she had seen what the Valravn had looked like afterwards, so the battle had to have been brutal.

Not all of their enemies were dead. Yet. But a lot more of them were then had been at the start of that morning, and no one Sorcha knew personally had died. She took that to be a victory.

When Jadis and the others had returned to the main formation, Wilhelm had ordered a strategic withdrawal of their forces. The job of killing the charybdis Demons had been completed, so there was no longer any need to keep up an active battle against the city. They hadn’t left the field entirely but had instead shifted position to the next hill back from the one they had first defended, creating a bit more space between themselves and the enemy. It was giving ground, but according to Aila, strategically so. The further the Demons were led away from the city walls, the more time ranged attacks would have to take them out. Besides, it was only a temporary withdrawal.

After three hours, just as promised, the full Voltonian military had finally reached Kastoria.

“I think that armor is clean enough.”

The large, warm hand that gently settled on top of Sorcha’s scrubbing fingers stilled her efforts. Looking up, Sorcha met Jadis’ beautiful violet eyes with her own boring green ones.

“Are you alright?”

How was she supposed to answer that question? There wasn’t anything alright about the situation they were in. But they were in it because they had to be. Complaining about it wasn’t going to make things better.

“Yeah,” Sorcha said and squeezed Jadis’ much bigger fingers with her own. “How about you?”

“I could use a kiss,” the giant said with a smile on her lips.

“Don’t you ever think about anything else?”

“Only when I have to.”

Sorcha scowled at the incorrigible letch. But she didn’t deny the request. She saw the need painted on her love’s face. She felt the need in her own heart. Setting the piece of armor down, she leaned over and gently kissed Jadis. Nothing deep. Nothing lewd. Just a moment of tender touch that they both very much needed.

When Sorcha eventually pulled away, Jadis let her go without resistance. She went back to cleaning while the giant laid her head back down against the leaves of her enchanted bloom, but Sorcha knew that the rest time was all but over. Jadis’ other two bodies, who had been sleeping quietly deeper inside of the tent, had been roused and were sitting up. Soon, Jadis would be back out on the battlefield, beyond Sorcha’s reach.

So, she mentally sighed and moved on to the next piece of armor. If she wasn’t going to be next to Jadis while she fought, she had better make sure that her love at least had her appearance in good order.

A few minutes later, Aila appeared on the other side of the open tent flap.

“We’re almost ready to start the push for the wall,” the human announced. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Jadis answered in unison before the one nearest to her continued. “Thanks to Sorcha, I got some rest and got my stamina back. Should be good to go.”

“I didn’t do much of anything,” Sorcha mumbled as Jadis got to her several pairs of feet and started strapping her armor on. “Mostly just cleaning.”

“You’ve literally been pumping me full of energy this whole time,” Jadis contradicted her. “If I could carry you around in my pocket, I’d never run out.”

“Seriously,” one of Jadis’ other bodies said. “I don’t like it when you say things to put yourself down. That’s my lover you’re talking about, you know, and I don’t let anyone talk shit about the people I love. I kick their asses.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Sorcha rolled her eyes at the ridiculous woman. “Does that mean you’re going to kick my arse for talking bad about myself?”

“No,” the third Jadis said as she squatted down next to her and gave her an irresistible grin. “But I’ll find some other punishment we can enjoy later.”

“Flirt after the battle is over,” Aila saved Sorcha from trying to utter a response around the lump that had just formed in her throat. “Right now, we need you armored up and back out on the field. Sorcha? Give us a hand?”

“Yes,” she readily agreed and lent her aid to getting Jadis reequipped.

Once all of her armor was back on her bodies, Jadis left the tent with Aila in tow. Sorcha followed behind, riding on top of the mutated plant that she had decided to call Paddie on Ammy’s advice. The tent that they had occupied was in the middle of the encampment, in about the safest place anyone could be while on the outskirts of Kastoria, except for maybe the two airships that were hovering low in the sky overhead. Inside the tents nearby, Sorcha saw various other combatants who had been in the forward assault team resting, some in better condition than others. Having done their part fighting for so long on their own, those who had made it through alive were due a few hours reprieve, just like Jadis.

“How’s Willy?”

“Already at the front,” Aila answered Jadis’ question. “So is everyone else, except for Sabina and Meli. They’re still in the Leviathan.”

“Good,” the giant answered. Then after a moment, directed a question at Sorcha. “You still have your tele-buzzer?”

“Yes,” Sorcha confirmed. “I’ve got it.”

“Would you please let Maeve know that I’m bringing Kerr up there in a few minutes?”

“Kerr? Why?” Sorcha asked, her brow wrinkling. “Should she be staying down here?”

“No, with her range, she’ll be able to take better shots from the airship,” Jadis replied. “Plus, she can operate the ballista that Sabina set up on the deck if she needs to. Her accuracy with it would be better than Sabina’s at any rate.”

“Alright,” she nodded as she pulled out the enchanted device and began transmitting the instructions. “Letting her know.”

“You aren’t going to ask me to stay up there too, are you?”

“No,” Jadis laughed at Aila’s question. “I wouldn’t torture you like that. Besides, I’m going to need your help taking out more of those domes.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Aila nodded, “but my reserves only run so deep, even with your assistance, and Alex is already taxed to her limit right now.”

“Yes, she is,” Jadis agreed. “As long as we get rid of that third dome near the opening in the wall, I think we can wait on taking out the rest until later. Those domes don’t see over the city walls so they can’t shoot their lightning at anyone inside. Once the soldiers are in, the domes won’t be a threat, at least not until they move into new positions. But they’re slow, so we can take our time destroying them after we secure a foothold inside Kastoria. Sirio might even be able to take out a few more domes while we’re fighting the horde, if he’s lucky.”

“We can only pray he does,” the redheaded human murmured. “If only he had taken out the one next to the other two…”

“It’s fine. None of that was planned. We just have to make the most of the opportunities that we’re given.”

Jadis was a letch. She was also frequently an idiot, a jester, and an utterly hopeless optimist. But she wasn’t a fool. Her words were right. Sorcha couldn’t disagree, not when she thought about everything that had happened to her ever since leaving home to join a mercenary company and seek her fortune. All anyone could do was do their best with the opportunities that the gods gave them, whether that was on the battlefield or in a quiet moment alone with one’s lover.

Sorcha knew that she wasn’t going to squander any more opportunities. She’d take every one that came her way with all the strength she had in her. Maybe she didn’t deserve those opportunities, but Jadis said she did. If Jadis believed in her, who was Sorcha to argue?

“Maeve says that the Relentless Simulacrum Matriarch and the Mire Hound Matriarch are both still on the other side of the wall breach,” Sorcha reported as she interpreted the incoming message. “No sign of the Scythe Wight Matriarch yet.”

“What about Twisted Desire? Or any cultists?”

“No word,” Sorcha relayed. “Just those two matriarchs at the wall.”

A moment later, Sorcha added her own comment.

“And about a city’s worth of lesser Demons, too.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” Jadis tossed back over her shoulder. “They gathered all in one spot. That’ll make it that much easier for us to kill them.”

“Right,” Sorcha huffed as her plant carried her along behind her lover. “What an opportunity…”