Lament of the Fallen

While the evacuation of the first village had been fairly easy, Dee’s next attempt ran into more serious trouble. The main reason for that was the fact that she was the only one who had reached the most outlying village from the teleportation gates. The order had sent a fair amount of support to help with the evacuation but they were constrained by time. The paladins couldn’t be everywhere at once, so they had to make some hard choices.

When Dee arrived at the village, it was already under attack. There were corpses of several low level beasts outside the walls, filled with arrows. The wooden palisade that protected the village was broken in two places and several earth elementals were trying to push their way into the village. They were still held at bay by long spears held by the human villagers, but the spearmen where being pushed back by the elementals that could ignore the negligible damage caused by the spears. Luckily Dee didn’t see any bodies of humans anywhere, so the villagers had not been caught completely unawares.

Dee didn’t want to accidentally hurt the humans by striking at the elementals too heavily, so instead she opted to use her telekinesis to pull the elementals back away from the palisade. She made a grabbing motion with her hands, and the low level elementals were pulled back by the invisible force while the humans stared dumbly at the levitating hulks of rock. Then Dee smashed her hands together, which produced the same result on the elementals. The force used shattered the mindless creatures.

‘It seems jobs like this are easily done even in this form now.’ Croestia commented. Even though Dee’s angel form was much better for her psionics, that didn’t mean she couldn’t use the brute force approach in this form.

‘Just don’t ask me to separate the minerals making up the elementals while I’m in this form, and we’ll be fine.’ Dee shot back.

The humans noticed her approach and were quite wary. She had just saved them, but she was obviously strong enough to kill them all, and she was hiding her face and carried no official markings. The oldest of the humans, a woman of at least ninety years, approached Dee. Even if Dee hadn’t seen the mana inside her, the mage’s staff she carried would have told Dee enough.

“Greeting stranger. We appreciate the help, but I’m forced to ask what you are doing here.” The old woman inquired suspiciously in a weary voice. The fight had taken a lot out of her.

She was most likely the one that had felt the rift opening and warned the villagers of the incoming attacks, Dee surmised. “I’m one of the scouts from the Order of the Radiant Sun, and I’m here to help with the evacuation.”

The word ‘evacuation’ caused a commotion among the people surrounding the old woman. Apparently she either hadn’t realized or had not shared with others the severity of the situation. “What do you mean evacuation?” “We’re not going anywhere!” Yells came from the people of the village.

The old woman narrowed her eyes while she looked at Dee. “You better explain what you mean with evacuation.”

Apparently the old woman wasn’t as sharp as Dee had thought. “An elemental rift has opened in the area. All the nearby villages, communities and cities are being evacuated. I don’t know if and when you will be able to return. This area will be swamped by elementals once the rift settles, if not before then.”

This brought another bout of yells of incredulity. “But our lives are here!” “We’d lose everything!” “We’re not going anywhere!” “You’re just trying to lure us away!” The shouts turned accusatory in tone as the crowd picked up steam.

Dee simply scratched at her ear without giving the accusations any attention. “You will be taken to the evacuation site of the order. There you will be found a place to re-locate and a bit of help to start over.”

The old woman waved the crowd into silence. “And what if some of us don’t want to go?”

Dee shrugged. She was helping with the evacuation, but she wouldn’t shed tears if a bunch of them died. Truth be told she was getting tired of the whole thing and wanted to rush for the rift. “Then those that remain will die. I will report to the order that this village was given the opportunity to evacuate, and no more help will be sent. I certainly won’t force you to leave. Now choose. You’ve got half an hour to gather your things, and then we will go.”

Dee walked slightly away from the village and left the people to argue. Eventually the argument broke down as one of the villagers reminded the others that they only had limited time to gather their things. Thirty minutes later about half of the village had gathered outside the gates with any possessions they could carry. It seemed that the ones that decided to evacuate were mostly those with families either here or elsewhere in Day city. Dee noted idly that the old woman was not part of the evacuees.

Dee gave the people an extra fifteen minutes to change their minds or catch up if they were late. When she was sure that no more were coming, she said nothing and simply started to lead the group away from the village, while those that remained stared at their disappearing backs. Dee kept their progress to a good clip. As the villagers were rather hardy folk they didn’t tire all that easily. That said, they weren’t professional soldiers enjoying improved physiques due to ki either. Thus Dee had to keep the progress at a pace they could maintain.

Dee dealt with any approaching threats before they could become a real danger, mostly by using the bow she had appropriated from the elves and her own power as arrows. As the elementals and beasts were relatively low level, she could deal with them quickly and almost without breaking the pace of the group. The humans only noticed that she sometimes shot weird glowing arrows into the surroundings. At one point the people started wondering if she was simply shooting at empty air and scaring them into evacuating. As a result Dee started to allow the dangers close enough to be seen, before she dealt with them. That dispelled those rumors pretty fast.

After traveling almost five hours even the hardy folk were getting tired. Dee had sensed other groups of evacuees and paladins in the surroundings. She wanted to catch them before resting so she cast supportive spells on the whole group of villagers, mainly small regenerative spells to ease small damage from walking all day as well as refreshing and stamina regenerative spells to keep their energy and spirits up.

As Dee had been much faster in her movements and kept the group moving, they had caught up with the slower groups that had traveled a much shorter distance. Dee also sensed that the paladins were riding the stupid horses for speed of movement and assistance in carrying the villager’s items. Dee could sense two distinct groups that were clearly planning on joining together for added security. They would be forced into going through the area surrounding the rift soon and clearly the paladin groups planned on doing that together for safety.

There was a potential problem though. She could also sense four extremely powerful beings nearby, well within the edge of her detection range. The four were flying in the air and monitoring the refugees. Dee wasn’t sure of their intentions and most importantly whether they were a threat or not. Luckily the four were far enough away that she would have some warning if they attacked. In fact they were far enough away that a year or two ago they would have been out of her detection range.

Razark had gone to great lengths to improve the range of Dee’s detection abilities. According to him Dee’s abilities were stupidly useful but sadly short range. That’s why those abilities had been a focus for improvement. Now she could sense anything up to almost a thousand kilomels away if she really focused. Assuming her detection was not interfered with. Heavy mana environments could be either a problem or beneficial for her, depending on the situation.

The problem was that Dee had never felt beings quite like the four she was feeling now. It was as if the four were made of mana. Not that they had a lot of mana flowing though their bodies, but that their bodies were made of it. Even beings like dragons had actual muscles and bones and organs of biological origin. Those parts were reinforced with magic, but still flesh and bone. These four? They seemed like pure mana encased in armor.

‘Well, not quite pure mana, as they seem to have mana of several elements mixed together.’ She thought to herself. She also hoped the four would not attack, as she was pretty sure she would lose if it came to a battle. It would be such a shame to abandon these humans now that she had dragged them all the way here.

Suddenly another problem appeared. Dee could sense a wave of mana flowing outwards from the area the rift was located at. That in itself would have been problematic, but the mana seemed to have come from the elemental plane of death. Dee was attuned to that particular type of power thanks to her blessing from a certain deity, so she was pretty sure of her conclusion. A wave of death mana was bad, bad news for the refugees. Not just to her own group but the other two groups nearby as well. In fact, depending on the range the wave would travel, it might be problematic for a lot of people elsewhere as well. Dee also doubted the paladins in the other groups would be capable of stopping such a thick wave of death mana.

‘Suggestions.’ Dee asked Croestia. She could protect herself and those in her immediate surroundings with a shield of holy energy like the one she had used in the fight against Felan, but that had a small range and would not protect everyone. She also had no idea if there would additional waves of death mana, and it would be a problem to stop every time one came.

Croestia considered the problem for a few seconds before making a suggestion. ‘I don’t see any other choice but to use Aegis.’

Dee was quiet for a moment, staring in the direction of the approaching wave. ‘You do realize that my Aegis is not exactly the most suited for protecting against death magic in particular? In fact, I might end up strengthening the wave.’

The nature of an Aegis depended on the person who cast it, as well as the deities he or she worshipped. Those that served the light gods had more protective and strengthening types of Aegis, while those who served the dark gods had an Aegis that sapped the power from the enemies within the barrier. All the Aegis had protective qualities by their nature as a spell originally created by paladins, but there were large differences. As it happened, Dee’s deities were two neutral deities, Lumen and the Goddess of Chaos and Darkness herself, Umbra. At first that looked relatively balanced, except that one of the neutral deities was the Goddess of Death. She might not have given Dee holy power, but her blessing influenced Dee’s abilities.

‘I see two options. Either you try to use only Lumen’s power to make the spell, or you use all of them and try to use a stronger power of death to block the wave approaching us. Either might work.’ Croestia pointed out simply.

‘Fuck it, let’s try the option with just Lumen’s power. I’ve never tried using just her power to form the Aegis.’ Dee decided. She had practiced the spell during the last two years; it was a powerful spell after all. However, this was new territory for her as well.

---------

Sshash’ea and his three friends idly observed the three groups of refugees below them. They didn’t really care about either the refugees or the paladins escorting them. The refugees would only get in the way and if the paladins were nice enough to take them away, then all the better. The paladins would almost certainly not interfere with the elemental rift itself. It’s not that the paladins couldn’t find a use for one, but that they knew that it was not their place to interfere when there were much stronger communities vying for the rifts.

“We should be close enough now. What’s the situation with the rift?” Sshash’ea was the leader of the Revenant contingent sent to deal with the rift, but he was not the one with the keenest senses. That honor fell to Malash’wa.

“The rift has not stabilized yet, so we are in time.” The female revenant replied. She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “However, there’s something wrong with the rift.”

“Something wrong?” Sshash’ea questioned, turning his head towards her. Of course revenant didn’t actually have a head, but the helmet on his ‘head’ turned. Such mannerism was not really native to the revenant, but when one spent extended periods of time around other races, such things tended to become a habit.

“It’s hard to explain. There’s something...twisted about the rift. I’m not sure we want to fight for this rift.” Malash’wa replied. And there would most likely be fighting considering the number of Crimson Witches in the area.

“Nonsense!” A third voice from the side interrupted. “You know as well as I that we need all the rifts we can get our hands on.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for our progeny to inherit the traits of this rift. They might come out…wrong…twisted. I’m not joking when I say this rift feels off.” Malash’wa replied.

The revenant didn’t procreate the normal way. They were beings made of magic. The only reason they even had genders was that that’s just how they came out when they were created. And they were created. Each revenant was the result of large amounts of mana coming together to create a personality, which was then placed into a suit of armor as a vessel.

The problem was, not just any mana would do. The refined mana from the mana pools of intelligent creatures wouldn’t combine into one properly. That’s why large amounts of loose mana was required. Something like the grand forest was a great source of mana and would be a great environment for the community, and the Revenant traded with the elves for the mana. The problem was that all that mana was from just one element, or completely without an element. The revenant were creatures of magic, so their control of mana was almost without equal. Except that they could only use the elements they were made from. A revenant created from a single element would be a really weak being. That’s where rifts to elemental planes came in.

“In any case, that’s not our decision to make. We were sent here to take control of the rift, and we will complete our mission. It is up to the Forgers to decide whether they want to use the mana from this rift or not. It would not be the first time we take over a rift only to abandon it later.” Sshash’ea shot down the budding argument.

“Everyone be careful! We’ve got an incoming wave of mana from the plane of death!” Malash’wa suddenly shouted. Protecting themselves was not difficult, but it still required a bit of effort, so she didn’t want the others to get caught unawares. Their protective mana shields blinked into place around them. These shields were complete overkill in strength, but they didn’t want to be surprised by a wave that was stronger than they assumed.

“The refugees below.” The fourth voice suddenly said. He was partly made of light mana and that influenced his personality. The revenant were not controlled by the mana they were made from, but the nature of the mana did influence their original personalities, which were then molded by their experiences as with any other intelligent creature.

“Do you feel like saving them Yar’li?” The mocking tone of the third voice asked.

“A little. They did nothing to earn this fate, and I doubt dying due to death wave is a pleasant way to go. Don’t worry Lun’fi, I’m not going to dash to their aid.” Yar’li replied calmly. He knew Lun’fi was just trying to rile him up.

“It seems that’s not necessary anyway. Look.” Sshash’ea told the others.

A large golden field extended to cover the three groups of refugees. They could all identify the signature spell used by the Radiant Sun. The golden field rose about three mel above the heads of the people below, with a golden radiance falling down on the ones under the protection of the field. The field looked relatively solid for a construct of light and was completely transparent. The four revenant knew that the field would be a powerful barrier despite its slightly flimsy appearance.

“I didn’t think the paladins in this area had enough power for an Aegis, not to mention such a powerful one. It would take me a fair amount of time to break through.” Lun’fi said surprise evident in his voice. They thought only low level paladins had come here.

“They don’t.” Yar’li commented as the wave of death hit all of them. All the vegetation below them withered and turned into dust. Yar’li’s attunement to the element of light gave him a better understanding of the protective barrier below them, even if it wasn’t made of mana.

“What do you mean?” Sshash’ea asked suddenly alert.

“That Aegis was not created by a group of paladins. It was made by a single person with the blessing of Lumen.” Yar’li replied.

Malash’wa gave a small whistle. “Well, well. I certainly didn’t expect someone blessed by the Goddess of Light herself to be in the area.” She looked more carefully at the being at the center of the protective field. Now that she knew what to look, her sharper senses came to play. “There’s something else. The death mana isn’t really being blocked by the Aegis. It’s going around it as if on command.”

“That’s…” Sshash’ea didn’t quite know what to say. “Well, be that as it may, the death mana itself is a problem. It seems like the plane of death might be winning the struggle for the rift. That’s going to cause some issues.”

“Indeed. Aside from the fact that we don’t really want to create more of our kind from death mana, this will lure the Spider Cult here.” Yar’li said in agreement. “They can use the death mana in creation of their minions and perhaps even to elevate another Death Lord.”

“Even more than that, the Crimson Path will want to shut the rift down. They absolutely despise the Spider Cult and the undead. They will contest this rift heavily. They certainly don’t want another Death Lord around.” Lun’fi said. The Spider Cult and the Crimson Witches were bitter enemies, partly due to their nature.

“Perhaps it’s better I contact the elders. We might not want to meddle with this rift after all.” Sshash’ea finally conceded. Orders were orders, but this seemed like a really bad idea. He also considered the possibility that the elders would order them to join hands with the Crimson Path. The two communities were rivals, but they had an understanding of sorts. An understanding that the Revenant didn’t have with the Spider Cult.