Lament of the Fallen

There were several reasons why Alexandra should take the deal offered by the angel that had suddenly appeared, and she could think of only two valid reasons to refuse. The obvious one was pride. The Crimson Path forced into a situation where they needed help? She’d hear about this later on and not in a polite way either. The scornful jokes and snide comments would be plentiful. However, that would not stop her. Most people she could force into keeping their mouths shut anyway. She’d rather her group of swords survived to see another day, and while the lower ranked people blinded by their power might mock her for the decision, the higher ups would agree with her.

The more serious problem was that there was a reason they wanted to close the rift in the first place. They didn’t want large amounts of death mana getting out, because skills of that type were particularly effective against their own powers. What was the point of fighting the Spider Cult if this angel just walked in and took all that death mana anyway? They might as well retreat now.

“What do you want to do with the rift?” She asked the angel straight out. She didn’t have the time for subtlety.

Apparently considering whether to tell the truth, the angel thought for a moment. Finally she must have come to the conclusion that the whole deal depended on the answer, so she replied honestly. “I have an ability similar to the one the dragons have to resist magic. However, it is by no means as effective yet. One of the ways to train and improve that ability is to subject myself to large amounts of elemental energy like the kind one can find within a rift like this.”

“The rift seems to be leaning towards death element. You won’t get much for any other elements if this keeps up.” Alexandra replied. She was inclined to believe the angel’s words. An ability like that was quite enviable and worth the effort. She also detected no falsehood in the angel’s demeanor.

“I’d argue that’s a good element to have resistance against, and I’m pretty sure you’d agree.” The angel replied with a smile that revealed a perfect row of pearly white teeth. “Besides, there are still other elements within. I’ll do my part and then enter the rift while you finish things up here. When I return, I’ll even throw in a bonus and help with healing your wounded warriors.”

Alexandra’s thoughts were interrupted by the warped roar of the skeletal dragon. The undead were moving in. “Fine, let’s do it your way. I expect a proper contribution though, and not just some token spells!” She yelled and waved her people into a formation. Or what passed off as a formation for them, as the swords liked to have space while they fought. As a result it looked more like a loose collection of individuals rather than a proper closed formation.

Even Alexandra was impressed when she felt the amount of holy power that suddenly gathered around the angel behind her. She would’ve looked back, but she had to keep an eye on the leader of the Spider Cult forces. If the defilers really had an immortal among them, then it was her role to at least stall that person. The undead charged at the swords under her command, pushing them hard as the two sides were relatively equal in power.

The necromancers on the other side combined their mana for a joint spell. A large dull green skull appeared above the crimson clad forces and was about to breath a corrosive and poisonous fog on them, when the swords in turn combined their powers for a counter. A large crimson red hand looking like it was made of blood appeared next to the skull, wrapping its fingers around the skull and crushing it into little wisps of probably unhealthy smoke. Then the benefits of the angel helping them started to become obvious.

A golden light wrapped the surroundings, rendering most poisons and toxins ineffective. The effectiveness of the spell was doubled as many of the undead carried poisoned weapons or had poisonous claws. The cult worshipped the goddess of poisons after all. Normally a spell to protect against poisons would not be all that effective against such potent poisons, but this particular angel happened to be an expert with poisons and knew how to counter them. She also had a natural affinity towards creating, and thus also countering curses and afflictions. The golden field also fought against those, rendering the next spell of the necromancers useless. The necromancers excelled at crippling their enemies with magic while their minions dealt with them. That was their main method of fighting. Suddenly they faced some issues on that front as they faced a natural enemy of sorts.

Alexandra also felt like her body was filled with power and energy, as her strength and speed almost doubled. There were also several small layers of gold on her body, a spell she recognized as the high ranking protective spell ‘Fateguard’. The golden layers would block almost any attack and then disappear. On the downside they would disappear if she was simply grazed, so the strength of the attack was almost irrelevant. The number of layers was also somewhat random, up to fate as it were. Hence the name of the spell, Fateguard.

The crimson clad women also felt that suddenly things started going their way. Not in an immediately obvious fashion, but every movement felt a little easier and smoother. Every strike caused a bit more severe damage than expected, every strike seemed to find its mark, and the attacks of the enemy seemed to weirdly fumble at the most critical moments. The warriors also seemed to be working a bit more smoothly together than before, not impeding each other’s attacks.

Alexandra noticed the difference and couldn’t help but wonder. ‘Is it a spell that increases luck? It doesn’t seem as simple as that. I’ve heard that clerics of high ranking deities had weird buffs like this. The angel is really coming through on her part of the deal.’ The crimson warriors were cleaving through their enemies, as several blood red apparitions fought alongside them.

She jumped into the air to face the skeletal dragon, wings of blood sprouting on her back. The enemy immortal was either hiding or not here, so she might as well utilize this opportunity to get rid of a threat. Suddenly two large arms of blood manifested around her and struck towards the dragon. The dragon veered to the side, but still got struck by one of the arms now formed into a fist. The protective field around the dragon flickered and struggled against the power of the fist that didn’t look as dangerous as it obviously was. The shield finally held as the fist backed off, but it was much dimmer now.

There was another reason the Crimson Witches had gained their nickname. They were almost universally warriors without proper access to mana, but they still operated the red bloodlike substance as if they were some sort of blood mages. The members of the Crimson Path called the ability Thaumaturgy, even though the ability was entirely controlled by ki and not mana. They could form objects from the red substance and use those objects to attack their enemies.

These blood constructs didn’t look as dangerous as they were in reality, as shown by the shield around the skeletal dragon almost buckling under a single strike from the fist. It was not uncommon for warriors to make projections and constructs of ki during battle, in fact it was one of the most common methods of attacking with ki. The abilities of the Crimson Witches were especially dangerous though, as their constructs were strengthened by the blood of the enemies they had previously vanquished. Blood taken from a dragon for instance could add the strength of a dragon behind every strike.

Veins suddenly bulged in Alexandra’s arms as she made an overhead swing with her large blade towards the head of the dragon. The shield protecting the dragon shattered almost instantly, and the sword cleaved a chunk of bone from the dragon’s jaw. Alexandra suddenly felt an approaching danger, and made a shield of blood at her right side, while a globe of greenish-grey energy slammed into the shield, shattering it and exploding. The blast threw Alexandra away from the dragon. She felt that she would’ve certainly been seriously poisoned if not for the protection of the angel.

She looked towards the source of the sneak attack, and saw a hooded and cloaked figure glowing green and radiating power. This enemy was not a Death Lord, but it was powerful and on the cusp of becoming one of the true lords of the undead. It would not be an easy opponent, especially since the opponent had command over the element of death as well. The previous attack had completely shattered Alexandra’s protective shield and had most likely required much less effort than one assumed.

The abilities of the Crimson Path relied on the life force taken from their enemies and injecting that into their own ki. Spells from the element of death broke the bond holding them together and easily countered any skills they could use. That’s why at the very beginning of the fight the swords had not combined their powers for a joint attack against the undead, unlike how they would do usually. Such attack would easily be stopped and would only waste power. Luckily that wasn’t the only advantage they had, and they didn’t rely on a single ability.

The situation on the battlefield changed yet again, as a small fake sun of golden energy floated above everyone. The golden energy burned at the undead and sapped the negative energy keeping them moving. ‘The angel came through again.’ Alexandra thought with a crooked smile.

------

Dee was having a blast! She didn’t usually get to participate in a fight like this, and she didn’t get to utilize her holy powers this wildly in a normal situation either. Now it was finally becoming useful to have such a bottomless source of holy power to draw from. Usually she fought like an assassin, but now she felt almost like a mage. This was possible because the enemy consisted mostly of undead, but she found that she liked the feeling of using her power like this. It felt like she was dominating the battlefield, and it was intoxicating!

She was using her wings to hover in the air as another wraith dashed towards her from the ground. The necromancers were not stupid and had noticed the effect she was having on the battle. Unfortunately for them, the crimson clad women kept most undead at bay, and most attack spells were either deflected by her golden shields of holy power, rendered ineffective by a spell that countered the effect or shattered by her templar abilities if the first two didn’t work.

Dee made a dismissive wave of her hand, banishing the negative energy inside the wraith, making it disappear accompanied by an aggrieved wail. This one was a third of its kind. wraith were especially vulnerable to her spell, balanced by their immunity towards physical attacks, but they were among the few flying undead present. ‘Time to go big.’ Dee though. She knew one of the high ranked holy spells used to attack undead and ironically demons. ‘Let’s see if the blessing of Lumen helps with this spell. It’s in her domain after all.’

She made a short chant extolling the virtues of her chosen goddess. Dee never understood the need for such groveling and her deities never really required it, in fact she was fairly certain that chants with holy spells were useless in general, but she thought it might help with this particular spell. A bright golden fake sun appeared above her, and the burning light started to attack the undead. It happily did nothing against the living, not even the demon Dee as she was the caster. The undead on the other hand were really suffering. Apparently Lumen had heard her little attempt at flattery and responded in kind. Too bad Umbra’s powers would not be as useful in this fight.

The necromancers of course wouldn’t just stand aside as their minions were destroyed. A green glow of energy surrounded the undead, and several dark priests among them started to work on countering the spell. ‘Of course there would be dark priests among the necromancers.’ Dee thought idly. They made for good necromancers.

However, the enemy made a couple of mistakes. The green glow was something akin to a healing spell for undead, but it was just slowing down the decay of their minions, not stopping it completely. The second mistake was that the dark priests in charge of dispelling the offending golden sun decided to pit their own holy power against Dee’s in an attempt to stop the spell.

It was a fair bet, as Dee had already cast several high level support spells, some offensive spells against the undead and the golden sun. Surely she couldn’t have that much holy power left? Besides, they were relatively high level dark priests and there were several of them. Surely they had more holy power than a single angel flitting around the place?

Dee only had an evil grin on her face in response. For once the stupidly large reserves of holy power became useful. She allowed the heavy weight of her ocean of holy power to crash on the dark priests struggling against her. Such struggles were like a direct comparison of power. Whoever threw more power at their enemy won. The problem with such power measuring contests was that the losing side didn’t just get their spell countered. They usually suffered from several nasty effects as a backlash. As a bonus and for revenge, Dee decided to show that she could cast debilitating spells as well. Or at least she planned to.

The skeletal dragon swooped down towards her, the bony claws cleaving at the golden shield protecting her. “Bloody dragon, spoiling my fun!” Dee cursed and a gout of holy power covered the skeletal dragon. Even though the golden shield protecting Dee held, the power of the strike threw her aside in the air, as she wasn’t anchored to anything.

The shield protecting the dragon had regenerated, and unlike Alexandra, Dee didn’t have the ability to shatter that shield so easily. There was another problem. Skeletal dragons were considered one of the highest levels of undead minions for a reason. They were very resistant to magic, and as a bonus were also resistant to holy spells, unlike other undead. The holy fire Dee used did almost nothing. Luckily the golden sun was still there, and she had already done her part. She could either focus on fighting the undead monstrosity, or try to escape and go through the rift.

She initially wanted to retreat as there was really no point in continuing this fight, but the dragon within her decided otherwise. Defiling the remains of dragons was a sacrilege! Even if it was one of the puny normal dragons and not a proud abyssal, but still! Besides, she was having so much fun anyway, so why not try a little challenge? That said, stretching the fight on seemed like a bad idea. She had a plan. Time to rip a page out of Moirai’s playbook.

Dee feigned another holy power attack as she kept launching holy fire and banishment spells at her target, which was now swooping down for another strike at Dee. These attacks were rather ineffective, but that was the point.  They were only cast to hide her true intentions and prepare for a nasty surprise.“Time to swat down an annoying fly.” Dee mumbled as the skeletal dragon closed in on her.

She made a swatting gesture and suddenly the skeletal dragon crashed into the ground as if a mountain had fallen on it. Which it kind of had. Dee had used the full power of her telekinetic power to strike the dragon down from the air. It might have resistance to magic and holy power, but not so much against psionic power. The attack had also been a complete surprise. Suddenly almost a hundred psionic weapons appeared inside the protective shield of the dragon and instantly struck it, exploding all over its form.

A single explosion might not have been enough, but a hundred did the trick. There were large cracks all over the dragon and several bones simply shattered. It was still ‘alive’ though, and trying to get up. “Oh it survived that?” Croestia asked with surprise.

“Well it used to be a dragon. The bones still are the same bones a real dragon would have. Not a very large dragon, but still.” Dee commented, less than pleased by the outcome as well. At least the shield protecting the dragon seemed to have suffered as well, as it was showing signs of deterioration. Apparently whatever was powering the shield was the same thing holding the creature together.

“Time to go for something bigger?” Croestia asked eagerly. They had hatched something new again during the three years of training. Or to be more precise, a new application of old power.

“Let’s go with that. We needed to test that anyway, and Bony here is as good of a target as any.” Dee lifted her right hand sideways in a grabbing motion, as if taking a hold of an invisible weapon. Suddenly an enormous lance made of blue psionic energy materialized in her hand. It was ten times her own size, narrowing at the handle and expanding both upwards and downwards as if two lances put together at the handle. The weapon would be completely unwieldy on the ground, but she wasn’t going to swing it around anyway. This form was picked for penetration in mind.

“If a small bang isn’t enough, time to go for a bigger boom.” Dee smirked, making a throwing motion towards the skeletal dragon that had managed to get up on its remaining three limbs.

The lance punched through the already failing shield and struck the dragon straight on its spine between the shoulders, cleaving the dragon in two. The power contained in this weapon was much more powerful than the tiny daggers she had materialized earlier, and so was its penetrative power. The dragon was nailed to the ground for a second, before the large lance exploded, completely shredding the undead being into tiny fragments. The pressure wave from the explosion was fair bit bigger than Dee had expected and forced even the fighting Crimson Witches to brace themselves by stabbing their swords into the ground. Luckily they didn’t really mind as it didn’t hurt them, and threw around the undead that were less prepared.

“I’d say that’s a successful test of concept.” Dee said with a mirthful laugh.

“Did you have to make it explode like that? You almost hurt your so called allies.” Croestia commented, almost equally happy.

“Of course I did. Much more fun this way. I think it’s time for us to take our leave though. The fake sun will shine for a few more minutes and the buffs will last for several hours. I think we’ve held our end of the deal.” Dee remarked and flew towards the rift.

-----

Alexandra had been locked in a struggle with the necromancer for a while. Even as a fresh immortal she had the upper hand, but the necromancer was one of those nasty casters that specialized in delaying their enemy. He was of course also an expert in the debuffing department, as were all necromancers, but that was countered by the angel's spells. The two were both stunned by the explosion and the resulting shockwave when the skeletal dragon died. Alexandra looked dumbly at what little remained of the skeletal dragon. She’d really have to thank the angel for taking care of that little problem. However, she was shocked that she hadn’t realized the angel held such destructive power. She had really made an error in judgement there.

The necromancer screamed an aggrieved “No!” before hatefully staring at the retreating form of the angel that disappeared into the rift. His master had given him the skeletal dragon to use, and now it was destroyed by some winged nuisance! He started gathering his powers for a final attack that would leave him vulnerable against Alexandra if it didn’t work just right. Time to take some risks.

“Oh, you want to resolve this? Well that’s fine by me. Long fights were really never my thing anyway.” Alexandra said in a mocking tone. She knew she had the upper hand in a confrontation like this. She didn’t even need to draw too deeply on her more dangerous powers. Still, veins bulged on her hands and sides of her face, and her eyes took a much more demonic look than before as the pupils turned reptilian, while she prepared to cleave the necromancer down.

To her surprise though, the necromancer rapidly moved back to avoid her attack, staying out of the effective reach of her blows. The creature then threw all his energy in one shot, missing Alexandra by several mel. “Kinda missed that one, don’t you think?” Alexandra commented simply. She would’ve stopped the attack if she had sensed her own people on the path it was traveling.

“Did I? I think I hit exactly what I aimed at.” The necromancer commented, before rapidly starting to escape, followed by the surviving members of the Spider Cult, mostly the living members as the undead were burning from the energy of the fake sun.

Alexandra suspected a trap, but looked behind her anyway. The attack struck at the elemental rift itself, forcing the rift to become unstable. The same rift the angel had just passed through a minute before. “Oh shit.” She cursed.

The rift started to rapidly expand and contract while it seemed to be gathering energy. It seemed fairly obvious to everyone that the rift would soon explode. No one was entirely sure what would happen then. Would the rift close? Or would it be blown wide open? In any case, it was certain that the explosion itself would be dangerous to anyone nearby.

“We have to close the rift down, right now!” One of the high ranking swords barked an order.

Alexandra knew that was the right call, but what would happen to the angel that was on the other side?