Chapter 144: Lakes and Crystals (1/2)

“Any more help needed?” Ilea asked after she landed near the healers. Only six had remained.

“We’re fine, seems like people have become comfortable with fighting the monsters. Leave the rest to us.” one of them said as the woman Ilea had rescued flew over towards the group of resting fighters. She too followed and took a couple minutes to gain back her full mana. She watched as the woman talked to some of the people around them, three of them leaving right after towards the rubble Ilea had searched for the past half hour. They probably had some way to detect people in that mess, better than her Sphere which already was doing a wonderful job.

Sulivhaan was still floating in the same position as before, still using his spells as people occasionally joined him before they nodded, having received further commands. It seemed everyone accepted him as the strategic leader of this operation, at least enough for them to have a working structure.

Ilea moved back to the healers and past them where around eight corpses were laying on the floor, covered by white cloth. She continued the line with the dead they had found in the rubble, placing them as well before she closed their eyes, saying a small prayer to whatever gods cared before summoning a bed sheet she had and ripping it apart to cover the people. Each of them was geared with expensive and high quality looking armor or clothes, each one a human strong enough to face a hundred high leveled demons on their own. Each one dead.

She flew towards Sulivhaan and waited as two others received further orders from him, flying off afterwards.

“Healers are fine, rangers are looking for more survivors but we’re probably done searching. Five survivors and six dead.” she reported.

“Thank you. You can join the defensive line then.” the mage said without looking at her.

“I’ll go find the others if that doesn’t fuck into your plans.” Ilea answered.

“Do as you will.” Sulivhaan answered, not further concerned with her as Ilea flew off towards the city at top speed. What was left of the city at least. The damage on the surface was somewhat in control, only about thirty percent completely destroyed but the attack from the whale had come from above and it had cut deep.

Most of the sewers and several levels of the underground probably had to be rebuilt completely. Fires raged in the more in tact parts as well, caused mostly by the Hand’s mages who had initially fired into the city itself to score some lucky hits into the demon masses. Initially with all the mind weavers still alive it had been much more difficult to hit as the monsters had used the abundance of cover quite effectively.

Some solitary ranged attacks were fired at her, making her use her bow to kill the mostly lower leveled demons. A trickle of damage in the enemy forces but the ranged monsters were somewhat rare by now and the only thing that would stop the Hand’s mages advancing on the city and unleashing death upon the melee variants.

“Now to find a lone demon...” she said to herself as she dived downwards. ‘Let’s hope he was as smart as I think he is.’ Ilea thought as she blinked through a mostly intact part of the underground infrastructure before a minute later she appeared in a room she had been in before with a smile on her face and a startled demon surrounded by other demons.

“Weavy, you did it! Glad you survived. Now come with me, we have to find the others. And you better stay close to me or the other mercenaries will cut you down.” she said.

“Ah miss Ilea. I am also most grateful to the red death for your survival. What about the spawn?” he asked and gestured around him.

“Whatever you want, I’d kill them now so they don’t become a problem. If you want to look for them later you can but it’s gonna be hard getting them all out of here.” Ilea explained and watched into the deep black holes of Weavy’s eyes as the monsters in the room methodically cut their own throats before falling down in nearly a single splat.

“You’re fucked up mate.” she said and held out her hand. He stared at it confused before she just went and grabbed his arm before flying upwards, smashing through any floors in their way.

Ilea reached her next target two minutes later, landing before the entrance to the Hand’s headquarters. Demons screamed around her and started running towards the human and mind weaver as she ignored them and continued towards the entrance. The demons who reached her were cut down, none of them above level eighty, the ones further away simply stood frozen by Weavy’s influence. The main hall was collapsed in parts, rubble covering most of the ground. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the floor, some even stuck to walls and the ceiling. Ilea found a single mage and dozens of dead demons stuck inside a massive crystal in one of the corridors.

The woman was alive but had her eyes closed. Ilea took the minute to cut off big chunks of the crystal until she reached the woman. Touching her, she found her to be in perfect health. Reaching her hands inside the small enclosed space, Ilea pulled with her full strength and heard the crystal crack. A moment later the prison was forced into two, both sides smashing into the partially damaged furniture around the room as Ilea caught the unconscious woman, pushing some healing mana into her.

She continued on towards Viscera with the woman held in her arms, finding a similar scene as in the main hall. Demon corpses covered the ground even more densely here which made her fly over them with her ashen wings. No human corpses could be spotted but any dead Hand members, merchants or trainees had probably turned into demons themselves by now.

The crystal mage stirred and slowly opened her eyes. “Hah!” she exclaimed as a crystal shot out from her hand right towards Ilea’s had. It was stopped by her ashen veil before it dropped down into the woman’s hand again. She was out of breath already and Ilea doubted the level 205 wouldn’t be able to pierce her veil at full power. Ilea stopped Weavy from doing anything stupid as he closed in.

“Calm down, I’m not the enemy. And neither is he.” she said and continued onwards, mentioning the gist of what was happening outside the city. The woman had apparently been caught in her crystal prison for the past months, her skill attacking any demons who stepped into the room. Mind weavers either couldn’t attack her inside or they simply didn’t find her. A miracle she had survived really. She shot glances at the demon a couple times but seemed to trust Ilea for now.

“I actually survived…” the mage said as she closed her eyes and relaxed in her savior’s arms.

“You have two more minutes, then I’ll drop you.” Ilea simply stated in a quiet voice. The woman gulped but didn’t answer, her face reddening a little as she realized the situation she was in. She stayed for the full two minutes though, her joy at surviving stronger than the embarrassment.

There were no surviving demons inside Viscera, at least not as far as Ilea could sense. The woman decided to follow as well, probably feeling a little bad at having done exactly nothing in the past months.

“This is horrible… I never imagined the attack to be on this scale...” the mage said.

“You should see outside, the mages are dead but thousands of demons remain. The Hand is cleaning up rather efficiently though.” Ilea explained as she looked down into the hole where the main elevator leading to the Haven had been. It wasn’t there so she decided to jump down. A surprised noise left the mage before she followed, Ilea already reaching the bottom of the elevator shaft. Her buffs surged as she landed, bending as the force of gravity went through her body. She smiled as the fall of over a hundred meters felt more like jumping down a small flight of stairs. Weavy followed behind as quickly as he could, at least faster than the other mage.

The rubble of a destroyed elevator platform was spread around the bottom and dust filled the room. It reeked of blood and rot. Here too, corpses were piled up but they had been moved to the corners of the room. She continued onwards to the elevator that would lead to the Haven. It was still in working order she found so she activated it, looking at the demon next to her. The female mage managed to jump onto it right before it started moving. Ilea didn’t look at her but saw through her Sphere that her legs were shaking.

“We’re not the first ones down here, don’t worry.” Ilea said as she gripped the hilt of her dagger tightly. The elevator shaft opened up as the environment of Eregar’s Haven spread before them, Ilea immediately grinning and loosening her grip as she saw the spark of well known lightning in the distance. She jumped off and flew into the direction of the magic.

A bizarre scene showed itself as she got closer, the mage following a little behind with slower speed. A lake had formed where there was none before. It wasn’t big, not quite big enough to call it a lake really but bigger than a pond. On a nearby hill eight people resided, some sitting, others standing. Trian was one of them. The man lazily lifted his hand before lightning flashed and struck into the lake.

The group tensed before they looked towards the approaching woman but relaxed quickly after realizing it was one of their own. Ilea closed in as Trian got up and waved towards her. Kyrian turned his head and she saw his posture relax a little.

“Hey all, guess my help isn’t needed here. Don’t mind the demon coming, he’s with us.” she said as she landed. Most of the others ignored her while looking for the mentioned demon but soon faced the lake again. “The Hand is exterminating vermin and you just enjoy the new seasonal addition to the Haven?” she asked and grinned as the men of her team joined her.

“How’s it going outside? I heard some pretty huge monsters were summoned.” Kyrian asked.

“Yea, we took down most of the mind weavers, two huge fuckers were summoned, one dying by the closing of the portal. The second one we took down and now it’s more or less just killing a flood of demons. What about you guys?” she asked, looking to the lake with interest.

“I’m glad it went so well. There were demons down here, rather high leveled compared to the ones in Viscera. We cleaned up but it seems like more are coming out of the lake.” Trian explained and motioned towards the water.