Chapter 7-182 - Party Crashers Crashing (1/2)
The Phantom Servants I’d left there heaved on their strings, and the net of Glyphs of Warding on their scribed plates, accented by all the Alchemical explosives I’d been able to bind to them, surfaced all around the whiteness, with the woman in the classical gorgeous and highly impractical phoenix dress right in the middle of them.
The Earth Elemental I’d called up out of the ground and Imbued with Spell Ability cast the Stillflight Field at the same time, then receded, its task done.
She had great reflexes and tried to flit up out of the way, and quite literally got nowhere.
That makes it REALLY hard for the old Reflex save. Circumstance penalty to saves and all that.
She screamed as the bright green deluge of acid explosions hit her from all directions. She could have weathered three or four of them easily, even boosted by Alchemical bombs. But eight of them?
She was hosed. Down. Yes.
Her screams became gargles as her non-mortal flesh sloughed away, the acid too intense, too powerful, too magical. She didn’t have any skin as she started to fall, and by the time she hit the ground, she was missing so much connective tissue that her body split apart and fell in all directions. Even her gleaming bones were being pitted and corroded by the acid, far from being strong enough to deny it.
Her companions could only stare on in shock and horror, before looking around in outrage.
I dispelled the Servants out there with a fingersnap, leaving them to flail around and indiscriminately blow things up as they rapidly retreated from the area of the Stillflight Field. They happily chose a vector that let me keep them in sight, and when they finally got up into the air almost a hundred paces away, they definitely had ugly expressions on their faces.
But what could they do? They definitely didn’t have access to resurrection magic, and now the corpse and everything were burning a white that was hostile and vivid to their eyes. Even if they had soul-preserving stuff, it wasn’t going to work now... vivus had a hold on her alien spirit, and the Land was feasting as merrily as we had.
The Mick poked his head into the room. “Am I missing something important in here?” he asked grandly, incredibly smug about the simple fact that he was the first Blooded ever to walk so deeply in Heavenbound Hall, ever.
“Got a Cultivator with the old Pandora trick.” He saw the image of the three Cultivators in the distance on Stand, turning and flying off into the brooding skies there. “Thanks, Stand.” I gave the Shield a thumbs-up as his surface turned back to its mottled format, and he shrank to Buckler size as he zipped past The Mick, who opened the door to let the Shield skim past and head back to Sama.
“They really are alive?” he asked softly, for no particular reason.
“You can do the same with Smior, you know,” I told him, and his eyes flashed slightly. “It’s a major investment in Naming Karma and/or goldweight, however, especially if you want him to be truly effective, and a true partner.”
He had Morphing on the Katana now, so it could ride easily as a Tanto at his hip, and he didn’t need to do something disrespectful like toss it over a shoulder to carry it.
“I’d need to know some particulars,” he wheedled, his trademark white grin in place.
“Of course.” I took all the fun out of his begging, and didn’t even ask for return favors or anything. He also knew that if he started keeping official track, I most certainly would, too, and lose a great deal of respect for him. Neutrals devolved non-family relationships down to gain and loss; to blend in with Good people, he basically had to treat them all like family, which was a trying thing to do for someone like him.
He was working on it, however.
“When are we going back?” he asked calmly.
“Figure eight hours. I’ll bring us back to a prior site, regain full Valences, and we’re going to drive right for the crater. Now they know we know, so I want to see what kind of fun things they think they can pull there.”
“Yer expecting something interesting?”
“If all goes well, there is going to be a massive slaughter tomorrow.” I paused a moment as I met his eyes. “I’m going to be carrying twenty Tapestry rolls.”
His mouth opened, closed. That was a lot of Tapestry rolls... each able to hold a 10x10x10 cube of Itemized stuff, basically...
“I shall prepare accordingly,” he promised.
“Shoo. Go woo the Nuavans. I know some have been eyeing the naughty Blooded they are supposed to be staying away from.”
“Och, harmless thing that I am, they need be wary of? I shall be the first to reassure them of my fine upstanding virtues!”
“As I said.” He tipped his hat at my words, and went strolling off, looking totally out of place and absolutely loving it.
He is definitely a character, Master Fred noted to me silently, in time with the automatic flaming words above his shoulder.
“Amen.” I put my feet down, and headed for the door. “Come on, there’s some Allegiance stuff I have to be putting in personal appearances for, and the Graf and the Angelos want to chat some, too...”
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The news that the Angelos could also Raise people from the dead now, and was only getting stronger, had set off quiet waves, just like how Graf Mochtal’s Artificing abilities had abruptly exploded and were setting off a revolution of high QL Gear that could not be made before. Between the two of them, more high QL stuff than the Hall had ever seen before had been made in the last month, and the supply of it was only increasing.
One reason they were tolerating The Mick so much was because of the Energized gemstones that I’d been Teleporting to the Hall every single day, different size rocks Energized to different Elements and Levels.