Chapter 9-267: Alternate Methods (1/2)
His Crystal Dragon Heavyfoot was still apparent in her stride, all his clothes having morphed with the change in convenient fashion. I didn’t have Tremblesense, but when her heel came down, and her sole rolled forwards, the hellfire on the ground was getting out of her way.
It flowed past and over her, but refused to touch her. The sight was definitely eye-catching, especially as it blazed around her dual wings. She wasn’t a four-winged angel, but, mmm, given that level of strength and power right now, Master Fred probably qualified regardless.
She stepped up to the dais, crouched down, and drove her nails into the solid basalt with an audible crunch.
Now, there’s no way physics would allow her to lift the thing. Even if flesh wouldn’t compress to powder and blood spurt out as bone shattered under the pressure, the stone she was holding onto would crack and crumble both in her grip and the amount of weight it was being forced to take.
However, all Strength has a TK component once you pass a certain level, where the body is being supported by the mind and soul, not just physics... well, supported by a lot of magic, too.
That means it can do things that are not physically possible, no different than using Telekinesis might be... except since you were doing it with your body, it was a LOT more powerful.
Wrath spat in opposite directions along the seam on the floor even as she straightened up in a perfect dead lift weight-lifting posture, and whatever was fusing this stone to the ground cracked and broke with an ear-splitting protest.
The massive energy stream heading up top was instantly thrown off-center and stopped, which would naturally bring down the islands-wide Ward they’d thrown up. That was way, way down on my list of concerns, although I was plenty sure everyone up top would be starting to panic soon.
Master Fred lifted the edge of the dais over her head, then hand-walked along into the center of it, sending the hellfire streams washing across the walls as she turned it nearly vertical, nails scoring the stone in swathes as she kept it under control.
Master Fred reached the middle of the circle, let it come down onto her shoulders as she drove her nails into it, and calmly and smoothly, every step making the floor crack in protest, walked it out into the Hellstar Pattern, holding it up above the ground on her hands and head.
It was about thirty feet across and a foot thick... the thing was not light, especially with that huge rock Altar sitting atop it, still burning the planetar caught there, but now unable to vent that pain anywhere. Streams of celestial pain and gloating infernal Scorn were splaying around and off the ceiling, some getting vented up top, but not enough to really do anything.
It looked like a nice big door leading in here now, is all.
Master Fred set foot outside the Hellstar Circle, and the Greyfield effect in the air cut off entirely. The devil writhing there on his own stela was still burning, and I took the opportunity to stride ahead, dragging two men in body armor adorned with the unholy symbols of the Lord of the Second Layer, their faces plastered white by the impact of the shots that had knocked them out cold.
A moment later, I slammed the first one down upon his own stela, even as the floor was shifting under my feet. That carved stela suddenly got a lot sharper, and as it punched through him, his eyes popped open at the soul-searing agony, but the mouth that started to scream wasn’t physical.
Shaping Stone at VII writhed through the vulnerable stone as I remade the Pattern, and long impaling spikes rose up out of the floor at many, many places, while the carved stelae that had been mere power regulators suddenly became taller and larger and much, much sharper.
I waved my hand, and a Chain Unlock swept through the manacled Hellbound, all their chains and bracelets springing apart, even as their torturous drain of Pact energy was halted by the disruption of the master Pattern. I whipped up Disks to accept each of the shattered Warlocks, easing them onto the circles of force as I lifted the second Illrigger and kindly drove him down upon his very own impaling spike, to begin his Torment and fueling of the Ward.
The nine-pointed Star now had new six-sided Stars inside each of its arms, all of them beginning to glow and burn with holy silver light, taking the hellish energies and turning them inside out, purifying them to a new and greater purpose.
The entire nature of the Hellstar began to change, and suddenly the absence of the Altar didn’t seem to be having the effect that it could have. New dark energy, now being happily directed by the silver, began to swirl up into the conduit and head for the surface there.
The Ward wouldn’t have near the red in it that it had had before, however.
I completed my circuit of the Hellstar, hearing the first beatings coming at the thick door there as someone arrived to inquire as to what was going on quickly.
Master Fred watched from the side, arms across her chest, as silent as ever as I stepped up onto the dais, and moved up to the side of the planetar.
He was still impaled, body and soul still being seared by unholy fire, but it wasn’t draining him, wasn’t ripping at him. However, I could see that he had been fused to the thing, and there wasn’t any way to cut him free that probably wouldn’t kill him in the trying.
All by design, of course.
“Suppress that hellfire!” I snarled, and before I could reach out and grasp the angel’s quivering head, Master Fred had slammed a hand down on the impaling spike, and thoroughly quashed the hellfire it was emitting.
My hands came down on the head of the angel in those few seconds of relief from his torment.
“HOPE.”
The Word tore through his pain and despair, clearing away the rage and fear and trauma of those times, and for a key and vital moment, pure clarity shone in his shining silver and emerald eyes.
“VALOR.” Enabling this angel to face this moment without fear, with all his belief and courage, and not be held back by such.