Chapter 9-268: Judgement (1/2)
I gave Master Fred twenty Disks to fill up. She departed with Idiot in one hand, and Sleipner riding her Grit in the other.
I went in the other direction. We went looking for those people with the crimson and/or purple souls who’d arranged for this to happen, and then we gave them Mercy, brought them back there, and impaled them on the Hellstar Pattern, so they could scream and feed the Ward protecting the island.
I found the temple to Huul they had erected here, guarded by a bunch of nervous men in blacks and reds who were not happy to see me. The gaping people in the area watched me come, and blow through those bastards explosively, destroying their temple, walking right through their spells and gunfire and explosives and grenades and charging warriors.
They watched me scatter their guards like chaff, blow open the entry of the temple, and head inside.
They watched shining multi-hued explosions erupt all over the place, blowing out windows, walls, and ceilings in sprays of stone and fire.
Then they watched me come out with dozens of clerics of Huul and Rath and Rue piled up on my Disks, and the guards outside were added to them as I soared back towards that new pillar of black light with crimson inside it spreading in the sky, stealing down like spoiled and weeping blood, forming their precious Ward.
A few minutes later, new pulses of darkness went up, and that beam grew even thicker and more turgid, the sky black as pitch, lit up only by flashes of scarlet sin raising the hackles of all who watched it.
I didn’t particularly care about their excuses or their power. The Auras of those Hellbound Warlocks had all been Good. I had an excellent idea as to what they’d been doing.
The devils had made up that Pattern for them to use, having found and incapacitated the planetar somehow. They made it seem like a civic duty for Good people to swear a Pact and help power the Ward, not informing them of the cost for them to do so. Indeed, they could simply make all of their political rivals who were Good swear a Hellpact ‘to help save everyone’, while they fought off the Cultivators and consolidated their grip on power in doing so.
Torturing Good souls to protect the craven and the cowardly beneath, getting rid of those who spoke up against their authority and their tactics.
Master Fred came back, towing Disks heaped with men in armor and martial uniforms, all of them thoroughly wrecked, and simply watched as I sent them hurtling up off the Disks and onto their very own nails, there to contribute their souls and pain to strengthening the Ward, hellfire doing its thing to leech them of pain and Sin and turn it into power their Ward could use.
“Shvaughn is very angry she is not here to see all this and gloat,” Master Fred finally said, her voice triple-layered and unique as she spoke, with multiple accents and inflections all blending together with arrogant power, confidence, and subtle temptation.
“Using all of their voices?” I asked archly.
“They stopped screaming once I did,” she replied simply. “I’m letting them voyeur, I hope you don’t mind.” She stared at the souls of the servants of Hell burning there without blinking. “You didn’t explain further, but how badly did they mess up by burning the angel, instead of trying to heal and follow it?”
“Well, among other things, planetars are the equal of Archpriests, and can Cast their own Miracles.” I surveyed the room, inclined my head back out, and we flitted that way, our wings humming with energies that didn’t actually require us to flap them, that was just for maneuverability. “He could have set up this whole thing by himself, and just powered it all up with a Miracle a day, no problem.”
She rolled her quad-color eyes up with a resonant groan. “So, total idiots.”
“Total idiots who stayed in power for who knows how many years, enjoying the worshipful support of the people they were ‘saving’.” I grit my teeth. “Their Auras were crimson. They took complete advantage of their power for all the wrong reasons, because they could, and they knew what they were doing. They deserve to burn.”
“There’s a lot more where they came from, and they are going to be desperate,” Master Fred judged calmly, not refuting the fact. Eyes of Heaven at V could certainly see every Damned thing they’d done, imprinted on their souls. Lust, greed, abuse of power, pride, hate, arrogance, self-justification, racism, sexism... it was all there to be read with a long glance that could make any person fat with Sin squirm.
“Shall we go find some more?” Master Fred asked flatly. I had to say, that voice was very attention-getting, like repeating your own words thrice all at once in multiple ways for emphasis.
“Try to focus on the faithful of Hell, of course. Any issues with the templars there?”
“No. My damage reduction is extremely high right now, as is my energy resistance.” Well, no shit. Amazon half-Strength bonus +15, plus erinyes 5/Holy, plus Warlock 5/Holy, plus Crystal Shield 11/-; Master Fred was rocking at least 35 points looking like that. She could wade through pretty much anything a straight Six could put up with complete impunity, unless they had Smites or something to bypass it... and any of those people would naturally be the first targets.
“Call if you need help. I can reach any point on this island instantly.”
“Yes,” she agreed calmly, spread all four wings, and took off like a shot, Sword and Grit out, trailed by a line of crystalline force Disks that doubtless looked like nothing more than offering plates for the Damned she was coming to harvest.
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When I arrived back at the mountain after the next run, I took our side route in, because why not? The main entry was probably set up as an ambush, which sounded so tedious right now. Besides, the unconscious and traumatized Damned, plus three doppelgangers and two lesser devils (a Scriptor Devil and a Viletongue) didn’t complain about the tight accommodations.