Chapter 1648 (2/2)
The hammers swung downward and the limbless gauntlets floated upward and clenched into fists. Without backing down, the two disembodied punches accelerated to meet the hammers.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
DiOrtho was dizzy, but the bigger problem was he was coughing so hard that he couldn’t breathe. He was afflicted with the sudden and completely certain belief that he was about to suffocate. His coughs worsened as he began to panic. And he was hacking too much to get a clear view of the battlefield below, but the noises informed him that the battle continued.
BOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOOM! BOOOM!
DiOrtho was swaying when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He blinked as the coughs fell away and was faced with the stoic face of Seeker Ozaer’s disciple. Seeing that DiOrtho was paying attention, the young man with white-blonde hair began to speak. “You can think of reality as the most powerful suggestion you ever encounter. When you step, reality ‘suggests’ where and how that your foot should stop. The air against your skin ‘suggests’ that the temperature is cold.
“A Speculum has neared the Pinnacle, and are therefore indistinguishable from reality, up to a point. It can be said that part of your current pain is because you don’t yet have a firm grasp of our current reality. But the hammers of Speculum Double Hammer contain the very pointed suggestion of failure to their targets. You experienced that echo and your body believed you had encountered reality. If you wish to continue to stand here… you must take care not to be misled.”
After offering that alarming bit of information, Seeker Ozaer’s apprentice turned away to observe the battle below. DiOrtho sucked in a breath and rapidly blinked. There was a long moment where he wavered between continuing to expose himself to these threats versus returning to where Overseer Helen and the Head Drill Sergeant were standing.
Yet DiOrtho’s expression hardened. I need this. If I ever want to stop relying on others to protect the precious things in my life… I need to grow.
With this resolution firming up his mental defenses, DiOrtho Vant looked back down toward the Nether King’s dais. At this point, the old man and the Nether King were engaged in a brutally fast exchange of blows, the Nether King relying on his gauntlets and the Speculum wielding his cane. But it quickly became obvious that the image user was being pushed back; the Nether King moved so quickly that even he couldn’t open up enough space to manifest his signature image.
The old man moved and ‘suggested’ that the space around him was different, but the Nether King ignored all artifice and used those horned fists to shatter space and catch up to his quarry.
Even worse for the Speculum, the spinning patterns of starlight above the dais began to assume a malevolent cast. A grand design was quickly assembling itself. DiOrtho didn’t have near enough understanding of what was happening to speculate what the effect would be, but it was clear that the Nether King was bringing to bear a massive Nether Ritual.
Flashes of a concrete-seeming hammer kept appearing in the Speculum’s cane, but it wasn’t enough. Soon, the situation had devolved to the point that the frantically moving Speculum’s face became red and he spat out. “Don’t just stand there and watch! Help me!”
This time, both the Engraving Guild and Military High Command began to move. The cowled man waved his hand and two more black spikes rose up behind him. On the other side, the archer was still recovering but the leader of the Xyrt Brigade took the front and began marching forward with another twenty soldiers.
The Sable Rabbit had its machine gun spit suppressed and one of its back legs was broken. The turtle humanoid’s shell had been cracked by the earlier spike and the being could no longer neutralize force. However, both were still powerful Nether Princes and moved to slow the forces that went to aid the Speculum.
DiOrtho looked at Seeker Ozaer next to him. She shook her head, seeming to read his thoughts. “We wait. It might look desperate, but no one believed that we could capture the Nether King without casualties.”
There was something chilling about that statement, but DiOrtho understood that was simply the way of the Nexus. In their eyes, nothing could be accomplished without casualties.
With the cowled man and the Xyrt Brigade member leading the charge, the two Nether Princes began to endure serious pressure. Massive images blossomed into the sky, proudly resisting the pressure of the pooling significance. Explosions ripped apart the ground and left deep wounds across the landscape.
The humanoid turtle was smashed again and again by powerful blasts from the Engraving Guild, leaving it bedraggled and staggering. Meanwhile, the Sable Rabbit’s lack of mobility meant that the soldiers continued to kite and around it while other squads attempted to rush past the defensive lines and make it onto the dais.
Seeing this, the Nether King paused in his assault on the Speculum and released a bright light from his eyes. The starlight above them finally crystallized into a rigid pattern, centering on the snarling old man who fought with his cane.
The cowled man sprang forward and waved his arm. “This is our chance! I deny you, monster!”
The final two black spikes spun and shot forward at the Nether King’s back. As the humanoid turtle was constantly being knocked around, it wasn’t able to help defend its master. It could only helplessly watch as the spikes surged past and began to release their brilliant runes.
A small noise echoed across the battlefield. And DiOrtho Vant would never forget that sound of the Nether King’s chuckle.
“Are the servants of Aether the only ones who can plot?”
The Nether King’s gauntlet floated up, buoyed only by grey smoke, and he snapped his fingers. The arrangement of the Nether Array abruptly shifted. Lines twisted and reconnected in a new shape. From targeting the old man, the new array had four targets: each of the black spikes. The starlight brightened and before anyone could react, all for spikes cracked and shattered.
The pooled Nether above them was mostly depleted in that move. But before anyone could react, the Sable Rabbit began to spit out its deadly ammunition once more. The humanoid turtle ignored the blows that had knocked it off balance previously and advanced with malicious intent toward the cowled man.