Chapter 1649 (2/2)
BOOOOOOOOOOOM! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN!
For the most part, the battlefield didn’t react at all as this new participant swam down toward the thickest of the fighting. The other conflicts were growing too desperate. The turtle Nether Prince had finally caught up to the cowled man and forced him to desperately mobilize his Nether Core to survive the precise attacks from his common wooden staff.
The confrontation against the Sable Rabbit was more steady; two powerful individuals from the Xyrt Brigade with the support of six others had basically reached an uneasy stalemate with the Nether Prince. The regular fatalities had finally ceased. Plus, another squad managed to slip past and had reached the edge of the Nether King’s dais.
Unfortunately for them, a powerful Nether barrier started its hunched vigil at the edge of the dais. Speculum Double Hammer had been able to brush past it, but this squad was not at that level. Perhaps in normal circumstances they would be able to break through by relying on their numbers, but on this violent and chaotic battlefield they had stalled out.
The newly arrived Speculum Pence glanced at all of this. Then he walked forward and ripped a hole in the dais’ barrier to join the other Speculum in his fight against the Nether King. Both combatants saw the new orc man’s approach and slowed their fight.
“You..” Speculum Double Hammer twisted his dry lips. His fingers tightened on his cane. “You dare show up in front of me? After all this time skulking in your precious vault?”
“Please, don’t be so melodramatic.” Speculum Pence favored his peer with a wide, tusk-filled grin. “Don’t you wish to capture this Nether King? I haven’t been watching long, but it's clear you aren’t able to do it on your own. In exchange for your home planet and your firstborn son, I’ll help tilt the scales in your favor.”
“YOU!” The older man bellowed, his face once again turning red. The Nether King tilted his disembodied helmet to the side, regarding them both with all the detached curiosity of a cat. After getting his anger under control, Speculum Double Hammer spat his words. “True, I don’t currently have the initiative, but this cretin blew his accumulated Nether to get rid of the threat of the Engraving Guild. Soon-”
“Every moment more Nether gathers,” Speculum Pence pointed out.
The two glared at each other for several long moments. It was clear that Speculum Double Hammer’s fury was rapidly mounting. Then the orc Speculum chuckled. “Okay, okay, that first offer was just a joke. What’re a few jokes between friends? Why would I even want your son? I just wish for some of the ancient artifacts of your culture. The older, the better. I’m sure you understand my intentions. Do we have a deal?”
Speculum Double Hammer scowled, but his expression did soften from its earlier intensity. But before he could respond, there was a new change on the battlefield. There was a popping from the sky, drawing the gazes of almost everyone present upward.
There, floating above the Nether King’s dais, sitting at the heart of the recovering maelstrom of Nether, stood a man in a neat military uniform with his arms folded behind his back. DiOrtho’s eyes widened as he recognized the figure. Commandant Wick offered a flat smile to the people arrayed below him, before focusing on the Nether King. “This farce has gone on long enough. Nether King, your base cunning held me off for longer than I expected. But now I’ve unraveled your riddle. And I’ve brought reinforcements. The Nexus… does not welcome your kind.”
Commandant Wick raised his arm and pointed upward with a single, solitary finger. Almost immediately, the air changed. All the collisions and shouts of the battlefield became quiet, like DiOrtho’s ears had popped. A split second later, the small amount of his Ancient Machine Horror image flinched and was crushed by a rising tide of pressure. The icy projection of a castle around the Pinnacle Seeker group cracked; the Frost Matriarch swayed.
The pooling significance had been like wearing a weighted vest. The current phenomenon seemed intent on squeezing everyone present in the crater to an imageless pancake.
From the depths of the Ancient Machine Horror, a clicking prophecy was made and DiOrtho Vant felt fear.
Above them in the darkness of the sky, beyond the spatial wall, an enormous hand manifested. Honestly, it took DiOrtho a while to recognize what it was, because the hand was large enough to grip the isolated crater and the slopes around it until the space popped.
The hand was almost comically shaped, more cartoon than a true appendage. After seeing all the extremely detailed images, this was a joke. The creator obviously hadn’t even bothered to put much effort into the hand’s ability to ‘suggest’ that it was real. Yet DiOrtho looked up at this gargantuan hand and its bulging fingers and felt only dread.
The hand settled almost lightly against the top of this isolated space. Then the fingers began to press down, warping the powerful spatial wall as though it were as malleable as clay. Bolts of negative energy crackled around these distortions as even space began to sputter and collapsed beneath the force of that hand. The horrible distortions were happening so quickly, on such a large scale, that it was difficult to follow with an ant-like viewpoint on the ground had quickly things were escalating.
“Elhume himself has moved…?” The Frost Matriarch whispered.
Next to her, the Dusk Jackal was trembling. “We have to assault the Nether Forces! Now! If we do not, we will lose our chance to-”
“Will it matter?” Seeker Thunder Wing looked up at that hand and then shook his head regretfully. “It just doesn’t make sense that he would move for this, but since he has come-”
“I refuse to make it this far without fighting!” The Dusk Jackal hissed.
Seeker Ozaer shrugged. “Then go. Enjoy being accidentally crushed.”
Even as the Dusk Jackal drooled and glared around at the other Pinnacle Seekers, Commandant Wick spoke again with a satisfied smile on his face. “You know, I find it quite relieving that you show no fear, even now. Breaking such a stubborn individual… is exactly the sort of activity that I find most fulfilling.”