Chapter 49 - Massacre Part 4

No one had truly understood what had happened.

Ultaf Shimizu tried his hardest to keep staring in open horror. He couldn’t afford the lapse in judgment.

After escaping from Aguilar, Ultaf had instantly sent word to his grandfather, but to no avail. None of their communication spells were going through. Someone had set up an interference field around the entire castle, without anyone being any wiser. Ultaf didn’t know what kind of person was capable of something like that, but he had no doubt that it was no coincidence. The interference barrier, Bergott showing up with the changeling and Him— it was all a set up.

Isolate. Penetrate. Attack.

This was a siege upon the Peak. And the enemy wanted no survivors.

He had been a little suspicious, when Aguilar had surrendered so easily. No man that could take on his elite forces and cause this much damage without so much as a scratch on their bodies would give up that easily. Ultaf knew that there was a chance that the man held some kind of devastating attack hidden up his sleeve, perhaps something on the upper-end of a Level-3. The worst part was that despite all the destruction and loss of life, Ultaf had gotten no closer to understanding exactly what the man’s powers were.

He could employ lifeforce, dangerously so. He had impossible speed, impossible strength, and his accuracy and reflexes that bordered on fantastical. Every single blow mattered, every tiny movement counted. It was like he was using the enemy’s own strengths against themselves.

And then there was his armor. Ultaf had never seen or even heard of something like that. A liquid metal that one could wear like armor, yet be infused with spirits of predators to create a faithful approximation and be controlled through one’s will? Especially one of such impossible strength and regeneration? Such prowess in necromancy was absolutely maddening. Men of such tumultuous power either had their own shadow empires, or acted as covert mercenaries in the service of Kings. Somehow, Banksi had gotten his hands on this gem, and gotten the changeling and Bergott to get him to rescue him out. An outrageous plan, but not unfathomable, if the man’s prowess was any indication.

But, if Aguilar was a mercenary, then by definition, he could be bought. And Ultaf wanted him. All he needed to do was outbid whatever Banksi was offering.

The first step, of course, had been to put him in an overwhelming situation. He was powerful, but sooner or later, quality fell short before sheer, overwhelming numbers. He had thought Aguilar had bought his bluff, especially when he had dropped the armor. Ultaf had been a little tense, seeing the blackened liquid spread out of his form and spread across the courtyard. It was odd, but not odd enough. Slime-based monsters usually turned to liquid goo once they were killed. Crafted out of liquid metal or not, this thing was no different.

Plus, even if this was his attempt at diversion, Ultaf doubted Aguilar could pull off something truly dangerous with it, especially when his entire body was bare to the soldiers’ ammunition. Even the slightest display of hostility and his men would have punctured his body a thousand times.

It was simply not reasonable.

Aguilar had taught him better.

It started with a single yelp.

Then another. And another. And another.

He didn’t know what was going on, but it was obvious who was causing it.

“ATTACK!” He yelled. “Kill that bast—”

Before he could even finish that line, his body stiffened, as an entire flank went ramrod straight, and a wave of  something radiated out of the liquid metal into their bodies…

…. And they dropped like stringless marionettes.

Six hundred soldiers. Dead. Just like that.

Ultaf stared and stared and stared, but nothing, nothing he could imagine could justify what he had just seen. As hard as it was for him to admit, this man… frightened him. He was simply something he couldn’t comprehend, someone that screamed into the core of his being that he could not defeat him, could not fight him, could not even touch him, to do so would mean his end, or worse.

And there he was, Lukas Aguilar, just standing there, without armor, without so much as a fighting stance, meeting his eyes without care or concern.

And with due reason, for none of the soldiers were attacking him. The fallen were sinking down into the pool of liquid metal, as if it were an ocean with an untold depth underneath. Hands, legs, and even heads could be seen floating in the pool, which was twisting and churning, and becoming more and more viscous with every passing moment. Those alive were reacting the same way people unfamiliar with being assaulted by an unknown weapon at full-tilt would react. By shouting, screaming, and running around in general confusion. Half of them had already left their flanks and were running away, jumping off the courtyard to save their lives.

Ultaf couldn’t fault them. There was nothing wrong in fighting an opponent you couldn’t beat, but one you couldn’t understand, that was another matter. And then there was that smile playing on Aguilar’s face, one that told him that what waited for the survivors was something far, far worse than death.

The aeromancers had already taken to air, constantly bombarding the liquid metal with pressure blasts and wind scythes, which only spread it to greater distances. Whoever it touched, the person began to instantly decay, their skin melting faster than a burning candle, leaving nothing but bone which got absorbed into the pool beneath. The floor was enchanted against terramancy, and thus the terramancers became fodder for the slime that  gobbled them up whole. Those with the power to jump to great heights were climbing up walls to avoid the nightmare while the unfortunate ones that were stuck below were praying to the gods, praying that this was all a nightmarish dream.

Yet not a single person had attacked Aguilar all this time.

Because reality in this case, was so impossibly terrifying that they wanted to shut their eyes and pretend it wasn’t happening. They had heard the roars made by this metal-slime when it had taken a gigantic, draconic form, only to reform into armor for the stranger, and now it had transformed into a curse so antithetical to life that just being in contact with it was decaying warriors and beasts alike to half-corroded bones? His army had been shocked to an extent that they believed the stranger to be fundamentally unstoppable, their rationale overwhelmed with so much fear that they believed they had already lost.

It was a strategy that his grandfather employed against others. And Lukas Aguilar had employed it against them.

And the effect was equally devastating.

Ultaf sighed resignedly, and looked up at the sky.

It was, as Aguilar had said, quite beautiful.

....

....

....

“They’ve gone this way!” yelled someone. “Capture only! We need them alive!”

The call came from down the hallway. Olfric wasn’t invisible, but he might as well have been given the opaque, brown water he had conjured to hide himself, Zuken and Elena. A neat trick he had developed by combining Aquamancy with a little metamancy, thanks to his kami. Throw in a little destructionfest in the other direction, and he had a nice little distraction.

BOOOOM!

Those explosions helped too. It was difficult to stay focussed when your fortified castle, known to be practically impregnable, was crashing and burning like a house of cards. Whatever Aguilar had planned, it was working.

“You know,” rasped Zuken, coughing as he did. “When I saw you coming in with Elena and Aguilar, I thought you were here to negotiate.” The terramancer put his hand over Elena’s shoulder for support. “Maybe trick Ultaf into freeing me. I didn’t expect… well, this.”

“We thought an ambush would be a better idea,” said Elena.

Zuken gave her an inscrutable look. “You call this an ambush? It’s a suicide mission.”

Yes, thought Olfric. A suicide mission for those trying to stop Aguilar.

He and Elena had quickly gotten down and freed Zuken from the dungeons where he had been kept shackled, and were rushing through the corridors, trying to find their way to the stairways. The elevator system would have been faster, but with the fortress under demolition, they liked their odds on the stairwell a lot better than in the cramped confines of the elevator system.

“Tell me about it,” said Elena, panting. “Aguilar made like a dozen plans about the negotiation, and then I had to make Olfric and myself forget about all of them. Olfric spent days convincing himself that his only role was to negotiate with Ultaf. And then Aguilar does this.”

As if on cue, as a gut-wrenching roar reverberated through the large walls of the fortress.

“What was that?” Zuken snapped, alarmed.

“That,” Elena scowled, “was his pet metal slime.”

Zuken arched an eyebrow.

“Trust me. You don’t want to know.”

“Whatever it is, obviously it worked,” said Zuken with a lopsided grin. “So, can’t really blame him, can I? What do you say, Olfric?”

But Olfric didn’t reply. His mind was still reeling from the scene earlier. He remembered the power he had sensed from that monster, the overwhelming amount of mana crammed into such a tiny puddle of metal that he could hardly believe it.

Even now, he was having trouble believing it. And he had seen it happen with his very own eyes. Its power… Olfric had no idea where it came from. Yes, Lukas was powerful, extremely agile and could do shit with just his lifeforce that most people couldn’t even attempt with kami. But even then, he wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough to craft a monster like that. Even disregarding the impossibility of transforming a living puddle into a draconic being, complete with instincts and all, the monster held more power in itself than Lukas could theoretically even produce.

And yet he had done so effortlessly.

It shouldn’t have been possible to create a familiar more powerful than you were, but it appeared no one had bothered to tell Lukas that.

“You were right, Banksi,” he managed to squeeze through gritted teeth. “That guy is a freaking demigod.”

The grin on Zuken’s face faded. “So, I was right. He really was hiding his power.”

“I don’t know about that,” Olfric admitted. “Honestly, I don’t think Aguilar can even manage a poker face that well. We both saw what he was capable of back in the anomaly. But this guy? He is… easily a magnitude, no, multiple magnitudes more than what he was back then. I had gravely injured him back then with my Level-2 attack. This guy? I’m not sure if Level-2’s can even scratch him.”

“You’re telling me he’s grown that strong in the last few months?”

Olfric shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know, Banksi. I don’t fucking know! Just contemplating the idea hurts my head. People grow strong, but Aguilar’s speed is just bullshit.”

“At least he’s on our side,” said Zuken, pushing the manacles off his wrists. They had no clue where the soldiers had kept his fractals, but at least he was able to feel Avriel’s presence as well as his lifeforce rushing through his body. It would take some time before he was combat-ready, but better late than never. “What about Tanya? Have you heard from her?”

Heard from her? Olfric wanted to laugh. What would he say? That Tanya was the true heiress of the Shimizu Clan, or that she wielded the King-class kami that belonged to the former Wind King? Olfric thought of how she and Maude were working with this elusive Lady Kandra, who was secretly a yokai and influencing the Empire politics for decades, and how he had seen Tanya manipulate the Haviskali Overseer, and by extension, Shogun Naowa. Then he thought about how Tanya was also secretly a Yokai queen, and a descendant of the last yokai Empress herself?

Finally he opened his mouth. “Yes. yes I have.”

“And—?”

Olfric clicked his tongue in annoyance. But before he could say anything, two things happened that completely wiped the thoughts from his mind.

The first was a sickeningly sweet sensation crawling up his spine. If the scent of decaying bodies and corrosion could be converted into a tangible sensation, this would have been his closest analogy.

The second came almost instantly after, in the form of Elena clutching her head and screaming her throat bloody.

Swearing, both he and Zuken tried to hold her back from collapsing down on the ground. The moment he touched her, a tidal wave of pure blackness crashed into his psyche, swallowing him into an eternal abyss of shadows so dense that he thought it was going to swallow something. Like, maybe the world. The wave of pure psychic pressure sent him reeling, like he had been hit like a blast of lightning, and Olfric staggered and fell back against the floor.

“Ugh!” cried Elena, rubbing her head. “That son of a bitch! Just wait until I get my hands on his filthy —”

“Elena?” Zuken asked, groaning, looking equally traumatized if not worse. “What on earth was that?”

“That,” she growled. “Was the damned signal. Aguilar has begun the purge.” She looked at Olfric. “Time for stage two.”

“You have a Stage One and a Stage Two?” asked Zuken, amused.

Olfric chagrined. “We need to get to the Well, and quickly.”

“The Well?” snapped Elena. “Fuck the Well. The entire place is about to crash down! We’ll be buried if we don’t get a way out soon! Send the damned signal!”

“Won’t help!” said Olfric, clenching his teeth, as another explosion resounded, this one from the southern end. “Unless we get to the Well, Tanya cannot get past the wards!”

As if things weren’t worse enough, the ceiling above them caved in right then, and Olfric had to raise a layer of hastily conjured water to create a bubble that barely held the stones from squashing them to paste.

Damn it!” He cursed, throwing in every bit of mana he could procure to hold the heavy weight above them, and also squeeze a way out. “God Susanoo, I know I have committed blasphemy recently, but you know my intentions were pure! I only wanted to save my friend, and both of them deserve better than to die here! Please, show us a way out!”

And then, abruptly, the corridor ahead of them was hollowed out by a burst of furious wind, a massive tremor that pierced to the heart of the stone colossus, telling everyone that a feral storm had arrived. The explosion flung the caved ceiling high into the air, and sent it crashing in the opposite direction.

“I — I thought Asukan gods weren’t so literal,” Elena choked.

Olfric exhaled, and dissipated the water barrier, his dust-stained face breaking into a brief smile as he gained a breath. “Are you complaining?”

“No, no way,” began Elena, only to stagger as she realized who was standing in front of them, and what that explosion had really been.

“Tanya…” choked Zuken. “You look different.”

“And you… alive,” chirped the aeromancer. “Sorry I was a little delayed in getting here. Had to deal with those annoying onmyoji first. Sanctimonious sons of bitches tried to trap me in Eternal Light.” She paused, and looked at Olfric. “No offense.”

“None taken,” said Olfric dryly.

Elena let Olfric act as Zuken’s support. “Aguilar’s gone crazy. Are we still heading for the Well?”

“Well, you need to. The others… Oh, excuse me!” She jerked her head, and took her metal whip out, frost spreading all over it, and snapped it upward, grabbing a soldier that was aiming at them from atop a pillar, cutting him into two halves with a single smooth motion.

The entire exchange barely took a second.

“I can see why you were trapped in this corridor,” she said. “This place is practically infested with soldiers. I can see why fighting so many at once could be troublesome.”

“I…. yes,” said Olfric. “You clearly look troubled.”

Tanya giggled, filling Olfric with fresh horror. “Well, I didn’t say I was upset by it. Just noticing that it isn’t effortless. I must confess, I was actually looking forward to adding my own two bits of carnage, but obviously Lukas is being a meanie here and grabbing all the fun for himself. Still..” she sighed. “There are enough soldiers running around so I can derive a little enjoyment by wiping them out.”

Olfric and Zuken looked at each other. Not for the first time, he wondered about the strange dynamic between her and Lukas. Yes, they were lovers now, but even from the very beginning, they seemed to connect on a deeper, more primal level. Even their mannerisms when it came to approaching war was similar.

As was their insanity.

Birds of the same feather flock together, as the saying goes.

“Erm,” said Elena, raising a hand, like she was asking a teacher at the Shrine. “Do you know exactly what Aguilar is up to?”

Her grin widened. “He’s released the dranzithl from the Crypt. I can recognize its stench from here. Ultaf must have really pissed him off to release that thing. And trust me, it’s way worse than the original. Just gross!”

“And… what is it doing?” asked Zuken.

Tanya smiled. “Judgment.”

Seeing their blank faces, she giggled again. “Whatever. Let’s get out of here. I’m already pissed that he got to face an entire army and he didn’t think of inviting me.”

I was right, Olfric decided. Birds of a feather indeed.