Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 689: Where Lightning Strikes

Stucco, clay bricks, and the mortar that once held them all together burst into a blooming flower of raw destruction with Dys’ left fist in the center of the beautiful maelstrom. Putting the full weight of her flying charge into the punch, she broke through the farmhouse wall not just with her hand or arm, but with her whole body. Letting the momentum carry her, Dys somersaulted forward with her left in the lead, steel boots scraping the ceiling as she fully rotated around in a violent meeting of Nephilim and building, where the building most certainly came out poorly in the end. As her feet came back around to the ground, Dys’ boots struck the wooden floor of the house, cracking a structure that was likely not capable of bearing her armored weight under normal conditions, much less as part of a crash impact. With a flicker of power, Dys’ energy wings spread out around her, arresting her movement and keeping her from fully falling through the floor as she came to a stop.

The dust of her high-velocity entrance only obscured Jadis’ vision for a few moments, and not enough to stop her from seeing what lay inside of the ruined structure. Aside from the remnants of the previous residents’ belongings, and what were possibly the remnants of the previous residents themselves, several Demons were gathered amongst the wreckage. Most had not fared better than the farmhouse wall had against Dys’ entrance. Those that still stood would not do so for long by Jadis’ reckoning.

Swinging her axe in a wide horizontal arc, Dys spun in an almost complete rotation, catching the four scythe wights that were still in fighting form with the edge of her weapon. The wet splatter of their slimy insides against the floor was a background noise to the sharp pings of dozens of small projectiles spraying against her armor. Finishing her spin, Dys lunged forward with her wings trailing behind her, reaching with her left hand to grab hold of the base of the monstrous tentacles that sprouted from the torn neck stump of a young man wearing the stained tatters of a priestly robe. A freezing mist of deadly frost poured from two of the ice blue tentacles, while pelting hail and frozen arrows of ice sprayed against her helm and armor from the other glowing appendages. Dys ignored the attacks entirely, instead using her grip on the tentacles to lift the horrid abomination into the air before chopping at the base of the burst neck hole with her axe. In the next instant, the dead head’s body collapsed to the shattered floorboards in a broken heap. In the second after, the six wriggling tentacles followed.

Congratulations!

Dead Head Defeated.

Bonus Experience Points Awarded

for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.

Dys spared a moment to glance at her notifications, checking to make sure that all the Demons she had found on the second floor were dead, and that all were exactly as she thought they were. Seven scythe wights and a singular dead head. Nothing more. No Greater Demon. No skull blob. Not even a sign of the sniper’s malign magic.

“Where the fuck did that spell come from?”

Dys’ growled question was answered by the roar of battle outside and the scraping sound of furtive movement on the floor below her. Glancing out of the jagged hole she had made for herself, she saw that soldiers and Demons had engaged on the northern flank of the field, just outside of the farmhouse. Before she could move out to help the soldiers in their fight, however, Dys had to finish checking the farmstead for some sign of the skull blob. Not that she was going to waste time being gentle about it. With a roar to match the battle cries outside, Dys crashed through the second floor and down to the first, bringing splintered timbers and the bodies of her enemies with her.

“Have you seen Ammy?”

Syd’s shouted question, timed at the same moment as Dys’ heavy crash, was answered by the muted shake of Alex’s head.

“Not… Recently…”

Whipping around, Syd sliced a leaping mire hound in twain before it could reach the two soldiers who were helping a third man out from a pit of soupy mud he had been floundering in thanks to his heavy armor and gear. Next to her, Alex reached with one of her tentacles into the muck and pulled a different soldier out who had slipped beneath the surface. She lifted the coughing and spluttering man into the air where, moments later, Noct appeared. Without a word the Valravn took hold of the soldier and carried him away, back towards where the main body of the army and the majority of the healers were located. When Alex lifted the next solider into the air, this one a woman whose right wrist had been visibly crushed, it was Tacitus who grabbed her and lifted the injured away to be healed.

“Bridget! Do you know where Ammy is?” Syd turned her head to the right where the orc was blazing brightly with her blue flame. “Have you seen her?”

“She wasn’t with us when the ground collapsed,” Bridget roared over the chaos of the ambush. “Haven’t seen her!”

“Do you have any idea where Amarantha is?” Jay asked, feeling fairly certain of the answer.

“Lady Amarantha?” the unfamiliar Lares answered in a thick accent. “I do not know, I have not seen her since this morning!”

The red flame that Jay had thought might be her lover’s fiery fur had turned out to be the fire of a different Lares who had been caught in the collapse. Jadis didn’t regret taking the time to save the man; he had been about to be chomped on by several possessed myrmidons when she had arrived, and she did not want any of her allies to die. Still, he wasn’t who she had been looking for, and Jadis continued to worry that the catgirl who had so recently climbed into her bed as well as her heart was in danger somewhere amidst the tumultuous battlefield. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing where the Lares was, since she had not been keeping tabs on her exact movement.

But there was a way to know if Ammy was alive or injured.

Glancing around, Jay made sure that there weren’t any other gravely injured soldiers nearby before picking up the Lares and lifting into the sky. Disregarding the flaming cat’s yowl of surprise, Jay shot to the west, covering the half-mile distance in only a few seconds. As she sped over to the main body of the army, she saw that some of the soldiers had been organized into a sort of human chain; a hundred different strings of men were holding onto each other, turning themselves into living ladders to give their comrades who had fallen into the collapse a chance to pull themselves out of the mud and onto high ground. Even in the few seconds that passed as she glanced their way, she saw a handful of enterprising mages casting spells to reform the land into ramps, making small pathways that soldiers were able to use to escape the pit. The collapse was wide, though, covering a great deal of the ruined farmland, and the edges continued to crumble and make the hole wider as the pelting rain weakened the ground.

Just as Jay reached the front line of the soldiers who had created a shield wall at the western edge of the pit, a massive wave of gentle blue energy washed over the area. The golden sparkles that seemed to glitter in the midst of the light blue wave sought out the injured, causing those who were bedraggled and bleeding to visibly perk up.  Even the Lares carried under Jay’s arm let out a purr of relief. Checking her status sheet, Jadis saw that her health, which had been diminished thanks to the malign golden spikes and other factors like her own crashing impact into the gator monster had gone up by fifty points.

Jadis Ahlstrom

Race: Nephilim

Primary Class: Mirror Knight (44)

Secondary Class: Perverted Ritualist of D (36)

Tertiary Class: Progenitor of the Succubi (24)

Combined Level Rating: 104

Health: 2787/3630

Magic: 1500/1500

Attributes

Strength: 590

Dexterity: 238

Agility: 1141

Vitality: 288

Fortitude: 323

Endurance: 270

Arcane: 0

Divine: 0

Eldritch: 1141

Focus: 120

Resilience: 115

Will: 104

   The aura of healing had come from Jocelyn. Even if Jay hadn’t recognized the signature look of the Oracle’s magic power, it was easy to spot the powerful healer as the source, standing in the middle of a circle of heavily armored elite warriors who Jadis knew had orders not to let any harm come to Jocelyn. Nor would those guards let any danger approach the other woman who knelt at Jocelyn’s side, hands pressed against the chest of a man whose right side looked like it had been crushed by a boulder.

Landing a few feet away from the duo, Jay was about to let the Lares leap out of her arms when a thought occurred to her. Ignoring yet another yowling protest, she kept a hold onto the fiery cat and called out to the two.

“Can one of you check to make sure this guy isn’t possessed?”

“Yes, I can,” Eir answered as Jocelyn continued to murmur a quiet prayer under her breath, eyes closed and hands clasped together.

Standing up from the man who looked far more put together than he had a moment before, Eir let the two attendants quickly carry him away. While another in a parade of grievously wounded soldiers was brought forward for immediate emergency healing, Eir put her hand on the Lares and concentrated for just a moment.

“He is uncompromised,” Eir gave the pouting cat a small smile. “Thank you, Renzo, for your patience.”

“I understand,” the Lares, Renzo apparently, said in short reply. “Now I must get back to healing those souls who need it.”

“We’re going to need to do a lot more checks like that by the end of this,” Jay said as Renzo hurried down the line of severely injured men and women, stopping at each one to give them a short burst of healing. “But that’s later. Eir, is everyone alright? Is anyone critically wounded?”

“No one is critically wounded,” her elven lover shook her head. Even as she spoke, she was already putting her hand on the shoulder of the next soldier who needed immediate lifesaving attention. “Amarantha’s health dropped by a fifth when the collapse occurred, but it went back up to full almost immediately after. The most injured right now is you. Please, come stand by me and be healed.”

As Jay did as she was instructed and allowed Eir to heal her to full, the saint continued to push her healing magic into soldier after soldier who was brought through the circle of watchful guards. Beyond them, Jay could see far more healers, both avatars and human, attending to the less grievously wounded in a hasty yet practiced system of triage. As she watched, Tacitus delivered a soldier who had a great gouge in his right hip to the organized healers, dropping the man into their waiting arms before taking off into the air again.

Another burst of blue aura distracted Jay from her observation, signaling the end of Jocelyn’s chant. From her current position, Jadis could see the healing wave was directed, washing out over the nearer parts of the pit where healing was needed most while avoiding wasting any energy on the soldiers who had not yet engaged in the battle.

“Amarantha will be fine,” Jocelyn said as the glow of her massive healing spell faded. “I realize you may be feeling protective of her, but she has fought in many battles at Wilhelm’s side. She will handle herself.”

“That’s—that’s a good point,” Jay nodded at the brunette. Stepping away from Eir, she addressed both healers. “I need to get back out there. The Demons are starting to spill over into the pit.”

“Go in Valtar’s name,” Jocelyn made a sign of her priesthood towards Jay before closing her eyes and starting a new chant.

“Keep everyone safe,” Eir said with the confidence of one who had utter faith their request would be fulfilled.

As Jay lifted into the air and turned to face the front line, she heard Kerr call out to her. Spinning to the south, she saw her therion lover running towards her through the marching regiments of stolid soldiers. On the archer’s back rode Sorcha, the two having been paired up for patrol duty. As they neared, Kerr leapt into the air, her massive Strength stat allowing her to easily clear the heads and spears of the guards. Jay didn’t even have to dart forward to catch Kerr and Sorcha; the leap had been perfectly aimed and had more than enough power to cross the distance.

“Get us up to the Leviathan!” Kerr said as she landed in Jay’s arms. “I can’t hit shit behind all these soldiers and I’ll do more damage with elevation!”

“Also, take these!” Sorcha waved one of her wands in Jay’s face, followed shortly by a second. “Keep your energy up!”

Jay felt the effects of Sorcha’s energy replenishment as well as her magic recovery take hold. Nodding in thanks, Jay wasted no time in taking off, carrying the two up to the Leviathan with as much speed as she dared while carrying unharnessed allies with one arm. The airship had moved to hover over the center-forward zone of the collapsed ground, low enough that she could see the arrows of Kerr’s kinsmen flying to hit targets down below, but not so close that the ship would be in range of most spells.

Landing on the starboard side of the open deck, Kerr leapt into action, moving past two of the archers who were firing on the forward side to take up a position where she had a shot at the force that had finally reached the edge of the pit. For most any other archer, the distance would have been too great for any sort of accuracy, especially considering the rain. For Kerr, the difficult circumstances were just a challenge to overcome.

Jadis knew her first shot had been a hit when the therion let out a shout of triumph.

In the meanwhile, Sorcha had cast her energizing wand on the Nox archers before darting inside the cabin, likely intending to do the same for those on the port deck. Jay didn’t follow her progress, but instead lifted off the airship, moving to help her Syd self with the defense of the soldiers who were still trapped in the collapse. Her Dys body had just finished clearing the farmhouse, having found no Demons but mire hounds and two more scythe wights on the bottom floor. She had found a tunnel entrance under the partially destroyed hearthstone of the house’s central fireplace, so either the scouts had missed the entrance or it had not existed until recently. Either way, Dys was taking a few seconds to smash the walls and the chimney stack, forcing a collapse onto the tunnel to hinder any enemies that might try to use the tunnel again.

Moving to the front of the airship, Jay almost dove forward before noticing a completely unexpected sight. To the front of the airship by several yards stood a lone figure on a ghostly platform of arcane magic. With her long red hair plastered to her armored robes, Aila pointed her eleria-tipped staff at the edge of the collapse. With no verbal cue, a bolt of crackling purple energy surged out of the mage’s enchanted weapon.

The lightning-aligned elemental spell flew through the air, sparking and crackling with a mad power that Jadis had never been able to see before when Aila used her elementally unaligned arcane spells. When the bolt hit the ground, a huge sphere of lightning radiated from the point of impact, shocking and temporarily paralyzing a huge mass of hapless Demons. Dozens fell to the ground, unmoving and unlikely to ever rise again, while still more struggled to shake off the effects of the magic’s power.

Turning her head to look back at the bow of the Leviathan, Jay saw Sabina sitting in the pilot’s seat, vigorously waving her hand.

“You going to be okay alone up here?” Jay asked as she floated past her redheaded wonder of a lover.

“I’m not alone,” Aila replied as she shot another bolt of crackling lightning at the massed enemy forces. “I have many allies nearby.”

Looking around them, Jay saw that Aila was right. There were Seraphim constantly flying by, including Sev and Noct. There was always at least one winged ally within easy range of the mage. Nodding and accepting that her lover knew what she was doing, Jay turned back to face the horde on the ground below where her Dys self had just made another impactful return to the fight.

“Go forth and reunite those Demons with their god,” Aila called out to her as she cast a third spell.

“Yes ma’am,” Jay agreed before raising her hammer high and diving.