Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 691: POV Justicar

The slow, treacherous slog of clearing the battlefield of the demonic threat took several hours. Not because the horde was endless; the greater part of the enemy forces was destroyed in the first twenty minutes of the chaotic melee. The true issues were the stragglers and the land. At any point a nest of the vicious curs could rise up out of the ground and attack, a pocket of cruelty waiting for an unwary soul to draw close enough to strike. Even when there was no Demon waiting below, the ground would sometimes cave in, taking more soldiers with it, albeit in smaller numbers than the initial collapse, yet still adding to the casualty list that had already reached the four digit mark. It took time to search the enemy out, and more time yet to clear a new area of land for the army to make camp, all while the relentless rain continued to thunder overhead.

Severina stood inside of the command tent, water dripping from her feathers. She did not feel cold thanks to the constant and rigorous activity she had been engaged in even up to just a few minutes before, but she knew that the chill of being soaked in cold rainwater for so long could steal the life out of a body faster than one might think. The healers would be run ragged trying to keep the soldiers from falling ill at a time when magic was needed to fix the wounds of battle. If Eir and Jocelyn had not been counted in their number, Severina did not think that it would be possible to keep all in fighting condition. If it had just been either one of the two, she still doubted their success, and even together she had her worries.

There were other worries for her to focus on besides healing, however. Most pressingly, the discussion being held between the Voltonian generals, the Hero, and Jadis.

“Sei fottutamente cieco o semplicemente incompetente!?”

“Chiudi la bocca, stronzo!”

Discussion was perhaps not a strong enough word.

General Salvius and General Ovinius had been arguing in their mother language for quite some time. The debriefing had begun in Imperial, as several of those in the tent were not able to speak Voltonian. Aside from Severina herself, Jadis, Wilhelm, and Ludger were present. There were also representatives from the other divine avatars, such as the Dryad Eutychia, the Lares Sirio, the Golem Kalliope, and the Valbjorn Gern of clan Gavia. Or was it Dern? Severina had trouble telling the two stoic brothers apart, as they were virtually identical. Regardless of which man stood silently to the side, the discussion had begun as well as could be expected, but it had not taken long before the recriminations had started to fly.

Severina had been to Volto many times in the course of her duties, both before and during the current Demon invasion. In her experience, there was little point in trying to break up two Voltonians once they began to cluck and bicker like angry smatterlings. Better to let them vent their energies and wait for them to wear their voices out, then begin a true discussion once their tempers were calmed. It was not a pleasant prospect, as the hour was already well past late and Severina wanted nothing more than to bed down for the night, but she did not see any way to calm the two fiercely arguing generals without escalating the situation further or possibly risking a diplomatic incident.

It was when the slightly damp towel was gently draped over her wings that Severina was reminded that there was one in their number who did not have much care for diplomatic incidents or their aftermath.

Severina watched with growing resignation as one of Jadis strode up to the two men with purpose. She expected the giant woman to shout, or curse, or say something rude and mildly amusing as she so often did, which would have had bad enough results. Instead, the Nephilim took a more direct approach. Before either man could fully recognize her looming presence, Jadis reached out with both hands and grasped hold of each general by the head, completely encompassing their faces within the palms of her gauntleted fists.

Then she lifted.

“I am too tired to listen to the two of you fight right now,” Jadis stated in a surprisingly calm voice. However, when one of the generals made a muffled noise, she shook them both, causing them to go quite still. “I am going to put you both down. You will not start fighting again. Understand?”

There was no verbal response, but after a moment of quiet stillness, Jadis seemed satisfied. With no more efforts than a servant placing a platter on a table, she set the two fully grown men wearing their full kit of armor down, then released their faces. Without another word to spare for the silent generals, Jadis moved back to where Severina stood and sat down heavily on the large log she had carried into the command tent to serve as a suitable seat for her size. Looking up at Severina, the Nephilim raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Need another towel?”

“No, this is quite enough,” Severina said dryly as she moved the towel over her left wing.

“I think I will repeat my earlier question,” Wilhelm said after a short pause, giving Jadis an assessing look that was shared among many of the others present. “General Ovinius. Why do you believe this was not an ambush?”

“I did not say this was not an ambush,” the bald human said, his stiff expression hiding the no doubt heated emotions behind the glare that was pointed at Jadis. “I said this was not an ambush in the way that the Demons planned.”

“What more evidence—”

“I am speaking,” Ovinius cut Salvius off. “Will you not hear my rationale before you piss on my head from your high horse?”

The curly-haired general threw his hands into the air but otherwise held his tongue.

“I do not believe that the Demons meant to collapse the land,” the older general glared once more before he continued in his raspy tones. “The witness testimony of those who were caught in the collapse show that the Demons were rising up out of the ground, opening tunnels from underneath, attacking from below. The rain was heavy, but there was no way for the Demons to have known that it would rain so much, or at all for that matter. If it had not been raining all day, I do not believe the ground would have collapsed. Nor do I believe that the Demons counted on the ground falling in. I would say that they planned to attack from below and from the side and the collapse was mere chance. An accident brought upon by their own reckless digging, which no doubt killed many of their own kind when the earth above them collapsed on their heads! The bodies my men have seen half-buried in the mud as we have searched for our own tell the story. How can the Demons be so clever as to set up a massive pit trap that would catch thousands of men inside of it, but also so stupid that they would kill hundreds, if not thousands of their own in the same trap? It does not bear the weight of scrutiny.”

“You are assuming that so many Demons died in the collapse,” Salvius rebutted the moment Ovinius stopped speaking. “Can you tell the difference between those bodies that were crushed by the earth falling in on them and those that were cut down in battle? Is the form of a dead mire hound so clear to your eyes that you can see the signs the same as you would upon a man? Demons do not breathe, Ovinius. They do not eat! Many of those we fight are made of the earth themselves! Perhaps they do not fear being trapped under the earth. Perhaps they do not value their own lives and are perfectly willing to sacrifice themselves to make sure an ambush goes as planned? Perhaps they burst up out of the ground to keep their prey caught within the area of their trap? Do none of these possibilities bear weight in your mind?”

As Ovinius opened his mouth to reply, a calmer voice cut in.

“Does it matter?”

Both generals paused, the fight that had begun to rise again despite Jadis’ warnings quelled by an earnest question.

“Does it matter?” Wilhelm repeated, his gaze sweeping the room. “Whether they meant for the ground to collapse or not, the Demons set an ambush and it succeed in taking lives. Not as many as they would have hoped for, I am certain, but men died. I do not believe the details of the ambush matter, not so much as the answer to what we will do to stop more ambushes from happening does.”

“He’s right,” Ludger said, pointing a finger at the hero from where he sat next to Wilhelm. “I would like to know what we can do to make sure there are not more tunnels waiting for us at the next campsite. Does anyone else?”

A murmur of agreement rose from those gathered in the tent, though one voice could be heard above the rest.

“I would like to know how it is the scouts did not find these tunnels before so many soldiers were marched overtop them.”

Eyes turned towards Kalliope, the strangely shaped Golem. The words had not been spoken in reproach; in fact, they had not been spoken with any inflection at all. As was true for all of her kind, Kalliope showed little emotion in her conversation. Quite a difference when compared to her singing, Severina mused while she waited for others to respond. She wondered which of the generals would move to defend their scouts first but was proven wrong when neither spoke up before another voice answered.

“The tunnels were found,” Sirio, the Lares representative stated. “Just as there were tunnels found in and around the campsite of the night before. And the night before that. And on the road between every campsite for the last five days. This land is riddled with holes, some hidden, some exposed. The scouts saw tunnels, no more than expected, reported them, and that was that. I cannot blame them. I did the same.”

“There is no chance that any scout thought the number of tunnels under that farmland was acceptable to move onto,” Ludger stated with deep doubt.

“They did not check under the land,” Salvius stated, his tone calmer than it had been before. “All of our scouts have been ordered to do no more than check the entrances for signs of recent Demon activity. We have lost many soldiers who have tried to scout further into such tunnels in the past. Most bodies were never recovered.”

Severina could sense the frustration in Salvius’ words, a feeling that was echoed by many in the tent. She herself well understood the issue and was not sure she would have done differently. Sending scouts into Demon-created tunnels was a great risk. Not only was the chance of losing those scouts high, but there was also generally little to be gained from the act. Further, the more soldiers who died performing a fruitless endeavor, the more morale would drop, and the harder it would be to find replacements for those who sacrificed themselves to no useful end.

And yet, how many would have lived that had died that night if only a few scouts had taken the time to check the tunnels they had found?

“Why couldn’t the mages tell that the ground under them was unstable?”

Severina’s attention turned to Jadis, whichever of the Nephilim’s bodies sat beside her. The other two were busy helping Aila with her… unusual greater ritual, which was a necessity even under the current circumstances. Personally, Severina couldn’t understand how Jadis found the energy to be so physical after such a day as the one they had all shared. Likely even her libido had been dampened, she realized as she studied Jadis’ face. Her normally flirty eyes and cocky grin was replaced with a grim line of determination and a brow furrowed in concentration. If the ritual did not require specific ingredients, Severina held the strong suspicion that all of Jadis would be present that the command tent meeting, not just one of her bodies.

Or perhaps just two, Severina revised her thoughts, as Jadis would no doubt be devoting at least a portion of her attention to doting on those of her lovers who had had a rougher time during the battle than others. Bridget had unlocked her tertiary class, which would have Jadis’ rapt interest, even if a proper celebration was not possible at the moment. And Amarantha had shown up as quite the bedraggled mess, which implied a certain level of pampering from Jadis if Severina did not miss her mark…

“We have thirty-eight—no, I correct myself,” Ovinius answered, his tone still sharp. “After this day, we have twenty-four mages capable of casting earth-aligned magic. Of those twenty-four, eleven specialize in earth-aligned magic. How many of those eleven do you presume would have a spell specifically designed to tell how stable the ground is around them? Or would have a spell that could cover enough area to be useful in the circumstances of today? How many would even have the extra magic to spare to cast such a spell when they have their other duties to attend to, even with the aid of your pet—”

“I would not finish that sentence,” Severina snapped, her voice harsher to her own ears than even she had expected. “That is not how you speak of your allies.”

Eyes moving between her face and the giant who sat next to her, Ovinius eventually nodded and made a gesture with his hand, passing off his temper as he turned away from them both. As the General collected himself, hands on his waist and gaze set in stone, Severina felt Jadis turn her attention towards Wilhelm.

“Can Tiernan cast any spells like that?”

“I won’t presume to speak for him,” the Hero said slowly. “But I have never seen him cast such a spell. If he were here, I am certain that he would say that he would be able to come up with an appropriate spell. But I do not know what it would cost or how effective it would be.”

“Speaking of, where is the little korinthenkacker?” Ludger asked as he straightened up and looked about him. “Should he not be here to represent the mages?”

“He has been busy using his superior korinthenkacker brain to solve an important mystery,” the gnome sighed dramatically as he pushed his way through the tent flap and strode into the center of the command tent. “And his timing is impeccable, if I do say so myself.”

“Tiernan,” Wilhelm began in a warning tone, but the mage waved him off.

“It has been a monster of a day, and you know how I get when I am worn out,” Tiernan said peremptorily. “Please, I will see what can be done about formulating a spell that will check for ground stability when I am able. I know they exist and have certainly been used for similar situations as this; I simply do not have anything prepared. For now, let me show you what I have discovered.”

Not waiting for a response, the gnome curled his fingers towards the tent flap in a come-hither gesture. Entirely unnecessary, Severina was certain, as it was not a person who entered at the non-verbal command, but a floating disk of arcane magic that was no doubt under the Arch Mage’s control. Set on top of the disk were two scythe wight Demons, both demonstrably dead. Neither were in what Severina would call good condition, one having been bisected at the middle, and the other burnt and crusted by either flame or the power of lightning.

“Tell me, what do you see when you look upon these two Demons?” Tiernan spoke to the gathering at large while motioning at the semi-transparent bodies. “What similarity strikes you?”

“They’re both scythe wights,” Ludger stated flatly.

“Yes, they are both scythe wights,” the gnome sighed. “I was hoping you would see a rather more important detail that they share. Not something quite so obvious as that they are the same subtype of Demon.”

While Severina shared a flicker of sympathy for Tiernan at Ludger’s less than clever response, she found herself struggling to spot whatever notable detail the Arch Mage was trying to highlight. Both were semi-transparent, vaguely man-shaped, and had sharp scythe-like appendages on the ends of their arms instead of hands. The bisected one had a drained appearance, likely due to the clear slime that filled its body leaking out, and the burnt one had somewhat shrunk from the heat and wasn’t as easy to see through thanks to all of the charring. Both were otherwise the same in general dimensions. Even the number of eyes were—

The number of eyes.

“They both have extra eyes,” Jadis spoke just as Severina opened her mouth. “Extra gold eyes.”

Reaching out, Jadis took the bisected Demon in one hand and forced one of the two orbs floating inside its torso to the fore. The larger of the two was purple and transparent, the same as any other scythe wight Severina had encountered. But a second eye, smaller and completely opaque, was the one Jadis drew everyone’s attention to. Just as she had said, the eye was golden in color, shining even in death with a brilliant luster.

“Correct,” Tiernan nodded at Jadis. “That is precisely what I found. Both have a second gold-colored eye, when no other scythe wight I have ever seen has had more than one eye.”

“And what does that mean?” Eutychia voiced her question as she used a long finger to pull the extra eye from the body of the second dead Demon. “Why does this matter?”

“This wight I found and killed at the precise location where a bolt of Divine magic directed at me was fired from,” Tiernan motioned at the charred corpse. “This one,” he waved at the bisected Demon, “came from the collapsed farmhouse that Jadis so thoroughly cleared during the battle.”

“That’s where another bolt came from,” Jadis said, her voice filled with disbelief. “The skull blob Demon… are you telling me that fucker is—is somehow giving pieces of itself to other Demons? It’s giving its eyes out for other Demons to carry so it can cast spells through them?”

“Or it is giving the other Demons single-use pre-cast spells,” Tiernan shrugged. “Either possibility is plausible.”

“I would not call such a ridiculous skill idea plausible,” Sirio said as he hopped onto the floating disk to get a closer look at the wights. “Who has ever heard of such an ability?”

“Who has ever heard of a class that gives one the ability to have multiple bodies?” Tiernan asked innocently. “Or a potion that can turn a Lares into a human-like form? Or a Demon who would take up arms against Samleos? No one knows of a thing until it first happens.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Jadis murmured as she sat back heavily in her seat.

Discussion flared as the various members of the meeting voiced their opinions on the new information. What the ability might mean for future encounters, what new dangers they and the soldiers might face, what greater horrors might arise as the Demons escalated their efforts. Talk of the ambush, the tunnels, and the possible ways the army might counter the traps that the enemy seemed assuredly to set slowly crept into the discussion, shifting the flow of conversation into a swirl of concerns and ideas. Proposals were made, flaws pointed out, counterproposals offered, and the circle continued.

Through it all, Severina watched Jadis. The Nephilim who held her heartstrings sat silently by, offering no suggestions, making no assertions. There was no kindness in her violet eyes, no hint of the sweetness she so passionately displayed towards those she loved. Just a cold anger that Severina could feel radiating its fury like a mountain of ice.

What action might Jadis take against an enemy that had so cruelly stirred her ire?

What action might Jadis take when her allies offered her no release for her fury?

“Regardless of how the logistics of the march might change going forward from this night,” Severina said, her words for Jadis’ ears alone, “I believe we must make one alteration to our endeavors.”

“What are you thinking?” Jadis asked, turning her head up to meet her gaze.

“The enemy cannot be allowed to act with impunity. It is not only our plans that must suffer disruption and destruction.”

The coldness in Jadis’ eyes faded as her lips turned up in a shadowy ghost of the heart-aching smile that always seemed to melt Severina’s insides.

“I like the way you think, Sev. Have any particular plan in mind?”

“Considering what we saw during our scouting mission this morning, I have a few ideas.”