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Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.90 (205)
🕑 Added 2024-07-22 22:30:01 +0000 UTCGeneral Branson struggled to stop himself from rubbing his temples to alleviate his headache. Now, more than ever, he needed to project an image of control and indomitability. With how young many of the commanders were, few had been around long enough to be intimidated by his feats of strength in the field. He hadn’t had a chance to demonstrate his power in decades, maybe even a century. After all, as a general, he couldn’t go out and fight himself, and who in their right mind had the audacity to challenge him in the arena?
Stifling a sigh, he looked up from the projection of the battle he was watching and asked, “Has the engineering corps come to a definitive conclusion?”
The young commander on the general’s right seemed to mirror his mood quite well. With a furrowed brow and no small amount of anger in his voice, he replied, “No, sir. All they’ll say at this time is that the kobald fortification is both impressive and most likely the result of a ritual. There is no doubt that it is a spell creation, however, they have no idea whether or not the effect can be stabilized. From what they tell me, it comes down to whether or not the ritualized constructed material can be enchanted with a permanent identity without the ritual itself being affected. According to them, until they get a chance to run some on-site tests, there is no way they can make an accurate determination.”
Not wanting to hear anymore, he merely grunted in understanding before changing the subject. “And what about our preparations at the mountain gate? Has there been any progress with the spell cannon and shield generator modifications tactical requested?”
This time it was another commander who answered. As if he thought too highly of himself, he stood up from his seat to address the entire table. “On that front, we’ve had some luck. Both the spell cannon adjustments to their spell crystals and the shield generator modifications have been approved by the Tower of Magic. The arch-mage himself agreed that our mages had successfully developed both underlying magics and then personally approved access to the relevant technologies. As it happened, the arch-mage had the required construction diagrams we needed in his personal knowledge repository, so we didn’t need to wait for them to be delivered.”
Clenching his teeth in anger, the general nodded. “I’m sure that he did. Please pass on our thanks for his aid in our time of need,” he said sarcastically.
Another commander spoke up, the tone of his voice demonstrating his repressed rage. “And what does illustrious arch-mage have to say about the modifications to our Tower of Magic’s scrying apparatus? Have our mages made enough progress to merit his aid?”
As everyone was staring at him with anger in their eyes, the commander who’d stood up to deliver his good news couldn’t help but shrink under their combined hostility. “Unfortunately, the arch-mage made it very clear that until our own mages made some actual progress in their efforts to pierce the kobald’s illusionary defenses, there was nothing he could do to help us. However, I did manage to get a little more information from his assistant, specifically the one who is currently serving as our court mage. I believe she was trying to offer a hint when she apologized on the arch-mage’s behalf. She said that she was sorry, but distance delving is a spell technique we’ll have to figure out on our own. Rest assured, I passed her words on verbatim to the mages working on the problem.”
‘Politics and games. That’s what it always comes down to. More people have died to those two monsters than any threat found in the wilds,’ the general thought sourly.
Walking up to the table, a nervous aid interrupted them. “Apologies, sir. But, the investigators from the citadel are asking for you again.”
Growling in frustration, he slammed his knuckles into the table. “Don’t they know there is a war going on?” he muttered uselessly.
Looking around the table at the commanders, he ordered, “Carry on. I expect options for a coordinated assault as soon as possible.”
Turning around, he glared at the aid who’d delivered the message. “Alright, let’s get this over with,” he grumbled.
The aid nodded quickly before stepping aside and bowing. “Right this way, sir.”
‘When I find whoever violated the code so brazenly, I’m going to shove my sword so far up their ass they’ll be eating their own intestines as a kebab,’ he swore to himself in fury.
—--
Nero kept pace with the formation while experimenting with his newfound ability to alter his perception. While what he was seeing didn’t exactly change, it was kind of like looking at one of those hologram cards that moved when you tipped them. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of it, and every layer he saw was more interesting than the one before it.
With just a little effort, he was able to figure out the trick Nick was using to see through the walls. He could see the humans and kobalds in a large bubble all around him. Both sides were spread through the tower like a virus fighting against the tower’s antibodies. Although he couldn’t see even a fraction of the whole tower, what he did see was enough to give him a general idea as to how the fight was going on a macro scale.
The humans had cut off the kobalds support to the upper floors and were now blockading the kobalds in the center of the tower. He was barely able to see the edges of the large central chamber they were headed toward but could tell that the kobalds looked ready for them. On the floor above him, he could see human soldiers rushing toward the conflict. From what he could tell, they’d be arriving at the same time his unit would.
Already regretting what he was about to do, he pulled the connection he had to the command net forward in his mind. And just as he’d feared, the multiple conversations immediately started to stress his already overburdened mind. To help lighten the load, he released the essence shield he was holding, figuring that he could make a new one quickly enough that it didn’t matter.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help as much as he hoped it would. The more conversations he tried to pay attention to, the more his head throbbed. When it was only one or two, he was alright, but any more was enough to make his eyes water in pain.
It took a minute or two, but he was able to confirm some guesses he’d had. The humans had in fact cleared out the tower, and the kobalds were waiting for them. The outer rooms of the tower had been taken over by the healers and support staff. All the kobald bodies and their poorly made furniture had been piled up outside and Dorchester’s engineers were debating on whether or not they could take over the tower.
He couldn’t understand everything they were saying, as some things went over his head. ‘How do they expect to turn this entire construct into an actual real building? Is that even possible?’ he wondered as he listened to the section of the command web holding the debate.
Of course, he then remembered the one brief lesson he’d had with the arch-mage on enchanting and realized that it probably was. With enough people injecting their center into something, they could probably trick the world into thinking it actually existed.
Shaking his head in amazement at what magic was capable of, he returned to perusing the rest of the conversations. He knew he only had a few minutes before the battle started, and he wanted to get an idea of how they were going to overcome the kobald’s defenses. Between all the seasoned personnel and captains, someone must have a better idea than throwing bodies at the problem. Or at least that’s what he hoped.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
When the front of the formation finally pushed the kobalds back far enough to begin entering the central chamber, Nero got a firsthand look at what human ingenuity was capable of. And unfortunately, it was decidedly unimpressive.
The front lines rushed through the large opening like they were coming out of a tunnel at the beginning of a football game. The moment they did, spells began to reign down on them like meteors from heaven. Explosive balls of fire along with exploding hunks of rock decimated the soldiers in a shocking display of magic and might. He was too far away to see what was happening at the doors to the left and right of his formation, but he was able to get a good look at how poorly the soldiers were fairing above him. And unfortunately, they didn’t seem to be any better than the soldiers on the ground floor.
From what little he could see of the chamber, it looked like a three-story open-concept stadium. Based on the curvature of the upper tiers, he guessed that it could probably hold multiple football fields without issue. The upper tier was wide enough for 50 or 60 people to walk side by side and still have enough room for people to pass in between them. As he was pushed forward by the tide of humanity all around him, he could see the upper tier looked out over the central chamber like an indoor running track in a massive gymnasium. He also noticed that it was held up by massive pillars which were being used as defensive positions by the kobalds on the ground floor.
Already he could see humans beginning to throw up shields to cut down on the spell fire they were receiving. The entire maneuver had only lasted a minute or two, but there were mangled bodies all over the place. It was brutal and exactly what he’d feared actual war would look like.
‘How in the hell do they convince anyone to go first if that was what was waiting for them?’ he wondered.
Up until now, he’d seen the fantastically magical side of warfare. With violent bloodthirsty enemies that didn’t elicit an ounce of guilt when killed, and constant victories by the good guys, he hadn’t been confronted with the reality of what could actually happen. Sure, conceptually he understood that the war had already probably killed a ton of people, but he hadn’t watched it happen.
The world had magic that could bring back the dead and real-life knights in shining armor. He’d even planned on personally bringing back anyone who died to this predictably stupid plan. But now that he was here, watching it happen in real-time, he could tell that he’d been wildly optimistic about his chances of making a difference.
Through his essence field, he could see the front lines charging through the exploded body parts of the first ones through the entrance. Granted there were still many people still alive, but there were also a LOT of dead people.
Gulping in revulsion, he muttered, “Well… that just happened.”
It was shocking how quickly so many people died, only to have the battle completely shift back to what he’d grown used to. The soldiers were now once again under shields, and the front lines were back in melee with the kobalds. All was once again right with the world.
Through his essence field, he watched the injured people and some of the more intact bodies being ferried back through the lines. The moment the first one arrived on the way to the healers, he immediately felt the urge to do something.
Slipping the crowd after assuring Nick he wouldn’t go far, he took advantage of his essence field’s perception to intercept who he could. Reaching out like a pickpocket, he began healing anyone and everyone. He didn’t even bother saying anything, he just started healing. With all the soul stuff in the air, not to mention all the recent practice he’d had, closing wounds and bringing people back was easy.
The only difficult part was pushing through the crowd. However, for once, his height and build were an advantage. He was positive that once or twice people hadn’t even noticed who’d been healing them. Although he didn’t have time to do more than stabilize people so they could make it to the healers, he was able to bring a few people back and heal up the worst of their wounds.
While he didn’t know how many people he’d saved, he figured it had to be more than 10 or 15 before the formation moved forward enough to push through the entrance. The moment the ceiling disappeared and he stepped out into the chamber he felt his feet trample what was left of those who hadn’t made it.
It was both sobering and disgusting. There was something profoundly disturbing about seeing so much actual death and destruction. He’d come to rely on his subconscious belief that anything and everything could be healed. Unfortunately, reality had decided to introduce the concept of consequences to his carefree worldview.
Now, Nero being Nero, reacted how he always did… he got pissed and lashed out like a child. Having no idea where Nick was, and not feeling like tracking him down, Nero clenched his hands and decided to kill some kobalds to make himself feel better.
Raising himself up on his trusty pillar, he only had enough room to get a head or two above the rest of the soldiers. The shield this time was much lower, and he could already feel the hair on top of his head stiffening as if he were nearing an electrical tower. But, it was enough room for him to do what he needed to do.
Nero didn’t remember to disconnect from the mental connections he had, or even bother to prepare an essence shield. Instead, his entire focus was on carving his chosen spell form. While the soldiers around him continued forward, he felt more than one bump into him and stumble over his 2-foot-tall little mud stool. Nonetheless, he persevered and his concentration remained unbroken.
Reaching out into the ether, he used his center to create the spell form for the turret he used back at the portal. It was just as basic and poorly constructed as the last time, but he didn’t care now any more than he did back then. It was the most powerful spell he knew, and he wanted to spread as much misery as he could among the kobald horde.
He felt like there was some karmic justice in the fact that so many human soul remnants were floating around. It took less effort than he remembered to guide them into his spell form. He wasn’t sure, but he thought they actually seemed eager to help him get their revenge.
As the soldiers continued to force their way into the massive chamber, he stretched his essence field out as far as possible so that he could determine where he would be able to do the most damage. He could see that the kobalds had set up tall walls of earth along with their own versions of shields. But, he knew it wouldn’t matter. He just had to keep his firing arc shallow enough to slip under their defenses.
As if he could see the firing angles in his mind, he raised his hands above his fellow humans and tweaked his spell form. It took some tilting and finnagling, but he managed to get the arc exactly how he wanted it. As it charged, it looked like a mini sun at the end of a shimmering barrel in his hands. He felt the ether tremble with the essence fields of various mages noticing what he was doing.
With all the attention, he really wanted to hand someone his canteen and say, ‘Here, hold my beer and watch this shit’.
It took every bit of his concentration to inject enough essence into the spell form to change it from a slow-moving blob of energy into a railgun. He needed his spell to hit exactly where he wanted it to, as anywhere else would be a fuck-up on par with when NASA lost a 125 million dollar orbiter due to an engineer not understanding the difference between metric and english units.
The entire world seemed to pause as the spell form materialized his ‘shell’. Then, like a supercharged paintball, it shot out over the heads of everyone in front of him. Grinning like a madman, he watched in fascination as it continued forward until it collided with one of the kobald spell shields. Taking advantage of the angles, he had been careful to make sure it hit from the bottom.
The result was everything he’d hoped for and more. It exploded like a ball of plasma and chaos. With his improved perception field, he watched as the ether in the area warped and bent unnaturally. Kobalds were thrown into the air like shrapnel while the constructs they were hiding behind lost any semblance of cohesion. Since this time his shell hit much closer to the fighting, he watched as the front lines stumbled under the resulting shockwave of blood and guts.
Aside from the minuscule bit of center he’d lost from the spell form’s creation, the massive spell had cost him next to nothing. Even better, the spell had disrupted the kobald’s shield like a drunk guy playing Jenga. All over the place, he could see holes appearing over the kobald’s heads.
Above him, the shields that were protecting him began flaring as more and more enemy spells started pelting the area. But, unlike the kobalds, he didn’t need to fire at such an extreme angle. He was much, much closer to his targets.
The only thing he had to worry about was the pillars holding up the second-story tier. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally bring the entire roof down on their heads. So, he had to be careful… precise.
To stop himself from being jostled by his fellow troops, he raised another pillar behind him. It was much thinner, but considering how much soul stuff he used to make it, he figured it was solid enough that it wouldn’t matter.
Then, he got to work. Although it was annoying how close the shield over his head was. If it were just a foot or two higher, he’d have a much easier time targeting his spell. As it was right now, he felt like he was tempting fate with how small a window he had to fire his shell. But, as long as he was careful, it should be fine… probably.
Deciding to trust in his luck he proceeded to fire shell after shell into the kobald’s defenses. He targeted whatever barriers he could, whether it was earthen wall constructs or the weird-looking mud huts that were probably supposed to be defensive positions.
Due to the limitations of his firing arc, he wasn’t able to fire too far into the distance. And since the front lines no longer had anything to stop them from pushing further into the chamber, he soon had to stop his one-man artillery barrage. Yet, he’d done what he could. He’d at least taken out the kobald’s first line of defenses and hopefully instilled the fear of God into them.
However, it still didn’t feel like enough. When he dismissed his pillar constructs, he found himself back on the ground, his feet surrounded by the bloody remains of the soldiers who’d sacrificed themselves to buy time for the shields he was now under. No, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Rejoining the formation’s forward progress, he used his essence field to track Nick down. Nero had only been gone for 10 or 20 minutes so he wasn’t too surprised to find him quite close to where he’d left him. Although it looked like Nick had gotten roped into helping maintain the overhead shield.
Slipping through the formation, he reached out and healed anyone he saw being helped back toward the healers. It didn’t look like any more people were dying, but it was now too chaotic for him to know for sure.
Since the soldiers had come out of the chamber entrance, they had spread out and expanded the front line. While it had allowed Nero the opportunity to fire his spells, the aftermath resulted in an ever-widening half-circle or conflict. The only thing keeping the soldiers from spreading out further was the limited number of mages they had to maintain the shield.
Wherever the kobalds were firing their artillery spells from, it was out of his perception range. All he could see were the spells rising in the distance and growing larger before they fell down on top of the formation. He once again found himself marveling at the strength of will they were displaying to maintain the shields, and he didn’t envy the monstrous headaches they were undoubtedly suffering.
Finally arriving back at Nick’s side, Nero patted the man’s arm to let him know he was there.
Nick looked over with a frown and asked, “Nero, you really need to stop using soul magic. As helpful as you think you’re being… it’s just not worth it if you end up corrupting your identity.”
Nero rolled his eyes and replied, “I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. Whatever you think about ‘soul magic’, you’re wrong. Or at least the way I’m doing it is different enough that I’m the exception. I can tell you for a fact that I’m not in any danger.”
Nick still didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t know how to argue his point in the face of Nero obviously being fine. “Alright, like I said, I can’t stop you from doing it. You’ll just have to learn your lessons after experiencing the consequences of your actions.”
Nero frowned in annoyance at the implication that he was doing something stupid. “Look Nick, I get it. But this isn’t me ignoring you out of some childish need to prove you wrong. I’m telling you, I’m not doing anything with souls… I’m just using the leftover potential after they’ve already passed on.”
Nick obviously didn’t accept that, replying, “I believe that you believe that. I’m just having trouble conceiving of a spell-casting technique that borrows the power of death while not actually dealing with the dead. But, I’m neither all-knowing nor your master, so I’ll just remind you to be careful and leave it at that. I’d also recommend you work on your story as I’m sure every caster with an ounce of essence perception just saw what you did and there is no doubt in my mind that every one of them thinks it WAS soul magic. So, good luck with that. You should plan accordingly.”
Nero offered Nick a hateful glare as the man smirked at him. “Bite me, you’re just jealous. And for the record, if anybody puts me on trial or tries to burn me at the stake… I’m telling them that you’re the one who taught me everything I know.”
Nick’s smirk withered into a glare of his own. “You would too… wouldn’t you? Sometimes I forget how spiteful you can be.”
Nero smiled at the compliment and patted his friend on his arm. “Don’t worry, you’ll get there someday. You just have to remember that it’s not about winning, it’s about not losing. It’s impossible to go through life without taking it in the teeth, but all you can do is make sure that whoever is giving it to you doesn’t come out any better than you did. Now let’s focus on paying these damned dirty lizards back for every good and righteous human soul they’ve sent on to their great reward.”
By the time Nero finished his little speech, Nick was grinning ear to ear. “That sounds like a wonderful life motto and a very good idea. I’ve got one or two spells I’ve never had a chance to try out on a live specimen, and I might as well embrace the opportunity this invasion has given me.”
Nero nodded. “When life gives you lemons, squirt them in its eyes and demand something better.”
Nick frowned in confusion. “Huh? I’m not exactly sure what you meant by that.”
Nero sighed in defeat. “I guess there are actual limits to translation magic after all… No matter, I’ll come up with something better and get back to you. For now, don’t worry about it.”
