Chapter 345: In Death Ground
The enraged bug flew at Midnight, intending to take off her head with a razor-sharp wing-tip, but the slash was shallow, cutting from the collarbone and along the side of Midnight's neck; the inch-deep gash oozed thick, green blood that smoked when it hit the ground. Squirmie's wing burned as acid and poison on her wing tried to take hold and failed. Rolly's insistence on training with the Manticore had paid off for both of the pair. As had devouring part of the soul of a green dragon. Acid and poison had little effect on either of them now. Still, it was an unpleasant feeling, and she promised herself a long bath, preferably with her pet doing the scrubbing.
The Duchess was not happy either. Nothing and no one had cut her in centuries. But she was old and withered now, much of her power devoured by the Primordial Iron. She tracked Squirmie as she flew and tried to cast another spell, cursing as it failed and she saw the stump of her right hand. Pain and pride whirled in her mind. She and sanity had parted long ago and didn't even send each other cards on their birthday. She was teetering on the edge of pure fury at this point, the sound coming from her gates reminding her that everyone had seen her defeat at the hands of a mortal. And with that thought, she turned toward her fury on Ozzy, who was the root of all her pain.
As soon as the shit hit the fan, Ozzy had reached for his sack to dump out the halo and sword, but a quick word from Suzette had convinced him not to.
"We can't do that again! I felt it; the whole pocket reality was unraveling. It was a close call. A little more, and everything falls apart!"
"We do this the hard way, then." Tossing the bag aside, he committed himself to the fight.
There were no options but to fight. Squirmie was hurt and enraged, which meant Rolly was on his way, and Ben would be with him. They might all be walking back through Hades' realms together. He started to reach for his flensing hatchets, then realized he had better weapons for this fight. Which meant getting close to the screaming monster that was turning toward him with a glare in her eyes that promised pain and death. Green mist formed around the stump of her hand, and dozens of silver daggers floated in the air around her left hand. They merged into one spell and sped toward the Butcher and Barmaid. Suzette took a half step and was suddenly elsewhere. Also held out both fists, and a glowing shield formed in front of him. The shield shattered, but only two of the daggers reached the Butcher, sticking into his chest a fraction of an inch. He ignored them and took the fight to the Duchess.
She found a glowing chain wrapping around her neck that resisted her strength. She was jerked off her feet toward the Butcher and saw him making a fist with his right hand as his left reeled her in. Even through her rage and teetering grip on reality, she was amused. A fist? The bumpkin thought he could engage in fisticuffs like in some dwarven arena?
She wasn't laughing as Ozzy punched her in the face with a fist made of iron. He shattered her nose and broke bones in her cheek, blackening both of her eyes. Not that anyone could tell through the wrinkles and exposed veins of her face. Green blood splattered him from her ruined face. Ozzy felt the poison immediately, eating into his skin where splatters had landed, except on his hands. His clothes smoked and were reduced to rags. He hit her twice again, battering her head, breaking bones each time.
Screaming, she retaliated with a spell at point-blank range, and he was thrown back by the force of it, Silverthorn Daggers piercing his flesh and poison entering his bloodstream. The acid he could resist for a time, but the poison would kill him soon. He staggered to his feet, trying to get back into the fight.
Suzette produced her staff from somewhere and double-cast a glowing ray of sunlight at the Duchess, lighting up the gloom of her realm. Midnight deflected the first bolt with a wave of her remaining hand, but the second wounded her, and she screamed as it burned into her shoulder. Emerald beams of magic stabbed out from her eyes, piercing Suzette's chest, and her illusion dispersed as she appeared elsewhere, hiding in the shadows under a thorn bush. Her shadowy hounds bit at Midnight's ankles, but only once, the poison of her blood destroying them instantly.
All of this had been a good distraction for Squirmie, who dropped from above the Duchess like a Jagular. The attack took her totally by surprise as the monstrous bug attacked her face. Six razor-sharp legs shaped like cleavers sliced the skin on the sides of her face, and Squirmie bit down hard on what was left of her nose. With a horrible sound of tearing flesh, Squirmie flew away, taking Midnight's face with her, leaving the Duchess to scream in pain with only bare muscle left where her once beautiful face had been. As she spun and started to cast at Squirmie, Ozzy hit her from behind, knocking her to the ground. He dropped on top of her, his weight holding her down as he pounded her with his fists.
Every hit hurt her in a way that a weapon would not have. 'One fist of iron, the other of steel. If the left doesn't get you, then the right one will.' Four times, he hit her before she recovered and breathed poisonous dragons' breath at him, forcing him away from her. Her left hand glowed with power as her right arm deflected another spell cast by Suzette. The Butcher couldn't take the damage she was dealing out and knew the next spell was going to kill him. He walked toward her anyway.
A bolt of green lightning arced toward his chest but was blocked by the shield of a knight in shining armor. Silvery dragon-scale armor covered him from head to toe, his helmet that of a monstrous lizard. On his shield was the heraldry of the House of Typhon, a dragon with a hundred heads. He charged Midnight, screaming out, "For Princess Squirmie!" Three times, she cast her noxious bolts of lightning at him, and three times, he resisted the spell and kept coming, weakening but still in the fight. He slashed at her each time she cast a spell, taking chunks off of what was left of her.
From above her came the mocking laughter of Squirmie, also now resplendent with the scales of a dragon and shimmering silver wings over six feet across. I told you I'd eat your face! Yummy Yummy!>, and true to her word, what was left of Midnight's face disappeared down her throat.
For a mile around, the Silverthorn bushes died as Midnight pulled the power from her land. Further out, the pack of dire beasts charging to attack her enemies stumbled and withered to clumsy lizards. Rolly looked at the large beasts and said, "Shoo!" Their charge stopped, unable to resist his will.
Midnight reached for more power. Without the caged realms and soul-bound slaves, her reserves were limited to only her land. It was part of her, and as she shrunk and withered, so did it. Now the decay accelerated. Her castle, what was left of it, crumbled to dust. With renewed power, she warped her realm around her and restored some of her broken body. Silverthorn bushes sprung from the ground, their thick vines thrusting into the air, capturing Squirmie and entangling Rolly. Suzette couldn't be caught that way, hiding in the shadows and biding her time. Ozzy was barely moving, dying of poison, and trapped by the vines.
Suddenly, the sky above her realm was lit by white flames, and Midnight felt intrusive magic battering against her power, trying to enter her realm. She turned to where the human Courier was straining to cast a spell. The first casting, she repulsed, but the energies attacked again, as if alive. Ben cast Flames of the Phoenix again and again until his mana and stamina were gone, and he was burning his own health. On the sixth cast, the Phoenix Fire broke through, and all six spells thundered down out of the sky with holy fire invading a realm of the Fae.
Outside, where Princess Sahkmet stood near Oberon, she said in a loud voice. "Fire burns. Fire cleanses and leads to rebirth. Fire goes where it needs to go."
All talking paused for a moment as the increasingly worried Fae Lords watched as flames poured down from the sky in an unending torrent for a full minute. The lesser fae, those few left in the camp, cheered at the display of fireworks.
The Duchess screamed as she burned. Like all Fae, she was vulnerable to the sound of church bells, holy water, and holy magic. Unlike other Fae, some of her power came from deals with the unsavory creatures known to humans as daemons. To say that Ben's spells burned her is like saying an avalanche has 'a little momentum.' She burned, most of her remaining flesh and hair charring to blackened wisps. But she was still alive when the fire stopped pouring from the sky and staggered back up from the ground. Before she could pick a target, she was burned again as Ozzy stood only a few feet away from her, healed by Ben's spell and freed from the thorns that had burned to ash in the fire. The Butcher spewed fire and smoke at her, casting a continuous stream of Butcher's Breath.
Rolly and Squirmie had already broken free of the vines, even before the fire poured from the sky. It's nearly impossible to hold shape changers who can form their own limbs into blades as sharp as a dragon's tooth. Rolly's sword slashed upwards, severing the dying Fae's right arm. Squirmie flew by, slashing at her side and stealing the missing limb. The Duchess staggered back, little more than a blackened skeleton, but she was still pulling power from her land, and her flashing green eyes promised malice. Inky tendrils erupted from the ground, holding Ozzy, Squirmie, and Rolly in rubbery bonds, pulling them down to bury them in the tainted soil.
Midnight laughed for a second until Ben charged and impaled her on his sword. A bolt of lightning struck the two of them, knocking him to the ground. She pulled the sword from her chest and cast it away. "Is that all you have left? Pathetic."
Ben stood, raised his arms, and yelled, "You fool! This isn't even my final form." She stared at him, awaiting his transformation and gathering her power...
...and Suzette stabbed her from behind with two thin daggers carved from The Manticore's tooth, putting the poison into her heart.
The Duchess stiffened, paralyzed, seeing the weapons emerging from her chest. They were painful and slowed her, but that was all. "How quaint. Did Lady Morninglade neglect to tell you that I survived when she stabbed me these the first time?"
Before she could even finish the sentence, Suzette was stabbing her again, this time with a white dagger made of ivory. "That was just to hold you in place and give you something to think about so I didn't miss my next strike." She pulled the dagger from Midnight's back, stepping away as the stricken thing turned.
"No! No! You can't have found that...who told you his name?"
"Oh, but I did. I had the best of teachers to help me learn your secrets. And so much time. I made many friends, and one of those was a gnomish prince you chained in the Ivory Soul Prison. Too bad you won't be around to meet him. You kept me locked up for four months. I'm returning the favor with interest. But next time, deary? Don't use magical artifacts as letter openers, and leave them lying on your desk. Terribly overconfident of you."
Duchess Midnight, one of the most powerful of the ancient Fae and certainly the most feared, turned to smoke and was sucked into the Ivory Soul Prison, but room had to be made to accommodate her. The last victim of the blade was freed as she took his place. A handsome young gnome just starting to grow his first true beard appeared, wearing clothing that was several centuries out of date by gnomish standards.
He bowed deeply to Suzette. "I am so happy to properly make your acquaintance, young lady. Our communication before did not tell me of your beauty. You have my thanks and that of my father. Prince Ragothorn of the Gnomes of Cinderstein will ever be at your service and that of your brave companions."
Suzette bowed back. "I think we can all agree that your help was greatly appreciated and timely, Prince Ragothorn."
"Politely said, but while both of us were imprisoned, you found a way for us and many others to escape. I have had enough of that hag's hospitality. Can we take our leave of her realm?"
Ben whistled for his horse, not sure he could walk that far. "A very good idea. This place is in bad shape, and I don't trust it staying around for long."
Suzette walked to where Ozzy was digging through his bag. The poison had destroyed his clothing, except for his boots and socks. He replaced the rags with his kilt and wondered about the futility of wearing anything else. Suzette took a moment to admire his sculpted muscles. It had been a long four months away from him. She tossed the ivory dagger into his bag, shuddering a bit as she did.
"A good idea. I never want to be in this place again."
The group staggered the hundred feet to the gates and the chaos that lay just beyond them.
And deep beneath the ground, the System held its breath as the Engine began to spin faster and faster...
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