Crisis of Faith by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org)

by Unknown

  Some people would have yelled at the creature, Alissa knew, but she wasn’t them. She preferred to kill her opponents quickly and ruthlessly, so she nocked an arrow and took aim, murmuring softly, “Sistina, I hope this works.”

  She loosed the arrow, and as it left the string the arrow lit up, shining bright as a star as energy of all six elements rippled around it. The arrow traveled almost faster than Alissa could see, and her jaw dropped slightly as it slammed into the monster, then detonated in a swirling explosion of the elements.

  The wall shook as the monster was launched out of the explosion into it, a spray of blue blood splattering across the wall, then the creature landed on the ground. One of its heads was a mangled mess, there were fractures across its entire exoskeleton, and a gaping hole in its chest, though it didn’t go entirely through the creature. For an instant Alissa thought it was dead, but then it began moving again, and she scowled, drawing another of her precious arrows and taking aim again. The other soldiers in the compound were also attacking with their own arrows, and just prior to Alissa loosing her arrow, a mage unleashed a lightning bolt into the monster, causing it to twitch and fall backward again.

  This time the arrow didn’t surprise her when she fired it, and the missile slammed home with another explosion that scarred the wall… and Alissa’s stomach lurched quite suddenly as there was an eruption of blue-green gore from the middle of the explosion. As the smoke cleared, she looked on in horror for a long, long moment.

  Where the creature had been was an enormous spray of steaming entrails and organs that she couldn’t identify, all of it dripping with the same blue ichor that’d come out of the monster when it’d been injured, while the organs themselves were a sickly green. Worse, the bodies of over a dozen soldiers were laying entwined with the gore, many of them with horrific acid burns across their bodies while the ichor sizzled against them. There were far more organs than should fit inside the creature, too.

  “Medics!” Alissa exclaimed, rushing down the stairs. “Everyone, get the injured out of that gunk now.”

  The nearest soldier rushed in, and Alissa winced as she saw the ichor sizzling at his boots. Thankfully he didn’t stop, as he bodily dragged a man free, while others quickly came to help.

  “Get water and rinse them off! We want that acid off as fast as possible,” a female healer snapped, and quickly added, “Don’t worry about them being cold, we can heat them up indoors!”

  Just as Alissa was about to dive in to help, a runner rushed around the corner of the gates, screeching to a halt as he took in the sight of the garrison, his eyes going wide. “Dear gods! Captain, I—”

  “Report!” Alissa snapped, glowering at him as worry rushed through her. “We were attacked by a monster, but just killed it. Is there something else?”

  “Y-yes! There are multiple attacks from around the city, one at the temple of Tyria, one in the market, and one at the western gate! All of them are from unknown, three-headed creatures. The one at the gate is being fought by adventurers, but—”

  “Enough. Edwin! You’re in charge here; get the injured treated as quickly as possible!” Alissa snapped out, fear rushing through her as she realized that she was going to have to make hard decisions, and quickly did so. “First squad, with me! We’ve got the market. Second squad, back up the adventurers. Third squad, try to distract the one attacking the temple until we can get there. We don’t have time to dawdle, so move.”

  She paused just long enough for the under-strength first squad to start gathering, then Alissa rushed out the gates.

  Kevin cursed under his breath, glad he hadn’t stepped in earlier. The ruiner had seemed to have everything well in hand at first, so he hadn’t seen the need to interfere. Then the elf had shown up with her bow and destroyed it in two shots, which beggared belief. If he’d been out there… Kevin shuddered to think of what might’ve happened to him.

  “Boss? What’re we going to do?” Ryan asked, glancing out the window nervously. “I thought those things were practically unstoppable!”

  “Practically, not actually. Which means we need to deal with her before she ruins our plans,” Kevin said, nodding firmly as his gaze hardened. “We’re going after them. She’s going to be in the back on her own, so when she stops to use the bow, we deal with her and steal the bow and arrows. In and out like shadows, you hear me?”

  “Right, that sounds doable. If we’re careful, she’ll never even know we’re there,” Ryan agreed, relaxing slightly.

  “That’s sure as hell the plan. I’ve seen enough other people die in these parts that we’d better stay unnoticed,” Kevin said, and quickly headed for the stairs, willing mana into his clothing to help him move quickly and silently.

  “What’s going on?” Nadis demanded, feeling chilled by the sight of dozens of golems marshalled together. There had to be at least fifty of them, and more were arriving as she watched.

  The archpriestess had been preparing for the day’s meeting when she’d seen the golems marching past, then Elissa had gone racing by, heading for the palace in a carriage just as a messenger came to Nadis’s door. She hadn’t delayed, instead hurrying to the palace, and now she found herself with Captain Desa, a dozen soldiers, Phynis, Sistina, the Jewels, Elissa, and Elissa’s soldiers, all of whom looked worried. All but Sistina, at least.

  They were in the palace, in a room Nadis hadn’t ever seen before, but a single look at the floor told her what it was. The broad circle carved into the floor, fitted with carefully laid stone blocks and adorned with hundreds of arcane runes, was a teleportation circle, and one that was subtly different than any of the others that Nadis had seen before.

  “Westgate is under attack,” Desa replied, her voice crisp. “Sistina overheard Tyria ordering an angel to go to the aid of the temple there and started marshalling the golems and the others, which gave us a bit more warning. I received a message from the mayor not long ago, informing me that at least four powerful demons are attacking the city. We don’t have many details, but the garrison and temple are under siege, at the least. Additionally, Kelvanis doesn’t have soldiers available to help; they left to deal with insurgents yesterday.”

  “Which means it’s likely the same people who tried to assassinate me before,” Elissa said, her gaze hard as she tapped her arm impatiently. Rather than her usual robes, the priestess was wearing a set of older blue robes, though these had gold arcane symbols stitched across most of their surface. She also had a gnarled black staff in one hand, which made Nadis a touch uneasy. “As soon as Sistina is ready, I’m going to the aid of the temple there.”

  “Not until after me and my soldiers, High Priestess,” Desa snapped, her eyes narrowing slightly. “They’re attacking the garrison, yes, but attacking the temple sounds an awful lot like bait to me, coupled with Kelvanis. They probably want you to come there.”

  “It’s certainly an effective trap, then,” Elissa said, scowling as she added, “If Zenith was sent, I know she’ll do her best to fight any attackers, but she’s been bested twice before that I know of. I’d rather not risk her death when I might be able to prevent it, and I was a powerful adventurer.”

  “No arguing,” Sistina said, frowning as she looked around the room. “I cannot help. My domain is here; can teleport, no more.”

  “Of course, Lady Sistina,” one of Elissa’s guards said, the man bowing slightly to her. “Thank you for your assistance.”

  “You are welcome,” Sistina said calmly, then paused. “Ready.”

  “I’d like to come with you,” Nadis said suddenly, almost startling herself with her interjection.

  “Archpriestess?” Phynis asked, blinking in surprise. “Are you sure? I don’t know how well you’d do in a battle, but—”

  “That doesn’t matter, not really. If the faithful are in danger, and despite whatever misgivings I may have, Tyria’s church follows the same goddess as I do, I cannot abandon them,” Nadis said, focusing on Elissa now as she licked her lips, hesitating
before she admitted, “It also will do both of our churches good to see us cooperating with one another, I think. I may not be a powerful mage when it comes to battle, but I’m a powerful healer.”

  “I see. Well, I think it may be a bit rash of you, but I’d welcome your company, Archpriestess,” Elissa said, slowly smiling, then glanced at her guards as she ordered, “Guard the archpriestess as you would me. I know how to defend myself, so she takes priority.”

  Several knights saluted, and they quickly surrounded Nadis, which did make her a bit anxious since a couple of them were humans from Kelvanis. Nadis stepped on her worry firmly, though, as she knew that many people in Kelvanis were perfectly good individuals.

  While they were talking, Desa had quickly taken her soldiers into the circle, and the mage looked around, pulling out a wand of pale wood with a glowing blue gem on the tip. A couple of golems stepped into the circle as well, and Sistina raised her hand. As she did so, the circle began to glow with a soft yellow light and almost looked like it’d begun spinning for a moment. Suddenly the light flashed, and the people within the circle were gone.

  “Next,” Sistina said calmly, looking over at them.

  “Be safe, Nadis, Elissa. I really, really wouldn’t want the last couple of weeks to have been for nothing,” Diamond said, smiling at Nadis, though her worry was obvious.

  “You and me both,” Nadis replied, though she was startled by the vehemence in her voice, as well as the chuckles it prompted from the others.

  “Travel safely,” Phynis said, sighing as she added, “Alas, my magical training hasn’t progressed enough that I would be any help.”

  “As if Desa would let you go with,” Ruby said, rolling her eyes visibly.

  Elissa calmly stepped into the circle, Nadis following her along with the other soldiers. They could still fit four golems in the circle, so more of the steel-skinned giants stepped in, armed with halberds.

  Sistina raised her hand again, and the glow rose all around Nadis. As the light began spinning, she took a moment to wonder if this was really a good idea. Then the light flashed and she was gone.

  Chapter 38

  “It’s about to blow!” Kaylen snapped out, and Adrian responded immediately. He retreated incredibly quickly, dodging a last tongue-lash of the ruiner.

  The creature was marred with dozens of gashes that’d cut through its armor, along with burns from spells and Adrian’s blade. He’d have done better with a physical weapon, but ruiners tended to destroy any weapon that touched them, so he’d gone with one it couldn’t destroy. Not that the gate was in good shape at this point either, as long as they’d lingered near it.

  That said, Kaylen was right about the ruiner, as its exoskeleton cracked and it began swelling up. Adrian covered his eyes and braced himself, knowing what was coming.

  With a horrific squelching sound, the ruiner burst like an overripe tomato, spraying its acidic blood everywhere as its organs spilled across the ground. A few spatters hit Adrian, and he cursed, taking a few steps back.

  “Gods above!” an elven man exclaimed from behind him, and Adrian blinked, barely giving the horror on the ground a look as he glanced back at the soldiers who’d just arrived.

  The soldiers were in reasonably good armor and had their weapons out while they bore grim looks, some of them even looking like acid had been eating at their gauntlets. They weren’t the match of any ruiner, but coming toward it took courage, and Adrian let Storm depart, causing his sword to vanish.

  “Nice of you to show up. A bit late, I’m afraid, and I doubt any of your friends it ate are alive anymore,” Adrian said, nodding toward it with a grimace. “Though I do wonder what ruiners are doing in the region.”

  “A ruiner, is it? First I’ve ever seen of them, before the one attacked the garrison,” the man replied, scowling at it, then looked at Adrian and added gratefully, “Thank you for dealing with it. I’m afraid the captain went to deal with the one in the market.”

  “There’re more?” Clarissa demanded, turning toward them suddenly. “And you dealt with one?”

  “Well, the captain did. She shot it with a heavily enchanted arrow, and it exploded like that one,” the guard explained. “There’s another at the temple, as well as the one in the market.”

  “Crap,” Kaylen muttered, paling slightly. “They never come in groups, unless someone summoned them. We’d better—”

  A glowing light streaked across the sky toward the city from the west, causing Adrian to blink, as he could barely make out the sight of an angel in armor, her sword already unsheathed. He couldn’t make out much about her, not in the few moments she was in sight.

  “Looks like they called for divine aid already. Not sure if it’ll be enough, though,” Adrian said, grimacing. “I hate ruiners. Let’s go see if she needs help.”

  “Why do they, ugh, explode like that?” the soldier asked, wrinkling his nose, then starting to follow as the adventurers started into the city, heading in the direction the angel had been flying.

  “Ruiners contain a dimensional space that allows them—” Kaylen began, only for Harriet to interrupt.

  “They’re bigger on the inside than the outside, so they can eat as much as they want,” the half-elf said bluntly. “They also will destroy anything in their path. We’d better go.”

  “Alright,” the soldier said, following them as the adventurers began to move more quickly.

  Not that they could keep up when Adrian and the others began to run, though.

  Lisa smiled from her vantage point in the tower, watching the building where the teleportation circle was located. A few moments before a group had quickly departed, though none of the elves or golems had been the priestesses, to her disappointment. This time, though, another group had come out, and it had both of the women they were here to kill, and that improved her mood immensely.

  “Oh, joy! That means I can deal with them at the same time!” Lisa said, grinning broadly at the sight of them.

  She reached down and tapped the device that Mazina had given her, sending in the surge of mana that would bring it to life. The object was a series of brass and gold cylinders, each etched with complex designs that’d been threaded with silver wire. Lisa wasn’t an artificer, it would require her to learn too much about creating things, but she knew enough to enjoy devices of the type. As it whirred to life, vibrating, Lisa turned away and started undressing, humming to herself as she did so.

  It wouldn’t do to ruin a perfectly good outfit, and it wasn’t like the dead guards would notice what she was doing.

  Sistina stopped, blinking, then narrowed her eyes as the ley line connecting to Westgate suddenly destabilized. She’d been about to teleport more golems to the other side, but with the disruption she couldn’t.

  “Sistina? Is something wrong?” Phynis asked, her voice anxious.

  “Ley line. Something is… wrong. One moment,” Sistina said, and promptly plopped onto the ground before leaving her body to examine the ley line in detail. As she did, Sistina internally growled as she detected a pattern to the interference, something she’d experienced before.

  The ley line was being flooded with outside mana, disrupting the aether and making it difficult for anything to easily traverse it, and in a lot of ways it was like the aetheric disruptor that had been used to disable her earlier that year. Unlike that one, however, this device was actively creating the disruption, and it was only focused on the ley line itself.

  That gave Sistina an idea, since she’d been working on ways to defend herself from the disruptors ever since her brief death. Trying to do it from this end of the ley line would be tricky, since she hadn’t intended her solutions to be used from so far away, but it should be possible since the target was ‘downstream’, as it were. The only question was whether or not she’d have time to do something about the device before the people on the other end ran out of time.

  Considering that, Sistina immediately got to work weaving her spells and performing calcu
lations as quickly as she could manage.

  “Hells,” Alexander swore mildly as the ruiner was thrown across the town square, the impact of the angel hitting it echoing through the city, along with the blast of flame the woman had emitted.

  The ruiner had just about broken through the doors of the temple, based on the cracks Alexander was seeing, and he was honestly shocked that the doors had lasted as long as they had, even reinforced by burning magic. He couldn’t imagine how many enchantments it would take to do that, since ruiners were specialized in destroying structures. He’d been hoping that he wouldn’t have to step in at all, but when an angel arrived… well, that was something that meant he had little choice in the matter, so he sighed unhappily, drawing his sword with one hand as he stepped out from his hiding spot.

  Rising from the ground fluidly, its joints moving in ways no mortal would be able to manage, the ruiner hissed, then charged the angel, who raised her sword as she prepared to receive it.

  The clash of its claws against her sword was loud enough to make Alexander wince, and he was impressed that she was able to stand her ground, as well as how her sword survived the ruiner’s claws. Not many weapons could do that.

  Alexander waited for a couple of moments, then rushed at the angel’s back just as the ruiner lashed out with its tongues and its claws, forcing the angel back several steps as she blocked them, her sword flashing through the air, while a shield of flames protected her from the other attacks. It didn’t protect her back, though, and Alexander smiled, his muscles coiling like springs just before he lunged at her, his sword cutting through the air silently.

  The next instant the angel’s wings beat, and Alexander’s sword cut through empty air as the angel looked down at them, her crimson hair swirling in the cold breeze.