Banksy: Yes, father.
I hauled myself into the tank and jumped behind the driver seat. Clara and Iffy were already inside.
“Why did you stick your head up?” Clara called as I jammed the accelerator. A single shot ricocheted off the armored exterior.
“Angel blood sucks,” was all I said.
“What are we going to do now?” Clara called as we curved around the corner. NPCs jumped out of the way as we careened down the street. “I whispered everything that was happening to Jeremiel before I pulled the sprout, but I don’t know if he understood. He took off before I could talk to him. The city protection wasn’t supposed to drop until the rift opened, but I think them leaving triggered it.”
“They’re heading for the rift anyway. We’ll have to meet them there.”
I turned northwest. It would take longer to get out of town going this way, but I avoided the technology sector. We could not handle the sundered tanks, and I knew from experience that it took them a bit to get going. The further we went from their headquarters, the better chances we had for survival.
“Oh shit,” I cried just as the front plow splattered into a gargoyle demon just as he landed in the center of the street. NPCs scattered. The few remaining demons in this part of the world had realized the protection was gone, and they were now attacking.
A pair of sundered spotted us and gave chase on town guard scooters. They rushed straight at us, threatening a head-on collision they would not win. But before we could crash, both androids went tumbling as a clockwork human smashed them with a metal pipe. It was a mender, who gave us the thumb’s up as we roared past. Nipper jerked as we ran over the bodies.
“This is crazy,” I said. I ripped past the main town square, rushing past Well Done’s stall. It seemed like so long ago I’d first visited the angry gremlin. He shook his fist at us as we passed. “We’re all fighting each other, and the demons aren’t gone yet. It’s a goddamned free for all.”
“Yeah, we’re not exactly innocent in all this,” Clara said. “I’ve been shunned by the fae,” she added a moment later, looking out the window. “My own people will kill me on sight. It kinda makes me sad. They were so kind to me.”
I started to say something, but she cut me off. “Dickinson reports incoming. It’s the floating tanks. They’ll be on us before we hit the gate. I’m going out there.”
A group of night barbers spotted the tank and started shooting. We rushed past. We only had a mile until the resurrection gate.
The mounted gun rattled as Clara took up her position. The entire tank shook with the roar of the gun.
“Don’t you dare fucking die,” I cried up to her. “Or at least wait until we’re outside the city.”
I had no idea what would happen if we died before we left the city limits now. I still had the flashing Warrant icon in the lower left of my interface. We each had maxed out our teeth just in case we got caught, but I didn’t want to risk it.
The tank bucked as it was hit with a glancing blow from a flying cannon. One of the gauges on my dash popped in a burst of blue electricity. Nipper’s integrity plummeted to less than 40%. I pulled a hard right into an alley. The street we were about to cross exploded in shrapnel.
“Got one!” Clara cried. “How do you like that you creepy-ass robot motherfuckers!”
A crash echoed. I cringed, realizing Clara’s kill had probably landed in the middle of a worm surgeon neighborhood.
We approached the open gate. Ahead, Banksy reared up in the field outside the city. I aimed Nipper directly for his mouth. His maw gaped.
“Get down here,” I called.
Clara dropped down just as the gun emplacement on top of Nipper exploded. The roof ripped away with a terrible shriek, shrapnel flying everywhere. The jagged remnants of concertina wire whipped about. Iffy screamed, dying after getting impaled. I groaned. I was hoping to keep Nipper in one piece. We wouldn’t get a chance to fix it. The integrity was down to 22%.
“You with me?” I cried as I prepared my spell.
“See you on the other side,” she yelled.
Long, long ago, I had chastised Clara for giving herself a level 10 spell called Recall. At the time, I had thought the spell was a useless waste of points because Teleport did much more for fewer skill points. Recall only had two levels, and it only did one thing. It teleported you to your regen spot. But I had since changed my mind about its usefulness. I had purchased the first level of the 5-point spell the moment I understood how powerful it really was.
Recall had a distinctive advantage over Teleport. While you couldn’t use either of the spells while you were within the city limits, you could cast Recall while you were in the middle of a fight. Teleport could not be activated if you were currently engaged with an enemy. It was a fast-travel spell, and it wasn’t meant to be used as an escape hatch. Recall was.
Entering Medina Outskirts.
The moment the notification appeared, I cast Recall. Behind me, Clara did the same.
I tumbled into my base within the Shrill, my body rolling with the forward momentum.
The entire guardian shuddered as damage notifications poured down my screen.
The Shrill was under attack.
Chapter 64
Out of the goddamned frying pan and into the fire.
The Shrill’s regen spot was all the way back in Neo-Austin, and I could not afford for him to die right now. I read the notifications as I rushed to the cockpit. I slid easily into the chair only to pop back out a moment later, but not before smashing down on Hypnos, which caused the two kaiju besieging us to avalanche to the ground. Leaping out of my chair, I cast BloodBorne, and I set a destination for the right flank, just above tentacle number four. As I waited, I used a trick Clara had taught me, and I mentally pulled the Shrill’s status off the wall and placed it into the upper corner of the Gross Anatomy map. Now I could see his health and strength without having to cast diagnosis over and over.
The world out by the rift was utter chaos. The Shrill’s advanced vision told the story, giving me a quick, 360-degree snapshot of the world all around us.
Paskunji grappled in the air directly over the rift with the two angels, who retained their angel shape, but had grown to an enormous size. Raguel fought with a sword made of ice and Jeremiel used what looked like a long staff with a hook at the end. Paskunji remained in phoenix form, and she screamed as they tumbled through the skies. The three had become a whirlwind of their own, a glowing, exploding, crashing trilogy of violence.
Epsilon was on the field, approaching from the east, but the giant robot had been waylaid by the world’s newest kaiju, Miftah. The hell guardian was no longer a baby. The amorphous blob of flesh was easily the biggest thing out here, almost twice the size of his father, the Shrill. Tem the alienist’s beetle, Bubilas the brownie’s wasp, and Bast of the humans all grappled with the monstrosity, who unlike the Shrill, had the ability to grow and generate tentacles and appendages at will. Karkadann, the upright-standing, rhinoceros-headed kaiju of the dryad tree people lay dead, broken in half before Miftah.
Meanwhile, Clara’s salamander guardian—the Opera—was in the process of getting his ass kicked by a new kaiju I’d never seen before. This creature was a hell guardian, the kaiju form of one of the demon lords. I had suspected the demon lords would all become giant monsters at the end, but I hadn’t expected it to happen this early. Clara was not currently controlling the Opera, having zapped herself into Avvinik, who was many miles away.
Other guardians wrestled and fought with new kaiju, who took on strange and various forms. While the guardians were mostly, but not all, animal-based behemoths, the new threats were all pure monstrosities, creatures created in the fever dream of a madman. The Shrill was clearly more a member of this family than the others.
The two kaiju I’d just put to sleep were both about the Shrill’s size. One was coal-black, covered in horns and dripping, oil-like waves of skin. It had a pair of mammoth tusks jutting from
its center, one of which had torn a jagged hole in the Shrill I had to repair.
The other was fluorescent red, shaggy in some places, dreadlocked in others. It was like a millipede conjoined with dozens of half-melted human shapes erupting from its body. It had scuttled onto the Shrill with at least a hundred, jagged legs that look like thorns. Its body crawled with venomites, the spider demons. I hadn’t even noticed them until they’d scattered off the kaiju the moment I’d knocked them all out.
As the Shrill proceeded to eviscerate the two fallen enemies, I emerged onto the edge of a muscle that should not be exposed to open air. Black smoke and the stench of death whipped at me as I slid out of the vein. Blood cascaded like a waterfall out of the guardian. I had to use my grappling hook to affix myself to the sidewall of a torn ligament to keep from flowing away. I had to staunch the bleeding. The jagged, horrific wound was at least a hundred feet long, deep enough to cut through fat and muscle. I’d felt the searing pain in the short moment I had jumped into direct control. I started to cast Numb, but I held back, seeing the salve would cost most of my soul points. Shit, sorry buddy I thought as I went straight for the simple, dirty heal. I used the entirety of my soul power to cast Cauterize.
The Shrill screamed as the wound viciously closed before my eyes, darkness enveloping me. His draining health slowed, then stopped, settling at 20%. His strength, thankfully, remained at the top. The health ticked up one point. Then another. Too slow. Too slow.
My guardian finished off one of the demons, and a familiar, powerful wave of soul power punched into me. I jumped at the opportunity, casting Numb, then Patch. I rerouted one of the major veins from a lung in the damaged zone, moving it to an unused lung deeper within the body. His health started to tick up faster.
I moved to the next biggest wound, repeating the process. I managed to heal the slashed tentacle before the unlimited soul power bonus finished seeping into me. And then a moment later, I received another bonus as the Shrill finished off the other demon. I moved to the third wound, a deep puncture higher up on his bulk. It was less serious of an injury, but it had nicked an intestine and would take longer to heal.
Seal of Asmodeus added to library.
Seal of Crocell added to library.
I had no idea which of the two demons was which, and I didn’t care at the moment. It was good to know I’d get their info as they were killed, but I doubted I’d be able to utilize the sigils at this point.
As I repaired the puncture wound, the surviving venomites awakened and swarmed, burrowing their way into the Shrill’s body. His strength plummeted as he screamed in new pain and rage.
I waited for them all to get inside before I cast my level 10 Antiparasitic. They died instantly.
The immediate threat pacified, I returned to the cockpit. I took a moment to assess the situation.
Paskunji was dead. The dead phoenix smoldered, her shattered body sitting within a crater adjacent to the rift, a mere quarter mile away from the edge of the Shrill. I was lucky she hadn’t landed on us. She had died almost on top of her respawn, and she’d be back in about seven minutes. I didn’t see Jeremiel anywhere, and I assumed he was dead. I didn’t know where the angels would respawn, but I guessed it would be all the way back in Medina. Raguel swooped through the sky, swinging his ice sword menacingly, looking about as if he didn’t know what to do now. He spied a demon kaiju that looked like a three-headed horned toad that was shooting a stream of red blood from its eyes. He swooped down to fight it.
The Opera was dead, which was a blow to our plan. The salamander’s respawn was in the lake on the far north side of the world. He wasn’t a fast-moving guardian, and it’d take a day and a half for him to walk the full length of the map back here.
I’d held Moritasgus buried and in reserve. I called him now, and he’d be here in about an hour.
A smattering of other guardians lay slain on the battlefield while others held their own. Even two-headed Orthrus was now here, which gave me a start at first. But the lycan kaiju did not have the tell-tale indicator that Jenk was within. I suspected once Jenk got locked up, Orthrus started to wander and found his way here on his own.
This situation was completely untenable. When the guardians died, they scattered all over the realm, but the hell guardians popped right back up in their current locations 20 minutes later. It was a losing game. We had to get into the rift where all demon death was permanent. I eyed Miftah, who was in the process of disemboweling Bast. The surviving guardians streamed at him. Warble, the lumpy rock creature monster of the nerve agents threw boulder after boulder at Miftah, who howled in rage as he finished off Bast. He moved next to Tem the stag beetle, who was almost immediately crushed.
The chimera form of Lamashtu skulked back, standing atop the dead and deflated form of Colo Colo. She observed her son from a distance.
“Fucking hell,” I grumbled, though it came out as a roar from all the mouths of the Shrill at once. What a complicated clusterfuck. The guardians needed to kill the demons. But not the demon Miftah, at least not until he managed to crack open the rift. They didn’t know that, however, and they attacked the fleshy titan on sight. At the same time, the two angels would likely sit over the rift and fight the phoenix over and over again if I didn’t intervene. I needed to get one of the angel’s attention and get him talking.
I eyed the fallen Paskunji. Even in death, the air around the phoenix crackled with heat. I could feel it from here.
I had an idea. I needed to act quickly.
I pushed the Shrill forward, rushing as quickly as I could toward the fallen guardian. After several hours of practice, I’d discovered a shape halfway between the potato and over-easy egg was the most efficient for quick travel. It took some effort to maintain the position, but I quickly sped over the landscape, arriving at the side of the dead guardian in moments. The phoenix would regenerate in about 100 seconds.
I used BloodBorne to send me to the edge of the longest tentacle, which I had draped over the body of the burning guardian. I swallowed one of the Fire Endure potions as I burst from the blood vessel at the back of the mouth. I shot forward with my hook, grasping the edge of the kaiju mouth. I retracted as quickly as I could, catapulting me forward and out of the guardian.
I initiated my shield as I dropped.
Paskunji’s entire form started blinking as I landed upon her fiery body. It was as if I stood upon the surface of hell. She was about to regenerate. A deep, red gash emanated from the phoenix’s chest where she’d been pierced by the angel’s sword.
I didn’t feel pain as I rushed across the body of the dead guardian. Still, my health plummeted. I cast Reconstitute as I ran. It was like using a thimble to stop a waterfall. I was taking more than just heat damage. Radiation mixed with angel blood was deadly to my kind, and I would not live past the next few moments. The shield did nothing.
I pulled the black sprout from my inventory, and I dove directly into the wound, praying this would work.
Chapter 65
You have died 19 times.
This is too much. This is too much.
I regenerated back in my home base to find an angel sitting on my couch.
“You shouldn’t have done that to my sister,” the angel said. He didn’t look at me. He gazed into the crackling fire. The large, stone hearth was the only part of my sanctuary that looked remotely like the default human base. He spoke softly, almost gently. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Not even her.”
“You’re not supposed to be able to get into here,” I replied, pulling myself up to sit stiffly across from Raguel the angel. I sunk into the deep, comfortable chair. I felt tired, overwhelmed, and nothing surprised me anymore. I was ready for this all to be done. My head spun. My nerves felt as if they’d all been burned off at the tip.
I dared to look up at the Shrill’s status, but it didn’t appear as if he was fighting anything at the moment. I knew the respite wouldn’t last.
“You are the guest in this pl
ace,” the angel said. “My brother gave me access.”
“So he’s talking to you? Because he’s said like five words to me this whole time.”
“Zagan is much like Paskunji. His mind is not what it should be. He knows his duty, but he barely remembers who he is. He has his moments of clarity, but they are rare. That happens to our kind when we spend too long outside our proper form.”
I sighed. “Look, angel man. We think we can stop all of this. As soon as Miftah breaks open…”
“Ah yes, Miftah. Is that the name sweet Lamashtu has given that abomination? It is fitting. Miftah. It means ‘key.’”
“Yeah, so when Miftah gets in there, we need to follow him inside. You, your brother, the Shrill, Avvinik, and one more friend. A minor guardian. We will all go in there and get to Baal. There we will protect you so you can talk and make peace."
Raguel grunted. “By brother, I am assuming you mean Jeremiel? He fell against Paskunji.”
Uh oh. That sounded ominous. “Doesn’t he, like, come back?” I said.
“Yes, he is immortal. But his rebirth happens far from here. He is now home. He sits at the table of the Creator.”
Shit. “So he’s not coming back? Not at all?”
Raguel looked at me for the first time, his colorless eyes penetrating. He didn’t answer my stupid question.
“Do you truly think peace is possible now, after what you’ve done?” he asked.
My head had finally stopped spinning enough for me to realize the angel sitting across from me was talking softly, deliberately not because he was speaking to a simple adherent. I’d seen this look before, and it chilled me. This angel was enraged. I was in real danger here.
I did not shrink before his smoldering fury. Instead, I felt my own anger start to rise. “If I hadn’t thrown that black sprout into Paskunji, she’d have regenerated, and you’d just fight again. And if she killed you, then you’d also be sitting at your Creator’s table right now.”
Kaiju- Battlefield Surgeon Page 51