***
'Gestalt, where have they gone?'
[We have a spy bird tracking them; they are outside in the main courtyard. They seem to be heading for the docks.]
I tear my way through the Academy corridors until I find myself outside.
The docks are awash with fire and flame. I see what has been shooting Maria's office; the Arthurian ships have opened fire on all the vessels surrounding them. One of the bigger ones has a fuck off gun trained on the where Maria's office used to be. The barrier had long since failed, and there is little more than a tower of rubble left.
Not all of the ships have been fucked up; there are a few houses that are both being left alone and not joining in themselves. Traitorous Cunts.
The rest of the Academy isn't faring much better than the docks; there are invasion rifts everywhere, with demons, spirits, and all sorts of horrible monsters pouring in from the realm of shadows. But with most students and staff members being some sort of war mage, it's not quite the rollover that you would expect.
I have no idea how I'm going to approach the docks without dying. The place is an active war zone, explosions everywhere. I break open the shotty and replace the spent shells with two fresh barrier breakers.
'Gestalt, do you still have eyes on her?'
[We do, they are heading for the central Arthurian vessel, the one with its weapons trained on Maria's chambers.]
Fuck.
I can't get close to the docks without getting blown to Smithereens. I need a way to distract them or make them change course.
The real advantage a Rift Walker has over one of your everyday mages is that they can pull mana through a rift. Mages are limited to what is in the environment or what they have stored in items, like my Sol Ring for example.
If magic was paint, the mana would be the pigment and aether would be the medium. This invasion has only been going for minutes, but I'm already starting to feel the surrounding aether run thin, even with the mana-rich environment of the Academy. There are a lot of spells being thrown around.
A plan was beginning to form in my head. It's a good plan, only two steps. First, I need some green mana. I pick a thread that has an earthy taste and follow it, while pulling open the gremlin chat.
As riddled with rifts as the Academy is, it doesn't take me more than a minute to find what I need. I see a small knot in the thread, a micro rift into the Eternal Forest, that is if my mana taste buds are correct. Which they very well could not be, it could be some completely unrelated forest on the other end of this micro tear in reality.
[Focus.]
'Yes, thank you.'
I sling the shotty over my back, it's awkward due to the length of the fucker, but thankfully Derek convinced me to put a sling on the thing. I would really hate to leave it behind.
I pull the bomb launcher from my domain, followed by the Lifespark spellbomb. I channel mana from the micro rift through my mana core and into the bomb. Even pulling as hard as I can, it still takes a moment. My core is continuously trying to strip the mana of its colour, which is very frustrating in a moment like this.
[We know why this is happening!]
I'm getting an excited feeling from Gestalt, like he's about to um actually me.
[We are still working our way through it, but it is explained in the data your Mom sent to us, your core is Devoid. It rejects any colour, we also believe that is why you are so effective against spirits, they are creatures of colored mana, you are essentially radioactive to them.]
'Is this really the time for a lore dump?!'
[We thought it was cool, also your spellbomb is charged.] They are sending pissy vibes now.
'Nerd.' I think as I shove the charged Spellbomb into the breach of the bomb launcher, and run full pelt towards the docks.
I have to make a slight detour to avoid some demons, but I arrive just before the nick of time. Even with a number of nuns, it's pretty hard to move a floppy unconscious person without a stretcher.
Dropping to one knee, I brace myself with the Bronson aura and shoulder the bomb launcher. Honestly, I overprepared myself. The bomb launcher's kick was nowhere near as bad as the shotty. More of a heavy push than a sharp jab. The bomb flew a gentle arc and impacts on the ground a good way in front of the nuns, between them and the docks.
The bomb bounces once, the spell triggers, and then it sinks right into the ground.
There is a rumble, before the very ground itself breaks and tears itself apart. A golem of stone, metal and wood rises, a malevolent green aura glows from within. It's a really big fucker too, I may have done considerable damage to the Academy. But who the fuck cares, I have a girlfriend to save.
I don't want the thing splattering Sophia while attacking the nuns, so I yell "Attack the ships!" At it. "The ones with the dragon flag," I clarify, hopefully it's smart enough to not destroy everything.
My shouting did gain me attention that I didn't want; a pack of roaming demons came screaming at me, looking to tear me a new asshole.
I pull a disposable gun from my domain and start dumping lead into demons. Bullets are pretty effective against enemies without barriers or not covered in living armor.
Two get taken out before the rest scatter for cover, as soon as I hear the click of an empty gun, I drop it and replace the weapon with another from my domain. It takes a fraction of a second, no matter how fast I get at reloading, I'm never going to beat this.
The situation isn't looking rosy for me. Yes, gun beats claws, but there is still a good number of them left, and my barrier enchantment took a real beating during those couple of seconds I spent between Maria and Edward. I'm not sure how much punishment it's got left in it.
Plus all of this is taking time I need to get Sophia back.
The building shakes, having caught a stray round from one of the war barges. There is chaos, fire and screaming everywhere, what the fuck have I gotten myself into?
[Focus.]
I return to the here and now. Demons need to be dealt with, and fast. I don't need anything fancy; I just need the problem to go away as quickly as possible.
An idea comes to me.
Pulling Shiv's goblin bomb from my domain, I dump in the mana from my Sol Ring and what little I can gather from the local Aether.
I've held onto this thing for so long, that it feels a little anti-climactic to just lob it at a random bunch of demons. But needs must.
Tossing the thing down the corridor at the demons, I dash into the nearest classroom and smash my way through one of its windows.
This is going to suck. The Academy is such a hodgepodge of buildings and towers that it looks like a Dark Souls level. There's always something underneath. Luckily, at this point I knew this part of the Academy pretty well. The window I dived out of looks over a small courtyard. No grass, unfortunately; soft ground is rare in the City of Doors.
My barrier cracks and shatters when I hit the stone floor. I think the Bronson aura is the only thing that stops my ribs following its example.
I roll over wheezing, just to see a demon about to launch itself from the same window I did.
Then the bomb went off.
It looks like a Vin Diesel movie, every single window across the whole floor explodes violently. Glass and flames being jettisoned with extreme force.
The demon is vapourized.
Fuck, that was so cool.
I mean, I probably also killed a whole bunch of people too, but eh, the demons would have got them anyway. I care a little more about people these days, but not enough to actually feel guilty or anything.
Picking myself up, I stumble through the courtyard back towards the docks; at least I'm on the right level now.
It hurts to both breathe and move. I'm pretty sure I've broken some ribs. I'm also rapidly running out of options, my Sol ring is drained, the local mana is thin to the point of useless, all I really have left are my guns and a prayer.
The docks are even more fucked up than before. My fuck off huge golem has been doing work. Some of the Arthurian vessels are wrecks, others have moved away from their moorings. They have been concentrating fire on my creature; it probably doesn't have long left.
'Gestalt, which way?!'
[They are going for one of the Rifts. Run past the docks and take the next left.]
With as much force as I can manage in my increasingly fucked up state, I jog past the docks, avoiding stray explosion as best I can. One of them did leave me scrambling. I follow Gestalts directions. Until they say,
[Fuck. Something took out our spy bird. We're trying to get other eyes on her. Head towards the main gate. We think they are going for the big rift.]
I kick, stumble, and struggle my way to the main gates of the Academy. It takes me too long, every moment an agony of anxiety and worry.
Lillian and Shiv find me on their way to the docks.
"Tans!" Shouts Lillian, "what the fuck happened to you? Where's Sophia."
"Main gate!" I force out between gritted teeth and cracked ribs.
The girls help me reach where we need to be and the sight that greets us leaves me hollow.
The rift at the main gate is as massive as it is unstable. It's taking the concentrated effort of two rift nuns to keep the thing open.
I see the other nuns carrying the still-limp body of Sophia towards the rift. We could make it in time if there wasn't an entire army of demons, spirits and monsters between us and them. Pouring in from the Realm of Shadows, looking for violence.
I move forward anyway; I would fight an army with my fingernails for Sophia. But I'm held back by Lillian and Shiv.
I watch as the nuns hand Sophia's body over to a huge demon. It slings her over its shoulder without ceremony.
Someone is screaming and sobbing now, I think it's me, as I scramble and struggle against my two friends who are keeping me from Sophia.
The demon turns around and walks back towards the rift.
Lillian wraps her hand around my mouth to shut me up, lest we attract the attention of the army of monsters. I bite her as hard as I can, but she doesn't let go.
The demon takes Sophia through the rift, crossing over to the Realm of Shadows. I can still reach her in time if I can just get free.
Please.
I know the noises coming from my mouth are incoherent.
My vision starts to blur with the tears.
I see the rift nuns step through rift.
Please.
Fuck. Please no.
I see the rift close.
***
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