Chương 75: Early Night

Naytor was in his office with his adjutant and Crowley.

"What do you mean we've lost track of Amberlin?" he demanded.

"She gave our people the slip," Marsh said.

"They haven't been able to find her again. Not at the McRorys, not at that animal shelter. They even checked all the cake shops in town."

"Can't they track her mana presence? It must be enormous."

"Even our most sensitive scouts can't sense her."

"No one who trains their mana suppression to this extreme can be up to anything good," Crowley interjected.

"Please tell me you at least have some good news." Naytor turned to the messenger.

"The Amber Temple was... uncooperative," Crowley said.

"But the Golden Temple agreed to perform the demon summoning." Now they were getting somewhere. But he didn't like the extra wrinkle.

"Will this work? The saint is only associated with the Amber Church. How would the Golden Temple know her ritual?"

"They're making preparations as we speak," Crowley said.

"Either way, we'll find out tomorrow afternoon."

"Then we just have to hold out for one more night." Naytor felt for the first time like they had a real chance of making it through this crisis. Crowley grinned.

"Considering how well everything went last night, and the additional mages that arrived this morning, there shouldn't be any problems." He couldn't believe the man just said that. Even Marsh was staring daggers at the messenger.

"What?" Crowley looked from one to the other questioningly. There was a knock at the door, and a voice called from the other side.

"Sir! We've got a big problem! The mucks have started early!" It seemed to finally dawn on Crowley what he'd done.

"Not my fault. That must have started happening before." Both windows in Naytor's office were shuttered today on account of the wind, but now he hurried over to open the one behind his desk. It blew open the moment he unhooked the latch, and the room was immediately filled with a chilly breeze and the wailing of ghosts. The rain was too heavy to make out the fleet in the distance, but the faint eerie glow from the sea was unmistakable.

It was also too dark outside to see the mucks crawling up onto his shores, but the darkness itself was proof enough. When he looked to his towers and the spells they were casting forth, there was no denying it. The battle had already started. Why was this happening? They'd had storms before, and the mucks never rose in those. Did it all come down to the thickness of the cloud cover? Or had their enemies caught onto their plans?

With no time to puzzle out an answer, the three of them hurried out to oversee the defense.

Boots made his way quickly toward the water. He didn't like the rain, but sometimes you had to put up with a bit of discomfort for the things you loved. And what he loved, he could smell right now, the scent carried in on the wind. Oodles and oddles of prey of this delicious new type that he could eat and eat and fill up his essence reserves and still have room for more. There was no telling how long this prey would stick around, seeing how mindlessly they threw themselves against the humans' claws.

If he had his way, these creatures would spread across the world so that he would never be far from a good meal. Along the way he picked up Kitten's trail and, as a responsible parent, went to check on her well-being. She seemed to be having fun, hanging out with a crowd of humans, though he couldn't approve of how wasteful she was being with the goopy prey creatures. In the few minutes that he stayed and watched, she must have burned through hundreds without so much as trying a single bite.

Kitten always was a picky eater. This was the problem with children. Their palate wasn't geared for proper nutrition. He would have to think of a way to bring some back for her to try.

By the time Maelle and Ella touched down at the animal shelter, the mucks had already reached Eltershay Avenue's inner gate. The sector's mages hadn't had time to climb up into their towers, and now those were inaccessible. Instead they'd taken up what elevated positions they could find on the nearby fences and rooftops. A few of them turned in surprise at the pair passing overhead, but had little time for distractions with the weight of the swarm pushing at the perimeter wall.

Rufus and Rhianna had been waiting outside the shelter. Both stepped forward to help when Ella landed. Rhianna took the bundled cat while Rufus carried Maelle inside, where he set her on the benchtop. She watched as he laid his hands on her injured ankle and his face scrunched up in deep concentration.

She tried to sense his spell form as Ella had done with hers, and though she could tell that the spell was [Minor Heal] because its presence matched what had been cast on her before, she was unable to gain any new insights. The best she could sense was his mana channel and the real feeling of physical warmth as the magic shifted her ankle back into place. His spell was very inefficient, which she didn't need any special sense to tell, as the leaking mana was very obvious.

It wasn't necessarily a lack of aptitude on his part, but could have been due to her being far from his typical patient. Rhianna returned from the back and looked over at Ella, whose wings had unmanifested and eyes returned to normal. No, not normal. The solid obsidian had been the devil's true eyes. What they saw now was the disguise.

"Now you know," Ella said impassively.

"Will you be leaving us?" Rhianna asked.

"Would you like me to?" Rhianna glanced at Rufus, who shook his head ever so slightly. Back to Ella, she said, "We'd both be happy if you stayed."

"You know you won't be safe if I do."

"We aren't helpless kittens," Rhianna replied. Ella looked like she was struggling with something and then shook her head.

"There are dangers you don't understand."

"Either way, we cannot stay here," Rufus said, turning away from the bench, where Maelle was testing her freshly healed ankle.

"We'll have to pack, rest up, and be ready to leave in the morning. Ella, will you stay and help us get the animals off the peninsula?" This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'll help you load up the little ones," Ella replied.

"Beyond that, I'm yet to decide."

"The loading will have to wait until daylight," Rufus said.

"We can't risk being caught in the streets when the mucks break through. Safest for now is to board up for the night."

"You aren't going to help defend?" Maelle asked, sliding off the bench and onto her feet.

"[Minor Heal] is a Tier 4 spell. With magic at that level, you could absolutely make a big difference out there." Rufus looked down.

"It's complicated. You know it too, don't you?" She didn't really, but thought better than to question it. Everyone had their circumstances, and she wouldn't want others to pry into hers either. Maelle made her way to the door.

"I'll stop by in the morning to see you guys off. Don't leave without saying goodbye, okay?" Rhianna called out after her.

"You aren't going out there to fight, are you?" She turned around.

"I can't sit back while everyone is trying so hard to save their home."

"The battle is already lost," Rufus said.

"You should find Amberlin and prepare to leave like we are." She shook her head.

"I can't do that." Didn't he understand how hard it would be to find Amberlin in all this chaos? Ella said, "Whatever happens, make sure you stick with Boots, okay?"

"Sure thing," she replied. Even now, all Ella could think about was saving cats. Maybe people were wrong about devils. And then Maelle left the shelter to join the battle.

"Remore! Rem!" Dory ran through the streets, calling out for her brother. All around, soldiers were scrambling to get to their assigned posts. She passed a knight wolfing down a piece of flatbread while jogging along. When she got to Eltershay Avenue, there were too many soldiers at the gate for her to see past their heads. As a bard, Remore should've been toward the back, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

She climbed up onto a barrel and spotted him near the front line, accompanying a group of knights who were desperately trying to push their way toward the buffer gate. They were probably hoping to get it closed to buy everyone time to secure the inner zone. But they were fighting against an endless flood. Dory swore under her breath. Why must her brother insist on putting himself in harm's way? There was a bottleneck at the gate keeping her from reaching Remore, and she wasn't the only one affected.

The mages at ground level had no clear line of fire for their spells, and there was only so much space up on the walls. Meanwhile the towers overlooking the sector stood dark, save the extra one built inside the safe zone. With the defenders' inability to bring their usual firepower to bear, it was little wonder the knights were struggling. Instead of the softened forces they were used to facing, they were having to meet the mucks in their full numbers.

A series of panicked cries came from her left, and she turned in time to see mages leaping off the inner perimeter wall. They barely got clear in time before a section broke apart like a burst dam and mucks poured through into the safe zone.

"Side Winders! Silver Knuckles! To the breach!" The order came from the ground commander. The teams moved quickly to plug the gap, but there was already more than a muck running amok in the safe zone. Dory joined in the effort to clear them out and quickly ran into another problem. Whether due to the rain or an inability to access their supplies, they were lacking in torchbearers. She couldn't actually kill any of the mucks with her sword.

Without someone to set them on fire, the pieces simply reassembled and got back up. Meanwhile the mages on high had their attention divided on too many different fronts. They were too spread out for the tower commanders to effectively coordinate everyone, and they all just picked whichever targets happened to catch their attention. Where was Amberlin? Where was Maelle? Neither had been at her home when Dory woke. Her parents hadn't seen Havlo around either. Even Boots was gone. Had the adventurers abandoned them?

Was this why Ygg Latten Bay's defenses were falling apart? Her brother's gittar music sounded a lot closer, giving her hope that he'd made it back into the so-called safe zone where most of the fighting was now taking place. But when she turned to look for him, there was too much in the way. The line of knights trying to plug the wall were being pushed back. Meanwhile the wall was beginning to crack again, making a second breach imminent. Dory ran over and braced it with her back. Remore came up to her.

She was relieved to see that he really had made it back inside the perimeter, though it must have been a close call as his gittar had been snapped in two.

"Dory—""Get back to the house," she said.

"Help Mom and Dad board it up. Get packed and leave in the morning when the storm passes."

"I'm not going to abandon my post," he said.

"Major Holfast!" she called out to the ground commander.

"Request to relieve Remore McRory of duty!" The major, who was helping to plug the existing breach, turned his head.

"Now's not a good time, lieutenant!"

"Now's the only time we have left, sir!" she shouted back. It took him a second to process her words, and then he turned his eyes to Remore, glanced briefly at the broken gittar, and shouted, "Go home, son!"

"I'm not leaving you to die." Remore hugged the pieces of his instrument to his chest and put his back against the wall beside Dory.

"Why are you so stubborn!" she cried. Remore called out to the commander.

"Sir! Request to relieve Dory McRory of duty!" The major glared at him.

"Request denied! Now get out of here, boy!" But Dory's brother didn't budge from his spot beside her. She sighed.

"The world needs to hear your music, Rem. It doesn't need my sword."

"This isn't about music and swords, sis." She could feel the pressure building on the other side of the wall and pushed back as hard as she could. Remore wasn't strong enough to make any real difference, not against monsters like the mucks. The cracks were spreading, and soon the wall would break. The mages were already jumping off. If this section broke, that would make three entrances. Their forces were barely able to contain two.

"If only Amberlin were here," Remore said.

"But I suppose there are too many places for her to be."

"I never got to see her fight," she said.

"Like, really fight. Did she actually retake the entire sector on her own?"

"She was like this." Remore showed her a hand posture with fingers pointing and thumbs up.

"Bam-bam-bam-bam! Rapid-fire [Fireballs]."

"Do you mean like that?" She nodded toward an approaching figure, shrouded in a cloak. Both arms were stretched out and pointing toward the breach in the wall.

"Out of the way!" the figure shouted. Hearing the voice, Dory shared a glance with Remore, and from the excitement on his face knew that he recognized it too. It was Maelle. Maelle hadn't abandoned them after all! A [Firebolt] shot out of Maelle's finger. The white-hot streak outshone every other light in the area as it pierced its way through the rain. Dory couldn't see past the wall to where it struck its target, but she could hear the sound of two successive impacts when it did.

The spell was quickly followed up by another and then another. But they were all coming out of the same finger. If she wasn't going to multicast, why have both hands up? Regardless, this display was enough to convince the ground commander, who shouted, "Clear the way!" The teams plugging the gap jumped aside. The mucks didn't get a chance to surge through, as they all soon discovered what Maelle had prepared in her off hand. If Dory had thought the [Firebolt] was bright, then the [Fireball] lit up the avenue.

It had to be Tier 4 at least, and flew by so fast that her neck couldn't keep up. When it exploded, she could feel the shockwave through the wall. Nearby she heard somewhere say, "Isn't that the girl who burned down the waystation?" To which someone else replied, "With fire like that, I'd let her do it." When Maelle followed up with another [Fireball], Dory scrambled up the wall to see the effect for herself. The spell landed in a densely packed group of mucks and vaporized them in an instant.

What stood out to Dory the most wasn't the spells themselves—she'd seen Tier 4 magic before. No, it was the speed at which Maelle was getting them off. The mucks were quick to fill the space left behind by their vanquished allies, and Maelle's [Fireballs] cleared them out again just as quick. The girl was singlehandedly holding down a breach that had taken two full teams of knights to support. But on its own, this was only enough to hold the balance. With true multicasting, they could be pushing forward.

Why was Maelle still holding back?

"What are you all waiting for?" Maelle cried. The question spurred everyone into action. The ground commander shouted, "Knights! Over the wall! Retake the inner zone!" Up on the rooftops, the tower commanders followed suit.

"Mages! Fight to the inner tower! Archers! Get ready to climb!" As the other knights climbed up beside her, Dory realized their intentions. One by one, they were going to retake the zones and get their ranged forces back up into the towers, where they could bring the full breadth of their firepower to bear. Maelle was only creating the opportunity for them. If they wanted to survive, they were going to have to earn it through their own valor.

Dory took up her sword and jumped down alongside the other knights, ready to do just that.