Chương 518: BECMI Chapter 517 – Retaliations

The Gate being opened was going to admit a lot of hordlings into the world, it was true. There were some problems with that, however. The first was that the hordlings were nigh-impossible to control. They didn't even respect one another, and unless you were right on top of them, they wandered off to do their own thing, basically destroying anything and everything around them that wasn't unmarked stone or already destroyed.

The second was that the Carnifex had severely restricted options of retreat, since over half the globe was barred to them.

More to the point, I Walked the World through Nown's ley lines, with its blessings and a point of Immortal Power, and popped up right next to where they were opening up the Portal, generating a demonic storm in the sky, blood and frogs were falling as rain, plants were mutating due to the dark magic, and this area in the back lot of nowhere on the continent of Einghum was being rapidly desecrated, drawing attention from Nown.

I threw up the very broad area Interdiction immediately, giving the Carnifex who'd opened the Gate no chance to Teleport away… which meant they were in the way of the hordlings now doubtless streaming in endless numbers out the escape route from the lifeless realms the Fiends lived and warred on so listlessly. I didn't know how long the Gate would exist naturally, but they'd opened it underground, so I couldn't close it from a distance.

Closing it nominally meant fighting your way through tunnels packed with hordlings… but I didn't do nominally. Dungeonsight at IX rippled out in the area, and gave me a picture-perfect image of the surrounding landscape, buried areas… and the exits from them. Then I closed the exits with fifty feet of stone each, which was NOT appreciated by the Carnifex racing out them as fast as they could, only to slam into solid stone blocking their ways out.

Now, they had plenty of ways to get through such an obstruction, but Infinite Comprehension of the Essence of Sin, Detect Evil at XXI, could punch through their Mind Blanks like tofu and locate them exactly. Which meant I could, from safely up on the surface above them and very out of sight, mess with the tunnels they were in. Like, oh, collapsing them on top of the bastards. Crack! Crack!

I imagined they looked up in shock, and then CRACK, the short side above them was cut, and down came fifty feet of rock on top of their heads, nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. A lot of Carnifex Auras winked out below me, the escape tunnel was filled in even more, and here came the hordlings in all their numbers to start a fight.

Completely unmoved by the life and death battle that was going to eventually end badly for them as they became tired, were grappled or various magicks were unleashed upon them, and died, or could they get Wards up to stop the horde? Ah, generic Protection from Evil, keeping out otherplanars out since the dawn of magic. Crack! Crack! The Carnifex might've been screaming faintly as I severed the third side, and down came another stretch of tunnel atop them like one massive hammer.

I strolled away, towards the center of this hilltop they'd chosen to dig under, and stopped directly above the Gate pulsing far below and basically disgorging a hordling or two every second. The hole I made in the top there was only a foot in diameter, which meant it could plunge down a thousand feet instantly… which gave me direct line of effect to the Gate down below. The Spellflare followed forthwith.

The cavern below was big enough that the explosion didn't make it to the ceiling, but the rending of the Gate certainly caught some nearby hordlings and didn't treat them well with all the Kickers added onto it from Dread, including Dreadfire. I considered the multiple ways out of the cave system below, none going down, three going up, and moved to seal them all. The hordlings were scrambling up them at speed, which meant I had to hurry a bit, but that was fine.

Getting them into the tunnels to crush them was much easier than having to bring down the roof of the main cavern from up here to do the same, although I was going to do that, too. It was a pity that I couldn't Summon up some Earth Elementals to go down and loot the Carnifex, but it was what it was. I wanted their skulls, I had to ensure True Death took them, and I was sure they had magical loot they'd taken from their own victims which I'd have to Burn away. -Anything for me to do there?

- Sif /spoke up from the distance. The Marks weren't affected by the Spell of Preservation. -A few hundred hordlings waiting to be crushed flat and vivified. I was going to stuff a Widened Incendiary Cloud down a hole and fill the area with Wrathflame to make sure I got everything. - The huge area of effect and multiple rounds of damage would make sure everything was taken care of, while Primal and Divine damage Kickers would make sure even the fire-immune ones were damaged and so ate all the Kicker damage.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. It didn't do a lot of damage fast, so it wasn't a very good combat spell, but if your enemies couldn't go anywhere else? It did just fine. I carried Spell Glyphs of weird spells just for such times. -You ready to track them seriously? - Sif /went on expectantly. Mind Blank could foil even IX's… but it couldn't foil X and higher spells going looking for them.

We had skulls and Baneskulls for the most powerful Carnifex on the Far Shore, all of whom had counterparts on this Shore. We might have killed a few, but most of them were still alive here. I definitely had the spells to track them back to 'themselves' here, even if they were merely younger versions. With Resonance in place and the Spell of Preservation keeping interference from outside the planet away while limiting their mobility, it was now time to act.

-I am very ready, indeed, - I /replied, thrusting the Greater Widen Spell Rod down the hole I'd made and letting the Incendiary Cloud go, power crackling in a burning torrent from the Skull that materialized around me and exhaled a howling inferno down through that hole where the Gate had once been, multiple flames mixing with the elemental fury of the spell as Dread contributed Kickers to the blast. The planet had spent decades withering under the actions of the Carnifex.

Whole landmasses were despoiled by more Fiends, undead, invaders from other worlds, creatures of Mythos, and just horrible, awful stuff, while all we'd been really able to do was defend our homelands to some extent, make war on the invaders where we could, and maybe evacuate some survivors to our own lands to bolster our fighting forces.

Now their reinforcements were completely cut off, at least not without those forces breaking the rules and driving in with Immortal Power from outside, something sure to draw the attention of others. Whether they would respond to blatant Immortal Power being used was going to be a benchmark as to whether our own allied Immortals could act openly. What was good for the goose and all…

But now I could also use more of my Divs, pinpoint where at least several hundred of the Carnifex were, and we could go get them ourselves, using mundane technological transportation so much faster than anything they would have available. The abrupt loss of whizbang attacks meant we could also move off a pure reactive footing and start prosecuting attacks against our enemies, as we wouldn't be leaving things vulnerable behind us. Half the world was overrun, most of the rest had collapsed…

and the fighting was now just getting started!

The Astral Plane... Something walked out of The Light. The Immortals besieging the barrier squinted at the figure of the form, but the way the Light corroded their eyes didn't help their visibility. Incidental attacks bounced and rolled off it impotently, and it took two long steps on nothing, stepping out onto the borders of the Astral Plane for the Immortals to stare at in surprise. It was over a thousand feet tall, and it was made of metal.

It looked nothing like the legendary Earthbreaker, whose lineage dated back to Darkmoor. This was sleek, shiny, colored and polished, gleaming with new power and strength that didn't seem slow or tedious in the least as it flexed and moved. There were six parts to its roughly humanoid form: two arms, two legs, head and upper chest, and lower torso. Energy, vast amounts of energy in several spectra, thrummed through it.

Those most familiar with the Core of All Magic gaped, because in the heart of the torso thrummed the power of a full anti-matter reactor, the equal of that which had once powered the FS Barhund, except this one was imbued with catastrophic amounts of magical power! Those sensitive to the tracks of time looked upon the robot, and could see that it was made of the molecularly-hardened metal of the Barhund's hull, only this time Hardened further with magic and Divine power, stronger than even greater Artifacts!

Multiple gun turrets snapped around, fixing on targets. Cannons on the back of the arms, on the tips of the feet, all began to glow with arcanoplasma of the most horrifying degree. A decidedly female, very crisp and disciplined Voice rang out in their heads, forcibly reminding them of a silver sword raised high,"As someone of my acquaintance likes to say, payback is a bitch."

Then the Astral Plane lit up with anti-matter cannon rounds, anti-proton beams, and arcanoplasma that could cut through moons as the first defender of Heaven started on the offensive against its attackers. The Immortals who survived that first volley of Avatar-obliterating fire would have been much less happy to know that nine more such techno-Constructs waited behind it.

They would have been even less happy to learn those robots could combine together and magnify their firepower and strength against truly mighty foes. But that would be a lesson for the future.

For now, they faced the might and power of the Silver Sentinel of Heaven, piloted by Dame Adama, the General of Heaven, and learned that size really did matter, being fast didn't outrun computerized aiming systems using time-sighting to counter their own, and the amount of firepower a TL 15 Antimatter techno-Arcane Reactor could put out totally dwarfed that of any Immortal, to the point where it was completely draining the magical power in the entire area to power its movements…

and not incidentally drain away any magic being used against it at the same time. Dame Adama wasn't at Her own full power as a Greater God, of course. The agglomerated power of Good souls and Heavenly energy had gathered first to Lunia, pushing Her over the limit into that status, resulting in a defense of Heaven/New Elysium that could stave off these Immortals nigh-forever.

But the systems here took none of Her personal power, which meant Her ability to Smite, to recover, to Heal, to defend, and anticipate was operating without any drain from this Divine Mecha. Also, a Mecha with a god at the controls could move with impossible speed and precision, totally gaffing physics, a fact that the Immortals coming to do battle weren't particularly keen on discovering, either, even if they had familiarity with high technology. Ah, best to do it properly, and the most distractingly."

Form Blazing Sword!" she announced to all of them, putting great mechanical hands together and drawing them apart in an arc of energy. A grandiose Sword the length of a skyscraper materialized in her grip. She picked an Entropic Immortal a full mile away, the gaunt old not-man staring at the great robot in disbelief, most especially as the Smite flared and blinded him with its Heavenly wrath.