Chương 367: Chapter 8-365 – Cracking the Sun and Moon

An explosion rang out, millennia-old enchanted stones cracked and blew apart. Rubble rained down all around, to cheers from the grim men and women watching the Demolition Teams at work. The Seal was up and in place atop the former doorway to the Sun Pyramid Temple to Tezcatlipoca, cutting off the traversal route to the Netherworld. The link was still there, but nothing could actually cross the anchor, even if we couldn't sever the anchor points as of yet. That was coming, soon.

Briggs was up in the air watching, and pointedly turned around as the third of the Sun Temple's doors were breached and Sealed with professionally rehearsed speed. Every other soldier around turned around with him. Ten minutes apart, three of the four doors on the Moon Temple Pyramid to Camazotz were blasted apart into great smoking craters, the Seals were up and on them, and only one Doorway was left to each of them.

The Fire Mages walked up with the closed Rods held between themselves, and planted six sets of them in front of that doorway on the Moon Temple. Heavenly Fire that screamed of Phoenixes and Stars blazed up before them, and nothing below a Ruler could possibly have survived exiting through them, white flames that could melt adamantine like butter, yet would do no harm to Good souls whatsoever. We had certain qualifications for a damn reason!

"We will be leaving a small force behind with a Sage on overwatch to make sure nothing comes through those doors behind us... but I don't think that will be a problem." Endure extended slowly, burning Gold and Silver, Black and White as Briggs turned back around.

"That door... we are going IN!" The roar from the Undead Hunters filled the night, Elemental energies rising in readiness, vivus laced through all of them.

"This is the final push. You all know this has been coming, this is what all the fighting has come down to. We don't stop until we reach the control chambers for the Pyramid and collapse this damned thing!

"And then, then we're going to do it again!" His arm snapped back, too fast to see, pointing at the Fires blazing in front of the doors to the Moon Temple.

"And when we're done, there's going to be no more Death Zone here, forever!" Scepters blazed their readiness, Baneskulls mounted on them gleaming with golden Runes and burning with the black fires of Anathema. Holy Water magic swirled, purifying Flames rippled, and armor-punching Lightning crackled. It was time.

"Lady Fae," Briggs ordered, and I complied, my Voice rising in a sharp Note, just the edges of which made their hairs stand on end and silenced all of them, a Split Disintegration Ray punching out in torus-bound streaks of emerald light that promised annihilation to the instincts of every soldier looking at them. The two Rays struck those great carved stone Portals, gleaming with the power to defy all. Countless cracks materialized instantly, the Note rose one impossible octave as the Doors shimmered...

and then, poof, the magically-reinforced entryway to the Temple of the Jaguar God was gone. The shocked mummies on the other side blinked out at us, utterly stunned that the main doors to the temple could be so manhandled. After all, with the other entrances Sealed, they had no idea that the doors there were gone, either. Screaming Phoenix flames exploded in among them, and just like that, the vanguard team, led by Red and the Mick, was raging in to secure our foothold.

Briggs was coming in with the second wave, already giving orders. The Heavens-Up Display was now working, and wouldn't these Undead have been totally aghast if they knew just how completely I'd mapped out that demiplane of theirs...

It is really hard going from this terrible existential threat to your enemies, knowing you can march out at any time and kill them, and only don't do so because you want to keep harvesting their souls, to becoming something under siege and unable to truly stop, or even meaningfully slow down your enemies. This wasn't an open plaza, although there were some large open areas up to hundreds of acres in size.

For the most part, this was a maze of hallways and tunnels leading from tombs to tombs, powerful undead ensconced in them and watching the armies of lesser undead, shades, phantoms, spirits, and the like march on past them, not doing anything themselves. Each room was thus a chokepoint for the corridors it connected to, and once cleared, were easily held.

Knowing which ones to hold, which ones to prosecute, and which avenues to march down one after another to secure our position was not something we were supposed to know... but we did, and Briggs had had all kinds of time to work specific teams through specific tactics for not just room-breaching, but specific room-breaching!

The expressions on some of the faces of the soldiers were shocked when they realized the illusionary mockups in the practice warehouses were some of the very rooms they were now blitzing through, let alone the confused undead in them as Disrupting Implements blew through them with greater speed than they imagined could exist. We took territory and held it with frightening efficiency. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Firewall Portals went up across tunnel after tunnel, sealing away attackers who would be blasted to ash by daring just the heat of the Flames, let alone trying to pass through them. Those secured us from flanking positions, while said tunnels could be sortied by our own to expand out and take the next chamber in pivoting moves that had the undead running about, wondering wildly what was going on and where we were going to come through next.

Briggs wasn't going to tell them, except with fireballs or a Hammer to the face. He was utterly unworried about coming to blows with any undead creature that was less than twenty feet tall, and they never survived long if he did. They usually ended up bereft of limbs and harvested for their primary skull, which went into his Hole to be used for Greater Baneskulls or the like. Once again, I was not needed to actually DO anything... I was only there to guard against surprises.

The main purpose of my excursions in the Netherworld had been to gather Soul Crystals, and either agglomerate them or use them to feed my very heavy Mana expenses. Summoning in 40k Mana with people around was like creating a black hole of Mana Draw, not something I could conceal. It wasn't at all difficult with Soul Crystals to draw on instead, so I wasn't doing it here. It was okay. Briggs had given me the twenty days I needed, and my Syzygy was complete.

I was only working on Soul Star Jewels and Diamond Pearls now, courtesy of the discarded Damned of the Netherworld. I hadn't told anyone as yet that my Syzygy was basically complete. Flowing Silver High Emperor was going to flip His tails, unable to believe I could condense Mana that fast, let alone refine and process it. It was indeed a truly massive amount of Mana at an utterly unreal level of refinement, and there wasn't much I could do with it right now, except cast Highpoint spells via an Orb.

Almost 118 billion Mana in my Syzygy. No wonder Sama could sense it. Even Flowing Silver didn't have so much available to him. It was definitely in the ballpark of Realmlords, as we figured forty billion was the breakpoint, although we didn't know for sure. And yet, having that much Mana... didn't affect my natural Mana Renewal rate at all. I found it very amusing.

At less than two hundred Mana a second, it would take me twenty years to fill all those Stars if I expended all my Mana, and that was the only way to fill them. My Canticle of Stars spell was definitely going to be necessary. I would need to be pulling in a million Mana per second if I wanted to refill a spent Syzygy in less than a day! Well, whatever. Nobody knew I had effectively unlimited ammunition for practical purposes now, and was merely testing out the limits of Human possibility now.

I still hadn't applied my Tier-9 Stars at all. I had a feeling that something important and dangerous might happen when it did, and I was going to have to be very, very careful of my timing for that.

Damn. Just, damn. The outer world wanted to call him a General now that he was a Sage, but Briggs had very specifically told him that a General needed to be awesome at actual command, at turning those under him into a powerful weapon. Fools who used the title just as a symbol of competency and rank over the less powerful were idiots, and Coralost did not play that.

He was Colonel Mick of Coralost, and he gave orders to fucking generals, because they tended to be goddamn idiots, given the rank because of magical power, not ability to command. Generally speaking, he'd found Adepts to be the best at commanding other mages, especially those who'd maxed out their magic and wanted to be competent at something more. Occasionally he'd run across a Mage who was good at command.

Outside Coralost, the number of Archmages with skill at what Briggs called the Warlord Masteries had been infinitesimal. Sages? Absolutely none. Their idea of Leadership was taking on something tough to show off, and letting their underlings either help as they could or take on its minions. Teamwork was their lessers protecting them while they showed off. He'd watched Briggs, a non-mage, commanding all these spellcasters with what looked like no effort at all.

Even the most reluctant of soldiers had turned into Briggs' rabid followers with remarkably little time. He led them all, he commanded them, he trusted them, he still wasn't afraid to mix it up in personal combat with the undead (something that still awed a LOT of mages!), and they had won, and kept winning, and winning... Who wouldn't follow a Light-damned Warlord like this?

Briggs didn't need magic, he needed to be able to command, to get the best out of his people, and have them work together to form a greater and more devastating whole! Even as he was being ordered about by Briggs to be here or there, either covering for the lesser troopers or launching the first strike on a tough undead, he was paying attention to the dispersal and movement of their forces on both the Heavens-Up Display and the more complete one in Markspace.

As it had outside, watching the movements just dazed him. It looked like Briggs was gazing through time and picking the best option, all the while forcing the undead to respond to his actions and predicting their response accurately every damn time.

So many times the undead had tried to perform surprise flankings, lures, strange formation engagements, ambushes, concealed elite troops, had unique attackers the main troops weren't prepared for, or sprang some mass spell attack that could have killed or injured large numbers of soldiers. Briggs had always had the solution on hand, or turned the attack back on the enemy. Flankers moving into crossfire. Elite troops bombarded with indirect attacks from units not even in the fight.

Counterspells going off or defenses springing up with elite mages ready to handle them. Gunner teams moved just perfectly to break up assaults or formations with devastating speed and quickness. Formations and units dispatched to certain positions just in time to reinforce or intercept what might have been devastating attacks, only to run into prepared and ready mages in greater numbers than expected instead.

Sometimes that meant he and Red had to zip around, or some of the other KIA men, with the SAR women all in reserve in different locations to bail out anything unexpected happening, or unleash some Healing magic for the wounded. They rarely had to do anything violent, because... nothing unexpected was happening.

He would've loved to know the precise mental processes going on in Briggs' head, how he could read the enemy so well that it was like they were dancing, with Briggs leading the other around into annihilation.