novelzi Chapter 296 – Storm of Souls
Chapter 296 – Storm of Souls
Neneria took a deep breath as she finally opened her eyes again. She had lost track of time. How long had she been in there for? It had to be days. There were sorcerers here now, and planes madly escaping to the east. Dark eyes inspected the landscape as a dozen fairies appeared to form a crown on Neneria’s head. Neneria felt her dress start to rise as other ghosts appeared around her to gently lift the black silk’s hem and stop it from getting itself in the dirt. Neneria flexed her fingers, she felt…
Her own vision was only mediocre but fairies had eyes like eagles and they quickly reported back to their Goddess who was who and what was where. On the dark ground ahead of them, the two figures were Fer and Maisara. Those, Neneria could make out, Fer was unmistakable with her size and mane of gold, and Maisara was just as easy to spot with the great axe. Half-way in between Neneria and Fer was Anassa, lying on the ground in a dress of red. Her sister got to her knees, she hurled up whatever her stomach had within it, and collapsed again.
And above, the sorcerers who were watching Anassa in fear. Beyond them, three Divines. To Neneria, they were mere blips in the sky. But the fairies saw them, and they told Neneria who she was looking at. Zerus as the tallest amongst them, Sceo was by his side, holding his hand, and Alkom was the one holding a ball of fire above his head.
And Neneria immediately understood what had to be done. They had come to try and stop her? Did they now? The Goddess of Death started to call upon her Legion. It wasn’t a case of summoning ghosts individually anymore. Frankly, she had too many bodies to get through that. No, something greater had to be done.
Neneria swayed, she felt her knees shake for a moment as a surge of power ran from her feet, up her legs, and along her spine. She looked up and she felt awe at her own display of strength. Above her, winds were starting to swirl and crackle with pale miasmas. One ghost fell from the sky, it tore a hole into that blue ocean above her and it pulled onto material reality as if it was dragging down theatre curtains along with it. Neneria’s feet lifted off the ground as she felt the pull of her own power and she looked up at the three Divines in the air again.
It was time to reveal to the White Pantheon just exactly what it meant to go up against the Goddess of Humanity’s most terrible demesne.
Fer stopped as the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood up straight. If it was one of Olephia’s massive atomic explosions, if it was Baalka’s ravaging diseases, if it was Irinika calling upon the eternal night or if it was Arascus unleashing a hail of blades, Fer would have turned and gone for the kill on Maisara. She had seen all of those things before. She had never seen this before.
One ghost fell from above. It pulled the whole sky with it, as reality was merely a theatre curtain that could be taken down at will. The ghost screamed as it fell, leaving a gash through the air that bled with the light-green ethereal energies of ghosts. Neneria rose higher into the air, her arms spread wide, her black nails tearing claw wounds through the winds. And those claw wounds started to expand as they got wider.
A finger poked out of them. Then a hand. Two hands. An arm. They pushed. A man’s head appeared. Then a woman’s. Another man. A child. Everyone and anyone that had been lost in the damage of Continent Cracking. They moaned, they started falling out of those tears. It was a slow exit at first, as they had to be squeezed through the tight opening into this world. And then another would push. And another. Another. From the slow, sporadic rain of phantoms to a steady stream and then a roaring river of souls that started to build up mounds of barely moving ethereal bodies around Neneria’s feet.
And from above, Fer felt her eyes widen. Unholy winds swirled in a hurricane as cursed lightning cracked overhead. The initial ghost had made a cut between this world and Neneria’s, and then another one fell out. And another. This wasn’t the controlled deployment of the Dead Legion, where soldiers would step into reality as they rallied for their Goddess. Instead, Neneria cracked the dam of her demesne and let it all spill out. The bodies, each one completely soundless and silent even as they fell, fell like raindrops in a storm of souls.
Fer turned and looked to Maisara, the woman stared at that wound, her mouth open. Fer merely stepped away. It was rare for the wolf to let the boar run, but when they stood before the grand lion, there was no reason for the wolf to try and steal the lion’s glory.
Zerus stared down from the heavens as Neneria rose further into the air. She wasn’t flying, instead the bodies of the damned kept on piling up below her. They rose into the air and they carried their Goddess up. Higher and higher Neneria rose, black hair and black dress whipping about in the wind, but black eyes full of nothing but pure spite and malice were locked on Zerus. “Are we retreating?” Sceo asked.
“Give it a shot at least!” Alkom shouted from the other side. Zerus felt the awesome heat, controlled and directed away from them as it was, warm his side and shimmer the air.
“Give it a shot Sceo.” Zerus said to the love of his life. “To see what we’re dealing with at least.” Now that they had failed, the least they could do was return and start to plan. Zerus mentally kicked himself that he had not come faster. Why did he even bother waiting so long for Fortia? The woman had simply turned tail and ran! And that was that! Zerus spread his arms out to the side, palms facing forwards, and then he brought them forwards in a huge, ear-splitting clap as lightning cascaded like tears of shame from his eyes.
Sceo swung her arms forwards and the typhoon behind them, the one had been slowly overwhelming Anassa’s barriers with a constant of mud and stone and dirt, roared upwards. It was throwing the debris quickly enough to cut men apart, Sceo had managed to down a few of the sorcerers just through that whirlwind. It launched upwards and arced like a great rainbow of muds and rocks and debris left behind by flooded cities. And then it howled in a high-pitched screech as it crashed down upon the woman.
And Alkom swung his arms downwards. The ball of fire in his hands, the size of a castle, slowly descended to the ground like a blazing moon about to set. Fire jumped from the summoned star as it slowly moved downwards. Alkom kept pouring more power into it even as it descended, he had to be, because that great flame only grew larger and larger as it descended upon Neneria.
Through it all, Zerus saw Neneria.
And his heart sank. He would have preferred Anassa’s howling laughter. Fer’s roaring or Kassandora’s smug pride when she revelled in her victory. He would even take Irinika looking at him as if he were dirt rather than that cold gaze utter hatred Neneria wore. There was no smile, no satisfaction, no warmth, her cheeks were pale, her eyes were unblinking and she rose higher to meet the three attacks.
And behind her, melded out of the bodies of the dead, stitched together like some abomination, a scythe burst from the mountain of souls.
“Drop anchors.” Admiral Abert Nintz said then repeated himself as he looked through the window of the command bridge in awe, “give the message to all ships, drop anchors immediately. Don’t even get close”. He had sailed full speed ahead, pushing the ships to speeds that the Ausans had thought impossible. The engines were overheating, the pipes were rumbling, the gears in the lower decks were screaming from exertion. Goddess Kassandora had wanted speed and ordered for him to come and assist Goddesses Fer, Neneria and Anassa, and he had beaten even the target she had set. And yet now, even though it seemed as if the ships were threatening to explode under their fatigue, they had still been too slow.
On the land in the distance, a giant glowing green snake had risen out of the ground. A snake that was almost opaque, and its edges were fluid, as if it was a moving mass of smaller entities. It had roared upwards into a storm of what Admiral Nintz could only presume was magic. A scythe had burst from it, the tool had swung even higher. And then that ball of flame, the lightning and the tornado had all disappeared.
The scythe did not dematerialize, it fell apart into tens of thousands of different bodies that were swallowed up by that rising snake. And then, the snake roared and it came crashing back down to the ground.
Maisara dug her heels into the ground. Her axe disappeared. She spread her legs wide and held her arms apart.
She took a deep breath and tasted the cool wind blowing in from the seaside one last time.
Frankly, she understood why Fortia had not come. The risk was too great. If she arrived right now, then she was simply throwing her life away. Maisara understood perfectly, there was no blame to be laid at Fortia’s feet.
Yet no matter how well she understood, she was still disappointed.
At least she would die on her feet.