Rebirth of the Nephilim

The moon floated in misty seas, hidden from sight by the dark waves of a storm that had not yet finished venting its skyborne ocean upon the world below. Shadows did not exist, there being too little light to give them life, except for a few patches in the persistent cloud cover where the gentle lunar body’s glow managed to, if not pierce the veil, put its cloth under some strain. If one were inclined to look skyward during a rainstorm, one might notice a trio of fast-moving silhouettes, shadowy and indistinct, passing high above in the lighter areas of the storm. One would have had to have been equipped with truly keen eyesight, however, as the shadows were mere flickers in a dark night sky.

Jadis did not often take advantage of Sorcha’s ability to grant semi-invisibility. She was too big, too noisy, and frankly just too prone to direct conflict for the transparency spell to offer her much of an advantage in combat. But for her current purpose, traveling high in the sky on a mission of stealth, it was good to have a goblin on her side who knew a trick or two to help avoid detection. With all else that had happened in the past twelve hours, Jadis did not want to fail in the final hour of what felt like a far too long of a day.

Truthfully, she wasn’t all that tired. She was still too pumped full of adrenaline to feel much fatigue. The spells for enhancing and replenishing stamina certainly helped keep the weariness away, and whatever potion Ammy had forced her to drink before she assisted Aila with her greater ritual had also shaken the cobwebs out of Jadis’ gears, so to speak. Still, Jadis felt like she should be tired. She didn’t know how many Demons she had killed, nor how many soldiers on her side had died, nor how many were wounded and in need of healing. But she had seen a lot of death and dismemberment that evening, and she knew from past experience how such sights tended to weigh on her mind, even if she handled the stress well.

Perhaps she was growing desensitized to the violence. She always had been good at compartmentalizing, putting aside her fears and horror, focusing on what had to be done in the moment. She could handle battle, war, and conflict in a way she hadn’t known she was capable of until faced with the situation, and she knew that her ability to do so wasn’t typical for most people. Still, even she tended to need time to decompress after a fierce struggle, especially one where she had been faced with so much destruction. Yet she didn’t feel any of that weariness dragging her down, even hours after the fighting had ended. A part of her worried that she might be losing a bit of that human perspective, the piece that made such terrible sights inhuman to her, caused her to recoil, to need comfort. That part of the soul that turned away from such grievous violence.

Then again, perhaps the reason why she did not feel the aftereffects of the battle was because the battle was not yet over for her.

As Jadis neared her destination, she reduced her speed and allowed Severina to leave her grasp. Once the Seraphim was flying under her own power, Jadis passed Alex over to her waiting arms. With Sorcha’s partial invisibility affecting them both, it would be difficult for anyone to spot the two as they hovered high in the sky, just barely below the slowly drifting clouds. Giving the hands of both women a squeeze, Jadis’ three bodies pulled away, then dove for the land.

It only took a few moments to find rocks of a suitable size. Each one weighed more than five hundred pounds and was just within Jadis’ ability to carry and fly with but wouldn’t slow her down too badly. With her prizes clutched in her arms, Jadis climbed back into the skies, quickly reaching the altitude that she knew she would need.

In the darkness of the night where the dawn was still hours away, it was impossible for Jadis to make out the details of Kastoria’s ruined streets. No lights shone in the corrupted city, and the movements of the malign denizens were shrouded and unclear. However, with an exertion of will, the hidden world the aether came to life, revealing the flow of magic. Each Demon became a beacon of magic aura, their positions clearly marked and even their levels of power indicated. Circling far above, Jadis carefully picked her three targets.

The first was the incomplete shell structure that Jadis had first spotted with Severina the previous morning. Demons had no need for sleep and rain was no bother to them, so the construction efforts continued ceaselessly. Jadis couldn’t tell how much progress had been made, but the high level of activity as well as the growing number of enchantment auras told her that the shell was not too far away from becoming operational.

The second target was the building next to the shell, from which so many of the industrious Demons moved in and out of. Perhaps it was a repository of supplies. Maybe it was the workshop from which whatever cruel mind developed such insidious enchantments. The structure could have served as both and more. Either way, Jadis set it within her sights.

The third target she chose was one of the pustule-like tumors that served as the acid launchers that defended the captured city. This growth was latched high on one of the taller towers that overlooked the city square where all of the construction was being performed. Jadis wasn’t sure how difficult the launcher would be to destroy, but she saw no reason not to use the current opportunity to test its durability.

With all three targets set, Jadis took a deep breath. The anger that she had carried with her all the way from the site of the ambush still simmered deep in her stomachs, but the focus she needed had taken control. She was calm. She was cool. She was collected.

She would rain fucking hellfire down upon Twisted Desire and her forces.

Jadis dove, putting as much speed into her fall as possible. As her three forms shot down towards the surface of Oros from thousands of feet in the air, she triggered her Mirror Magnification spell, increasing not just her own size, but the size of all the equipment that she carried. Which, at that moment, included three especially large boulders.

As Jadis felt the intense force of reaching supersonic speeds press against her bodies, she pulled up out of her dive, spreading her tendril wings as wide as they could go as she did her best not to splatter herself across the ground in a crash of epic proportions. But not before releasing the three boulders, each one weighing eight times their starting weight for a maximum of three seconds before they would shrink to their original size. Three seconds wasn’t much time, but it was more than enough for the boulders to reach the targets Jadis had aimed for.

She was not able to witness the immediate effect of her stone age missiles impacting the Demon-infested structures. Jadis had to use all of her effort and concentration to pull out of her dive without losing control. However, she did hear the stone strike their targets. The sound could no doubt be heard for miles, as the thunderous clap rivaled the boom of the lightning that rumbled above. Turning her rapid ascent into a circle, Jadis scanned the city, checking to see what she could of the three points she had marked for destruction.

The view was of devastation. Even with the dark of night cloaking Kastoria, Jadis could see the massive damage she had wrought upon the city square. The unfinished Demon dome had been crushed, the aura of Demons and enchantments surrounding it having diminished significantly. The whole structure looked like it had lost its stability and, even as she circled above, she saw the shell fall in on itself, collapsing into a rain-soaked pile of rubble. The building next to the destroyed dome still stood, but the roof sported a new hole from which a thick fog of dust rose, despite the rainfall.

The acid launcher suffered the most. Jadis could see the impact of her supersonic boulder had utterly crushed the demonic tumor, splattering its form and sending glowing green slime in all directions. There looked to be nothing left of the growth, and as Jadis completed her circle, she checked the system notifications to see what deaths her attack had caused. Among the dozens of messages regarding lesser Demons, one notification stood out to her.

Congratulations!

Colossal Charybdis Defeated.

Bonus Experience Points Awarded

for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.

Charybdis? Jadis wasn’t a huge history buff, but she knew enough when it came to Greek mythology to recognize that name. She wasn’t sure a sea monster that swallowed up huge volumes of water just to spit them back out, creating devastating whirlpools in the process, was comparable to a massive tumor that sat like a festering carbuncle on dry land, hurling acid balls at anything that came within range. Then again, both were horrible abominations that involved vomiting, so perhaps that was the only tenuous connection the system needed to suit its naming conventions. Jadis just hoped she wasn’t going to have to deal with any Scylla down the line.

Of bigger concern than the possibility of running into mythological hydra-dog sirens was the fact that the Colossal Charybdis had only counted as a common Demon Spawn of Samleos. The creature had not been a named Greater Demon, which meant that there very well could be named variants in the city even more powerful than the regular variety. Never mind the possibility of a Matriarch…

As Jadis considered the implications, the sound of stone collapsing echoed up to her over the patter of rain against her armor. The tower upon which her unfortunate target had lived like a leech had also lost its structural stability. The top two thirds of the building fell over, partially collapsing onto the open space of the construction yard, cutting across it at an angle. As the dust rose up fro the crash, Jadis saw giant green globules rise up as well, launched into the air by Demons stirred to action.

None of the acid sacks came close to hitting Jadis; in fact, the barrage seemed to be a wild reaction without direction or aim. However, the acid blobs increased in number and frequency with every passing second, turning the sky around Kastoria into a minefield. Jadis would not be able to dive a second time that night, not without the great risk of running into one of those deadly spheres at full speed, which she couldn’t imagine would be good for her health. One bombing run was all that she could perform that night.

Turning away from Kastoria, Jadis headed for Severina and Alex, where the two were waiting and observing at a safe distance. They had one of the buzzers with them, so word of their success was no doubt already being relayed to the central hub back at the camp. Jadis would bring the details back with her, but at least everyone would know right away that the Demons had suffered their own losses that night. She was certain that word would travel through the troops and by dawn the whole army would know that Fortune’s Favored would not allow their enemies to attack their allies with impunity.

One bombing run. That was all. But one run had been enough to deliver devastation to the Demons who had stolen Kastoria, disrupting their efforts and, hopefully, changing their plans for the future. Setting traps for the approaching army was now not their only concern. Surviving the aerial bombardments that Jadis was going to rain down on their heads as often as possible would need to be a focus, at least if the Demons wanted to keep producing their impenetrable domes.

And maybe, if Jadis was truly lucky, the next time she dropped rocks on the heads of her enemies, Twisted Desire would be one of them.