AbyssalRoadTrip
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Abyssal Road Trip - 458 - Retribution
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 06:58:56 +0000 UTCAmdirlain’s PoV - Material Plane - Space
While Amdirlain and Gilorn planned and caught up, Amdirlain recreated the world she’d just destroyed; this time, she used the planetary songs from the orrery rather than a composition from scratch. Freed from composing on the spot, she could focus on her singing. The sensitivity of Phoenix’s Symphony allowed her to catch notes that threatened to shift within the millions of songs involved and straighten their inflections. Before the planet’s core was complete, they had settled on the option to use with Balnérith.
They jumped light years out from the new sun once the planet was ready for biomes. They ended up beyond the vast expanse of gas clouds where Gilorn had been preparing her project. Recognition that the orrery didn’t contain enough songs to fill the infinite expansion of the Material Plane tickled at the back of her mind. Ideas about galaxies she might create bubbled about and drew a snort from Amdirlain at the sheer temptation she found within them.
“Are you nervous about doing this?” asked Gilorn. “People deal with tension in different ways, and inappropriate humour is common among them.”
“No. I wasn’t laughing at the situation. Hundreds of ideas for star systems and galactic themes popped up in my brain.”
“You’re not worried about confronting her?”
Amdirlain tried Analysis on herself again and found them unchanged, noting as she did so the complete lack of pressure using the Skill upon Balnérith’s new name caused.
“If it were my spells against hers alone, I’d be worried, but I’ve got an aura that boosts my Spell defence through the roof, far more health, and enough tricks to keep the combat varied. I want to use her as a whetstone to increase my skills. Step in to suppress her magic only if it’s overwhelming me. I’m not worried if-”
“What?!” Gilorn’s frame shone a furious red. “Please don’t do that. I’ll summon her and strip her of enchanted items that will take away her advantage with the blade and ruin her defences, but you’d be wise not to discount a cornered enemy. You told me what Jinfeng managed against this Indra Ka. Your Skill with spells is minor to your True Song. Use it to duplicate her magic and counter her spells.”
A short melody brought a stone platform into existence with a cold forge at its centre. Though she lacked the strength to create an anvil suitable for the Titan, it only symbolised his presence for what was to come.
The music within the stone beckoned more than she’d intended; it invoked memories of mundane charcoal being shovelled into place and arranged to suit Nicholaus. In the background, the songs of the village, and her mother’s song, tickled at her awareness. The music of the woman’s Soul rang through Amdirlain’s mind, along with the melody of her younger brothers. Within the memory, the themes of three souls lit up her mind.
I thought Ori hadn’t paid enough attention, but the problem was I couldn’t understand the level of music in the memories of her mother and brothers. If I recover them from Hades’ realm, how do I get them to Nicholaus before I have the strength to unseal the Titan’s forge? If I take them to Judgement, would they count as Greek and thus subject to Vehtë’s accords?
An intricate circle of adamantine stretched across the platform, but the elaborate summoning circle was merely the first layer of the trap.
“If she proves too difficult for you, can I kick her out and we deal with the remains of the sisterhood separately?” Gilorn asked.
“Give me a chance to try myself against her first.”
“With her prideful attitude, do you think she’ll bow to someone she considers beneath her? Proceed with beating her up, and when you tire of pulverising her, signal me.”
Gilorn’s songs entwined with the platform, locking down dimensional magic and similar powers that didn’t originate from Amdirlain or herself.
Once the circle was complete, Amdirlain’s theme wove onwards; it grasped Balnérith by her current song and yanked her across the planes. The filter set at the summoning conduit event horizon forced her True Form upon her.
Balnérith looked closer to an Eldritch horror than the unearthly beauty that Amdirlain had first met at the sisterhood’s fortress. Boneless legs of twisted muscle and tentacled arms made Balnérith nominally bipedal but, across the mass of twisted flesh, there wasn’t a single sign of gender left. A truncated stump of a neck sprouted fronds and tendrils as if someone had trimmed the blood vessels within her skull of bone, flesh, and brain and then cut their connections along the centre line. Only Flight kept her from spilling across the ground in her True Form. The Charisma she radiated magnified the revulsive feel of her appearance to brain-destroying terror. The magic within the few storage items Balnérith wore was visible to Amdirlain, but she left them in place for now.
Amdirlain calmly considered Balnérith within the mirrored circle and traced her transformation to the uniform Sisterhood appearance. Her reaction speed would have been impressive days ago but, after the boosts to her quickness that Nazha had prompted, Balnérith was slow.
Reformed, Balnérith lifted her chin. Her crisp voice sliced the air. “Whoever you are, I’ll make you pay!“
“She can’t hear us,” Gilorn reminded Am unnecessarily. “Why not just leave her here? We can send the platform on a path away from the universe’s core. Send it fast enough, and light will never find it again.”
“Something might stumble on her.”
Amdirlain took on the Succubus form she’d been trapped in when dragged before Balnérith in the chamber carved from Leviathan’s skull decades ago. The robes adjusted smoothly, and Amdirlain shifted the circle’s configuration, removing the internal mirrored surface and sound barrier.
“J,” spat Balnérith, straightening her rage-filled expression smoothed to cold hatred. “Or should I call you Orhêthurin?”
“Like I care what name you use, I’ve got so many names I could call you. Though naming you pig shit is an insult to the pigs—the excrement they produce is more useful to the realm than you are, Balnérith. Or should that be Valatë? No, the elven word for Pride is too good for you. You gave up Tarlangeth, just as you did Michaela. Let’s return to the original name that I knew you by: Balnérith.”
Amdirlain’s will clamped around the Demon Lady, stripped her new name, and restored it to Balnérith. She returned to her elven form, and the azure blue hair drew a look of confusion from Balnérith.
[Profile Mastery [M] (96->98)]
The newly renamed demoness didn’t flinch, but her shock wasn’t concealable from Amdirlain.
Let’s fight on my terms, not hers.
“You look pretty horrible now. Going near the Far Chaos without the proper protections is unwise.”
“I will return home!” Balnérith bit off each word. “I never asked to be kidnapped. What do you hide beneath that lie you call a face?”
Amdirlain snorted and patted the anvil. “Nicholaus didn’t kidnap you. He rescued you from a dying realm.”
“More lies,” hissed Balnérith. Strong hands that still projected a feminine grace balled into fists but, hidden beneath the perfect skin, Amdirlain could still sense the mutilated flesh that bore the mark of Eldritch forces.
“When was the last time you’d spoken to your home’s silent creators? How many billions of years had their halls been empty?”
Balnérith’s lips pressed tight, and she didn’t respond to Amdirlain’s taunt.
Have you ever spoken to them?
“Do you want to know why they used your former realm?”
Balnérith’s jaw tightened, muscles bunching angrily. “You can spit out whatever lies you seek to share. I’ll not ask for them.”
“It was marked abandoned with indications that showed severe flaws in its design. Fun fact: rather than try to correct those flaws, they tossed it—and you—aside.”
As Amdirlain inspired belief, the truth of the words nettled at Balnérith, wounding her pride that a pest knew something about her home. Muse’s Embrace heightened the feeling until it cut to the foundations of her being. “If we were so flawed, why steal from our realm and kidnap us?”
“They didn’t even know any being still lived. They were after the raw energy and matter that could be translated into this realm, wiping those flaws away. Your creators were so cruel that they didn’t bother to do that themselves. Perhaps you were just meaningless to them. Mere ants that were crawling around inside a toy that didn’t work the way they wanted.”
“Are you planning to talk me to death?” Balnérith bit off each word of her question.
“You’re not worth the time that would take. I thought I’d share the truth with you because I knew how much it would hurt.”
“Fight me.”
“That’s the plan, but I want an answer for what happens after that fight.”
“After I defeat you, I’ll trade you to enemies that will fund my goals,” snarled Balnérith.
“Do you think I’m simply going to kill you and let you get Planar Locked? When you lose today, you are done. I can destroy you, banish you to the Far Chaos you’ve tried so hard to reach, or send you home.”
“Just send me home?” hissed Balnérith. “And keep everything that was stolen?”
“You stuck my hand on a spike, so I’m going to dish out a punishment for that before you leave. A nice one-on-one beat down to make you regret your corruption of the Anar and Lómë.”
“I see you’re still as vicious as ever, Orhêthurin,” sneered Balnérith. “And as arrogant, I remember your pitiful imprint. Whatever ally you have here won’t save you in a fight with me.” Balnérith drew a sword and lashed out at the barrier, only for the sword to ignite and molten droplets from its destruction sprayed across the currently invisible barrier.
Amdirlain smiled serenely. “Oh?”
The storage items Balnérith wore exploded in a flare of blue flames, ripping across her skin and drawing a scream of outrage.
You don’t listen so well.
“Coward.”
“I never enjoyed depending on objects. What happens when you lose them?” laughed Amdirlain. “Your vaunted blade Skill doesn’t help you when you don’t have a weapon. As for spellcasting, I can sing faster than you can form any spells.”
This could be a mistake, but I want to rub it in her face.
“You’re bluffing. You only had the decayed Lómë to teach you, and I know the Anar were too different. No matter the tricks you think you can pull, you’ll die by my hand.”
“Why don’t we test that out?” asked Amdirlain.
The engraved circle vanished, and Balnérith tried to teleport away, only to be repulsed by Gilorn’s barrier at the edge of where the circle had been.
‘Did you think I wouldn’t have safeguards in place?’ projected Amdirlain, piercing the words through Balnérith’s mental defences.
Balnérith’s nails elongated into hooked claws, and with rage pulsing through her, she slashed ineffectually at the barrier. Amdirlain waggled a finger at her reprovingly. “I’ve one more matter to take care of before we play.”
As Amdirlain’s music took hold, Balnérith’s warped flesh shimmered and bubbled. The music didn’t simply undo the corruption of the Eldritch forces; it remade her to match her former Celestial appearance. Though her species remained a Demon Lady, the alienness of her original form stripped all traces of humanity away. Five churning wheels crusted with eyes orbited a central body covered in scores of wings, many stretching into dimensions beyond ordinary perception.
As the rippling flesh solidified, hundreds of eyes widened in surprise, and her tentacles swayed as they raised to eye level; in that moment of ‘mock’ confusion, Amdirlain moved with deliberate slowness. The trembling limbs stabbed forward, lighting crackling around them. The azure blast ripped through the air and deflected upwards as Amdirlain swept in at ankle height. A blazing wolverine climbed a lower wing, long hooked claws sheathed in yin shredding flesh and feathers in a frenzy. Amdirlain heard how the sensitive and now unfamiliar flesh magnified the pain of the injuries. A reflexive strike towards Amdirlain’s back instead opened her own wounded flesh, Balnérith’s target having vanished. Tentacles crushed her wings together as Amdirlain encapsulated Balnérith in long thorns, barbed hooks capping their tips. Riding out the explosions that shrouded them, Amdirlain dug the thorn tips into the Demoness’s veins, sending growths spearing through her flesh.
‘The vines were your suggestion to the Anar King.’ projected Amdirlain.
Without giving her time to confirm the statement, Amdirlain ripped tracks of skin clear and teleported to the platform’s edge, where she cast the bloodied skin and wings aside.
Despite the blood gushing from ruptured flesh, Balnérith lashed out with multiple spells. Severing notes shattered each one, spilling power from the onslaught; the backlash struck out and hurtled Balnérith dozens of metres into the barrier. She teleported away from the ongoing explosions, and Amdirlain lashed out. Sour notes twisted the Power, and it left Balnérith’s bones behind. As she flopped and writhed in mid-air, her body recognised the wound and started healing.
‘You were never good enough to face me as Orhêthurin, and I don’t have a fraction of that strength yet. Since your arrival here, you’ve been nothing but a bitter washed-up has-been who kept her former rank out of pity. No wonder you fell.’
The bladed thoughts formed a mocking assault into Balnérith’s ego, gouging deep wounds. The taunting probe sent a barbed mental blast tearing through her surprised mind; memories of millions of failures scoured through the mental landscape, gaining momentum as streams of suppressed recollections were pulled from hiding. The pain and anguish that Amdirlain had experienced from Orhêthurin’s memories had given her plenty of experience in how pain can hide. That experience she turned into scalpels that peeled away the self-denial Balnérith hid behind, exposing all her lies. Forced self-reflection brought forth mental wailing, and she lashed out wildly at nothing. Though the home-ground advantage was Balnérith’s, her thoughts had only started to muster a defence before Amdirlain withdrew.
Dealing with the physical and mental assault, Balnérith screamed and howled in wordless anguish while her body healed. Once regeneration had replaced a few centimetres of all the major bones in her body, Amdirlain splintered each, causing them to rip open internal wounds.
‘Coward, have you no pride?’ The scornful thought drew laughter from Amdirlain.
Her mocking laughter carried the weight of Muse’s Embrace, multiplying the impact of Amdirlain’s unleashed Willpower and Charisma. It triggered a maelstrom of self-doubt that opposed Balnérith’s nature so much that it seared through her mind.
‘This is just starting,’ Amdirlain returned.
Balnérith corrupted the Anar and Lómë over billions of years, so consider this minor payback for all the pain she caused them.
A clean melody restored the bones to her flesh and sheathed her in the flayed skin. Balnérith’s teleport and attack were blinding fast, and before Nazha’s trick would have left Amdirlain in the dust. Now, the shoe was on the other foot. The displaced air had barely started to shift when Amdirlain flowed under Balnérith’s tentacles and yanked out a handful of trailing feathers. As she spun, Phoenix’s Symphony blasted a metre outwards; the roiling blackness of yin alien to Balnérith consumed four limbs, truncating them just short of a shielding wing. Spells ripped apart the space between them and, feeling their strength, Amdirlain mirrored them from inside the bulwark of her aura. Concussive blasts shoved at the pair, but neither moved. Balnérith would have won in raw casting alone, but Amdirlain only had to deal with what her refined aura couldn’t eat. What damaging spells got through the injuries had already healed before the next Spell got a bite. Yet Balnérith continued, confident she could overwhelm the barrier that had destroyed her limbs.
Amdirlain blurred past her when the torrent flagged. A scything kick broke through one of the circling rings and pulverised a handful of eyes. The remnant ripped from her body and went spinning away, taking broken wings with it, the ends of the severed stumps nestled among others. Amdirlain stood ten metres away and, without the flaring conflict, the minimal damage to the shadow vines showed her uninjured flesh beneath. However, Amdirlain’s clothing sealed up faster than Balnérith’s wings.
A tuning fork tore through Balnérith, severing the links to all her home planes before a note outside the register of the realm rang through her essence.
Balnérith lunged, clawed tentacles outstretched, sharp notes pruning at her essence, leaving only stubs where wings and tentacles had been. Stripped of all extremities and feathers, Balnérith was a mere blob of floating flesh. Shock shattered the composure she’d tried to reestablish in her public mind, and panic raged when she couldn’t regrow her blinded body.
“You’re lucky I didn’t let you die to my aura. Cast another Spell, and I’ll lock you in this form. Try to shapeshift,” instructed Amdirlain.
Every form that Balnérith tried came out devoid of limbs; the demoness’ demeanour growing desperately panicked.
“I’ve restored the concept of the wings across your back, so try again.”
The next shapeshift showed the truth, and Amdirlain’s face hardened as her gaze shone with a ruthless focus.
“Your vaunted rank in Mana Mastery doesn’t help you once I have sufficient strength to get past your magic strength.”
“How did you grow so fast? How did you know of my form at home?”
I remember you approaching the boundary in the stream of incoming energy.
“I’m not telling you,” rebuffed Amdirlain. “If you don’t surrender before I’m done, I’ll choose what happens to you.”
She dropped the aura and reactivated it faster than Balnérith could respond. The flames that now rolled across her skin were harmless to Balnérith, but the aura’s active state increased Amdirlain’s regeneration and reinforced her magical protections.
Amdirlain attacked at full speed, her targeted strikes broke bones, ripped apart muscles, tore off tentacles, and shredded Balnérith’s regrown wings. The energy in return strikes Amdirlain danced around; their music betraying the feints from actual attacks. She flowed with them and spun through dozens of monstrous forms, pummelling Balnérith’s body. Throughout the beating, the demoness continued striking out at Amdirlain with claws and spells that failed to inflict more than minor breaches. As desperation got a foothold, Amdirlain ended the game; a Ki Blast wreathed in yang flames destroyed Balnérith’s lower body and spun her across the platform.
A teleport put Amdirlain atop her and a spike from a heel ripped through two rings, gouging deep into the stone. From her body, a mass of tentacles speared down, pinning Balnérith to the stone like a butterfly on display.
‘Surrender.’
The force of Amdirlain’s Willpower and intellect carved into Balnérith’s thoughts.
“I hate you.” Balnérith’s words hissed out between regrowing feathers. The nearest eyes along the cracked rings fixed on Amdirlain, ablaze with fury. More spells lashed out, but having listened to her casting techniques, Amdirlain harmlessly disassembled each one, spilling the Mana harmlessly away. The spiked tentacles that had grown from Amdirlain’s form bloomed serrated barbs and she twisted them deeper.
“You’re not worth the energy hate takes. You were unfinished business and didn’t choose either quick death, so enjoy your slow dissolution as that realm fades.”
Balnérith flinched and clawed tentacles that had repeatedly failed to cut into Amdirlain’s skin quickly tore apart the stone.
As she snarled a reply, Amdirlain flipped her off and hit her with a Dismissal. The theme bit into her essence, and the re-established link to Balnérith’s original realm yanked her away. Gilorn released her songs, and billions of succubi gained the opportunity to renounce their oaths. Those who opted to stay loyal to Balnérith went with her, but Castellan wasn’t among them. The rush of experience that surged forth ran into Gilorn alone, and she projected a mental image.
“The second time I’ve received a notification, and this is what I get?” grumbled Gilorn.
[Achievement: Feral Cat Herder.
Details: Dealing with that many pussies in one hit is a real treat.
Note: You didn’t need Amdirlain punching Balnérith up to do that, Gilorn. Amdirlain didn’t get her to surrender, so I can’t give her even partial experience for incapacitating her. She’ll have to make do with the Mana Mastery upgrades from listening to Balnérith’s spellcasting.]
Amdirlain took a glance at her profile and found what Giden meant. Eighty-six levels gained through one fight.
Drawing the fight out that far felt sadistic before, but now it was more exploitative. Maybe I should ask Erwarth or another former Lómë to demonstrate their spellcasting now. Or Tephros? I wonder how her search for Ruithor is going and if she's still craving oblivion.
“What does Gideon mean about pussies?” asked Gilorn.
“You don’t want to know.”
Gilorn hummed disapprovingly. “Gideon being naughty aside, the fight went well.”
“I chatted too much,” huffed Amdirlain.
“You had a lot to let go of,” said Gilorn.
Amdirlain wrinkled her nose but nodded in recognition of the truth. “It’s a bad habit to get into, even if the exchanges hurt her.”
“Are you going back to Vehtë now?” asked Gilorn.
“Not yet. I need to see if I can get the conduit between realms secured or severed. I don’t want to risk her coming back in. Theinas, I need your advice on the laws regarding the realm’s boundaries to confirm my understanding. Can you and Nexus come to meet with me?”
A spinning orb, radiating beams of light like a pulsar, popped into existence, followed by a figure who resembled the maze guardians she’d spent much effort fighting.
“Amdirlain, I didn’t expect you to call on me,” intoned Theinas, his voice echoing oddly from the mechanical armour he manifested for the occasion.
Energy waves emitted in a pattern from Nexus’s form conveyed concepts of greeting, a query, and an expanse of information on the conduit.
“Yes, that’s the one I’m talking about. It’s an umbilical cord, so I wondered if we could clamp it off and cut it.”
Another burst of information came from Nexus amid the cycling of her pulsar form. As Amdirlain’s ability translated the details, an image of a rumble-filled pit hundreds of light years across bloomed in her mind. A spot near the centre radiated festering Eldritch energy; the power washing over a twisted keep fashioned among the rubble. From that festering spot, widening crevices radiated in all directions like fractures spreading from an impact on thin ice.
The sisterhood path ended at a keep, but they couldn’t comprehend the vastness of the wound. They’ve been digging at a weak point, spreading the Eldritch corruption. That will take me a long time to complete a full repair, but I can seal the damage they’ve caused.
“That’s an overview of the wound? And you know this because it’s a potential opening?”
Nexus bobbed.
How many lifetimes will it take to seal the damage they’ve done? That’s a problem for another day. Those who believed her are no longer around to work on worsening it, but the pressure involved will cause those crevices to expand.
“Thank you. I want to tell you what I’m thinking about for the conduit to the other realm and get your thoughts. That I’m completely crazy and should leave it alone is a valid objection, but I’d like to repair this hole to get experience dealing with the realm’s boundary before I attempt the wound.”
Theinas’s helm twitched upwards. “Another lost bet.”
A shift in the energy within Nexus solidified her, and a mental voice rather than concepts and images came through.
‘Two this week,’ Nexus noted. ‘Your losing stretch is four hundred and twenty-seven since your release.’
“Do you keep track of everyone’s bets?” Gilorn asked curiously.
Nexus’s glow brightened. ‘Loss is a path to ruin or victory. Theinas’s losing streak is interesting because I bet it will break somewhere between five hundred and five hundred and ten losses.’
Amdirlain rubbed her forehead. “Do I want to know what you’ve been betting on?”
A burst of bright energy came from Nexus. ‘Amdirlain, you are a source of activity in the betting pools, but you’re not the only being of interest.’
“That’s a relief,” replied Amdirlain.
‘However, you’ve caused every lost bet Theinas has made,’ Nexus continued.
At Amdirlain's look of disbelief, Theinas grunted. “I’m not the only one. Can we move along?”
“Let me explain my proposal and why I asked for your aid.” Amdirlain brought up the same illusion she’d presented to Gilorn. The pair silently took in the image and her explanation without interruption.
“We could compress that point of the conduit further and seal this end tight. Then you’ll hear the music involved when we manipulate the boundary and conduit,” Theinas said after Amdirlain dismissed the illusion.
Nexus transformed into a young Greek girl with skinned knees, long chestnut locks, solid black eyes, and a silvery frock. “Given the importance of this endeavour, I’d say more aspects and planning are required. While your suggestion is workable, let us consider methods applicable to the conduit and wound. We can undertake demonstrations after your current journey.”
Theinas nodded sharply. “In the meantime, we’ll have someone guard the conduit in case any remaining force in that realm guides Balnérith to it.”
“Who do you suggest?”
“There are aspects of retribution that would enjoy providing her a repeat of your punishment,” advised Theinas.
“Given all the trouble she’s caused, your choice of punishment was fitting,” Nexus reached for Gilorn’s strings, but paused and interlaced her fingers across her abdomen. “I’m sorry, Gilorn, your strings are so tempting.”
“You’re not the Aspect of music, Nexus,” Theinas said reprovingly.
Despite their disparate heights, Nexus peered down her nose at Theinas. “Music transcends many barriers. Places and states being crossed are within my scope.”
Nexus turned to Amdirlain and stretched her arms up to her. “Can I get a hug?”
The waif's look tugged at Amdirlain, and though suspicion crinkled at her, she hugged Nexus warmly. Music from countless pathways and gates ran across Amdirlain’s skin as the little girl returned her hug. A blazing theme of the connection between her spiritual net to Soul became clear.
Did she do that on purpose?
“Did you win anything from that?” Amdirlain asked after they’d let go.
“Only the best of hugs, as I don’t bet on the most important things. Welcome home, Amdirlain. I’ll always miss Orhêthurin, but you’re also lovely. Be true to your path, and you’ll do fine.”
With that, the aspects disappeared.
“On that note, I think I’ll head back,” advised Amdirlain.
“You don’t want to take a Tier 7 and level some more classes?” questioned Gilorn playfully.
“Shoo, temptress.”
Planar Shift took Gilorn to the Outlands.
“Sarah, I’ve wrapped up. If you could summon me back whenever you’re available.”
Amdirlain was only waiting a minute before she heard the call across the planes. Her appearance in the rainbow-hued conduit was unchanged from her transition into Empress Malfex, yet she could feel the conduit compressing her form. Hearing the energy of the conduit reminded her to restrict Resonance to a few hundred metres around herself.
To her new senses, the mirrored barrier was a translucent veil that didn’t obscure the relief beneath Sarah’s composure or the early morning ocean view. Though she had Resonance restricted, she recognised the beach where they’d started their honeymoon trek along the seaside.
Amdirlain reverted to her elven form before the mirrored pane shattered. The stress within the summoning staff was a shrill static, and Amdirlain winced at the murky quartz appearance of the once clear staff.
“It sounds like I’ll need to upgrade it again.”
Sarah’s gaze showed a glimmer of concern as she waggled the remains of the staff. “Gosh, do you think perhaps a few flaws are showing? How many levels did you add in a few days?”
Amdirlain’s eyebrow raised. “Just over a thousand.”
“I need to get out and do more things,” huffed Sarah. She held out the staff, but Amdirlain merely raised a hand.
“No, you hang onto it. That one will need time outside your Inventory to repair itself, and it’s useful for summoning Klipyl. I’ll make a new one today.”
“Okay,” Sarah leant on it casually. “Are you feeling recharged?”
“I made a planet core,” chirped Amdirlain, and then she extended a memory crystal Eleftherios had filled. “Then Eleftherios dropped by to congratulate me on our marriage and filled memory crystals with information on the deep planes.”
Sarah looked at the offered crystal warily, knuckles going white as she gripped the crystal staff. “While I’m glad you have the information, I’m not sure I want to know the dangers you’ll face down there. The last thing I want to do is trigger my protective instincts and dig my heels in about coming with you. Your Message said you and Gilorn wanted you to work on something?”
“We made a complete planetary bio-system. Then I destroyed a demonic stronghold, beat Balnérith, banished her off to her home realm, after which I spoke to some aspects about sealing the lingering connection to it.”
“You’re shitting me!” gasped Sarah. “I thought you were making things with Gilorn, not beating down Balnérith.”
“We did both. Beating down Balnérith wasn’t in my original plan, but I felt much stronger after the first stage. I just wanted to be done with her,” admitted Amdirlain.
Frustration showed in Sarah’s gaze. “Oh?”
“Sorry, I should have told you before the fight,” said Amdirlain.
“Yes.” Sarah stepped close, wrapped Amdirlain in a one-armed hug, and leaned into her. “I’ve no issue with you smashing her, sweetie, but it feels like you’re following that old line about easier to get forgiveness than permission. Tell me why you couldn’t have taken a moment to update me with some details before the fight. She was this threat hanging over your head for years upon your return. I get you wanted it over. Can you understand why I’d have liked to know in advance?”
“I wasn’t just off recharging like you understood. Instead, I put myself in deliberate danger without telling you?”
Sarah tapped her nose. “Yes, you did. I won’t argue with your choices, so keep me apprised, okay?”
Amdirlain nodded sheepishly.
“I take it you crushed her?”
“Yes. I didn’t fight fair. Gilorn destroyed her weapons, enchanted protections, and other items. The effectiveness of my aura diminished her spellcasting advantage, which let me break the rest of their impact by mixing songs and spells.”
“Did you take her on without setting more home planes?” asked Sarah.
Amdirlain coughed. “Having two in the Abyss feels bad enough.”
“Understandable, but you’re still a numbskull,” grunted Sarah. “You had reasons to be confident, but take more precautions before venturing into the deep planes so I don’t worry myself to death, okay?”
“Sorry,” said Amdirlain, holding Sarah close.
After a while, Amdirlain reluctantly let go. “Shall we leave Silver Lake today? I promised Timur a sparring session, but I can do that elsewhere.”
“Are we doing more cross-country trekking?”
“After what’s happened, I’m inclined to jump to the West Wind’s Court and see what I can do about acquiring technique manuals.”
Sarah nodded. “Hopefully, it gets us out of the middle kingdoms sooner.”
When they appeared in the suite’s main room, Jinfeng was kneeling by the hearth, quietly meditating. Amdirlain noted that Kadaklan’s and Klipyl's mental traces were with the healers at the temple, and the sky keep was no longer hovering across the lake. Curious, she checked and found Timur at the sect’s compound.
Jinfeng calmly stood and saluted. “Sifu, please accept my apologies for my reaction.”
“Your behaviour wasn’t offensive, Jinfeng. It was especially understandable given how I showed off and my flippant announcement.”
Jinfeng bowed respectfully, but Amdirlain stepped close and halted the motion, reassuringly placing a hand on her shoulder. “Please, just relax and be yourself.”
“I’ll do my best, Sifu.”
“That’s all I ask,” Amdirlain said, gently squeezing her shoulder before releasing her. “Do you think I broke the news properly to Indra Ka?”
“I believe you broke three times the number of ribs than he did,” Jinfeng noted with a wry smile.
“Compound interest,” quipped Amdirlain.
Jinfeng groaned. “Those were breaks, not compound fractures.”
“The responsibility for that poor joke sits squarely on you. Has Klipyl been rubbing off on you?”
“Sifu!” protested Jinfeng.
“I was just teasing,” snickered Amdirlain.
At her tone, Jinfeng’s gaze narrowed, and a defiant twinkle gleamed. “Are you going to resume being subtle, Sifu?”
Amdirlain howled with laughter. “That horse has bolted and sired herds.”
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! Very Satisfying!!! But Sarah is indeed very much correct! I would argue not just her but many others as well... at the very least adopted family and everyone who knew her at any point tortured and/or almost dying through balnerith's schemes and became a close companion to help her does deserve at least the token warning "Guys remember when I told you about my arch nemesis? The one who schemed to destroy my former species and soul and is currently working on a project that could tear the entire realms space apart? Yeah I'm going to end her now have a great day!" along those lines you know? Same for the Lome xD
Glenn Wright
Maybe even betting about the exact concept or wording involved in the next bet ;)
Glenn Wright
Got to keep your interest level up after billions of years.
Robin Richards
The Aspects bet, and they bet about bets, and I bet that they bet about bets about bets...
Glenn Wright
That's a tricky idea. I like it. However, the power source is in this realm, and she's even passed it a few times.
Jonathan
Thanks for the chapter! It was very satisfying! TBH though I've kinda got this nagging fear that that other realm was where Ori hid the rest of her power and Balnerith would return after finding it. It's silly, but the more I thought of it, it kinda made sense, like...Ori had to hide it somewhere, and outside the realm works, plus she always felt guilty about coopting that realm...so depositing a bunch of her power there would repay that "debt" while potentially creating a new start for that realm. In affect, using her own nature of creation and debts against herself to maul her soul and lose her status as a Primordial. The only thing is that it'd have been over there for millions maybe billions of years and should have already resprouted life. TBH, Still hoping this is the last we see of Balnerith...or maybe some pathetic version of her when Am goes to seal the would on the other side. She seems that proud and spiteful to try some more...
Glenn Wright
Yes, she was very naughty.
James Skinner
It really is only polite to inform your wife when you're going to fight to the death with your arch-nemesis.
AsheHides
Damn that was satisfying
