12 Miles Below

Book 8 - Chapter 81 - The fated duel

Crackling occult orbs flew like arrows forward, arching over, slowly converging onto a single figure ahead.

The madman watched them approach, head slowly craning up. He lifted his left, occult lightning licking the ground around him.

Before he could pull off anything to ruin our plan, the Icon opened fire.

Beams lanced out from a dozen portals at a distance, knights holding To’Sefit’s plate aimed and primed.

An occult dome lit to life around him, intercepting the beams, breaking them apart. And above the man, the earlier orbs detonated, imploded inwards, sucking away the power he was holding.

The dome wavered, power being trailed upwards, and three of the beams broke through. One disintegrated his hand, the other two were caught against a hasty focused occult shield inches from his skin.

The beams ended.

The man looked over his missing hand as if it were a minor scratch. Blue trails of occult laced outwards from the stump, like threads of blue, rebuilding the hand. Constantly fighting a singular pressure upwards, as detonation after detonation imploded above the man.

Despite it all, the hand reformed in glowing blue before fading back to a human’s hand.

Detonations above him were constant now, like fireworks. And then they never stopped coming, every Deathless the Icon could bring out who had that ability were all coordinating fire to keep the detonations going.

Talen’s head lowered back down, eyes narrowing on the backline of Deathless currently handling the occult bombardment going. The real danger holding his power down.

And between him and the gathered knights, was a line of vanguard.

The frontline warriors charged at Talen. Bob’s Deathless knights, led by Father and all nine stolen Feathers.

The implosions covering their advance would suck away power exposed in the air, like occult shielding or launched firepower. But occult blades worked just fine within those implosions, I’d seen that firsthand already. Which meant the fractal of division was immune to Drakonis’s favorite spell.

And it meant the division fractal Talen could summon would equally be castable.

I saw the HUD show me a countdown on when they’d cross into his range, along with the exact estimated line of Talen’s field of control. Where his division fractals could be manifested midair by his command, and slice through anything from the inside out. The field of death.

We had only two things going for the frontline. Bob’s ability to counterspell Talen’s division fractals, and Talen’s own ability to multitask.

The instant before the knights charged through, the Icon opened fire one more time with all of To’Sefit’s leftover cannons that weren’t on cooldown. The impact struck Talen, and this time the Emperor was forced into action, eyes focusing, occult rippling around him, constantly getting sucked up into the implosions above.

He was weakened, and his passive defenses weren’t passive any longer. If that couldn’t distract him, nothing could.

But holy scrapshit was the fractal of Resolve something else. That he could still use the occult at all like this while getting it constantly sucked upwards was insane.

While he was unable to use stronger occult spells and the Icon’s attack forced him to focus on the defense rather than manifest as many of those division fractals as he actually could - all of this still hinged on Bob being enough by itself to dispel the rest of Talen’s defenses.

Father and his knights passed into field of death, blades lit up, held high for an opening strike, rushing straight for the lone figure in the distance currently being lasered in all directions.

Five of Bob’s knights simply collapsed mid-charge, as if their strings were cut.

Three of the Winterscar stolen shells were sliced into pieces, falling down on the ground.

And then no more warriors were beaten, as Bob adapted and repelled the manifested powers.

Talen lifted his blade up, while the last laser was still busy ripping into the side of his head. When it cleared, I saw only the lower jawbone exposed, rapidly rehealing.

Talen stared at the first enemy ahead of him:

Father.

Grim faced, blades already moving with all the grace and speed of To’Avalis’s stolen shell.

This was the second thing that needed to work out: The frontline had to be able to fight Talen and hold him off.

Without the instant-death aura, having all the occult nearby his position dampened and sucked upwards from the implosions, holding Talen occupied finally came down to pure martial skill.

And the only one on our side that could serve would be Father himself.

Talen blinked, then his eyes glowed. And trailed blue behind him.

Lord Atius’s skill. The futuresight fractal. Empowered by Resolve.

The two warriors collapsed into each other, blades singing.

“Combat… stable.” The Icon announced, calculating Father’s current attempt to hold down Talen one on one.

The other stolen Feathers were joining in now, as Bob’s Deathless circled further away, focused solely on disabling any kind of occult concept Talen could manifest around himself.

The old emperor of mankind fought blade to blade against a surrounding force of Feathers and Father himself leading the charge.

They raged against Talen, moving at speeds only Feathers could reach. He fought back perfectly, his bladework already adjusting to the surface combat styles, observing every possible future and fighting back among the single best timeline ahead.

Talen couldn’t be killed either, that part was clear when an occult blade slashed through his chest and he simply healed the damage. The only hit he protected himself from in full was having his head cut off.

Each time the occult implosions above him missed a beat or gave him a half second of spare casting time, the world around him strobed and flattened in speed, and Talen would strike back with a fury that even regular Altosk knights wouldn’t have been able to match.

But a Feather’s body could. And they were doing it. They were holding him off.

While the battle raged on between Talen and the Winterscar knights, the surrounding field had its own war going on.

“Machine forces are encroaching on the fight parameter." The Icon showed the battle map around, as the forces of Relinquished tried to get a shot off from far distances, only to be put down.

Portals would open, and the forces of humanity would leap out into the distant machine armies. Warlocks would rip apart entire groups of machines with lighting, rock platforms would be destroyed, even the occult strings would be moved into weapons. Altosk knights would beat down anything that tried to get to the warlocks, Deathless would be there to power warding spells. The best we had to offer.

And still, I could see humanity getting overwhelmed slowly. The machines were now everywhere, coming from all sides, desperately flooding the entire biome to get to the center fight.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Occasional drakes and other long range weapons were finding the means to aim and fire at Bob’s Deathless, trying to disrupt the anti-occult dampening bombardment keeping Talen’s true powers at bay.

The Icon marked them. Tried to figure out what she had in reserve to handle them. The majority she did, with warlocks, deathless and knights. A few she realized she couldn’t. And allowed the drake to aim and fire.

Because further by Bob’s Deathless, was Captain Sagrius. Rushing to act as the final line of defense, hands stretching out each time to take on the beam and have it break upon his will.

But while the Icon focused on cutting the teeth of the machine army, the jaws were gnawing at the central fight with everything Relinquished could send to crawl over into it.

We had one more line of defense for exactly that: Surrounding Bob’s Deathless, were the more traditional Deathless. Blades and shields getting ready as the wave of machines scaled the rocks and raced straight for them.

The old Deathless formed up, aimed their blades and raced right into the wall of machines that had passed by the Icon’s defenses. And they held the line, exactly as the Icon expected.

“Stable point calculated.” The Icon said, detecting that all required elements were holding.

This was it, we had everything in place and it was holding. My part in all this officially started now.

I crouched in place, spooling up the jump jets on Journey. Watching the fight I was about to crash into.

“I will prevent one strike from Talen.” Urs said, as my armor spooled all systems up. “Move swiftly, we do not need to be directly touching, merely close enough to latch a soul tendril without fear of destruction.”

“Oh we’re going fast all right.” I muttered, preparing myself for the G-force, knee hitting the water on the ground as I prepared myself in a runner’s position.

I’d be flying at full speed, directly for the old emperor. Occult crackled around as Urs deepened his command over Resolve, shields layering themselves around us both. He’d be focused solely on this, disconnecting from the greater quantum fractal in order to protect us both. We’d be attacked by far more than just Talen. The machines would likely do everything they could to stop us from getting near him.

“If you believe the time is now, I wish you all of the luck in the world Mr. Urs, and Mr. Winterscar.” The Icon said, showing a new set of instructions over my HUD.

A runway ahead of me.

The jump jets fully lit to life now, even on idle the afterblast was forcing the water around us back. Only Journey’s heavy armor was holding us in one place. “Generate the portal.” I ordered.

“Portal generating in three seconds.” She said. “Begin approach.”

The jump jets flaring to life at my side, and I raced forward at the same time as fast as I could run. Two more heavy footfalls was all that passed through before the outright speed pulled us all off the water.

I angled the direction, following the superimposed runway on my HUD.

We flew directly for the vault doorway, my armor’s boot barely touching the wave of water being sent both directions in a V pattern.

Speed was increasing at almost as much as my human body could handle. I could feel my bones getting squashed against the back of my armor.

The sealed vault doorway approached. Our speed was insane already for three seconds of action.

“Portal materializing.”

A golden portal materialized right in our way and we flew straight through it, out the other end directly over a bridge.

Weapons opened fire on us almost immediately after, the machine army noticing and panicking at the same moment. Nails and bullets, occasional smaller beams, even an attempt at a missile launch.

None of it passed Urs’s already layered defenses, the attacks impacting us like Talen’s defenses had.

“Warning, in order to allow Mr. Urs’s occult shielding to remain stable, I will be ending the occult dampening barrage around Talen as soon as you enter range.”

Our speed increased. All I could hear was whistling wind and the impacts Urs protected us both from. But I knew the Icon kept anything truly dangerous tied down with Altosk knights leaping right at them. What was peppering us right now was only that - light weapons fire. Whatever the Icon had decided wasn’t fatal enough to spend resources on.

We’d make it through, reaching max speed by the time we hit according to her calculations.

“Four seconds until impact.” The Icon spoke, the HUD showing me our collision course, the gravity forces pushing just about every organ I had up against the back of the armor as we still increased the speed further and further.

I could barely hear her. I could barely keep focus even. We would be soon hitting max speed, so that when we ran into Talen and the Icon ended the occult dampening attacks, he wouldn’t have the time to hit us more than once.

Talen’s head turned our way, blue eyes trailing occult behind.He saw us in that sliver of a moment. His mouth moved, and even this far off I could tell what he’d whispered. “Urs.”

The eyes narrowed. The fractal of Resolve pulsed from deep within him, and now this close to the actual myth, I could feel that pulse deep within my bones even at our current distance.

Unfathomable power.

Talen took one step back, and his blade spun into position, ready to slash down from above and cleave us in half.

We increased speed, moving directly at him like a bullet, hundreds of tracer rounds and lasers being fired directly at us by the machine forces, for all the good it did. The real danger was that sword Talen held.

And at this range I could tell there was something more in that blade already. Just looking at it made my vision blur slightly, as if it was cutting me even at this distance.

“The fractal of true division, empowered by Resolve.” Urs warned. “Do not observe it directly.”

And I was hurtling straight towards him faster than I’d ever gone, strapped to two rockets and a dream, about to impact someone with that kind of power ready to swing down and slice us both. He was far more than ready, he was waiting for us.

“Three seconds.” The Icon whispered.

Talen held his position for only a moment, before he was forced out of it.

So long as the other Winterscars could dogpile him down, they absolutely would.

His features turned into a minor frown, annoyed at the interruption.

And now the gloves were all off. The fractal of Resolve pulsed out of him, and he moved with speed unmatched by the surrounding Feathers, his blade cutting through everything.

In under two seconds, he had cut every Winterscar, and the final target was Father himself, Talen’s blade stabbing Father directly under the throat in an eyeblink. Right where a Feather’s soul fractal should have been.

Some instinct in the madman realized right away the stab hadn’t been fatal. His blade retracted, angled up, and sliced straight down.

One of Father’s blades moved to perfectly parry the lost emperor’s sword, the other aimed to cut through his neck downwards into his chest.

Talen’s blade cut through Father’s own, breaking it forevermore, then passed through his Feather’s shielding, through his occult barrier, and directly across the stolen chassis. It was as if reality itself had been equally cut, light warping behind the strike, breaking down into primary colors.

This was the strike that was supposed to have been for us.

Talen’s blade exiting by his lower right hip. The ground behind Father equally cut deeply into by fading energy.

There was no look of surprise on my old man’s face, as if he knew this was to be expected. The chassis stumbled, and started to collapse onto one knee, earlier attack abandoned.

Talen turned back, blade once more raised up to intercept us, resolute in the knowledge the Feathers around him had been defeated.

“Two seconds.”

I’d always said, the greatest mistake anyone could ever do, was ignore Tenisent Winterscar in slicing distance. That lesson applied even to gods.

Talen’s eyes widened with surprise, suddenly seeing a potential future. And he turned on his heel, blade moving with him once more to strike down a stubborn foe that refused to die.

Because Father had long ago learned how to pilot all parts of his stolen shell. So long as there was a single power cell still feeding it energy, he could manually pilot that thing. With all the software turned off, by pure willpower and command, even if it had no connection otherwise.

And there was power still left in that chassis. Even half-split from the whole was still mid-way through sliding off the left side chassis.

Talen’s blade cut through Father’s main hand, midway through a reserve blade still extending out of the cut arm. Before it could be of true damage.

But Father fought with two blades, and cutting off a single one wouldn’t stop him.

His other left split side twitched, and rose up from it's earlier kneel in a lunge forward, blade still held, weapon slicing into Talen’s shoulder midway into the old god's , digging down deep. Talen’s eyes flickered to that side, observing the damage as the blade moved through. A thin frown on his features, as if expecting exactly this kind of damage and mostly unbothered. The right hand had been the real danger to his sight somehow.

We’d be on him in moments. He didn’t have time to further cut down Father into smaller cubes.

He pulsed out an occult shockwave and sent all three parts of Father off him, skidding onto the ground away. Blue occult crackled inside his wounded shoulder, healing the damage.

“One second.”

Talen turned on his heels, and tried to lift his blade up to strike us down.

The occult implosions above him ended, right as we crossed into its range. And I could sense the full breadth of his power pulse out.

Hundreds of division fractals manifested around us, all angled to slice through the air we passed. And all of them were instantly wiped out by an eldritch tendril of soul, separated like massive tree roots, all coming from the surrounding Deathless, kept protected by the final charge of the Winterscars.

We flew right through his aura unharmed in under a few milliseconds.

“Impact.”

Urs flared out his own fractal of Resolve, and empowered his shield to the strongest he could focus.

Talen slashed for our heads with as quick a motion as he could handle, the blade catching against the dome. Ripping it apart. But not before the feedback of the breaking down shield knocked his blade backwards.

Resolve pulsed out of him, slowing time to its fullest, no longer interrupted by the occult pulses above him.

And Resolve pulsed out of Urs, equally giving me that extra time back.

Things moved to a crawl to both our senses.

Talen’s blade re-angled into a stab, the quickest possible attack he could do. And he thrust straight down for us. Moving fast enough I could see a warping gust of air behind, like a vacuum.

A second hit.

Urs couldn’t protect us from that.

But I could.

Because held in my hands, exactly for this moment, was my plan B.

I lifted my cape up, backwards. And Talen stabbed his blade and hand into it, the terrifying power cutting through everything… just not in our dimension.

And all of it now a few hundred milliseconds too slow to stop us.

We slammed directly into him.