Chapter 18-464: The Third Solstice

This time, the Opening of the Sky was going to take place on the border of the Russian Shroudzone.

Most of the high-Level people in the world were already in the vicinity, and Teleports could easily move them back to the combat zones they’d chosen after the Haze was Opened. So, it made logical sense, involved a lot less shuffling around of people, and so was expected and reasonable to put it here.

More to the point, it was going to send a very distracting message about what the enemy was facing.

It would also keep down a lot of the havoc that might be unleashed in Detroit by holding it there, as the tourists come to see the Sky Open wouldn’t present so many tempting targets to fanatical enemies crashing the Ritual.

Oh, there would be a Ritual, but it would be like the ones of old, a hole in the Haze ten miles across, lasting until the morning... nothing like when I headed it up. The accompanying violent fall-out of defiance from knuckleheads and fanatics would be similarly short.

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Since I had made Sorcerer/10, the Class Levels had come, no pauses for Masteries... of which I actually needed some for Warlock advancement, but which didn’t give me the chance for now.

Wizard/6 (15). Although I hadn’t made a big deal about it, other than getting my Valence VIII’s and Burning the Eighth Ring, this is also when I got Spell Perfection, taking my Shards outlay to the next level, basically another ‘free’ doubling of damage, while finishing up Arcane Spirit/5, +5 Kicker damage to all spells for Investing 5 ki.

Ur-Priest/6 (10) gave me more Magic Resistance to Divine Spells; picked Holy Potency as a Feat for ways to combine spells and negative/positive energy, and Fury of the Zealot/3 allowed Aligned Class Features to affect Neutrals.

The final Level of Warshaper/5 improved my morphing speed and flexibility, also allowing me to Wildshape into any Humanoid Form with A Thousand Faces, while Extra Wildshape/2 added another option to the table.

Archmage/5 completed with Bloodline Intensity, allowing me to Cast each of my Bloodline spells once for free each day. Even if I didn’t choose to do so, I could dump the energy into my Pool and use them for other spells, so it was a net gain of 30 spell Levels. The shapeshifting aspect of Wildshape came in with Elemental Theurgy, and I could now Wildshape into an Elemental Form now, almost like a real Druid, and it added Extra Wildshape/3, too.

Hierophant/5 ended with Healing Smite, which inverted my normal maxed-out Healing effects on Good people to do maximum damage against the Undead and Fiends. I didn’t really need it for spells, but I suppose it was the thought that counted. The Feat was Create Reliquary Items, which allowed me to make items sacred to a particular Faith, or for them to serve as Holy Symbols, in effect modifying my other Item Creation Feats. Amusingly enough, I could borrow Faith from any god and make magic items sacred to them...

Fury of the Zealot/4 rounded things out, allowing Aligned Feats and Masteries to oppose Neutrals, such as skills doing Sacred damage and whatnot.

Inquisitor/6 (10) solidified Bonded Mind as my Teamwork Feat, allowing instant thought-communication with anyone in line of sight who had the same Feat. Harry the Foe doubled down on the anathema aspect, giving a +2 Sacred Bonus against any Favored Enemy of mine I was using Bane against... and, well, I didn’t actually have a huge list of those, given how focused my killing had been, but those were the things I was going to be fighting most of the time going forwards, so it was hardly unwelcome.

Fury of the Zealot/5 finished up with wielded Aligned magical items now able to harm Neutrals in my hands, such as the Holy damage from Clavus.

Blighter/6 (10) advanced my base Undead Wildshape to 3/day, and I could now go incorporeal... which was a HUGE benefit, very useful and dangerous. Not that I’d ever use it while under a Shroudcloud, or risk being enslaved by the Shroud, but it was the thought that counted, right?

Plant Form allowed me to Wildshape into plants, and Extra Wildshape/4 helped with that as well. I still couldn’t turn into normal animals with the skill, which was highly amusing to me.

The night of the Solstice, December 21, 2019, Minstrel/6 (10) ticked over. The ability to Suggest with Heartsong kicked in; Expanded Versatility added all Monk Weapons to increase my effective eligibility to Melee Feats when wielding them (instantly popping me to Greater Specialist with Staff, Open Hand, and Attack Spells); the Feat Might of Thunder added +Xd6 Sonic damage Kickers to a spell, X= to its Valence, if I expended a Heartsong use; and Alternate Bardsong/1, Rallying Cry, popped in.

I suppose, all that Warlording that I did, yeppers...

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I was sure that the Shroudlord knew what was going to happen here. Being confined by the Curse didn’t mean Divination magic couldn’t go out and find things out for him, or the Aberrant couldn’t just inform it.

Still, it had to march its forces out from the Shroudzone into the Deadzone to possibly get in range of us, and we were ten miles back, and inside its default deployment ranges for artillery.

It could try to race some Construct cannon-wagons over to get there, but why bother? What could we possibly do?

If it did try something, well, we definitely had the Casters here to stop any bombardment, and the True Seeking artillery crews with Vivic-infused Cannons would make VERY short work of any opposing artillery positions. The enemy hadn’t flown out any Ghost Planes into the Deadzone for weeks now, and we’d been relentlessly hammering their anti-aircraft positions during the day and the night to get rid of them, giving us more air control.

Our planes wouldn’t work once the Shroud came down, so getting all the use out of them was definitely a goal. Air forces from all of North America and Europe were being flown around the Deadzone, looking for targets they could either mark for the infantry, or dispose of themselves with gunfire or air-to-ground missile, rocket, or bomb attacks.

The Shroudlord was about to find out what a whole bunch of Faux Ten+’s who’d been Leveling smartly off its enhanced undead for the past few months, and who had shut down Shroudzones all over the world, were capable of. That should nicely put some pressure on its plans for building that Formation.

Distractions, distractions...

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When I started Singing, the ley lines naturally lit up as the Sublime Chords stroked them.

The ley lines were very different from Detroit here, as every Caster could feel. There were massive influences of death, negative energy, shadow, illusion, enslavement charms, curse magic, and pure necromancy active here, and they bent the whole flavor of the magic into a very dark direction, indeed.

The Casters all preferred to Cast during the day here, when the negative influence of the Deadzone was at its weakest. It was harder and slower to gather energy for spells in the Deadzone, simply because of the massive weight of the Shroudzone’s influence.

But I could also feel the energy running into the flowing Patterns made here, coming from thousands of Casters, chi-users, and Warlocks. There was a LOT of fire, and huge amounts of healing and positive energies, along with light and radiance-based Auras, all of it reflecting the magic that had been plied by those involved here over the past months.

None of it was friendly to undead, and there were a lot of Baneskulls, Enmity on Implements, and Blessed Weapons of various sorts adding Sacred power to the mix, in addition to the very powerful amounts of Wrath from nearly every Heavenbound on the planet, and thousands of other Warlocks on top of that.

All the Elements were screaming for the darkness to go away, and vivus wound around everything, sparkling and hungry as it burned over the Patterns of magic, began to touch those traces in the air, and the night began to sparkle and flutter with unwhite butterflies hunting the energies of death.

Everyone in the area was getting a +4 to their Caster Level with my Song, +8 if using Good magic. Elemental Druidic energies, Holy Clerical energies, focused Arcane energies, Primal Warlock energies... they all merged together in the Song and my Theurgies, rising and blending into a quad-spectral show of energies and force.

The Destiny of Sources converged, backed by the rivers of Nulls behind them. Visible light, Aligned Light, magical light, and the Veil all rippled and rose as the power rose up to the thick Haze above, and lit off.

Control Weather at 100, +20 Spell Penetration. EAT THIS!

With the roaring of multitudes of faithful pouring prayers all around the world into our efforts, sounding off all at once, the clouds above us ignited in a silver and white firestorm, Thunderbolts rang like bells, and together they drove the clouds back over the horizon.

Ahead of us to the east, the Haze parted more reluctantly, but part it did. Silver clashed, Rainbows ignited, The Light flared, and Primal Fires raged forwards, pushing the Haze back and back and back again, its resistance mounting but unable to stop the Opening of the Sky.

Quantity would win many things, and I had no doubt that the Shroudlord had mustered its own forces for this effort, intending to counter what was going on here. Maybe it even had the required combination of corrupted Arcane, Divine, Primal, Natural, and Heartsong effects to weld together and serve for the job.

But I knew it didn’t have the Caster Level, and Caster Level is the elephant in the room. Sure, the rat horde might take one down, given long enough, but if the elephant is charging and stomping, that rat horde is in for a bad time.

It was visibly slower than the rest of the spell, but we all watched, Singing along as a trumpeting wall of magic, Light, and Fire rolled out into the distance and slammed into the inky Shroudcloud in a kaleidoscope of colors and seething purple-red hate lightning that blew across the horizon and into the Shroud for hundreds of miles at the intrusion.

We all could feel the active pumping from inside the Shroud going on, grinding up against the wall of magic coming its way... but it didn’t really matter at this point. It hadn’t brought up a Counterspell, which would have been the proper way to handle this, two Control Weathers at VIII neutralizing one another. Heck, it wouldn’t even have needed a Ritual, as just the base spell would have undone the foundation of the entire Opening Ritual on our end, and it would have dissipated.

Arrogance, disbelief, pride? Whatever, the surges of negative energy trying to come in and take apart our Rituals were like spiderwebs before a charging bull. With cracks of thunder audible for hundreds of miles, the Shroudcloud from Russia was pushed back, and back, and back!

Arcs of solid hate-lightning formed writhing walls of obliteration in the sky as the Opening of the Sky forged ahead, and peeled back not just the Haze, but the strongest Shroud in the world, letting in the stars and moon.

The Shroud was going berserk as it was Burned and bullied, shoved back heartlessly, and what voltage it exerted on the Ritual just burned itself into vivus as it crackled over the advancing arc... and then the Fastcast little something added to the Ritual by a certain someone in the mirror went off on the spell they’d used to contest us.

Um, well, it was basically my defense against a Counterspell attempt, but since it had wanted a muscle-flexing contest, that worked, too.

The Spellflare wasn’t Cast at quite the level of the Control Weather, but there was a lot of dumped Dispels from Valence and Wrath powering it up, a Silver Smite was added in for effect, all on top of the Opening, and it hit the Shroudlord’s spell effect, did the math, smirked, unwound the opposing spell, and then ignited it and sent it back where it came from.

“Merry Christmas,” I murmured under my breath, as my special coal for its stocking was sent on its way. A bunch of old-timers who remembered what that was like smiled, everyone hooked into my ley-line awareness of vast energies moving as it went off.