Chapter 98

Chapter 98

A/N: Work sucks. Anyway, for those that want to see what I used as an inspiration for Serpentia, here you go.

https://youtu.be/D6mIqeuoKdM

----------

Neleh and Khali quickly made their plans of attack. They already had plans in place before Neleh noticed the trap awaiting them, and surprisingly the situation had made less of a difference to those plans than expected. They still planned to rely on speed and a smaller group of elites, instead of trying to bring a huge army through. The elven mages would still focus on bringing down the fortress around the portal, while the people trained by Neleh and some of the strongest members of the Order would protect them from the enemy forces.

The major difference lay in Khalis role as well as what Neleh was supposed to do during the whole operation. Khali came via a doorway hours in advance of the other forces and started to fiddle with the Imprisonment spells surrounding the crater as soon as she stepped through. Neleh wanted to give her as much time as possible before they were detected and opening the arches would draw attention, even when hidden outside the crater. Neleh knew the enemy forces had to be paying attention, seeing as their arrival was being expected. Nevertheless, the plan made by the enemy necessitated allowing Neleh to bring as much forces here as possible, otherwise the trap would be wasted. So they would not interfere. They would start getting ready as soon as Nelehs forces were detected however, and she didnt want to give them too much time to get ready.

As soon as Khali gave the signal that her work was done, Neleh opened several temporary arches that could easily be collapsed once they were done. The elves had been waiting and were very swift and quiet in moving through the arches. They formed up into pre-arranged formations and moved into position to wait for the whole group to come through. Neleh recognized her mother among the people guarding the mages, although her presence didnt really surprise her. She was walking alongside Zamekh, who had also decided to join in on the attack.

Shiori had mentioned that Asheara had been trying to meet with her, but there had been no chance for that so far. As soon as they had returned from the events of the beastmen continent, Neleh and Shiori had left for the trek through the desolate wasteland of the faerie continent. The attack had already been delayed and Neleh had been worried about losing the opportunity. There had been no time for being social and she hadnt even taken the time to rest before they left. Normally traveling wouldve been almost as good as resting, but the speed they had to keep up, as well as the need to stay concealed had made that hard. Neleh knew she was pushing herself a bit too much, but the current war gave no consideration for her comfort.

As the last of the elves came through, they rapidly moved towards their destination at the edge of the crater. Once they reached their assigned positions, they noticed that the enemy was more ready for them than they had anticipated. How did they react this fast? Neleh wondered speaking out loud as the enemy forces were streaming out of the fortress and grouping up to meet the elves in battle.

I think they might have sensed me fiddling with the Imprisonment spells. That might be my specialty, but you know that magic isnt my thing. Khali replied, not really worried. The enemy had allowed her to do her work, mostly because the enemy had only felt Khali doing something, and they werent sure what that something was. As such, stopping her activities was difficult without alerting her. Dont be so concerned. We were hoping that a large part of their forces would be buried along with their fortress, but thats why we brought all those mages. No plan survives perfectly through enemy contact. She also noticed that there was still a decent portion of the enemy forces inside the fortress. Moving that many large beings took time.

At their signal, the elven mages began to cast their spells, combining their powers for more effect and power. Only a portion of the mages were skilled in the use of earth magic, so the others either lent their power to them or prepared to face the coming enemies. The elven plan was shattered with the appearance of a single woman at the head of the enemy army.

SERPENTIA! Khali yelled in anger as she recognized her old rival and one of the oldest surviving lost-deities.

The woman looked calm and emotionless, as her steely grey eyes looked at the elves on the edge of the crater. She was dressed rather simply, with her top covered by a white cloth tunic while legs were covered snugly in what looked like grey metallic scale pants that had snake leather highlights wrapped around her legs. Her silvery grey hair billowed in the wind as she lifted her weird sword above her head, before she swung in a wide arc, sending a wave of force straight at the gathered elves.

Oh no! Khali breathed as she recognized the attack and understood the implications. However, it was too late to stop the attack due to its nature. The elves that were not already in the middle of casting spells tried to erect protective barriers either with magic or ki to protect the rest, but this turned out to be the wrong answer. The attack launched by Serpentia didnt harm any of them directly. However, it shattered all the magic and spells it came in contact with.

Null-magic wave. Khali mumbled the name of the technique. The waves only purpose was to destroy any magic it came in contact with. It wasnt powerful enough to destroy magical items such as the enchanted equipment used by the elves, but it completely shattered every protective spell cast by the elves beforehand and in an attempt to stop the wave, as well as disrupting the spells that were about to be cast to destroy the fortress. Having all those spells forcibly shattered had consequences to the mages casting them, as the feedback struck most of them down in unconsciousness.

Yet the purpose of the wave was not finished. The other purpose was to release all the enemy reinforcements held by the Imprisonment spells at the same time. This was not the way Khali had expected the spells to be canceled, and hadnt really designed her own surprise to match. The spells were supposed to collapse when released by the casters, killing both the being held inside as well as the caster. The majority of the spells still collapsed but with a lesser effect. Khali noticed that the majority of the Consortium mages had collapsed from the feedback that had also struck down the elven mages, but many of them had also died in agony as Khalis little surprise triggered.

Only about half of the imprisoned Trow and Blades materialized and they were all a fair distance from the current location of the elves, as Khali had paid more attention to the ones imprisoned closer to their location. She had made their surprise extra nasty, before getting bored and half-assing it with the distant ones. That still didnt make the situation very good, as the elven mages had just collapsed, there were thousands of new enemies and the fortress was still undamaged. It looked like Serpentias trap had been more successful than theirs after all.

Khali watched with trepidation as Serpentia summoned her whip which transformed into an enormous metallic serpent, the same one that had attacked the elven fleet before getting pushed back by Neleh. The lost-deity also showed the true nature of her weird sword as it grew longer and longer and looked meaner and meaner. The sword resembled one of those whip-swords some idiots tried to use once in a while, except it wasnt segmented. It was just very flexible and extremely long, ranging several hundred meters with edges serrated with almost arm length blades. Serpentia controlled her weapon easily by running her ki along the blade, and almost seemed to be strolling lazily towards the elves and holding the grip of the blade in her hand with almost a casual ease.

In retaliation Khali used one of her favorite techniques. She momentarily turned into an orb of pure ki, and then the orb separated into a dozen streams of power that surrounded Serpentia. The streams materialized into twelve identical copies of Khali that dashed straight at their target. Only one of the copies was the real Khali, but they all carried the power to kill almost any target.

Too weak! Do you think your old tricks will work now that you have less power? Serpentia yelled, as her weapon exploded into a deadly rain of metal, striking at all twelve copies of Khali.

Unfortunately for Khali, Serpentia was right. This was an attack that Khali used to kill countless of enemies, because none of her opponents had enough strength to destroy all twelve copies or resist their combined attacks. And the trick of the technique was that even though only one of them was real, the real copy was not determined beforehand, as Khali controlled all of them. The real copy was always the last one to remain as the others got destroyed, combining both a deadly attack and an almost unbreakable defense. Thats why it was one of her favorite techniques.

Only problem was, she no longer had the same power she used to. Serpentia had the ability to attack all of the copies at once, and use enough power to destroy all of them at the same time. Khali was thrown away from Serpentia. One of the blades that had serrated Serpentias weapon was lodged in her shoulder and she was bleeding from several other injuries. The only positive thing was that she had managed to scatter Serpentias weapon all over the place, so the lost-deity was now unarmed. Not that this made her vulnerable, as Serpentia was perfectly capable of fighting unarmed.

As Neleh managed to recover from her spell vanishing, she noticed that Khali would no longer be able to delay Serpentia any longer. On the other side, Asheara had joined with Shiori to combat the large serpent, and the two seemed to have an upper hand, with Shiori distracting the serpent, while Asheara delivered heavy blows with her large sword, shaving off huge chunks of the serpent with every strike. At least Neleh could take solace with the fact that the weapon she had made with Elluin was effective.

Can you strike her down if we give you time? One of Nelehs students suddenly asked.

Yes. But I doubt most of you will return alive from this. Neleh replied with confidence. She had other power besides magic.

Then its about time we lay down our lives to protect our world. Her student replied, and as one they all charged at Serpentia without a regard for their lives.

Now the small fry come to throw their lives away! Serpentia said with slight anger as she drove her fist through the chest of a male elf, who instead of using his power for defense, decided to dedicate his body and all his power at tying Serpentia in place and denying her the use of the arm she had driven through his chest.

Not you. I need you to shield the others when I release my attack. I cant hold back to protect the others. Neleh said to Zamekh, who was about to join the fight. She knew the dragon was the only one strong enough to protect the others.

She gathered all her internal power while watching the grim determination of her students as they threw themselves at Serpentia. She pulled out her trusty spear that she was still using shrunk down into a hair ornament. This attack would have to carry a price. She didnt dare to hold back, because if she failed then she wouldnt have enough strength for another attack.

Shiori and Asheara finally managed to defeat the large serpent, which seemed to anger Serpentia even further. The two decided not to join the frenzy, as they had used most of their power against their previous foe and they would only be throwing their lives away needlessly if they tried to attack Serpentia. Suddenly they felt the gathering of great power around Neleh, and heard her send all of them a mental command to pull back near Zamekh.

Not all of Nelehs students managed to make it, as many of them were too injured. Despite that, Shiori and Asheara watched as Neleh leapt into the air with her spear raised, with streamers of extreme heat radiating around the spear. Neleh brought her hand down in a throw and the spear struck faster than any of them could see. Anyone aside from Serpentia that is, as the lost-deity raised her hand and managed to push her power out to form a multi-layered shield in front of her.

As the attack was not a normal throw, the spear started penetrating the layered shields one at a time, as the power of the attack pushed it forward. In less than a second, the spear pushed though most of the shields and then exploded. They all cowered under the protective field created by Zamekh, as the world around them turned into a sea of flame. Asheara noted that only half of Nelehs students had managed to get inside the protective bubble. Even the bubble starter showing cracks and signs of shattering when all the power suddenly collapsed inwards, and the sea of flame imploded, as if sucked into a void created at a single spot.

Neleh looked towards the center of the explosion. Her own attack couldnt hurt her, but that didnt mean she was fine. The spear she had thrown was no more, and the Ignasia on her legs and back had disappeared, never to return. She would not regain the power of those Ignasia, as she had sacrificed them to power the attack.

As the dust cleared Neleh was disappointed to see that Serpentia was still alive. She was kneeling and clutching the remains of her destroyed arm, possibly in attempt to overcome the corrupting power that prevented the arm from recovering. Most of Serpentias clothes had been destroyed and she was wounded all over, but she was still alive. Will I have to use my power as Destroyer after all? Neleh wondered. Destroying someone as powerful as Serpentia would carry a dire price.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a blade suddenly stabbed through Serpentias chest. Finally got you. How does it feel getting killed by a chump? I guess now you can sympathize with what happened to me. Khali said in a vengeful tone and swung her weapon, severing Serpentias body in two.