174 - Split (Patreon)

Wulfric was standing next to his brother as the music continued to play and the low buzz of conversation surrounded them.

“Why the long face?” Edward asked. “Don’t tell me you were unable to charm Miss Arielle into giving her first dance to you rather than her companion.” 

Wulfric gave him a sour look. “That wasn’t what I was trying to do.”

“Right. Of course it wasn't.”

Wulfric ignored Edward's smirk and straightened as his eyes travelled to Maus, who was standing at the other end of the ballroom next to Master Tate and a few other people. The floor was left empty until the first dance was completed, but neither Arielle nor Elric were here yet, and Maus was involved in a conversation with someone else, although every now and then his eyes flickered to the doorway in expectation.

What was he doing here?

Shouldn’t he be looking for Arielle instead of chatting to whoever those people were?

Shouldn’t I be looking for Arielle?

But she didn’t seem to want his company, seeing as how she ran from him.

His mind was on the last few minutes with her: her intense concentration with her eyebrows furrowed; how she puffed out her cheek like a squirrel while she kept staring at that statue, and her warning that there may or may not be intruders on the estate.

There had been no alarm yet to signify intruders. So how did she know?

“What did she mean by that?” he murmured, unfortunately loud enough for Edward to hear him. 

“What did who mean by what?” his brother asked. 

“The statue,” he continued, as he turned to Edward. “Are you sure that’s all you know about it? It’s not some kind of golem or security feature, is it?”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

"Hmm." If it wasn't a security feature, then why would something in the statue indicate that there was an intruder?

Wulfric didn’t get to complete that thought. 

A blaring alarm, loud and calamitous, shocked all the guests in the ballroom who had been waiting for the guest of honor to return.

 A few people jumped, looking around them for the source of the sound, some of them remarking, "What on Earth?"

Wulfric was instantly at attention, and so was Lord Wesley, who summoned the footmen who were standing at the doorway.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.

“We're not sure," they said. "It seems the alarm wasn't triggered by us, but by an external force."

"An external force?"

His answer came as the doors burst open. 

Elric strode in with Arielle by his side, her hair windswept, her dress rumpled where her hand had clutched it. Elric himself held wide heat in his eyes. Another man floated in the air in front of him, clothes bloodied, unconscious.

Instant energy was injected into the atmosphere, as whispers abounded about what happened.“What’s this?” Edward murmured. 

“Elric?” Lord Wesley tone demanded an immediate answer as Elric calmly lowered the man to the floor.

His leg was bent at an unnatural angle, and Elric said, “He’ll need a healer. I knocked him out so he wouldn’t be in pain; however, I don’t think my skills are good enough to heal an injury this grievous.”

“What happened?” Lord Wesley asked even as he waved away one of his footmen to summon the healer. 

“There’s an intruder.”

“An intruder?” Lady Wesley exclaimed, moving forward and sharing a look with her husband.

Elric nodded. “One, or multiple, summoned by a trio of ritualists like the one I saw in Khor. It's hard to tell how many there are right now. I managed to wound one, but we need to get everyone out of here before it or its friends come back."

The music halted with a screech. 

Immediate sound burst out of the surrounding crowd, questions flying out, accompanied by barely restrained panic. Anything an Archmage couldn’t kill, but merely wound, was seen as an instant world-ending threat. People began to rush forward, demanding answers. 

This was not at all how they expected their night to go. 

Wulfric wasn’t reacting much. His blood ran cold, and he felt a shiver down his spine, but he was frozen in shock, his eyes stuck on Arielle. 

She had known. 

How had she known?

“We have to move,” Elric said. “Everyone, leave. Now.’

"Oh gods, no." someone exclaimed, as the crowd immediately rushed out of the hall, likely to fetch their belongings and leave the premises before they became monster food. “I can’t find my husband. He…he said he was going for a walk to clear his head.”

“What is his name, ma’am?” one of the footmen instantly inquired above the sound of running feet.

“Jarvis,” she said. “Mr. Jarvis.”

It, and Lord Wesley’s voice shouting orders, faded into the background. 

Meanwhile, one thing stuck in Wulfric's brain.

Khor.

It suddenly occurred to him that Arielle had been in Khor on the day of the attack, if he remembered correctly. He'd been looking for her that morning and heard she had set off with the rest of them. All the students who had been to Khor that day had been famous for a week, constantly hounded for information. Of course, no one had hounded Arielle because, though some of them would never admit it, they were intimidated by her.

Nevertheless, they identified her as another student who had been on the ferry.

It was also the first and last day that the Raven girl appeared, said to have saved people from the rift, and then no one had ever seen or heard from her again.

They said she was an agent of the Unmaker, sent to save Khor from an attack just like the Black Knight.

Wulfric hadn’t listened to such rumors at first, believing them the work of a superstitious mind, because the people of Khor were nothing if not superstitious. 

But now that he thought about it…

No.

That was too ridiculous to consider. 

It was said that the Raven Girl defeated two trolls by herself with complete ease. Arielle, while impressive, wasn’t close to doing anything like that.

But that still begged the question: how did she know there was an intruder simply by looking at the statue? Because she had to have known even before she returned to fetch Elric.

Even though half the people had left, the remaining voices of the crowd got louder, their questions assailing Elric faster than he could speak, Areille wasn’t talking much. Instead, her eyes drifted around vacantly, like they sometimes did when she was alone. It was like she was watching something in the air that no one else could see.

Then she looked out the window, her gaze staying there as the conversation continued.

What could she see?

“I'm assuming the thing you saw was a demon.” 

The new voice was from Gio Li, who Wulfric was now realizing had been absent for most of the party. This wasn’t unusual for Gio. He typically only attended these events on occasion, and when he was here, he made himself scarce, talking to very few people and simply disappearing without warning, which made some people wonder why he had bothered to come in the first place.

However, despite his uncouth behaviour, they couldn't uninvite him. He was Gio Li, after all.

Gio's voice cut through the noise like a knife, and everyone instantly fell silent to hear the answer to his question. Even those trickling out the doors halted temporarily.

"By my best guess," Elric said. "Yes."

The chatter got louder, as multiple panicked voices joined the din. 

"Sentinel, help us!" said one of the few that lingered in the ballroom, likely thinking there was more hope of safety sticking with the Lord. “Demons?"

"How could this happen?" Lady Simone said. "A demon? In your abode, Lord Wesley? With your detectors and shield?"

Before Lord Wesley could speak, Elric said. “I suspect that the demons are somehow moving through portal dimensions created in the abyss."

“Is that possible?” 

“I don’t know.” He glanced at Gio who shrugged.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” he said. “Magic cannot survive long in the deep abyss and I don’t see how they would pass through it, without eventually losing themselves within.”

“The monster I encountered…” Elric continued. “I couldn't make out exactly what it is because it seemed trapped in a bubble of reality, here but also somehow not here. It made for a complicated fight."

"I don't understand," Wulfric's mother murmured. "You're saying the demon is here but also not here."

"It's hard to explain, my lady," Elric said. “And we would only waste time trying. The creature will be back. We might have interrupted their ritual, but believe me, there is a much larger plan at stake. Whether or not they're demons, if there are creatures hunting us, we need to leave now."

"Agreed," Wesley said. "All Masters and Archmages must begin the emergency evacuation procedure. There are about ten of us in attendance today, so we must ensure the rest of the guests get out safely. Those who have fast carriages can leave that way. The rest will be teleported. We'll sort you into groups. Quickly."

Archmage Lenore, who was in attendance, as well as Archmage Dex, began to use their magic to corral the crowd and separate them into groups. There were also about twelve Masters, who took charge, some leaving to aid those who might still be walking the compounds, and those who had rushed out prematurely. 

Lord Wesley gave his footmen orders, attempting to make order out of chaos. 

In the meantime, Wulfric continued to watch Arielle Blacksoil.

She was staring out the window, her face growing increasingly pale.

"Elric," she said quietly, though the effect it had on Elric was as if lightning had struck. 

He turned to her, and she gave him a grave look. "I think it's too late."

***

Elric had told her not to speak unless it was an emergency.

He didn't want her to accidentally say something revealing, so Arielle had remained quiet as Elric told them what he saw.

While he spoke, she had been watching the demonic orbs outside the windows, appearing and disappearing. She'd enhanced her senses so she could detect them, and noticed that they were multiplying, now two or three appearing every five seconds. 

Yet they seemed to always disappear.

Moving in and out of the abyss.

Arielle didn’t know how they were doing that. 

Elric had explained to her on the way that creatures of the abyss, as they knew, are presumably around them at all times, yet they have no access to them, as they could not break out of the abyss unless someone summons them. They both exist and do not exist, just like the abyss. 

So for that creature to appear as it had, something had to be pulling it to the surface of existence, yet keeping them abyssal, enabling them to attack, yet evading attack themselves unless it's a close-range attack. 

Yet Gio had also said that magic could not last long in the deep abyss. How was that possible, when the Drift himself resided in the abyss? When his magic had drawn her in, shown her her past?

Or perhaps, the problem was with human magic? Or the thing called the deep abyss? What was that?

Perhaps now wasn’t the time to figure it out. 

It wasn’t over. 

Arielle could feel a growing menace in the atmosphere, and that told her that something more was coming, which was why everyone had to leave right now. 

She had waited with bated breath, internally pleading for Elric to talk faster while she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Arielle," Maus had come to stand beside her at some point, but she'd only nodded vaguely at him because she had to observe what was going on.

The issue of the disappearing orb was the only thing that told them this was a demonic attack. If not, it could have been an abyssal creature, but abyssal creatures didn't escape for no reason. They didn't have that kind of animosity towards humans that demons had, and they weren't autonomous the way demons were. They had to be summoned.

It all came back to the statue. 

Arielle knew that the statue was the reason they were here.

She had a feeling it was the thing that tied it all together. She just didn’t see how. 

But maybe that was because her view was limited.

There were so many parts of the estate that she couldn't see.

Arielle took a deep breath and enhanced her sight again, going farther, flying past the orbs in her immediate environment to the ones in the distance.

She stopped when she approached the transparent land shield that all the guests had to pass through to get here.

That was when she saw it.

A conglomerate of demonic orbs right in the middle, webbing across, coming in and out of view.  

That was when she called Elric again.

The demons had poisoned the shield. 

"What's wrong?" Elric asked her, and she looked at him but had no idea how to explain what she wanted to say. The demonic orbs had taken control of the land shield, and it might be too dangerous to pass through. She couldn't explain that she could see the orbs in front of all these people, could she?

All eyes were on her now. This was worse than the procession. They were all waiting for an answer that she couldn't give.

"Arielle," Lord Wesley asked. "Why did you say it's too late?"

“That’s a good question,” Gio spoke up. “Why, Arielle?” 

"Because..." She looked to Elric for help, but before he could, Gio continued, "Is it because the entrance has been blocked off and the land shield has been overtaken by demonic essences?"

They both snapped to Gio now.

"How did you know that?" Elric demanded.

He shrugged carelessly. "Lucky guess."

"My teleportation isn't working either," a short, dark-skinned woman said from her position at the back of the room. During the start of the ball, she had introduced herself to Arielle as Archmage Lenore. She had a permanently bored expression on her face. "At least not as it should be."

"Meaning?" Gio asked.

"My anchors to my home have been changed, meaning that my runes aren't as effective."

"Mine too," another man, Master Gu, said. "I do not use runes, but I cannot properly access my next location or anywhere outside of here."

"Meaning the anchors weren’t changed," Archmage Lenore said. "But our location did."

Arielle's breath caught at the implication of what she was saying.

"Unbeknownst to us," she said. "An overlord seems to have changed the rules of our current reality, trapping us within it."

“An overlord could not have done it,” Gio said. “It has to be at least a demon Lord, along with an army of Overlords. But it makes no sense for them to sacrifice themselves to the abyss just for–”

"Can someone explain what's happening in normal terms?" Professor Valeria's companion exclaimed loudly. "For those of us who do not want to die?"

"Calm down, father," Professor Valeria murmured.  

"How can I be calm?" he demanded. "We're may very well die here!"

Professor Valeria looked embarrassed by her companion's outburst, even as the murmurs restarted, some agreeing with his hysteria and others mocking it.

"Everyone remains calm," Lord Wesley said. "We have alternative means of getting everyone out of here."

"The underground tunnels," Lady Wesley murmured.

"What underground tunnels?" Lady Borja said.

"We have tunnels with permanent portals that can take you to our safehouses all around the world," she announced to the group without necessarily talking to Lady Borja alone. "From there, you can teleport safely home or call for help."

"You don't think these tunnels have been polluted?" Archmage Lenore inquired.

"No. They're fairly hidden and disconnected from the rest of the security system. The access point was only known by me, Lady Wesley, and Edward," Lord Wesley said.

"Not me and my son?" Lady Borja looked enraged at the thought, throwing accusing looks at Lord Wesley.

"It was made a long time ago, before we knew you," he said. "It slipped my mind to mention it."

"But you mentioned it to one of your sons and not the other."

"This is not the time for this!" Lord Wesley said, frustration on his face. "I was wrong and I will extend my apologies later, but for now we need to get out of here.”

Lady Borja’s jaw clenched, and her nostrils flared but she said nothing else as the Lord continued. 

“There are four of them, although you would need to go two at a time and wait for at least ten minutes before you send the next batch. That means that the rest must wait outside the room; otherwise, the portal will not activate because it will read it as an ambush. The access points are through our bed chambers, in our separate wings and also my study. We will lead you there.” 

"A group should remain," Elric said. "Try to find a way to defeat the creatures."

Gio shrugged casually. "Since abyssal things and portal dimensions are my specialty, I might as well."

"Me too," Elric said. "I will put up shields and try to trap them.”

“No,” Lenore said. “I’ll stay. You are weaker at combat than I am.”

“Which is why you should help escort them, in case they run into calamity on the way out. We don’t know where this monster will appear from.”

Lenore cocked her head. Her expression gave the impression that she didn’t care one way or the other, but she also appeared to be thinking deeply. 

“I will drop them off and return to help you,” she said. 

Elric nodded. “Fine.”

It was also decided quickly that the other two archmage and half the masters would accompany the teams that were already arranging themselves to be led to the escape routes. The rest would remain to help them fight the creature.

“I’m staying,” Arielle overheard Selena arguing with her monks.“No,” they said. “You are the future queen–”“And as the future queen, I’m telling you I’m staying.”“Don’t be difficult, Selena.”

Arielle turned out of their conversation, and realized they had forgotten about one very important thing.

She could see some of them standing at the door, faces drawn as everyone simply ignored their existence.

"What about the servants?" Arielle asked.

Lord Wesley paused and turned to her. "The servants will join us after. They are likely gathering in the saferooms right now, and once we're reach our destination, we'll send someone back for them, and they will follow."

"They are mundanes, aren't they?" she said. "The most powerless of us all. They should be out through the portals first."

"That's not..."

"The evacuation protocol says our guests must leave first," Lady Borjas said.

"Why?" Ari said. "Most of us have magic."

"Not the kind of magic that could defeat a demon."

"They don't have magic at all."

"Arielle," Elric said. "We will stay and protect the servants. Ensure those that have to remain don't get hurt."

"I can stay and show you the safe rooms," Wulfric offered.

"No," both Lord Wesley and Lady Borjas said. "You will come with us."

Wulfric didn't look happy about it.

"One of the safe rooms is in the basement of that building," Lord Wesley pointed at the building in the distance. "That is likely where Montfort is. Any of the servants can show you where the rest are.”

"I will stay as well," a man who looked like Riorke said.

"Father," Riorke exclaimed.

"I'm a warrior by nature," he said, throwing off his cape to show a sword that had been secured at his side. "And not the kind to cower and escape. Let the weakest among us leave first. We will hold up the fort."

"I'm staying if you are," Riorke said, stepping out of his group.

"No, you're not."

"Father."

"You're not."

"Arielle," Lyra called out in the middle of the argument. Her eyes were leaking with fear, and she tore away from her father to grasp Arielle’s hand. "You're coming with us, right?"

She shook her head. "I have to stay and help Elric."

"Help with what?" Archmage Lenore challenged. "You're a first-year in the academy, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"So why would you be–"

"It's okay," Elric interrupted. "She can stay."

Lenore frowned. "Elric, you know that’s not–”

"I know," he said. "I'll take responsibility for it, if anything happens."

She pressed her lips together in clear disapproval yet said nothing.

As the groups began to rush out, each with a Master or Archmage leading them, they quickly said their goodbyes. Lyra and Maus gave Arielle a short hug, telling her that she had to follow them soon. Maus and Riorke argued to stay but they were shut down firmly by Lenore, who steered them into place. Selena was being practically dragged against her will, but the look on her face told them the war wasn’t over. 

"I'll try to see if I can hunt these Overlords," Gio said. "They don’t have complete control over the terrain yet. I can try and stop them before they do.’

"Good," Elric said. "We'll search for clues and round up the servants, protecting those who remain."

"We?" Gio gave him a mocking smile.

"Camhanach and I," he said.

"Of course. That's who I thought you meant."'

Gio snapped his fingers and vanished without a trace. The rest of the groups quickly split up to do what they needed to do.

Arielle, Elric and Riorke's father trekked across the field toward the closest building with the saferoom that Lord Welsey had pointed out.

Elric had erected shields around each building that would alert him if anything crossed.

Yet, a creature in the abyss could move through his shield without detection so that might make them relatively moot.

"I don’t understand how any of this is happening?" Camhanach asked. "Since when could demons have this sort of power? And why would they choose to use it now?"

“Maybe they think they can kill all of us in one go,” Elric responded. “The demons are more powerful than the average human; however, mages like Gio are more powerful than a demon. Also, we beat them by population size, but they beat us by the resilience of their souls. Most of our protection lies in the Earth, and if they can overcome that... if they can kill us, they thereby weaken the human race significantly. They might be pulling all their stops hoping for that outcome.."

"They think they can kill us all." Camhanach's voice was grave.

"They certainly will try." Elric's foot crunched on gravel. "If the creature appears, remember, you have to let it get close to you, before you attack. You also must–”

Arielle didn’t see it coming. 

No one did.

A blinding beam struck the ground a second before it made a thunderous sound that split the earth and sent them all flying. 

Arielle’s body hit the ground and she rolled for several meters before it even occurred to her that she had just been hit. 

Her ears rang, her elbow hurt where it had collided with the ground and it took a second for her sight to come back. Her vision was blurry but it cleared enough to see Elric getting up from his spot a few feet away from her, with Lord Camhanach doing the same. 

“Arielle,” Elric called. 

“I’m fine,” Ari said in return and it was true. Apart from a few bruises and cuts, and the sensory attack, she was indeed fine. 

Elric healed her distractedly as he looked up at the thing that had attacked them. 

It was a giant face plastered against the bubble of reality, an outline as though something were pushing against a malleable, partially transparent surface. A mouth gaping open, glowing, along with eyes. 

“Unbelievable,” Camhanach’s horrified whisper carried across the field. 

Arielle could understand the shock. Not only was it a horrifying sight, but they were facing a foe they could not touch.

The glow got brighter and brighter, until it once again targeted them with another light beam. 

Arielle deflected with a shield of light like Vittoria had taught her, while Camhanach threw himself out of the way. Elric targeted the creature with shards of stone, shooting them into the sky like arrows, all aiming at the creature. 

Just like with the monster earlier, his attack did not touch it. 

“[Arcane Unbalancing],” he called out and Massa moved in waves, surrounding the creature, attempting to usurp the Vacu to destabilize whatever it is that enabled the creature to access reality from the abyss. 

It worked a little bit. The atmosphere shimmered and the face came into view, it’s bronze, skin tight against its bones. 

Elric’s next light beam, a blazing attack, hit the creature, splicing through its forehead and it screeched, a horrific sound that scraped at their eardrums. 

However, it didn’t die or retreat. 

“I have to get close,” Elric screamed as the wind began to pick up. Arielle didn’t know if this was the Overlord’s doing or the creature’s rage that did it. A whirlpool of sand picked up and blew dirt in Arielle’s face. 

As she coughed it out, it got stronger, ripping into the grass, destroying the perfectly manicured lawn. All that hard work, for nothing. 

Just the thought of it annoyed her. 

Arielle made herself and Camhanach heavier with [Mass Anchor] so they wouldn’t fly away, even as her hair whipped violently around her face, the wind making it hard to breathe. ’

Then the clouds split open and a swarm of large black insects emerged, the air filled with their hissing, like gnats at them. 

“[Segment],” Elric did and a transparent field blocked the insect's advance, encasing it in a bubble that he crushed into the ground in one go. The creature’s died with an ugly sounding crunch and squeal like a pig being butchered. It made Arielle’s skin crawl.  

Before they could even react, Elric had taken care of the threat, but he still glared up at the face. 

“[Revealed Axis],” Elric said and bolts of light arched in the air, tracing a path through it that cut to the other door of the building. 

“Arielle,” he yelled. “Get inside. Follow the path, it has been untouched by any foreign magic.”She shook her head. She wasn’t leaving him behind. They had to figure this out together.

She didn’t have the blue orb with her, but there had to be something else she could do, there had to be some way she could kill this creature while it was between two worlds. 

However, Elric beat her to it.

He charged, flying right at it, close enough to shoot light at it.

However, it tore out of its shell, its jaw opening, its mouth groaning. 

Elric shot it with light in its mouth, and while it screamed, it retreated back into the abyssal cover.

However, its reality swallowed Elric within. 

“Elric!” Arielle screamed, staring in horror at the creature. She reached out for it, but someone was grabbing her shoulder and dragging her back. “We need to go.”

“Not without Elric.”

“Arielle–”

“No.” She turned to glare at Camhanach and then faced the creature in the sky. “You. Give him back. Now.”