Chapter: 760 - Prime Commander (Patreon)

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Tala felt the last few days, the last few battles, and before that, the interminable hunting for a foe that couldn’t be found along with a building knowledge of incoming, existential danger.

She missed just living. She missed finding bakeries and trying one of everything.

She missed mornings that were just about gallons of coffee and being with her family, and evenings of good food and games, or going to plays, or… just being together.

She missed exploring her world, living her life like the delicious dessert it was, one slice at a time.

Tala was weary down to the bone… skeleton…? She actually didn’t think her skeleton was bone any more… but she was getting distracted.

All of this flashed through her mind a physical manifestation of that which vexed her drew near once more.

The Prime Commander calling himself Veridicius closed in on her with fluidly bounding steps.

A smile tugged at her lips as thinking of him in that way didn’t noticeably shift his authority. She was a bit irritated to realize that she did think of the oncoming threat as a ‘him’ rather than an ‘it’, but that couldn’t be helped.

Around her, the most powerful, mobile fighters of the allied forces were spreading out and pulling back, ready to engage the commanders and senior commanders as they came in from the sides, while also clearly noticing that the prime commander needed to be her opponent.

Rane had been forced to break off from fighting the prime commander at her side to engage a senior commander personally, but she didn’t mind. They each had their own tasks to accomplish, and they were partners regardless of which items they were specifically addressing.

Two concept blades cut inward, aiming for her neck.

Tala slapped one out and away with Flow, sending a resonant gong through the woods, essentially a starting bell for the fight, the charge having been all but silent.

Her other hand came up, reinforced white steel catching the concept blade even as that concept blade locked the material into shape.

Flow came back from the outward parry into an inward slash, aiming for the wrist that held the trapped blade.

At the same time, the prime commander’s reality field punched into Tala’s aura like a knife going for her kidneys.

An act of will, aura, and authority diverted the strike to the side even as she struck out herself, aiming to disrupt the magics around his soulcore.

On the level of aura and authority, they clashed, the normally large, sweeping movements of such expressions of power tightened and refined until it more resembled two blob creatures boxing than anything else.

Flow took off the targeted hand, severing the wrist cleanly, but the cut restored so closely on the heels of Flow’s passage, the weapon was almost trapped in the limb.

A series of portals snapped open then closed, each sending mundane ordinance into the prime commander.

The first several were just slugs, punching straight through the automaton, the holes closing almost as quickly as they were made.

The next set were fracturing projectiles that entered the Black Legionnaire and burst outward, shredding the insides, resulting in only slightly longer lasting damage.

The final set contained alchemical solutions that were driven deeply into the inner paths carved by the fracturing projectiles. Then, their interactions with each other—as well as simple exposure to the air—caused them to violently combust, the reaction purely mundane and therefore not affected by the reality field surrounding the prime commander at all.

It seemed to not overly mind the fire, however.

Tala opened her mouth, a lance of dissolution power stabbing outward.

The one calling himself Veridicius opened his mouth as well. Instead of pernicious magics, a single word entered the world, arguably to a greater impact. “Miss.”

The angle of the beam somehow shifted, changing just slightly. As a result the magics shot past the automaton, its reality field disrupting it enough to cause the disintegrating blast to occur directly behind the prime commander.

Tala’s eyes widened at the interference, which was a nudging of reality itself rather than a clash with her magics.

The explosion behind him launched him forward, and his knee rose to drive up into her gut, splintering her armor even as his leg turned to reality splinters. Those drove deep, blossoming outward much as her fragmentary projectiles had, fracturing more and more as they branched out, leaving her with a tangle of the nasty stuff within her, pervading her body.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the self-propagating variety, but it still wasn’t great.

Her aura flexed, grabbing onto the mass and tearing it free.

As she pulled, he spoke again. “Resist.”

The splinters each suddenly shot out barbs in every direction, hooking into her flesh, and turning her forced removal into a self-disemboweling.

As she was staggering, his free blade came in once more to—

Rane hit him like a diving falcon, Force leading the way to bisect the prime commander from head to heel creating a front and a back half.

A moment later, a senior commander streaked by in hot pursuit, and Rane had to engage with that automaton once more, but he’d bought her a critical moment.

Her inscriptions had come out with her… well, her everything, but that was of little consequence. This was her body, and she demanded that it be whole once more.

Existence trembled, and she added a singular utterance of her own. “Mine.”

The matter on the ground was still hers, was still her.

It lifted back into place, leaving the reality splinters behind.

Then, even as the prime commander knit back together, she stomp-kicked him in the chest, driving him back and down, to skip off the ground, leaving one of his swords in her grasp.

She sent it to a newly created—otherwise empty—expanded space, the blade arriving just before it detonated.

Tala cut that portion free, and dropped it into the void, even as it filled to bursting with self-propagating reality splinters.

-Aren’t you concerned that will come back somewhere and cause havoc?-

No. It’s too heavy with reality. The void will never surrender it.

-I’m glad you’re sure…-

The automaton had bounced across the glassed tree stump, sliding as he came to a stop, his exterior now greyed with streaks of ash.

Much of the burning tar-sticky substances had gone out because of the sheer speed of his travel, but most burst back to light, giving the prime commander a haunting, unearthly glow.

It was time to clash once more.

*

Rane planted a foot, draining his kinetic energy strategically to spin around, bringing Force to bear once more on the pursuing senior commander.

It got its blade in the way in time, stopping dead as the two weapons impacted.

The air practically detonated away from the two combatants as all the power of their attacks perfectly canceled one another out.

Rane saw his wife literally pull herself back together behind the senior commander and felt a wave of relief.

She’d been showing signs of exhaustion, but he was entirely unequal to taking up her burdens. Still, he would help where he could, and he hoped that his interference had given her the moment she needed to recenter.

The senior commander before him jerked its sword to the side, trying to strike at Rane in a flurry of blows that slithered and snaked in, seeking holes in his defenses.

Rane met every one with Force, his own motions somewhat mimicking the inhuman actions of the automaton as his magic imparted motion to his weapon even when his muscles wouldn’t have been fast enough, or able to move it in that manner at all.

It was a magic heavy way to fight, but as a Reforged, his throughput was oceanic.

A commander came to support the senior, and Rane’s body began shifting to dodge the new source of danger as well, barely changing his cadence.

The new combatant wasn’t half the fighter of the senior commander, but where Rane could have used that against most pairs, these two were so utterly in sync that Rane’s attempts to cause them to trip one another up almost resulted in him taking hits instead.

It had been a bit too much to hope for, he supposed.

He switched to using Force with one hand—and magic of course—before his left bracer shifted, changing shape to give him a punch-dagger-like blade, extending past his fist.

He spun in, planting that blade into the commander’s chest before kicking out one leg and turning on the senior commander.

Unfortunately, Rane was too used to fighting biological opponents.

The falling commander grabbed at his leg forcing Rane to abort his assault and retreat, moving them ever farther from where Tala was thrashing the new variant.

*

Lea felt so useless.

She fought alongside Talax and other Talons, a group of ten of them struggling to contain a simple commander.

Her mother was fighting the most powerful automaton they’d ever seen, and her dad was fighting a commander and a senior commander all on his own.

Most of their forces were pulling back, knowing that they had no chance against these higher powered abominations, but the Talons should be a match for these.

Unfortunately, individually, they just weren’t. Even if they had been perfectly fresh, they’d have struggled, but the Talons had been pushing hard for days now, it was starting to show.

Her sword cut lines in the black armor—as well as the components underneath—when she could land a blow, but those opportunities were hard to achieve.

She was arguably more physically capable than the automaton before them, but it was more skilled than even many of the other commanders that they’d seen.

They sent their best here? Really? It didn’t make any sense. The battle was over. Did they really put so much stock in the alliance fighters being tired?

With Walden coming nearer and nearer, even Lea could feel the slow changes happening in the forest. Though, she couldn’t place exactly what was changing.

Why! She slid forward, under a horizontal slash that Talax deflected upward, increasing her opening.

Won’t! Lea cut at an upward angle, but the commander twisted to perfectly miss the path of her blade.

You! She twisted the blade mid-swing, carving off a bit of the shoulder armor for her trouble.

Die!

Lea twisted her whole body before she kicked out, barely catching the foot of the commander as it landed from its dodge.

Her inscriptions flared, and she perfectly transferred her power, as well as adding a large dose of momentum, sending the automata flipping as its legs shot out from under it.

Talons lunged forward, and even still, half their spears were deflected or dodged.

But only half.

A dozen spears tore into the madly spinning commander, and as it slowed, Lea vaulted back to her feet. She cut upward, bisecting the foe.

There was a momentary pause before she grinned.

They’d gotten one.

Then, she felt attention fall on her, and she looked up to see Veridicus staring straight at her—despite being bound up in her mother’s grip—his mouth open as if to utter an executioner’s judgement.

*

Tala fought the prime commander in a storm of blades, magic, and frustrating commands.

It didn’t take very long for her to realize that his every word acted almost like a minor boon, warping reality…

…No, that wasn’t right.

The words seemed to marginally shift things, always to this prime commander’s advantage in annoying ways.

As she was only barely overcoming he, those little nudges were enough to keep them on more-or-less equal footing.

But Anatalis was closing in having disengaged from the pursuit of the Forest Spirit for a moment to come at the prime commander, stalking closer, ready to spring into the fray and end it.

The prime commander noticed, but didn’t seem to care overmuch. His next word conveyed why. “Hunt.”

It seemed an odd thing to say with a predator staring down his back, but in that moment, the Forest Spirit just barely came to Tala’s senses as Anatalis’s god-beasts caught up to it once more for a brief space of time.

The Pack Alpha didn’t hesitate, lunging sideways, making a straight line for the Forest Spirit, impacting the elk and carrying it into the trees through force of collision alone.

The cervid had shifted at the last moment, utterly avoiding claws and teeth even while it negated the magics that the wolves tried to bring to bear.

And just like that, Tala’s most useful backup was gone.

Tala growled, blocking another blow before punching the prime commander in the face with her free hand.

Her aura punched forward at the same time, giving her the freedom to extend her armor out and  around to clamp down on his head before the metal solidified, inured against magic.

She didn’t manage to cover his eyes or mouth, unfortunately. 

Without waiting to see what trick he would pull next, she began tearing at his defensive magics, taking the blasts of power that were triggered by her attempts.

These were far more powerful than those protecting senior commanders, and she found herself staggering under the consecutive blows, but she didn’t stop; she didn’t slow.

Finally, she felt her power pressing against the vast spirit that was closer to a complete shell around the imprisoned gate than simply fused to it.

As Tala touched the spirit with her own consciousness, she felt its thoughts or at least its intent.

It wasn’t looking at her, it was looking past her… straight at Lea.

His intent was as plain as a lighthouse on a cloudy night.

If she was to take his future, he would take hers.

“Unmake.”

His injunction was aimed at Lea’s physical form, one that had been modeled after the Black Legion, giving him an authoritative foundation upon which to give such a command.

It wasn’t a physical strike that she could interpose herself in front of.

It wasn’t magical that she could unravel.

It was a change to reality itself, commanding her daughter’s physical form to come apart, and there was nothing that Tala could do to stop it.

No.

She might not be able to stop it, but that didn’t mean she was helpless.

When they’d entered into the southern woods to assault the factory for the second time, the Forest Spirit had tried to drive them off through aura and authority.

Tala had taken it all upon herself. It had even been easy. She’d already been one of the targets, so only a small amount of effort had been required to make her the only target.

That wasn’t the case, here. It was, however, targeting her daughter. In that, it fell under her authority in three places.

First, it was an attack from a Black Legion automaton. Most of her authority came from her position as Eskau of War against that very group.

Second, the attack had been intended to harm her—even if indirectly—and that mattered greatly.

Third and finally, as Lea’s mother, it was her right to protect her daughter, to take the difficulties of life upon herself to shelter her child.

Her power and authority snatched the warping reality from around Lea and locked it into place around herself.

The automaton calling itself Veridicius seemed both shocked and gleeful at the change, and Tala was momentarily confused as to why.

She was no automaton, and this prime commander had no authority with which to actually hurt her. Moreover, she was Reforged. Her body was her own, and utterly unassailable by one with such parity to her in advancement.

Tala’s body was only open to such alterations if she made them herself or allowed them to be made.

…or allowed them to be made.

-Oh, Tala…- Alat’s voice was filled with resigned horror.

Tala had pulled the injunction into place, not just allowing but demanding that it affect her instead.

Tell Rane—

The change clicked into place within reality, and Tala was unmade in an instant, skeleton to skin, head to toe.

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