mindcracklove | Fated (Chapter Eighty-Five)

tanadin posting in

This is the longest chapter in the trilogy so far and likely won't ever be passed up (discounting epilogues) as after this there's only one more chapter before the epilogue of Fated and the end of the trilogy.

This is almost 4.2k words of death and pain. The final battle with the Hostiles is here and no one will escape unscathed.

Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Fated-map-544073443
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RKoeOLYhQctmZ5McNHc_kid0tjfb1BxyuD8i95FmFQE/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter Eighty-Five

Mindcrack territory, Vortex. November 20, year 573 Minecraftia time. Time instance 483Z.

Every Mindcracker was gathered, this time not in the general common room but in the meeting hall that they had somewhat recently (in the past century) set up within the Vortex itself. All thirty-one seats were filled, even Shree’s despite the fact that he had barely been involved at all with this whole descendant nonsense, lacking one himself.

The Mindcrackers without orbs leaned over to watch the orbs of those who did, missing their descendant but not willing to pass up witnessing the final battle. Tensions were high and several people were pacing, Blame among them.

“Blame, they haven’t even started fighting yet. Why are you pacing?” Pause asked, frowning.

“I wouldn’t be pacing if they had already engaged.” Blame told him, crossing his arms. “I’d be watching, tense, and hoping I didn’t keel over from stress.”

“Maybe we should have gathered in a chunk that we regenerate in, then.” Zisteau suggested, earning a few nervous laughs.

Vechs took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Blame, do you think they can win?”

Blame stopped pacing and looked at him curiously. He glanced at his orb before looking up once more.

“You know what? Yes. Yes, I do.”

-~-

It was just before noon when Iirkolav awoke, sighing and getting to his feet. They were going to engage the Hostiles today, and it was better that they do it sooner rather than later. Velana had informed them that she could cast a spell to keep the sun from hurting Marcus for a few hours, but even if that wasn’t the case they would engage the Hostiles in the light of the sun instead of in darkness.

Darkness was, after all, Specterveil’s greatest ally. With the rays of the sun beating down upon them, he couldn’t summon nearly as many monsters as he could otherwise. Onai would be weakened as well, unfortunately, but he was well-practiced with drawing darkness to his aid during the day and his powers were not nearly as particular as Specterveil’s were.

Iirkolav raised an eyebrow as he spotted Nessy and Mokdal both already awake, clearly getting some last-minute training in. Nessy spotted him and grew excited, bounding across camp and almost knocking him over. “Iirkolav! I figured out how to do something really cool this morning!”

“Hm?” Iirkolav raised an eyebrow. Nessy had been oddly eccentric lately, but he knew better than to dismiss what she said.

A piece of information could potentially change the fate of the world.

“Watch.” Nessy took a deep breath and concentrated, almost shutting her eyes. The air shivered around her before she became translucent and seemed to hover instead of standing on the ground. She grinned widely. “Try to touch me.”

Iirkolav hesitantly reached out to put a hand on her side, but he passed right through her. His eyes widened. “Incorporeal.”

“Yeah!” Nessy became solid once more and bounced up and down. “Mokdal says I might be able to hit Altair when I’m like that, and I can make small stuff- rocks, sticks, whatever- incorporeal as well.”

“Small stuff?” Iirkolav’s head turned when he heard Nia’s voice. The younger Davion yawned and pushed her goggles down from her forehead onto her eyes. “Could you do it with arrows?”

Nessy looked at her curiously. “Yeah, probably. Why?”

Nia grinned wolfishly. “Well, Kaen no Mai here is pretty powerful, right?” The bow glowed slightly brighter momentarily, as if agreeing. “And if you could make one of these arrows so that it could hit Altair…”

“…goodbye, asshat.” Iirkolav growled, grinning. “You’re a genius, and you’re a very talented half-dragon, Nessy. See if you guys can get that working while I wake everyone up, but don’t use too much energy. We need to go over the attack plan one more time and then we’ll go.”

Iirkolav ignored the grumbles from everyone that he woke up, going through camp until everyone was awake. He noticed Marcus sitting in the shade, out of the sun. While the vampire might currently be perfectly fine in the light, it still likely made him uncomfortable. Iirkolav couldn’t say he blamed him, but he needed to be present for their final rundown of the plan despite his injuries and bad attitude.

Iirkolav waited until everyone was gathered until he started speaking, reminding them of their plan. He noticed several people taking the opportunity to get some breakfast, but others had either eaten earlier (having woken up before Iirkolav) or were too nervous to eat. He noticed Adrian and Niel sitting awfully close, and on closer inspection, they were holding hands. He raised an eyebrow, raising a second when he saw Samuel gently nudge Shred and point in their direction. Shred seemed to sigh and rummaged in her pocket, handing Samuel some emerald shards. He looked slightly smug as he pocketed them, then just smiled briefly before turning his attention to Iirkolav.

“Okay, everyone. The Hostiles, as far as we know, have no clue that we’re here. We can sneak up on them easily and hopefully defeat them once and for all. Creators know we’re tired of this conflict. So here’s how it’ll go. People with ranged weapons and fliers will attack from uphill, plus Nak as they need someone competent in melee to be with them in case things go wrong. Everyone else will come at them from behind once they turn their attention on the ridge, trapping them between two oncoming sides. Each group will have one medic- Mitven, since you can use a bow better than Altren can, let’s have you on the ridge just in case we need someone else shooting- and Altren can be down in the melee.”

“Woo! I love being in the melee.” Altren said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Better you than me.” Mitven told him cheerfully.

Iirkolav cleared his throat before continuing. “Onai, Axid, Shred, Samuel, Adrian, Niel, Baltbee, Altren, Marcus, Zekara, Katrin, Vian, and Arra are the flanking team. Any protests? Questions?”

Silence.

“Good. Get ready. We head out in half an hour. I trust you guys to figure out the best place to wait for us to attack. Go ahead and around and you’ll know when the assault starts.”

Everyone nodded, determination painted on their faces. As they split up to prepare for battle, Iirkolav shivered.

I only hope I’m not leading them to their deaths.

~~~

The ridge team, consisting of Nia, Nak, Tranpar (much to Samuel’s displeasure- Iirkolav had to shout him down that they honestly needed the boy’s intelligence and gun, and he was in the safest place of the two teams anyway, with Mitven, Iirkolav, and Velana. If they couldn’t protect him, no one could), Tim (who was halfway decent with a bow but had lacked one until recently), Iirkolav, Nessy, Mitven, Mokdal, and Velana, reached their location slightly before the melee team did. Nia sighed quietly as she peered over the ridge, recognizing the form of Altair standing guard.

After a few minutes of waiting for the melee team to get into position, Iirkolav looked around at everyone and nodded his head. He was already in monstrous form, ready for battle with determination burning in his blue eyes. He was about to signal for them to start shooting and for the fliers to go in, but Nia held up a hand to stop him. She waved Nessy closer and motioned at the arrow she had ready on the string, then jerked her head at Altair.

Nessy understood and nodded.

Nia took a deep breath and drew back the string, taking careful aim.

I hope this works.

She released the string and the arrow shot out, shimmering and blazing. As Nia watched, it seemed to flicker to translucency and slammed into Altair, hitting him in his right wing joint. He screamed and was almost knocked from the air, flapping his wings and letting out one of the worst sounds Nia had ever heard. He turned around and his eyes widened as the fliers swooped down, screaming about them being under attack.

The other Hostiles were out in a flash. Shara took a wild swing at Nessy as she flew past, but Mokdal’s fiery breath was a bit distracting to the massive tree-monster. She roared in pain, stumbling back.

Alvark spat acid at Nessy as well, remembering her antics back in Kalt’on, but snarled as an arrow from Kaen no Mai hit him in the shoulder. Vellan transformed into a small, red dragon (the same form he had used to end Aldobiva’s life) and flew at the archers, Altair not far behind.

Specterveil roared in fury at their attack, the shadows around him twitching but not quite strong enough for him to summon monsters. He caught sight of Shara burning and Mokdal flying around her and his eyes narrowed.

He remembered this dragon well.

He glowed faintly purple as he shot forward and up, claws extended. Mokdal attempted to dodge the strike, but screamed as the membrane on his left wing was shredded. It was all he could do to crash at the edge of the battle, bleeding and weakened. Specterveil came after him again, dodging around an arrow from Nia, and opened up the dragon’s side. Before he could do anything further, the darkness reached up and shoved him backwards. He turned his head and shouted a warning to the other Hostiles as another group of descendants charged from the trees, Onai chief among them as the darkness drew around him.

As Nia aimed a shot at the approaching Vellan, she noticed her aunt focusing on a spell, eyes locked on Shara. The Hostile had almost put out the fire that had been eating away at her, but as Velana barked a magical command, a torrent of flames shot from her staff and engulfed the Hostile once more. Iirkolav added some flames to the Hostile as well, and soon she dissolved into quickly-dissipating flame and a single orb.

Canopy Carnage had been defeated.

Red lightning struck twice, signaling the retrieval of the orb by its maker.

“One down, four to go!” Tranpar crowed, ducking under Vellan’s swing. The Hostile had not been deterred by Nia’s shot, despite it hitting him right in the chest, and was determined to take out the archers. On his second pass he scraped Mitven’s shoulder, but an arrow in his wing joint forced him to transform into something else. The wind serpent hissed at them and flew after Onai down below, deciding that they were more trouble than they were worth.

On the ground, the Hostiles were pissed. One of their number had fallen and three of the four remaining were injured.

“Get them, you fools! Focus your attacks and take them out!” Specterveil bellowed, swinging his claws at Onai. He had been struggling to summon monsters from the shadows, but the darkness elementalist was interfering and not allowing him to do so. With both Specterveil and Vellan on him, however, he’d eventually either make a mistake or run out of energy for his shields.

Not far away, Alvark was under attack by far too many descendants. Most of them couldn’t hurt him due to his immunity to mortal weapons, but Shred, Samuel, and Katrin were all doing actual damage while the others were just distracting. He bit and clawed and sprayed acid at them but it just wasn’t enough until his tail caught Katrin in the chest. She didn’t make a sound as the oxygen was forced from her lungs and several of her ribs were broken, a couple stabbing into said empty lungs. She was thrown a short ways, hitting the ground hard.

Altair, flying by, leaned down and became corporeal only long enough to rip out her throat.

The descendant of Jsano had fallen.

Altair dodged around an arrow shot by Tim, despite the fact that it most likely wouldn’t be able to hurt him. He was very paranoid after that one arrow had somehow managed to hit him where his wing connected to his body- it was causing him serious mobility issues and slowing him down.

Deciding that the ground was a bit too dangerous right now, he flew up, eyes locking on Iirkolav gliding around, looking for wherever he might be needed. Altair grinned and dove towards him, claws extended and ready to become corporeal just in time to rip his damn wing off.

If Glar’ren could do it, so could he.

Right as he was about to become corporeal, however, something else flew at him, claws extended and jaws open. He yelped and tried to get out of the way of the furious Nessy, but the wound in his wing slowed him down enough to allow her to slam into him, jaws locking around his throat and claws digging into his chest.

Altair screamed, knowing he was incorporeal and knowing it was impossible for anyone to hit him, but the blood pouring from his wounds said otherwise. He fell, losing his ability to fly, and struggled to get Nessy off of him to no avail.

Nessy’s jaws tightened around his throat and as they hit the ground, Altair took most of the impact and dissolved instantly into an orb. Nessy spat at it before taking off once more, ignoring the flash of red lightning that struck where she had left, delivering Vechs to retrieve the orb before taking him back to the Vortex.

Infernal Sky had been defeated.

Cheers broke out amongst the descendants, causing Specterveil to roar in rage. He took Onai’s momentary lapse in concentration to hit him with a blast of shadow magic, making him cry out in pain and stumble. Vellan swooped down and hit him in the chest with his tail, creating a deep wound, before Specterveil hit him with a more powerful blast, sending him flying into a tree with a resounding crack.

Specterveil snorted, considering him dead, and focused on summoning.

Axid and Altren both ran for the elementalist, Axid getting there first. She shook him, trying to get a response, and when he didn’t react tears poured down her face. Altren almost tripped as he scrambled to get there in time, pulling out his most powerful healing potion and wasting no time in pouring it down Onai’s throat.

To their relief, the wound on Onai’s chest started to heal and Axid could feel his broken bones mending as she ran her hand over him.

Onai’s rust-colored eyes painfully opened.

“Hey.” He coughed and struggled to sit up. “I’m okay.”

“Fuck you, you are not okay.” Altren told him. “Thank the gods Mitven insisted I take a few of the potions she had with her from the skettisren tunnels, mine wouldn’t have been strong enough to save you. No, don’t you dare get up. Let that healing potion do its j- Axid do not hug him that tightly you will re-crack his ribs!”

[Sorry.] Axid hugged him again, less tightly this time. [I thought I’d lost you…]

Onai smiled at her. “It takes more than a couple of doomsday monsters to take me out.”

“You stay here for a few minutes before you continue on fighting, alright? Don’t make me come shove another healing potion in you, because then that’ll set your veins on fire or whatever the hell happens when you take too many powerful healing potions. The weak ones are safer.” With that, Altren went off back into the battle, potion at the ready as he approached Vian, who had a nasty gash along his side.

Specterveil laughed as the shadows twitched and shuddered around them, eyes glowing even brighter. Large, blue spiders leaped out of the shadows, attacking the descendants with venomous fangs.

“Get them!”

Up on the ridge, Tim shrugged off his quiver and offered both it and his bow to Mitven.

“What? Tim, aren’t you-“

“Can’t hit spiders with bow.” He mumbled. “Too small. Sword is better. You shoot.”

“Dammit, I’m a doctor, Tim, not an archer!”

He shrugged. “Try.” With that, he raced down the ridge, sword drawn to engage the spiders.

Iirkolav also landed to take care of the spiders, aware that they were just as much of a threat as the Hostiles due to their highly dangerous venom. He was unlikely to get bitten due to his scales, but he wasn’t totally immune.

A massive blast of fire incinerated a decent number of them, but that seemed to be all the energy Mokdal had, as he lowered his head and focused on the healing spells that Kalzevrah had taught him, trying desperately to heal the wounds in his side. He had snarled at Altren when the human had tried to help, insisting that all the potions in his bag wouldn’t be enough, and he had been right. His spells weren’t enough to get him back in the fight, he knew, but it might be enough to keep him alive until the battle was over.

Nia, back on the ridge, was still shooting at Alvark, and the hydra had more than his fair share of arrows sticking out of him. He was badly injured, not only from Nia, but from Shred and Samuel as well. One of his heads caught sight of someone unaware of how close they were to him as the battled Vellan in his stone golem form. A spray of acid sent Marcus screaming in pain, struggling to get it all off, but a well-placed blow from Vellan cracked the vampire’s skull.

The descendant of Thejims had fallen.

As Alvark roared in triumph, Nessy grabbed Shred and dropped her onto the Hostile’s back. He thrashed to get her off of there, remembering what happened last time a Skullblade was on his back, but she cheerfully sliced into both of his necks at once, causing the weakened Hostile to finally fall.

Race for Wool had been defeated.

As Shred stepped away from the orb, a bolt of red lightning left a very tall man directly in front of her. He nodded briefly once he had picked up the orb before vanishing, leaving Shred to blink momentarily before jumping right back into combat.

As Nia aimed her bow at Vellan, smiling slightly at how well this was going so far, the voice spoke to her once more.

He’ll take Dalania from you, you know. Nia’s eyes were drawn immediately to Iirkolav. He wants to take it back for himself. He wants to rule.

No way. I’m heir, not him.

Exactly. He’ll get you killed somehow. Take your crown.

But…I don’t really want to be queen. Not that badly.

Would you rather be dead? Look at him. Why would he fight so hard to help you if he didn’t want to take control? He’s already taken control of the group. He’s their leader and he really, really shouldn’t be. He’s experienced but he’s outdated.

Yeah…why is he leader? Nia’s eyes narrowed as her mind clouded over at the voice’s words.

He shouldn’t be. He just wants control. He just wants you dead. Why do you think he left you so little guard? Only Nak, really, and that’s because he insisted.

Yeah…Yeah! He wants us to die. He wants me to die!

Get him out of your way. The suggestion no longer seemed innocent, but Nia no longer cared. He’s a threat to you!

A threat.

A threat!

Nia adjusted her aim to the left, targeting Iirkolav’s head.

The voice gave her one, final command, and this time, she listened.

Kill him.

Nia’s blue eyes narrowed further behind her goggles, but as she was about to release the arrow, something fouled her shot. Kaen no Mai jerked further to the left, making her release the shot far from where she had intended.

Kaen no Mai would not hurt its original master…

…but it could not deny the order for blood.

Kaen no Mai had selected a new target, one that Nia’s mind, gripped with insanity as it was, considered a similar kind of enemy to Iirkolav. Its target turned slightly as if knowing that death was approaching from not far behind.

Zekara’s green eyes widened as she realized what had happened an instant before the arrow shot through her throat, cutting through her windpipe and passing out the back of her neck.

Zekara fell backwards, the life leaving her eyes before she had hit the ground.

The descendant of Anderz had fallen.

As her left arm hit, the tack holding the leather strips together fell free, rolling down a slight incline and vanishing into the grass.

Arra, who had been watching Zekara occasionally to make sure she was alright, looked up at where the arrow had come from and realized what had happened almost immediately. She let out a scream of rage and raced up the ridge, swords drawn and howling for Nia’s blood.

Nak urged his horse forward and stopped in front of Arra, sword drawn. “I cannot let you do this!”

“SHE SHOT ZEKARA! SHE KILLED ZEKARA!” Arra tried to get around him but he blocked her path. She swung at him only to be parried.

“Arra, I am warning you that if you do not stop I will be forced to act in order to defend the heir to the Davion throne!”

“COME AT ME, FUCKFACE!” Arra swung wildly at him with both swords, which he blocked relatively easily with his sword. He was primarily on the defensive, warning her a few times before realizing he had no choice.

In her rage, Arra was in no state to defend herself, so one well-placed and calculated swing from Nak removed her head from her shoulders and ending the threat to Nia’s life immediately.

The descendant of Beef had fallen.

Nia, however, wasn’t really paying attention.

The moment Zekara had died, the reason in her mind shattered the insanity and the horror of the realization of what she had done washed over her. She dropped Kaen no Mai and fell to her knees, eyes wide and shaking violently.

I’m a murderer. I killed Zekara in cold blood and I tried to kill Iirkolav. I’ve been listening to voices in my head and I KILLED ONE OF MY FRIENDS!

Tears streamed down the young Davion’s face and she didn’t even register Nak leaving her side to defend her from Arra.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the primary threat to Nia’s life.

The moment Nia had fallen to her knees, Specterveil had noticed.

She was relatively undefended, and his only weakness, that damned bow, was out of her hands.

It was too good of an opportunity, really.

As Nia shivered on the ground, the leader of the Hostiles rose up to her level on the ridge. Nia looked up when she heard Nak shout her name and only saw Specterveil for a second before his claws were through her chest, driven through her body and heart.

He yanked his claws out of Dalania Davion and let her fall to the ground, dead.

The descendant of Vechs had fallen.

“NIA! NO!” Iirkolav’s scream ripped across the battlefield, and as the descendants looked up, they saw Nia fall dead and the two remaining Hostiles throw back their heads and howl in laughter.

The wielder of Kaen no Mai was dead.

Vellan’s laughter was interrupted when Samuel shoved his spear in the Hostile’s throat, causing him to dissolve. The red lightning that left Vechs behind this time left a shellshocked man with tears running down his face, and it took him several seconds to retrieve the orb before vanishing once more.

Lethamyr had been defeated.

But at what cost?

Specterveil flew over the battlefield, howling with laughter and summoning more swarms of spiders. He swatted away Adrian as the young Davion, now in monstrous form, flew at him, and blasted him with a burst of shadow magic for good measure.

“YOU HAVE LOST!” He bellowed. “Give up now, you poor fools! Dalania Davion, your last hope, has finally fallen!” He swooped down and almost tore Shred’s head off, but the Skullblade rolled out of his path. He laughed, feeling untouchable and victorious. He turned back towards Adrian as he stood, roaring in agony and fury. Specterveil readied his claws, still painted with Nia’s blood, and-

-roared as something very powerful and very painful struck him in the side, eating away at his essence. It had hit him several times during the battle, but he had thought himself immune to it now. He turned to identify the source and his eyes locked upon the one he had forgotten, the one playing piece that he had failed to recognize as the threat he was.

“Happy birthday, fucker.” Iirkolav whispered, and released the string.

Specterveil wasn’t fast enough to dodge Kaen no Mai’s arrow as it hit him in the throat. His eyes widened and he screamed, his form dissolving. Flames danced around him as they devoured the final residual traces of corruption, causing the world to shiver. The monsters around them screamed and dissolved as their master was destroyed, and in the sudden silence, a single orb hit the ground with a dull thud.

Waking Up had been defeated.