An Age of Mysterious Memories

Well, Teuila was definitely right. We needed to see this. Yep, Te was spot on—this sight is staggering. I'm struggling to find the words to analyze or describe the view before us. We're nestled in a recess of a passageway leading into the vast cavern that houses Thunderpeak Citadel. But here, looking up from our covert spot, the scene is nothing short of surreal. It's as if we're staring into an overflowing blender full of dragons where the cavern's ceiling should be, lost to a dense swarm of the flying creatures. The sheer number of them is mind-boggling, blanketing what I imagine to be the cavern's distant roof. The idea that we're still inside a mountain baffles me. The space is so expansive that the creatures seem to swarm miles above us, engulfing the summit of this colossal hollow.

Between the courtyard, and the sky, there are thousands of wyverns, drakes, and dragons, all seemingly preparing for something big happening soon. We don’t have the resources, or the time to take them all out, by the looks of things. Hell, I’m not even sure we have the ability to face so many foes at once with any chance of coming out on the other side of the battle unscathed, or even alive. This is so, so, so much more than we bargained for. We’re in trouble way worse than I would have ever expected. I need to get a gander at the whole situation as best I can, and figure out our options. Ugh. Is this going to turn into a three pronged assault in which one of us heads deep within the citadel to infiltrate Stormheart Keep and assassinate Alpaca, or Al’pa’ca or whatever?

There’s only two ways I can see that going down. Either I drop off all my gear with Teuila and Lil, and go shadow-form to infiltrate, and hope to hell my naked abilities are enough to best an evil ancient archmage at the heart and height of his power, or Teuila streaks through with super speed. We’ll come back to that when I get a better sense of the overall picture, and more of the pertinent, salient details.

The citadel’s construction seems almost oxymoronic, buried deep within a mountain, yet surrounded by towering walls with ramparts and parapets and guard-towers, like old castle forts of yore. In places, I can see where the fortress was originally constructed, through cracks in its current facade. It must have been made with obsidian that was polished and gleaming to perfection some many long ages ago. It still technically is, but now all that obsidian is encased in silicates, an artificial sedimentary process caused by the breath of sand dragons. Multi-layer insulation seems to be a key component of much of this inner cavern’s design, and the courtyard as well.

Stormheart Keep's main fortress and spire are especially thickly coated with silicates, which makes sense, because those ultra-condensed storm-bolts are blasting down into it from above every few seconds. I think Kinzul told me that he was a Sand, but I’d honestly have pegged Alpaca as a blue, if I hadn’t been told. The archmage being able to provide his own grounding and insulation though makes as much, or more, sense though. Oh, wow, through brief glimpses above the swarm of bodies in the sky of this cavern, I can see a perpetual mini Worldstorm cracking off bolts of lightning. And over the din of the flying mass, I can hear it sounding thundrously on occasion.

This is insane. Just from what I can see, these forces seem insurmountable, and I’m worried about things that I can’t tell are hostile yet. The walls are adorned with gargoyles and grotesque statues, weathered by countless storms over the ages, but they could very well house animating magic that brings them to life if we get too close, that I can’t see from here. Then there’s the rest of the army of Al'pa'ca's minions. The courtyard leading to the citadel is teeming with monsters, kobolds, and draconian subordinates, all slaveringly frenzied in their fanatical devotion to either the storm, or Al’pa’ca, or Terrorzin.

There is simply no chance that I’ll be able to offer mercy, and survive my attempts at showing off that vulnerable, caring side of me today. We have no idea who Al’pa’ca’s lieutenants or leadership core are. I can’t afford to address every single person in the air, nor risk addressing groups as they lock onto me as a threat. Even all of that is just creatures that I know offhand are sapient. I can’t tell if those large wolves covered in electrified fur are sapient or not, nor those towering elementals of thunderstorm energy that have a nearly humanoid shape within their flowing foggy roiling clouds that make up their being.

We’ve never faced more than perhaps one and a half, maybe two percent of Terrorzin’s eighty-thousand-plus forces in any given assault, this is easily five to ten times what we’ve faced elsewhere. Why didn’t Errissa’s warning contain any hint at all that we’d be facing something like ten percent of Terrorzin’s forces in a single location? In the air alone, there has to be several thousand creatures, and several thousand more in the courtyard region, and who knows how many more indoors and in the tunnel structures of the mountain. Five, six, seven, eight, even nine thousand or more creatures is entirely feasible.

The fact that there are hundreds and hundreds of blue kobolds in various outfits that look like mobile Faraday cages is lamentable. There must be some brilliant inventors among these people. Some are carrying around what I can only describe as looking like giant batteries on their backs, hooked up to rubber leads that likely blast forth electricity from their gauntlets, or power up whatever segment of their outfit that the leads are fastened into. Plus, there’re plenty of kobolds that are just straight up walking around naked wreathed in lightning, seemingly unfazed by the ambient ionic charge in the air, or even the odd lightning strike or two that finds them.

Spying more figures that I can make out as I observe them more thoroughly, I can tell that there are Draconiacs in the air, piloting jetpack-like wing-suits. They have a variety of different styles as well, similar to the kobolds with the different types of backpacks. Some look like they could fire lightning forward while gliding forward, via the top of their backpacks, while others look like they have to attack with cattle-prod-looking staves. Further, atop several of the largest dragons, those closest to ancient, are elite warriors clad in armor that’s suffused throughout with electrical charge and lightning magic. Their halberds crackle with electricity even simply remaining in their sheathes along their backs.

It’s no subtle irony that Stormheart Keep’s silicate insulation gives it the appearance of a jagged lightning bolt rising from the ground as a spire towards the skies that seems to merge with the dark clouds above. I almost wonder—. If the silicates are dragonforce-infused, in order to keep them as protective as they are, which I believe they must be—. Can we pull an archvillain’s self-destruct button gambit? If we can get to and slay Al’pa’ca, then get Te to harness his dragonforce, and get her in tune with the citadel—. Does he have a “seat of power” here? I bet he does. Probably even a private vault with his most powerful, most coveted, most carefully guarded treasures, tomes, artifacts, knowledge, and the like. If we’re really lucky, the two might be relatively the same place, or actually the same room.

We might be able to bring the entire mountain down on everyone, ourselves included. I’ve no qualms about doing that. I can survive a few billion tons of rock, and simply walk through it at this point. I have to be careful with the magic in certain items, but a few different ones should place me on the other side of an endless mound of rock if used in tandem, very carefully. Te could just smash her way out from under a mountain. It’d take a while, but she could do it. Lil too for that matter. It’s not like he hasn’t dug miles and miles of stone tunnels before.

At least navigating to where I bet a seat of power is won’t be too difficult. We just keep heading towards the very center of the citadel, the bottom of the bolts of lightning that continuously funnel in through the top. We might take a chance to smash a few walls if it’ll help us get to our destination. It’s funny, rather than walls being in our way, they’ll be our way in, and make it so we’re not fighting thousands and thousands of goons at once. We have to get inside, past all of the goons, and then do a fighting retreat deeper into the interior of the citadel. Though I’d prefer to not alert them at all.

Ugh, as much as it pains me, I’m going to have to leave clearing the way in to Te and Lil. I’m also going to have to leave Alpaca to them as well, though I’ll need to keep my attention on their fight so that they don’t get timefrozen or meteored or have any other insanely deadly, overpowered magic placed upon them. Hm, before even thinking that far though, I—. I think I have to ask Teuila to risk herself further without our aid. I hate this. I know Te’s immensely powerful, and can handle herself, but none of us are immune to storms. I think. Does Mjolnir absorb lightning for Te? Does she have to block the blast dead on with Mjolnir’s head in order for it to absorb lightning?

I don’t know if I want Te experimenting right now. It’s not like I’m fully immune either. Between only having about ninety-six percent resistance, the fact that lightning or electricity seems to be the easiest element to add resistance-piercing to, and my EM-Field organ being a bit weak since I got reincarnated, I’m more than a little worried about the prospect of taking on a few too many lightning blasts. Huff, yeah, I’m going to have to ask Te to do what I’d just been thinking of asking her to do.

Sighing sadly, I start out, “Guys, remember the Cragbeast Warrens?”

Immediately Teuila’s eyes alight with recognition as to where I’m going with this, and Lil mutters, “Awe man.”

Nodding, I continue, “Yeah. I think we need your It’s-A-Secret to sneak in to find us a dead-end, blitzing past anything in her way. Only, this time, there’s no chance she’ll have to defend herself in the dead end alone long enough to get hurt. She’ll have us in her pocket. Not only that, but I’ve got a trick that’ll screw with any forces following her.”

Raising her eyebrow, Teuila prompts me about the trick, so I spill, “So, the bypassed-wall spell, I can leave it in place—,” I pause, leaving the hint lingering in the air before finishing, “Or I can let it drop after we walk through the empty wall, returning the wall to its original state. If the floor happens to be less than five or eight feet deep, one of the two, I can do that as well. I’d like to have Te use her senses to, if possible, find a dead end, where turning the dead end into a walkway will lead us to another hallway, and that hallway is directly above another hallway on the floor below. It should confuse the hell out of anyone following us.”

Fighting the smirk that tries to claw its way across my face is too difficult, so I give in. My best bud looks suitably impressed after the worry for Te leaves his face. Teuila’s grinning at me like a lunatic, certainly on board with my plan. While we still have a few seconds to strategize, before Te folds the hole back over us, I add, “If anyone can see us in the second hallway, I’ll let loose a few magic abilities in order to obscure us from view while we drop to the floor below. The entirety of all of Al’pa’ca’s forces will be bearing down on us, and we have to assume we’ll be facing them, while facing him at the same time, no matter where we fight, but it’s far easier to fight eight thousand enemies when only a handful of them at a time can reach you, y’know?”

Facepalming, I recall a weakness of ours, well, of theirs, so I continue, “I’ll make sure you guys don’t stay dragon-feared, but I’ll be holding off the horde while you take him out.”

Figuring it’s better to lay out the whole plan, including the actual fight, I finish up, “When I’m lower on area of effect abilities, I’ll swap with Lil, hoping that his breath buys us enough time to finish up if I can manage to offer him a bit of defense. Lil, I’m thinking we’ll be in a larger room, and if we’re lucky, everything will be coming from one hallway. Don’t stand directly in front of the hallway, because someone could sling spells through your flames at you. Stand around the corner, blasting flames at the hallway wall across from you, letting your flames funnel into the hallway.”

Raising his eyebrow, Lil grumps, “Why don’t I just start with that then?”

Sighing, I answer, “Because I’m less powerful than you against single targets. If you two synergize well, and Al’pa’ca goes down swiftly, we need you to buy Teuila enough time to absorb his whole dragonforce.”

Sensing Teuila’s frown, I’d like to cut in but she asks what I expect, “Me absorbing it? You’re sure Airhead? You need them more than me.”

Shaking my head, I clarify, “Like I mentioned earlier, this is part of a plan to get you and Lil to be able to reach new heights. You’ll have an archmage of storms’ dragonforce, and I’ll use an item I had Nala craft, to focus and channel energy into you, if Lil wants the power boost, and then I’ll have you channel your power through that item into Lil like the reverse of the evolutionary energy tether I would grant you guys long ago. Lil, you’re our ticket out of here. I don’t want to force your hand, but—.”

Frowning, Lil nods along, agreeing, “I get it. It was an offer, but now it’s a need. We didn’t know we’d be facing all this. I’m guessing you want to bring everything down on their heads like you were thinking about earlier?”

I nod at my best pal, answering in the affirmative, so he turns to Te and explains, “It’s-A-Secret? I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to have to risk you to get stronger, but if you’re really willing, and Rej says we need this to win and get home safe, I wanna get home safe. I don’t want Gal-Pal or momma or Ixey to worry, or worse, make them sad by not coming home.”

My-Wings, my everything simply smiles lovingly at Lil and nods while cupping his big scaly cheek. Her thumb brushes it as Lil nuzzles her palm. Teuila’s a hero, through and through, for everyone, to everyone, in every way. She will, and has made mistakes, I mean, we all do, and will, but I don’t think this will be one of them. At least, I hope not. I’ll do everything in my power to keep this from hurting her. But what I have to prevent from hurting her is magical lightning channeled down through an entire citadel whose sole purpose seems to be condensing it to power some nefarious spellwork.

The citadel, with its spire slashing skyward, is a leviathan of stone and storm, its silhouette a jagged scar. That reminds me of that jerk, Leviathan. I suppose I shouldn't badmouth a god, even in my head an entire world away, but really, out of the four lesser gods of Can'Z'aas, he's the only bad one. Anyway, let's not get sucked into memories. We need to look ahead instead. Speaking of, gazing ahead, I can see it now, the heart of the storm, the eye of the chaos we're about to enter. If Al'pa'ca's storm manipulations are a battle cry, a declaration of war, we're about to answer it, one way or another.

Tentatively, hesitantly, I ask, “Do um, either of you have plans? Mine seems reckless in a lot of ways, but I’m drawing blanks that make me feel like the choices are, my plan, or trying to fight eight thousand or more foes at once out here.”

Sighing, Lil slumps his shoulders and responds, “It really looks that way Rej. I don’t like my It’s-A-Secret going alone again, looking for a good fighting spot. She got hurt back then. Y’know? We don’t heal the same, and I don’t think you can hold them off for an entire day of us resting up. Can you?” My shaking my head prompts Lil to continue, “So, well, yeah. I dunno buddy. I can’t think of any mega cool, mega mega mega cool plans, or even just strong plans. Heck, I can’t think of any plans except maybe digging in, but I don’t wanna be here for weeks, y’know?”

Te and I both nod, and my glancing at Teuila prompts her to add, “I was really just kind of thinking of fighting our way in, maybe making a staging grounds out here somehow, but I realize like, even with how powerful the three of us are, that could take foreeeeever. Aunty ‘Zool seemed to think we had to deal with this sitch asap from the way she was worrying. So, yeah, let’s sneak as close to the boss room as we can, and maybe we’ll piss him off enough that he blows his top like the queenie did at the Cragbeast Warrens. Anyway, get comfortable Dragbutt, Airhead, I’ll get us in there.”

"So, that's it then. That’s the plan," I start, my voice betraying none of the butterflies doing aerobatics in my stomach. "Te, you’re right, Kinzul needs us to do this asap. I can sense something building in the magic woven throughout Rayileklia now that we've been here a bit, and it isn't good."

I steal a look at Te and Lil, two thirds of my beloved inner circle, my family, our bonds strong and full of love. Their expressions are carved from a ceaseless well of resolve, something I wish I had personally. I don't have resolve so much as tenacity, and the fallback of wrath. Still, we're together in this, a trio against a torrent.

As Te folds the portable hole back over us, I ready myself for the battle ahead. It's a gamble, all of it. I guess that's true of anything really, but still, this time feels different. We failed against the Fel hordes, and they didn't have the advantages these foes do. Have I accounted for every possibility? No. Nowhere even close. This one, like every other plan, has its flaws.

Despite wanting to stay in contact with my beloved SAP members telepathically, I know I’d better make use of every tool in my belt. I equip my psi-blocking circlet. If there are some psionic mages that drop area of effect mental stunning powers, or other strong mental effects like illusions, this will prevent me from succumbing to them, enabling me to end those sorts of effects if any land on Te and Lil. It sucks to go even a short time without them in my head, but I hug Lil fiercely and love on him as much as I can while Teuila finds us a staging grounds for the beginning of our assault.

Unintentionally, nervously, I grit my teeth, worried for Te. I’m mainly worried that there will be no dead-end that she can reach alone, swiftly, before being spotted and hounded by all the forces of Terrorzin and Al’pa’ca. Can we pull this off? I wouldn't put money on us. But I know we'll tackle it together, come hell or high water. Here's to hoping we weather this better than the tides and flames that we've gone through before. But I suppose that's what we do, isn’t it? Us Shellcrackers? We endure. But still—can we do this?