An Age of Mysterious Memories

Thankfully my repeatedly broken bones and pulverized bodyparts regenerate quickly in this form. But still, ow, friggin' ow. My body's starting to rebel at the repeated abuse. My bones are still mending from the repeated fracturing, and I can't feel half my extremities. The pain is excruciating, my mind is screaming at me, and it feels like a thousand knives are piercing through every part of me.

Oh crap, the horde's breaking through the glacier. Of course it is. Alright Reggie, counter this meteor. I begin to loose my magic, the runic matrix that unravels the meteor's spellweave, and it starts to dissipate. It's been a long time since I've really had to worry about heat or fire at all. The flaming heat of these resistance-piercing meteors is intense. But that's two super meteors weathered, and another countered. Maybe, just maybe, he's out of maximizing charges or potions or whatever? Panting, and gasping for breath, I can't, huff, phew, read his aura right now. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Lil, my gooberific pal, is haranguing and harassing Al'pa'ca, as he does a spinning axe kick to send this enormous mountain of glassed, crystallized sandy stone that used to be an elemental, careening into Al'pa'ca's face. Thankfully, Al'pa'ca drops his primary barrier, and shuffles about to re-establish it, just like I planned. Way to go Lil, good job buddy. Three more charges in the coat. If you can keep his arse movin', he won't risk many more meteors. I've gotta focus on the swarm of the horde though. I trust you pal. Keep up the great work.

Speaking of the swar--. Crap! I've gotta get ready for the next wave. A couple of them are wielding lightning-powered lances again, but they look more like they're being wielded as spell foci rather than purely as weapons. Those're gonna hurt. But, maybe, just maybe, I can get some good use outta a couple of them. I can siphon the lightning, so I'm not too worried about that part. The lances themselves don't amount to a lot of HP worth of damage, so I don't have to worry too much about that, as long as I keep moving, and don't take another meteor to the face. But the fact that elite Spellknights are showing up, is bad juju. Wait, is that term offensive? Crap, I dunno. Bad mojo? Wait, ugh. Bad stuff. That's one'll work at least.

Probably not the thing to be focusing on Reggie. I know, I know. Heh. Ugh, this brain, am I right? Yup. Get back to it. Spellknights incoming, with their own personal guards. Okay, so, maybe a few dozen. Not a full company, or an army, but a sizable force of 'em. There's a couple with those fancy spears, a handful of lightning casters, and the rest are wielding swords or daggers. Huh, there’s that iconography again. A nearly severed cord, or rope, held together by the barest thread of one knot, holding together a withered, ruined tree.

What kind of spells ar-- sonnova. Another radiant lasermeister. I do not wanna see what that does to me or Teuila right now, and I don't have Aegis here to throw off this one's aim. At least the Worldstorm cloud following me around makes them balk. No one wants to suck down the acid from it ramming into their face, and I can drag it through packs of foes while I'm dodging around with my LBBTKSLs.

Alright Reggie, stoneskin up, because you're gonna have to take some of these hits to take down Spellknights efficiently. You're also gonna need to be rocking some internal fire and frost a few times, pumping out some empowered elemental runes without spelliforms. One stoneskin down, two left for the—yowch ow ow ow, lasers hurt. Two stoneskins down, one left for the day. Let's buy ourselves some time with another mini glacier.

Another cone of cold down, one left for the day, and now my insides are beginning to frost over, slowing my movements, but I bought myself some... time...? Well, I'd thought I did. But apparently some of these jerks can teleport even while frozen. Probably via contingency spells or one-use protective charms or something. Let's see how they handle a fireball from Claiomh Solais, with a non spelliform, empowered, fire rune. Another one seventh of the staff's charges down.

Where are we at? Two bypassed wall spells, one summoning of FFS, and one fireball? Friggin' hell I need to keep better track of this stuff. I'm pretty sure it's just below about half of its total power. I could call FFS two more times safely, or drop three more fireballs or lightning bolts. Not that I'm gonna waste my time trying to use lightning bolts here. But you get the idea. Wait, did I use any charges earlier in the day, with the impostor and stuff? Crap, I can't recall. Anyway, these Spellknights, or, rather, spellcasters, who made it through the ice after being hit by it, how'd they fare against the empowered fireball?

Okay. Nice. They were not expecting to have to swap in to explosive resistance apparently. Now I've got a second to breathe, figure out what the hell to do about the next meteor. If there is anything I can do. I'm -still- dealing with the friggin' chunk of Worldstorm too. But at least my insides aren't frosted over. Yay for balancing out elements. Hm, balancing. Dark lightning? Negative lightning? Anti-lightning, that was it.

I've gotta get my Giant Dire Shadow Weasel out. Well, after the point when Al'pa'ca stops spamming meteors, so that it can last more than a half second. Te's menacing Al'pa'ca, keeping him from being able to get this way and screw with me or my blockade at the entrance, while Lil harries him. He's actually starting to look a teensy bit worried that we've weathered or countered so many friggin' meteors. I would be too pal. I would be too. Heh.

Just audible over the din, I can barely hear Al’pa’ca claiming something, “Fools! Terrorzin need not even the Beast of the End when I unleash my true potential. Just die like the gnats you are before I choose to get serious.”

Right. I’m supposed to believe that spamming the most powerful magic in almost any universe, while chugging consumables to buff it out the wazoo is not getting serious? But anyway. I'm going to abuse this heat-seeking, or, well, Reggie-seeking, Worldstorm cloud for a bit. Then use a Greatest Shadow Evocation of anti-lightning, boosted by a spiritswarm, my affinity for absence, and my lightning-lycanthrope form. I think being a higher level spell, and having those multipliers, should put it on par with what Teuila pulled off in the animated chain room. Maybe a bit more if I'm lucky. If I'm really lucky, it might refresh the cooldown on my Honoris Causa's revival.

If it looks like they're going to fully get through the glaciers, I'll pack in some slowing fields, and if they cluster up in those, I'll loose a GSE Darkest Star's Event Horizon. What else is, huh. Security center's holding up a note that says Kinzul was frantic, panicking, thinking Te and I had died, but confused, since she could sense we were still active living members of the Order. Probably because our Honoris Causas were extinguished for the first time ever. I doubt anyone she'd bequeathed an Honoris Causa to before now had more HP than the Honoris Causa itself. Heh. Poor Administrator, my dear Kinzul.

Wait, crap. I can't do any GSEs for the same reason I can't counter any more meteors. I don't have the free safe SP, or, do I? The spiritswarm wasn't very exact with letting me know how many safe free temp SP was generated by the consumption of the enchantments on those useless magic items. I'm positive that it was more than one counterspell worth of SP, but not confident it was equal to, let alone more, than two. There's a fair degree of wiggle room in there, that might be able to fire off one or two GSEs.

I think it'll be worth it, by the time we're running on backup resources and weird tricks like the slowing fields to group up enemies and stuff. Well, assuming we live that long. Lil's doing great, but I haven't been able to keep track of how many times he's gotten Al'pa'ca to move, or how many charges of the coat he'd used. Hm. I wonder what a wall of stone boosted by an empowered, non-spelliform stone rune would do, with the runic clips that protect me from petrification. I think they might protect me from the backlash of empowering the rune. Woah. That could be huge for this battle.

Plus, I forget that I can walk through stone. I can be pinging off big AoEs while they're working away at my glacier. Guess what Reggie? What? Strategy just levelled up a bit. Things just went from, "How the hell am I gonna handle this?" to, "I might possibly be able to handle this." It's somethin' at least. Though I've gotta make sure I'm not in any part of stone that gets hit by a meteor, or that's it, instant death. My bodyparts separate, as partially melded stone. I've also gotta make sure not to pop out in predictable locations that the horde might think to attack, for the same reason.

Hm. I wonder. Oh, hey, Lil's using one more charge, and, he's forming up while Al'pa'ca is trying something new. Even from here, it looks like the Ravencoat is out of charges. Phooph. Not great. If Lil can just manage to swipe that frickin' cube, or run it out of charges--. Yes! Al'pa'ca still has some temporary barriers to beat through, from the various consumables he'd been popping, and trinkets he'd been fiddling with, but Lil just destroyed that cube. No more semi-permanent, completely indestructible walls for you Alpackers. Shame the item had to be destroyed, but better it than us.

The horde is starting to break through the glacier. I'm gonna need to start taking some big risks, but at least I'm not dead. Yet. Al'pa'ca and Lil are going at it, and Teuila is ready to cave Alpacker's friggin' skull in, for a lot of reasons. I don't blame her one bit. The Worldstorm cloud is still bearing down on me. Its acid vapors are beginning to corrode the ceiling, and it's a constant, unrelenting torrent of noise. The storm's roar is deafening, and the air reeks of ozone, the crackle of lightning is similarly relentless to the roar of thunder.

Slipping into the stone, ugh, it feels like I'm dragging my eyeballs through the rear of my skull. But it's letting me position myself to unleash a little bit of hell. Holy hell. I mean, not what I'll be unleashing, but friggin' ay. The throng of bodies on this side of the wall is a stampede. It's all shoulder to shoulder, tail to chest, and even talon or wingtip to head, as the horde surges forth towards my glacier covering Quicksand's corpse, and the corpses of some of their friends. Or, well, allies at least. I've got no idea if any of these mooks are friends with each other.

Oh, hey, would-ya look-at that. The cloud is still chasing me, but now it's causing a bit of turmoil in the ranks of the buttheads up front. I've gotta be careful. If they can tell it's headed towards me, they can figure out my position, and shatter the stone I'm in. Or, if I let it catch up to me, it could dissolve or shatter the stone I'm in. Hm, heck, the whole chamber's stone. If I'm careful, and do things just right, I could buy us a lot of time. It could end up caving in the whole friggin' antechamber, which would be perfect, if I was that lucky. I doubt I'm that lucky. But, I might not have a choice. It's not like they're gonna give me a ton of space to maneuver.

So, I'll use some non-spelliform empowerment, to cast a Greater Stone Wall, and-- oh, hey Scirocco. I literally bumped into him. I almost want to joke, and say something about it to him out loud, but then I'd reveal both of our positions, and neither of us wants that. Hm, seems he realizes Al'pa'ca isn't likely to use any more maximized meteors, now that he'd hit himself too. There goes Roccy, into the danger zone. Or, well, out of it. Then again, it's hard to tell which area is more dangerous right now, but at least in there, he'll have more room to breathe. I'll head back that way, and let the horde break through just enough so that he can get through before I start layering down my abilities.

It's a delicate balance. If I let them through too much, they'll swarm in on me and tear me apart. I only want to let just enough through for Scirocco to be able to squeeze into the vault. I have a feeling that he knows some of the magic items Al'pa'ca keeps, and he might either keep them out of Al'pa'ca's hands, or use them against the archmage. Or maybe against us, or maybe against both. Hard to say. He did help us, in his own way, against Quicksand. So I'm inclined to try to assume the best. Well, that’s a lie. Not the best, but, at least not the most awful most immediate betrayal.

Scirocco's been tagging along with us for a while now, but he's mostly more of a lurker in the shadows, watching and waiting. Other than a couple brief moments of help against Quicksand, he hasn’t participated much in our conflict at all, on either side. He hasn't yet directly acted against the SAP. His involvement with Quicksand was, well, indirect, at best for most of the fight. At worst, it was him just letting another ancient dragon and the horde do his work for him, in case we were going to fail anyway. Not a vote of confidence, but not betrayal technically either.

Te and Lil are pounding the hell out of the temp barriers and other stuff Al'pa'ca had conjured to protect himself, but still not making a dent or headway on the ancient himself. It's disconcerting, and I sort of wish I had saved the Wardbreaker, for this, instead of using it on the vault door. Wait, did I use it? Heh, nope. I was going to use it on the vault door, but Zorro and FFS blew the crap out of it. Awesome.

Ol’ Packbutt's layering up some more barrier stuff, and I don't know exactly how much he has, but I can't wait until I'm positive he's used up everything in his hoard. That might give the horde the time to turn the tide. Alrighty. Let's just hope offering a window of opportunity for Lil and Teuila to take advantage of, works out for us, eh? LBBTKSL'ing towards Al'pa'ca, I whip out the Wardbreaker single use spellpaper.

Seeming to catch a break, I loose the Wardbreaker enchantment on Al'pa'ca as Lil and Te are both about to land a solid strike. But apparently he didn't want to take that strike even with his wards up. The weasel popped a twinned psychic dazing enchantment spell on my beloved Teuila and best pal Lil. Fudge. Well. Two SP to deal with that, plinking him in the snout with rays of frost and proc'ing all the metamagical runic clips in my bangle, I free Lil and Teuila from their dazes. It offers them the tiny buffer of a few temp hp in the form of that shimmery translucent ultra-thin ward, and, it screws up Al'pa'ca's next two fumblesome attempts at combat maneuvers.

Of course, seeing Teuila and Lil free, he immediately starts popping and chugging potions and other abilities to get new wards up, after I'd just destroyed all his over-stacked wards. Grr, an archmage in his seat of power is a pain in the arse to take down. Well, we expected that Reggie. Back to it. Get to the horde. Pop down some Titanwood in a couple of strategic places, spending everything you have left in the Cosmic Roundsheath. Walk around through the wall, and unleash the rest of your cold powers and empower the casting. Now empower a summoning of a greater fire elemental in order to keep the frost from effing me over.

Alright. That should buy me a few minutes. At least two, because that empowered burninator is wreaking havoc as it flows through the horde like liquid magma. I can see a bunch of casters starting to put up fire resistances and immunities on themselves and others. But, while focusing on that, they're not focusing on tunneling through the glacier and bodies of their fallen allies to get to the vault. Plus, the elemental can still punch them, since it can achieve full tangibility.

The minutes start to flow into each other, as I monitor all the situations that I can, and continue popping abilities as necessary to prolong the amount of time we have before we're facing essentially nearly the full might of the horde. I've got the vault antechamber nearly clear of enemies, and packed with an empowered cast of a stone wall. It'll take them a bit to chip into it and dig into it, then dig through all the corpses, since they're now funneled back into the tunnel, where they can't manage nearly as many bodies simultaneously in the lead. I've also rigged a little rockslide for when they do get through. Whew. Running low on resources though.

Right after that thought? That’s when I sense it. The magical weave that makes up the foundation of Rayileklia’s spellworking system, magic itself? It gets tugged on, hard. Ninth tier magic, again. Even if I had the resources, I’m not in position to see or counter the spell. It goes off, and all I can do is pray that the effects weren’t devastating as I turn back to race towards the vault to see what Al’pa’ca had cast. Then, before I’ve even covered half the distance, I feel it, ninth tier magic, again, and I’m overcome with a sense of dread.