God of Nothing

Rayse kept at it til sundown, patching up holes and rebuilding stretches of the wall here and there. In a flash of brilliance, they even created another wall altogether. The stream of blue was much clearer now, a sure sign of the enemy making its way to them.

The town guards were manning the wall with him now. They resisted at first, but at the sight of the harbingers they became much more cooperative. Not that that would have stopped their squad from doing what they wanted, of course, but it helps to have them on board. Iona insisted on a mage lookout, nonetheless, as their heightened senses would sound the alarm much sooner than human ones, but she allowed the additional guards for the people's peace of mind.

Aleph arrived a while ago, worldlessly handing everyone bags of harbinger crystals before turning in early. He was amazing, defeating hundreds of harbingers by himself. He looked alright too, if a bit exhausted. He lay in the tent recuperating, saying he would wake in time for the enemy to arrive.

Most of the others were resting, too. The demons normally strike at night, after all. 

Rayse felt tense, so he volunteered for first watch. And that's exactly what he did; he leaned into the wall, idly absorbing harbinger crystals while watching the enemy march towards him. He had already absorbed his share of the big crystal they acquired, so even these small crystals were starting to make his head throb. His friends probably had it even harder, as they had a smaller pool to begin with. He was at the point where these little chips of mana hardly increased his total, but he kept at it anyway.

Some of the guards saw what he was doing, but were still pretty wary of him. They were also given some crystals from Aleph's stash, so Rayse felt it up to him to be teaching these people. He gave them all pointers on how to absorb the quaint little crystals that the puppeteer gave them, and you could immediately see the effects on their bodies. Rayse was careful to remind them of the aftereffects if they did too many at once, but he knew he couldn't stop people from trying anyway.

It can't be helped, Rayse thought. Even with Aleph's efforts, there were hundreds more harbingers headed in their direction. If the twenty or so men left in town were able to fight, that still triples their forces. There's just too much space they needed to defend even with their modifications.

"Owl's Eye."

His eyesight cut through the evening, scanning the growing sea of blue in the distance. They were still forming up, no longer making the mistake of coming forward in smaller groups for Aleph to slaughter. Iona expected them to strike at around midnight, which looked about right to Rayse from the rate they were advancing.

He shut off the spell, siphoning off a bit more mana to recover what he just expended. Then, wanting to maximize his recovery, he made a few more traps on the ground.

"Pitfall."

A couple of holes appeared on the ground below, littering the ground before them in irregular intervals. Rayse became absorbed in the work, creating dozens of them before a voice stopped him.

"You're overdoing it."

Rayse turned to see her squadmate Luna coming towards him. She didn't talk as much as her boisterous twin, but she always seemed the most soldier-like in the squad. That seriousness gave her a hard to approach aura, so Rayse tended to tread lightly around her.

"Miss Luna? Is it time to switch already?"

"Yes, so you better quit that and get your butt into bed, before I kick you into it."

"Hahaha…Sorry." He scratched his head in embarrassment. She stopped in front of him, digging her finger into him like a mother chastising her son.

"Seriously… You need to actually make it to the battle, you know. We need you in perfect condition when the enemy comes. A few piddling traps aren't gonna save these people."

Luna huffed, blowing up on Rayse like never before. He couldn't say a word as he knew she was right; Him planting more traps at this point did nothing but allay his anxiety for the coming fight.

"Sorry."

She stared at him for a bit more, before just sighing and shooing him away.

"Alright, you look like you had enough… Seriously, what's with the men on this squad and overworking themselves?" She then grumbled something afterwards, quiet enough for Rayse to not catch it fully, but he did hear a familiar name.

"Eric? What's he got to do with this?"

"That's Sir Eric to you, Rayse. Even though he's like that, he still outranks us both."

He continued to stare, curious now at what she's referring to. He didn't really know much about Eric before his memory got erased, but he had been spending a lot of time training with them recently. This was a good chance to learn more about him.

"That guy… Ever since we failed to finish Deceit off, he'd been obsessed with strengthening himself. If you think he's amazing right now, you should see him in his prime."

Luna spoke glowingly of him, surprising Rayse once again. Her respect towards Eric was evident in her words. That just made Rayse more curious though.

"Wasn't he at Hios? He didn't really strike me as that powerful then."

"That wasn't his prime, you idiot. That's him overworked with his mana bottomed out!" She said somewhat defensively. It was clear that she had been observing him for a while. 

It lined up with what Rayse knew of the man. Eric had the single highest mana pool in the squad, maybe even rivaling Iona. It was even to the point that none of them could beat him in a spar. His basics were immaculate, and he fought almost instinctively, like it had been engraved into his being.

"That makes sense, yeah…" He trailed off, hoping Luna would talk more about the subject.

"He had taken to bottoming out his mana pool constantly 'cause that stimulates the mana heart and promotes mana pool growth. He really took it hard when Lisa died, so–" At that, Luna caught herself, her face turning red. It seemed to Rayse that he had breached a sensitive subject.

"...Sorry for making you talk about this, Miss Luna."

She got mad at that, somehow turning even redder.

"A-anyways, my point is that he's a fool that let himself get cursed because of the same stupid things you're doing right now. Get to bed, I can take it from here."

Rayse turned to go, sensing that they were done talking. He had barely taken a few steps when he heard a voice coming from behind him.

"Does he still talk about her?" She asked in a surprisingly meek voice. That made him turn around.

"Ah, no. At least I don't think so. Master said pretty much his entire time from the frontline was wiped from his memory, so he probably doesn't remember her?"

"Oh. I see. Well, off you go then." Her expression was unreadable. Rayse just nodded before jogging off to his tent.

He laid there for a bit, exhaustion finally setting in. There's a lot at stake, but Luna was right; he'd be useless without mana. His spells were more expensive than the others, too. His final thought before drifting off was one of self admonishment.

It would have been incredibly dumb if he missed the fight because he burned himself out on the eve before it.

__________________________________

Aleph awoke with a dull ache on his side and an irritating ring in his ear. He fought so fiercely that he suffered a bunch of miniscule injuries all over his body. Vaynard's healing ability came in handy in times like these, but it would sometimes cause the body to confuse itself, sending signals of pain where there should no longer be. In addition, it looks like he taxed his mind absorbing all that mana during the fight. They were minor inconveniences at best, but it would definitely affect his performance in the next fight.

It'll have to do, he thought. He ducked outside of his tent and stretched, confirming that outside those issues, his body was still in top form. That done, he scanned around the camp, senses casted out on the squad's condition. They were all fast asleep aside from Iona, who he spied above the wall. There was a growing presence just outside, the very same one that pulled him into wakefulness. There was something among the thrall, something dangerous enough that even he needed to be careful.

He walked up the wall towards the lieutenant, who was scoping out the enemy. She was already wearing her war garb, orbs floating in her wake. He stood beside her, silently looking on.

"It's that bastard." She growled, not looking away. He followed her gaze towards the distant army, seeing exactly what she was talking about. 

There was a giant yellow shape among the sea of blue, clearly visible despite the distance. The moon shone wanly tonight, but the battlefield was clearly visible to mages' eyes.

"A herald? Have you faced him before?"

"He's Oblivion. You've seen his work."

"Ah." Was all he could say in reply. It was the one responsible for the curse of erosion that afflicted Eric, gnawing away at his memory before Aleph devised a cure.

"If he's here, that means his followers are also among the enemies. Their ability isn't as potent as their master, but  you saw what happened to Eric. It's a good thing you made those draughts for us." Iona continued. She rested a hand on a flask in her belt, as if to reassure herself she still had it. Aleph made a large batch of the potion as soon as he was certain that curses were in play. They would certainly need it before the day was up.

"The other heralds sent their men, too. I fought some when I ambushed them. I don't sense other heralds, but we should stay wary." 

"...Yeah, I recognized Deceit's puppet. The kids did a good job taking care of it." 

"Eric is doing well, too. I would daresay he's quickly surpassed his former self."

"That fool's mana was always bottomed out, even during operations… Still, I would have hoped we retained his past self; I could certainly use his experience in this fight."

Aleph nodded. Their composition was sorely lacking, not only in . Luke and Brig were fine officers, but the novice mages they had hastily cultivated needed some governance.

"It seems you taught these people how to cultivate mana hearts. Good, we need as many bodies as possible." He acknowledged.

"That's Rayse's work, apparently. These people still refuse to talk to us… I'm gonna need you to command them."

"Brandon can handle it."

"Sure, sure. We wanted to groom you into a hero, but he works, too." She chuckled a little despite herself, shaking her head a little. "We gotta survive this first, though." She added with a wink.

"I am sure men would more like to follow a woman such as yourself, but in this case, I will reluctantly oblige.

Aleph shared in her levity. She always saw more suited for a bureaucratic role, but in times like these, she was a genuine soldier. He still wasn't sure what to think of their little 'hero' project, but they did need someone to conduct these troops.

The pair talked about strategy as they watched the number of enemies grow. Iona brilliantly created a second wall, shepherding the enemies into a narrower path to the gates. That lets them face a relatively smaller amount of enemies, slowing down the siege considerably. Until Carrack's forces come, at least. Aleph mostly listened, his ideas mostly in line with Iona's. A large scale battle like this plays much more to Iona's strength as a commander, after all. He'd make sure to relay this information to his disciples, who would be leading the commonfolk.

It went on like that until they saw movement from the enemy. The ocean of blue moved in waves, creating the rumbling an army that size is known to make. The moonlight kept its almost peaceful glow, a stark contrast to the slaughter about to happen below. Iona looked at Aleph at last, already taking the reigns as commander.

"Wake the others, Aleph. The enemy's begun to march."