Vol.4 Ch.72 – Lost In Shadows

Chapter 72: Lost In Shadows

“Your spells are inefficient,” Omega rumbled.

Ophelia had already formed an opinion of the sanctimonious prick but even so it almost made her snarl. But despite herself she reined it in. The reason the angels had requested Alexis and her hadn't just been for their combat prowess but also because they wanted to teach mages with similar elements. Ophelia hadn't expected much to come of it, had expected the two of them to show off and let the dumb mortals figure things out on their own, but if one of Heaven's best fighters was going to give her pointers on her magic she wasn't going to refuse it, even if he rubbed her the wrong way.

“What am I doing wrong then?” she asked, extricating herself from Alexis' hug.

“Your spells are excellent,” he said, surprising her. “They are well crafted and hit hard where you want them to. But your casting technique is sloppy.”

Before she could ask what he meant by that he cast the same shadow spike spell she'd used to win the fight. Except the way he did it... Ophelia wasn't much of a gamer. She sometimes turned on a video of someone else playing something but that was it. But one time, by pure happenstance, the algorithm had recommended her a video of some platformer, one that claimed to have 'No Wasted Movements'. It had been so fascinating that she'd ended up comparing it to someone else playing the same thing 'perfectly'. And so she'd learned that there were degrees of perfection. Not getting hit. Not getting hit and doing it as fast as possible. And, apparently, not getting hit, doing it as fast as possible and making it look completely effortless.

And what Omega showed her was the magical equivalent of it. He cast that spell with no wasted movements. He drew exactly as many Winds as he needed to – and the fact that he could draw them so effortlessly told Ophelia that despite his behavior he clearly didn't lack for emotions – and then wove his will into them just right. His taciturn demeanor was reflected in his spells. No wasted commands in the syntax of his spells whatsoever, no flourishes, just results. The targeting algorithm was even a little bit smarter than what Ophelia had used.

When he was done he nodded at her, as if to say: “Your turn.”

And so she tried. And tried. And tried again. He started off making disapproving noises as she fucked it up multiple times but finally, when she got the hang of it, he simply nodded in approval.

“It's a waste,” he finally said.

“What is?” Ophelia asked, not sure just how offended she should be yet.

“All of you were given power far beyond human limits but no training to adequately use it.”

Ophelia wanted to be upset at that. Elaine had taught them, had shown them how to use their magic. But Elaine was also just a self-taught human mage, wasn't she? And neither Jeanne nor Rachel had bothered with teaching them any magic. Was it because they'd never asked? Rachel had taught Ophelia a few bedroom cantrips but only after she'd asked.

“They have a lot of abilities that magic training wouldn't even help them with,” Kaja said as she joined them.

Omega let out a noncommittal grunt.

At first Ophelia thought Kaja had said it to make her feel better but she did have a point, didn't she? Things like the M-Skills or her Umbral Embrace weren't spells and so better understanding of spell weaving wouldn't even help with those. Ophelia still thought it was an egregious hole in their training but maybe it wasn't as big of a detriment as Omega thought it was.

“Take you for example,” Kaja said, and Ophelia got the feeling she was trying more to convince her partner than Ophelia. “Inarguably your best ability is your healing. It is strong enough that even Rachel is jealous of it. That might not sound like much to you but every Celestial knows how powerful a healer Rachel is. She saved scores of lives during the Fae Wars. And you are better at it than she is. But no amount of magic training will make that stronger. Yes, your casting technique is sloppy,” she paused then amended, “less so now, but even with sloppy spells you just tore through an entire horde of Outsiders.”

“I guess,” Ophelia said, feeling faintly embarrassed.

“Not only that,” Kaja went on, “but you factored in that doing this would exhaust you but took the calculated risk anyway because you knew you'd have the easiest time recovering from that exhaustion. That shows an amount of forethought many of our peers lack.” Ophelia wasn't sure if that had been meant as a dig towards Omega or someone else but when she saw him nodding she had her answer. “Sloppy magic or not, you are an exceptional asset. And I am very curious to see what your compatriots can do.”

“You will,” Alexis said, reminding Ophelia that she hadn't left.

“Very well,” Kaja said. “Shall we?”

**

Is this even still part of Creation?, Elaine wondered. It was a pointless thought to be going through her head at that moment but she couldn't help it.

This thing, this planet-sized spider creature, had to be nothing less than an Outsider godling. Maybe not one of the big three but a minor deity nevertheless. But if this thing were already entrenched in Creation then the world was fucked. But, at the same time, if this pocket dimension was closer to the Outside than to Creation, would they ever find their way home? In the end it all boiled down to a single question: Was the nightmarishly enormous spider real or just an illusion designed to conjure up as much fear as possible? She absolutely wouldn't put it past the Void Stalker to trick them with an illusion of a giant spider. But at the same time she couldn't discount the possibility that this thing was real. If it was and if it was as enormous as it appeared there was every chance it should be too slow and massive to influence the events down here at all but she couldn't bet on that, either.

In the end it didn't much matter. Her objectives were, in order: Save Aurora, kill the Void Stalker that had their scent and get the fuck out of wherever this was.

And so she gripped her swords a little tighter and, ignoring the giant spider for now, took a step toward the Void Stalker and the bound Aurora. Next to her Mare and Esther stepped up. Mare took a deep breath, then quietly said: “Sorry.”

A moment later Elaine felt the most peculiar pulling sensation, like a doctor removing a suture but from her very core, as Mare drew an M-Skill out of her. She glanced back and saw a sword in the girl's hand, the pommel was ring-shaped and the cross guard looked curved and simple. She'd never seen that sword before, which meant it had to be the new M-Skill Alexis had bought, Fragarach the Answerer. Elaine knew a little bit of the sword's mythology and that was enough. The ability to force anyone at sword-point to answer truthfully might be useful but the command of Air magic and the armor-piercing were probably way more helpful right then.

Esther still had her twinblade drawn.

“Mare,” Elaine said, “free Aurora. We'll keep this thing busy.”

“What about that thing above?” Esther asked.

“Ignore it until it intervenes,” Elaine said. “If it's content to just watch I don't want to piss it off by striking first.”

“Understood,” Esther said, then tossed her pendulum at the Void Stalker.

The thing was fast, bending out of the way of the throw, but it gave Esther the opening she'd wanted.

The pendulum struck the rock behind the Void Stalker and she used it to yank herself forward, the twinblade twirling behind her, intent to take the thing's legs off then and there.

Even with its far superior speed this would have worked. The thing was still off balance from avoiding the pendulum after all, but the issue was that the thing wasn't human and had never been.

Wendigos, for all their ridiculous speed, were still hampered by their human physiognomy. They could run fast enough that air resistance alone should chafe off their skin but their bodies still bent the way human bodies did. The Void Stalker, meanwhile, had no restrictions.

It had contorted its body to avoid the pendulum and should have been unable to dodge the blade scything out its legs but it bent unnaturally, raising its legs out of the way and just hanging there in midair to avoid the attack, Esther sailing harmlessly past it.

But before it could even think about retaliating Elaine was there, swinging two swords at it and commanding two more to strike the places it could dodge to.

Instead it caught both swords in its sharp talons and the two flying swords struck only empty air.

Esther rushed in to stab the creature through the back but when it bent out of the way she had to abort the attack to avoid stabbing Elaine.

It was like that fight against the cultist leader in Albion all over again, the thing nearly effortlessly fending off both of them. It was getting far less offense in than that cult leader but they also weren't hurting it.

Elaine was tempted to employ the same tactic but that would require hitting it, and hitting it hard enough to sever its limbs.

“If you have any powerful magic now would be a good time to use it,” Elaine said as she blocked a talon slash and sent another two swords at the creature's flanks.

“Easier said than done,” Esther ground out but nevertheless conjured up a beam of light that sliced through the spiderwebs dotted around the area but failed to hit the Void Stalker.

Speaking of, the spiderwebs were the worst. The thing was adept at keeping them between itself and them and the damn things were too tough and sticky to rush through. Even worse, they seemed to regenerate whenever they got cut and they seemed to grow wherever Elaine wasn't looking.

But things weren't looking as hopeless as it seemed. No, they weren't making any headway in beating the creature but right now the main thing they were trying to do wasn't beating it. It was buying time. And when the thing caught Elaine's swords in its talons this time she'd bought all the time she'd needed.

Behind them and just out of sight of the Void Stalker Mare had been hard at work cutting Aurora out of the webbing keeping her tied up and when the girl finally dropped out of the web Mare ripped the webbing off her mouth. The moment she did Aurora woke up with a single gasping breath.

“Welcome back,” Mare said as she held the girl.

“You saved me,” Aurora said. “You came for me.”

“I did,” Mare said gently. “We did.”

But before they could celebrate the reunion a godawful hissing noise shook the entire area. Elaine looked frantically for the source of the sound and finally looked up. The eight glowing red orbs had stopped swirling and they were staring straight down, straight at Aurora. Apparently the creature wasn't happy about its meal being stolen.

And a spider leg the size of a mountain began to descend from the sky.