Vol.4 Ch.74 – What You’re Fighting For
Chapter 74: What You're Fighting For
The moment the passage opened it was like Esther was able to breathe again after being submerged in water for minutes. Winds flooded into the space that felt like a cave but wasn't, replenishing what had been lost to the void.
Elaine was still up above, holding off an entire army of Void Stalkers with her shield, and the other two were busy keeping the gateway from closing. That of course left the Void Stalker that had dragged them here, missing an arm and in clear agony but also absolutely furious.
“You will never escape,” it growled out. “I have your scent. I will hound you to the ends of the earth for what you did to me, for what you did to us.”
Esther had to grab Elaine and get out of here but she also had to deal with this thing. She'd meant it. She refused to spend the rest of her life checking if everyone around her was an impostor. And now, with enough Winds to breathe, she could finally do something about it.
She summoned forth her magic, drawing in all the Winds that would answer, and wove light magic into them until the air around her rang with power. When it felt like things were at a breaking point she swung her twinblade through two strokes, each carving a line of light into the air in front of her, the two lines making an X shape.
“Shoulder the cross of your demise,” she intoned, twirling the twinblade through a complicated arc that drew in all remaining energy. When she had nothing left to give she swung at the lines of light, blasting them forward, directly at the Void Stalker. “Grand Cross!”
The thing tried to dodge. It could tell that whatever that attack was, it would hurt. But Esther was not a mindless brute. Her spell did not simply send a projectile forward. She had woven the spell into its aura. Wherever the monster went, whatever pocket dimension it hid in, the spell would continue until it struck home. Not that it mattered.
Battered and bruised and mutilated, the beast barely managed to avoid the first pass. When the spell came back for a second go the Void Stalker already failed to dodge completely, losing its other arm as well as one of its legs to it. Then, on the ground with only a single limb remaining, it could do nothing to stop the spell from devouring it.
Esther allowed herself a single moment of grim satisfaction before rushing off.
She didn't ask for permission, didn't stop to explain. She just rushed over to where Elaine was holding the horde back, wrapped an arm around her waist and then tore her away and carried her through the gateway. The two other girls were smart enough to rush through first and the portal closed behind Esther and Elaine.
**
Elaine and Mariana rushing through the portal alongside the Atlantean woman had been terrifying enough, the three of them disappearing into god knows where without giving Evelyn even a chance to react, but a crack in reality bursting open in the center of the room and spitting all four women out half an hour later was very nearly enough to give her a heart attack.
Elaine came out in her Higher form, but also... not. Evelyn hadn't had much of a chance to admire Elaine when she let her powers come out to play, most of the time she'd been busy fighting for her life when it had happened, but she'd seen enough to know that this wasn't how Elaine looked during it.
Elaine's hair had gone strawberry blond and the braids and ribbons woven into it were far more pronounced than normal. The crystal armor along her arms and legs looked a lot less feral and brutal, more like actual historical armor than the monstrous claws she usually had. And, of course, the crystal weapons trailing behind her were spears rather than swords. That was new, as was the sphere of sunlight surrounding her and lighting up the entire space. All of it looked great on her, but it did leave Evelyn wondering: “What happened in there?”
She only realized she'd spoken out loud when Elaine dismissed the power and all but collapsed, lying on the dirty ground and breathing like a bellows, then said: “Later. I need five.”
Aurora huddled up in Mariana's arms and the Atlantean woman summoned forth a bit of air magic and cleaned the dirt and debris before laying down beside Elaine, their fingers almost but not quite touching.
So it wasn't just Elaine going all gooey-kneed at her accent, the woman was also pining after Elaine. Interesting. Evelyn felt like she should have been jealous about that but she'd gotten over that a long time ago. Her girl had multiple lovers and a lot of people were attracted to her. That was just the way things were. She just hadn't expected the badass chick with the dawn-colored hair to fall for her lover so quickly.
**
Elaine was very, very aware of how close Esther was, of how close to her Esther had decided to lay down.
The woman was intriguing to no end and her standoffish attitude from earlier had melted away the moment the angels had left, making her even more interesting. Elaine had tried finding out more about her earlier but that had just turned into a dreary conversation about her past. But now, with her guard so clearly down, maybe it was time to try again.
“Tell me something about Esther,” Elaine said.
“I already shared my tragic past with you, non?” There it was again, that random French that drove her wild.
“Sure, but that's not all you are, is it? What do you do when you aren't busy saving the world?”
The girl hesitated just long enough that Elaine worried she'd scared her off, then said: “I like animals. I like watching them. Predators, especially.”
“Wow.” It was all Elaine could say. It wasn't anything unique or out of left field but she hadn't expected such a simple answer.
“And please don't try to interpret anything into that,” Esther went on, almost like she was trying to justify it. “This isn't because of some deep-seated trauma or anything.”
“I wasn't gonna,” Elaine said. “I was just wondering, once all of this is over, once we're back to some semblance of normality, I'd like to take you to a zoo.”
She chanced a look over at Esther and only just saw her face turning beet red before she turned away. “Where did that come from?” she demanded. “We're about to fight a Zodiac Knight and you're planning... dates?”
“Sometimes you need to remind yourself of what you're fighting for.”
Esther was quiet for a long time, then said: “Wildlife preserve.”
“Huh?”
“A wildlife preserve. I don't like seeing animals in cages.”
Elaine smiled.
**
“What happened in there?” Evelyn asked Mariana and Aurora when it became clear that Elaine and Esther were off in their own little world.
“It was the home of the Void Stalkers,” Aurora said. “Not just one of them but all of them. A gestalt consciousness consisting of all of them.”
“A ge-what now?”
“A spider so big that the tip of one of its legs was the size of a mountain,” Mariana explained, still holding Aurora and stroking her hair.
Evelyn shuddered at the thought.
“Elaine hurt it, cracked its shell, and instead of blood, Void Stalkers flooded out of the wound,” Aurora added.
“That explains why you rushed out of there so fast,” Evelyn said.
“Yeah,” Aurora said. “I'm not sure the Void Stalker who took me is dead though. Esther wounded it, but...”
“She killed it right before we left,” Mariana said. “It kept chatting shit about how it would keep coming after us and she cut it apart.”
“Thank god,” Aurora said.
“But with how many there were, one of them is bound to come after us again,” Mariana said.
“They won't,” Evelyn said.
“How do you figure?”
“Well, I didn't really have anything better to do while you were in there so I studied the database entry the Akashic Knowledge gave me.”
“So, anything useful?”
“A lot of it makes more sense after hearing what happened in there,” Evelyn said. “They're a kind of hive mind. They all communicate with each other while linked up but when they go out of their pocket space they break the psychic link. I'm guessing this linking is the gestalt consciousness you mentioned.”
“So what you're saying is that if the only one who had our scent died,” Mariana began.
“Then the others have lost it as well,” Evelyn finished. “And if being taken out of the whole breaks the psychic link then Elaine hurting that collective was probably devastating to all of them.”
“Not a bad track record for like five minutes in that pocket space, huh?” Mariana said.
“Five minutes?” Evelyn asked with a frown. “You were in there for at least half an hour.”
Mariana frowned at her, then looked at Aurora.
“I mean, I only woke up when you freed me from the web,” Aurora said. “But after that it couldn't have been more than two minutes.”
“And I rushed to you almost immediately while those two held the Void Stalker off,” Mariana said. “Yeah, five minutes, tops.”
“Sounds like time flows differently out there,” Evelyn said.
“Yeah, about that,” Mariana said. “I'm still not sure where 'there' was. Was that part of the Outside? A pocket dimension?”
“Both,” Evelyn said.
“What do you mean?”
“I'm not sure,” Evelyn said. “The way the Akashic Knowledge describes it is: 'Wounds in the divine corpus, scabs of Otherworld, blisters of Outside within Creation.'”
“So this was part of the Outside then, however faintly,” Mariana said. “That explains the drain on our magic.”
“You felt it, too,” Aurora said.
“Yeah. It was like the Winds were a finite resource until I ripped that gateway open again.”
“So, Winds of Magic are an integral part of this world?” Evelyn asked.
“Yes,” Mariana said. “And I think Outsiders might eat them.”
“That makes no sense,” Evelyn said. “Outsiders are deathly allergic to our magic.”
“Maybe it's not the Winds they're allergic to,” Aurora said, “but the intent you weave into them.”
“That would explain how a magical perpetual motion machine like the Red Rider was able to include Outsider energy,” Evelyn said.
“But wouldn't that also mean we could just wish the Outsiders away?” Mariana asked. “If intent is what harms them?”
“Feel free to wish upon a star the next time we fight one,” Elaine said.
Evelyn smiled, then looked up. Evidently Esther and Elaine had finished their little chat.
“Shall we?” Elaine asked, reaching a hand out to Evelyn.
Evelyn smiled and placed her hand in Elaine's, letting her lover haul her up. “Yeah.”