Vol.4 Ch.77 – Aquarius

Chapter 77: Aquarius

Elaine was under no illusions that they'd get the drop on this Knight and so she didn't even try.

She walked up to the door, summoned up a shield of crystal chips and then used a crystal sword to shove open the security door.

As she had suspected, the moment she did a disintegration blast slammed into her shield. Crystal was already far more resistant to disintegration blasts than most other materials but thanks to Evelyn she had enough skill in water magic to know how to counteract the effect.

Disintegration spells utilized the capability of water to erode even stone, except magically sped up to work instantly. It was incredibly effective and incredibly deadly, but only against the unprepared. And knowing that Aquarius was a master water mage had given them all the chance to prepare.

“Not good enough,” Elaine said as she walked through the disintegration beam, the rest of the group filing into the room after her.

“Interesting,” the Knight said as he lowered his hand, the sea green glow slowly receding from it.

The Knight was clad from head to toe in a suit of armor that looked...

When Esther had told them that the armor of these Knights had been updated for the modern era Elaine had expected something similar to the armor they all wore but it looked nothing like theirs.

First of all was the material. Elaine had never seen orichalcum before, hadn't even known that material existed outside of fiction a day ago. And it certainly looked like no metal she had ever seen before. The orichalcum armor was a dark turquoise in color, like verdigris but darker and less matte, like the black iron version of verdigris, intentional rather than caused by neglect.

As for the armor itself, it looked far heavier than their own, like they were wearing the scout version while this Knight was wearing, well, the knight's version. Instead of hexagonal chips interlocking, this armor consisted of overlapping plates of armor and tubes of glowing turquoise energy were running along it like veins.

The armor covered the Knight so thoroughly that Elaine could only tell his gender from his voice. And then, of course, the armor also had to conform to his Zodiac.

It wasn't immediately obvious, especially since, unlike Esther, Elaine didn't have anything to compare him to, but at a second glance it became obvious. The first thing to notice was the wave pattern etched into the chest of his armor. The other was his weapon, a massive two-handed flail made of orichalcum, with an enormous amphora in place of the customary spiked iron ball. From the sheer size of that amphora Elaine was pretty sure it wouldn't be any less deadly than getting hit by a spiked metal ball.

“You know, I had been assured that all I'd have to deal with would be some mortal rebels,” he said as his gaze passed over Elaine's party. “But you don't much look like rabble to me. Have the mortals finally mustered an army?”

“Something like that,” Elaine said.

Everything inside her wanted to just light the guy up before he could fling any more magic but there were two problems with that. The first was Esther's assurance that his armor would be damn near impenetrable and the other was the portal behind him. It was turned off at the moment but the huge metal circle with all of the electrodes sticking out of it couldn't possibly be anything else.

“It's not just the mortals,” Esther said.

“Oh?” Aquarius said as he looked at her. “Would you look at that, the traitor's brat. I told Caulder I was bored sitting on my ass but I didn't expect I'd get a chance to take you out.”

“So you've been working with Caulder?” Elaine asked.

“Working with him?” he asked, then snorted. “Never. I'm just there to make sure he doesn't overstep. My liege doesn't really trust that slimy little rat, you see?”

“And yet he gave him the power to bind Outsiders,” Elaine said.

“You've got some pretty loose lips, Silverspark.”

“What reason would I have to keep these things to myself?” Esther asked. “I gain nothing by keeping your secrets.”

“True,” Aquarius said. “I just thought you would have a bit more dignity than to go begging these dogs for aid.”

Elaine wanted to be offended by that but she knew getting angry wouldn't help. It was likely exactly what he wanted, to piss them off so they'd get careless.

But Esther just snorted and said: “Taurus sends his regards, by the way.”

“Taurus?” Aquarius asked. “What do you mean?”

“Met him in Quebec,” she said. “Told me a lot before he died. Didn't even have to torture him.”

There was a long pause before he asked: “Did he die with dignity?”

“He died with his head held high,” Esther said.

He nodded. “I shall afford you the same dignity, then.” And then he raised his flail.

He swung the weapon high above his head, getting the amphora spinning. As it did, spheres of water gathered above him, one at a time.

Elaine was certain letting him finish the spell would be a terrible idea and so she set about stopping him. Esther had assured them the armor would be impenetrable but she had to see for herself how true that was.

She sent all twelve of her swords at him, all at once. She didn't expect them to kill him but she did expect some kind of effect. Even if they couldn't chip his armor, they should at least rock him back a step and disrupt his concentration.

They did nothing.

A dozen crystal swords slammed into the Knight, causing high ringing sounds and flashes of light as sparks went flying and then the swords, all twelve of them, bounced off his armor. He didn't flinch, didn't even rock back a step. And he certainly didn't stop casting.

Evelyn was next, sending a lightning bolt as thick as her wrist into him, and the lightning crawled over his armor and then grounded harmlessly into the floor.

Aurora fired a single shot at him and then immediately had to duck out of the way as the bullet ricocheted back at her. This was perhaps the most concerning of them all, given that Aurora's gun fired bullets enchanted for armor-piercing. And even that hadn't even left a mark.

Finally Esther pulled the Erebos crystal pendulum out of her snatchweaver and launched it at the Knight.

This time he dodged. He threw himself to the side and as he did he sent the water spheres his spell had already created out towards them.

It took Elaine a moment to get her scattered swords back under control but when she did she sent them at the orbs of water, slicing them apart as fast as she could. There were so many she knew she wouldn't be able to get them all but she also knew she had friends.

Aurora sent hammer blows of air at some of the water orbs, shattering them and splattering them on the ground uselessly. Mare had never actually returned the copy of Fragarach she'd pulled out of Elaine when fighting the Void Stalker and now she was using it to send cutting gales at the water orbs. And Evelyn sent lightning bolts at them, popping them like pimples.

Esther was too busy reeling her little pendulum in so she could launch another attack at the Knight. Elaine was sure a single clean hit would be all it would take to end the fight but actually getting that hit in was the problem.

But this was ridiculous. There had to be a way to get through that armor that didn't involve that tiny little pendulum. Aurora's bullets hadn't had any effect but Elaine doubted the enchantment on those bullets was too powerful. And so she summoned Alexis' spear once more.

This time she didn't use her Higher form and simply used the spear as it was designed to. She gathered her power for one second, two, three, and then launched a massive lunge at the Knight.

She had seen a weaker version of this spear tearing clean through Outsider force fields. She'd seen it killing the Red Rider's outer shell. She knew it would be strong enough to get the job done.

And so her expression melted from determination into absolute horror when she attempted to ram the spear into his abdomen and it stopped cold the moment it struck the armor.

She'd put the force of a cannonball behind the thrust and the entire force traveled back up her arms. She only just managed not to scream in agony as every bone in her arms shattered all at once and all the muscles involved in the attack tore at the same time. As if that wasn't enough, the force of impact also heated up the spear so much that Elaine had to drop the now red-hot piece of metal before jumping back, desperate to focus any healing ability she had into her arms.

Even with her backwards momentum Aquarius would have hit her with the metal amphora but Evelyn jumped in, grabbed Elaine by the waist and then jumped away at lightning speed.

“I got you,” she said, her voice as soothing as she could manage under the circumstances. A moment later a green glow emanated from Evelyn's body and slid into Elaine's, and she could feel her healing accelerating by an order of magnitude. The Font of Soma.

Elaine was grateful but she also knew it was a double-edged sword. The Font of Soma was a very powerful healing ability that would fix her up in seconds and then keep going for a while longer but using it would also lower Evelyn's natural regeneration until the end of the day.

“Thanks,” she said nevertheless, then asked louder: “How the hell are we supposed to fight this guy?”

“Buy me time,” Esther gasped out, lining up another throw with the pendulum.

Elaine hated that. She knew there had to be some way to harm this guy.

But until she found it the only thing she could do would be to help Esther line up the perfect shot.