The Tower

“Alright, I think we’re clear,” John said after surveying the area. It didn’t look like any of the other geists had noticed the scuffle. “But I suggest you be quick, anyway.”

“Yes, of course,” Lorelei nodded after a brief moment of recovery. The woman wasn’t used to frontline combat, and being latched to John in the midst of swordplay had made her slightly nauseous. The seer knelt down and placed her hand to the reconstructed rooftop before beginning to mutter an incantation. John kept his eyes up, watching for danger while she did her work.

A group of spectres were moving towards their position. The pair hadn’t been spotted yet, but the geists surely would if they reached the roof. “Hurry,” John urged, his foot beginning to tap impatiently as they drew closer.

“Please, do not rush me,” the seer replied, trying her best to remain calm while she focused on the spell.

John sighed, the speed of his tapping increasing, while his eyes were locked to the group of geists. One of the spectres paused, and though it had no head to speak of, John felt its icy gaze upon them. A bony arm shot up, pointing towards where John guarded Lorelei. A second later, it lost the arm as a Mana Arrow exploded on the tip of its outstretched finger. A second arrow shut it up permanently.

The geists were certainly alerted now. Two beelined for John and Lorelei, while a third lingered back. A shrill screech echoed across the Astral Plane, and there was a slight shift among the nearby geists, as they all turned to look at the source, and then, following its direction, to the pair on the rooftop. John grimaced and fired off another Mana Arrow, killing one of the approaching geists before it could close the distance. The second he battered away with his sword. As far as John was concerned, they were not leaving until they learnt all they could; they would stand their ground. Lorelei was still not finished, but was well aware of their predicament. She needed no encouragement to get on with the spell.

John fired another Mana Arrow at the remaining geist, the shit that had alerted its brethren, but having watched John fell two others in such a way, the geist was on high alert. It scurried back, taking cover before the arrow could hit its mark. John cursed and eyed his mana pool. He could fire off about three more shots before he hit empty. Shit.

John’s eyes flickered down towards the park, where a swarm of Astral Geists were rising towards them. Shit, shit, shit.

It was taking two Mana Arrows to kill one geist, and he could fire ten shots before he had pretty much tapped his pool. Given he could summon his sword in the Astral Plane, he could similarly call upon his reserve of Mana Potions, and potentially keep refuelling that way… but it would waste precious seconds to drink each potion. John could feel his stress beginning to rise. ‘Think, you stupid fuck!’ John kicked himself. ‘You’ve got fucking god-tier superpowers. Solve this.’

The geists were closing in fast. Two particularly keen individuals had accelerated ahead of the main pack, intent on claiming first pickings. John slashed at one, but the other slipped by and tried to swipe at Lorelei, forcing John to recklessly intervene with his own body. A searing pain hissed through his entire body as he took 16 points of damage. John swung angrily at the spectre in retort; his blade biting deeply and easily into its smokey form. Inspiration struck John as he watched its remains sparkle and scatter into the sea.

John laughed and kicked himself again. The answer had been around him the entire time. He was surrounded by magic; his soul was literally swimming in it. John focused, reaching out to his Astral surroundings. He could feel the magic around him, so he took it, and a feeling of renewal washed over him. His Mana pool had refilled almost instantly.

Hope sparking a fire inside him, John fired a test shot towards the incoming horde, and discovered it was not at all difficult to draw in more Mana even while his attention was focused on combat. He activated Freeflow Focus, the expensive MP cost per second meaningless when he could instantly renew his pool, and time seemed to slow slightly as his speed and reaction time sharpened.

“You’re all sooo fucked,” John laughed, uncaring as to whether they heard him or not, and began to rain fire down upon them. Arrow after arrow blasted and battered the horde, quickly thinning their numbers.

Realising a head-on approach wouldn’t work, they scattered. Many turned into clouds, trying to blend into the environment and creep up on John, while others encircled him in their humanoid forms to draw attention. It was fortunate, then, that Lorelei’s boon granted him the ability to see their skulking forms, even when well camouflaged.

“I’m done!” Lorelei suddenly announced, before conveying to John through their psychic link what she’d learned. For the most part, the wards held, but there was a major anomaly. There were two major features of the wards that had been put in place. The first one was what barred creatures like geists from entering the premises: an invisible wall of **** that would damage any who dared touch it. The second was a shroud that masked everything within the building form detection. In other words, while active, the geists would not be able to detect anyone inside. It was this feature that was tampered with. So while the Geists were unable to feast on the hundreds of souls within the Hospital, their presence was well known.

“That does explain why there are so many of these fuckers.” John nodded in understanding, even as he slashed cleanly through another geists.

“I see we’re surrounded,” the seer replied, standing up and leaning closer to John. “You’ll need to cut a path through the horde so I can pull us out.”

“Got any tricks I don’t know about?” John asked hopefully.

“None that are helpful in these circumstances,” Lorelei answered. “The best I can do is share with you what I sense.”

As it turned out, that was still a lot. John’s vision suddenly opened up; he wasn’t looking solely through his own eyes anymore, rather his awareness had melded with Lorelei’s. Everything within a thirty metres of their position became visible to him.

Two geists, thinking his exposed back made him ****, lunged forward with their bony claws extended. John snapped around, peppering one with more Mana Arrows than was necessary and finishing off the other with Tsuki.

“Y’know what,” John smirked as he lashed out at a third geist that had circled too close, “I’m beginning to think we have pretty good odds at wiping them all out.”

“I dare not hope,” came Lorelei’s response, sternly reminding him there were still close to a hundred remaining.

John shrugged and leapt forward at another group of geists, Lorelei trailing weightlessly behind him, and killing five more before retreating to higher ground again. He sensed a restlessness among the horde of geists. They had realised small groups weren’t going to cut it and it seemed like a new approach was being formulated among their ranks. John braced himself.

It began as a low hum, a slight nuisance buzzing in John’s ears. But it built into a cacophony as each and every one of the headless spectres joined the chorus, creating an ear splitting shriek that sent shockwaves rocketing down John’s spine. And in the moment he flinched, they all dove towards him again.

John’s vision was blinded as their bodies closed in from all sides. There was no line of escape, he would have to cleave one out himself. The combination of Freeflow Focus and Lorelei’s all seeing gaze gave a sliver of hope as John ducked, weaved and sliced through the horde. His sword was a blaze of blue as it fired ceaseless amounts of Mana Arrows and cut into anything unlucky enough to cross its deadly path. Several times, a lucky geist struck at a moment where John could not twist out of its reach, and each little chip at John’s health bar was beginning to stack up. Worse was the wear Lorelei was beginning to show. Several geists had attacked her and she had little else but her bare limbs to defend herself with. But the frequency of the geists’ assaults were quickly fading. Ten, twenty, forty… John quickly lost count of how many he had slain. All that mattered was that their numbers were thinning.

“We are almost clear,” Lorelei urged him on. “Just a little more space and I can pull us out!”

John gritted his teeth and looked at his health bar — eighty-four hit points. He could survive five or six more hits; Lorelei could take less. He was confident he could slay them all, he knew he could, but Lorelei’s safety wasn’t something he was willing to bet on. Her life wasn’t his to gamble. “Okay,” he reluctantly nodded, unsatisfied that their venture into the Astral Plane hadn’t produced the results he’d been hoping for. Still, they had to retreat for now.

Glancing briefly at Lorelei’s tether, John began to push in the direction it pointed. The Hospital rooftop was soon behind them as John’s warring pushed them into the air above the park. Several geists immediately came at them from below, but only one claimed a hit before John’s sword and arrows beat them to dust. Even despite the new disadvantage, John was holding his own.

Then things got worse. Much, much worse.

A chilling roar resounded through the Astral Plane. Seeking the source, John looked down in time to see the makeshift park below him rupture as something wormlike surged upwards from the ground… towards where he fought.

John caught a glimpse of thousands of razorlike teeth, each the size of John’s person, bearing down on him. Just as the toothy maw began to close, John felt a tug on his arm followed by a slight nausea as the world blurred around him. Just as quickly, the effect stopped and he found himself tangled between a group of geists. There was an audible snap as the jaws closed behind John. If it wasn’t for Lorelei pulling on her tether, they would have both died right then

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been enough of a gap between the geists — but hey, trading instant **** for immediate danger was an improvement, if only a slight one. John lashed out at the geists before they could react to the sudden collision, killing two before a third clawed at his face and chest. It died just as quickly as the first two. As did five more. John could see the beginnings of an opening now, but the wormlike titan was preparing another strike.

“That is an Astral Dreadnought!” Lorelei’s panic was apparent in the way she screamed unapologetically into his mind. “We must run!”

“I agree wholeheartedly!” John replied as a chitinous pincer swept towards them, its serrated edge sharp enough to cut a building in two. They had **** but to evade. John pulled them downwards while Lorelei worked with what little space he could create to pull on their tether again. They collided into another small cluster of geists as the Dreadnought’s claw screamed by, mere inches from slicing them in two.

As John struggled to break free of the wraiths again, another roar resounded through the Astral Sea as a second Dreadnought burst through a building in front of them. For the first time, John got a good look at what they were facing.

The Dreadnought was truly larger than any creature John had seen before. His eyes were immediately drawn to the thousands of teeth he’d seen before. The creature’s mouth was so big he could see a bulbous uvula hanging inside, but the esophagus behind it faded into a wall of darkness. The rest of its serpentine body was covered in a pale, chitinous shell like a natural suit of armour. John’s katana didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of cracking that shell. On the other hand, the giant, crablike claws extended from its body would certainly crack him. A single eye, bloodshot with rage and hunger, stared at John from above the creature’s mouth causing John to let out an involuntary shiver. The Dreadnought’s fury was somewhat understandable, however, given the series of spectral bolts and chains that pierced its sides, chaining it to some place deep below the makeshift astral ground below them. John also spied about a dozen geists riding the creature, seemingly put there to help control it.

Captive or not, the very thought of facing a Dreadnought in battle made John want to puke — and there were two of them.

Not to mention there was still a dozen or so geists to contend with. ‘No matter.’ John gritted his teeth and unleashed another volley of Mana Arrows. ‘They’ll be out of the picture soon enough.’

Or so he thought… until the Mana Arrows flared and fizzled out, leaving the spectres unharmed. “Wha-” John spluttered, tried a second time and was met with more disappointment and an exponentially increasing need to puke, despite having no physical body. He checked his Mana Bar: it was full, so why wasn’t his spell working?

John glanced behind him, fearful that the first and closest Dreadnaught was preparing another strike. Its single, furious eye loomed over John and Lorelei. Like its kin, the whites of its eye had become a lattice of irritated blood vessels, but this one’s pupil flared a hollow blue.

“Antimagic,” Lorelei tightened her grip on John’s arm.

The geists nearby chittered and seized this opportunity to strike. John braced himself, but the spectres were clever. They had realised Lorelei was weak and did not bite back like John did, and so they targeted her. John responded quickly, but not before two claimed strikes of their own. Lorelei cried out as one clawed at her arm, while a second tried for her leg.

The first Dreadnought was preparing for another strike with its pincers now, all the while maintaining its antimagic gaze. They had to move quickly.

“Get us out of here!” John cried out as he sliced through another geist and dashed through the small opening it created.

Lorelei did not respond, but John felt the familiar nausea of being pulled back to his material body. The Dreadnought roared angrily as its prey slipped by, yet again, but the second was waiting and ready. John could have sworn its serrated maw spread into a grin as it watched them hurtle in its direction. Its one eye narrowed and it raised a claw. John braced himself, expected it to strike when they flew past, but the Dreadnought’s eyes had drifted from them seemingly seeking something else.

Lorelei screamed in terror, knowing something John didn’t but too terrified to convey any message other than that fear. John didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what he could do except watch. The Dreadnought had found what it was looking for, and let out another roar as its claw snapped closed around the open air ahead of John. Lorelei’s scream cut short as she slumped limply against him. John no longer felt that pull either, though they were still floating at an incredible speed away from the park.

“Lorelei?!” John shook her limp body, hoping for a response but receiving none. His next several words were a string of violent expletives as he tried to alter their trajectory but found himself lacking the ability to do so. It must have been by Lorelei’s grace he was so easily able to traverse the Astral Plane, but with her now **** in his arms, he’d lost his rudder. He really was hopeless in the plane without the seer.

“Welp,” John gulped as he realised he was well and truly fucked now. The Dreadnought grinned as John drifted closer to its pincer, and prepared to strike even while the other chased John from behind. He was going to die. “I guess this’ll be the end of your little game, Gaia,” John said aloud, figuring she was probably watching. There were certainly some things he’d like to say before he died. “It’s been a rough run, really — so might I just say, fuck you. Fuck you for choosing me.” John flipped off the Dreadnought, imagining Gaia was looking at him through its single, raging eye. “But… I guess I should also thank you,” he relented after a moment. “You’ve helped in your own twisted, satirical way… and you brought love into my life,” he added, thinking of Red.

‘The last thing she’s going to remember me by is our fight,’ John realised sadly.

“Honestly, there’s a lot I’ve left unfinished… a lot to regret… I guess what I’m trying to say is: feel free to jump in at any point here, a little deus ex machina could go a long way to saving my helpless ass,” he joked, trying to keep his plea lighthearted despite the oppressing sense of imminent **** weighing on him.

Seconds passed. He drifted closer towards the second Dreadnaught. He would soon be within reach of its claws and would surely meet his end. A few more seconds passed. Gaia remained silent still. In about five seconds, John would be dead.

John’s head fell and he braced himself for **** as best as a man could.

“Lift your head, John Newman, I will not let you die.” The words spoken in John’s mind were a gentle melody, soft and soothing, a reassurance that everything would be alright. It was not Gaia’s voice. “The Primordial may be willing to recline in her seat in heaven and watch you die, but I will not abandon you, John. You already have the seed; you fear ****, your fury, your drive for justice… these are sources of power. Let them bloom. Let my power save you.”

John only had a second to think about the decision. This was the fiend that had corrupted Vulpis. Her words, while kind and reassuring, may very well be lies. But what choice did John really have? He faced absolute **** on the one hand, or a chance at life on the other… but what came after, how her power would change him, was uncertain.

John gritted his teeth. “Show me how.”

A face flashed in John’s mind. It was an animal’s, with deep amber eyes of a vulpine kind, and sleek fur the colour of volcanic glass. John’s emotions spiked. Fear, hatred, spite, anxiety, grief… his emotions spun out of control, becoming larger than he could control, larger than him.

The Dreadnought attacked, lunging with a chitinous claw. At the same time, a pair of hands wrapped around John’s chest as a woman embraced him from behind. John would have turned his head to look, but the serrated claw demanded his attention. On instinct John tried to evade the attack — and found he could. His body felt light, and he knew now that, by this goddess’ grace, he was free to move in the oppressive space that had moments ago restrained him for execution.

He nimbly dodged the blow, and in the moment it passed by, when the Dreadnought’s antimagic gaze was obstructed by its own gigantic pincer, John’s power bloomed. It was a Neurotic Discharge, larger and more devastating than the violent burst that had tipped the scales in the fight against Vulpis. The shockwave slammed into the Dreadnought’s claw, splintering the chitinous shell and eviscerating the fleshy interior. The Dreadnought recoiled, roaring in pain and confusion as John flew by. The second Dreadnought slowed its chase and stopped by its brother, glancing warily between the shattered claw and John. It gave a mighty roar, but did not give chase.

A good thing, to be sure, for John’s consciousness was quickly fading, all his energy having been released with the Neurotic Discharge. The warm arms of the goddess were still wrapped around him, a gentle and comforting ****. Even still, John fought to stay awake. He had so much to ask, so much he needed to know.

“I promise you, the time will soon arrive where we meet in person. I will answer all that you wish then,” she whispered in his ear, her true face still unknown to him. “But for now…”