The Battle of Ultopja 2 (19) – The Sun Rises [Superchapter]

The Ultopjian army is gathering at the main plaza around the fountain. The organization has taken long, longer than expected or needed. The enemy was well on the way of subjugating the southern districts. Units are assembled, orders are exchanged. “Defend.” Tang instructs a few units and points at the bridges that connect the districts Zerja and Erschja north to the central streets. If they can hold these points they should be able to halt the advance for the most part. “Send strike forces into the districts.” He continues, small hit and run forces should inflict some damage. The orders get relayed and more people go on their way.

The Units are mostly made of the common soldiers, only lead by a single elite. He is unwilling to commit many of the Hundred to any causes outside of the central plaza. After all if they break through here they can easily reach the districts at the back.

As more of his army departs to defend the bridges and stop the enemy from advancing further through the middle districts. He sees a large contingent of the enemy, who has established a base at the gate by now, break away and storm up the main street. Helena must have come to the same conclusion. There was no way to hold a pincered district, the city had no individual garrisons to defend them. ‘Inform Ulal about that afterwards’ he notes to himself before yelling. “FORMATION!”

The battle for the main plaza was about to begin.

Analea and Aelana arrive at the top of the tower. “”MASTER!”” They say at the same time and rush over to the lying half-demon. “What has happened?” Aelana demands to know, the redhead is furious as she always is. “I don’t know, I found him like this. Something is blocking access to his mind from me.” Catherine explains. As the Twins kneel down next to the unconsciousness Ulal. “I called you two because of that connection you have with him. Maybe you’ll be able to get inside and pull him back.”

The Twins hesitate, their tails swinging in uncertain waves. “Our connection…” Analea starts. “…I think he severed it.” Aelana finishes. Catherine laughs. “Yeah right.” She opens the Demonmagus chest armour and points at the demonic markings on his chest. “If he severed his connection to you, you wouldn’t be here anymore. Now shut the fuck up and redeem yourself.”

The two succubi look at each other, the truly demonic redhead and the transformed blonde. They share a smile and Analea shifts into her true, white form. ““Redeem ourselves, little Catherine?”” They say as one and each put their left hands on the marks above his heart. “”That is what we shall do then!” “

Ulal watches the scene for the fiftieth time. His eyes stare coldly at his older sister embracing his younger self. He has tried everything, rampaging, meditating, releasing a torrent of energy. Nothing can shatter this prison. Suffice to say he is furious. “”Master!””

He turns his head around to see the Twins. “Oh Great. Now my memories are getting all jumbled up.” He complains and looks back forth between the Twins and the hugging scene. He decides that the succubi are making him less angry, turning fully to them.

“So, which memory are you two?” He asks not expecting an answer. “You idiot, we are here to pull you out!” Aelana shouts at him. Their forms become transparent and then vanish completely. “Wait WHAT?!” He screams. “An, Al, where are you?”

“”ULAL!”” A hand appears, light grey skin. Analea. He tries to take it but he just passes right through. “I HATE ALTERATION BULLSHIT!” The Demonmagus screams. ‘How did they even get in here? The mind connection? I thought I severed that.’ He thinks, ‘Or was I merely shutting them out. Logically it makes more sense to assume that, if I severed it completely they should have vanished after all. If that is the case, maybe…’

They appear again, looking more desperate and crying out. “Come with me, Master!” Analea pleads. “Shut up I am working here!” Ulal reprimands and continues his pondering in silence, only the sound of his memories in the background.

They can’t touch him, he can’t touch him. Still they are here. Meaning that there is a connection from them to the outside world, to his actual body. If he can strengthen them he can use that connection to slip through. But without access to his body he can’t use magical energy, he can’t empower them. He grits his teeth for a moment but then smiles. There is one way to give them more power, one terrible but possible way.

“Analea, Aelana.” He says and looks at them with slight madness in his eyes. “I allow you to drink from my human soul to break me out of here.”

Catherine has left the tower when the ritual began. She has another person to look too. If the twins are to fail or to succeed either way she needs Aclysia. If the twins fail maybe the Witch of the South can teach Catherine some last-ditch effort, if they succeed they would need the Grimoire.

In the distance, she sees the Hundred fight together with the standing army against the attackers. They won’t be able to hold for long, the enemies number is simply overwhelming, paired with their superior experience it is a wonder that the army of Ultopja was able to hold unto now. If it weren’t for the enchanted armour and mages blocking attacks from the flanks they would have crumbled a long time ago.

‘But if they receive attacks from the sides that means the middle districts have fallen!’ Catherine realizes as she storms into the Aclysia district. There was no time to be lost here.

Aclysia stands in the freezing chamber. She isn’t breathing, without anybody to speak to the act is unnecessary. She picks up a vial of a cloudy red liquid and returns to the laboratory. The fighting outside doesn’t interest her, she has an experiment to attend to, the enemy forces are none of her concern.

Or at least they weren’t until she hears them in her laboratory. “You really think it’s okay, Lady Jerma?” A worried voice asks. “Of course, while Helena and her lapdogs sacrifice themselves we will see to the best loot. This war is won anyway.” That tone, it bears the certainty and arrogance reserved for nobles. “I-if you say so, milady.” The soldier gives in. Aclysia picks up the conversation with her inhuman hearing as she opens the door.

“Step away from the table.” The immortal orders and walks into the room. Five soldiers, all female all in foot soldier armour accompany a noble knight in full plate. The soldiers are in the progress of looting her library of tools. ‘Annoying.’ Aclysia thinks as she realizes that she will have to re-order everything later. The noble however is standing next to the central table where the giant contraption of interconnected glass tubes and cooling mechanisms stands. The whole thing is currently brewing what Aclysia had been working on for the last weeks, the reason why she was so hesitant to help Catherine. A cure for IT.

“And what if I don’t?” The noble asks, clearly annoyed by having been ordered. “You will kill me with that fancy dress of yours?” She draws her short sword. “Not with the dress. Other ways.” Aclysia says and walks towards her experiment. She needs to continue, there was only so much time the imperfect cure could spend outside of the freezing chamber.

“Oh? Well, I don’t feel particularly threatened by that.” The noble mocks. Aclysia ignores her as she prepares the contraption for the insertion of the cure. She isn’t willing to discuss right now. What could that human even do? Stab her. ‘No danger.’ She thinks. “Who are you anyway?” The woman asks, still no answer. A vein pops in the noble’s forehead. “ANSWER ME!” She screams and wildly swings her sword.

If intended or not doesn’t matter, the sword’s tip touches the contraption. The whole thing starts swinging dangerously. Aclysia can secure it with her hand but the noble notices her panicked reaction. “So that makes you react, huh?” She asks and hacks at the thing a second time. Glass shatters, parts at the top lose halt and fall down. The contraption, weeks of careful planning, collapses partly. Gasses and liquids are set free, none of them are poisonous but their creation will take resources she can’t get her hands on within a few hours. She watches the shards on the floor.

‘Oh, what a pity.’ A myriad of voices enters her mind. ‘To think that you would have come this far, Aclysia. How does it feel to be betrayed by humanity again?’ The voices are mocking, sensible, laugh and understand her. There is not a single definitive emotion in there.

“Did you plan this?” Aclysia asks. The noble laughs, “What is that even supposed to-“ Her mouth is suddenly shut by Aclysia’s hand. Although hand may be a bit of an exaggeration. Her appendage has shaped into only roughly resembling a hand with long, thin fingers that wrap around the noble’s head. “Quiet.” She instructs.

‘We didn’t have to plan a thing. We just knew that this was a possible outcome of another one’s schemes.’ The voices whisper. ‘It worked. You will never get rid of us Aclysia.’ A single, male voice adds, ‘Of me.’

Emotions, strong and dominating, boil inside her. She tries to banish them. She has learnt all about her emotions already, keeping them is useless. ‘And yet you still fuck.’ The voices mock her as one. ‘If you learnt all about emotions why do you still do that? You shouldn’t suppress yourself Aclysia, you will burst.’ The voices laugh, ‘Just like one of your beloved instruments under too much pressure…or this human once you have transmuted his whole soul.’

Aclysia drops the noble. “What, when did…my magic?” She stumbles, dumbfounded for the second time in her life. She looks at her hands, then at the noble. Rapid decay spreads over the nobles skin as Nuis wrecks her whole body. Screams of torment and terror. Aclysia doesn’t care. Her magic is back. How?

‘I gave it back to you.’ The male voice says. ‘Just have a bit of fun, Aclysia. You are mine after all. Everything is mine. If you don’t I will take it away again.’ She looks up at the remaining soldiers. ‘Just this once.’ Aclysia thinks and smiles broadly.

The soldiers stare at her with terror, not just because of what just happened but because of Aclysia’s eyes. Inside the light green the pupil has deformed into the shape of an infinity sign. “Ig-“ One of them starts saying and suddenly finds herself without a head as a thin sheets of ice separates it from her body. “Don’t speak his name.” Aclysia says and relaxes her body, an unnecessary gesture as she has no muscles that could relax.

“I feel like 16 again.” She admits as she inspects another on the soldiers. She brings her face up close and breaths in the aroma of fear. “I used to talk a lot back then. Hard to think that lies back 350 years.” She rams her hand into the soldiers solar plexus. “I wonder about so many things you know. Things I couldn’t find out until now. For example: What does the human bloodstream exactly look like?” Eclys pumps into the veins of the soldier’s body, ripping her apart as blood is pushed to the side, ripping her apart. “Guess this approach won’t work.” Aclysia laments and removes herself out of the body before tossing the violated and deformed corpse to the side.

Three more soldiers remain, frozen by the Witches aura as she turns to the next one. “I will need to bleed you out first otherwise the veins will burst.” She explains as she cuts open the soldier’s wrist. “Don’t worry. I am not cruel, just curious. I have learnt what I can about the structure of the brain for now.” She pushes a spike of ice through the jaw and into the head, the soldier dies not fast but quick enough for Aclysia.

“Now for you two…Actually I only need one of you so you get to join your friend on the dissection table.” She says and kills another one while leaving the rest of the body intact. The last soldier stammers a few words. “W-what will you do to me?” She asks, the fear agonizing every last bit of her consciousness.

Aclysia stops in front of her and tilts her head. “Was that a rhetorical question?” She asks with a blank expression. “What?” The soldier is dumbfounded and shakes her head. “I take that as a no. I try to understand but it just won’t work. Infuriating really. Just like this whole talking thing actually. Feels wrong. Like it more to keep my sentences short.” Aclysia’s grin goes wider than any human’s mouth has any possibility of growing. “You will serve me to answer another question. What do humans taste like?” With a series of disgusting crunches and splattering blood the answer came to Aclysia as ‘long pork’.

‘See wasn’t that fun?’ The voices ask. “No.” Aclysia answers and walks to the shattered remains of her contraption. ‘What?!’ “You fulfilled your purpose, Ignis.” The immortal says and takes up the veil of cloudy red liquid. It may be incomplete but it still should partly cure her. “Pushing back is enough. For now.” She decides and drinks the contents.

A disappointed sigh, following by the voices slowly vanishing. ‘Oh, Aclysia.’ The voices lament. ‘You left us no choice. He will be sent your way.’ ‘AND NEVER USE THAT NAME AGAIN!’ the singular male voice adds before cutting out.

Aclysia puts the veil down carefully. ‘Humans are harder to digest.’ She notes in her mind. Not that it makes a great difference as her body returns to her normal form quickly. “Dirty.” She says with a midly annoyed glance at the completely bloody floor. “Aclysia! Are you…” Catherine enters and looks at the bodies, at the mangled corpse, at the pool of flesh and intestines that once had been a noble.

“…you here…” Catherine says and pushes back a slight nausea. She saw a lot of disgusting stuff in her life but this is just another level. Aclysia looks at her with her usual melancholic, mostly emotionless gaze. “Yes. What?” Catherine rips her eyes of the floor, no use in pondering about this scene, whatever Aclysia did to them it must have been something alchemical. “We need the Grimoire.” She explains.

Aclysia nods. “Understood.” The immortal starts walking and Catherine follows, careful not to step into the gore. Aclysia opens one of the many drawers of her tool shelves and pushes a button inside. A segment of the shelf transmutes into a thick steel plate. “This just has Ulal written all over it.” Catherine mumbles, the white-haired witch just answers with a nod. She whispers something in a language Catherine can’t understand and the plate swings aside.

The Grimoire of the Black Sun. Even at the first glance the enchanted book reveals it’s magical nature. The cover of the Grimoire is black, made from Eclys, small shards of gemstone are set into the alchemical metal in runic formations, all centred around a ruby. Catherine takes the book with great care, it pulsates with dormant energy, almost seeming alive. “Let’s get this to Ulal.” Catherine says and the two of them get on their way.

Aelana grabs her master’s soul. The two kinds of energies swirling within are so violently different. Human and Demonic, two kinds of energy from two different dimensions, existing side by side, mixing even. “I dislike doing this, sister.” Analea admits as she joins in the view. They look at the souls like a well, they drink from it, it makes them stronger. Demons consuming their masters soul is a last ditch effort. “What if it kills him?” her white-haired sister explains. “Then he dies.” Aelena shrugs it off, her feisty tone betraying a hint of worry. “If we don’t act all of Ulal’s and all of his plans will be for naught. Besides he is sure the demonic energy will just take the place of his missing soul.” “It seems that way.” Analea agrees with her sister.

They stretch towards energy and drink deeply. The soul of a human mage was already like the finest wine but what remained of Uklag was the richest of flavours. A well of near endless power and indulgence. Analea, despite her initial restrain, drank deeply. Too deep maybe. Aelana shouting at her pulled her from the ecstasy of consuming. “Sis!” Analea pulled back. “We have enough. We need to help the master.”

They concentrate back on the connection, send their souls through. “Master!” Ulal looks at them with a grim smile and takes their hands with his own. “I told you it’s Lord now.” He reprimands as he is pulled from his prison of memories.

Ulal sits up in shock as he regains control over his body. He looks at this human hand and makes a fist. Everything is normal. Then he looks down on his revealed chest. The grey, demonic skin of his left arm had spread over the shoulder, possibly up to his neck. “That shaves a couple years of the time I can spend in this realm.” He complains and adjusts his armour before standing up.

The Twins keep kneeling on the ground as they wait for him to react. Ulal put his metal claws on the giant window and looked outside. His forces are preparing to make a last stand at the bridge to Imperja. Besides the mage district all of the other seem to have fallen, if the pillars of smoke are any indication. The claws screech along the glass and leave five notches. “Half a day, I am out for half a day and this shit happens.” He curses and turns, at the exit he hesitates for a moment. “An, Al. Good work. Stay here until I have cleaned up this mess.” He instructs and leaves the tower.

He is seething with rage. As he slowly walks down the stairs. There is no use in hurrying he will murder every single enemy soldier or die trying. To his surprise Catherine meets him halfway. “Ah, apprentice, I wondered where you- “ He stops in his commentary as she hands him the Grimoire, completely out of breath.

The rage mingles with satisfaction. Dark laughter fill the stairway as he takes the book and passes both Catherine and Aclysia on the way back down. “This war is over.”