The Third Step: Chapter Twenty-Two

I nodded to Siobhan and snapped the portal to Dusk’s realm shut. The enfield spread her wings and leapt off the tree branch, turning the dive into a glide, and I followed – not through the air, I just teleported to the ground. Even as the Flock screamed behind me and more birds across the forest started to scream with it, I couldn’t help but wonder what the negative cultural connotation with spatial magic was here. 

I didn’t have long to be distracted, as Siobhan landed next to me, then shot off into the forest, using her wings to propel herself forward with a strange sort of hop-flight-sprint that likely would have been fairly ineffectual if not for the magic flowing through her. I teleported from spot to spot to follow her, then felt a spike of danger in my mana senses. I dove to the side, just in time to avoid being skewered by a spike of wind infused with desolation, death, and lunar mana. 

I yelped and threw an orb of Foxfyre at the bird, then scrambled to my feet, scooped up Siobhan, and teleported away as another bird dive-bombed for us both, hawk talons glowing with bright crimson light that felt uncomfortably like blood magic to me. In my arms, Siobahn squirmed, pointing her nose off to the left, so I Foxstepped over that direction, spinning and pulsing some soul mana through my Fungal Armor to take a hit from a pair of birds that had anticipated the teleportation. I flickered off, following the direction of Siobhan’s pointing and wiggling, even as I spotted the original bird that had summoned the Flock standing next to where I’d originally been. Its claws were hooked into the air, and it was trying to tear open the gateway to Dusk’s realm. 

I was midway through dodging around another attack, and preparing myself to start heading back, when a hand, wreathed in earth, and glowing with golden light punched out of the air. Dusk floated out on a cloud, the mud from her riverbed floating through the earth, as Dawn wreathed her in a resplendent glow. 

The bird was thrown back, and Dusk thrust her arms into the air, casting Enforce Reality. Though she was at a power disadvantage, it’s always easier to keep things the same than to make them change. I wasn’t sure if there was literally a spiritual form of inertia, but the principle still held true enough, and the Asomatus’ command of the birds broke. It didn’t last long, but it was enough for me to send a pulse of gratitude through our bond, and then teleport away as she slid back into her realm. 

By abusing my teleportation magic, Siobhan and I made a good amount of distance, but the birds were gathering and rushing after us, and several of them had speed spells of their own. I was forced to draw on my soul mana twice more to block attacks that would have hit me, and then I was forced to slow and swap to my full suite of defensive spells. The newest in the group, Ivy Cloak, showed its worth, spinning and slowing the incoming attacks. 

With the birds swarming me, I thrust my hand out and cast one very old spell, and two much newer ones. Fungal Lock fell around one of the birds. In the same instant, Fungal Siphon and Mycelial Spread flared into life. Fungal Lock exploded, jumping from member of the Flock to member of the Flock, while the draining effect began to strengthen the threads and draw power into my third gate life and death mana. 

It was good that it did, because maintaining the spell across a dozen opponents that ranged from the same level of power as me to multiple gates higher was incredibly draining. The instant the Flock itself turned its power against me, the massively powerful Arcanist’s dominion flared within the birds, and my Fungal Lock began to tear itself apart. If I’d drawn on my Ninelight Morels, I might have been able to make them last a bit longer, but I’d never expected the spell to truly stop the Flock. 

Instead, I’d spent the instant that I’d been given to teleport away. I chained Foxsteps, flickering across the ground, catching myself with Immovable Lock and flinging myself around trees, only to teleport in whatever direction Siobhan pulled me. 

I’d almost gotten out when something unexpected happened. The spirit itself, the actual Asomatous, manifested. It looked humanoid, but with bird talons instead of human hands, and with four pairs of wings sprouting from its back. Its eyes were completely black, and its nose and mouth were covered in a chitinous substance, almost like a beak. 

A part of me couldn’t help but feel impressed with myself. The Flock always worked through its birds. It loved them, hated humans, and it never manifested its true form. Few people escaped from it, but those who had never reported seeing it manifest, nor had scrying spells or psychometric records, though the latter were scarcer than hens teeth. 

The other part of me pointed out that the mere fact that the thing had bothered to manifest probably meant that I wasn’t going to be living long enough for anyone to even know where to look with psychometric spells.

The spirit held its hand up, and its birds flew around it. I swept out with some spiritshield lichen enhanced blademoss, but the asomatous knocked the blow aside, sneering in what I could only think was a very human-like sense of contempt. It swung a talon at me, and I stepped into Dusk’s realm. 

She flew up to me, whistling her worry and trying to figure out what was going on. Kene stepped next to me, even as a rent in the air appeared and started to shimmer. 

“It’s here. Fully. The Asomatous.” 

Kene cursed and began throwing a handful more healing and buffing spells onto me. Dusk threw her hands out and cast Enforce Reality again, but whatever this was, it wasn’t a working of spiritual magic. She might have broken its command over birds on the other side, but we’d need to step out to actually fight it, like how Dusk had punched it earlier.

I focused my senses on it, but it was hard to tell exactly what was going on from this side. I was guessing some sort of artifact that it had stripped from the dead, or maybe a natural treasure that gave it a gate ripping spell? 

Siobhan watched and waited, then she barked. The rent tore wide open, and blue light rushed from the portal as the little ghost guardian’s bark knocked back the asomatous. It didn’t stagger the spirit for long, and it flared its ghostly wings out, while I manifested Arthur and drew on my plants. 

Then another bark answered Siobhan’s. The Flock whipped its head to the side, and I felt a presence in my senses. It was heavy with death, mental, abnegation, and knowledge mana, but there was also a good bit of desolation, and some solar in it. 

A dog that seemed to be translucent, with a snow-white cloak, and ears the color of holly berries, bounded into the space between trees. It was medium sized, about the size of a sheep dog, and smoke trailed from the ghostly feet. An instant later, another bounded in, this one significantly more solid, and then a third, and a fourth. Two more spectral hounds joined in, then a larger dog, glowing with power at mid-fifth gate, emerged from the trees. Another, this one early fifth, stepped out, having circled the asomatous from the other side. 

The Flock spun, its wings flaring out, and it hissed. Its voice came out like cold steel against stone. 

“You survive today, but the Flock does not forget. The Flock will pick apart your bones.”

It flapped its wings, and the mid-fifth gate leapt forward, snapping at the spirit’s feet, but the spirit dissolved into nothing. Dusk shot forward and flared Enforce Reality, and the spirit’s dissolving form re-materialized.

The birds exploded into action, raking claws and reaching for the ghosts and dogs of what could only be the Cwn Annwn pack, while they flared out their spells, latching onto the asomatous and biting down onto its semi-corporeal form. I teleported into the air and slashed down with spiritshield lichen enhanced blademoss, then flicked my hands out, flaring Tortoise Time and Regulate Time. 

Maintaining regular flows of time for the entire pack of dogs, Dusk, Dawn, Kene, and Siobhan was straining, and I began drawing from my echo-shrooms and emperor’s tree to mitigate the strain. 

Still, the effect was immediate and extreme. Across the entire clearing, every single bird, all of the non-allied spells, and even the Asomatous was slowed down to some degree or another. The most affected were the birds, but the spells and spirit were still  partially slowed down – they existed in the currents of time, after all, even if the physical, telluric, and lunar elements didn’t cause any physical slowness. 

By comparison, the hounds moved like liquid metal, dashing across the space and sinking their teeth into birds, sending spikes of magic into the spirit. Kene’s spellcraft swept over the pack of cwn annwn, rings of amber light and spinning flaming runes forming around them. Dusk dashed around, snapping out shockwaves at the birds, spinning lances of sand to blast apart others, and snaring others in snowglobes. Dawn floated into the air, and golden light began to gather around her jaws as she began to charge her Tyrant’s Breath. Arthur frolicked around the pack, happily joining in its fellow ghostly dogs. 

I wasn’t idle. My time mana might have been draining rapidly, but that was no excuse for me to not use the rest of my magic. I said a mental apology for killing the birds, then began to cycle Mantle Dragonfire with my left arm, even as I slashed down at the manifestation of the Flock’s head. It spun out of the way, but was tackled by the pair of fifth gate cwn annwn. 

My head started to feel like it was cracking, and I was confident that I wouldn’t have been able to manage so much at once if I hadn’t integrated the Timemind, but I pushed further. I began manifesting Spatial Anchors like wild, then cast Reposition Anchor, sending them through the clearing, positioning them behind birds, and casting Enhance Plant Life and its Mass meta spell.

Dusk seemed to catch onto what I was doing, and hands erupted from across the clearing, snatching at the feet of birds, pinning them down, even as Siobhan guided the dogs out of the way. 

Then I unleashed my spells. Waves of blademoss erupted from anchors behind every bird in the clearing, long tongues of acid splashed out from a half-dozen frozen pitcher plants, and bones smashed into their wings. In the same moment, I unleashed my Mantle Dragonfyre and slashed it through the air, targeting the handful of fifth gate birds that were assisting the Flock. 

My mana drained to near zero, and I collapsed to the ground. All around me, birds thumped to the ground, and the Flock screamed. It rushed for my neck, but was knocked aside by one of the hounds.

The Flock hit the ground, then surged forward, flaring its wings. Magic surged out of the Asomatous, infusing its ghostly wings It rushed forward, fleeing the scene of the battle, screeching about revenge. 

I stared at it, watching as the cwn anwnn rushed after it, trying to pin it down and stop the threat of the Flock forever, but the spirit was outpacing them, clearly having used some of the treasures in its spirit. 

Despite everything we’d done, we’d really only bruised the ego of the ancient bird spirit. We hadn’t stopped it, and while we’d killed these birds, this was a forest. It would be able to collect more, and could return even stronger. 

“You cannot kill me!” the Asomatous mocked as it floated into the air, well out of the reach of all of us. “You are nothing! And you will return to nothing!” 

Then a blast of pure golden light ripped through the air.