B2 Ch. 49 Hammer Time

If he hadn’t been in his spiritual form, Tilly was sure his heart would have seized from the shock of terror that struck him.  The weight of its attention surrounded him and squeezed, overwhelming his soul with primal fear.  Tilly’s flight stuttered to a stop as a silent scream escaped through his gritted ghostly teeth.  The figure's form was still obscure, but as Tilly stared in growing dread, its eyes began to shine with a dark intensity.

The figure didn’t move, but its indistinct features began to sharpen as the sounds of battle grew closer.  Some part of Tilly recognized that he was involuntarily returning to the battlefield and the cloud roiling above it.  The compulsion was as undeniable as gravity, and Tilly felt himself falling toward his doom.   All the while, those eyes grew more stark.

They filled Tilly’s vision and became his world.

Then a clarion call rang out from the wall, one so high and pure that it cut through the white noise of dominance that fuzzed Tilly’s mind and robbed him of all agency.  Both his attention and thankfully, the figure in the clouds, shifted to the wall, whose gates exploded open.

The gates reaped hundreds of enemy lives as they went from impenetrable to unstoppable in an instant, mowing down or flinging away anything in their path.  Tilly couldn't help but flinch at the thunderous clang the three-story metal doors made as they slammed to a stop against the walls that held them on giant metal hinges.

Behind them, a stream of combatants took the field charging through the recently made space and taking full advantage of the shock of their opponents to cut through their decimated front ranks and deep into the heart of the Horde’s offensive.  The figures leading the charge of the counterattack ranged from pale-looking humanoids to barely visible specters.

Simultaneously, the ranged attacks raining down from the wall suddenly burst with embedded magics.  Fire, wind, and even spectral blades tore through the press of bodies just beyond the charging Whyte counteroffensive, softening their opponents further and removing the possibility of a rally.

With the weight of the figure's presence gone, Tilly could suddenly think again and his flight instinct redoubled.  He had never been more sure of his need to flee a fight in his life.  He could do nothing here while that thing observed the fight.   He poured everything he had into getting away from the battlefield, burning through whatever added spiritual agency the spiritual flames had given him.  There was no way he would survive that thing's attention if it bothered to look back his way.

At that moment, it had owned him, heart and soul.  The loss of all of his control with just a glance from this new enemy filled him with certainty that he was way over his head.   It hadn’t been like last time with the red-eyed figure… there had been no struggle, just a silent, terrifying end to his free will.  Struck by a sudden thought, he desperately checked Corruption’s Influence on his hud

Corruption’s Influence: 26%

It hadn’t been affected by the other creatures' will…

He released a silent sigh of relief as he tore through the air as fast as he could following the face of the mountain range.  Tilly wondered if the figure had even used an Ability or if the gap in their power levels was so overwhelming that someone with Tilly’s low wisdom was virtually helpless before him.

He risked another glance back, making sure to focus only on the wall and the conflict raging before it.

The Defenders had cut a huge wedge into the attacking army, killing thousands as they completely demolished the front ranks of the Horde.   But the Whyte offensive had slowed significantly as it approached the area covered by the chaotic dark cloud.  Its influence rolled forward, pressing against the ghostly blue barrier again and dampening the magic flying off the wall.  The effectiveness of these attacks halved under its corrosive influence.

His view was slowly blocked by the curve of the mountain range and he turned forward. Before him stretched the river, snaking off through the flat plains and just up ahead where the powerful falls that fed it, thundering through a break in the mountains a couple of hundred feet up.

At this point, the white flames that had covered Tilly’s body had diminished to only a few patches and his speed had decreased incrementally as he approached the falls, ascending to its top.  He angled his flight to meet the barrier where it hovered above the water and slowed to a stop, hovering before it.

In his spirit form, the magic of the incredibly large spell was fascinating to see up close. He took a moment to marvel at what looked to be a tightly woven net of runes, exceedingly intricate and barely discernable even with his heightened sensitivity to mana in its base forms.   The lines of arcane text slowly crawled through the pattern, causing a shimmering shifting in the ghostly blue lace of enchantment.

He reached out and touched the barrier, and found it as strong as steel against his spiritual hand. A little jolt traveled through his arm at the contact, and the faint song of the Flower became more audible for a moment.

He watched a faint ripple run through the magic in all directions, shooting off out of sight. Nothing else happened that he could see, so he decided to stick with his plan and slowly sunk into the deluge of water pouring out into the plains.  His wince of hesitation relaxed into a smile as he entered the water and found that it passed through him with no resistance.  In fact, as he fully entered its flow, the last pieces of flames burning on his form strengthened and grew, covering his shoulders and arms like a mantle.  While the water was just water, hidden in its flow was something of significant spiritual weight.

The song grew even clearer in the center of the water’s outpouring, and Tilly the roar of the water would have been deafening in his physical form, but the way he was now, it was more of a simple reality playing in the background.  Surrounded by water and the growing sweetness of the song, he reached forward again.  His vision was obscured by the flow of the river, but as he reached forward, his hand still felt the hard resistance of the barrier before him.

‘Wow.  The protections extend this far?’  He thought to himself in disappointment.  He was about to pull his hand away when he felt a ripple roll through the barrier and sink into his spiritual form, mirroring what had happened when he first touched the barrier but in reverse.

‘Come little brother, we do not have much time.’

Then the resistance before him was gone, and he hesitantly flowed forward, finding the way clear. As soon as he passed, he felt the barrier close in behind him, and it may have been his imagination, but the movement seemed sluggish and stuttering, like turning on the lights in an old building.

As he moved forward on the other side of the barrier, he felt the weight of another kind of attention close in around him.  It felt distinctly fluid and wild.  Tilly suddenly had the impression that he was somewhere he did not belong.

Following instinct more than anything, he shot up out of the waters, feeling the weight of that unwelcome attention lift as soon as he removed himself from its domain. There, past the mouth of the falls, he found a curving path cut through the mountains by the river.  Without hesitating, he shot forward, following its curves and taking full advantage of his partially restored spiritual flames.

The river narrowed and broke off as he progressed, dividing up into hundreds of different tributaries from which it received its water. After cutting around several bends, Tilly emerged through the mountain range, gaining a view of the valley he had seen, what felt like ages ago. He left behind the river which cut back through the range at an angle and floated forward, suddenly hesitant.

The song rang here, just as clearly as it had the first time he had visited this valley and even with the terrifying pressures and obligations he had just left behind, he felt the weight of their urgency lighten slightly.  He flew over the trees, skimming their tops excitedly, now that he had finally made it back.

When he cleared the top of the tree line, the sight of the object of his quest hit him like a physical blow. The sight of the Flower and the rising crescendo of its song was heavy and overwhelming, however, the feeling could not have been more different than what he had just experienced outside the walls. The Prime Dirge’s power had dominated him, crushing all resistance before he even had time to realize what was happening.

In contrast, the Flower and its song did nothing to snuff out his will.  It was more than a force of nature, its power was undeniable as it flooded the valley. Yet it demanded nothing of its spectators, offering its gift freely.  The Flower’s beauty was unparalleled, made even more alluring by the fact that it was… vulnerable.

Tilly longed to approach it, feeling deeply attracted to its physical presence, but at the same time, a fiercely protective instinct rose up in him as he realized that it was the sole objective of the chaotic and evil energy that had suffused the area around the Prime Dirge.

At some point without realizing it, he found himself on the same hilltop he had visited the first time, lost in the layers and nuances of the Flower’s song.   Revelations about reality itself seemed to be playfully hidden within its melodies.

Then the sound of a deep sigh drew Tilly’s attention to his right and pulled him back into the present.  He looked over to find Thunder Descends leaning on his hammer and taking the same sight wistfully.  Then he began to speak,

“When I united the tribes of my peoples, I was insatiable in my appetite for more.  I wanted the greatest treasures of this Plane for myself… I was arrogant and my pride spelled my doom.  But my desires for great treasure lived on, and part of me continued in this form.  I was looking for something I could not name, but knew I had to find.”  He slowly pulled his gaze away from the flower and met Tilly's eyes.

“My new people found this place long ago, and to our wonder, we discovered that proximity to the Facet allowed us to act out memories of our predecessors many times before they faded.  It has been the treasure of our culture for a thousand years, and each of us swears to protect it once we join the city and learn of its presence.”  His smile fell as the solemnity of their situation sank in, even here at the heart of the hidden valley.

“Now the time of our stewardship comes to an end.  I heard the charge of my brothers and sisters and I too must go.  It is my time to break the pride of another arrogant heart.”  He declared, straightening and looking back west, where the city lay over the mountains.

“Wait, how do I obtain the patronage of the Flower?  How do I even get back here?”

Thunder Descends rolled his shoulders as he looked off into the distance, his frown turning fierce as he considered his opponent.

“I believe one of your party has something that will grant you a boon from Old Man River.  Make it to him, and he will help you to reach this place.  As far as the rest of your quest…” He trailed off, turning back towards Tilly and pausing before continuing hesitantly, “I can’t say I know. But you have a seed among you, and that is a good start.”  He finished, cracking a smile as if that was everything Tilly needed to know.  Then he hefted his hammer, and the sight of its sigil-inscribed head made Tilly’s ghostly jaw ache.

“Now, I will send you back to save a little time.  I do not think your presence has gone unnoticed, and the blood drinker has come to contest your claim.  You must hurry.”  He stated, his eyes narrowing in concentration as the head of his hammer began to thrum.

“Wait, that is not enough!  And why do you need your hammer?”