Chapter 28: Through the Spatial Gate

Stretching his senses, both magical and mundane, to their limits, Kaz carefully observed the slow activation of the Spatial Gate. By this point, the only people left in the town square were the remnants of the Janaroian strike forces.

At the Eastern Gate leading into the village, the Inquisition forces had finished regrouping. Seeing Oksana keeping watch behind a nearby tree, Chekov quickly approached her.

“Give me a status update. How many of our men are left?” Gritting his teeth, Chekov focused nearly all of his concentration in restoring his mana pool from the latent atmospheric mana available.

Taking a quick headcount of the commandos nearby, Oksana’s face became more gloomy than before.

“We’re down to fifteen able-bodied men. There’s seven wounded here for a total of twenty-two, but those wounded definitely cannot take part in any assault on the Janaroian forces. At best they can keep a lookout for any escape attempts.”

“Gods. What about the necromancer? Did you notice any signs of his presence in the village?”

“Only that he’s within the village somewhere. I’m certain he’s hiding in one of the buildings, or ruins now. I’ve seen his...ghost thing travelling between the buildings but I can’t pinpoint his location because his creatures don’t travel via alleys.” Sighing, Oksana’s frustration was clearly seen on her visage. That little bastard’s stupid undead groundhogs took the lives of my comrades. I’ll see to it that I gut him personally if I ever get the chance.

Looking back at his men, Chekov was not at all surprised that their morale was near rock-bottom. The Inquisition forces had started out with nearly twice their current number, and these elite soldiers weren’t used to such high casualties.

It seems that I’ll have to propose a new training regimen to High Command when I get back to the Granite Keep. The men should have been indoctrinated better.

Pointing at twelve men that were still able to fight, Chekov silently signalled them to get ready to reengage the enemy.

Looking reluctantly at Chekov, the twelve commandos nevertheless prepared their weapons and stood up, ready to follow the Inquisitor back into the burning ruins of Abaza.

“Stay close to the shadows, and try not to get burnt. I bet that coward Alessio has a Spatial Gate prepared for his escape. There’s no way that he managed to activate it in between the time of the explosion and now. Even with the saturated mana in the atmosphere from spells flying everywhere, it’ll take at least ten minutes for the Gate to power up. We’ll wait and ambush him before he manages to open it and take the Gate for ourselves.” Nodding once, Chekov signalled for the twelve commandos to follow him back towards the town center.

As Chekov was making his way back to the town square, Alessio was trying to calm himself down in the middle of the town square.

“Don’t worry men, the Light of the Gods is almost upon us. Just a little bit longer, and we’ll be away from this damned place.” Sounding more as if he was trying to comfort himself rather than his men, Alessio’s hands held his staff in a white-knuckled grip.

“The Spatial Gate is very nearly charged now. It’ll be less than two minutes until the portal opens. I hope you’re ready to make a break for it.” Ahriman’s voice rasped across the inside of Kaz’s mind.

“Hmm? It seems that some of the Inquisition forces are quickly making their way through the eastern part of the village towards the center of town. Could they also be trying to intercept the powering up of the Spatial Gate?” Frowning, Kaz turned his mana sense towards the eastern part of Abaza.

“They may very well have the same goal that you do. I hope you learned your lesson that trying to bait two groups that overpower you greatly into doing your dirty work isn’t exactly the best solution.” Ahriman’s sarcasm cut deeply into Kaz.

“Hey, I’m not exactly a master of tactics here. I hardly even know how to rank the strength of the mages that I’ve seen in comparison to me. Hell, I don’t even remotely use the same type of magic as they do.”

“Yeah, whatever. That’s not important now. Quickly shove those free floating souls into a body to animate them as bone minions. Don’t enslave them first.” Barking out instructions, Ahriman’s voice had a slight tinge of panic.

“Animating minions without enslaving the souls? Then I wouldn’t be able to control them? What’s the point of making necromantic creatures if they might attack me as easily as any other living being?” Not trusting Ahriman completely, Kaz gathered the Soul Power needed to animate some Bone Soldiers but didn’t actually animate them immediately.

“You don’t need to control them, you stupid brat. The undead attack whatever is in sight of them. All you need to do is animate them and wait for them to catch sight of your enemies, and off they go.”

“Why couldn’t I just cast Rupture Spirit in the alleys that the Inquisition forces are in? That magical explosion should take care of the problem right there and then.” Still not convinced, Kaz leaned against the wall as he observed the situation through his reaper spirit that was still flying high above the village.

“Did you forget what happened the last time you used that spell? A whole patch of forest was completely ruined, glassed to the ground.” Ahriman’s voice sounded like it was about to explode with anger. “Plus the damn spell takes several seconds to cast. At the speed at which these soldiers are moving they’ll be far past the danger zone of the spell once it activates. In addition, you want to delay the Inquisition troops. If a series of magical explosions happened in relatively close proximity then those Janaroians would be alerted as well.”

“Ugh. Fine. Have it your way.” Rolling his eyes, Kaz grabbed nearly a dozen loose spirits and fused them into the least damaged bodies that he could find in the eastern part of the village. With sickening crunches of bone and low moans, the reanimated corpses rose to their feet with their eyes glowing a light blue.

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Moving stealthily but quickly towards the town square, the Inquisition’s second wave of soldiers were split into three groups of four with one approaching from the north, one approaching from the south, and one approaching from due east. Chekov attached himself to the center group, but had another one of his men take point as they made their way through the fires.

Turning a corner, one of the Klavan commandos slowed down as he saw another heavily wounded Klavan commando leaning against the wall of a burning building.

“Hey, are you okay? You’ll be fine, just go where we came from and you should rendezvous with the other surviving members of our forces.” Seeing no response from the man, the Klavan commando tapped the wounded man on the shoulder and spun him around. “Are you okay– GODS!?”

The wounded man that turned around could no longer be identified as a human. Its dead eyes glowed light blue, and the creature’s jaw was hanging by a couple scraps of flesh.

“Kekekeke!” Cackling madly, the bone minion darted towards the startled commando and bit into the man’s neck. Turning its head to the side, the undead creature managed to rip open the Klavan commando’s neck as it stabbed the man through the chest with a machete in its bony hands.

Gurgling miserably as his lifeblood spilled out onto the ground, the Klavan commando tried to shift his weight in order to push the undead minion onto the ground.

With a grunt, Chekov signalled for the remaining three men in his squad to slow down.

“Apply argentum potions to your weapons, and drink ursus potions. The necromancer seems to be making his move. Although if he thinks a few of these simple creatures will stop us, then he’ll be in for a nasty surprise.” Taking out brown flasks from their pockets, the commandos drank them. Immediately, they took out silver flasks and dripped the contents of those onto their swords.

The moment that the commandos were done with their preparations, the undead minion managed to push off the now dead commando. Within seconds, a sickening series of cracks came from the still warm corpse of the commando.

Rising unsteadily to his feet, the newly risen undead glared balefully at the remainder of the Inquisition squad that was heading straight through the eastern side of Abaza. The two undead Klavan commandos charged with their machetes raised.

“Futile. The power contained in the argentum potion was designed to rip apart magical barriers! Your paltry animated flesh is nothing compared to that!” With a snarl, Chekov slashed his sword in a wide arc at the leading bone minion.

The bone minion did not react in time, or rather, could not react in time. Chekov’s now enhanced sword sliced through the undead commando’s neck as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Decapitated, the glow in the bone minion’s eyes faded as its body slammed down onto the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The second bone minion was behind it, and swung its machete in a vertical arc towards Chekov’s head.

Stepping backwards, Chekov raised his sword to parry the machete. Sparks flew as the two blades met, but the Inquisitor managed to block the minion’s blow. As quick as lightning, Chekov’s sword darted out in a riposte as it slammed into the undead commando’s shoulder.

Knocked off balance, the undead minion could only howl in anger as Chekov decapitated the creature.

“So much for the unholy strength of the undead.” Sneering, Chekov swung his blade in the air to get rid of the blood that stained his sword. “Men, keep in mind that use of the ursus potions allow men to match the strength of these minor undead. Argentum potions are also required in order to finish these creatures off in a timely manner. Avoid all undead minions if possible, do not engage unless absolutely necessary to the mission, but do not allow yourselves to be surrounded.”

Seeing his men nod once, Chekov signalled for the squad to continue on their way to the town square.

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Seeing the three squads of Inquisition commandos cut through his undead minions, Kaz’s face blanched.

“How much longer before the spatial gate activates? I don’t think my undead minions will be of much use right now. That silver potion that they’re using to coat their weapons is absolutely lethal to any of my undead.”

“It’s because the undead that you create are just really weak.” Ahriman said with some contempt. “Why if I was the one animating undead, those soldiers would’ve been dead by now.”

“Well, you don’t have a body or soul power right now.” Kaz snapped back. “The sooner we get through that spatial gate the sooner we can concentrate on getting you your body back. Whose fault is it that I’m bumbling my way through necromancy instead of being taught properly?”

“I’m actually sure it’s yours, for interrupting my ritual and not dying a while back.” Ahriman wasn’t one to take insults lying down. Before Kaz could reply, Ahriman quickly cut him off. “Shut up. The spatial gate will activate within ten seconds.”

Losing all interest in arguing with the voice in his head, Kaz ordered his reaper spirit to fly lower in the sky in case he needed it quickly.

“How do I recognize the moment that I need to interrupt it?” Feeling more and more nervous as the spatial gate started to gently pulse with white light, Kaz bit his lower lip.

“I told you already you dumb brat. The gate will change, or pulse, whatever. It will change color from white three times. I don’t know what colors the gate will change into, but I can guarantee that none of the colors will be white or black. They will be bright colors, almost revoltingly so.”

“So, fruit colors? Red, green, yellow, those sort of colors?”

“...Yes, if the image will make you feel better. Fruit colors. Now pay attention!”

With a low groan, Kaz commanded his reaper and blood spirits to keep watch for any directly approaching Klavan commandos. Then, he crouched and kept a careful watch on the floating spatial gate.

Within a couple of seconds, the spatial gate flashed from white to a dark red. A look of relief could be seen on Alessio’s face as the gate changed colors.

“Not too much longer now, men. We will be out of this disaster of a expedition soon.” Recovering some of his former calm, Alessio’s voice started to regain its previous benevolent quality. “I swear that I will compensate everyone here, dead or alive, for their losses in this terrible debacle.”

The spatial gate pulsed once, then flashed from dark red to a bright teal.

“Good, good. The spatial gate has made the connection with the target spatial gate. The mages on the other side should be powering up the other end as we speak.”

Pulsing twice, the floating orb changed once more from a bright teal to a pale green.

“NOW!! Disrupt it quickly before it pulses three times!” Ahriman’s voice exploded in Kaz’s mind.

“CRACK!!”

With a loud bang, Kaz warped to a dead body using its lingering death energy via the spell Death Warp.

Using his left hand, Kaz shot out a Mental Spike towards the spatial gate as his right hand unleashed Frozen Spread at the shocked Janaroians.

As the Mental Spike slammed into the spatial gate, a visible crack formed on the surface of the spatial gate. Pulsing erratically, the spatial gate changed colors from its previous pale green into a dark purple.

“NO! Kill him before he damages the gate further!” Roaring in anger, Alessio ignored the shards of ice that were heading towards him in order to quickly gather mana for an offensive spell.

“You think I’ll let you cast that?” With a grin on his face, Kaz quickly burned through another portion of his soul power in order to sling the Rigor Mortis spell at Alessio. “It’s to your detriment that I caught you off guard, haha.”

As soon as the Rigor Mortis spell hit Alessio, the man’s jaw locked up and halted his spellcasting. His eyes bulging, Alessio couldn’t avoid any of the jagged ice shards that ripped into him and his men. Paralyzing Alessio’s mouth meant that the man couldn’t complete his chant, and therefore preventing him from casting whatever spell he was in the middle of casting.

“Huh. Shit. I never thought you could use Rigor Mortis like that. I always thought that it was only useful in causing people to trip while running.” Seeing Kaz’s creative use of one of his spells, Ahriman couldn’t help but praise the young necromancer.

The damaged spatial gate pulsed once.

Time seemed to slow for Kaz as he focused all of his attention into his surroundings. The Janaroian soldiers were disoriented and panicking after being pelted with sharp pieces of ice.

The damaged spatial gate pulsed again, and started to glow ever brighter turning into a bright purple.

“SHUA!” Breaking the hold that Rigor Mortis had on his body with his mental strength, Alessio’s face had turned beet red in rage by this point. Slamming his staff into the ground, Alessio issued orders to his men. “Shield troops, approach with shields up. Charge him, this little bastard’s spells can’t penetrate your reinforced shields at this point, and when he gets another spell ready you’ll have arrived in front of him. Mage! You cover my front with a shield while I prepare my spells. We only have one shot at this before the gate opens.”

Seeing the soldiers move, Kaz willed his two spirits to move towards him.

Shrieking wildly, the reaper spirit dived down towards the Janaroian group an an angle. Flying closer and closer at an incredible speed, a bright blue mana sword materialized in its outstretched right hand.

The moment the reaper spirit reached the edge of the group, it started to swing its mana sword in wide arcs. Miserable screams rang out among the Janaroian warriors as the mana sword went through their armor and directly ripped apart the flesh within as it burned at the same time. The reaper spirit ripped through the warriors without slowing down, heading for the two mages near the front of the group.

“What, what is that? How do we defend against that?” The other mage besides Alessio was pale with terror.

“Don’t do anything stupid. Maintain the shield up front. As long as we kill the necromancer, the spirits will be loosed and escape from here. I’m certain that those souls are held against their will.” Gritting his teeth, Alessio was showing signs of mana exhaustion. The veins in his body were swollen, his eyes had an unhealthy yellow tinge to them, and his limbs were extremely shaky. Mustering up the remnants of his mana pool, Alessio managed to shoot a Fireball towards Kaz. “Brat, die for me!”

Kaz’s eyes narrowed as he recalled his reaper spirit. Hearing the mental command of its master, the reaper spirit moved so fast it blurred. Situating itself between Kaz and the fireball, the reaper spirit pointed the tip of its mana sword towards the fireball.

The fireball slammed into the mana sword, and popped with a sizzle. Fire flew in all directions except towards the reaper spirit. Kaz was safe from this backlash since he was standing directly behind his spirit minion.

The cracked spatial gate pulsed a third time, and it glowed nearly white. With an weird suction noise, a oval portal was opened vertically in the air like a door where the orb was.

“Go, now! The spatial gate is badly damaged and cannot remain open for long. It definitely can’t take more than several beings into it now. Hurry, before it closes and you lose your chance to escape!” Ahriman took one look at the flickering portal and urgently warned Kaz.

At this moment, Kaz’s blood spirit popped out of the ground near Alessio and his subordinate mage as the two were trying to avoid the flames from the popped fireball. It drove one bloody claw through the lesser mage and flew towards Alessio with its other bloody claw outstretched.

“PING”

As the bloody claw was about to rip open Alessio’s chest, it bounced off of his robes.

“Damn. The mage’s clothes seem to have some sort of magical protection.” Muttering under his breath, Kaz quickly cast Soul Enslave on the last dead mage as well as Soul Harvest to restore his soul power.

At this moment, Chekov’s teams managed to break past the undead minions that Kaz reanimated in the alleys. Looking wildly disheveled, Chekov’s eyes were blazing with anger as he stared at Kaz’s figure across the town square.

Looking at Chekov, Kaz smirked and raised his arms in the traditional Klavan salute. Without saying anything else, he lept into the spatial gate, followed by his two spirit minions and the discarnate souls bound to him.

With a shudder, the spatial gate flashed once and closed. The now inert orb dropped to the ground from the air. Alessio fell to his knees as the Klavan commandos surrounded him and his warriors.

From a broken doorway, Temur’s eyes were glued to the sight of the town square.

“Oh, you tricked us, aye. I don’t know who you really are, Kir, but I swear on my ancestors that one day, you’ll pay for what you did to our home.” Gnashing his teeth, Temur’s fists were clenched until his knuckles were white and his palms bled. “I’ll hunt you to the ends of the world, if I have to. Just you wait.”