XLIX. Only Ash Remains

Aichlan slammed his shield against the lock of the gate several times, serving only to put a dent in the targe, a feat he had previously thought to be impossible. Donough gently pulled him aside and blasted the lock with a narrow stream of fire. He grunted as sweat poured down his face, the flame going from red-orange to orangish white, all to no effect. The gate and lock were unblemished. Tears of frustration in his eyes, Aichlan stomped on the gate several times in a feeble attempt to kick it down. Clarissa sobbed openly as Eth raised his blade and signaled for them to stand back. With a grunt, he ignited the blade and brought it crashing down onto the gate. The razor edge did not so much as nick the metal.

Aichlan angrily threw his targe against the stone road. “Fuck!”

The wind rustled through the leaves and the sounds of the battle still raging below were barely audible. A gently sloped road paved in stone wound its way up the side of the tree, as another road led into the city perched atop a system of branches. They could see the corpses of the slain littering the road, and the demons still patrolling the streets, though they fortunately had not spotted them.

Donough picked up Aichlan’s shield and handed it to him, hesitantly placing a firm hand on his shoulder in an attempt at consolation. Aichlan shrugged it off and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, frustrated by them and his own weakness. Alice had charged him with being her protector, not the other way around.

“We need to get in that room. Rowena, how do we get back to the base?”

“Aichlan—”

“Don’t.” Aichlan jabbed a trembling finger into her face. “How do we get back in there? This can’t be the only way.”

Rowena cast lowered her head and looked away. “From this level, there no other way. We can only go up or down from here.”

“Fuck it, then we’ll go down.”

Eth held out his arm, blocking his friends path. “Yer nae thinkin’ straight laddie.”

Aichlan shoved Eth aside. “Then I’ll go alone!”

Maleah threw down her lance and stormed after Aichlan, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder and slugging him in the jaw. “You don’t get to throw your life away so easily asshole, not after all that inspirational bullshit you laid on me earlier.”

Aichlan rubbed his sore aw and spat out a bit of blood. “This is different!”

“It’s the fucking same!” Maleah shook her head, blinking back tears. “She knew what she was doing, don’t let her sacrifice be in vain.”

Aichlan bristled. “There won’t be a sacrifice.”

“Fine! Then pick up your shit and let’s put an end to the monster that started this!”

“Aichlan,” Clarissa held out her arms, entreating him with watery eyes and trembling lips, “please.”

Aichlan held up his hand and approached the gate again. It was simple in design, something that should have easily been smashed through. It was as if there were an invisible barrier over it, halting any further progress to infuriating effect.

“Where is this bastard?”

* * *

Morana snapped her fingers, launching an array of needlelike energies that gleamed in every color of the rainbow. Alice barely dove out of the way, only for Morana to apparate right in front of her as she had several times before already. Alice grit her teeth and dug deep within to warp herself away in a flash of lightning. Alice reappeared on the other side of the room only to be met by Morana’s sadistic grin once more. Alice warped again to the same result. In desperation, she warped herself high up in the air, only for Morana to follow suit, gravity seeming to have no effect on the witch. As Alice began to fall, Morana launched several icicles from the tip of each finger. Alice wrapped herself in a cloak of lightning, absorbing the impact. The cocoon of electricity grew around her and finally burst, radiating arcing tendrils of electricity across the entire room.

Morana shot to the ground like a missile, landing with a thud as the electricity harmlessly passed through her and diffused into the floor. Alice appeared in a bolt of lightning behind her, a red triple layered glyph in her hands as she hastily uttered the incantation. Alice shoved the glyph on the bare skin of Morana’s back and a molten blade of iron pierced the witch, existing through her chest. The impact uprooted her from the ground, and as she floated back down in stunned horror, Alice followed with a bolt of lightning thicker than she was tall. Morana shrieked in agony as the bolt enveloped her, blasting a hole into the roof of the chamber.

Panting from exertion, Alice watched in stunned horror as Morana floated up to a standing position, a contradictory grimace of pain and pleasure upon her face. She sported a gaping, cauterized hole in her chest, her heart and lungs were gone, her standing there shuddering in orgasmic bliss was beyond incomprehensible. With some effort and none too subtle moans, Morana regrew the missing flesh and limbs from the inside out. After several moments, the wound was nominally healed, though it was still obvious from scarring and discoloration that there had once been a hole there.

Alice took the moment to catch her breath, trying to calm her racing mind and formulate a plan of attack. Or retreat. Morana hugged herself and shuddered with an incomprehensible expression that was a combination of one who had just been fucked silly and someone who smashed their toe into an end table.

“That…” Morana shuddered again. “Fucking hurt. I’m impressed. Pissed, but impressed.”

Alice doubled over, bracing herself against her knees as she gasped for breath. “What the devil are you?”

Morana disappeared in a flash of smoke and light, reappearing behind Alice, close enough to place her hands upon the young mages shoulders. Alice attempted to warp away, but found herself rooted in place, unable to cast anything.

“You…” Morana sucked in Alice’s scent as sommelier would a fine wine and caressed her neck. “must be so very confused.”

Morana slowly circled to Alice’s front. Alice still found herself unable to move or even speak, only aware that she may have bitten off more than she could chew.

“What I am, I cannot say. Not because I do not know, only that I cannot say. I can tell you that I am something that cannot be killed, though past follies tied me to the mortal realm.” Morana smiled and booped Alice on the nose. “But you, you may be able to help me.”

Morana released whatever hold she had over Alice, and the young mage fell gasping to the ground.

“Destroy this body,” Morana held out her arms in a magnanimous gesture, “free me of this burdensome existence, and you shall find my favor.”

A bolt of lightning crashed down on Alice as she warped away. Her journey was abruptly halted as she was thrown from her spell mid transit on the second level. Morana glowered down at her, her face in shadow save the bright blue eyes, eyes that held the fury of winter and promised death.

“You don’t get to tease me with the sweet release of death and then run away, you little cunt.”

Alice attempted to warp again, but was effortlessly snatched back by Morana, the process of which bent the very fabric of space, sending ripples and arcs of lightning through the air. With no other options, Alice clenched a wind rune in one hand and blasted Morana with a bolt of lightning from the other. Alice slammed the wind spell into the ground, propelling herself several feet into the air, and used lightning to bolt away, putting some distance between herself and the witch.

The cryptic words of the seemingly immortal sorceress troubled her however, if she were to have any hope of getting out alive, let alone victory, she would have to utterly vaporize her opponent. While such a feat was not outside the realm of possibility, most magic users always had a passive barrier of spiritual energy around them, a barrier that lessened the impact of hostile spells. Usually it was a negligible effect, but Alice got the impression that would not be the case with her.

Morana waved her hand before her, sending a cascading wall of sharpened ice towards Alice. Thinking quickly, Alice combined a tier one fire and wind spell, creating a backdraft effect to halt the ice. Her magical reserves were weakening, she needed to conserve her energy for offensive spells, and knew she could not rely solely on her elemental affinity. Sooner or later, Morana would catch on, if she had not already.

Alice leapt back as Morana burst through the flames, her clawed hand glowing with malefic violet energy. She raked her claws through the air, issuing forth five oozing blades of dark magic. Alice hastily raised a feeble shield of stone from the ground and warped away as the blades impacted. She reappeared behind Morana, holding an intricate glyph of vibrant blue, shimmering yellow and milky white. Morana whipped around and the glyph doubled in size as a series of white, yellow and blue runes orbited. A sadistic grin crossed Morana’s lips as Alice finished her incantation.

A silent bolt of lightning ripped through the witch’s abdomen. The crack of thunder that followed shattered every window left in the town. A hail of sharpened ice pelted the limp body of Morana for a full minute as she was slammed into the side of a townhome. Alice had not expected the attack to kill the witch, but she was nonetheless shocked to see her stand up and brush herself off as if nothing had happened.

Morana reached into the ground and uprooted two armored demons, like the ones that had guarded the gate into Yggdrasil. The very same that had given Eth and Donough a run for their money. Alice blinked and Morana was upon her, mid slash with her magic imbued claws. Alice warped away, but Morana was upon her again. She warped, Morana followed, bounding across the second level, leaving ruined buildings in their wake. Each attempt at a counter attack Alice made, Morana was quicker, hurling black ice and launching violet beams of exploding energy that tracked Alice’s every move. She was being corralled, forced to warp into the striking rage of the demon knights or take a hit from a spell. Despite uttering no incantation, the spells Morana so casually slung were not abbreviated or in any form weakend, they hit like a hammer and came bundled with all manner of deleterious effects. Alice’s movement was slowed by one, she lost use of her arms from another, was overcome with crippling nausea and temporary blindness by others.

All Alice could do was blindly warp away and throw up a feeble shield of stone or lightning when she saw an attack coming. The woman’s spells had taken on a manic fury, varied castings being slung left and right with no sign of fatigue. The slow, creeping sensation being burned while frozen crept up in Alice’s chest, soon spreading to every limb. She could not so much as draw a glyph for a tier one spell and was forced to draw upon her element just to survive.

She had barely touched down after warping out of an attack, when the two knights set upon her. She blasted one with a massive bolt as her feet hit the ground, lightning rippled across her body, striking out in tiny tendrils at anything metal. As he fell back, the second one swung, and Alice launched herself up in a flash of electricity, crashing down upon him like a hammer of lightning, cracking its armor to reveal the writhing black swarm of eyes and tentacles beneath. With a furious scream, she hammered her fists into the mass of slimy flesh, each strike bringing a more terrifying jolt. As she raised her fist for the finishing blow, she was blindsided by a literal building Morana had flung at her. Alice warped away, the effort and strain causing her to vomit and cough up blood. The icy, burning sensation had been replaced by a tingling numbness, her body surged with electricity; electricity she found herself in less and less control of.

The building crashed against the side of the tree, causing the ground to shake violently as it exploded into a cloud of dust and debris. The stone and dirt rained down as Morana appeared at Alice’s side. Alice swiped at the witch, sending a violent wave of electrical discharge. Morana simply shook her head and summoned one of her knights to shield her from the blast. The demon's armor clattered against the ground as its liquified remains puddled at their feet.

“How foolish of me to think you were the one.” Morana sighed and tossed her hair. “So disappointing, and after I got my hopes up too.”

Seven ancient symbols of a long dead tongue formed around Morana, written in black-violet flame. Her oppressive aura crashed down upon Alice, manifesting as black lines dripping through the air, wildly vibrating everything. Alice tried to force herself to her feet, but found she was immobilized by the oppressive energy. Morana casually removed a key from her belt and knelt to Alice’s eye level. Her youthful beauty was obscured, as if she had two faces vying for prominence, that of the enchanting sorceress and the old crone.

Morana smiled a simultaneously toothy and toothless grin. “This represents an instant and painless death; the sweet release and brief transition from one tortured existence to another.”

A tendril of electricity leapt from Alice’s arm and struck the key. Sporadically, bolts discharged from her body to strike randomly at her surroundings. Each breath was raw with the metallic taste of ionization, the noxious fume of burning ozone was heavy about her. As she felt the embrace of unconsciousness envelop her, thoughts of home and the friends she had lost flashed through her mind. Tears floated about her head as the electromagnetism she created caused her and the debris around her to float in the air.

Morana attempted to shove her back on the ground with an irritated huff. In the instant she made contact, Alice erupted into a brilliant ball of blinding white, blue tendrils of lightning ripped through the ground and the ruins of the town. For what felt like an eternity, countless millions of volts coursed through Morana’s body until all that was left of her was a pile of fine dust.