Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

After her throat healed, Amdirlain almost sent another message but stopped herself in time after remembering the chamber's original purpose. Collecting all the papers, she teleported away from the quarantine station, leaving the items Lorrella had provided in the racks they’d sat in since she’d memorised their songs.

Intending it only to be a temporary location, Amdirlain created another small chamber with a table and benches a few hundred kilometres away and carved a ‘2’ into the wall for a teleport reference.

“Ebusuku, sorry I was short with you in my last message—I should have apologised the other day rather than stay silent. My update: I’ve blown up one of Moloch’s towns and killed Munais to free her from captivity. So pretty much nothing is going on here. Let me know when you have time to talk via a Gate or something.”

A Gate opened in the gap on the table’s far side, and Amdirlain peered into the summoning chamber of Moradin’s Temple in Duskstone. The glow from the mithril runes along the circle’s edge washed into her bleak room.

Ebusuku appeared as a midnight-hued Elf, with tightly curled black hair and eyes, whose tight fighting leathers almost blended with her skin tone. The buckles and sheaths made it somewhat easier to separate where her skin ended and the leather began.

Ebusuku winced when she saw her. “Amdirlain, I was hoping Munais' death wouldn’t mark you, but there is a haze of violence around you now.”

“My song doesn’t have dissonance, but I’m angry and I’ll admit it's adding sharp notes. The issue is that after I killed Munais I got an achievement called 'Angel Killer'. Now astral devas and below will fear or loathe me on sight,” explained Amdirlain. “It's in the layer of my physical presence, not my Soul. I didn’t think that would affect you.”

“It doesn't affect me, but I can see the haze,” explained Ebusuku. “You’ll find that demons can feel it as well, but they’ll react to it far more favourably. Killing an Angel by yourself; did Gideon tell you anything about the conditions for gaining this aura?”

“Killing with a single strike while also taking no damage in combat,” replied Amdirlain.

“That makes sense. I’ve known a few Angel hunters that some of my kin had found enticing,” offered Ebusuku. “You'll likely have demons reacting with attraction, respect, or jealousy from those able to sense it. Dumber or weaker demons will react to the menace of a predator nearby, as you experienced with the Dretch.”

“Gideon’s notification mentioned nothing about that side,” grumbled Amdirlain. “Thanks for letting me know. Wouldn’t have been good to pose as a Lesser Dretch again—no one would have believed it.”

“He might not have considered it worth mentioning, given how obvious it should be,” teased Ebusuku, nodding resignedly when Amdirlain’s bleak mood didn’t shift. “I mean, what celestials hate, demons love.”

Amdirlain scrubbed a hand across her face and suppressed a sigh. “Did you have an avatar here waiting for me to call?”

Patting a pouch at her belt, Ebusuku smiled sadly. “I brought plenty to read since I wasn’t sure how long you’d not want to speak to me, and it's not like the dwarves use these summoning chambers often. I hope your current chamber isn’t the limit of what you’ll allow yourself as a base now.”

Amdirlain glanced about. “Might be hard to spar in here. What’s with the stealth commando look?”

“I was in the mood for black, plus I was planning to lay waste to undead on Cemna once I had heard from you again. Will you share what you’ve got planned?”

“Moloch’s a merchant at heart. Since his or his lackeys' plans hurt Torm, I’m claiming the debt owed from Moloch’s worldly possessions,” hissed Amdirlain.

“Better leave nothing to trace back to you. When you said you 'blew up the town', did you use another ritual?” enquired Ebusuku, and only her time at the monastery let Amdirlain catch the concern tightening Ebusuku's gaze.

“No, I didn’t,” reassured Amdirlain.

Ebusuku started to ask for more details but stopped at Amdirlain’s tight smirk.

“True Song isn’t detectable by magic, so I used it to set up the effects of different spells. By the end, I had thousands of flame strikes, fireballs, earthquakes, plasma flares, and others, all tied to my presence in the town. When I teleported away, they all went off in one hit.”

“How did you get into town? Teleporting around could get you detected eventually,” cautioned Ebusuku.

“I walked in looking like a newly ascended Dretch, mimicking ‘Useful’ and his mindset.”

“The Dretch you named?”

Amdirlain nodded. “Seems I’ll have to use other names for future strikes. The town was a glowing wasteland of Celestial energy, and I trapped the Gate. Though I should have been more systematic in my placement, I didn’t end up with enough of the demons dead. There were prisoners in the town, so I used a Dismissal tuned to them so they would get taken home.”

“The most common use of that Spell is to banish demons,” laughed Ebusuku bitterly.

“True, but it works on anything that isn’t on its Home Plane. Speaking of home planes, can you find out Munais’ Use Name? I want to message her the same as you did after fighting Lêdhins to release her Planar Lock, but I wasn’t sure if it would work without a Use Name.”

“Caltzan’s boss enquired about you threatening them. You raised some questions by contacting their servant without access to their name,” noted Ebusuku cautiously.

The flare of anger in Amdirlain’s gaze had Ebusuku purse her lips in concern. “It wasn’t a threat; it was a promise. I’ll have an in-depth discussion with them once they’re not Planar Locked, which might be something they won’t enjoy. However, I ended the message by calling myself their ill-omen of reckoning. Do you think they took that as a threat?”

Ebusuku's expression looked divided between laughter and worry. “Careful you don’t slip into a mindset where you don’t recognise yourself. Coming back from some choices is a lot harder than others.”

“If I had been near that compound, I would have heard the transformation site. Torm’s Fallen now because Caltzan was a paranoid arsehole. I’m furious with him, angry at myself, and miserable for Torm. I should have made a fuss about Torm being too loyal to the group’s rules. His choice had consequences for Torm, and I’ll share my feelings on the matter in great detail,” stated Amdirlain.

“I’ll remind you that Torm’s choice was also in there. All I’m asking you to do is be careful how far you let anger and pain carry you. We don’t want to lose you as well,” Ebusuku reiterated.

Sighing in frustration, Amdirlain spread her arms. “Maybe I’ll have cooled down by the time I can get my hands on them. Maybe.”

“How did you kill Munais?” asked Ebusuku.

Giving Ebusuku a tight smile at her change of subject, Amdirlain explained. “I composed a song to cause a willing target to explode. I sent her a warning and then used it. There was a combat notification for her, and some Schir kills.”

“No chance of freeing her otherwise?” Ebusuku enquired.

“I didn’t even know where she ended up. The Wizard had collared and controlled her since day one. He had passed her onto Moloch’s forces by the time I found him. Zutag is the name he used for a Balor who had been interested in Munais. Anyway, part of the song I set up was to cast her back to her Liege’s Plane,” explained Amdirlain.

“I take it you used True Song to message her?” asked Ebusuku, and when Amdirlain nodded, she continued. “Why not try that again, and have her contact me via her Liege if she’s still Planar Locked.”

Amdirlain sent a new message with the same phrasing for her release that Ebusuku had used and signed in relief when it jumped across planes. “She’s certainly on an upper Plane; hopefully, it goes well.”

Creating a list of details she gained from the Wizard, Amdirlain turned it into a paper aeroplane and sent it through the Gate. At the circle’s edge, it ran into the barrier and nosed-dived into the ground. “List of demons, towns, and goods produced. I’ll find a lone Demon nearby and see what they sense from me.”

“Besides raiding those towns, what else do you have planned?”

“The Anar are good at energy manipulation, and there are so many places with clouds of burning energy to use. I’m sure I can have some fun,” Amdirlain smiled, and she continued with forced casualness. “Also, I thought I’d open a Gate between this Plane and one of the Blood War battlefields and let Hell invade.”

“What!” exclaimed Ebusuku, her mask of composure shattered with fear for Amdirlain.

“I know one of his training camps. I imagine Hell would love to butcher thousands of demons before they get training.”

“Why would you involve yourself in the Blood War? What’s stopping demons from using the Gate when they drive Hell back?” asked Ebusuku.

“I thought I’d use orderly energy within it. Devils will pass either way, but demons will go boom! As for involvement in the Blood War, in some ways I’m far too pragmatic. Here, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, but I’m happy to give them a chance to butcher Moloch,” remarked Amdirlain, and her gaze shone with rage.

“You know you’re treading dangerous ground.”

“I know, just, I’m not sure I care. Worst case, I’ll set a circle up somewhere to keep my energy contained, have Isa use her concealment song on me, and meditate for the rest of the time. Best case, I’m going to put a sizeable hole in Moloch’s resources and profits,” declared Amdirlain, and she held up a hand to get Ebusuku to wait.

“No,” Ebusuku denied, ignoring Amdirlain’s gesture. “Worst case is you lose yourself or become a prisoner.”

“Oh, Ebusuku, I’m already a prisoner and have been for decades, in one form or another. I will do what is necessary to make Moloch pay,” admitted Amdirlain. “Torm is out there somewhere, and I can’t even start trying to find him; this gives me something useful to do while I wait. Amusingly, whoever came up with the scheme to bait deities is to thank for some of my plans because your gates gave me some fascinating ideas.”

“We’re already looking for him,” offered Ebusuku. “Hold off on making yourself a target in that fashion. True Song might not leave Mana traces, but examining any Gate will let them determine it opened from your side.”

“So I wait because you're looking for Torm?” asked Amdirlain sceptically. “The realm is a big place.”

“I’m not trying to talk you out of your intent to hurt Moloch’s realm. Just, some things are sure to provide them with more clues than others. Remember, you’re not alone. You have people that love you, and we don’t want to see you destroyed,” pleaded Ebusuku.

“One of those people is likely not concerned about my safety anymore,” murmured Amdirlain.

Ebusuku nodded. “Choice can have consequences, as you mentioned to Caltzan. Livia got a message from Torm while you were destroying the town.”

The stone table cracked under Amdirlain’s suddenly gouging nails. “What did he have to say to her?”

“He promised her you’d be his one day, and then the three of you would be a proper family,” stated Ebusuku.

“Fuck,” groaned Amdirlain, and she angrily scrubbed her face to wipe away a sudden rush of tears.

“He’s obsessed with you. Don’t get yourself twisted by obsessing over avenging him,” warned Ebusuku.

Giving Ebusuku a sad smile, Amdirlain ran her nails across the stone table, leaving grooves in her wake. “Logically, I know going for revenge is bad, but I can’t just hide. I’m not quashing all my emotions down, and I hurt so much. I need to keep moving while I work on breaking down the pain.”

“Torm’s not a Hidden like you. It makes him far easier to find, even without his current Use Name. His Liege is seeking oracles to help locate him, and we will find him,” assured Ebusuku placatingly. “Remember, Moloch will sell anything. Hurt him too much, and he might decide that service to a dark Greater Power is worth the price they’ll charge to find the pest on his Plane.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure he’s not got the price of admission,” growled Amdirlain.

“Amdirlain,” breathed Ebusuku, her voice soft with concern.

Holding up a hand, Amdirlain closed her eyes to break Ebusuku’s gaze. “Please don’t.”

Ebusuku paused, and Amdirlain caught a link leading away to a higher Plane. “Your message freed Munais from the Planar Lock, and her Liege told me that Munais would like to meet with you. I’ve already told her the issue, but she insists Munais wants to thank you in person.”

“Alright, might as well interact with someone else’s Celestial to see how bad things get,” sighed Amdirlain, and she pushed herself away from the table. “But not at present. I’ve got other things I want to handle. Please ask her to give me a few weeks.”

Before Ebusuku could say anything, Amdirlain teleported away.

Returning to the vantage point on the plateau, Amdirlain looked over the churning clouds of energy and considered options. The shift into a Balor’s massive form was a calculated risk. Amdirlain added abyssal steel armour adorned with Moloch’s crest and jagged black adamantine blades before she teleported again. A hundred metres below her appearance, the erratically placed spikes occupied by the damned spread out. As she flew, Amdirlain ensured she used her wings as she took in the Dretch birthing from the ooze.

The patrolling succubi stayed clear, even though the aura of violence radiating off the unfamiliar Balor fuelled their lust. Most put the Balor’s unusual presence down to the recent Celestial incursions, and none wanted to risk attracting his ire at being in such a low-duty station.

It was nearly a day of flying and teleporting before Amdirlain found what she sought. Perched on a jutting stone ledge, she took in the Gold Elf King among the rows of the first souls consigned to this place; his Soul’s power had faded from their aeons of torment. Here and there among the rows of gold elves were gaps now filled by the damned of other species.

The cloven hooves of her form crunched the loose rocks on the ledge. Most of the nearby succubi kept flying, but a bolder one flew to greet her. Ivory-skinned and crimson-lipped, her black wings showed an extensive collection of claws and spurs along their outer edge. The whole proclaimed she’d spawned from Culerzic’s cliffs, but Amdirlain caught her connection to another Plane. Yet, with the Succubus not even projecting the strength of the Schir guards, Amdirlain simply held her position.

“Is there something you desire here, Balor, or just sightseeing?”

“Perhaps there is something worthwhile; come closer, so I can decide,” demanded Amdirlain, and she projected the heated lust from memory as she beckoned for her. Before the gesture was complete, Ki Infusion contained a casting of Planar Attunement without hinting at its existence.

The crimson lips of the Succubus curled in appreciation, and she wafted down to hover with lazy wing beats before the ledge. The smile didn’t have time to disappear at Amdirlain’s blurred motion. Her first contact with the Succubus’ ivory skin released the constrained Planar Attunement, and it shrouded her target just before the claws parted flesh and her head flew away. Unsupported, the Demon’s body dropped into the muck.

[Combat Summary:

Succubus, Least x1

Total Experience gained: 2,931

Ostimë: +1,465

Ontãlin: +1,465]

Under the control of Far Hand, the head spun around and returned to her, and Amdirlain grasped it by the drifting locks. With the long hair curled around her fingers, the swaying head warned others to stay away. Further distractions held at bay, Amdirlain returned to studying the damned. Those succubi patrols that came near simply flew higher and continued on their way.

Remembering what Hestia had told her about the Celestial whom the Titan had purged of all memory and experience, Amdirlain tried memorising the song of each Gold Elf. True Song Composition made the sheer complexity of achieving the same purge clear, so instead, she used Silent Song to enact a different effect.

The music she silently invoked continually tried to twist from her control and pushed True Song up repeatedly before she was done. One by one, the gold elves Orhêthurin had consigned there became oblivious to the blades scraping at their souls. No longer in pain, the construct to inflict agony couldn’t shred their souls.

Those succubi who passed her in their patrols saw only a Balor upon the ledge with his arms crossed, staring angrily at the damned. When those gold elves that remained were all settled into an eerie silence among the other screaming damned, Amdirlain left and flew on her way to the final acknowledgement of her efforts.

[True Song [M] (55->56)]

Only when she was well clear of the new oddity did Amdirlain teleport away. Repeatedly, she shifted forms and teleported to another random location before arriving at her next destination. When she appeared on an arid and drought-cracked dirt plain, she had taken on a female Skëll’s bulky form.

Vibrant red scales ran from the base of her black horns down across her shoulders. Their vividness bled into the jet-black scales that covered the rest of her body down to the clawed hands and feet. The length of her arms was almost gibbon-like in proportion to her four-metre height, allowing her to switch between bipedal or quadrupedal motion. The famine grove ahead of her appeared untended, but Amdirlain extended Resonance to ensure there was nothing but the trees and the damned before she moved closer.

Songs added a weapon harness to her person, greaves on her long limbs, and an assortment of enchanted axes. She ignored the minor trickles of experience to focus on the grove ahead.

Under the dry earth, she could sense the misery of the damned beneath almost every tree. Their suffocation and impalement drained their vile nature into the trees, which produced sickeningly lush fruit. The fruit itself wove a theme that would be lethal to most Mortal species, but to demonic tastes it was a great treat filled with suffering and despair.

With no one present, Amdirlain started to experiment with her compositions. The same song that stopped the gold elves from suffering did nothing for these souls. The enclosing earth was too all-encompassing to block the tree’s drain with the same approach. Plucking fruit from a nearby tree, Amdirlain crushed it in frustration; instead of a pulp oozing between her fingers, it exploded into a cloud of grey dust.

The next fruit Amdirlain experimented with more carefully, and its chalk-like flesh broke apart in chunks. A tiny trickle of grey dust caught Amdirlain’s imagination and set her to compose a new song. Inspired by tales of purgatory, she mingled it with the Mind Palace’s music and put together something valuable despite the lack of complexity.

[True Song Composition [S] (1->2)]

At the notification, a grim smile of satisfaction broadened her flat lips into a predatory smile.

Though the song was within the capabilities of her composition Skill, it still was a stretch for True Song to implement changes to a Soul. With no one nearby and unrushed by the potential for her target to be snatched away, Amdirlain practised it repeatedly before she began. Not from ill-conceived compassion—since she could hear the vileness within them—they were simply fortunate that her revenge required drying up Moloch’s sources of wealth.

A grey haze enfolded the targeted Soul’s awareness when she sang. From their perspective, an endless grey mist encapsulated them as she changed the Soul so it couldn’t perceive anything else in this place. There was no suffering, but there was also no joy, just an endless grey void from which they might never be free. Perhaps a kinder fate than energy being slowly sucked out of their souls by aeons of suffering. Indeed, it was kinder than those souls beneath her feet might deserve.

[True Song [M] (56->57)]

The targeted Soul gave a clean chime when Amdirlain’s changes locked in place. The note was purer than the Soul that emitted it, and Amdirlain hoped she wasn’t being too kind considering the foul deeds that had brought them here. Yet the change would prevent their misery and corruption from feeding the Abyss via the tree’s fruit.

A damned at a time, Amdirlain started working her way through the grove. It was a score of them later before she used Multi-voice to apply two songs at once. The difficulty of focusing on identical and complex pieces against individual souls metres apart almost unravelled both tunes. She resorted to pointing towards the damned to keep her bearings until the end. Creating identical axes close together had not adequately prepared her for what she was doing now.

[Multi-voice [Ad] (4->6)]

Glad she hadn’t been trying to project the music through Silent Song, Amdirlain began from the top. On the second attempt, she kept her focus on a single Soul initially, only adding a second song well behind the first. Though it still strained her capabilities, the offset placement in the tunes allowed her to keep them split mentally.

Once she’d cut off the source of despair from a hundred-odd trees, she went back through and disintegrated all their existing fruit. Taking hold of the rage that had been boiling inside her, Amdirlain began to sing and created stacks of the red abyssal coins referred to as ‘rage’. Using her fury as the source of the coin’s emotional layer made Amdirlain focus on examining it. Slowly, as she turned it over and caught at the self-accusations and regrets within, its boiling eased away, aided by the harsh rippling music that the currency’s creation required.

Her voice beckoned in a harsh wind that engulfed the area in a dust storm. A storm that would rage for hours, though the first minutes had obliterated all physical traces of her presence at the grove.

Amdirlain didn’t shift forms but teleported to the biggest target the Wizard’s mind had provided. With the aura’s extent still to be determined, she had picked a spot from his memories that was a day’s journey away from the city she planned to target next. Yet even at that distance, the massive walls were a visible red blotch where the blackened land met the horizon.

With her destination confirmed, Amdirlain turned her attention to the travellers close at hand. The grey dust wafted off her across the surrounding black abyssal soil as Amdirlain took in the kilometre-wide road on the other side of the unplowed field.

Spread out along the road were living and undead behemoths intermingled with pack-carrying Dretch, other abyssal creatures, and demons pulling wagons. The latter varied from open-bed ramshackle vehicles that appeared on the verge of falling apart, to box wagons crafted completely of black metal.

Among the various vehicles, Amdirlain spotted a metal carriage that relied on arcane discouragements instead. Prominently displaying Moloch’s crest, its exterior bore glowing enchantments to protect it and retaliate against attackers. Six black nightmares in their draft-horse-sized forms, their manes and hooves ablaze in a furious display, towed it down the road’s centre at a racing car's speed. They ignored other travellers and left lingering flames in their wake. Though she tried to catch their music, the other traffic quickly drowned out the nightmares’ theme.

Amdirlain moved towards the road’s edge, where the slowest travellers heading towards the city ambled along. When her aura’s edge touched a group of pack-laden Dretch, it smashed them to a halt, and they loitered long enough to give her a few hundred metres of separation before they began to follow.

Farmland, erratically sown with demonic crops, bordered the road as they got closer to the city. Blighted grains and other less enticing produce provided the ingredients for plague bread and the other foodstuffs she’d seen inhaled by demons. Workers walked the lines among the corpse farms to pull forearm-length maggots from carcases rotting beneath the flaming sky. They stripped fronds from corn heads on another farm, revealing lumps that bled black corruption or bubbled with oozing pustules.

Abyssal Lore provided her with the confirmation of the plants and beasts, but Amdirlain ignored the names and focused on memorising the songs of each for later use.