When the Avos was revealed, and was the probable…well, almost certainly the source of the mental influence, Riley felt both angry and afraid in an unwholesome mix. That his mind had been violated so blatantly, and the aftereffects were rather obvious, and upon introspection, were still occurring, was maddening.

“This against all treaties agreed upon by the Empire and the varied Avos of the planes.” Aunt Layla muttered angrily. “Why did it do this?”

It became apparent after a few moments when aunt and nephew spotted the tentacled horror floating near the ceiling. It was actively trying to kill the Avos, and the gigantic Avos was in poor shape.

“Rotter,” Aunt Layla said. “Self-defence clause.”

“Huh, but we weren’t attacking it.” Riley protested.

Aunt Layla rolled her eyes and muttered sourly, “Did you really finish at the Academy?”

“Er, yeah.” Riley chuckled softly. He might have skipped several classes due to reaching Knight early, but he figured all he really needed to learn was how to sail the Chaos Sea, how to navigate Fysallis, how to fight Chaos dwellers, and what to do during anomalies.

Aunt Layla sighed and muttered, “This is why I’d advocate that early ascendants don’t just get a bye at the Academy.” She continued. “The treaty between the Empire…the Empress and the Avos of her territories is that her Legions will protect them from outside aggression. From the looks of his condition and the fact that a…” she stared at the tentacled monstrosity, “a spawn, I think, is attacking it, the Avos was well within its right to commandeer Imperial forces to its aid.”

“But we don’t even control the entirety of this plane,” Riley protested.

“All the more our protection is needed,” Aunt Layla answered grimly. “Now, we must answer to our duties.”

As she spoke, the Avos and the spawn continued to battle, though it was more that the Avos was turtling up rather than fighting. Then, as Riley and the others marshalled their reluctant forces, a bolt of brilliant golden light streaked up from the ground, the source covered by the lay of the land and the broken buildings, and struck at the spawn.

The marines cheered the attack and groaned when the attack only grazed the monstrosity. Riley could still see the afterimage of the attack, and he reckoned it was only five or so blocks away, nearly a longstride at most.

That was when the monstrosity’s words shook the plane.

Riley fell on his knees, and out of the corner of his mind, with the little bit of attention he could spare, with the rest of his mind preoccupied with keeping his brains from leaking out of his ears, he noted that everyone, including Aunt Layla who boasted the best Animus defences out of the lot of them, was on their knees and trembling like leaves in the wind.

“...Restless Underworld.”

When the words faded away, Riley could only stare dumbfounded as wisps appeared out of nowhere and began to clump together.

“No! Don’t let them materialise!” Aunt Layla screamed as she threw a spellwoven cube at the nearest conglomeration. The cube ignited with the woven spell, burning white flames and the swirling winds to flare them up, and it burnt the wisps to ashes.

But that was only one clump. There were hundreds more within sight.

“Marines! Form a square! Faran, Devon, Ananda, Greenfield, at the corners. Form your squads!” Riley yelled. The marines, jolted out of their stupor by his roar, formed a square, ten men to a side, double-layered. The sailors, runeers, and ship officers were at the centre. “Runeer Davar, raise a rampart!”

Aunt Layla gave him a side-eye, quite unused to the legion’s address, then nodded. She pulled out several cubes from her satchel and laid them on the floor around her. “I’ll need Animus investment!” she demanded.

“Ship’s crew and officers!” Riley yelled, and those in the centre of the square, aside from himself, crowded around his little aunt. He kept his eyes trained outside, and he felt cold sweat running down his back as the wisps continued to cluster. “Fire on the wisps!” he said, somewhat unnecessarily since the team leaders had already given the command. Well, about half of them did. The others waited for his order.

The superheated plasma bolts did little to the wisps. It did scatter them, but they simply congregated elsewhere. Only when varied materials coalesced and the wisps took a different form did their attack actually do anything.

Riley focused his efforts on the bigger clumps, which he guessed would form stronger or larger opponents. The Revenants earlier had all but disappeared, so were able to have a bit of a breather. But not for long.

One of the clumps that had been a bit too far away to prioritise blasting had finished materialising, and it formed a long, centipede-like creature if the segments were humanoid torso cadavers melded together by the heads and pelvises. Riley shuddered at the grotesque sight but was somewhat relieved to have something corporeal to shoot at.

“Fortifications rising!” Aunt Layla yelled. The entire area square they occupied rumbled and then rose up by several paces. Battlements formed at the edges, waist high to the marines, and a five-pace deep and wide ditch was dug out on the perimeter. It came barely soon enough, and the corpse chain-pede, one of many that formed within sight, charged at them. The nearest one reared back then pounced. The upper portion spread its arms and latched onto the battlements. Only for a moment though, as dozens of plasma bolts obliterated the uppermost body. The chain-pede simply progressed upwards, while more wisps attached to the tail and formed more segments.

Even worse, Riley spotted clumps that formed into gigantic versions of the Revenants, which were about three times the size of a man, and they lumbered towards the hasty tower. The giant Revenants were tall enough that if they stretched their misshapen arms up, their fingers could reach the top of the battlements.

The squads focused fire on one, slowly bringing it down into a molten heap after taking in dozens of plasma bolts.

“Sending up a beacon!” Aunt Layla said as Riley glanced behind him. The ships’ officers and sailors were on their knees and their faces were pale. The amount of Animus needed to raise a defence tower was more than enough to drain their reserves. Aunt Layla held up a rod, activated the runescript lines on it and sent up a ball of white light. The orb shot up to halfway up the cavern’s ceiling before bursting into a bright flare. The light was strong enough that it cast long shadows towards the walls and drew the attention of every fighting force within.

Between shots at the corpse chain-pedes, Riley noted two other groups fighting. One was the one that sent out the brilliant, golden blast that had burned an afterimage in his eyes, and the other was a disparate group. But that second one had someone who could conjure and control orbs of plasma, his elder brother. Even as he watched, that group was being overrun by the corpse chain-pedes and giant Revenants, as well as gaunt hounds with smoke billowing out of their nostrils. Actually, the hounds were on fire. He didn’t see any of those near their tower, but then again, they wouldn’t be able to do anything against the ditch and walls.

His eyes turned towards the tentacled monstrosity and the Avos. After the streak of golden fire, the tentacled thing flitted out of the open. Tendrils of grey energies lashed at the Avos, however, and Riley could see the Stonetoise growing ever so slightly weaker as the seconds wore on.

Riley aimed at the monstrosity. He judged the distance to be around five hundred or so paces, well outside his optimal range. But, whoever shot the golden light didn’t have an angle to hit tentacles from the way it was using the stalactites and rubble. It dipped down from the ceiling, but still had a line of effect towards the Avos.

“I think I can hit it with some effort,” he muttered to himself. More importantly, was if he wanted to draw more attention to their tower than what they were already getting. Whatever that thing did was causing the wisps to materialise and if it wasn’t stopped…

Even as the nearest corpse chain-pede was burnt to a crisp, another formed just a couple of hundred paces away.

Oh, the group Aidan’s in was turning towards the tower and rushing past the Revenants and flame hounds. Riley shot interference, blasting at the big ones that were about to block their way.

“Aunt Layla, we’ve got friendlies incoming!” he yelled.

“What! How many? Not our scouts, are they?”

“Aidan plus another force!”

“Rotting luck!” Layla grumbled. “Hey, you lazy lot, I need more Animus!” The sailors gave out a collective groan, and only a few managed to move towards his little aunt. Once Aidan’s group had a clear path, he turned his attention to the other group, using Enhanced Sight to get a better glimpse.

“Yuriko!” he gasped as he saw his cousin battling an even bigger Revenant than the others.

It looked like it was a class of its own, with strange bony protrusions that served as armour and weapons. He saw the telltale glow of her artefact, as well as the dozens of miniature flying swords she loved using. They were exchanging blows almost faster than his eyes could see, and his cousin was bouncing all over the place trying to lead the huge rotter away from a weaker group. That smaller one was fending off harrying attacks by flame hounds and even as he watched, five or so men and women were pulled to the ground and mauled.

Still, they were headed towards the tower, and from what he could see of their numbers plus however many were with Aidan, the space they had wouldn’t be nearly enough to shelter everyone. When he said as much, Aunt Layla said, “We don’t have enough Animus!”

Cursing in his mind, he focused on what he could do. The tentacled thing was the source of all of this, and it looked like his cousin had increased her powers incredibly, but was currently preoccupied with the huge Revenant. If someone were to take its attention off her, she could focus her might on the tentacled source. He glanced towards Aidan’s group. It would take them several minutes to get here. He looked at Yuriko’s fight.

He could get there in a minute or less. Even better, if he had a higher vantage point, he could support her from here.

Aunt Layla had gathered up enough Animus to create a gateway for Aidan’s group, but he needed to prioritise his cousin’s battle.

“Wait! Make another platform. I need at least five paces!”

“Huh, why?”

“Yuriko’s over there and she’s fighting someone. She’s the one who shot the golden beam!”

“Eh, that was a spell!” Aunt Layla gasped. “I can’t believe she managed to make an Implement so quickly!”

“Wonder about that later! Platform, please!”

“Alright, alright!” she groused.

A few moments later, she raised a seven-pace high pole. But there wasn’t a platform at the top, just a few handholds he could use to brace himself. When he stared at his aunt pointedly, she said, “Still need to make a gate and ladder!”

“Tsk!” Riley shimmied up the pole and removed his belt from his pants. He used it to secure himself to the pole then braced and aimed at the huge Revenant. It was large enough that he felt it would be ridiculously easy to hit it from here, but still, he had to time his attack right in order to give his cousin the best opening.

The problem was that they were moving incredibly fast and erratically. He couldn’t get a bead on the creature and he was half afraid of hitting Yuriko instead. He tightened his focus as much as he could, hoping to find that one opening…

Then, he had a miraculous feeling. As he stared at his cousin’s glowing form, he felt…a connection.

“She’s moving left, then up, then left again,” he murmured to himself. Sure enough, she did use those movements to avoid and deflect the creature’s attacks. “She’s going to attack after a couple more dodges…” he was certain of that. Just as he was suddenly certain that if he blasted the thing’s foot, it wouldn’t be able to move out of the way.

“Now!”

His Plasma Caster took nearly a third of his remaining reserves and formed a bolt that flew faster than he could blink. Yuriko launched an attack with her artefact greatsword and her flying mini-blades. The creature moved back and used its bony protrusions to defend, except his bolt slammed into its knee and it collapsed down on it. That moved its angle of defence such that instead of deflecting Fri’Avgi, it met the blade straight on.

Crack!

The sound of bones snapping and getting crushed was so loud that Riley felt it echo. The artefact slammed into the creature’s chest and crushed it into the ground. At the same time, dozens of flying blades drove themselves into the armour.

“Yes!” Riley cheered, and he saw Yuriko glance towards him and smile.

And then, he felt a wave of weakness so draining that it was all he could do not to fall off. Thank the Ancestors for his belt!