The Power of Ten

Chapter 16-421: Two Ways to Bring a Hammer Down

The Demon Bear Usarimak exploded out of the stone, repelled by the earth as much as forcing its way out, sort of like undead rising from their graves. Bellowing loudly, its huge mass was ejected onto the surface of the rock, which had gone all black and moldly, looking something like rotted cheese.

The big sucker naturally spotted me hovering there overhead, my spread wings with the jet and silver butterfly patterns shining there particularly easy to see... and then it looked past me.

It looked up a long, long ways, and its bellow of outrage slowly trailed off as it finally kenned to the way magic was humming really, really loud, in a way and to a degree it had never seen before. It could feel the dreadful power of the Haze reaching down to it, ready to entrap it, enslave it, but all that didnt matter right now.

Fifty Thunderbolts from On High erupted at once, and came down on it.

50 *(25(D10+6, Topped to 16) +6d6)) came down onto it with a Thunderclap like the biggest, grandest church bell ringing in the Hereafter.

Layered itself into an instant Symphony, too, if you had the ear for it. Scribbles hasty musical notations...

20,000 +300d6 of damage (eh, another 1050~) came dropping down out of the sky all at once. They heard the Thunderstroke hundreds of miles away, and saw the flash far over the horizon as the Holy illumination shot through the Haze for a hundred miles in all directions.

The Den couldnt hold the force of all those 30 radius eruptions at the same time dumping all that energy, and blew in every direction as Usarimak was atomized and devoured by vivus, all in one go.

My Commune with Nature said the Mother Land here actually popped open an eye at the shot in the arm. Still, it was just a little bear, and Russia was a big Mother Land. She fell back asleep almost instantly, but definitely appreciated the snack.

There wasnt much actual debris and dust and stuff, mostly because the area affected by the Thunderstroke was also infused with a lot of Corruption which the vivus blew through in a wave of purification, and it was kind of reduced to very white dust. No doubt there would be veins of Energized minerals extending from this location for miles and miles soon.

I made a mental note for someone, maybe me, to come back and check on that in a few months.

The big cloud of vivus-enriched mist and dust settled slowly to the ground, the prevailing winds still too shell-shocked to try blowing stuff away. It took a few minutes for it all to settle onto and into the ground, and suddenly there werent any signs of Aspect corpses or Mazed or even dead werewolves around. It was just clean and white and pure, sparkling, and would be that way for at least a day or so.

Good enough. I waved my hand, and the vortex above in the Haze dissolved, holy lightning crackled out in all directions, and a ten-mile radius of the Haze was open to the night sky, making the Borea gape upward in disbelief.

I descended to the ground, hooking into the Lived-Line of a certain lilithi, and zipped back to the Throat.

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I got there in time to see a section of the Throat about thirty feet square crack, and then lift itself a hundred feet right up out of the ground, a rough pillar extending down out of sight into the darkness below.

The Mazed and Aspects seeing this all went crazy with glee, especially with the chittering cry from below that frazzled all the nerves and jolted on the teeth. The Borea looking at it all despaired, and probably wanted to blame someone for their failings.

Shvaughn and I knew better, and she didnt stop cutting a Burning swathe through the creatures, letting them taste hellfire and vivus combined. Mmm-mmm, a double feast of unnatural energies, and Sin sure did make those fires pop nicely.

Then that pillar of stone descended much faster than gravity.

The crunch was pretty hard, and the Aspects and werewolves too near that Pit were all knocked off their feet, even sent flying. A plume of dust blasted to the sky as the air below was forced out of the way.

Very importantly, that chittering cry from below also stopped rather abruptly.

The pillar rose again, much faster than before, and then it drove down again.

The attacking Mazed and Shattered Aspects all kind of faltered in place as theWHUMP of it traveled through the ground and threatened to knock them off their feet again.

Rise, fall. Rise, fall. Rise, fall. WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP...

The scream was soundless but still hair-raising as something important down below us gave way entirely, and then a column of rich unwhite vivus blew up right out of the Throat into the sky, chased away the Haze, and revealed more night sky.

Legion came shooting up out of the white-stained Throat as the blast faded away, up and arcing down REALLY fast, trailing holy fire from huge demo-dragon wings as they swooped down towards Shvaughn, Idiot out and trailing holy Wrath, and the two promptly raged across the battlefield.

Yeah, that monstrous milli-centipede-hentai horror Aberrant down there hadnt much liked getting hammered to a pulp by a column of hundreds of thousands of tons of stone wrenched out of the side of that hole and wielded by a thirty-foot-tall six-armed Grandmaster Warlock.

I stayed at the back, playing Shards over everything that tried to run, which was actually a lot of the stuff now. The two Warlocks, Hellfire and Wrathfire swirling about and between them, moved with an absolute coordination and trust in one another that was poetry to the eye, setting up hapless Aspects and Mazed and thoroughly covering for one another as fire blew in all directions.

I watched Legions Dragonwrath swallowing massive areas, larger than either dragonflame or Wrath would normally cover on its own, and doing far more damage. Legion had definitely been practicing combining aspects of the two energies and Pacts, and wielding the might of the Demon Dragon they had Consumed.

Given how fast they moved, and how their flames pretty much swallowed anything that grouped up, finishing up the last of the Mazed who werent being chased down by Borea werewolves didnt take too long. They were actually using my view of things as reference points on which way to go and to help them coordinate.

Always happy to help the superhuman aerobatics display and shows of flexibility, grace, power, and control by two gorgeous winged Amazons with burning Swords, thats me!

---

The holy demoness and fallen angel Warlocks, looking very appropriate together, descended in tandem next to me, leaving the place strewn with unwhite fires under the starlight from above.

Yeah, yeah, that would have looked even sexier with the fox tails, I admitted to them both, holding out my fists and getting a bump from both of them.

It wont look nearly as good as Windwise, Shvaughn bemoaned, flicking away Burn and letting all the accessory wings and horns burn to ash and cinders, Legion following suit. They both grabbed my Rod Spike, none of us having the least desire to speak with the Borea; ki flickered, wove magic, and we were gone on Teleport wings.

---

Shvaughn sniffed as we arrived back in Detroit in a certain room in Heavenbound Hall, frowned, and Legion politely dosed her in Wrathflame, getting rid of the residual brimstone odor from wielding Hellfire. The gore had naturally burned away during the fighting and wasnt an issue.

That was a fine bit of entertainment! Shvaughn laughed. And there are so many more of those things, scattered among all the Packs, as I recall... She gave me an expectant smile.

You might be able to take on one of the Lesser Banes. Emphasis on might. Your self-healing is lacking, and they are all going to have 30 or higher Spell Resistance.

She had Healing Edge on Burn, and Fast Healing from Hamadryad combined with Warshaper, and she knew I knew it. But Spell Resistance meant she had to get into Melee Range, and those things hit REALLY hard and fast.

There was no certainty she could avoid some lethal offensive magic, either.

But that didnt mean she didnt want to try. After hanging around with me and getting some massive upgrades to her offense, defense, and survivability, it was plain she wanted to have a go at them.

Is there one you want to take on? I asked, arching an eyebrow.

Lupus Diothr! she answered firmly.

The double-headed Death Wolf Sealed in the Twin Tomb of Tungusken. His imprisonment was a high point of honor for the Borea, as his very presence drove werewolves mad and sapped them of strength if they fought him.

Oh, thought youd take Elkar the Forest Cancer. We werent restricted to Boreas Seal, after all. I wanted ALL those Banes cleared.

She pursed her lips at the mention, and her black and crimson eyes narrowed in thought. She abruptly realized she was showing the Hellsign when she glanced out my eyes, and nodded at the reminder from me.

Plummage, Shreek, Emmagesk, Legion offered, naming some of the historically weakest Banes, sifting them out of a few thousand years of accessible memories.

They all make great Eleven Tests, I pointed out. Youve got more than enough sisterhood/daughter/mother/lover/wife bonds to Legion that it should carry you right into Eleven if you can beat one.

Just needed that +1 Attack Bonus inspiration to take her Melee Class up one more notch, and then everything could start advancing again.

She looked at Legion, who just inclined their head knowingly. Their base +17 Attack Bonus from Queen Rayetizvisha was no joke. Master Fred was taking Melee straight up, leaving it to the Cohort to take the Secondary Levels. If they were limited by him, then the solution was simply for him to improve, and they would all improve together.

Theyd just butchered a Sealed Bane today. He was a Twelve and increasing steadily, while the Cohort was wildly playing catchup as he kept his advances firm and steady.

Also, paying off a lot of conflated Racial Levels. Popping a Bane like that had certainly helped, there was no doubt.

Tying Plummage to the ground turns it into a straight Melee fight. Her Hell-red eyes burned in anticipation. Wingbind the thing if I can, Stillflight the area if I cant, and lets see if that feather-spraying chicken can get away!

Well dump killing the Sealed Banes onto the stuff to do. Plink! Hundreds of Caerns Sealing up eldritch horrors largely born of the Shattered out of the Maze went onto The Map. A lot of Heads turned at the Turquoise to UV Ratings of the spots when they suddenly noticed them.

-Hey, I got rid of that Loci up in the U-P,- Sama promptly /piped up.

Shvaughn pursed her immaculate lips as she looked at the Indigo Rating there. -Bloody Forsaken Hag!- she /called back instantly, and Sama promptly /cackled back at her.

-Uh, I didnt know these were Banes,- Briggs /added afterwards, and three Sapphire ratings in northern Canada, Greenland, and Iceland were crossed off.

I smirked. Hed done them as a Six. I caught impressions of wendigos, werewolves, yeti, and some ice Fey with attitudes, along with some Shattered Aspects and at least a few mutated ogres. None of them had really lived to talk about Endure doing what it was meant to do...