Chapter 122: Aeviternum Hurricane

The next three levels were as varied, bizarre, but ultimately unchallenging. The Hollow Hill was a small mountain of bones that had calcified into a funereal whole that resembled a giant skull. Great orb spider demons picked their way delicately over the white surface, and from their spinnerets came virulent sprays of Infernum-tainted webbing.

James and his crew dropped Heavenly Assaults all over the hill, cleansing its exterior, and then watched as the Castrum Mortis bashed its way inside, revealing thousands more spiders which they cleansed until they at last reached the crimson gem.

Level 5 was the Endless Swamp, a fetid, gaseous expanse of rotting vegetation and dank pools that hid great albino tentacles that could have been part of some vast creature. They whipped out of the mire to clutch at the Castrum and attempt to entangle the Wings, but again Nova and Heavenly Assaults cleared the area.

The gem was located deep in a noxious pool, its presence betrayed by the faintest of roseate glimmers on the water’s murky surface. A Heavenly Assault speared all the way down into the depths and shattered it.

Level 6 was the Onyx Crypt. They manifested inside a cyclopean vault, the hallways so huge that the Castrum could walk through them without difficulty. No windows, no light, just an endless maze of passages and tombs. They explored slowly, steadily, expecting hordes of undead or the like, but nothing moved, nothing stirred.

Gradually, almost unnoticeably, a palpable sense of dread grew amongst them. It was enervating and terrible, and James found his chest tightening, his breath coming in ever shallower gasps until he realized the true nature of this level’s assault.

Summoning Remove Fear gave him a moment’s reprieve, but it took all seven of them to beat back the crawling sense of horror. Even then it was barely enough; the closer they got to the Crypt’s center, the more paralyzed James felt himself become, till it took all of his will to enter the final chamber and there espy the crimson diamond gleaming in the ebon night.

They shattered it with Diamond Aura, and the terror abated.

“Man, we’re paying for not being a full nine,” said Jason, his face slick with sweat. “Feels like we’re just stronger as a complete group.”

James hesitated then nodded. “You’re right. That was… far harder than it should have been. And I felt it. Uneven. Having Kimmie and Kerim here…”

“Should we go back?” asked Serenity. “Not for Kimmie and Kerim, exactly, but for two new recruits? To give us that nine-strong formation?”

James wiped his sleeve over his clammy brow. Considered. “We’re six levels in. That’s almost a week’s reprieve. But nobody’s been forced to use Aeviternum yet, nor Miracles, nor summon their Virtues. Hard as this was, we weren’t really tested.”

“So more?” asked Denzel, his voice hollow in the huge space of the nightmare tomb. “The Ruby Grove?”

“I say we push it a little more,” said James. “Worst case scenario I can teleport us back home.”

Miriam rubbed at her face and sat up straight. “OK. If you think that’s best. I trust your judgement.”

James thought of Joanna, of the burning hive inside Philly. Was he making the right call? He glanced at the Castrum Mortis which stood patiently behind them, its armaments glowing in the gloom, its armor lightly scratched but otherwise undamaged.

“We got this. Another level or two.”

“You got it, boss,” said Serenity, shrugging her shoulders to release some of the tension. She lowered the autocannons so that they aimed straight ahead and slid forward on her Wing into the crimson portal.

James followed right behind.

You have entered Layer 7, The Ruby Grove

“Man,” said Yadriel as he cruised out next to James. “This ain’t nothing like I thought hell’d be like.”

They had emerged into the heart of a gigantic grove. Darkness was a dome all around them, but the trees glimmered as if made from metal and glass. The trees were stylized, made of spirals of copper wire as thick as James’s thigh that twisted around and around a glass core through which deep bubbles of light slowly traveled, like the ectoplasm in a lava lamp. The trees rose up as tall as skyscrapers in a ring as large as downtown Brooklyn, and looking up, James could only marvel.

“If this is hell…” began Jason, his voice tinged with awe.

The branches of the trees formed a continuous canopy that spread overhead. The wires wrapped around ever thinner branches from which great leaves extended, each the size of a swimming pool and made of diaphanous ruby. The air around them shone with shifting lens flares, and the sight was more beautiful than anything James had ever seen.

The Castrum Mortis passed through the portal and dropped to the ground some fifty feet below, landing with its customary prowess and immediately bringing its weapons to bear.

But just like in the Onyx Crypt, there was nothing for it to target.

James and the rest of his crew floated forward slowly on their Wings. They gaped at the cathedral space into which they’d entered. Tree trunks surrounded them in a ring a mile or two away, and the canopy was easily a couple of thousand feet up.

Never had James felt so small, so insignificant.

Olaf growled. “This place is pretty, yes, but we are in hell. Where is the enemy?”

James blinked and came back to himself. The ethereal beauty was so transcendent that he’d momentarily lost track of their mission. He wiped at his face and gazed around, extending his senses.

All was still.

Tranquil.

Harmonious.

“You hear that?” Serenity canted her head to one side. “ It’s like…”

James frowned, focused.

A slow ringing was building at the edge of his hearing. A subtle swell of resonant sound, beautiful and beguiling.

“Like running your finger around a wine glass, yeah,” said Denzel. “Where’s it coming from?”

“The leaves,” said Yadriel. “Yo, check it out, they’re moving.”

And they were. Nothing overt, and not in a uniform direction as if a singular wind were blowing through them. But slowly twisting and shifting as if waking up.

The sound continued to grow, full and beautiful, like angels singing.

“I’m getting creeped out,” said Serenity. “Where’s the enemy already?”

“The light’s getting brighter,” said Miriam, extending her hand. A rose glow passed over it, like the dappled light that fell through leaves upon a glade.

“Fuck this noise.” Serenity raised both autocannons and opened fire. The seven barrels in each gun blurred as they rotated and a riot of Smite and Gloria-enhanced bullets burst forth, the roar tremendous against the resonant chimes.

Far overhead her bullets impacted leaves, leaving fist-sized craters in them. Serenity trained both guns on the same target and in seconds cracks spread across its surface, cracks that deepened with sharp reports, and then the tennis court sized leaf shattered.

Huge ruby chunks fell into the air, glimmering and gleaming as they fell, turning in the air to rain in a column just ahead of them and bounce of the roots that enmeshed the ground.

The resonant music grew louder, more insistent. James thoughts began to swim, and the soft red light that shifted and swam across everything made it hard for him to focus his eyes.

“Take out the leaves,” he ordered.

“TARGET DESIGNATED,” boomed the Castrum and aimed its weaponry straight up.

The leaves were too far above them to be targeted with attacks, so James grimaced and urged the Wing to rise. They flew up as one, Serenity’s guns roaring, Miriam, Denzel, Olaf, and Jason firing their M4’s even as they climbed.

But the resonance made the very air shudder, and now pain blossomed in James’s head, battering at his Mental Dominion like storm waves crashing on a cliff. He narrowed his eyes, jaw clenching, and fought to rise faster.

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Leaves shattered under the concentrated assault, but there were so many. Square miles of them. And as he drew closer he saw that they were vibrating, their edges indistinct and blurred, the light streaming through them from an undisclosed source ever brighter.

A great sheet of roseate light passed over James and he felt his skin burn and sear. Indomitable Resilience kicked in, but he summoned his Angelus Armor at roughly the same time the others did, his Aureate Buckler appearing directly overhead like a sunshade.

The music grew louder, overwhelming, and James’s vision began to blur.

“Aeviternum Hurricane!” shouted Jason, his voice thin and distant under the resonance.

Power erupted from Jason and streamed upward, spreading out in moments. With his Spiritual Exaltation of 75 James could barely sense the huge winding currents that spread out the higher they went, as if Jason had unleashed a tornado whose tip emanated from his heart and whose tip spread out into a vast cone.

The top of which manifested as burning silver light shot through with Gloria, forming a hurricane funnel half a mile across. It raged as it hit the canopy and the pure Aeviternum shattered hundreds of leaves.

Ruby shards began to rain down, the fragments still glimmering with their own inner light. Huge chunks of gemstone bounced off James’s Aureate Buckler which danced back and forth, blocking the shards as they fell.

The resonant music wavered, wobbled, then began to lose power.

Jason took off, standing and leaning forward on his Wing like a jet skier urging his craft through the ocean, pulling the hurricane along with him. Its top widened, devoured more of the leaves, and soon the air around them began to dim as a quarter, then a third, then half the canopy was devastated.

James sagged back onto his Wing. His mind was spinning, his thoughts turgid, his heart pounding. What sort of attack had that been?

Blinking, he watched as Jason continued his huge loop, the hurricane already losing power, starting to waver, to collapse.

“Aeviternum Hurricane!” shouted Jason again, his voice distant, and with another pulse of power the storm renewed itself and continued wrecking the canopy.

Serenity aimed her guns out wide, targeting the rim, and the Castrum below did the same, taking out leaves that the hurricane hadn’t reached yet. The showering of burning glass continued to fall, beautiful and otherworldly, and soon the grove was only dusk-bright, the music faded to little more than a whisper.

Jason invoked his miracle one last time, did a wide curve around the far side of the grove, and at last darkness fell upon them all as the last of the leaves shattered.

“Down there!” called Miriam.

James leaned out and stared. Shards of ruby were rising in a dust-devil, spinning around and around and coalescing into a massive crimson diamond. It rose to a height of some twenty feet, faceted and perfect by the end, and then hung there in the darkness, giving off a radiant glow.

“I think you earned this one,” called James. “Want to take it, Jason?”

“Sure thing, sir.”

They followed Jason down till he came to a stop above it and a lance of aura flashed forth from his palm to transfix the diamond which shattered a new, the pieces glittering and fading away into nothing as they fell.

Layer 7, The Ruby Grove, Defeated

Layer 8, The Sinister Blockade, Unlocked

A new portal formed where the diamond had hovered.

“The Sinister Blockade,” said Denzel. “Man, that sounds…”

“Don’t say it,” said Serenity.

“Sinister,” finished Denzel, smiling for the first time in forever.

Serenity shook her head in mock dismay. “Geniuses. I’m surrounded by geniuses.”

“Blockade,” said Olaf. “That is like a - what? A blocking, demons stopping us from passing through.”

“Geniuses is right,” said Yadriel mockingly.

“Ha ha.” Olaf stared at the kid. “Let us have this conversation in Norwegian and see how you do.”

“Man, we ain’t in fuckin’ Norway.”

“Enough,” said James. “How are you holding up, Castrum?”

“SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL.”

“I think that means he’s good to go.” Serenity rolled her shoulders again. “Want to blow open this blockade?”

“Sure,” said James. “But we’re getting deeper now. Let’s not lose our caution just ‘cause we’ve been blowing through the levels thus far. When we get through, we drop Righteous Obelisks and Bless Green. If it looks like too much, I’ll teleport us out.”

“Roger,” said Jason. “We ready?”

Everyone nodded.

“Born ready,” said Yadriel. “Can’t wait to use another Word of Slaughter. This is like taking corndogs from toddlers at the state fair.”

Everyone stared at him.

“What? It’s an expression. Don’t mean I done that.”

“Great,” said Serenity. “We’re fighting our way through hell with a corndog thief.”

“Hey, everyone.” James’s tone caught their attention. “You all know that this is going to get harder, right? I don’t know when or on which level, but we’re going to eventually face demons with Infernum and their own Miracles. Probably with their own Benedictions, the lot. We’re almost a third of the way down. It’s been easy so far, but don’t let your guard down. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” everyone murmured.

“Good. Then let’s check out this Blockade.” James eased his Wing to the portal. “Stay close, wait for the order to engage, and go in with Angelus Armor and Aureate Buckler’s activated. Let’s bring up Empowering Light. Olaf, I want us all in a Circle of Protection the moment we’re on the other side.”

“Why all the juju now?” asked Denzel. “You sensing something?”

“The last two levels have been tricky, but nothing we couldn’t handle. If I was designing these levels?” James met everyone’s eyes. “I’d not be above getting folks to lower their guard before hitting them with a sucker punch. It just feels like now’s the time to get ready for it.”

“That’s good enough for me,” said Serenity, her form blazing with white radiance as Empowering Light took hold. “Second we’re through, we raise Shields and hunker within the Circle of Protection.”

“Yes,” said Olaf. “I will go through first and raise it.”

“All right.” James waited as everybody lit up, armor forming over their bodies, bucklers manifesting. “Then let’s go ruin somebody’s day.”

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