Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Midnight

Aleph swiftly got to work, modifying the robes Vaynard looted from the emissaries, as well as fashioning an appropriate weapon for his skills.

Let's see… He has immense physical strength and monstrous regeneration…

Aleph made a mental checklist of Vaynard's abilities, as well as how he had been fighting all this time. He moves about the battlefield unpredictably, but his swordplay was firm and powerful, likely to complement his absurd resilience. With this in mind, Aleph had spent the past hour creating useful augmentations to the prince's skills.

"Hmm. Vaynard, come here." Aleph said at last.

Vaynard eagerly ran up from where he was tending to the wounded, only to slump in disappointment.

"…" There was seldom a time that Aleph saw him speechless, so he let it stretch out a bit before answering.

It was because what he chose to create for him looked like it was made from graying harbinger skin.

"This is a leather cloak. Try it on."

"Uhhh, yes. Certainly, friend." Vaynard could not bear to disappoint the eager crowd's gazes. They hovered around Aleph whenever they could for some reason.

"Now, try healing it."

Vaynard tentatively touched the cloak with a glowing hand, only to immediately recede it. The cloak had turned from a sickly gray to pure white at his touch. Intrigued, Vaynard passed his hand through the entire cloak, dyeing it white. For the first time since escaping, the prince finally looked the part.

""Ohh!"" 

The crowd watched in awe, although whether it was from the cloak's appearance or the prince's, Aleph wasn't sure.

"I made it by treating harbinger leather with honeysuckle extract. It will react to your magic, passing on your mana shroud's resilience on it." 

"Wow, Aleph. This is…" Vaynard sputtered even more. Aleph chuckled to the side. He quite liked seeing the normally eloquent man like this.

"I thought something like this would be best for your fighting style as something bulkier would cut into your mobility. This clasp-" Aleph pointed to  the metal fasteners on it, "is made similarly to how I've fashioned my knives. Familiarize yourself with the material, and you may control it as you wish. Now-"

Without warning, Aleph threw one of his knives at the cloak. It barely broke through, but it tore a sizable hole in the cloak.

"Hey! What is… oh." Vaynard started to protest, hastily snatching the knife out of his precious new cloak. He watched the hole mend itself, turning back into the supple white cloak he had rapidly been growing to love.

"I told you, I made it as an extension of your abilities. As long as you are in contact with it, it will regenerate on its own. You can speed up the process too, if you wish."

Aleph wasn't done. He held out a sword towards him next, but this time he was ready. He moved to unsheath it, but Aleph stopped him.

"This one I'd prefer you to play with outside of town." Aleph warned. He tapped on the gem at the pommel, which was pitch black.

Vaynard's stare went from the sword to Aleph, and back again.

"This much… Thank you." He said, deeply moved by his new equipment.

Aleph waved off his gratitude and pointed to various village folk.

"I did the enchanting, but a bulk of the work was done by these people. The tanner and blacksmith were particularly helpful."

Vaynard went personally to thank those he had pointed out, which made Aleph smile despite himself. For all of his bluster, Vaynard looked like the perfect noble.

"I will lead these people to Hios in the morning. You go on ahead, Vaynard. My disciples need you."

_________________________________

Rayse and his friends returned to their squad in pitch darkness, with only the flames in Lacey's hand to see with.

"What happened to Illuminate!?" She asked Iona. She was the only one they could clearly recognize, with all the glowing orbs surrounding her.

"The enemy has made their move. It was quicker than anticipated, but not outside our predictions." Iona said calmly. 

The group moved to the side as the gates reopened to let the soldiers in. Iona turned to his squad and continued,

"We will hold the gates as long as we can, but we'll need to fall back soon. There's too few of us, and far too much land to defend. Thus, we will force the enemy to pay in blood for each step they take into the city."

She pointed to the roads, where vicious looking spiked barricades had been erected.

"We have reinforced this area as best we could, but we should still be wary of emissaries. Their magic is as diverse as they are dangerous. Again, if you see anything out of place in the battle, call it out immediately."

"""Yes, sir!"""

They intercepted the enemies at the gate, securing the soldiers' retreat. They were in terrible shape. The confusion brought by the sudden darkness had culled most of their numbers, putting a sizable dent in Hios' forces.

Iona's squad held the gate, stopping the stream of harbingers. They were joined by another mage squad, and together they succeeded in holding the gate for a while.

Rayse fought with valor. The torchlight wasn't much to see by, but the targets were pretty massive anyway. He fought them closely this time, digging out the mana crystals that served as their heart between the lulls in combat. 

Now that he was doing it, he noticed that a lot of the veterans were doing something similar. They didn't absorb them right away like he and Brandon did, but they definitely kept them for one reason or another.

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He noticed Iona looking as he absorbed a crystal, but she made no comment, so Rayse took it as approval. He could feel a hollow ache starting to build in some places, but he was also stronger than he had ever been. It allowed him to be much more liberal with his spell usage, and the boost in strength allowed him to overpower the harbingers, something that in his squad only Luke was able to manage.

Things went on like this for a while until the shaking of the ground grew ever fiercer. The darkness shifted dangerously, making Rayse cast a night vision spell out of dread.

"Owl's eye!"

Immediately, Rayse's range of vision improved. His stomach dropped when he saw massive shapes, even bigger than harbingers, were moving swiftly to their locations. He was trying to make out their shape in the darkness, when suddenly his spell receded. 

Rayse blinked, confused at what had turned his spell off so suddenly. The ground's ever growing rumbling shook him out of it though, and he decided to report what he saw.

"Miss Iona! Large enemies are approaching!" He shouted.

Her visor glowed, gazing out into the battlefield. After confirming what he saw, the orbs around her began to swirl violently.

"Fall back! Empowered harbingers en route!"

Everyone from both squads abandoned the gate, just in time to see a group of harbingers

"Bramble Maze!"

Iona summoned gigantic vines from the ground that covered the front of the gates with thick, thorny vines.

"Close the gates!" She commanded. Then, she turned to his squad and added, 

"That won't hold them for long. Be ready with your spells! We open fire once they break through."

There was a loud banging heard from the gates. Rayse hurriedly searched his memory for a useful spell. He hadn't learned many offensive ones, but looking at his companions, he picked an appropriate one to empower them.

"Tailwind!" He casted it early so his friends will know what to do. Wind started blowing from behind them, giving arrows more punch and more importantly, giving spells more velocity towards the coming threat.

 

Moments later, a loud crash sounded as the gates flew off from its hinges. A thud followed as it fell, revealing their adversaries.

These harbingers were twice as tall as man and four times as wide. Their hands were massive and bloody, likely from repeated strikes to the gates. In fact, their entire body was bloodied from braving the Bramble Maze, but they paid it no mind. They lumbered forward, heedless of their wounds, and began their march into the city.

The mage squads' spells glowed ever brighter, ready to be loosed at a moment's notice.

"Hold!" Iona warned, delaying them for some reason. It became clear later on though, as the first wave of the large harbingers fell from their wounds. The army of the abyss followed behind, a charging mass of regular harbingers with the large ones peppered in. Iona waited until quite a few of them had entered the city before shouting, "Fire!"

Bolts of lightning and fire struck the army of the abyss, burning dozens into a crisp. The ones lagging behind paid them no mind, and soon the gates were once again overrun with charging harbingers, their dead companions trampled into dust. Rayse looked around for Lacey, who he knew hadn't attacked just yet. He found her, her body glowing a dangerous light, struggling to contain the spell she had been casting.

"Do it!" He shouted, fearing for his friend just as much as the approaching army. 

"Wildfire!"

Lacey finally casted her spell. It sent a growing wave of fire towards the enemy. Tailwind bolstered the spell, making the fire even more ferocious, turning the vicinity around the gate into a spreading sea of flames.

The effect was huge. The harbingers were reduced to burnt corpses in seconds, with the ones charging behind them just adding to the pyre. Rayse was in awe of the spell's power, turning in glee to his friend. She was pale and shivering intensely, but still had a wide smile on her face. He went over to her to give her a hug.

"That was amazing, Lace." He whispered.

"Isn't it? huff, huff, I'm all tapped out though. I hope that wiped them out."

"Not yet.", Iona said from behind them.

She stepped forward, hands weaving a large amount of mana.

"Help me, Brig."

"Yes Ma'am." He was at her side in an instant, with the beginnings of a spell at his fingertips.

Lacey's Wildfire had been petering out, and from beyond, Rayse saw that the darkness beyond had still not receded. He casted another spell to enhance his vision, but it cut out almost instantly. Still, from what he saw, there were still many harbingers clamoring to enter their town.

"Fire Torrent!" "Whirlwind!" 

The spells combined into a fiery tornado, swallowing everything it touches as it made its way outside. The raging flames cleared swaths of harbingers, clearing more than double what Lacey's Wildfire had. Still, more and more harbingers replaced those that fell, making their inevitable march into the city as if nothing happened.

"Something's wrong." Rayse said. He had been trying his surveillance spells for a while now, but it kept failing. The darkness that surrounded their town still had not receded, not even the light of Iona's flames were able to pierce it beyond a certain point. In minutes, the front gates were once again overrun with the large harbingers, making their way into the destroyed gate.

They seem content on throwing their lives away like this. They had suffered so many losses just to make a breach. Where are the emissaries?

Distant screams seemed to answer his queries, as dark shapes fell from the walls. The sickening thuds that followed cut off their screaming, confirming Rayse's fears.

Brandon swore loudly at the sight.

"We've been had! Brig, go to Carrack! We must-" Iona's orders were interrupted by explosions from the heart of the city. Rayse turned to see a massive smoke cloud billowing from the city center, alarmingly close to where a bulk of the populace had evacuated to.

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