ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 45: Going Into The Trap

Chapter 45

Going Into The Trap

It was wrong, it was all wrong. Worse, Alexa could feel just how wrong everything was. From the moment she was outside the building. With every step she took inside the building, she could feel the oppressive nature of magic. This was unlike any magic she had ever felt. This was a thick oily black energy that made you feel greasy just by being in the same room.

“Don’t worry. You’ve got this.” Warder whispered from behind Alexa.

Alexa turned to see that her father was there in his super uniform. The uniform always ridiculous to Alexa, but then again, she also thought her current uniform was ridiculous as well. Still, they were a necessary evil, one that allowed her to keep her anonymity once the day was done. At first, she thought there was no way the costume could do everything that was described but considering people like her brother still didn’t know the true nature of his own parents, Alexa couldn’t really argue.

With their eyes locked for a moment, Alexa gave the slightest of head shakes. A gesture that was so minute, it was imperceptible by most who were gathered around.

At that, Alexa saw the moment Warder’s eyes widened with understanding. Seeing that her message had been delivered, Alexa continued going forward.

Fortunately, people were talking loudly around them as they made their way. The entire thing was a spectacle, but still Alexa couldn’t help but find her mind shifting into combat mode. This was the mode her mind went when she started strategizing. This was the mental space she created, so she could figure out angles, and asset allocation.

This was the gift that trap dungeons instilled in her. From an early age she had to come to this mental fortress to develop a plan of attack, and then execute.

As for this moment, she decided to treat this moment like it was a Tier III dungeon. At least a prep for a Tier III dungeon. She was about to go to a floor that had clearly been staged as a trap. One that she would need to develop countermeasures for. Worse, there were monsters in place, monsters that she would have to combat, to survive.

Treating this upcoming event like an evolved trap-dungeon made the whole experience real for her. This allowed her to focus down on every minute detail with focused precision.

By the time she left the stairwell to the second floor, and the other supers began moving about Alexa too was preparing. A quick glance showed that malevolent energy was sewn about within the audience.

There in the center she noticed the black heart of the entire operation. That one glance made the entire gravity of the situation clear. There was a Necromancer here, in broad daylight and no one noticed. This meant he was either, very powerful. So powerful that he could mask his presence from most supernatural scans. Alexa for her part wondered if her unevolved class would have been able to catch this monster. Or if he would have gone without notice, and the only reason for her ability to spot this obvious trap was the fact that her class was now listed as an Apex class. While the only hints at more power came from the description of what she could steal from an opponent. There was also the base ability of seeing different energies of power.

Alexa couldn’t be 100% positive that her ability to see the Necromantic power pulsing on this floor like a demonic heart, was a gift of her class. Or just the natural evolution of her basic passive power from the class, either way it ultimately didn’t matter how she could see the power. The only thing that mattered at this moment was that she could see the power.

Even from behind her, Alexa could feel the runic wards of Polyglot going up. Alexa fought the urge to shake her head, they needed anti-necromancy wards in front, not behind. The method that was being established now was good, for people that tried to sneak in to attack during a procession. The only problem was, this opponent used their knowledge to set up a massive trap right in front.

Worse looking around, Alexa could see the Prime Minister’s daughter, Sarah Maria Stevens, was the catalyst for this whole process.

Alexa had not been idle. She had made sure to read ahead, to do her scouting report as her father would call it. She read the local news channels for people that would be in attendance here today. That was when she noticed the article about the Prime Minister coming to the U.S. for a miracle cure for his daughter.

Seeing the oily black tendrils that coursed under Sarah’s skin, it was clear why he was so desperate to heal her. She was dying, slowly and horribly, she was being made to suffer in unfathomable agony. Worse, the monster of this entire event was there within the audience ready to gloat, at yet another chance to see the healing magics of others fail.

Alexa swore to herself two things at that moment.

First, she would heal Sarah Maria Stevens right in front of the monster.

Second, she would ensure that monster never got a chance to do this again.

The only problem was, she couldn’t draw attention to the necromancer. From their positioning, it was clear that they could take any number of sick children hostage. Worse, it was clear that taking such hostages could easily be used to fuel even worse Necromantic powers.

Calculations.

Multiple scenarios ran through her mind. There were scenarios where she gave subtle hints, only for the Necromancer to set off fail safes within Sarah’s body. Causing her to be wracked with pain, while the Necromancer ran.

Then there were scenarios where she healed the girl, and had the heroes come in to apprehend the Necromancer. The only problem was, there were too many variables. Too many easy targets that the Necromancer could use to gain more energy. For a Necromancer, being in the middle of so many weak and desperate people would be like putting a starving man in the middle of an all you can eat buffet.

From the corner of her eye, Alexa saw the malevolent power within Sarah’s body. Then she noticed how there was still a tether connecting that power to the Necromancer.

Not for the first time, she cursed her inability to communicate her thoughts to others. Thoughts that even now began to spiral out of control with different scenarios.

Ultimately Alexa came upon a course of action where she could perform both of her goals, by herself. Everything else required too many moving pieces. Everything else required her to be able to convey her thoughts to others, while not informing the Necromancer that he had been caught.

All these calculations were of course done while Alexa took her time walking up the many steps to her throne. Normally she would have hated such a display, but this time, it seemed as though the steps were there to help her concoct a plan. Sitting down on her throne, Alexa looked down at the mass of people.

“We have a few high-ranking individuals that we need to get through first. The most important being the Prime Minister’s daughter.” Ms. Peacock began.

Alexa, dressed in her Aru’ka costume, just shook her head. Then looking into the crowd pointed.

“Ohh!”

Seeing the gesture from Alexa the crowd began to gasp.

She didn’t speak, she didn’t trust her voice to betray her. Worst, she didn’t trust her words to betray her thoughts. Even now she could feel her mind racing, which always meant she would come across as being short with people.

Alexa looked down at the front row of truly sick children and saw the makings of a plan form in her mind. There, right where the most infirm of children and their caretakers were, was a direct line of sight from Alexa to the Necromancer in the crowd. Seeing the path and imagining an open field right where the sick patients were, Alexa developed a plan. A plan to both save Sarah, and take down the Necromancer all at once.

The Prime Minister of Britain and his daughter were already on their way up, when Alexa held out one flat hand. Alexa for her part could not turn to look at the daughter, as she was now so close that just being in her presence would cause Alexa’s gag reflex to kick in. That was why she had to keep her face forward, as she looked at the crowd.

“Aww.” The crowd didn’t know what to do at first.

The Prime Minister and his daughter who were flanked by his own Super protection squad were forced to wait.

One of the guards moved forward, anger on their face. At that Alexa turned her icy cold eyes onto the man and stared. She gave a look that spoke volumes in a matter of seconds. The message she wished to convey was simple. I am doing this for her, now stop.

Finally, after a second, the brute of a guard paused, not wanting to create a scene.

The Prime Minister even joined the moment by giving Alexa the time she needed. “Stand down, we can wait.”

With that, the protective detail around the Prime Minster shrank in, no longer concerned about the photo op and instead worrying about protecting their two charges.

Not taking a moment for herself, Alexa pointed at the sickest children up front. She made sure to identify all six patients that were right there, in the front row.

These were children that needed to be wheeled up. Seeing this, Alexa made her way down to the bottom step. Once there she greeted the children, she wanted to move quickly, because she didn’t want others to move forward into the now vacant area. To speed up the process she avoided the caretakers, and just focused on healing the children. A quick touch on their heads, and a release of Healing energy later, and all the members were healed. She almost missed the moment when a slightly dark Necromantic tendril was on the last caretaker.

Seeing the tendril of power, Alexa acted without thinking and healed the caretaker as well.

“Bless you, bless you.” The caretaker said, as tears began to form in their eyes.

Alexa nodded, but otherwise said nothing. Again, she did not trust her words at this point.

With those six critical patients taken care of. Alexa turned around and made her way back up to her throne, while also signaling to Ms. Peacock that the last patient had been infected with Necromancy. Apparently, she was either oblivious, or failed to see the sign language ‘n’ Alexa flashed her.

Though a quick glance showed why she had missed the subtle gesture. Ms. Peacock had her full attention focused solely on the Prime Minister, his daughter, and their protection detail.

Alexa used this time to think, and before she knew it, the group began coming forward like an overly persistent guest.

Now that they were closer, the true extent of Necromantic damage could be easily seen. Even to a standard person, she was sickly. She had pale skin, and purple-black veins that appeared over most of her skin. While she was still able to walk, it was clear that each step was a challenge for her.

“I can’t thank you enough for seeing me.” The Prime Minster began.

But Alexa needed to act now, before things went too far. She knew that once the Prime Minister ended his speech, she would be expected to act. So, Alexa held up a hand to forestall any further movement on this event that was already nearing the point of no return.

“Polyglot.”

Alexa’s voice felt horse, with her first word spoken since this whole ordeal began.

“Wha?”

It took a moment for her word to register, but after a second, Polyglot came around to look at the seated healer.

“You called?” Polyglot said, his tone a little nervous as he shifted his weight nervously.

Alexa nodded. “Set up anti-necromantic wards there, there, and there.” Alexa said, pointing to three sections of floor that were behind the Prime Minister, his daughter, and their entourage. These were also in spots exactly where the six sickly kids and their caretakers had been standing.

“Necromancy?”

A murmur went over the crowd. With that, Alexa had made it so everyone was aware of just what type of trap this was in.

In the end, this was the only way. Now if the Necromancer made any movements, he would give himself away. So, he had to stay put, while Alexa and the two sets of Supers were now aware of the situation they were all in.

“You think this is Necromancy?” The Prime Minister asked, fear in his voice.

Alexa nodded.

Fortunately, Polyglot went about writing the runic words for protection against Necromancy rather quickly.

“Done.” Polyglot called out, as he was just now standing from his efforts.

Alexa just nodded. With each second that passed, the runes gained more and more power from the ambient energy within the room. If she had her way, Alexa would have given a full thirty minutes for the runes to fully charge to their maximum efficiency. Unfortunately, she would not have that chance.

Seeing the fact that the runes were in place as her cue, Sarah began walking forward. With her the burly guard who got in a staring contest earlier with Alexa also took a step forward.

Once again, Alexa held out a hand gesturing for the guard to stop.

“Stay back. We will need room.” Alexa said, not wanting others to be nearby when the Necromantic energy within Sarah was released. It was clear that the energy was at the very least semi-sentient at this point and likely would head to the nearest person. Alexa was certain she could protect herself but was not so certain she could protect a guard from being infected with the Necromantic energy.

At first the guard wanted to protest, but once again a gesture from the Prime Minister stopped the guard.

The girl strode forward. Alexa nodded encouragingly at the girl, as it was clear she was frightened. Still, despite fear causing her legs to tremble she made her way forward. With each step she managed to stand a little straighter, as if fighting Necromancy was in her blood. In a way, Alexa realized it likely was, at least for the moment fighting Necromancy was in every fiber of her being.

Alexa herself chose to set up on the flat area where the film crew had set up a special area, where they could film people climbing the stairs to Alexa.

For this moment, this area served as the perfect spot for Alexa. She was far enough away from others that the released Necromantic powers wouldn’t be able to infect anyone, at least that is what Alexa hoped would be the case.

As the girl came forward, she stopped a step away from Alexa. Alexa, again not trusting her words, held out her upturned right hand, in a gesture she hoped would mean to take her hand. The teenager seemed to understand as she reached out her own trembling arm and clasped the hand. The moment her hand made contact; Alexa made sure to grip the hand tightly.

Gasp.

The sudden motion shocked the young girl.

Then Alexa said, with the fewest words possible the position where Sarah could get healed, without fainting, collapsing away, or otherwise causing damage to herself and stopping the cleansing ritual. Of course, Alexa being Alexa managed to say all of this in one succinct word.

“Kneel.”

At this the guard had enough, moving forward he was about to make his way forward. Seeing the guard get within what Alexa determined to be the attack range of the Necromantic energy, once it would be released from Sarah’s body. Alexa did the only thing she could think of, she moved the guard to a safe location, using Telekinesis.

Shock.

Only after she had made the action to save the guard, did Alexa realize how she was appearing. Not wanting to speak more, Alexa with her imposing height locked gazes with the trembling girl. Then with a gentle nod, and a slight tugging of their clasped hands, Alexa made her point clear. With a nod, the girl got down on her knees before Alexa.

Once she was down, Alexa nodded. Then Alexa let Sarah know she would start to heal her. “Sorry for this.”

With that being the only cue, Alexa began fusing the poor girl with energy.

Aurora burst.

There was a blinding glow of light that erupted from Alexa’s hand, into Sarah. The minute the healing glow of green light filled the young girl’s body, a patchwork of slimy black tendrils could be seen pulsing and wiggling under the girl’s skin.

At that the crowd began to make gagging sounds.

Seeing the black strains of energy was enough for everyone in attendance to realize these tendrils were wrong. Alexa found it mildly interesting that they could look at the girl and tell something was wrong with her, but only once her condition was paired with Healing magic, did the true extent of her condition become apparent.

Within seconds, Sarah was convulsing, as Alexa forced waves of green magic into her body, so it could begin attacking the dark demonic energy.

After ten seconds, Sarah began losing control of her body and began wobbling. With a quick jerk of their hands, Sarah fell forward into Alexa.

Alexa for her part did what she could to grab the girl and keep her upright. Using her own body as a pillar for Sarah to rest against.

Then, faint streams of black smoke began to seep out from Sarah’s pores. Smoke that Alexa began instantly burning away with bursts of Arcane energy.

This was taxing, far more taxing than Alexa had realized it would be. The splitting of her consciousness to keep pumping healing energy into the body. Then forcefully burning away the wisps of black smoke.

Then Alexa could feel Sarah’s body beginning to crumple. A quick look down showed the girl was fading in and out of consciousness. While Alexa felt she could still heal the girl, she didn’t know if she could be as effective from the ground.

“Stay with me.” Alexa demanded, as she shook Sarah back to consciousness.

With a slight stiffening of her body, Sarah managed to shake her head slightly in acknowledgment.

With that one subtle shake, Alexa gave a slight nod of her own.

Realizing she was on borrowed time, Alexa decided to surge forward with this whole process, as she forced waves of healing energy into Sarah.

Alexa pumped so much bright green energy into Sarah, that she looked like an oversized Christmas bulb. One with a dark black cloud at the center. A cloud that was being forced out of Sarah’s body at a rapid rate.

“AHHH!” Sarah cried out in pain, as the oily black cloud of semi-conscious Necromantic energy began to escape from her body.

The moment the black cloud of energy was free of Sarah’s body, it tried to flee. Heading straight for the crowd, right towards the Necromantic controller of the energy. The source of this malevolent power.

Fwoom.

The sound of a power meeting its polar opposite could be heard, as the demonic energy met the necromantic wards set up by Polyglot.

Unfortunately, despite the preparations, it was clear that the wards didn’t have enough time to absorb enough ambient energy to be truly effective.

“AHH!” People screamed, as they began trying to get away from the malevolent energy that was clearly trying to get away. Everyone moved, save for the Necromancer who stood still at the center of the crowd, waiting for the return of his stolen energy.

Still, the barrier did its part, as it caused the black cloud to pause just long enough for Alexa to focus her will, and fire.

BOOM!

Arcane Burst!

A stream of arcane energy flowed from Alexa’s outstretched left hand and quickly burnt away the center of the malevolent force. From there, it was only a matter of time before she was able to burn away the remaining trapped wisps of energy.

Panting.

Alexa found herself panting.

She was tired. She had pushed her mind beyond anything she had ever done previously. She had split her focus and managed to keep two different schools of magic running at the same time. Part of her knew this was likely a big deal, but for the moment there was still a bigger threat at hand.

While Alexa had achieved her first goal, that of curing Sarah Marie Stevens of the necromantic energy within her. There was still the larger threat that plagued them, namely the Necromancer that was now convulsing on the ground.

Alexa wanted to move, but her body and mind were pushed past their limits. She was exhausted on a spiritual level that was hard to describe.

Turning to lock eyes with Ms. Peacock she said the one word that should warn about an attack. The word she was told to state if there was an attack immanent against her and the children.

“Poppycock.”

A pause, as everyone looked at her with confusion.

Alexa then turned her head, while trying to raise her finger to point out the now passed out Necromancer who was writhing on the ground from magic feedback.

The only problem was, Alexa didn’t realize just how tired she was. The sudden movement and shaking of her head, caused her mind to lose focus for a second.

Then with that second, the entire world went dark.

It took her a moment to realize she was closing her eyes tightly, to prevent the world from spinning around her. Then strong hands grabbed her, pulling her away.

They had to have seen him. They must have, it was so obvious. Alexa’s mind thought, as she let that thought be enough for her to lower her guard and relax, while the rest of the supers took care of the Necromancer.