Crimsoncrest: Chapters 20-21

I've been chuckling over some of the discussions this book, waiting for this chapter. Anyway, some stuff happens. ^-^

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Chapter 20

When the battle started, Theo had every intention of attacking Jazin first, since he judged the lead Stronghold was the greatest threat. Yet to his surprise, the new arrival acted first - unlike most Asplundat Strongholds who generated massive sphere of stone, this one drew a whirlwind of dust around him and sent it forward like a tornado.

It was a fearsome attack that would no doubt have scattered Authorities and intimidated many Strongholds, but not these three. The woman unleashed a stream of ice against the storm, the man dodged around it, and Jazin disappeared in the chaos.

Theo flew around the side, planning to intercept Jazin when he emerged. To his surprise, the other Stronghold hadn't seemed to have dodged - had he gone directly into the tornado? There was no more time to think about that, because suddenly the swordsman was slashing in his direction.

Normally Theo would have been eager to test his gravitational fields on such a high level, but his soulhome was still heavily biased toward Corporeal Rooms. That made it easier to duck aside, his speed basically equal to his opponent, but his instinctive response was wrong. Theo decided to start cautiously, not escalating to lethal attempts until necessary, and engaged the enemy in direct combat.

He formed a torsion bolt in his right hand as he dodged the second strike, then he met the third strike head on with a torsion punch. The enemy Stronghold had surrounded his sword with cantae, but Theo's was intensified by his basement, so when they collided, his torsion won out. Theo's hand was unharmed while the sword went spinning off and stuck into the ground.

And his opponent kept going. Theo realized that while the man looked like a swordsman, that was just an excuse to close the distance.

When the massive Stronghold tried to grapple him, Theo fought back directly. They were both aiming to overpower the other so they intentionally locked hands - the Stronghold looked briefly surprised, but grinned and began pushing, trying to drive Theo to the ground.

The strength drove him back a step, and a few weeks ago Theo wouldn't have been able to compete, but he dug in and pushed back. As he judged it, their strength was roughly equal, just for different reasons. The Tymetronese Stronghold had fully built his fifth floor and had more strength chambers, but Theo had more efficient chambers and a basement. If he'd soulcrafted his fifth floor, he might have been able to overpower his opponent, but as things stood they were equally matched.

While they engaged in a direct struggle, Theo had a moment to examine the rest of the battlefield. Attacks were raining down over the area, being absorbed by a defensive shield that prevented them from wreaking havoc on the mountain or even the fields of crestflowers around it. Theo would not have prioritized those, especially since the shield was draining one of their Strongholds.

There was no time to argue and they likely wouldn't listen to them anyway. The newest Asplundat soulcrafter had formed a sphere of stone and engaged in battle with Jazin, who was hurling attacks against the outer surface. It seemed ineffective until there was an abrupt implosion, a force crumbling the stone down to a point and consuming it.

It captured Theo's entire attention: had that been something like a black hole? No, the cantae and stone seemed entirely gone, annihilated. He wasn't sure what sort of technique-

He couldn't afford to distract himself, not while still locked with a powerful Stronghold. The man roared and tried to push him back again, which Theo realized was just a distraction. Something flared within the man's soulhome and Theo saw his fallen sword leap into the air to attack Theo even while they were grappling.

Time to take this seriously. Theo stamped one foot on the ground but created a portal just before his foot hit: the kick emerged from another portal behind his opponent, slamming into the back of his knee. While his opponent grunted in pain and went down, Theo lunged forward with a torsion headbutt.

When their foreheads collided, Theo released his grip. The twisting energy blew his opponent away, sending him spiraling into the air, smashing through the barrier. Theo rose into the air as well, to keep the fight from causing unnecessary collateral damage.

The swordsman snarled and wiped blood from his mouth, now fixated on him. He summoned a second sword and wielded one in each hand, yet Theo could tell that he was ready to make them fly on their own again. Fighting an opponent like that could be tricky, so maybe it was better to try to take him out quick.

Just as they leapt at one another, the air went crimson. Theo felt the immensely powerful sphere only a second before it floated toward them and his eyes widened.

Wiltur had ignored his own battle to unleash one of his explosive spheres directly toward them. He could pretend that he was trying to help an ally, but when Theo saw the man's expression, he was certain that Wiltur was hoping that it would injure them both.

Years ago when Theo had last seen Wiltur's signature attack, he had been a Ruler and it had been an unstoppable explosion. Now he might be able to survive the blast, but he wasn't going to risk it. Theo opened a portal just in front of himself and flew out in the sky overhead instead.

"Coward!" The swordsman had already found him again and snarled, even as he swung his sword toward the crimson sphere.

As soon as they touched, the explosion rocked the battlefield. It sent the Tymetronese soulcrafter flying away and shook up all the other combatants. The shockwave washed over the defensive shield, severely draining the Asplundat Stronghold and even knocking some of their Authorities below off their feet.

Some might look down on Wiltur for being trapped at Stronghold for decades, but that meant he had absolutely maximized his current soulhome space. If Theo had fought him, he would have needed to use better tactics, forgetting about the physical maneuvers he used to rely on his Corporeal Chambers.

But they were on the same side, ostensibly. Theo met his gaze and Wiltur glared back, but then they turned away to their opponents.

In all the chaos of the explosion, the woman with the ice staff was unleashing a storm directly against the top of the mountain. That seemed to make their goal undeniable: they didn't want to steal the Asplundatcrest, they wanted to destroy it. Then Tymetron had known and just wanted to weaken their opponents before the invasion.

The Asplundat Stronghold tried to retaliate with shards of stone, but their strength was split maintaining the barrier, so the woman easily froze them out of the air. Whatever had happened to the other Asplundat soulcrafters, she needed to be intercepted, so Theo changed targets.

When he shot through the air toward the staff-user she immediately treated him as the greater threat and began launching shards of ice in his direction. Theo grinned and combined his inertialvoid with a point of anti-mass to cancel his own - without much inertia, it was easy for him to weave between all the projectiles effortlessly. Thinking that he had an insane number of speed chambers, the woman's eyes widened and she formed a shield of ice around herself before he arrived.

Theo pulled back one arm, telegraphing his punch clearly. She immediately unleashed a shockwave in his direction, intending to hit him before he arrived, but that had never been the plan.

Instead Theo shot to the side and thrust his fist through another portal. The connected portal was actually inside the shell of ice, so his torsion punch struck the woman directly in the face. She smashed through her own ice shield and sailed away from the battlefield.

Just as Theo was about to pursue her, he saw one of the huge spheres of stone collapse inward and then begin to crumble. The Asplundat Stronghold inside wasn't dead, but the man was struggling even to fly. Jazin had taken him out so quickly?

Currently the thin soulcrafter was floating further from the mountain, surrounded by a rotating ring of dark lights. Theo couldn't help but stare: those lights weren't cantae attacks, they were sublime materials. Not raw ones, because he felt some connection to the other man's soulhome, so were they some sort of unusual armament?

Jazin met his gaze and his lips parted just enough to flash his fangs.

Then he could finally get back to his first plan: Theo threw himself across the battlefield. Jazin raised one hand and began launching cantae bolts that arced through the air, trying to home in on him. Theo had to push his inertial skills to the limit to dodge them, twisting and turning as he closed the distance and prepared another punch and portal combo.

The portal opened just as he'd planned, and Theo launched his torsion punch... but there was something gleaming in his opponent's eyes.

At the last second Theo pulled his punch back. Just before it would have collided with Jazin's head, one of the dark lights intersected his path. A shockwave expanded from it, then almost immediately reversed, creating an implosion that seemed to suck away all of the cantae in a radius around it. The implosion partially caught Theo's fist and he felt the energy burn against his skin before he pulled back.

"Interesting technique." Jazin was staring at him - not across physical space, but through the portal beside his head. "If something disrupts this gate of yours while your arm is through it, do you just lose the limb? Seems risky."

It was tempting to answer or ask about the floating sublime materials, and Theo thought that might lead to an interesting conversation, but he judged that his opponent was too smart to waste time. If he was talking, it was because delaying would help him. Tymetron had three more Strongholds and a Dominion, after all, and if they were openly showing their hand...

Theo attacked again, doing his best to overwhelm his opponent with raw speed and strength. Unfortunately, Jazin seemed more than adept at countering that strategy, and he was extremely alert for portals. At one point when Theo tried to slip around behind him, Jazin was already looking back even before the portal had even fully formed.

They stared at one another across space again and the Tymetronese soulcrafter grinned.

As they fought, Theo did his best to evaluate his opponent despite his shielding wall. Like most from Tymetron, Jazin used demonic materials, but that didn't necessarily give useful information about his capabilities. The dark lights weren't demonic at all, instead a linked sublime material, and they seemed to be his first line of both defense and offense.

Having Nauda and her nullification would have been handy in that moment, but Theo improvised. First he used his chaosgem to try to disrupt Jazin internally - the Stronghold's defenses were too strong to be affected, but the new attack distracted him for an essential moment.

In that moment, Theo redirected all his cantae to his tunnelegg chamber: not to create a portal, but a simple tunneling point. Instead of attacking his opponent, he focused on the furthest glowing material, warping it away from his opponent and to Theo. He grabbed it with both hands, seizing it with his own cantae and separating it from his opponent.

That revealed a dull-looking sublime rock, but there had to be more to it. Theo cracked it open with his bare hands and his eyes widened: the interior was actually a geode, glittering with dark crystals. They were charged with a force he didn't recognize, and more than that, there had been some sort of power contained in the center. When he broke the geode open the power escaped, burning him slightly just like the implosions did. Some sort of weaponized sublime material?

"You seem too smart to use such blunt tactics." Jazin was watching him from a distance, arms folded behind his back. "Nine worlds of sublime materials and you choose to punch especially hard?"

"The goal of a fight is to disable the opponent." Theo thought it would be useless to pretend to be a thug, so he adopted a different tactic. "It's more efficient to do that directly instead of going through multiple steps."

"Hmm, a shame. You're good, but not good enough."

"Let's see if you can still say that after I take away all those rocks."

"Oh?" Jazin smiled and waved his hand, sending a dozen more of the geodes floating from his soulhome. "You think I'm depending on burning powerful materials? No, no, these things are quite common back home."

Theo attacked again, now more interested in feeling out his opponent than actually finishing him. He had a bad feeling that Jazin was a truly skilled soulcrafter, with an efficient blueprint and likely a few Transcendent Monuments. This might not be an opponent he could take on, just at the beginning of Stronghold, so what he needed most was information.

After several more exchanges, and a few burning implosions, Theo estimated that his opponent's limit was related to his soulhome, not available materials. The geodes weren't weapons on their own - few sublime materials were - but instead were weaponized by some chamber in his soulhome. When they imploded, they drew in and eradicated all cantae in a sphere around them.

Nasty trick. It harmed cantae-reinforced bodies, snuffed out cantae attacks, and would likely melt through defenses quickly. Worse, his opponent knew exactly how to use the geodes.

Despite everything, despite the stakes and the threat to the Asplundatcrest, Theo found himself grinning. And just when he started to enjoy himself, the Dominion arrived.

Up to that point, the only arrivals by weirkey had been a few Authorities bringing reinforcements that couldn't actually help much in a battle like this. But then Tymetron brought their full army, and the instant they arrived their power flooded over the battlefield like a shockwave.

There were three more Strongholds, which was bad enough, but Theo couldn't help but look to the Dominion behind them. This one was a woman wearing a massive helm that seemed to have been fashioned from a demon's skull. That worried him less than her cantae, which was incredibly intense... it felt like she had a basement in addition to her current tier.

"Leave and you will not be harmed," the Dominion said, her voice booming over the battlefield. "Plutalgion has declared that this material must be destroyed."

She waved a hand and demonic energy radiated from her. It seemed like harmless ripples at first, moving relatively slowly and just flowing over the defensive shields without harming them. But when the ripples hit one of the Asplundat Strongholds, they were thrown back immediately, away from the mountain. Theo retreated to a safer height, desperately looking for a solution.

They had started with four Strongholds to Tymetron's three, but the battle actually hadn't gone well for them. Both of the Asplundat Strongholds had taken severe damage and it looked like Wiltur hadn't been trying very hard. He did stay near the peak of the mountain, though... was that his plan?

"Enough of this!" Wiltur unleashed another crimson sphere, which floated toward the Dominion. When it met the ripples it pushed through, unharmed, so it sailed toward her.

It never got close. Two of the Strongholds standing near the Dominion intercepted the technique, one exploding it and the other redirecting the blast in the opposite direction. Though Wiltur blurred out of the way, he reappeared with a tattered sleeve and shock on his face.

Meanwhile, the third Stronghold had joined the battle, aiming to eliminate the Asplundat soulcrafters. Theo threw himself into the fight in a desperate effort to neutralize them, using portals to distract Jazin while he disrupted his opponents with torsion bolts. But there were so many of them, and the rippling energy continually pushed them away from the mountain...

Just when he started to think it was hopeless, another group arrived by weirkey. Fiyu wielded it in the center of the group, and she had Krikree and Guchiro with her.

That was sorely needed backup, but could it possibly be enough?

Chapter 21

Of course, as soon as Fiyu heard her companions were in danger, she had rushed into action. The trouble was, facing the terrible army that Tymetron could field, her usual methods were ineffective. Against one or two Strongholds, she would have collected Friend Nauda and other Authorities and they might have fought effectively. But when the enemy had so many powerful soulcrafters, even a Dominion...

Her first step was to contact House Blacksilver, because that was her sworn duty. After that, however, she became less certain. She returned to their temporary quarters and discovered only Ally Krikree was present, sitting and combing her antennae gloomily as she often did. Ally Krikree was a powerful Authority, but would it be wise to bring her into this conflict?

"We need to go." Relative Guchiro appeared beside her from within his own stealth technique. "The window of time in which we can have an impact is rapidly running out."

"But... will we be able to help them?" Fiyu asked.

"Danger?" Ally Krikree's antennae shot straight upright and she skittered closer. "Theo-sister in danger? Fight?"

"I... I don't know if..."

"We go now." Relative Guchiro reached out and touched her upper arm.

Even though she remained filled with doubts, Fiyu took hold of her weirkeys and transported them to the location of the battle. The space around it was tumultuous, distorted by various forces and anti-weirkey defenses, but she kept her focus on the fields of crestflowers and brought all three of them through in the air overhead.

The result was a shock to her senses as too much information flooded in at once. She sensed at least nine active Strongholds on the battlefield, a troubling majority of them enemies. Friend Theo was battling alongside the Asplundat soulcrafters, but they were falling back before their enemy and she was unable to discern how long he could last.

Worse, the enemy Dominion was holding back and attacking judiciously. The woman in layers of demonic garments could defeat a Stronghold in any given clash and allowed her Stronghold allies to check the enemy, preventing them from ever gaining leverage. In turn this magnified the advantage, letting her strike at the best opportunities. It was a wonder that Friend Theo and the others had not already been defeated... there was at least one Asplundat Stronghold groaning on the ground, battered and broken.

What could they possibly do in a battle like this? Stronghold-tier techniques were flying in every direction and the fields would already have been devastated if not for a defensive shield. It was impressive, but could not possibly stand up to such a beating.

"Theo-sister danger!" Ally Krikree flew away, brandishing her weapons.

Fiyu wished that she could throw caution to the winds like that, but she needed to help her allies, not merely to fight. As passionately as Ally Krikree attacked, a gust of icy wind sent her hurtling away. She survived and rushed to attack again, but it would be difficult for her to be effective. And yet, standing on the sidelines, Fiyu was even less useful...

"Join the defenders." Relative Guchiro put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to her. "Their shield won't hold, but it might with reinforcement. That will prevent the Asplundat side from buckling."

"But..." Fiyu's eyes flickered outward. "The battle..."

"Leave that to me."

She eventually nodded and flew downward, passing through the defensive shield thanks to her identification. It was some sort of powerful Asplundat working, not something she could easily support... but she did have resources of her own.

Reaching into her soulhome, Fiyu grasped the Stronghold-tier shadowlamp and drew it forth.

~ ~ ~

When Krikree threw herself into the fight, it very nearly cost Theo. She attacked with enormous ferocity, but her opponents had significantly greater power and wouldn't be taken off guard. He wanted to reach out and help her, except that if he took his attention away from Jazin, he could lose the fight. Or worse, if Jazin ever managed to counter Krikree, it could be fatal for her.

Every time a blow impacted Krikree she was sent flying. She seemed to crash lightly, hopping up unharmed like an ant that had fallen, but the blows themselves were hurting her. If only he'd been able to finish that armorstone for her...

Worst of all was the Dominion, hurling overwhelming attacks at uneven intervals. They were all carefully chosen: protecting an ally who was falling back, attempting to kill an enemy Stronghold, or hammering into the defensive field. No matter how well Theo fought, if the Asplundat soulcrafters defending the barrier failed, the battle would still be lost.

Theo had tried to send stones into the air for a bombardment, but the enemy had enough spare soulcrafters that someone would always destroy them first. Without enhancing his singularity technique, it wouldn't be effective in a battle of this intensity. His actual best strategy was to rely on pure force, since he could threaten any of the enemy Strongholds except Jazin if he got any time with them one-on-one. That meant he could draw the others off the Asplundats, or even force the Dominion to attack him instead of the barrier.

He was up against the sword grappler again - the man was battered, but far from beaten. They both gathered up their techniques, streaking across the sky to collide with one another.

Before they met, Krikree lunched in from the side, spears stabbing out in concert. Too late, Theo realized that his opponent was actually feinting: he turned, thrusting his sword directly toward Krikree, aiming to impale her on her own momentum.

With a cry Theo hurled himself through a portal, crossing the distance and hitting the side of the blade with a torsion punch. It went flying and saved Krikree, but there was a second trap layered within the first: a second blade whistled at his heart.

It took all he had to grab the blade between the flats of his hands before it could impale him. The force itself drove him back, leaving him unable to assist Krikree. Some of her spears had landed hits, but the enemy Stronghold endured them, reaching up to grasp one of her arms...

A dark streak tore past them and suddenly everything changed.

The sword that had been driving toward Theo's chest shattered, as did all the other flying swords. Suddenly the enemy Stronghold was falling back, slashed through the chest, utterly astonished. Theo moved to catch Krikree before she could fall, but his gaze automatically shifted toward the source.

Guchiro moved like a living shadow, not necessarily far more powerful than his opponents, just far more skillful. Two of the defending Strongholds attempted to blast him with massive techniques and he redirected both with bands of darkness, sending them back toward their allies. He didn't skip a beat while doing so, cutting through the enemy lines.

That put him up against the Tymetronese Dominion, and even Theo wasn't sure if Guchiro could win that matchup. The Dominion appeared to be thinking the same thing, because she sneered when the Ichili stopped in the sky in front of her.

"That's a good shield wall," she admitted, "and you really do feel like an Authority. But you obviously displayed a Stronghold's strength getting to me, and even if your surprise attack had worked, that wouldn't have been enough to stop me."

"You misunderstand," Guchiro said, then unveiled his soulhome.

The sun dimmed and power cascaded across the battlefield as Guchiro revealed himself to be a Dominion. Theo couldn't help but stare, realizing that he'd made the same false assumption. Guchiro hadn't spent decades at Authority because he was weak, he had been preparing all the next steps of his blueprint. During that time he must have gathered numerous materials... given how long they had been separated, it wasn't impossible for him to ascend twice, and he might have even done significant work on his Dominion-tier floor.

A moment later Theo cursed himself for being distracted, even by this revelation. Fortunately, all the others were startled as well, and many of them were shaken when the two Dominions clashed. Theo picked out an older Tymetronese man, one who fought with a large number of thorny shields that were obnoxious Stronghold-tier armaments.

Those shields didn't do much good when a portal opened and Theo delivered a torsion uppercut directly to the chin.

His blow nearly took out an enemy Stronghold, but the other side wasn't idle either: Jazin launched more implosion geodes at him, a web designed to intercept escape routes. They might even have caught him if Krikree hadn't begun hurling spears to intercept them.

Theo couldn't afford to take his attention away, not in a battle like this. He looked away from the clash between Dominions and focused on winning.

~ ~ ~

Guchiro was not particularly interested in showmanship, and did not care for impressing others. He had remained at Authority for years, allowing many to believe that he had reached a dead end in his soulcrafting, while he quietly took the necessary steps. It had not even been his intention to mislead anyone, he had simply not corrected them when they assumed he was a Stronghold.

Proving otherwise was not a notable moment for him. Still, he did enjoy finally stretching his full power against another Dominion.

Darkness clashed against bursts of demonic flame, both roughly equal - his opponent clearly had a basement. Guchiro doubted that she had a Corporal Floor, based on how she kept at a distance when he attempted to close. He'd long ago stopped attempting that strategy and only intended to herd the enemy away from the primary battle, taking pressure off the defenders and forcing enemy Strongholds to split their attention.

Six floors of soulcrafting meant numerous enhancements and techniques, so neither Guchiro nor his opponent had revealed their full strength yet. Still, Guchiro was not particularly concerned about a direct fight. Based on his opponent's strength, he judged her soulhome blueprint to be merely above average, making her only a moderately powerful Dominion.

Throughout the years, Guchiro had observed a great many soulcrafters at that stage and recognized many potential shortcomings that he had long striven to avoid. There were no truly weak Dominions, but a few managed to stagger to that stage, sheer willpower covering over deficits in their soulcrafting. It was more common to see Dominions with six well-built floors filled with powerful materials, just no greater unity of design that would elevate them beyond.

These opponents used primarily demonic materials, which made it easy for their soulhomes to be unified. Demonic materials could display many different properties while always linking with one another, and Guchiro might have used them himself if not for their limitations in working with other materials. But there was no soulcrafting genius there, only six floors of conventional blueprints.

There was still a meaningful risk to the battle due to all the enemy Strongholds, who could still injure him if they struck at the appropriate time. Guchiro had fully exerted himself to punish the first few attempts, making sure that they were more cautious in the future.

He was assisted by his allies, who could threaten opponents who turned toward his back. The Asplundat Strongholds were of moderate use: their sphere blueprints could output strong, if generic, beams of power. Associate Theo was a greater source of support, instantly threatening anyone who isolated themselves via use of his teleportation ring technique.

Guchiro could not help but examine the unnatural outsider again. It was still odd that this man could create a blueprint to equal Ward Fiyu and even assist her. He was one of the more potent Strongholds on the battlefield, even without any of his fifth floor, and how quickly he could ascend to Dominion might be largely determined by whether he could find sublime materials for his unbalanced design.

By contrast, the Slescan... how odd. Guchiro frowned as he got a better look at her soulhome, then he was forced to ignore it as his opponent unleashed a storm of demonic fire.

This time Guchiro pretended to lunge toward her, as if he wasn't aware that she could redirect the storm. He let it wash over him, enduring the first flames and then wrapping a cocoon of darkness around himself. It resisted the heat as he cut through the storm, allowing him to burst out the side almost directly on top of his opponent.

She whipped out a weapon to counter him, but the demonic bone knife couldn't stand up to his cantae blade. It sliced through and continued, nearly catching his opponent's neck, instead slicing through part of her demonic helm.

When the enemy jerked away, she left a significant portion of demonic hide hanging from his blade. Guchiro dismissed it, letting the tatters be caught by the wind and burn away before they even touched the ground. That had been close, and his opponent shifted to a defensive stance, losing her confidence now that she had to face an equal.

Yet this wasn't enough. He had spent so long at Authority because he didn't want merely to ascend to Dominion, he wanted to reach the true heights of soulcrafting, the extremes that he and his allies feared were being restricted. All his progress and preparation had felt exceptional, until he actually reached this point.

Because defeating a Dominion from Tymetron was only the beginning: her master was allegedly Plutalgion, who stood well beyond Dominion. Even though Guchiro believed in every brick he'd laid up to this point, he was entering unknown territory. His planning had equipped him to master the host-class challenges that stopped so many, yet now he faced aeon-class obstacles that were completely unknown.

So he ventured forward, on an unknown path with unknown dangers. At such times, the only strategies were extreme caution or extreme confidence. Guchiro gathered his power and chose the latter.