The attacks came from the clear blue sky. I’d expected it, honestly, so I wasn’t unprepared, but they came faster than I had anticipated. Cosmic Waltz rippled and I crossed a wide expense of empty air to arrive in front of the streak of darkness that was heading for the highest current clone setting a block. My staff lashed out like striking lightning, and I felt a concussive shock rumble through my hands as the arrow was deflected.
Unfortunately, it seemed like another of my fellow time majors had made an appearance. Orion, the archer from the mid terms with causal arrows, was somewhere nearby, and I confirmed it easily after realizing the arrow I’d just deflected had TURNED and was currently flying around me toward the clone.
Snarling, I triggered Mephistopheles, unleashing ruin on the arrow, burning away the causality with the flames of passing eons, then spun to deflect another with the same dark fire. Sammael, of course, was built to wield the black flame, so the A-rank angelic form bolstered the ruin flame. Not up to the same level as the demon himself, but bridging the gap from late B to A-rank was more than doable.
My staff warped in the air, almost seeming to bend as I blurred forward, deflecting a rain of arrows before they could land. Orion was B-rank, fortunately, so I managed to stop them all easily enough.
Slightly LESS simple to deal with was the literal HARPY that swept down while I was distracted, A-rank talons slashing towards my throat. He had a vicious grin on his avian face, and I prepared to block him, but didn’t end up needing to. His eyes widened in panic at the last second, and he juked sideways, only for a nearly imperceptible line of severed sky to bisect his wing and send him plummeting from the sky.
Glancing down, I saw Fade sheathing his sword and turning back to the nearest tower. I called out a thank you, then Waltzed across the intervening space to deflect a small meteor coming from above. “Shane!” Callie called when she saw me intercept it. “This isn’t working! There’s too many coming for us. We need to thin them out!”
I nodded slowly. “True,” I called back. “And I think I know how! One second.”
Reaching into Gehenna, I called out an old friend. Brad appeared nearby, Asmodeus alongside him. The enhancement demon wrapped around Brad, granting him wings and a boost in power. “What’s up, boss?” he called over the wind as he caught himself and flew the few feet he’d dropped to return to speaking range.
“There, there, there, and there,” I called, pointing to the nearest four towers. “I want you to tip them over. Preferably on each other. Make a pit under them, compromise the foundation. Use that crazy power of yours.”
He grinned at me, snapping off a salute and flying off toward the nearest tower. I called him back, sending him to the one Fade was working on. Having an A-ranker to protect him might keep him in play a bit longer.
And so began literal hours of keepaway. Deflecting, attacking, constantly changing tactics. Jessie was working herself to the bone recharging everyone, Brad took down three pillars (one of them with another) and the clones just…worked. Agares was building, Benny and Dayne were reinforcing, and the few attacks that DID make it through mostly sloughed off the stone allowing us to make good time.
Finally, we reached the cloud layer. Once we were high enough, Agares and his crew of clones started to expand out, building a huge platform using the tower as a base. I was a little worried it wouldn’t hold, given how high up we were, but he created a sort of bowl shape that used the top mile or so as a base, and the result was shockingly strong.
Dantalion landed next to me as I stood at the edge, watching for attackers. “We good?” I asked him as I stared into the distance.
“We are,” he said confidently. “The four corners of the square tower were hollow. As we built up, we had four of the clones at the bottom tunneling down. They filled the corners and extended the pillars down into one huge sphere under the base.”
“Where did you get enough DIRT for that?” I asked in confusion. “I mean, Agares needs materials, right? It had to come from some-”
My words were cut off by a colossal boom. Namely, from one of the nearby towers. Which had been rebuilt and had almost reached the cloud layer, only to topple over again. “Brad,” I said with a laugh. “He’s transporting the dirt from under their towers through his pits. I’m surprised they managed the rebuilds at all.”
“They’ve got tricks of their own,” he admitted. “That tower of time amber seems not to need a foundation. It’s pinned in spacetime. Fade has been trying to take it down for a while, but even his cuts aren’t doing much. They seem to be hampering the growth a bit, at least, but nothing besides. Anyway, we’re all up here now, and the work on the castle has begun. Luckily, the attacks on the base aren’t very dense anymore, because aside from offense everyone needs to be up here to actually build.”
I frowned, looking out over the cloud layer. “The base should be mostly safe,” I said slowly. “But now that so many are up here…we might need to look for attacks from the cloud layer itself. Did you notice anything odd about it?”
He nodded. “It’s getting more solid. The more construction is done, the more the clouds become real. It’s like the illusory castles are bringing the clouds with them as they come into existence. I can see several being built in the distance, and progress is being made at a pretty steady rate. Which might be a problem.”
“How so?” I asked him curiously.
“If the cloud layer becomes solid enough, then the building can be done on the clouds themselves. No one will need a Domain or a foundation.”
I waggled a hand. “Maybe, but I’m not so sure. If anyone waits for it to be strong enough to support a castle, they’re going to be WAY behind. Waiting is an option, but not a good one. I suspect it’s a fighting chance for people who don’t have a proper crafter on their team. One last chance for the others to eke out some points.”
“Probably,” he allowed. “But that doesn’t make it good for us. Especially the condensing clouds. It’s already dense enough to support a person, which means parties are going to start ranging out further to attack the cloud layer. I mean, it’s good for us too, because the condensing clouds surrounding the tower will help keep it up, but we’re all in danger.”
“You don’t say,” came a dry voice as Fade stepped up off the stairs leading through the tower. They’d built a thin staircase around the edge as they’d climbed, to enable more stable construction and to make sure our people could climb. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we came back to help.” Dayna and Benny both nodded, my elf friend drawing her bow and Benny flexing his hands, revealing razor sharp claws of white bone extending from his fingers.
Abel, Callie, Bethy, Alanna, and Jessie lined up behind them. “So we’re going all in on the topside, huh?” I asked worriedly. “Are you sure someone isn’t going to come knock this thing over?”
Callie grinned. “I’d like to see them try. I’ve spent the last hour or so coating this thing with Adherent fire. I shifted it partially out of phase with this reality. It won’t hold forever, but it’ll buy us a few hours. By the time anyone manages to mess with it, the cloud layer should be stable enough to keep us in place. That’s why Dantalion made this bowl shaped platform.”
“Smart,” I told my demon of information. “No wonder you said it helps us. Anyway, I won’t say it’s not a welcome bit of news, or that I don’t appreciate the backup, but I think leaving the whole thing unguarded is still a bit premature. Luckily, I can help with that.” I flexed my will, and Mornax, Doom Sovereign, Azazel, and several other tier eights emerged. “You know what to do,” I told them shortly.
“I’ve got it,” Oz said with a wry smile. My first minister knew how to take charge, after all. “Come on you lot. Let’s go.”
Callie smiled indulgently as I sent my demons off to do guard duty below, and I felt a thrill of amused smugness from the bond. I rolled my eyes. She’d known I would do that. She just thought I could use an excuse to feel effective after hours of pointless deflection and annoyance. I glared at her playfully and she blew me a kiss, which I caught and pressed to my heart, earning a giggle from my wife.
“Oh stop it, you two,” Benny said sourly. “We’re standing on top of a partially illusory tower over a several mile drop building a castle on illusory clouds. Do you really think this is the time for flirting?”
“He’s just jealous his fiance is on another team,” I told Callie sympathetically. “It must be hard to be a lonely loser.”
I dodged sideways as a burst of cold fire erupted from Benny’s mouth, blazing through the air where my head was. I’d have been fine even if it hit me, but still, I was kind of impressed. “Oh shit, you have dragonfire now?” I asked him excitedly.
He puffed up a bit. “Of course. I AM the embodiment of a dracolich. Dragons are famous for their fire, and dracoliches are still dragons.”
That was pretty cool, and I was about to say so before I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye. I turned on my heel to stare out across the cloud cover. As we’d climbed, the sun had been sinking. By this point, it was below the clouds, and while not fully DOWN, it was much dimmer up here. Not so dim, however, as to obscure the figures surging over the sea of clouds toward us.
“Incoming,” I said grimly, bringing everyone’s attention to the approaching army. Well, army might have been overstating it. There were at least a hundred, or ten teams heading this way, but they weren’t really cohesive. They were coming from several directions, and a few of the teams seemed to be running into each other and conflicting, drawn into small skirmishes as they approached. “We’ve got company.”
Abel stepped forward, cracking his neck. “I can help with this. They’re on the way, but they don’t need to get here too quickly.” Closing his eyes, he raised his hands, then he made a sort of throwing motion and…an ocean appeared.
The Infinite Blood Sea had grown since I last saw it. Or maybe he was applying spatial lubrication to the sea itself. Whatever the case, it covered the area around the platform in a ring, creating a zone of denial. I called for Asmodeus, sending him forth to imbue Abel with the power that he could. Brad was back, and he didn’t need the assist anymore, but Abel did.
Bethy stepped forward, patting his shoulder. “Good job Andy,” she said, almost kindly. “Just hold that there. I’ll go in and help.”
Stepping forward, she dissolved into a cloud of bats, each of the creatures swooping unimpeded into the blood sea. I knew Abel had worked with Lark to make the thing, and Bethy was clearly comfortable working with it. I couldn’t see what she was doing, but from the sound I could hear, she wasn’t making it easy on the ones who were entering, at least not the ones she could stop. Sadly, she was only a B-ranker, strong or not. There were others coming for us now. Stronger enemies. Soon enough, forms began to emerge from the blood sea, barely slowed by the Domain. The A-rankers had arrived.