Inexorable Chaos - Chapter 276: 148 Gaw: Ascending Chaos

Camelot is a warzone. Corpses line the streets, buildings are damaged or destroyed, and hostile elementals roam seemingly around every corner. As Franky gets nearer and nearer to the city’s center, the scope of destruction and death quickly rises.

Similar to other major cities, Camelot has a large empty area at the city center where [Traders] can open up temporary shops and sell their wares. On most days, the place is filled with more than a thousand stalls hawking their wares to shoppers, gawkers, and passers-by. Now, the plaza is the frontline of the battle. The once colorful stalls have been broken down and piled into barricades. Transformed lycans and human militiamen, shoulder to shoulder, defend the makeshift ramparts. Behind them, [Archers] and [Mages] fire at will into the horde of rampaging elementals.

“Stay close and don’t slow down,” Hannibal says. Franky nods and the [Gentleman] rapidly swings his sword to a violent tune that shears an explosive line through the dense onslaught of elementals and creates a small lull in the fighting.

When they arrive, the defenders cheer for the [Gentleman], who nods at their praise. He leads Franky, Sarena, and Jessa into the safety of the encirclement. Inside the barricade, Hannibal stops.

“This is where we part ways.” he raises a hand, “Head to the center. Aodean is there, coordinating a defense. I am going out to search for additional survivors.”

“Good luck.”

Hannibal doffs his hat, turns, and rushes outside of the encirclement without a single sound.

Franky licks his dry lips. He turns away from Hannibal and jogs to the center. The girls only pause a moment before mutely following right behind.

__________________________________________

“These rifts won’t relent so long as the Titan’s cores are leaking. They need to be fully destroyed, or we will eventually be overrun. We need to move to finish the job.” Ambrosia exclaims.

Bristoff, the [Smith Guildmaster], bristles with a frown, “I say we hold our ground and fight. An elemental with a leaky core will eventually die on its own. We should be able to survive until then.”

“A Titan’s core will take days, if not weeks to die from a leak, and all the while, the number and quality of elementals coming through will progressively increase.” she points up at thousands of fire elementals standing and striking camelots barrier. Every second, a portal opens and unloads another fire elemental over it. “I also doubt the city’s barrier will last another hour. When it goes down, we will have to deal with attacks from above.”

“Sounds like we’re boned if we just play defense.” Aodean interrupts the two, “though I doubt we have many other options besides turtling. Anyone trying to exit the city will have to fight through an army of elementals on their own. The only other thing I can think of is turning the barrier off and letting anyone who can fly out to try and finish off the titans.”

“Many lycans will be lost if the barrier goes down. There aren’t enough [Mages] to defend against such a large swarm.” Garn warns.

“Aodean!”

Hearing the voice, Aodean turns around and grins as Franky arrives, dirty and covered in dust, but unharmed.

“Mate, it’s good of you to finally show up.”

Franky frowns at the sassy voice, “Sorry. I didn’t know there was a defense until Hannibal found us and led us here. Speaking of which,” Franky waves his hand, “where are the civilians?”

Aodean taps the stone under his foot, “Underneath Camelot. They’re all in the golem storage chambers. The elementals don’t seem to summon underground, so they should be safe so long as an earth elemental doesn’t walk over them.”

“That’s good. That’s… good. So, um, how can I help?”

Aodean opens his mouth, but doesn’t answer as a crack appears in the barrier over camelot.

“NO! We should have more time.” he looks at Ambrosia, “you said we’d have an hour.”

“I said we had less than an hour.” she corrects.

Another crack forms, then another, and another. Rapidly, cracks spread across the entire barrier, growing every second as they watch.

“Shit,” Aodean panics, “This is bad,” he looks at Franky, “We-we might need you to use your skill. We’ve no way to deal with the swarm.”

Without even blinking, Franky nods. “[Lightform: Greatsword]” he calls. A greatsword appears in the air. He hops up on it and floats upward to the horrid screams of Jessa and Sarena.

If he can use his skill to save countless lives, then it is worth it.

He positions himself near the barrier where the fire elementals are most concentrated.

He takes a breath and releases it as more and more cracks form.

He raises his remaining hand. “[Legacy of the He-” he never gets to finish as an explosion rocks the barrier from the other side. Fire elementals die in droves as an unknown flying swarm ambushes them with all consuming black flame.

A massive flying object as large as a house crashes into the barrier and finally shatters it, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The fire elementals are quickly being dealt with. Realizing his position, Franky descends and lands next to Aodean while all eyes are now staring at a one-sided battle taking place in the skies.

As the fighting nears its end, the massive winged beast descends and lands with enough force to crack the ground and probably give the citizens waiting below a heart attack.

When the dust settles, Franky hears Ambrosia intake a sharp breath, for what has arrived is a swarm of winged demons, most of whom are succubi.

Garn steps forward, placing himself between Ambrosia and the demons. His body shifts into its monstrous form as he prepares to defend his mistress.

“I am not interested in her, dog,” a succubus announces as she lands with grace that would impress a [Gentleman]. Her tail flickers seductively, disarming everyone who lays their eyes on her. Even Franky, as leveled as he is, struggles to move his eyes away.

She looks around the group. Her eyes stop on Franky, then Aodean, and finally she looks back at the massive, winged demon behind her.

“Neither of these two can sate me. Where is he?”

From above the demon, a woman in a hooded cloak walks down on an invisible set of stairs woven from strands of fate. She stops on the ground and unhoods her cloak.

“You!” Garn growls.

“P-Panoptic, what are you doing here?” Ambrosia sputters out.

From behind the Panoptic, a middle aged panther man in a flowing cloak hops down to stand next to her.

“The one you seek will arrive shortly, Belial. In the meantime, you must make sure this city survives.”

The succubus reveals her fangs, “And why would I do that?”

“Because there are people he cares about within it. If he finds out you did not help them in their hour of need, he will not accept you.”

[Demon Archqueen] Belial grins in understanding “He would owe me.”

“He will,” the Panoptic states. Her socketless head turns to the silent watchers. “Do not go after the Titans. They are fated to perish, but not by your hands.” The Panoptic turns around and steps on top of the massive demon.

“I will deal with the most difficult one.”

Belial slowly nods. The massive demon spreads its wings and rises.

“Wait,” Adam, the panther-kin calls out, “should I come with you?”

“No, your assistance is no longer required. Everything will soon come to an end.”

The demon beats its wings and ascends into the sky.

The group watches silently as it flies away.

“Oi, the fuck just happened?” Aodean eventually breaks the silence.

Before anyone can answer his question, an earthquake shakes the city.

_________________________________________

“The Bulwark is getting tired. The Bulwark requests a moment to rest.”

The seven [Elder Earth Elementals] ignore his words and rush Darius with single minded ferocity, smashing earth with earth. They aren’t very effective against Darius, but are rather distracting. Spreading his domain as far as possible, he can sense Lapetus in the distance and the leaky mana coming out of its core. He also senses the titan’s anger directed at him, a conniving, instinctual vengeance that wants him destroyed.

Hence, the [Elder Earth Elementals].

“The Bulwark understands your anger and want for vengeance,” Darius blocks a strike with his left arm, “but the Bulwark believes that you can find it within your leaky core to understand the Bulwarks’ admonishment.” with his right arm, he strikes through the chest of an elemental and instantly destroys its core.

The [Elder Earth Elemental] crumbles into dust.

One down, six more to… go.

Darius’s mouth opens wide as the ground starts to rumble and in the distance, a horn sounds off. He watches as cavalry wreathed in black flame descend upon the Elementals and turn their earthen bodies to slag. From above, he hears screeching as a swarm of wyverns attack the fiery elementals in the air.

Before Darius can close his mouth, he hears the gurgling moans of tens of thousands parched throats. When he turns his head to the sound, he sees an army of undead rushing into the fray with complete abandonment for their safety. They swarm the elementals, and do little more than become a distraction. But that quickly changes as massive horned and armored behemoths rush in with sledgehammers that make short work of the earth elementals.

Then he sees it. An(other) army marches on Camelot, led by what Darius can honestly say is a demon wreathed in scarlet lightning. The demon raises his hand and points, and then the rest of his army rushes in.

______________________________________

Volpe glides above the clouds, wrapped in a ball of air. She floats calmly, gazing down at the battlefield and searching for her targets. As she stares, a swarm of fire elementals converge on her position. They blast her with flame, and she flexes her domain. With a thought, she drains the mana from the attack and converts it into usable mana. She raises a finger at the elementals.

“[Chain Lightning].”

A sliver of her own mana enters the stolen mana. The spell forms the matrix and fires in the time it takes her to take a breath. With the sound of a thunderclap, the swarm of elementals explode into shards.

Her focus returns to the chaotic battlefield below and licks her lips. The whole region is awash with elemental mana, free for her taking. The first titan she finds is Oceanus. The titan’s core is cracked, but only a little. It is still strong enough to keep its form, but it seems to be on the retreat from a woman with a spear who chases after it while water elementals attempt to slow her down.

The next elemental is Hyperion, who is damaged enough that it can no longer float. Instead, the titan has created a sea of magma that writhes and moves to defend its core.

Coeus is boxed in, imprisoned in a domain shrouded forest.

The last and most damaged titan is the easiest to find. A dozen meters underground, she senses the potent mana of the core spilling into the sky like a fountain, calling the oldest, strongest earth elementals onto the mortal plane.

“You will be first.” she declares.

She raises her arm and spreads her domain. Four of her tails glow as she pulls in the surrounding mana. With it, she takes control of the slowly dissipating storms over the battlefield, gathers them, merges them, intensifies them. Huge hail stones and lightning fall from the sky and the hapless humans and monsters below break off their hostilities to search for shelter. A new tornado forms with Volpe at its center.

___________________

Darius reforms the dirt around himself into a trapezoidal bunker and hardens the soil. Rain and large hail pummel down, wind howls, and lightning scorches the earth. The rain soaks into the already wet ground and soon it turns into a quagmire. The monsters that just before had swept away the elementals struggle to retreat from the mire. Not a yard from Darius’ a monster gets hit by lightning, it and the dozen horse-men around it go down. Another gets crippled by a hailstone.

“The Bulwark will aid you.”

He wrests control from whatever is dominating the nearby elements, extends his domain and wraps the cavalry squad in protective shells of earth.

______________________

Volpe grins, baring her k-9s, her ears perk up, and her tails swish softly. To have so much mana at her beck and call; it’s exhilarating. She’s glad she woke up for this.

“[Mana Stasis].”

The foxy [Elementalist] reaches her domain down to the ground. She feels another domain there, focused on the earth, but she punches through it stills the mana around the Earth Titan, locking it in place.

The kitsune takes full control of her new storm.

“[Thunderstrike].”

Bolt after bolt of lightning strike the ground above the cloistered Lapetus, carving out a crater in the mud. Continuous thunder rolls across the battlefield.

“[Skysunder Spear].”

The tornado condenses into a narrow column, then contracts lengthwise. The spear of confined air heats up, from black to blazing yellow. Lightning races along its length.

Just as she’s about to release it onto her lightning-marked target, an earthquake violently shakes everything within thirty miles.

And then a massive crystal worm explodes out of the earth.