Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Come ❯ Leaving the Field ( Chapter 3 )

Elsewhere, Eferlon and Alavaria were wondering how to get all the demons out of the Tower.

 

"Let's see. We're up against tens of millions of demons and about the same amount of imps. They stopped bombarding us to let in a 'couple million' and then blocked retreat with a ridiculous amount of fire."

 

"Yes, that's about right Eferlon. So, what's the plan?"

 

"Damn right it's right. If you expected a plan for being outnumbered more than ten times over in our own fortress - no. Just no."

 

"Oh."

 

"Anyway, I've got an idea of how to avoid losing the Temple, but it's rather risky."

 

Eferlon pointed at an old blueprint of the Temple keep. Near the bottom he had circled 9 areas in the deep rooms, eight small ones surrounding a larger one. Printed boldly in red were the words "EMERGENCY ONLY". Pulling out a newer blueprint, he indicated the same room, which was labeled "portal room". Then he waved a hand at the large map hung on the wall. It depicted the Temple complex, with an oval drawn around it and many small "X"s just inside the complex's outer walls.

 

"That doesn't make much sense, to be honest."

 

"Well, portals don't have to be upright, like doors. Some can be oriented like trapdoors. And - ever wondered what's below the Temple's foundations?"

 

"I'm scared to ask."

 

"It's a very complicated portal system. Unlike most, these portals don't have proper 'edges' and when they meet they will join in some fashion. The 'frame' for the completed portal is slightly larger than the Temple's wall."

 

"Sorry, but if you're going to try to send the WHOLE Temple through a portal, that's a mad idea."

 

"Well actually, I read about it." Eferlon commented, grabbing a book from a small stack on another table and tossing it to her. Also, I remembered that when the Temple was constructed there was a self-destruct protocol."

 

"So this super portal will blow us up?"

 

Eferlon sighed. "Obviously not. The idea was that if we were to be overrun, we could send everything into a star. However, there is no way to pre-set a portal's destination before opening it, so we can send ourselves into the mortal realm."

 

Digging up another book, Eferlon sent that flying above the table. "From this OLD documentation, humans by far outnumber us and them. Their numbers are likely to have risen even more in the last few years. By as many as a couple of billions perhaps. Since we have 20 millions, and they have 40, winning over mortal support should be what we need to finish the Uprising once and for all."

 

"But we were ordered to leave them alone. Unless .. ! We never DID discuss that because the scout intruded suddenly. You have found the Foreseen One?"

 

"Sadly, no. TWO humans appear to fill the part, and I am unsure which is the right one."

 

"If there were two! The amount of power .. !"

 

"I have never heard any exception to the Foresight that suggests more than one. Something is wrong."

 

After a short walk into the deepest parts of the Temple basements, they reached the portal room. The large doors stood open, showing the eight portals open against the walls, and a tall block of stone standing in the middle of the room. Members of the Engineers Corps were standing around, talking in low voices.

 

"Alright." said Eferlon, once he had closed the doors. "Has everyone who needed to gone though the portals?" When told that they had, he asked the Engineers to close the portals. As each portal was shut, it revealed a small stone box mounted on the wall. Eferlon drew his knife and strode over to one, ignoring several protests. He bent slightly and examined the top carefully.

 

"Where is it," he muttered, drawing a little energy to form a small flame. His eyes caught what looked like a slightly wide crack. Slowly easing the tip of his knife in, he pushed it in as far as he could and tried to turn the blade. Soft cracking noises could be heard as invisible flaws gave way. The box broke into two and fell to the ground, revealing a small three-by-three grid etched on a metal plate mounted on the wall, with a sharp black spike sticking through the middle square. Straightening, he turned around and stepped to the side.

 

"This," he explained, "is an input and access terminal." Moving over to the stone block, he examined its surface but failed to find any flaw in it. "Ah!" he said, taking a step back. "Stand clear please." With a smooth movement he drew his longsword and then swung it into the stone. The Engineers flinched as the 'block' shattered into many pieces, revealing a cylinder with eight spikes sticking out of the sides and another etched metal grid on top, facing upwards.

 

"Alright, from what I've learned, you need to send energy into the eight outer squares on the grids for the outer terminals. For the main one, I need to use nine threads in the correct placement." He pointed out a small notch on one of the outer squares. "That is there to guide me, along with the orientation of the door. Once the correct activation code has been used and is accepted, I then only need to use another nine filaments in order to set the portal destination to a general area in space-time. To be honest, I don't know how this portal system works beyond that."

Eferlon took a deep breath, clearly exhausted by having to explain the workings of the ancient system in front of him. The Engineers' leader, Adirial, stepped in quickly. "You mean to say you don't know how to set a destination?"

"Truth. I'm assuming it can understand our standard portal form. However, this is a machine, though a magical one, so I cannot rule out the possibility of it requiring a different input. Despite this, it is not too likely as I haven't found anything that suggests that this needs any special input."

Adirial shook his head, considering the implications. "If it needs some `trick' that we don't know, the portal might explode if we simply feed it a normal destination."

 

"That's a chance we have no choice but to take."

"But .. everyone here! You're gambling with their lives!"

 

Eferlon sighed resignedly. "In case I was not clear enough - if we stay, we'll die. The Temple will be taken. Mission failed. If we wait we will still lose many people and won't be capable of holding the Temple wherever it goes. Mission failed. If we take this chance now, we might get away with everyone intact, in the middle of a land filled with humans. It doesn't get simpler than that. Do or die. Literally."

 

This statement was silently accepted. Eferlon pulled a long spike from his belt. Moving back to the main terminal, he focused, pulling out nine fine filaments of energy. "Light, darkness, heat, cold, water, wind, earth" he muttered, "Water and wind for life, twice." he recited, guiding the threads. Each one touched a square and sank slowly into it. For long moments nothing happened, then a click was heard, echoing in the large, silent room. Eferlon watched as the middle square broke into four parts. The innermost corner of each moved downwards slightly, revealing a small hole. Taking hold of the spike in two hands, Eferlon jammed it into the hole. Another click later and he was unable to draw it out.

 

"Now is the hard part." he told them. "Four of you each move to a wall terminal, seven of you here join me and Alavaria at this one." Once they had done so, he continued. "Those at the wall will need to draw undifferentiated energy, and feed it into the four corner squares. Once you see energy transfer between the main terminal and yours then shift to the other four squares. The first step - never mind. Just do it."

 

As the Engineers began gather their energy, Eferlon turned to those with him. "I will pretend to make a small portal, and force the structure through the grid here. Bits of it will trail out around the spike. When the system has analyzed my target data, it will give a signal, and then you send undifferentiated energy into each of the eight squares, until the portal opens. Once it does, the hole in reality will be so large that there is an element of stability due to the size of connection. Closing the portal is slightly harder, but there are protocols for those too."

 

Upon receiving their nods, Eferlon bent over the grid. Six of the eight outer squares glowed. Eferlon looked at the Engineers for a second and when he turned back they all glowed. Concentrating deeply, he focused his will and drew forth several filaments. As if he was making a three-dimensional mat, he wove them into a rough sphere that was too weak to actually open a portal. Drawing another few threads, he carefully added them, effectively setting the destination from a real location to an imaginary one. Eferlon added more energy into his construct, allowing it to grow slightly, and then willed it gently into the grid. The "tail" of his creation coiled around the activation key in the middle.

 

After a bit, he couldn't move his "mini-portal" any more in, and held it there. Long moments passed as he tried to keep it steady for proper analysis. Then from the ceiling, a long shaft of light shone down, illuminating the grid. Eferlon pointed at the grid and his friends began to feed energy into the machine. From the eight spikes around the cylinder that it was on, smaller beams of light reached out to the outer terminals. The room began to shake slightly as the connections to the portal system struggled to absorb the amount of energy that was powering it, as well as decipher that target location. The room shook more, creating cracks in the walls, and it was done.

 

"That's all?" asked Adirial. "Nothing happened?"

 

"Patience," said Eferlon. "The portal is open, but we can't move down into it because of the rock and soil below us. A coordinated series of explosions will remove everything below us, and then we'll just 'fall' through the portal. The last set of explosions will occur only once we're through, destroying the portal mechanism to prevent any further use." He paused to allow a couple of resigned sighs.

 

Waving over one of the Engineers, he passed him a slip of paper and whispered some instructions. "Before proceeding to the next part, we should rest. The gamble was won, so we need not worry. The enemy will likely have moved further away when they detected the amount of energy that we used to open the portal, so we need to give them time to move closer.

 

Leaning close to the metal plate, he took out his knife and forced it in between metal and stone before prying them apart. Putting on a gauntlet, he gripped the etched metal plate and pulled it free, along with the spike. He pointed to a red stone set in a hole.

 

"So you press that and everything goes boom?" asked Rafa, Adirial's second, moving to take a look as Eferlon began to speak again.

 

"No, I apply a little Heat into it and hopefully the buried fireballs and what-not will go off."

 

A faint hum filled the air. Several people started. "Ah." said Eferlon. "I see they've set up the shields. If you recall Adirial, Rafa, I asked for some of your Engineers on the feasibility of setting up shielding around the Temple complex. That's a precaution I found worthwhile. Now if you'll help strengthen this room we're in, once that's done I'll set off the spells."

 

Moments later Eferlon was holding a thin thread of heat over the red stone. "Here goes nothing!" he commented cheerfully, sending the filament as far down the magical conduit as he could. The whole room shook. Large cracks appeared in the walls and the ceiling rained down marble flakes. Everyone fell down or against a wall, coughing as the air was filled with stone dust. Eferlon grabbed the pedestal in an attempt to avoid falling on anyone, but Alavaria crashed into him, sending them both to the floor. He sneezed upon inhaling some dust.

 

Then several very odd things happened. He tried to push himself up off the floor, but ended up flying straight up! All over the room, angels and bits of stone - in fact, anything not fixed down - began to fly. Moments later a dull loud thud was heard. Everyone suddenly regained their weight and slammed into the floor. Mud began to ooze out of several of the larger cracks in the wall, and the whole room still shook slightly.

 

Covering his lower face with a hand, Eferlon coughed again as he got up and dusted himself off. "Ladies, gentleangels!" he exclaimed, "Unless I miss my guess, welcome to the mortal realms!"

 

Several Engineers that had been picking themselves up fell down again in surprise when the statement struck home. Rafa curled up slightly, crying softly. By them time everyone was up and Rafa had composed herself, Eferlon and Alavaria were minutes gone. They had a realm to protect, and a realm to avenge.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"What?!" Everyone nearby jumped. "What do you mean they're all gone?"

 

"Greatness," said the Eater smoothly, waving away the scout, who ran away at top speed. "There was a very large explosion of magical energies which engulfed the whole Tower complex. All your air forces perished when the shockwave produced was forced upwards by the buildings nearby. Forward ground units have confirmed the size of the explosion."

 

"Not that! Idiots! Where. Is. The. Temple!!"

 

He paused a while before answering. "Majesty, it's not certain, but .. the Temple of Glory is gone. It must have been wiped from existence."

 

Everyone nearby watched the Devourer as he leaned back in his tall straight-backed chair, grasping the arms with gauntleted hands to strongly that the dark steel began to groan, deforming. Suddenly his hand sprung open and he jumped up, making them all hastily take a step back. He laughed.

 

"So they committed suicide and destroyed the Temple for me?"

 

"Yes your Highness. Your army - like the coming of darkness when the sun is drowned in the horizon of a red sky - must have caused them to despair and lose the will to fight. This day is the first day of our fight, and it is the last. We have WON, Greatness! This realm is our for all eternity!"

 

They relaxed as the Devourer laughed. And again and again, as if he couldn't stop. In between breaths they heard orders to pillage the City and take anything they wished. "But start slowly, tear down the walls and move inwards. Leave nothing behind, not even the rubble!" he shouted. As they hurried away to give out his orders, the last thing the Eater heard was the Devourer shrieking in victory, piercing words that he would never forget.

 

"I have overcome all! See! Today I have become a god!"

 

Covering his ears, he ran away as fast as he could from his master who was clearly drunk with victory.