Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Come ❯ The Rising Tide ( Chapter 2 )

In the deepest levels of the Temple of Glory, the Council was planning. They were not in a "plans room" of course, they needed more secrecy than that! They had taken over a small storage room, clearing out stacked furniture and bringing in their maps. Kisha dragged in an air current from the corridor to clear out the dust and Eferlon made a little ball of flame and fastened it near the ceiling.

 

"Well" Eferlon was saying. "Marksmen on the archers balconies of the Temple should be capable of inflicting significant losses on any air attackers. We mustn't allow them to take the Temple without having to clear out the city, or facing our main army."

 

"Alright then, so we're done here?" enquired Alavaria. "These deployment orders should be sent out immediately. With the enemy so close," she frowned "there's no time to lose in getting them out to the walls."

 

Eferlon nodded his head slightly. "All finished then. Lets get everyone in order then."

 

The small disks scattered all over the city belied their apparently simple tactics. The idea was to force the enemy to clear the whole city, one building or road at a time. In actuality, there was more preparation involved than simple telling troops to spread out. The roads had to be destroyed in places, and the Engineers needed to trap or destroy hard-to-defend structures. Likely the enemy would resort to destroying everything, but the City would be able to sustain even heavy fire for an extended timeframe. In any case, long before the attackers took the inner city, all the civilians would have been evacuated through the Temple's portals, the surrounding buildings cleared, the four gates into the Temple's tower complex sealed shut, as well as those of the central keep. Eferlon wondered why he felt as though they had forgotten something. Alavaria poked him.

 

"We need to get everything done. Lets hurry."

 

"Right."

 

As they exited the basements, they could see scouts rushing into and out of the Temple's gates. Reports told of large groups of imps assaulting the city walls, pounding the white marble with fire spells. Fortunately the damage inflicted was minimal. Unfortunately, that suggested suppressive fire, meaning an early attack. The winds from the south produced an air scout, with a shocking report. "Air forces are approaching this Temple from every side!"

 

"Well!" was Talia's quick response. "It seems that they are eager to probe our defenses. Lets give them a taste of the Master's wrath."

 

"Wait a moment," she heard Alavaria begin, "what if they are actually .. "

 

Ignoring her, Talia opened her wings, gave a little hop, and took flight from a nearby balcony. Glancing downwards, she could see the archers' balconies of the Temple, already crowded with armed comrades. So the heightened alert was a good decision. It was fortunate that the military was garrisoning the Temple. The enemy had attacked faster than even she had expected. She sent herself up another couple hundred feet and waited.

 

They were fast approaching, a veritable sea of foes. Thanking the Master that a large, fully equipped army was always slower than a scout, Talia readied her sword and shield. Below, as she knew, angels unsheathed swords, discarding their sheaths, and took up shields while the others behind them began to string their longbows. Closer. The enemy slowed slightly, perhaps surprised to find only one angel in their path.

 

Talia laughed, and waving her sword shouted, "Attack! For the glory of the Master!" Her forces took to the dark skies as a single body, a million strong throwing themselves heavenward from the nine towers far below.

 

The enemy was clearly surprised to see angels flooding up. Their imps did not have enough time to cast many fireballs, though of course a few unlucky targets were felled almost immediately. With only weak imps on the frontlines, Talia's forces slammed into the enemy mass, already smashing through the first few ranks. However, the charge lost most of its momentum, and they were still outnumbered quite a few times over. They managed to inflict casualties on the enemy, but were unable to rout them. Small imps dodged blows and tossed fireballs before being slain, opening gaps through which other, stronger, demons entered the battle, wielding all manner of axes, swords, spears, maces and lances, stabbing, swinging, or thrusting away.

 

Talia was not left alone. A very tall demon, with large, pitch-black, ribbed wings darted towards her, leaning forward as it hefted a massive two-handed axe, its dark steel edge glinting as the light shone off its razor edge. She dashed forward, shifting slightly, slashing at its side as she blurred past. Metal met metal with a dull ring as her blade met the back of the axe, bouncing off thanks to the latter's sheer weight. Tilting slightly, she altered her course, made a tight circle, and attacked the other side, narrowly missing an arrow that whizzed past, clinking as it was deflected by strong steel plate.

 

Talia ducked an axe blow, dodged another. The second one went far wide, unbalancing her opponent. Seizing the opportunity, she tried to slash, even though the Fallen was barely in the kill zone. It flipped over smoothly, falling as it cut through cold air. Talia connected with a black wing, sending dark feathers raining down. Altering its fall, the demon turned, swinging its axe upwards as Talia descended towards it. The blow hit her shield as she tried to move out of the way. The shield cracked slightly with a low groan.

 

"Bah." Talia commented mentally, tossing aside the damaged kite shield. Seeing how effective its weapon was on the offence, the fallen angel, with a powerful beat of its wings, halted its fall as Talia moved below. While she tried to slow herself, it charged straight down, axe at the ready as it plummeted towards its target. Giving up on weapons, Talia extended her left arm, now freed, and focused. Her will forced the nearby magical elements to take form, and from her hand came fine filaments of pure Heat, which she flung at the demon. Suddenly riddled with a ten fine holes, it died on the spot. Talia sent herself up another few feet as the body continued to fall, leaking fine mist through the holes in its armor.

 

With a twist of her wrist, Talia drew back the magic threads, swept them together into a small, bright ball, and flung it into a group of imps moving towards her. A low rumble filled the sky as a large patch of space was forcefully evacuated of air and imps, as her Fireball exploded. Grabbing the advantage of surprise, Talia rushed through the stunned imps, announcing her entrance with a spray of hot shrapnel - all that was left when another Fallen was abruptly introduced to a new fireball.

 

After a moment, Talia pulled back, getting a look at her forces. They were still attacking from below, against the battle plan. That was likely to cause friendly fire incidents, or else reduce the effectiveness of the ranged units. Rushing downwards she waved at a group of her forces and pointed up, reminding them to attack the enemy's flank and rear. Armies gathered in three dimensions. They have four flanks, and a frontline that's more of a frontplane.

 

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

 

Far below, Kisha was standing near a window in the Temple of Glory watching the air battle, annoyed. The archers with her couldn't fire if their allies were in the way. All the effort of making sure the archer deployment went smoothly after the air troops left - wasted. Armor, weapons and bodies fell from the sky at a steady rate, the last trailing mist. She sent her first order around.

 

"Group one fire at will."

 

Several archers nearby drew and aimed. Very carefully. Group one was her special force of sharpshooters. For now, she only trusted them to avoid hitting fellow troops. She continued watching the sky as Talia flew down, gestured at her soldiers and flew back up. As those nearby followed, the others further away remembered the original plan, edging upwards around the mass of demons. Perfect.

 

"Everyone fire piercers. Fast as you can."

 

All the others began lifting bows from the floor, fitting arrows, adding energy, aiming and firing swift shafts of white destruction that could pierce almost any armor and probably take down several enemies before stopping. For the moment, most of the enemy was focused on the air forces, so a couple of volleys were released without any returning fire. They mainly got imps, and maybe a few of those succubi demons too.

 

Of course, the enemy quickly caught on, and switched strategies. The imps began to move down, and the rest followed the angels flying up. Fireballs started to rain from the sky. All the archers hurriedly moved away from the windows and off the balconies, still trying to shoot. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of fire being sent their way meant that while the tower walls absorbed a large potion, many balls of flame managed to get through the windows. An archer standing next to Kisha fired an arrow through a small window, and a fireball darted back through, completely taking off her head. Dull booms could be heard as others connected with the wall. The hard white marble creaked slightly and small cracks began to appear.

 

"Move back from the walls." Kisha ordered calmly. "Try to take what shots you can but only use piercing ones. Keep away from any openings unless you're going to release a shot. Don't stop shooting!"

 

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The Ruler of Air couldn't believe his eyes. There was one angel hovering over the central tower in the Temple complex. "You." he ordered a soldier. "Go and kill that - .." He cut off as the sound of thousand of angels taking flight reached him, clearly requiring a change in tactics. "Below! Brace for charge!" he shouted over the noise. "Light troops move clear and attack! Heavy air move up and prepare for counter-charge. MOVE!" He watched as the angels swiftly cleared the gap and began to attack. Glancing up, he waved his rod, pointed down. His forces moved down, and suddenly the angels swept to one side and began a mad dash upwards, around his forces! He gaped a moment before his charging troops flooded past him. They were running away! Cursing as he ordered his soldiers to chase those angels up into the sky, he was caught be surprise when troops began to fall to white streaks. Focusing his mind, he caught one as it whizzed past and examined what appeared to be an arrow imbued with the power of light. Several nearby imps and a fellow fighter died when a single white flash pierced all of them in quick succession.

 

"All imps move down. Apply heavy suppressive fire to the Temple of Glory tower complex, particularly the central keep. Everyone else on the pursuit. They can't rise forever. Our reinforcements will clear up anything that alive down here.

 

As the imps he had with him began raining fireballs on the nine towers below, the volume of enemy fire decreased noticeably. "Hurry!" he yelled, rallying his forces. "They're slowing down! Crush them all and seize our victory!" He strained for speed, flying up so fast the wind sounded like a high-pitched wail as he forced himself to move faster. Just behind him his forces tried to keep up. The enemy force slowed down, stopped and began to descend. The Ruler tucked the rod away in his sword belt, and drew his blade. As the first angel reached him, the Ruler swung back before delivering a strong blow. The massive two-handed sword he carried easily chopped his first kill of the day into two. All around him, more of them crashed into his forces at top speed. He continued to hack away at the angels as they tried to cut a path through his army. In all the chaos, he could only watch as they broke free and descended, attacking the imps bombarding the Temple before retreating inside. Snatching at his rod and tugging it free, he waved at the Temple as the surviving imps moved to join the main force.

 

"Imps, stop bombardment until we're all inside the Temple, then fire away." Pausing he looked at his hosts. "This is it!" he proclaimed. Waving the rod, he shouted excitedly. "No retreat. No surrender. Once you enter the Temple, there is no way out alive. Clear it out with the sword and you will be glorified when our Master takes the High Seat!" He pointed his rod, unwavering, at the Temple for a moment before sending himself into a controlled fall, aiming for a large window. Looking back for a split second, he saw his army following him.

 

Death and destruction follows me. How can I not succeed?

 

Unbeknownst to him, he was laughing as he slipped though the window. He was the first into the Temple ever since the Uprising millennia ago. He would be raised up above the stars. He would be higher than the heavens!

 

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

 

Talia was rocketing upwards when she realized that the air was not as supportive as it had been earlier. She hoped that they would be able to crush the enemy between themselves and the archers below. "Alright!" Talia shouted over the wind. "On the count of three stop and charge down in a wedge. Cut a way through their center, but keep moving! Stay together! One, two, three!"

 

As one her forces flipped and sent themselves plummeting, aiming straight for their enemies. Talia saw a comrade felled in a single blow by one of the largest Fallen she had ever seen, moments before the two forces collided. Forcing magic to her will again, Talia pulled out of it a chilling field, which she placed in front of their attack path. Lowering the temperature there to match a cold winter day. Talia concentrated on maintaining the field as they passed into it, since it aided her forces by slowing down anyone chasing them. A Fallen leapt out of the mass, thrusting a savage barbed spear at her. Not even slowing, Talia squeezed her magic field into a thin thread - the first shape that came to mind. The resulting power concentration resulted in a field temperature only marginally above absolute zero. The thin line of frozen existence reached out and touched the rebel.

 

Crack! It didn't stand a chance. The almost instantaneous temperature change caused it to explode into small shards even as it froze, like a tree exploding in a hard winter. She had seen one while in the mortal realm. Waving her left hand, Talia motioned for her troops to follow her as she cleared a path for them. The many demons in front of them scattered as they saw ice appearing from the air around her freezing field. A Succubus tried to shoot an arrow at her, but the arrow flew too close to the field and broke into small fragments when it froze in an instant. The forces below them tried to move away, but some moved down while those further below were still trying to move up, creating a packed tangle. Without any hesitation, Talia slammed her magic into them, shattering imps, Fallen, succubi and worse into frozen chunks. Around her, other demons were chilled just by the drop in ambient temperature. Several of her soldiers darted away to hack at them.

 

Talia dispelled the field as they cleared the main host, replacing it with a different one that warmed her brethren. Soon they could all see the imps hovering over the Temple's towers, bombarding it. They didn't pause in their descent, slamming into them from above, weapons already falling amongst their foes.

 

"The Temple will never fall!"

 

Long moments later, Talia looked upwards and saw the main demonic force bearing down on them. Hurriedly she summoned the threads similar to those that she had used at the start, but reversed, weaving them into a net of ice-cold filaments. "Back into the Temple! Move as fast as you can and head for any opening you can get through! Move!"

 

Her troops darted downwards towards the empty balconies, aiming themselves carefully. Talia herself choose a large window and flew straight for it. An archer stepped up the window and jumped back just before she came gliding in. Before she had even landed, Talia closed her wings and started running. The loud booms of fireballs colliding with the tower's walls drowned out the sound of plate boots hitting stone as members of her air force came flying through large windows or balcony doors. She noticed small cracks beginning to spread in the walls. Not a good sign. Then the explosions stopped, an even worse sign.

 

"You." she said, motioning at a group of her soldiers. "Get all the archers away from the windows. And send someone to inform Kisha that the enemy is going to be storming the Temple any time now. We need to prepare a sortie or they'll overrun us."

 

"Forgiveness," said one of them slowly. "But I think .. we won't be able to do anything with all that fire in the air."

 

"Oh, right," she said. "In any case .. Go on, get to it," she told them, forcing herself to calm and dismissing them. Leaning against a pillar, she rested a while wondering if they could hold the outer rooms.

 

"Attack!" Talia was jolted back to the sight of a fallen angel hopping in through a nearby window, waving an odd winged rod in its left hand, a large sword in right. "Storm the Temple!"

 

"Burn! Traitor!" Sword in hand, Talia jumped into action, slashing even as she pushed herself off the floor. It turned, smoothly throwing that rod at her. Talia turned slightly and it whizzed past her, the light from outside glinted of the sharp edges on the wings as it slammed into an unfortunate archer just behind. Talia attempted a quick upwards slice, but that was blocked by the heavy weapon that the Fallen was carrying. Talia, filled with rage, tugged at the ether and yanked out a thousand sizzling threads. The demon produced a small white sphere that was covered in a fine grid. As Talia struck, the sphere expanded. Where her attack touched its surface, the threads were repelled.

 

"Anti-magic?" commented Talia, backing up slightly. Parts of the anti-magic shield faded as her opponent focused, forming a small ball of shadow that pulsed as it grew. Reaching behind her with a tendril of magic, Talia quickly wrenched the rod-with-wings from the evaporating body and flung it at high speed with her magic, at the same time charging with sword at the ready. The flung weapon took the demon in the chest, but did not pierce its armor. It did, however, shock it enough to make it release the anti-magic shield, as well as its peculiar spell.

 

The Shadow Orb exploded, absorbing all the light in of the room. Thick strands of magical shadow whipped around the room, uncontrolled. Talia gasped as one coiled around her neck. Panicking, she did the opposite of the demon - grabbing the light outside and flooding the room with it, banishing shadow. The demon staggered slightly, blinded. The filament of shadow that attacked Talia began to smoke in the pure light. Gathering all the nearby ambient light, Talia forced it into filaments, like her first attack. Hundreds of pure, blinding white rays reached out, grabbing the demon tightly. It roared as armor began to give way under her fierce spell. Picking up her sword, Talia supercharged it with heat.

 

Holding her smoking weapon aloft, Talia brought it down in a single, smooth blow on the bound demon. Executioner's Stroke. With a loud cry, it went limp. Talia pulled the rod weapon free, released the magical bindings, and unceremoniously threw what was left out though the window before drawing some wind inside to clear the formed mist. Moments later, the walls began to shake again as the bombardment was renewed. They trapped them in with us.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Neflon hurried towards the nearest window and waved his squad in. A succubus darted in, spear held in readiness, and then a fellow fighter. The rest of his group was a little further back, so he glided in, hefting his mace. The first he saw was the dead sister who went in first, then the brother who followed her swinging his axe at an angel. Then he caught sight of an archer drawing an ornate bow in the corner of the room. Dashing over, he slammed his mace into her head. Twirling to identify other possible threats, he saw the rest of his squad entering through the window, and caught the sight of an angel running through a door, but when he grabbed the handle and pulled it was already locked. Turning he saw that the first angel had already been taken care of. He pointed at another door. "That goes to another exterior room." he said. "Lets clear the outside areas before pushing further inwards."

 

Loud explosions could be heard through the walls as Neflon and his squad hurriedly disposed of the bodies via the window. Moving towards the door, he listened carefully and heard the sound of metal crashing on metal. One heavy kick later, Neflon rushed through the open door, catching an angel from behind. It blocked a swung axe with its large white shield, but Neflon's mace met the back of its head, sending it floor. He nodded to another Freed, looked across the slightly curved room, and indicated the next door. Neflon's newfound ally opened the door and, himself close behind, ran in. Moments later, another comrade died. Neflon got a good look at the archer responsible as he dashed behind a pillar then rushed forward from the other side.

 

"Die!" Neflon shouted, smashing its bow with his mace. As it tried to run for the door, he watched a succubus tripped it with her whip. As it fell, another one impaled it with her spear. The door opened and yet another angel rushed in, shield at the ready. Neflon attacked it from the side smashing its shield to uselessness with his flanged mace before backhanding it with spiked gauntlets. As it crumpled to the ground, suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down he saw an arrow half-buried in his side. Unknowingly he had stepped in front of the open door. With a loud groan he fell, trying to grab the arrow with numb fingers as reality fled from his grasp.

 

Taal know with a glance that her squad leader was gone when he collapsed in front of the door. The killing arrow stood out clearly in his side. Bending over, she picked up a shield and with a wave of her spear moved gracefully into the third room. The archer that dropped Neflon had another arrow on his bowstring. Taal flung up her shield, and the arrow that darted towards her clinked as it bounced off. Easily rolling to the side, Taal evaded another angel as it stepped through the door and tried to swing its sword at her. It brought is sword up for another blow as a sister caught it with her spear. Nodding her thanks, Taal moved into the room where the archer was, clearing what was left of Neflon's body with a jump as she headed straight for the archer that killed him. It fumbled and the shot aimed at her went wide.

 

"Now you miss!" Taal swept her arm forward, skewering the archer against the door. She ducked as another angel took a swipe at her head. Spinning, she swept its feet from under it with a practiced kick. Jumping up, Taal wrenched her spear free and stabbed savagely at her prone foe. The sound of steel meeting marble, hard, could be heard. A glance to the side showed a brother who had been disarmed. An angel advanced on him, sword at the ready, but before Taal could move to help, with a cry, he rushed at the angel. Though receiving a sword thrust to the stomach, he grappled with his foe, using the sheer momentum of his charge to push them both outside, where they soon perished in the deadly hail of fireballs falling outside. It looked like no one would be leaving the Temple alive while the imps were bombarding it.

 

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

 

Kisha was surprised when the imps ceased attempts to drown them in fire. She motioned at her archers. "Take a look out. What's happening?" One of them pulled an arrow from a near-depleted quiver, nocked it and moved cautiously to the window. She jumped back quickly. "Mistress, they're coming!"

 

"What?" asked Kisha, moving to the window and peering out. "Move back!" she shouted upon catching sight of the demonic army hastening towards them. "Archers, cover any openings. Everyone else, get ready!"

 

Moments later, an arrow came through the open doors leading to the balcony. Talia pointed at them and a sword-bearing angel reached out and slammed the doors shut. A loud thud was heard as something crashed into them. An archer charged an arrow and shot at the door. It easily pierced the wooden door, and a shout was heard as it hit an enemy. Another archer shot a fallen angel that tried to squeeze through a large window. The door shuddered and broke into pieces, revealing another tall demon wielding a large mace. When an arrow felled that, a dozen fireballs streaked past the body, slamming into an unfortunate archer. Kisha kicked open a door that led to another room. "The outer areas are being stormed! Keep moving before we're cornered!" she ordered, rushing through the door.

 

Once they were all through, Kisha glanced back and saw several demons running into the room they had just vacated. Slamming the door shut, she bolted it, fumbling slightly with the latch. Shouts could be heard through the door as the demons pounded on it. The flimsy door shuddered as they hit it with weapons. Kisha pointed at another door. An archer was fending off a demon with a long knife. Everyone else there was dead. Next to Kisha, their group's archer moved clear, raised her bow, and shot. At that easy range, she easily scored a hit on its head. Kisha entered the room, waved over the angel and pointed to yet another door. "All the outer rooms are accessible from the air, so they will have spread out their troops. Lets keep moving and clear each room. Archers cover the door as I open it and shoot any enemies you see. Everyone else, stay well clear. If an enemy gets in, deal with it."

 

They simply nodded. Kisha's new archer bent over the body of a fallen comrade for a moment, rising with its bow and quiver. Quickly removing the arrows, she stuffed them into her own quiver before taking one and fitting it to her bowstring. Kisha moved over to the next door and opened it, standing carefully to the side as she did so.