Apocalypse Tamer

Chapter 114: Man vs Burn

They failed to reach Thessaloniki before the Incursion’s start.

The System had given the Bohens a one hour warning; a time far too short to cross the Greek countryside. Steve did its best, but the team would have needed a plane to arrive early. The skies turned red as they drove and the glowing aurora circuits that connected distant stars to Earth started overtaking the heavens. They gathered above the distant city of Thessaloniki to spew a pillar of flames over it.

Though Basil had never visited the city before, he had heard of Thessaloniki. It was one of the largest Greek cities, a port full of monuments that dated all the way back from the Byzantine Empire. It was considered one of the cultural capitals of Europe, and its port served as a gateway to the Balkans. Many Bulgarian goods transited through it.

The Bohens found it in flames.

Thessaloniki lay on the northern fringe of the Thermaic Gulf and was bordered by tall mountains; the infamous Mount Olympus itself loomed over the horizon. The Aegean Sea’s clear waters glittered under the twilight, yet even they were tainted by swirling ashes. Clouds of smoke rose from two dozen fires spreading through the city’s port and suburbs.

Thessaloniki appeared to have been abandoned long before the Bohens’ arrival. Many of its buildings and houses had crumbled from a lack of maintenance. Plants had overtaken ruins of Byzantine churches, fortifications, and ancient monuments; they were now catching fire on their own under the influence of a burning wind.

This reminds me of a Pompeii movie, Basil thought as he observed the area from atop the Steamobile with binoculars. Steve drove towards it while remaining close to the Aegean Sea’s coast. The water already boiled along the shore. All we’re missing is lava.

The region already suffered from earthquakes as the rift strengthened. This portal between worlds took the shape of a pillar of searing flames and brimstone clouds taller than any mountain. It took root from the coast of Thessaloniki, swallowing a dungeon shaped like a colossal, circular tower that would rival the Lord of the Rings’ Barad-dûr in size and dreadfulness. From its medieval architecture, Basil guessed it had once been Thessaloniki’s famous White Tower monument.

A wind of ashes and embers brushed against Basil’s face. Soot gathered on his binoculars, obscuring his sight.

“We haven’t even reached the suburbs, and we’re already taking fire damage,” Vasi noted. The witch flew above the Steamobile alongside Bugsy, forming an aerial vanguard. “Thank the gods for your amazing Perk, Bugsy.”

“You are too kind, Vasi,” the Apolloworm replied. “No flames will touch us while I’m around!”

“At least one of us benefits from this Field,” Plato said as he jumped next to Basil’s side. “I have ash all over my fur.”

“And since the sea is boiling, we can’t even wash you,” Basil mused as he removed soot from his binoculars. “Do you see enemies?”

“Yes, I do,” Vasi confirmed while pointing at the pillar. “Look at the flames at its base.”

Basil did so. His binoculars picked up forms emerging from the pyroclastic clouds bursting from the pillar: bonfires shaped like men, shambling slime monsters made of wax with a will o’wisp for a crown, and shambling skeletons with chains burning with blue flames coiled around their chests. They spread out in all directions, incinerating whatever building the Field hadn’t set ablaze yet.

“We’re too late,” Vasi despaired. “They’re already escaping the city.”

Much to Basil’s chagrin, his girlfriend was right. He noticed a skullfire monster atop a church in the city center, and hellfire elementals were moving west on the other side of town. A level 50 undead monster was easy prey for the Bohens, especially since Basil’s Perks from his Deathknight class made them excellent at taking out these necromantic abominations.

For anyone else, such a creature might as well have been a walking natural disaster.

We’ll need to scatter to hunt them down, Basil thought grimly. We can’t let them escape through the border. “Any sign of the Horsemen?”

“I think we would notice if they did cross over,” Plato pointed out. “The last one was as tall as the Eiffel Tower.”

“We can’t guarantee all Horsemen will be as tall as Apollyon,” Vasi replied. “Size does not equal power.”

“Rosemarine can shapeshift into a smaller form, no?” Bugsy asked. “Maybe the Horsemen can too.”

“We can’t tell yet,” Basil said before ordering Steve to stop near the port, kilometers away from the rift. This was close enough for the team’s long-range weaponry to target the portal, but far enough not to be noticed by the Apocalypse Force’s mooks.

The rest of his team climbed out of the Steamobile. Shellgirl cursed while her slimy flesh started to boil, with bubbles rising to its surface. “Ugh,” she complained as her body released steam in the air. “Even with Bugsy’s Perk, I’m melting away like ice cream.”

Rosemarine took root in the ash-filled soil. “Mister, can I try to paint it all green?”

“That’s a good idea.” Shellgirl nodded in support. “I can’t summon my Lapponian Winter weather magic while the current Field is active.”

After a short moment of hesitation, Basil assented with a nod. He would rather have approached Ashok’s base as close as possible before he sensed their essences, but they couldn’t let the entire region go down in flames. With the lack of government, the firestorms could probably devour half of Greece. “You may try.”

Rosemarine clapped her hands as she activated her God-Field. Grass grew out of her feet and started to spread around her… for a few meters, before the plants burst into flames and dust.

“I’m sorry, Mister,” Rosemarine apologized as the wind carried away her grass’ ashes. “I cannot.”

“It’s okay,” Basil reassured her. “At least we know you can overwrite an Incursion’s Field effect once you’re powerful enough.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Bugsy asked. “Do we attack the pillar?”

“I say we split,” Vasi suggested. “Bugsy, since you and I can fly, we can catch up to the monsters sneaking out west.”

“Good call,” Basil agreed with a nod. “Rosemarine, Steve, you’ll bombard the pillar from our current position with long-range weapons. Shellgirl, Plato, we’ll go clean the city center.”

Plato squinted. “You want us to hunt monsters street by street?”

“We could do that.” Basil smirked. “But I was thinking about baiting them first.”

“Ohoh, I know what’s on your mind!” Shellgirl grinned wickedly. “I’ve been meaning to test out this Perk for a while.”

“Let’s try,” Basil said. “Death Banner.”

“Joyful Spirit!” Shellgirl cast on him, while Vasi and Plato did the same with their own additional buffs.

The hunt was on.

Basil stored his weapons in the Inventory, grabbed Shellgirl and Plato—his superhuman strength letting him carry them like bags—and took flight. Vasi and Bugsy swiftly followed after him, while Rosemarine shapeshifted back into her fearsome dragon form. Steve gathered power in preparation for firing with its Gehenna Cannon at the pillar.

Jumping through clouds of ash and dust, Basil’s group split from their allies and leaped over Thessaloniki’s city center. Fireballs immediately targeted them from the ground. Basil powered through an explosion negated by Bugsy’s Perk.

Hellfire elementals were throwing projectiles at them from the ruins of an ancient Roman forum. Only blackened stones and burning trees remained of what must have once been a green park. Basil noticed a small amphitheater and a Greek-era stoa alleyway supported by tall pillars.

“Should be a nice spot,” Basil muttered to himself. “Shellgirl, is that a good enough location for you?”

“It’s perfect!” Shellgirl clapped her hands. “Pandora’s Box!”

A black chest materialized out of the mimic’s palms and fell at the plaza’s center. The hellfire elementals stopped bombarding the team to stare at the item. The chest oozed darkness and corrupted onlookers’ minds.

All Hell broke loose.

The elementals roared as greed seized their burning hearts. The monsters rushed towards the box in a mad dash to seize it for themselves. A few, too far to reach it first, threw fireballs at their kindred. It didn’t inflict any damage, for fire could not harm fire, but the creatures were too maddened to care. Soon a brawl of fiery proportions began over the trick box.

“Plato, take care of them,” Basil said. “They aren’t killing themselves without help.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Plato said as he leaped out of his friend’s hands and landed gracefully on the ashen ground. Wind swirled around his sword as he started slaughtering his way through the confused monsters.

“Success!” Shellgirl gloated. “How many boxes should I create, Partner?”

“One for now,” Basil replied. With the forum ideally located in the city center, they could lure all their enemies there and turn it into a kill zone. “I have an idea.”

Shellgirl summoned a second box, which Basil immediately grabbed with his free arm. Instead of dropping it like the first package, he instead jumped over the city and paraded the chest to all enemies on the ground. “Look at my glorious loot!” he shouted at the monsters rampaging through the streets. “The power of the Overgod is held within!”

All creatures that glanced at the box, even for a second, fell under its spell. Skullfire monsters roared angrily as they chased after Basil on foot, while the candle slimes slithered among the ruins.

“Excellent,” Basil said with a grin. “Let’s lure them to the amphitheater and–”

“–I’ll kill the skullfires and leave the elementals to…” Basil stopped abruptly. “You?”

In a blink, he was no longer carrying Shellgirl and her box above the city. In fact, he was no longer flying at all. He was now standing atop the stands of the Roman amphitheater, watching Shellgirl extinguishing hellfire elementals on its ashen ground with her water ability. A skullfire fawned over the Pandora’s Box in the arena’s center.

“What the…” Basil blinked. He wielded Birgha in one hand and his Moonshield in its new moon form with the other. Shellgirl interrupted her attack as well and looked around, equally confused as her teammate. “What… how did I…”

“Have you ever heard of the expression,” a graven voice whispered over his neck, “Killing time?”

Basil’s head snapped to the side just in time to look at a wax palm pointing at him.

“Iblis Burn,” the voice said.

Blue flames swallowed Basil’s world.

An inferno hotter than the heart of a star consumed him entirely. The stairs melted under his feet, and heat seeped through his incorporeal body.

“One moment you stand at the threshold of your home’s door, and the next you are sitting on a sofa inside,” the attacker explained with a chuckle. Basil could only distinguish his shadow through the fire. “The key is gone, and you don’t remember where you’ve dropped it. You’ve gone through the motions without being aware of them. It happens to me all the time–”

Basil leaped out of the fire and struck his foe with his spear by surprise. Shellgirl’s buff guided his weapon to his foe’s heart.

The blow sent the mystery attacker stumbling down the stands all the way to the arena below. Without flames blinding him, Basil could finally observe the creature.

The monster was a lanky, gaunt humanoid a head taller than Basil himself; one made of molten wax rather than flesh. The enemy dressed in black, tattered clothes resembling those of a scarecrow, alongside a cloak fluttering in the warm wind. His face was a skull with candles for teeth and twin red flames for eyes. A blue, ghostly will o’wisp burned atop his pointy hat.

“Not even a scratch?” the mystery monster noted as Basil emerged unscathed from the flames. The creature casually leaped back to his feet, standing not so far from the Pandora’s Box and the maddened skullfire. “Are you immune to fire, or you’re just that tough?”

Basil wordlessly jumped off the stands, spear raised for the kill.josei

The wax monster formed a sphere of blue fire in his hand and prepared to throw it at Basil. He never had the chance. Shellgirl, who had noticed the battle, leaped into the arena with a war cry. “Detonate!”

Pandora’s Box exploded in a burst of dark energy. Shadowy forces expanded from the chest and sent the Skullfire flying backward. The wax monster shrugged off the attack before instinctively throwing his fire sphere at Shellgirl. The projectile burst harmlessly on impact without damaging the mimic.

“You’re all packing Fire Immunity?” The wax monster chuckled nonchalantly. “You know, that’s rarer than you think. Usually, adventurers can only afford to protect one–”

Basil threw his spear like a javelin. The projectile struck the monster in the head, blowing wax in all directions and killing him instantly.

The creature’s clothes burst into flames, and the rest of the body melted away into a puddle of wax.

“What’s happening, Partner?” Shellgirl asked in confusion. Of the hellfire elementals she was fighting, only steaming water remained. “I remember us flying above the city and then nothing.”

“I think this creature skipped time forward, or at least altered our perception of it,” Basil theorized as he moved to recover his spear. A skullfire still remained, shocked but alive. “Whatever, he’s dead now.”

“Dead, am I?” The remaining skullfire laughed with a deep, bemused voice. “You wish.”

Ghostly blue flames erupted from the monster’s chains and incinerated him on the spot. Basil and Shellgirl took a step back in surprise. Wax materialized out of nowhere to cover their enemy’s bones. Black, tattered clothes appeared to complete the transformation.

The Skullfire had vanished in the blink of an eye. In its place stood the wax monster reborn.

“You have a serious attitude problem, boyo.” The monster cracked his neck as if he had just woken up from a nap. “We’re supposed to exchange taunts and pleasantries before going for the kill, you know? It’s just common decency.”

This time, Basil focused on his foe until he gleaned his name.

They had found the Horseman.

“Hey, human, I’m talking to you,” said the undead. He must have been very confident in his power to resort to chit chat in battle. “Don’t tell me you’re the strong, silent type?”

“You’re smaller than I thought you would be,” Basil said as Shellgirl immediately joined him. “Apollyon was more intimidating.”

“Wait a second.” Belphegor snapped his fingers. “You’re the party who massacred my bug boy?”

“Guilty,” Shellgirl gloated. “You’re here to avenge him?”

“Eh, we would have killed each other sooner or later. We still haven’t found a replacement though. Giant bugs don’t grow on trees.” Belphegor’s eyes moved from Shellgirl to Basil, who was moving to flank him. “You’re taking me two on one? Isn’t that unfair?”

“Says the guy with an army,” Basil replied. “Fairness has no place in battle.”

“I agree.” Belphegor’s wax teeth morphed into a grin. “Which is why I brought reinforcements.”

As if on cue, a winged form dived down from the smoke clouds above. Basil stepped in front of Shellgirl to protect her with his shield as a new enemy landed in the amphitheater.

“I knew I’d sensed something vile.” Black raven wings unfurled to reveal a woman. She possessed an ethereal sort of beauty, with short golden hair untainted by ashes and a fair light face; yet her cold, icy blue eyes betrayed her true nature. This sinister angel stood up, her black and red tunic revealing her muscled frame. She pointed a claymore sword at Basil, its blade oozing blood. “I smell the stench of that hideous necromancer on you.”

Gritting his teeth, Basil raised his own spear for battle. A mere glance at the newcomer confirmed his worst suspicions.

“Don’t you know?” Belphegor chuckled as he stood next to his fellow Horseman of the Apocalypse. “War and death usually go hand-in-hand.”