The Power of Ten

Chapter 10-312: At the Heart of the Flame

Fort Maginot was the military institution closest to Germany and the Berlin Shroudzone.

Germany was, by this point, basically a wasteland. Multiple Shroudzones born from the atrocities the Nazis had been doing had risen up, and their Deadzones had overlapped, which meant they could maintain connections with one another and fight amongst themselves.

Fight they had, for twenty long years, until finally the Berlin Dark Cardinal rose to dominate all of them.

Once that was done, there were definitely no safe locations in Germany, and the undead there moved freely between the different Shroudzones. Any location with twenty miles of a Shroudzone had to be abandoned.

The Maginot line had returned to some relevance, despite its uselessness in the war it had been built for. Fort Maginot was the base of operations for the Powered who had to fight off incursions from the German undead and Fiends who could advance to the edges of the Deadzone, and not incidentally meet those who would make deals with them.

It was a lot of low-grade, often vicious conflict between enslaved things of Evil, heavily Corpsecrafted undead Congregants with intelligence and wiles, and traitorous humans willing to bargain with anything in order to advance themselves.

In Europe proper, it was considered the most dangerous and advanced posting, where the elite of the European defenders went. Brigette Morningflame, bearer of the Phoenix Bloodline, Mageblade in her uncle’s tradition, naturally served there as one of the most famous commanders in Europe, as or more renowned for her fire magic than even her mother.

I didn’t have a Lived-Line there, of course, but Azaia actually did, having gone there to meet her oldest sister on more than one occasion. There were many years between them, but those rapidly became less important as time went by. Even though they had different fathers and very different personalities, Morningwind and Morningflame got along fairly well.

The Jet and Silver had reached into a lot of places, and military bases required healing magic, too, which also happened to be extremely effective against the undead. I was absolutely certain that Morningflame was here, because the Cleric of Amana who helped fix her military company up after their missions was watching her taking lunch in her barracks office right now.

We came in down the road on Teleport, touching the end of Azaia’s Lived-Line and outside the natural Wards that blanketed the base with Interdictions. Teleportation and Summoning attacks were a good way to get a position suddenly obliterated, and so naturally such things were not permitted within a half-mile of the base, and were instantly sensed within a mile.

Thus, our arrival had been noticed. Given I had already ‘called ahead’ to let them know Morningwind was coming to visit her sister, this was going to be right on time rather than alarming, although they’d naturally be on alert.

Mother Dova Blanche watched Morningflame take the call, notifying her that her sister was coming, and had arrived by Teleportation. She took it with some surprise and interest, rising to put on her uniform jacket before heading out to meet her, informing her secretary that her sister was coming and she would be busy for a short time.

She was down the hall and almost out of sight before she suddenly lifted a cell phone out of her pocket and looked down at it. Mother Blanche looked away before the fire-haired halvyri looked back and around sharply, and then the halvyri strode off quickly.

---

I very prominently Messaged the guard at the gate ahead of us as we came shooting in on Sleipner. You have been infiltrated by a powerful being posing as Brigette Morningflame. She is starting to run, and we are going to stop her.

He had been notified we were coming, and it was hard to mistake that blue hair as anything else. Nevertheless, the gates were down and he wasn’t going to open them for us.

That was perfectly fine. Sleipner Ward Rode right over them, hit the ground on the far side, and immediately turned to follow the burning arrow coming from the diamond in Azaia’s hand, ignoring the shouts at us and the alarms that had started to rise as a consequence.

“She is on the other side of that building!” Azaia said grimly, feeling the Bloodline Bond’s reaction in her hand, and how unnatural it was.

Sleipner zipped around the corner and skidded to a halt instantly, which the jeeps racing after us with horns blaring were quite happy to see.

The crimson-haired halvyri in an officer’s uniform had halted as we slid to a stop. Her resemblance to Morningfire was unmistakable. Her golden eyes looked over us all, settling on Azaia calmly. “Little sister, you seem to be in somewhat of a hurry to see me?” she asked, looking rather amused as the military police vehicles came racing up to either side. “You know this is a military institution, and such behavior is not looked on kindly.”

I held up my hand to stop Azaia’s reply, rising to my feet and stepping out of Sleipner’s hovering sidecar. The alarms and horns there abruptly shorted out, and I let my Presence swell, which stopped the MP’s clutching their guns and looking excitable from interfering.

“Well. Well, well, well,” I Said, and the magic hummed to my words. She tensed despite herself, and the soldiers there all wisely shut up and didn’t move, as they also recognized me instantly. “This is very unexpected, yet how appropriate. Queen Rayetizvisha, Demon Patron of the Poison and Hungry Hearts Pacts, Scion of Jealousy. I suppose Morningflame is an ideal disguise for a queen of the succubi.”

Her hands burst into flame as she began to draw power. “What are you talking about, woman? You there, detain these people!”

I held up a finger, and the MP’s paused despite themselves, as something broke in the air sharply, and they all twitched despite themselves. “Demoness, you made the mistake of staying in one place for six seconds.”

The Pentagram etched into the concrete from below was revealed as a layer of cement flowed away, glowing and lighting up with Sacred power. Her eyes widened in alarm as rays of Light rose all around her in confining walls.

“Nice attempt to Charm them into obedience, but no. Also, even they know that a confining Pentagram has no reaction whatsoever to a mortal being inside it, but no matter how good your disguise is, it will react if a creature that can be confined by it enters within. It’s just a universal Law.

“If you wish to prove you are Brigette Morningflame, please, you need only take two steps forwards. The Pentagram will not be able to confine you.”josei

She glared at me, and reached out cautiously. She barely touched the almost-transparent golden barrier in front of her, and the instant crackling reaction flung her hand away, smoking from the instant burn.

“Yes, it is Cast at 40-plus,” I told her smoothly, and watched her blanch. I tilted my head as I stopped just outside the edge of the Pentagram, staring at her like a lab experiment. “I heard of you from the Angelos some time ago, of course. The Husk Possession of a Lilitu is really quite interesting. You can replicate Morningflame’s Bloodline, knowledge, and race, to the limit of even fooling True Sight.

“Of course, the Bloodline Bond is registering you as a false Bloodline, hijacking the link between mother and daughter. I merely had to examine that link a little closer, and lo, there it is.”

I gestured absently, although I didn’t really have to, and my eyes devolved to celeste, glittering with stars as I followed that Link. “My, aren’t you ruthless. Inside the Deadzone, no less.” The flames from the diamond in Azaia’s hands were now stretching to the north. The Deadzone was totally believable; nobody was going to stumble across something accidentally there. The Shroudzone would have been even better, but she didn’t dare take a step into a Shroudzone, or the Dark Cardinal of Berlin would grab her.

“You think you can confine me here, Lady Traveler?” She looked quite confident in herself.

“Confine you?” I repeated, blinking absently. “Why would I bother to confine you?”

Magic thrummed on a spiritual level, and I began to hum on a thaumaturgic scale. Jetsilver teardrop Shards began to unfold and coalesce all around me; spinning, circling, Sacred and Holy powers shimmering around them.

“You cannot contact any of your many minions while within the Pentagram. The MP there who is serving you is paralyzed.” Heads snapped around to the driver who was now glowing with a jetsilver aura, hands frozen to the wheel of his jeep, and sweating profusely as he could not move. My Voice continued without interrupting my Song, “I’m sure you’ve corrupted via Wishes and Branding many of the people on this base, but all they know right now is that you are out of contact. If you think I am going to give you the opportunity to give them all orders, you are really amusing.”

“They have standing orders on what to do in the event of my death,” she sneered, but she was backing away from me, stolen eyes very wide as she counted all those Shards. She might be able to Counter one set, but that was all.

“So when they don’t know what happens to you, their corrupted nature and sense of self-preservation means they will do nothing.” I smiled widely, and her false confidence crumbled again.

I flicked my hand, and a diamond even bigger than the one in Azaia’s hand glittered in my grasp, naturally drawing her stare. “You have one chance to live longer than the next thirty seconds. You will give me your True Name, and you will be Bound and Sealed. Otherwise, prepare to be fed to the Land, and see the End of your Eternity.”

Holographic numbers rose next to me, and began to count down silently. Rings and rings of Shards gathered in hues she, and everyone else there except Legion, had never seen before.

There was no doubt whatsoever that if I let them go, she was going to be instantly obliterated... and she couldn’t even see the set I had waiting Contingent.

“Your sister will die,” she sneered in desperation, glaring at me. “Yes, I know who you are!”

The Holo with the numbers expanded to a virtual top view of the base, displaying a map of the area and a line extending out from it, zipping fifteen miles to the north before descending onto the side of a hill, there switching to a photographic-quality real view of an innocuous boulder sitting in front of the blighted stone. The view zipped in past the stone, and the dark space beyond with a half-dozen shriveled forms within: Husks magically bound and preserved for her use.

“Six seconds to reach them all when you die. Your Husk Link is a wonderful guide,” I informed her calmly. 20, 19, 18, 17...

Her face crumpled as the Scrying image stayed constant. She was more than adept enough to realize it was real-time, and no magic she could wield would pass outside the Pentagram, whose Caster Level was completely beyond her ability to resist or break.

My Shards were already in position; I just stared at her. My Commune with Nature had hard-locked the destination site; I would have to Ride the Lightning for height and to get out of the base’s Interdiction, then Linejump again. The Husks were in stasis, so even if there were undead around, they couldn’t be sensed.

I honestly was going to kill her, and my entire bored expression conveyed it. I was looking at her, able to suss about the edges of her disguise, and she was not impressing me, even if she was a base Seventeen lilitu, one of the queens of the succubi, and probably the most powerful demon trapped on this world.

5, 4, 3... I held out Clavus, and the non-human Baneskull of a demigod burned transcendent black and icy flames upon him.

Bane of Legends. Bane to Fiends. Bane to Fire. She was currently susceptible to all three.

Banefires, vivic energy, Holy powers, and Primal and Divine energies all ignited around the Shards. I was perfectly impassive as I kept her eyes.