The Essence rushed back into the camp like a wave, and for one brief, shining moment, I believed we might win.
It was a foolish sentiment. I had seen the future and knew what was coming, but never had I changed the events of the loop in such a drastic manner, and for a moment, I allowed myself to feel hope, even though I knew that the pain that was to come would be worse as a result of it.
I looked towards the eastern face of the pyramid, expecting to see the gigantic door that I had seen in the last loop. Perhaps the people here may be safer inside the pyramid, but I saw no door. I had sacred Orath and Rel, and they had shut the door behind them.
With the Essence allowed to flow once again, the magic of the Adepts suddenly surged with such intensity that I had to close my eyes for a moment to avoid being blinded.
Torvin’s gold light incinerated the Khaaz at the eastern crack. Fenara’s blizzard pushed the demons back into the fissure. Varis’s force waves sent them flying hundreds of metres, their bodies breaking against the black stone of the pyramid.
In an instant, it was almost as if three calamities had descended into the camp, and hundreds of demons died in seconds. A few more seconds passed, and this number entered thousands.
A heavy wind began to blow across the camp, but I knew that this was not wind; this was simply Essence rushing into the bodies of the Adepts.
For all of my powers that could equal an Adept in many instances, there were many ways in which I was not equal to them in any ramifications, and chief among those was in the aspect of Anima.
I had Creation-Anima, something that even shocked an Arcanist, but there was an important distinction, and that is it was still in a gaseous state.
Some of my spells and skills were at Adept level, and my Anima could power them, but this did not mean I had all the abilities of an Adept, and chief among them was the ability to harness essence, which, without liquid Anima, I could not.
For instance, Adept Torvin’s golden light petrifaction spell was derived from the earth, as he was an Earth Mage, and more importantly, he had the ability to harness Essence.
I pushed these thoughts aside as I heard the researchers and porters cheer from the devastation being laid down by the Adept.
Standing behind their back, it was an easy thing to imagine that you could survive anything.
The Initiates who had been casting small, desperate spells now threw fire and ice with a confidence they had not possessed minutes ago.
I stood in the centre of the camp, breathing hard, the silver thread still trailing from my fingers. The stakes were scattered around me, their metal still smoking.
Bari ran to me. His hand was burned, his face streaked with ash, but he was alive.
"Elric," he cried out. "What the hell is happening?"
"Demons," I said. "End... a lot of demons, and we are soon to be surrounded by them."
Bari stared at me; perhaps he had noticed that I cut myself off before saying endlessly, but he had always had a strange maturity about him when the situation called for it.
Then he nodded and did not ask more. That was Bari; he could accept the impossible if it came from someone he trusted.
Dara appeared at my other side. Her face was white, but her hands were steady.
"The Adepts are holding the line," she said. "But there are more demons coming. I can feel them. Thousands, maybe more."
"So can I," I said.
She went silent and stared at me, and I noticed she glanced at my empty hands before looking at the staff I had attached to my back. I had been casting without a staff.
Dara did not say anything, but I knew she noted them, and there was a weird light in her eyes that I could not peg... There was something strange about Dara, but I was sure she had no part in whatever was happening here, so her secrets were her own.
I turned to look at the eastern side of the pyramid. The Khaaz were still coming, pouring out of the fissures in a tide of chitin and pale tendrils. But the Adepts were killing them faster than they could emerge.
For now, but I knew that the true scope of this eruption was expansive and that we were already surrounded.
"The demons will keep coming," I said. "We can fight, but what we are facing is a calamity."
Bari’s jaw tightened. "I knew I should have kissed Bella before I came on this expedition. Ah, if there is a chance to survive, we have to fight until we can’t."
I looked at him, and I smiled, "That’s the plan."
I looked at my friends. At Bari, who had never wanted to be a mage but his talents had placed him on this path, knowing the scale of this disaster, it would have met him as long as he was on this continent.
At Dara, who had worked harder than anyone I knew to earn her place in the expedition, and whose secrets I could not yet see the shape of.
Then the researchers and porters who had no powerful abilities but courage.
They would die here. All of them. I knew it the way I knew the sun would rise, the damned loop had taught me that much.
But this time, they would die fighting, and for now, maybe that was enough.
∞
The next few moments of the eruption were chaos.
The Adepts formed a semicircle around the eastern crack, their spells flashing in a rhythm that was almost musical. Torvin’s gold light swept the battlefield in wide arcs, incinerating dozens of Khaaz with each pass. Fenara’s ice formed walls and spikes and barriers, shaping the battlefield, funneling the demons into kill zones, more importantly she created a wall behind us that ensured that the demons were being funneled into a single position, and Varis’s force waves compressed and expanded, crushing and throwing, creating space for the others to breathe.
The researchers and porters formed a second line, protecting the camp’s western edge. They had no great magic, and the Initiates cast their small spells, sparks, threads, bursts of force, and the warriors fought with blade and bow.
Bari and Dara fought beside me. Bari’s Surge was heavy, crude, but devastating at close range. Each cast sent Khaaz flying, their chitin cracking under the force. Dara unleashed blades of air that sliced through the tendrils of the demons; they could not kill their target, that task was for me.
I sent small blasts of lightning with my fingers towards every target they downed, drawing attention from them as they kept gaping in amazement.
However, it did not take long for them to stop casting, and I realized that they were out, by the heavens, I had forgotten what it felt like to be that weak, as for me, my Anima Depth was still full since I had not even begun pushing myself.