Chapter 72: Fresh Brood

Subject: Knight Eris Location: Arlcada Territories - Count Kylant's Settlement “Have a little more, darlings,” Zelarra laughed maniacally, her flamespewer exhaling powerful gasps of blue blaze. The flame scoured wide swaths of land, consuming spinners and buildings indiscriminately. None of her fellow knights dared get close, especially Eris, who was not as nimble as the others, and who wore heavier armor that would cook her alive if subjected to that magnitude of heat. Eris finished off a spinner in front of her with a clean sweep and saw Luc running up to her with something in his hand. He was sweating in the heat and under heavy exertion. Keeping himself safe from the spinners all around was no easy task. “So slow, Ery, take this and make haste,” he urged. It was a combat augment, something that would give her a rush of energy. Something that would cause excruciating pain once it wore off. That's how it usually was with this brilliant chemist, and she would drink it “Appreciated.” The small stone bottle was opaque, which was often the case with concoctions Lucrue made in the midst of combat. Eris trusted his capabilities, even if it was a little unnerving to down a bottle with unseen contents. The sweet-tasting liquid had a bitter aftertaste. Overall, it wasn't so bad. She breathed deep and held her axe high. Luc ran a short distance away. The rush hit her like the pounding of a heavy drum. Senses heightened, the smoky air suddenly felt pleasant. A violent battlefield, facing overwhelming odd. This is my domain! Eris let loose a tremendous roar. The dusk air carried her voice far, and the rest of the knights felt a little more energetic from just hearing her voice. “Come to me, targets. My axe and I are hungry!” She was too impassioned to laugh at her words. Crawlers were streaming over the walls unendingly, swarming every which way, but largely converging on The Chaos Knightmares. Count Kylant’s mansion seemed to draw the attention of the spinners flanking along the far wall. Eris was confident they’d return once the spinners had drunk their fill of those soft targets and had only the knights left to sate their hunger. The guards were well-equipped, but they'd be lucky to kill three apiece. Her movements were a blur, even to herself. Every slash of her axe felled one to three crawlers. Their fangs blunted against her armor, limbs unable to pin her down. She was unstoppable right now. Would venom even be able to slow her in this state? Eris couldn’t see that happening. She was just too relentless like this. Whether by fire or by blade, crawlers met their end in droves. Eris was careful not to step into the path of her comrade’s flamespewer. She wasn’t even sure that crazy knight could even detect her presence under the ecstasy of her flame. The one building that could not burn was the one containing the survivors. These people had a part to play in Fragma’s vengeance, Eris was sure of that. Subject: Knight Eris Location: Arlcada Territories - Count Kylant's Settlement Count Kylant was most certainly deceased, and he and his guards had become a feast for the brood. It is said that a knight's assignment steadily influences their personality. How deep this change seeped into their core identity is difficult to determine. All Eris knew could be summed up at a glance in the direction of the mansion, listening to the anguished screams steadily fading away to silence. It felt right. It all sounded like poetic justice for a corrupt noble who made a life of feeding his vices at the expense of those beneath him. My lord gave his soldiers enough opportunity to switch sides. Though some of the frightened rookies had sought out the protection of the knights, they wouldn't have lasted this long, and the fight seemed to be only beginning. They'd offered to help with the defenses knowing full well what a spinner was. They'd expected to die. Volunteering for a suicidal mission earned them the Hexknight's mercy. They weren't fit to do little more than guard the barricaded windows from the inside. The knights saw them as just shy of being civilians themselves, relative to the difficulty of this encounter. But, yes, their former. comrades lay dead in the mansion. Or, rather, they were probably already being prepared as meals for the brood's children. And if shedding tears over terrible people made you a saint, it only made Eris feel more grateful to Hexknight Fragmata for waking her up to the nation's sickness. It was charity work like this that made her life one worth living. We knew the mansion would fall, but how far did the others expect to take this? How many spinners did my lord believe would scale these walls? Eris's battle trance saw her through an unmeasurable span of time, marked by the trail of spinner corpses in her wake. She paused and looked back, amazed at her progress. Even Zeal's flames were being pushed back now. At some point, treacherous Weavers had infiltrated the settlement and spun their webs across the walls and draped them upon many of the remaining buildings. The count's mansion was one enormous bluish-white cocoon, reflecting the shine of the third moon. At least I think it's the third moon... This would be the month. Well, they say to take comfort in unobstructed moonlight. It means our sky is free of hungry leviathan. What a subject to be thinking of right now. But it was true that there hadn't been a leviathan sighting in quite some time. The blunt of Eris's battleaxe blocked the gluttonous fangs of a crawler, and she exhaled a pleasantly exhausted breath. She swung wildly and sliced clean through, sending gore flying. "As much as I enjoy this, they truly are endless," she commented. Unbeknownst to her, Fragma had crept within speaking distance, just out of range of her weapon. Had Eris been unable to recognized friend from foe, Fragma was ready to leap back a step. "When was the last time you saw me use the full extent of my powers, my knight?" Eris took notice. Not a spinner remained alive within a large radius. She could have sworn there were at least a few dozen crawling just a moment ago. "That would have to be... never, my lord." "And I doubt that will change by the time this night is over, sad to say. But there are more than I thought there'd be so far from where we ended our expedition." Fragma's gaze followed a Crawler skittering over its fallen brethren far in the distance. "The Nexwarren are starving, I'll bet," she guessed. "I'll be kicking it up a notch, so try not to get left behind." Eris felt chills just hearing those words. Spoken so nonchalantly, they were no less impactful. Everyone who followed the flux illusionist saw enough of the Hexknight's might, more than sufficient to extrapolate. Fragma whispered long-practiced sentences, etchings of spells on her mind, guiding a complex sequence of illusions. The apparitions flowed so naturally, they looked no different from reality. Taking a few steps back to give her lord more space, Eris couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene. Fragma drew her iconic purple shortblade and held it high. The tip of the blade glowed bright white, and then discharged the energy far into the air. The beam of light split at a predesignated elevation, firing off in different directions, arcing downward to form a dome over Kylant's land. "Come one, come all," Fragma giggled, watching the Crawlers and other spinner variants approaching, drawn by the Hexknight's glittering aura. "With such a stage as this, I can only hope my performance does it justice." Eris clutched her battleaxe. She shifted to a ready stance, and her heavy armor clinked softly, as if in response. An explosion of flame ravaged a section of the approaching swarm, violently signaling the arrival of Zeal, hauling her heavy flamespewer over to meet her lord. A gust of hot air blew back Fragmata's hair, revealing her lavender eyes glimmering in the moonlight. On Zeal's tail were Luc and Noxi. Luc was prepping a green concoction with his field equipment, while Noxi tugged at his arm as hard as she could, forcing her comrade to the safety of the lord's proximity. Eris swung her gaze back and forth, looking for Noa and Klyto, but they were nowhere to be found. These idiots... Did they leave our comrades undefended?! "Looking for us?~" Noa whispered in her ear, making it twitch in surprise. "She was worried,~" Klyto giggled from the other side. Eris didn't respond. It remained difficult to address these particular squad members. They played trickster almost as much as their lord, but they were not their lord, so Eris found it far less endearing. Still, they were important to her. "These spinnies can't touch me when they move so slllooowww," Noa boasted. "You're just fast, sister," Klyto argued. "You're both fast," Eris chided, "but you go down in this swarm and that's it." "Point~" "Taken~" Eris was about to tell them it was time to stop talking, but they'd already quieted down. She wasn't the only one interested in watching Fragma show off. Before them was a rare treat. They guarded the perimeter, sneaking glances back to see if anything tremendous had happened yet. Not yet. Perhaps in a moment? "I've been waiting because I knew you'd all want to see," Fragma laughed. "But this magic isn't a game, and we can't leave the civilians undefended for long. Watch closely, and then join in when I command it." That was right. Fragma's illusions were designed to kill. She never whipped out her magic for amusement, and that discipline was so very unlike their lord. Perhaps there was a risk each time she reached into the hat to draw a new trick. "The themes for today's performance will be: 'reversal', 'aberration', and 'poisoned fruit'." A large Wounded managed to push deeper into the Hexknight's zone of influence. The knights couldn't feel it, but it actually took considerable effort and willpower to advance deeper into the center where their lord stood. They knew this because she'd taken occasion to demonstrate it. Once was enough. "Don't interrupt," Fragma growled, a glint of red circling her irises. "Well, I suppose you're a good enough specimen. You've lived longer than most of your kin." Wounded didn't really seem to behave like they were a part of the main brood. The knights couldn't decide among themselves what their function was. All variants must have some utility to the swarm. Otherwise... why keep them around? The spinner screeched horrifically, rising high into the air, each leg painfully pulled taught. The Hexknight was showing just how skilled she was, that she could simultaneously use such precision and force. Fragma gestured for Lucrue to approach. "Take some Clarity, or anything you've mixed that might jog your memory. Then, I need you to search your mind for everything you know about the Nexwarren. No detail is unimportant." Grinning with glee at being chosen and ignoring the envious gazes of his comrades, Lucrue hastily produced a pink powder from his chest pocket. Eris should have known he would prefer one of his own preparations to mass-produced Clarity shards. Luc closed one nostril with a finger and snorted the powder, after which Fragma curled her fingers around his neck. It didn't look like she was choking him, but the contact must have been required in order to use him for her purposes. Luc was still conscious, yet he froze in a trance. More of the spinners clicked menacingly at the group, somehow detecting the magic gathering at the Hexknight's position. Others crawled all over the building where the survivors were huddled. Eris felt a tinge of concern for the innocents inside, but she was resolved to stand by her lord until the end. "Recall Nexwarren anatomy," Fragma ordered to Luc. "How they move, how they feed, how they bleed. Remember it all, and if you don't know, extrapolate the remainder based on what you know of lesser arachnids." Fragma's fingertips were glowing red, now, her tight grip transferring energy into Luc's still form. Crimson light began pouring from his open eyes, and more light surrounded the captive, hovering spinner. The spinner burst apart with a sickening *crunch*. Magical incisions splayed the creature open for all to see, delicately removing innards and analyzing them. "Yes, that's it!" she screamed, losing herself as Eris had never seen her lord act before. "Let the paragons worship justice. Let the the schemers reap what they sow. Teach these creatures a lesson, but let it be their last memory. I had more to say, but... oh well..." The Hexknight's free arm released the spell binding the spinner and let the gore splash down to the dirt. The hand rose once more, and with it, a dizzying display of dark purple lights formed the outlines of new spinners. Ichorous black flesh filled the gaps between increasingly-detailed imitations. These were Hexaline Knight Fragmata's famous illusions! Never before had Eris witnessed such a display! These fake spinners were now populating the circle around the knights, facing outwards, squaring off against the awaiting swarm of aggressors. "Witness the birth of our Nexwarren 'shadow guardians'. Watch them rend flesh and fertilize this land so that it will thrive anew!" This fake swarm was in no way less detailed that the real specimens, but the knights couldn't believe how that was so. Even a master's illusion magic bore imperfections best hidden by a darkened room, to allow imagination to fill in the gaps. It may have been night, but these illusions shone like beacons in the darkness, and none of Zeal's flames could scour away their arcane perfection. There was no imagining this. Not unless Fragma had seized the senses of every human here. While this was well within her capabilities, it was laughably unlikely. Hexknight Fragmata embodied the principle of "truth", full of pain and violence. The spinners abandoned their intimidation attempts at this unfamiliar arrival. Some appeared to be clicking in attempted communication with the "new brood". In response, Fragma made her puppets utter a bone-chilling shriek, unlike anything a spinner was capable of emitting. The real spinners got the message. Eris watched Fragma release Luc and hold him while he returned to his senses. After trying to steady his balance for a short while, he finally caught sight of what she'd done with his cognitive contributions. Those golden-yellow eyes saw a part of himself in his lord's illusions. Even so, he was too astounded to feel pride. Wearing a face that only said he was impressed, he absentmindedly fumbled for a new vial of something-or-other in his front pocket, before tossing it back and swallowing hastily. "Can they recognize friend from foe?" he asked. "Friend?" she giggled. "What an interesting concept. Without giving the game away, I'll just say they won't even know any of us are here." Perhaps they weren't really summons, as their appearance and behavior suggested. But what really separated a summon from a mere illusion? The ability to interact with the physical world? And, if these creatures could be both more worldly than a summon and more sensually deceptive than an illusion? I'm not suited for these mental efforts, Eris admitted to herself. Every tool to its proper task. Raising her axe, she led the charge. "You heard her Chaos Knightmares! Let's not be shown up by the newbies!"