Chapter Seven

“Very well,” came the gravelly response a moment later, “heavies free to engage”. A few seconds later a cultist that had popped up to return fire under the cover of a psionic barrier exploded. Showering his companions with blood as the projectile that ripped him apart continued on ripping through the van behind him with equal ease before shattering against the far wall the aether powering and encasing it exhausted. Immediately following, another cultist was similarly vanquished. Then two massive bursts of raw energy ripped apart the vans the cultists had been using as cover killing several of the heretics in the process. Their cover destroyed, several of the survivors were immediately gunned down by more conventional means leaving only the three spirit mages and the dual practitioner still alive as they hurriedly ducked between two remnant pieces of van while the assault team continued to rain suppressive fire. The sheer destructive power of the two pairs of heavy weapons was shocking and had Elly curious how powerful the special weapons that Knox had in route to them must be. “Heavies reload and end this,” the commander said, “His voice still easy to hear over the earbuds despite the tremendous noise.

Powerful as the heavy weapons were, there was a reason the commander had held them till the target’s absence was verified. These were the only weapons that gave them the confidence to assault such a dangerous target without additional backup, but the tremendous energy they released required a two-minute cooldown between shots and that was if you wanted to push the limits. It was really supposed to be five. Additionally, each required a new non-reusable aetheric power cell for each shot. The pure energy weapons also needed a spirit energy cell that was similarly non reusable. The aetheric power cells each cost six thousand dollars, and the Spirit energy cells cost fifteen. That came to a ground total of fifty-four grand for the last four attacks and they were about to double that cost as soon as the cooldowns were up.

Hunkered down behind their now meager cover, the cultist clad in black leather pulled out a two-foot-long black cylinder and shouted something Elly couldn’t make out. She felt a quick surge of power as the cultist withdrew her hand leaving the device hovering in the air. The three spirit mages each reached out and grabbed onto it hands one on top of the other. When her companion’s hands were firmly on the device the cultist let off another quick surge of power activating the device and initiating an abomination. Finally realizing what the cylinder was, Elly shouted over the comms “KILL THEM NOW. THEY HAVE TO DIE BEFORE IT FINISHES,” her tone borderline hysterical.

“The heavies are still cooling down,” the commander replied. “There’s no time,” Elly yelled back immediately, “That device is performing a daemon transformation ritual. If it completes it, we’re all dead”. There was a stunned silence as everyone processed Elly’s announcement. For a moment even the gunfire stopped as the operators involuntarily looked towards Elly. Daemon transformation was one of the most feared techniques in existence. It required sacrificing multiple souls which were then split into multiple pieces and then bound to an amorphous nigh invulnerable form. The resulting creatures were mindless with an immense animosity towards life and could only be controlled by the device that created them. The soul fragments could even be recalled and rebound in the event their bodies were destroyed as long as the transformation ritual remained active. Nearly a century prior, the church had gotten wind that a certain charity organization was a front for a large group of cultists. During their assault, the leader of the chapter had conducted a daemon transformation ritual. Resulting in the church forces, several times larger than Elly’s present company, being nearly annihilated. The creatures even spread into the surrounding areas wreaking havoc and taking thousands of innocent lives. The six paladins accompanying the purification force were the only ones able to harm the abominations. Sacrificing half their number, they fought their way to the chapter leader and killed him destroying the sacrificial tool used to conduct the ritual in the process. If the paladins had failed the creatures would have continued to spill into the city unchecked and inflicted inestimable damage before they were stopped. Following the disastrous raid, the church declared daemon transformation the third grand heresy. Even possessing knowledge of a device capable of performing the ritual without reporting it to the Church was grounds for immediate purification by fire. Perhaps un-surprisingly such a deadly example of the terrors that could be unleashed by messing with the soul caused support for the church to sky rocket as one of their primary messages was proven to be true.

A moment after the bone chilling announcement the commander managed to recover his wits. “Bull rush now,” he roared over the comms, “take them down”. Spurred into action the strike team members broke cover rushing forward in attempt to get a clear shot on the targets before it was to late. As the first attackers came around the broken pieces of the van the cultists were using for cover the previously passive leader of the cultist acted. Flinging out her arms she created a psionic dome over her and the three spirit mages who were in the process of being consumed. Elly could literally see their souls being devoured bit by bit. The strike team opened fire shifting their rifles from burst to fully automatic. The lead cultist was leagues beyond the others in her group. While they had barely been able to hold out for six seconds against a single flank of the assaulting force, she singlehandedly held back the entire force for almost double that. The strike team was using aether scripted rifles that enhanced the force of the rounds fired by them along with bullets scripted to disrupt aetheric barriers be they active of passive. Even so it took ten seconds for the barrier to fail. Just before the psionic barrier fell the cultist Unleashed a second one this time fueled by spirit magics. They cultist expression twisted into a pained grimace as she tapped her powerful soul for all it was worth trying to hold off the desperate attack.

Just a bit more, Elliana thought anxiously. She could literally see the cultists spiritual energy draining away. However, it wasn’t enough the spirit mages collapsed in unison as the last bit of their souls was devoured. An instant later dozens of black semi-corporeal forms shot out of the cylinder. As the took up position around the last remaining heretic they each adopted shapes that seemed meant to make a mockery of the human form in the creepiest way possible. Horrified the attackers ceased firing as they began to subconsciously shrink back. Groaning in relief as she dropped her barrier the cultist let out a triumphant laugh. “You’ve failed,” She sneered. Then directed her abominable new minions, “kill them all. Slowly”. As the daemons surged forward several members of the strike team resumed fire to no effect. The rounds simply vanished as the entered the black bodies and never exited.

Seeing their weapons were useless. the courage of the strike team members that had been exemplary up to this point failed. They broke and ran in different directions to reach in exit. Being at the back gave Elly and the two Agents a head start, not to mention their gear was nowhere near as heavy. Elly’s long legs kept her stride for stride with Sanchez as they raced for the hole the Strike team had made on the way in. Screams of agony rang out from behind her as the members of the assault force were caught one by one.

Just as she thought they were going to make she heard Smith scream in pain. Her shorter stride preventing her from keeping pace with Elly and Sanchez. Hearing his partners cry, Sanchez turned his head to look and tripped taking Elly down with him. Tumbling over Sanchez Elly hit the ground and rolled twice before stopping. Full of adrenaline she barely even felt the impact. Pushing herself up to hear knees she looked to the left and her heart sank. Everyone was down. The strike team members were screaming and writhing in pain as the dark forms stood over them holding them down with inky black tendrils while the slowly inflicted wounds. Smith was pinned up against a metal support pillar while one of the abominations was slowly carving a line down her cheek. A couple feet behind the black tendrils were wrapping around Sanchez stimming his attempt to get up. As Elly pushed of the ground in an attempt to come to her feet, an impossibly long flexible limb lashed out knocking her over backwards.

Just before she hit the ground, she instinctively reached back to catch herself with her hands. One of the abominations stood over her with a twisted mockery of a smile on its face. Elly pushed off with her feet scrambling backwards on her rear in a futile attempt to open the distance. The creature let out a sinister chuckle as it kept pace effortlessly while not attempting to close the final distance. In a panic Elly sent her needles, held in reserve till now into the creature to no effect. It’s toying with me, she realized in a panic. Looking past the nightmare she noticed the some of the daemons had stopped playing with their prey. Instead Their black limbs seemed to penetrate into their bodies and were pulsing grotesquely focusing her psionic senses Elly nearly fainted in terror when she realized what was happening. Merciful god they’re devouring their souls. Tiring of its game, the daemon near Elly suddenly surged forward. This is it, Elly thought shutting her eyes. A moment later she felt a cold burning touch against her cheek.

The touch vanished almost as soon as it appeared. Opening her eyes Elly saw the abomination straiten up looking passed her towards the entrance. Before she could turn her head, a loud humming noise filled her ears and a second later, she felt a massive rush of air as a blurry form shot over her head barreling into the abomination.