Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

By the time the fiends broke down the outer portcullis, ten more Oroniths had arrived. Alone, it wouldn't be enough, but it took them much longer to hammer through the sealed wooden gates behind. When they finally broke through, nearly fifty Oroniths were waiting for them. Some were academy students, some were city guards.

The Pilots were silent, but Wulf recognized a static screech in his communications construct. Someone had tapped into all of their channels. Considering Dr. Azanthius' Oronith and the Rex Basileus were standing near the front of the formation, preparing to meet the incoming horde, Wulf figured it was one of them.

He'd retreated back into the Wraith's cockpit and suited up, then moved Wraith to the side. They weren't suited to taking frontal assaults, but they could help once the fiends broke through.

Once the beam Wulf had transmuted finally broke, the gates swung wide open. Fiends surged forward, pouring into the gap, and Dr. Azanthius called, "Push! Charge! Keep them out of the city!"

The Oroniths sprinted forward to meet them, leading with their Mages' spell Skills and stabbing with spears or slashing with swords.

The first swell of fiends buckled instantly. A horde of smaller demons poured in underfoot, but some fiends still slipped in around the side. One smaller, lithe fiend propelled itself over the wall, using wings that had more volume than the rest.

"Oh, no you don't…" Wulf muttered.

He used Wraith, sprinting forward, and kicked off the wall. Reaching up, he grabbed the fiend's feet and slammed it to the ground in the middle of a street, right between two old halls of the old city. Its skull cracked the old city wall, and its wings splayed out to the side, crushing buildings.

Before it could writhe around and cause more damage, Kalee pinned it to the ground and Wulf drove his short swords into its neck, then sliced to the side. Its head popped off, but for good measure, Irmond fired an enhanced shot into its heart. At such a close range, the arrow pierced its already weakened carapace and sliced through. The fiend fell still.

By now, the Oroniths had charged out of the city. Deep horns sounded, signalling the charge, and the tolling bells sounded much more cheerful. Soldiers on the wall continued their assault, but their attacks were slowing down. There were just less fiends to fire at, and less small demons trying to scale the wall.

Wulf had to get out there and help finish them off. He wedged Wraith's foot into an under-construction ledge, then heaved himself over the wall and landed in a crouch outside. A plume of dust rose up around him, but he charged forward.

The defending Oroniths had fanned out, and now, they outnumbered the fiends nearly two to one. Though beaten, the fiends refused to retreat. They scrambled from target to target, unsure which to attack.

Wulf was about to join the fray when he noticed an orange glow on a distant hill. There'd been no village there before, only fields of olives. The longer he looked, the more he picked out. There were three smaller fiends, each about twice the height of an elephant, even when bent over on all fours. Chains wrapped around their heads and bridles bit into their mouths. A structure made of dark steel—the same type that formed the demon-spheres—clung to their backs.

If someone was commanding the horde, that was where they'd be.

"Irmond, you see that?" Wulf asked, pointing to the hill.

"I see them," he replied. "You think there's a demon-spirit there?"

"If there is, we'd better destroy them," Kalee snapped.

Wulf turned, sprinting across the countryside in a different trajectory from the rest of the battle. Each of his steps was an earthquake.

"Are we running from the battle?" Kalee asked.

"We're cutting the head off the snake," Wulf said.

When the fiends registered that he was coming toward them, they bucked against their harnesses, trying to attack, but their masters controlled them.

And then the immense pressure welled up from ahead of him. It was at least as strong as Lord Umoch's, but by any measure, more powerful. He couldn't explain it. Something was pushing on his core, making his head ache. The closer he got, the stronger it became, and it just kept getting worse.

He wasn't going to be strong enough to deal with whatever it was.

Before he could get himself into a situation he couldn't get out of, he pulled Wraith to a stop. Its heels dug into the ground, and it came to a halt twenty Oronith-paces away from the hill.

Something stood at the top of the structure on the leading fiend. Its eyes glowed bright orange, with streaks trailing off to the side in smokey neon wisps. A non-Ascendant's eyes wouldn't have made out any other details, but with Wulf's enhanced perception, the being was clear as day.

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To say it reminded him of Gom Pyek would've been a lie. It reminded him of the misty form that had occupied Varl's bones, but with infinitely more detail and definition.

A nine-foot-tall man made of nothing but black smoke, slenderer than any man ought to be and made worse by his height, with a spindly frame of wings that sprouted out his back like a second set of arms. He had a ring of horns around his head, and he hunched over, using his wings almost like a second set of legs—they were long enough to walk on.

A demon-spirit in its purest form.

Wulf glanced side-to-side throughout the cockpit, looking at the sheets of enchanted parchment. They flickered and shuddered, unsure what to do about this new creature's presence.

Then, finally, they displayed a reading:

[Unknown Enemy – Estimated Orichalcum]

Wulf's eyes widened. They couldn't fight a—

"Wulf, watch out!" Irmond called.

Wulf barely saw it. A tendril of black smoke reached out from the sky, barely visible, and smashed into Wraith's chest. It cracked like a whip on impact, and stone panels bent inward. Wraith bellowed in pain, and Wulf shouted as one of his own ribs snapped. His feet lifted off the ground, and he flew back through the air, before landing on his back.

Panting and clenching his teeth to keep the pain at bay, he hauled himself up. When he turned back to look at the demon-spirit, it was gone. They'd…retreated.

Fiends wouldn't retreat. They never did. How strong was this demon-spirit if, even after attacking him, it could pull itself out of battle?

He contemplated chasing after it, but that would be foolish. He'd force it to kill him. "That's him…" Wulf gasped. "That's their leader. That's who's leading the attack on our world."

"Should we go after him?" Seith asked.

"Do you want to die?" Irmond exclaimed.

"We should track him! Find out where he's from."

"And get lost in the desert?" Wulf groaned. "We can't. Nevermind that if we do catch up with him, he'll kill us."

"Why's he even running in the first place, then?" Seith asked. "If he's that strong, shouldn't he be able to wipe us off the map?"

"He's worried about something," Wulf guessed. "I don't know what it is, but we can't let him see that he's stronger than anything he could throw at us."

"Wulf's right," Kalee said. "We need to get back to the city, and we can figure out what to do when we get back."

"We're gonna be in so much trouble…" Irmond muttered.

"If I play my cards right, it'll just be me," Wulf replied.

He turned in a circle, surveying the battle. There were a few skirmishes outside the city, but for the most part, the demons had been dealt with. The bigger problem was overhead. Streaks of flame roared through the sky. The ground shuddered, and not just from the footfalls of fiends and Oroniths. It was a deeper tremble.

The chunks of the cracking moon were starting to hit the ground.

One raced overhead, moving faster than a demon-sphere ever would. Everything went silent for a few seconds, and it felt like the world stopped moving, before a deep boom thrummed out, vibrating in his chest and making the Wraith sway. A plume of dust and flame rose in the distance.

It wasn't enough to end the world. It was enough to wipe out a small town, if anything had been unfortunate enough to live in the vicinity.

[More are coming,] Wraith warned.

"Wulf!" Irmond shouted. "One's coming for the city!"

Wulf spun around. A column of flame descended toward Centralis on an angle, poised to annihilate the city. Millions of lives wiped out in a blink.

They weren't going to save every city, but they could protect this one.

"Kalee?" Wulf asked. "Think you can deflect it?"

"In Wraith?" she asked. "We get high enough, I think we can."

He nodded. "Irmond, keep an eye out. Seith, make sure Wraith doesn't fall apart while we get in-place."

"I'll see what I can do, but no guarantees. You're leaking lots of mana from that strike we took."

"We just have to get to a high point."

Wulf sprinted back through the city gate, leaping over the defenders on the ground. His heart pounded. Blood rushed in his ears, and he only barely considered that if this failed, he and his crew were going to die too. It probably would've been worse if he hadn't been preoccupied with the pain of a few broken ribs, or with his golem's panels pressing into his chest and etching his flesh with each step he took.

They ran past the academy, jumping over buildings and sprinting along streets, until they reached the new downtown. As they ran, he sheathed his swords.

"These guild towers better be strong enough…" he muttered, then jumped up to the nearest tower. Its lift shaft would be the strongest part. He wrapped his fingers around it, and it supported Wraith's relatively light weight—when compared to other Oroniths.

The tower was only about an extra half-Oronith taller than him, but it was a better vantage than any.

The falling moon-chunk was racing toward them. Directly toward them.

Wulf and Kalee both pulled their mana back from the dream sockets, and without speaking, they both let their mana slam back in. Their minds joined, and Wulf clenched his eyes when Kalee gasped in shock, suddenly feeling the same pain as he did.

But they kept their wits. Kalee needed their free arm raised, so Wulf did.

She consumed the last construct she had available, a powerful Silver-tier construct.

Orange light roared through Wraith's channels and raced to its hand. A bangle of runes erupted around its wrist, and Kalee chanted a spell-Skill under her breath.

A circle of runes appeared in the sky above them. Abandoned carriages and debris rose up from the street below, and Wulf barely felt gravity beneath him.

She was reversing gravity in the sky above.

The asteroid's course softened. It curved unnaturally, sloping away from the city and arcing up for a moment, before launching off into the Yct-Dow mountains, hundreds of miles away. As harmless of an impact as could be.

Wulf exhaled in relief.