Penitent

Michael was right behind Lys, then ahead of her as they charged toward the angry red tear in front of them. His dread crescendoed and turned into the sense of righteousness it always became when he was sealing rifts.

As it had been the last time, the transition was nearly seamless with only the sensation of breaking glass as he leapt between worlds. The world he landed on was the same one he'd been in before, and he could see the dull red sun that bathed everything in a reddish hue as he exited the rift. He landed and immediately struck with his fiery mace, demolishing a surprised lizardman before he started to look for the source of the rift's durability. He immediately noticed five of the lizardmen's sorcerers in a circle nearly ten yards away, but between him and them were more than a half-dozen of the horned men who were already moving to intercept him, along with more further back that were headed toward him. He wasn't certain how, but he knew that whatever the lizards were doing was what was fighting against his ability to seal the rift.

He raised his mace and shield, and the nearest horned man nearly screeched to a halt before he could reach him, his eyes on the golden fire of the mace.

"Aur-Ma!" He yelled, waiting for the others to approach before getting any closer.

Unfortunately for him, Michael had no intention of waiting. He moved toward him, ducking under a high slash, and smashing in the creature's chestplate, causing him to burst into holy flame. He then shoved the body toward the others that were charging with his shield, and it landed on the nearest of them who screamed as the divine flames licked at him.

Before Michael could push forward more, the others reached him, and a spear slammed into his shoulder, embedding itself in him before the horned man ripped it out, its jagged head ripping away sinew and muscle as it was torn from him.

Michael gritted his teeth and sent the pain back at him, but while it disabled that one momentarily, the others moved to gang up on him.

A bolt of lightning hit one of them, and Michael could hear a voice behind him.

"Take that you horned cunt!" yelled Ollie, even as he began to channel another spell.

Another one dropped shortly after that as a bullet traveled through one of its eyes and out the back of its skull. Marcus was there too.

Michael took the brief window they'd granted him to run straight toward the gathered lizardmen, opting to dodge around the monsters that went to cut him off, which seemed to surprise them. When he reached the nearest of the lizards, he could feel immense power coming off of them in waves as they worked to weave whatever spell was keeping the rift from closing.

One of them broke its chanting to look at him, its eyes widening as he went to bring his mace down on his head.

"Aur-ma," it said, as Michael caved in its skull. He felt the spell break, but took the time to take down two others before the rest of them started to flee.

He went to run back toward the rift, and as he did so a waist high wall of flame rose on either side of him, giving him a straight path to run away courtesy of Ollie.

Michael ran the path, focusing all his energy on getting out as Marcus and Ollie did what they could to keep any of the rift beasts off of him. Just before he got there, they leapt backward through the portal, and Michael leapt after them.

There was the feeling of shattered glass again, and then suddenly he was in the midst of another battlefield. Lys was wounded, her hand facing toward the rift, and there was a circle of others blocking incoming spells and a few remaining horned men that were trying to reach the rift again.

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Michael raised a golden hand and started to heal all of the injuries around him, even as he killed another horned man that emerged from the portal looking for him. Once everyone was healed and renewed, he began to focus on the rift along with Lys.

He could feel her grip, it was much firmer than Trina's had been, and he wrapped his will back around the edges of the rip along with hers. After only a few moments, and a final push from the rift itself that seemed natural rather than concrete as the lizardman's magic had, it sealed shut. The ugly red wound was gone leaving only behind the corpses of entities not of this world.

The remaining foes fought for a bit longer, but their hearts weren't in it any longer and they were able to finish them off after just a few moments. Michael thought he may have seen a few lizardmen manage to get away, but he couldn't be certain, and with the number of wounded he had other priorities.

His initial healing burst had prevented any fatalities after he'd arrived, but there were a number of severe injuries incurred after that he began to focus on before he saw something a few yards away.

It was Wareez, his body badly broken and his arm missing, but Michael could swear that he saw his chest moving. He quickly ran over to where he'd seen the horned man throw his arm and brought it back, placing it carefully next to the scout while he placed a golden hand on his chest. He focused, feeling the faint flicker of life within the man as he started to heal him. He brought the man's body back together as well as he could, and was panting and drenched in sweat when he was done, but was happy to see that Wareez was whole again, his arm back where it had been before.

The scout didn't wake, but Michael moved onto the others, practically stumbling from wounded to wounded as he took the time to heal them, but making sure that he wasn't overexerting himself at the expense of others by focusing on the fatal injuries and leaving the lesser ones to attend later or heal naturally.

As he worked, Lys had those in the best shape set up a perimeter, and began to look around the area that had been the immediate vicinity of the rift. There were a number of what looked to be pots scattered around, as well as what seemed to be parts of a makeshift set of fortifications. They hadn't been finished, as indicated by a number of logs and ropes that had started to be gathered around, but the intention was clear. That also made the clearing they were in make more sense, as it seemed it had only recently been cleared out by saw and axe.

Michael finished his healing and collapsed against a stump, breathing heavily.

"Look at this lazy fucker, thinks he can take a break whenever," said Ollie sitting on a log next to him.

"I know, as if we weren't the ones doing all the work," replied Marcus.

Michael laughed. "Fuuuuck you," he managed.

"Oh, excuse me, it seems he doesn't think we helped at all," replied Ollie, shaking his head. "Shameful is what that is."

"Alright, alright, I'll buy you both a drink when we get back."

"I don't know, you think one drink would be enough for all this pain and suffering?" asked Marcus.

"Fine, two."

"That works a bit better for me," replied Marcus with a smile.

"Me too."

Michael shook his head. Some of the weariness he was experiencing was starting to clear up, but he was still feeling a particular kind of tired.

"Were those the lizard people you saw last time?" he asked them.

"Yeah. They seem to all be mages. Not powerful ones, but beyond being able to just do the little utility spells most people here can do." Ollie twisted his staff in the dirt a bit. "They also seem to be able to weave magic together very well. It's very odd."

"Magic is overrated anyway. Just a crutch for all of you," said Marcus.

"Did they have the horned men with them when you fought them?"

Ollie shook his head. "No, and they weren't dressed in cloaks like that. They were armed and armored in some kind of carapace armor. Maybe it's a different group of them."

Michael nodded. He didn't like the fact that he was seeing multiple entities from different rifts coming from the same one, though it did seem like the horned men were the ones calling the shots this time. Perhaps they were raiders of some kind and were invading the lizard people's homes and taking mages to use as soldiers. Or maybe there were multiple factions of each and some of them worked together. There was a lot to consider, though the main problem remained; they didn't belong there and their frequent appearances were a bad sign.

He pushed himself up and muttered a prayer of thanks. They'd taken no more casualties since he'd gone through the rift, and that was something to be grateful for. Even if he wasn't sure how long Gemini could keep up this rate of losses.