The Court of Souls?

“A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. The rings may grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter, and they become stable over time as the fungus grows and seeks food underground. They are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands or rangelands. Fairy rings are detectable by sporocarps in rings or arcs, as well as by a necrotic zone (dead grass), or a ring of dark green grass. Fungus mycelium is present in the ring or arc underneath.

Fairy rings are the subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. While they are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis***

***Shade***

“Charge!”

The army of shadows floods forward, breaking through Ishaan's wall of ice and shattering it to pieces. Our own men follow right behind them in a loose formation. In the distance I can see the enemies frantically giving new orders to reorganize their troops.

Magical warfare on this scale is bound to be messy. That's why we don't even try to adopt something like a formation. Of course there are groups of people who are working together, but they are never much larger than ten people.

Anything larger would be very hard to coordinate in a magical battle. Magicians can work together by using two different approaches. Strategy one is for a particularly strong magician to cast the framework of the spell. Then everyone else adds their mana to the magical construct. That is the easiest and fastest way, but it's not permissible if the framework isn't strong enough. The one who lays the framework limits the size of the spell.

Strategy number two is that all magicians cast the spell together, which requires a high amount of training and synchronisation. It's almost impossible to do on a city-wide scale.

Hence, the reason for such a disorganized battle strategy becomes clear soon enough. Solution number one is like throwing all your eggs in one basket. A strategy which gets you killed if the individual who lays the framework leaves an opening to exploit. Solution number two isn't feasible for messy battles.

While charging at each other, both sides start throwing spells. That's why I hate to fight in an army which is made up of magicians. Even the weakest immortal is able to conjure a fireball and it is only logical to put your enemy under fire while you close in.

My companions hold back while they wait to spot a suitable opponent inside the approaching mass. I myself cast a barrier to stop any stray bullets from damaging my doorway which is still summoning reinforcements to the field. There is a steady stream of new creatures, though I can feel that most of my human resources are already depleted.

A group of twenty soldiers breaks through the riving mass of battling bodies and heads our way. They are doing a good job in keeping the weaker shadows at bay while they move in a tight formation towards us. They clearly belong to the enemy, so Ishaan decides to take matters into his own hands. “I am off.”

He steps forward and grows. One step and he is five metres tall. A second and he can reach the city wall! On his fifth step he is a twenty-five metre tall titan.

One of the soldiers throws a fireball at him, but Ishaan simply raises his hand and deflects the projectile spell with his open palm. Then his final step carries him into the approaching group and he squashes two soldiers like insects. His foot lashes out and a third guy is kicked into the sky, sailing over the battlefield. The formation falls apart and my summonings take care of them. Individually the soldiers from Imothep stand no chance against the crazed mass of my servants.

Somewhere right in the middle of the battle I can see my ice dragon. The huge creature sank its teeth into someone and is shaking him like a toy. When it lets go, the broken figure sails away, the flat trajectory is a testimony to the forces involved.

It is clear that the enemy forces are trying to converge on my gateway. When one of Enwick's guards breaks through and heads our way, Aswang and Manti meet him on open field.

Another group of attackers rises high into the air and tries to bombard the shit out of my position. But my barrier holds. This time Doreen is the one to drive them off.

I keep my focus on holding the gateway open as long as possible. It has already provided more than a thousand additional troops to our side of the battle.

When another group of attackers manages to battle their way out of the slaughterhouse, I direct the flood of shadows towards them. But most of the creatures who are leaving my portal right now are just weak monsters like tundra wolves and other small critters.

Rising to my feet, I meet the attack of the first soldier who reaches me. He has a sword, but apparently not enough strength to wield it against me. There is a significant power difference between us. So I pick the weapon out of his hand and reach for his belt. Then I toss him into the closing portal behind me. His scream is abruptly cut off upon disappearing inside the black mass. That impresses his comrades and they stop.

I judge the distance to the next guy who is lining up for death. The stolen sword leaves my hand in an underhand throw, turning three times before it embeds itself in the soldier's chest.

That's when things turn a little dicey. Apparently someone thought it is a good idea to summon a thick fog bank. It starts with white mist which covers my ankles, then my vision turns completely white within a matter of seconds.

I recall the nine men who were charging me before my vision was cut off. I may be able to see in the dark, but that sense is relying on something like sonar. This fog is so thick that even I have problems seeing.

With no better idea at hand, I jump into the air and cast a standard barrier spell and anchor myself to its centre. This results in me sitting in the centre of a blue sphere of energy. Following up with several sets of even simpler barrier spells, I attach them to my sphere. The new ones aren't much more than flat blades of force.

After sharpening the edges I am left with a neat, magical construct. It's a sphere with vertically oriented blades sticking out of it. A neat little magical vehicle. A god should ride to battle in style after all.

I spin the entire construct, gaining speed quickly while rolling over the ground. My vision is still hampered, but I am not too concerned about running into something. At least nothing which I don't want to run into.

My efforts are rewarded with a scream and blood splashing onto my barrier. For a moment I notice the two halves of a person being flung away. The armour tells me that it was an enemy.

The rest of my opponents are left behind. With the gateway closed, there is nothing worth defending there. It's much better if I search for a higher immortal to kill and change the tide of the battle.

By the time I clear the fog bank, the blood is already cleared away. Force fields have the nice tendency that blood doesn't stick to them.

Taking in the scene in front of me, I look for the biggest pocket of opponents. Soon enough I notice a group of soldiers who are about to split our line, so I power up my meatgrinder and head for the breach, ignoring the fighting to my left and right.

Above me is Doreen. She is doing a pretty good job at clearing the skies, most of it in single combat. Her nails are elongated to sharp daggers and wherever she strikes, men are cut to pieces.

Then I impact the enemy ranks and my vision is obstructed by blood. Within a single moment the outer layer of my sphere is completely covered with blood and I have to wonder how many enemies I took out with this haphazard spell.

Suddenly I feel the rotation of my sphere come to an abrupt halt and I stop. I pour more power into it, but something is holding the force construct firmly in place.

When the blood clears I am greeted by Morello's enraged face. He grabbed the blades of my magical construct and is holding it with his bare hands. I can see the strain of his bulging muscles.

“Come out of there and fight like a man!”

“Your wish is my command.” I dispel the barriers and kick out, landing my foot directly in Morello's face. The effect isn't as spectacular as I hoped. While his head is driven backwards, he reaches for my leg and in the next moment I find myself being whirled around and slammed into the ground. The process repeats itself a second and a third time until I regain my orientation.

“Die! Die! Why don't you die! If you are that strong, then why did you send your whore to arm-wrestle me!?”

That's because most of my power was occupied with holding my souls in check.

I dissolve my body into shadows and spread myself thin, forming a huge upper body which is floating in the air above my opponent. Morello just stands there, gawking at me.

“Did you just call my wife a whore!?” I bring a huge fist down on him, but he evades just in time and my hand digs into the soft ground. We play a game of cat and mouse, ignoring the battle all around us. Morello is fast and I can't catch him in this form. I batter a random soldier into the ground and release my frustration by grabbing another one. I squeeze until it crunches and throw the remains into a group of opponents.

Being big has its benefits.

At last Morello gets his act together and casts a spell. He shoots a ray of light at me and I scream. It pricks as if someone is hammering a knitting needle into my body. I change shape and return to my human sized version to escape the spell. In this form I hold much less vulnerability towards such attacks.

Morello follows me with the ray of light, but I dive forward and focus mana to my palm. The blast of force takes Morello off his feet. The spell didn't do much more than inconvenience him. But it also forced a loss of concentration, which resulted in cancelling the ray of light.

By now I feel like playing dirty, so I use the opening to teleport directly towards Morello. Instead of attacking him, I place both hands on his head and dig my thumbs into his eyes. Then I pull.

The pain has the desired effect and I almost manage to take his soul. But stubbornness and an iron will to live keep him attached to his body. He strikes at my belly and I dissolve into shadows once more. Then he tries to claw away at my hands and face.

After taking a laceration on my forehead I decide that enough is enough. I wrestle him to the ground and place a foot on his chest. Focusing all my power to my muscles, I slowly pull off his head with a sickening crunch. A sizeable part of his spinal cord comes out with it.

Cool. Never thought that would actually work!

I remind myself to pay attention to the battle and look around. Enemy soldiers are surrounding me. For some strange reason they aren't attacking. Somehow I must have gotten into the middle of their army. When I take a step forward, they take a step back. That's all I need to know. Just small fry.

With a wave of my hand I channel a sizeable amount of mana and force it into a chaos spell. The wave of chaotic energies destabilizes the bonds between atoms and the closest ranks of enemies simply disintegrate.

This is boring. Shouldn't they have more higher immortals than us? I have to search for another target.

Close by, I find Aswang battling someone. He seems to have the situation under control, but I feel a little backstabby today. Focusing mana to my fingertips, I point a small ball of energy at the enemy and shape the released power to a cone. All I have to do is to compress the energy to its limit and poke a small hole into the containment field.

Aswang's battle is decided in his favour as both of the enemy's feet are suddenly relocated ten metres to his left.

That's when I get an urgent mental message from Elona.

.