NOVEL NEXT Chapter Eighty-Two: Endless Night
Endless Night
My lungs burned. The red fire of dusk on the horizon shrank. The shadows grew long, and then frightening. I would have liked to say that I was only among the first to falter, but since just about every other person in the Guild had both started with a higher physique attribute than myself and also invested into it more heavily. I had to admit that it was quite the sight to see the apparently scoliotic and obviously elderly Mrs. Hoxley shuffle ahead faster than me without breaking a sweat. So in the end it was I who stumbled over a root and planted my face into the wet moss with a soft thud as night approached.
"This will have to be far enough!" Artemis shouted, noticing me in the dirt, then remembered the new situation and added: "If the Council agrees."
I raised my arm in the air to vote yes without even looking up. My muscles were simply not moving when I ordered them to, I had to nudge them several times before they did what I wanted them to. My heart was beating too fast and I was struggling to catch a breath as I pulled myself up against a willow-like tree that was quickly losing the romanticism and gaining an eerie vibe as the sun was falling.
People who have lived in cities their whole lives tend to believe that they aren't afraid of the dark. That fear of the dark is childish, even. Instead of disabusing them of that notion, I liked suggesting that they go on a nightly walk through a forest. Even back on Earth where there weren't really any monsters, when you are in an open wild space without light, that fear is inevitable. No matter how long you've lived in the woods, no matter how big and tough you are, and no matter how much you like scary movies, the animal inside your head realizes that there could be anything out there, and if it gets dark enough, that that anything could be right on top of you if it was silent enough.
And there were actual monsters in these woods. So we really needed to set up camp regardless. Walking through the woods at night would leave us terrified and exposed, even if we didn't lose people through them simply taking a dozen steps into the wrong direction.
"What can we do about defenses?" Brooke, who was also among the less-toned wizardly types that had been toward the end of our column as we ran, said.
"I have a spell that'll turn wood to, I think stone? Maybe could make a bit of a wall around us, if people could get enough trees down in the next, like, twenty minutes," I said.
"You lot hear that?" Emma shouted towards the fighters.
"What?" Marcus shouted back.
"We should get a wall set up. I can turn wood to stone, so it'd be pretty tough," I said.
"Fuck, yeah, I like that idea. I'd be a lot more comfortable behind a wall," he said, "What say you, my dudes?" Marcus said.
"You're the boss," Zack said, not quite bitterly.
So we got to work. Fortunately fire was really not a big deal. Even I could have started fire from a pile of rotting leaves with magic, and since we had a fair amount of dry wood and evergreen branches within gathering distance it was a breeze to get a roaring campfire going. We might have considered camping without fire for reasons of stealth, but for one thing 250 people dashing head-long through the woods is just going to leave an unmissable trail, and for another everyone was beginning to feel that fear of the dark rising within them. The hope had always been that the goblins or whatever would either be left far enough behind that we'd have a chance to set up proper defenses for whatever they could send against us, or that they would simply give up and look for easier prey.
The superhuman strength and abilities of the fighters of the Guild was crazy. Once we'd got everyone situated with a chopping weapon, they began bringing down trees in four or five chops, mighty enough to resound through the woods. Further reducing our stealth, sure, but we had to work fast.
"I should have fucking seen this coming," Artemis swore, as she carried two full logs on both her shoulders, approaching the section where I was turning them into stone logs one by one. The wall was going up incredibly quickly, we hadn't been here for twenty minutes, and an 8 foot tall section of two log walls had already been turned to stone. At this rate we'd be in an octagonal defensive position within two hours.
"We all missed it. It just felt like it was over, you know," I said.
"Yeah, but we knew it wasn't," she said.
"Hey, you're not the boss anymore. So it ain't on you," Emma said.
"Ki-Raan-Ac-Myn!" Brooke said, as another log was transformed to stone.
It wasn't every spellcaster that could transcribe and cast second tier spells, many had limitations on what they could learn, and others only could cast spells they gained from their abilities. But Brooke had a class that was pretty similar to my Wizard- she was a Lorekeeper- and she could copy the spell from my spellbook into her own.
"Bitching about it ain't gonna help, Supergirl, go get us some more wood," Emma said.
"Alright, alright. Are we missing something else?" Artemis said.
"Probably. It'll be easier to deal with behind a wall," I said.
In fact, we finished our make-shift fortification in less than two hours. We didn't make a gate, instead making simple ladders to the top of the wall, which we could easily jump over on the other side and move on tomorrow. It ended up being larger than I had imagined, because it had to be. 250 people is a lot, and we all intended to sleep inside these walls. In the end we had a section at the top of the incline laid out with what tents and bedrolls we had, designated the bottom of the incline for a bathroom (Brooke even had a spell for digging a latrine which, with the addition of a few planks of wood for privacy, we were quickly grateful for). The center of the encampment was reserved for the fire, with about half the people gathering around it- cooking, drying clothes, or simply chatting- at any given time.
Stolen story; please report.
"Fuck, this would suck to do in a national park or something. We started a fire with my buddies in, like, state woods one time. I almost ended up in prison. And it was, like, a small fire," Zack said, sitting cross-legged next to me by the fire with a wine-skin in his hand. The kind of chubby metal nerd had changed a lot in the last two days. Most obviously he was now muscular and sat up straighter, but there was also a sort of dark under-tone to his state that hadn't been there.
"What's bothering you?" I said.
"Fucking wise-man shit, makes sense," he said, slurring slightly.
"We've all changed. Seems like you've become more serious is all," I said.
"Not really. It's still funny. I still meme. It's just that I don't want to act like I think this will all blow over and we'll be fine anymore," Zack said.
"Even if we don't, what the fuck is up next? We go home? You go home?" He said, looking up at Hannah.
"Yeah, I guess it's not like you can get work at a 7-11 after this," I said. There was a clang of metal that I'd come to associate with Hannah shrugging.
"So we figure out what to do next once we're out of here," Hannah said.
"Yeah but what is it? What kind of a multiverse are we in if a mad wizard dude can just harvest a notable percentage of a planet for fun and no one does anything to stop him? Is it all like this?" Zack said.
"We'll probably learn more about that soon. Barbie and Ken mentioned people from other dimensions being here in their presentation thing.
"I just don't know, dude. I still feel like I'm gonna die, I just, I guess it doesn't bother me like that anymore," Zack said.
We gazed into the fire. We had made a fucking bonfire, a serious one. It was not like there was any chance of avoiding detection in our numbers if someone was seriously looking. I looked at the faces around me, and saw much of this same melancholy and cynicism in all but everyone around. I figured I didn't look much better myself. Our old lives really were over. I hadn't really thought about it, since I hadn't really lost that much. I reminded myself once again to use the pseudoportal spell to check in with the rest of my friends. They might be alive. They might not be here. It wouldn't hurt to look. Except, somehow, I knew it would.
"Ethan?" someone called. One of the new members. Then, again, she repeated more loudly: "Ethan!?"
"Is someone missing? Hold on, I can do a perimet-" a man's voice responded. It went perfectly quiet in an instant.
"Everyone to the fire now!" I called as the camp broke out into fretful activity. Firelight reflected in frightened eyes as dozens and dozens of us gathered into a tight circle around the fire, until it seemed more or less that everyone was here.
A scream. A man, someone not used to screaming, coarse and voice breaking. From just outside the circle.
"We need light, I can't see shit outside the circle," a voice called- Hannah. I could just about make out the edges of the walls at the extreme of my night vision, and that was enough for me. I called grease and fire from the sky, sure that none of us would be near the walls by now. The walls went up in flames in an instant and we saw that we were surrounded. The gaunt, shadowshapes of our enemy didn't resolve into features even in direct firelight, but I saw that they were just a little taller than us, gaunt and with jaundice or amber yellow eyes. And their shape was where their similarity to human form disappeared, as they moved their limbs and bodies separate from the other, jerking and twisting in a marionette pastiche of humanity. And when they were bathed in light they screamed like wounded pigs with metal lungs.
I froze time. My body was frozen just like everything else, but I could see the dreadful things in the motionless flame. In my field of view I saw dozens- and since I had the time to count, I saw that the exact number was 25. I should have cast the HUD spell, Hell, I should have kept it on the whole time, but even assuming the same level and that there were fewer of them behind me than ahead, this wouldn't be a bloodless affair. They seemed to fear fire, so I looked for Anna. There. Closer to the edge and the monsters, but not amidst them. I had some charges of barrier left. Alright, enough for a half-plan at least. I calculated the best angles that I could, and when time resumed I spun my staff sealing a dozen of them behind an invisible wall. It was invisible, and with the octagonal shape of the walls, let me seal my enemies in pockets between-
Fuck. It took less than a second after I finished casting for the creatures to run into my invisible barriers, then leap and grab onto the edge and clamber over with twisted agility.
"Anna, anyone with fire, burn them!" I called to my wizard allies, as the others of the Council began shouting their own orders. But we did not react quickly enough. We could not, the things were already in motion, and as they grabbed the stragglers, those closest to the edge, in the twilight between the flames on the walls and the flames of the bonfire in our midst, they did not strike to kill or injure, but instead wrapped shadowy hands around their bodies and throats and began dragging them away.
"Kill them!" Marcus shouted to his warriors. Our warriors surged ahead, and even after a day and night of labor they wrecked shit. They pulled captives out of the shadow creature hands, they broke bones and split apart flesh of things that had neither, they fought like demons.
And an evil laugh reverberated through the forest. If I had to pick, it was more feminine than masculine, but it was arch before anything else. Then there were words. At first I didn't recognize them, and thought it was some strange language, but with my enhanced Mind attributes it didn't take long to remember- the dispel magic spell, a more powerful version of it, and I heard it just a split second before my magical fire went out.
Now that our walls were cleared of hazards, the crone felt safe enough to show herself. A monstrous, swamp-thing troll creature in rags and a filthy felt hat, and with a staff of shadow and bone stood on top of our walls. I could have sworn she looked me in the eye when she chanted her next spell. I didn't even realize what had happened when I was suddenly wet and cold, until I saw the vague shimmer of a pseudoportal. A swimming pool full of water had been poured over us. And the bonfire.
In a single horrible hissing noise we were in darkness. And against the strange stars none of us recognized, a figure flew overhead, twisted and tall, screaming laughter, as the terror took the Guild over completely.