CHAPTER 472: WAR OF IRON - PART 2 - BURYING THE PAST

Ferro’s heart pounded as he used the flight function of his suit to dodge a sudden barrage of spells and arrows. A moment after, one of their attackers fell with a cry as Anko’s knife buried itself in the angel’s shoulder.

However, Ferro’s eyes were on the ground as Lanoch leaped out of the larger hole before taking another leap off the surface towards him. "You corrupted my son!" he shouted as he brought his axe to bear.

Firing off a bolt of ice, Ferro watched as the shard broke against Lanoch’s chest, unable to penetrate his enhanced body. He kept firing anyway as Lanoch came up short with his swing, slowing from the impacts. As he started to fall, Lanoch roared in rage, landing lightly on his feet as he coiled for another jump.

A sudden burst startled Ferro as The Hunter’s arrow arrived, and on the ground, but especially in the pit, vines began to grow rapidly, their thorns extending nearly a quarter of a measure as those who’d gone into the hole wound up feeding the vines. Their screams rose, and the vines began to crawl towards the nearest water sources - the people surrounding the hole.

Those vines accomplished even more chaos as the Anko dove towards the enemy, her flamethrower at full blast as she targeted those outside the static defense bubble. More screams erupted from those not shielded against physical attacks.

"It’s truefire! Fix your shields!" an angel shouted as he took a shot at Anko, who dodged it.

This time, Lanoch leaped in the same direction where Ferro dodged. "I will wear your fucking skin!" the liokin snarled as he brought his second strike upwards in Ferro’s stomach.

Ferro’s shields flared and broke as Lanoch’s strike punched into his armor, failing to penetrate but succeeding in batting him higher up. As his breath left him, Ferro coughed out spit and blood, his body wrenching in midair.

As the air filled with angels, Anko shouted, "Back to the city!" A moment later, she flew in a long arc, fleeing above the army as she burned the soldiers and mercenaries whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Her call snapped into Ferro’s mind, and he took off to follow Anko. He’d barely caught his first breath before a spell bounced off his armor and he vomited blood onto some hapless mercenary. Pain followed as he felt his organs shifting with his flight. He managed to breathe, but each exhale came with coughs of blood.

His vision was murky from tears, but even so, he managed to catch up to Anko while dodging the spells sent their way. The angels cared little for avoiding their own troops as they fired off their magic, and more than once, some unfortunate soul was struck by spells meant for them.

The closer they got to the wall, the more spells began to flare out. Not at them, but navigating through the rain of destructive magic was hazardous as Ferro increased his arc to get around the majority of the destruction.

Anko, however, brought her course parallel to the frontline mages, burning many from behind because they’d focused their shields forward. Cheers erupted from the wall as Anko escaped the spells and arrows that followed her.

It was all Ferro could do to fly to a stop before letting himself drop out of the air and onto the ground. Chainsfree warriors ran up to him, immediately calling for a medic as they saw the blood on his lips.

Delirious, Ferro heard little of what was shouted as he muttered, "I wasn’t supposed to die... I need to save Val... I need..."

A pair of hands turned Ferro over roughly, and he spat up more blood. "Stars dammit, Ferro. What the fuck happened to you?" Malz’s face was both worried and angry as she looked him over. "Don’t answer that," she added as she started to heal him, but her spell only made him hurt more as he vomited more blood.

"Val..."

"I said don’t fucking answer!" Malzkael shouted.

Kir appeared, looming over Ferro with a sympathetic frown. He looked at Malz before passing a hand over Ferro’s face, gathering blood from it as mana bloomed into the gathering ball of blood. Seconds later, he had another stone just like the one he’d made from Malz’s blood.

"Ah..." he said, offering the stone to Ferro, trying to push it into the catkin’s mouth.

Ferro resisted, turning his head and coughing up more blood.

Malz stopped her healing. "He’s trying to help, just eat the fucking thing!"

"Val... I need to be up to-"

Malz grabbed the stone out of Kir’s hand, her hands becoming bloody as she roughly shoved the stone into Ferro’s mouth. "Swallow, dammit. I can’t heal you if you’re dead." She kept her hand pressed against his mouth as he gagged, until he finally did as he’d been ordered and swallowed the mana crystal.

A feeling like lightning filled Ferro as soon as it fell into his stomach. It rose in intensity until everything went white.

*

On the battlefield, a certain mercenary watched as a grey-skinned, pink-haired demoness disengaged after burning half their front line mages. She paused outside the range of most arrows, fighting the first angel to close the distance with a pair of knives and the same flame spell she’d used, only for the latter to flow off of the angel’s shields.

With all the blood around, it was a small thing for Bailey Black to gather enough mana for a powerful blast of magic, but a second later the demoness feinted, bringing the angel into the path of the spell, which flashed through the divine being’s shield before blasting his body in half.

"Shit!" he flinched at the sight, and the demoness laughed at him, using her four hands to make a rude gesture before she retreated once more. The angels broke off before they could cross the front line. The fall of one of them brought a renewed, victorious cry echoing from the defenders.

The angels were supposed to stay hidden until we took the wall. What the Hell happened?

As the most likely answers rose in his thoughts, however, cries of alarm from behind broke him away from his speculation as a massive beastkin pushed his way to the front.

"You," the liokin man snarled, and Bailey thought he was about to pay for accidentally killing an angel when the liokin continued, "You’re the blood mage?"

"I am," Bailey answered. "I’m with the Crims-"

"I don’t care who you’re with. Put a fucking shield on me now."

"I already used the nearest blood," Bailey said, buying himself more time to think.

In response, the lionkin cut down the nearest mage before roaring, "NOW!" at Bailey.

Drawing on the death of the mage, Bailey did as he was told, placing a powerful shield on the liokin.

The moment it was set, the liokin roared in rage before charging the portcullis, the thumping of his stride growing strangely louder as he broke into a run. The defending mages focused their fire on him, barely managing to break his shield just before he smashed through the iron and the heavy oak door behind it, cutting down the defenders on the other side as he barreled through them.

Moments later, a horn sounded three times, and the army began to march forward, surging towards the breaches in both the mountain and the gate.

Taking a deep breath, Bailey followed.

*

Ferro thought he’d end up knocked out the same as Malz had been. But on the tail end of the pain, he felt mana surge throughout his body as he healed. His suit, depleted down to a quarter, instantly filled from his excess as he rose off the ground, the flight function reactivating on its own as some unknown process worked to keep the suit intact.

A third tail grew from between his two, but he failed to notice this as, at that very moment, the gate burst open and Lanoch shredded a group of warriors single-handedly.

"Ferro!" Lanoch roared. "Face me, you coward!"

Anko arrived at that moment. "What’s his deal?" she asked as she hovered next to Ferro before letting her flight spell drop. "Should we, you know, set Kir on him?" Kir looked up at her as his name was spoken, a smile on his lips.

"No," Ferro said. "I’ll handle Lanoch, help anyone you can." He placed a hand on Anko and Malz’s shoulders, charging their suits in a matter of seconds.

Hovering over to where Lanoch was fighting with the defenders, Ferro shouted, "Leave him to me!" as he cycled his suit’s spell selector. He opened his strike by casting an ice spell as he circled around, buying the Chainsfreers time to pull their injured away.

Lanoch broke through the spell easily, marching towards Ferro with his axe in hand.

"So the slut finally grows a spine," he snarled as an arrow lodged in his mane from behind. He ignored it and continued forward. "After this fight, I will relish every second I spend skinning you alive." He licked his lips, his crazed eyes locked onto Ferro as if he were the only thing that existed in the world. He pointed with his axe. "Any last words?"

Ferro shook his head. "I’m not here to fight you, Lanoch." He raised his hand, overcharging the spell he’d prepared. "I’m here to bury you."

The ground dissolved beneath Lanoch’s feet for a half dozen measures around, and before he could leap free, Ferro cast the digging spell again. And again. And again. Down and down and down.

With each spell, he dug the hole deeper and deeper, following Lanoch down even as he passed the lowest level of bedrock. Even as he broke through a layer of watery earth. Even as the walls of the hole grew warmer. Until he cast the spell and all the sand he’d made of the earth melted into a deep puddle of some black substance, which surged up into the hole.

Only then did Ferro fly upward, leaving Lanoch to his fate.

*

As Ferro returned to sunlight, a clawed hand surged out of the muck, striking the wall and digging in as it pulled upward, towards the distant light.