Chương 175: Encounter
As I looked around the perimeter, I searched for a point where the creator of the dome might be, and at the same time I admired the views of the city infected with Rot. And there was a lot to see, because the photos were rather weak in conveying all the charm of this place, and, especially, the appearance of its new inhabitants. To be more precise, it was only now that it was possible to get a good look at some of the flying creatures that were flying close to the barrier, obviously trying to break free. Their appearance was gag-inducing because of the complete lack of skin and their disproportionate bodies, which were equipped with sharp claws, protruding bones and webbed wings.
Simple animals turned into hideous monsters under Black's influence. And, thankfully, their energy reserves and densities were nothing compared to what I could see in Brother Simon. Yes, the mana was still incredibly vile, but at the same time, the amounts were really minuscule. It seemed like it should only be enough to sustain a pseudo-life and not be too active, though the golden dome might well have interfered with the final estimate.
"Batman, do you happen to have a Batgun or a Batspear?" asked Flash, shrugging as another creature tried to cross the dome and left a bloody stain on it, with bone splinters flying in every direction. "I don't want to go near them, even with my speed."
"There's a batpod in the arsenal, you can take it," Bats replied seriously, not stopping to analyze his future opponents.
The rest of the team reacted in different ways: some of them only glanced at the creatures of Rot, not even perceiving them as a threat, some of them held themselves back so as not to break into a fight, and some of them stroked the previous person's green hair affectionately and whispered soothing words that embarrassed some of those present. Oh, I feel Rachel is going to have a hard time with Simon.
I had to make almost a full circle before I finally caught a strong distortion in the western part of the barrier, to which Bats directed our flying transport. The cause of the excessive mana concentration was a rather strong deterrence spell and a powerful illusion that visually enlarged the dome by two hundred meters, so the military had to place the barricades a little farther away than necessary.
The illusion, however, was clearly not designed for true sight and people with special powers, giving away its presence head-on. So we just landed right in the center of the detected zone, deciding to act according to the situation.
I had already sketched out a rough plan for getting under the dome without damaging its overall structure, which was to create an expandable arch fed from Abby, but I didn't have to do anything. It wasn't long before a faint ripple covered part of the golden surface, and a large passageway appeared just the size of a batship, revealing a view of an ordinary street. Ordinary in the sense that through the barrier one could see the section affected by the Rot, and without it one could see an unremarkable city street. It all looked unrealistically suspicious, like some kind of portal to a parallel reality, but even more suspicious was the character who greeted us, smoking a cigarette.
The same beige coat, despite the heat, dark pants, white shirt, red tie, a slight unshaven face and the look of a man who was fed up with everything. In general, John Constantine did not change his style.
"How long do I have to hold the passageway? - A loud voice, amplified by magic, suddenly sounded. - Follow the sign, and we'll talk there," he said, and a dense ball of blue flame appeared in the air, indicating the way ahead.
Sitting at the helm, Bats shifted his eloquent gaze to me.
"John, on the whole, though he's an asshole, is definitely not on the side of the Rot... I guess."
Once past the gap, my first thought was that we had walked into a trap after all.
What else could one think of when inside the dome there was a huge wall of flesh and giant bones as high as a three-story house, with its eastern part closely adjoining the barrier? And the cameras installed in the tail of the aircraft showed that the passage behind us was instantly covered with red flesh, safely cutting off the way back.
Judging by Bats, whose fingers rested on the missile buttons, and Green Lantern, whose ring glowed a bright green, I wasn't the only one who had similar thoughts. But the more I looked at my surroundings, the more I realized that the survivors and resistance forces had gathered in this place. Unusual magical creatures like centaurs, manticores, and some small goblins were wandering the streets, and there were also people, well, or someone who looked like people, judging by the overly dense aura. Looking closely at the bloody wall, I suddenly realized that although it was associated with the Rot, it was powered by concentrated life energy, which in true sight was a deep red color. Abby was also not to be forgotten. If until this moment the beauty was clearly nervous and had to restrain herself not to snap into action, then here she relaxed slightly and stopped flashing her green eyes.
Following the dancing ball of flame, the plane soon landed in the yard of one of the houses, where a delegation was waiting for us, consisting of a huge three-meter satyr with a long green beard, and that's not counting the huge horns, adding another half a meter, Constantine and a natural Frankenstein's monster.
The first distinctive feature of the reanimated dead man was green skin with a lot of scars, and one of them was clearly left after the opening of the skull, as the second was a blazing fire of concentrated energy of death, and the strange image was completed by a military uniform of the Civil War, a sword in a scabbard and an ancient dueling pistol.
"Oh, my best students, long time no see," the warlock greeted us cheerfully as the airplane ramp touched the ground. - Oh, shit! Scutum!
A green spiky blur whizzed past me, attacking another green monster, but an airborne shield interrupted the angry Nature avatar's attack. The hastily erected barrier lasted only a second, but it allowed the satyr to lunge forward, wrapping his paws around Abby.
"Baby, what's wrong? - he said worriedly.
"The wizard said thoughtfully, watching with interest how the satyr was trying to defeat the Swamp Girl. And the most striking thing was that he was able to restrain the girl, even if victory was out of the question. Although here is more credit to the dryad, who tried to simply break through to the source of death energy, ignoring the creation of scaffolding with the energy of life."
"What are we going to do with her? - The zombie said calmly, pulling out a long magical sword from its belt sheath, with blue runes flickering mysteriously on its blade.
"Hmm... Her bond with Green is too strong. On the one hand, it's a huge plus, especially in light of the upcoming battle, but on the other hand, it's a huge disadvantage, because Arkane seems to have managed to keep his mind despite the years of contact with Black. Eh, it's a problem... - summed up the wizard after a superficial inspection.
"Blondie, can't you do something? - asked the three-meter tall human-goat hybrid as the first wounds appeared on his body, which healed quickly.
"Okay, I got a way. Joker, Harley, put up the Evil Banishing Barrier."
"And how will it help? - I clarified as I began to weave the base of the spell.
"If you know the spell of magical bindings, then use them, it is necessary to fix your friend in one place at least for a couple of seconds," the wizard answered, intertwining his fingers in a lock and covering his eyes. - Mundus sine tempore et spatio, pacem et illustrationem huic enti concede...
I knew the spell of magical wounds, but I had never practiced it, so I had to make do with a barrier. Despite its name, in its final form it looked like a set of golden ribbons that tightly encircled a person and burned out demonic filth. Abby's spell had no such thing, but its restraining properties were quite good, for it was used against possessed people at the initial stage. Demons are very fond of removing restrictions from the muscles, so that during an exorcism session, a person can simply die of multiple internal injuries, which requires fixation. Well, and lying still the body is still easier to heal than when it is literally running on the ceiling and walls, ignoring the laws of physics.
"Hey, don't you need any help? - Green Lantern clarified, and to be sure, he created an image of pads out of the ring's energy, which Harley looked at with interest, and then cursed and began to weave the spell from the beginning.
After returning to Gotham, I'll have to fish Zee out and give my beloved the initiation of true sight, because it's no good when at such a crucial moment a girl can't regain control over the threads of an almost ready spell.
"No one has canceled the conflict of energy. If you have the desire, you're better off using Bats gadgets."
The short dialog did not prevent me from creating the spell framework, and for speed I did not hesitate to add prana to the nodal points, and with it the divine energy. The latter, however, was due to its overabundance and disgusting control, but that was the plan.
Soon the Evil Banishment spell was ready, and I activated it immediately. A light stroke flashed through the air, hitting the green-skinned beauty in the back. Golden ribbons began to appear on her body, securely fixing her limbs, including plant tenacles, while I had a kind of leash on my wrist, through which I could transfer additional mana. Abby, instead of trying to break through to Frankenstein's monster, decided to get rid of the annoying obstacle of the huge satyr. The latter from such a close attention immediately acquired several deep stylish cuts from numerous thorns. Fortunately, my timely intervention allowed him to jump aside, and then Gloomy Mouse joined in, throwing a strong metal net at the dryad and pouring the resulting art-object with rapidly hardening foam.
"To my great surprise, I felt the spell begin to break almost immediately, holding back the dryad's power with great difficulty. And for almost a minute the magical hybrid managed to stop all the attempts of the Guardian of the Forest to unscrew the zombie's head!"
"Hold on! There's not much left," the wizard said cheerfully.
In front of his face, a two-meter-long seal in the shape of a yellow circle was frozen in the air. Despite his bravado and confident tone, it was obvious that he was struggling to cast this level of enchantment, making his hands shake and his forehead sweat. The speed of the cast hinted at something extremely energy-consuming.
"Harley!"
"Already," the blonde finally finished with her weave, which flew right into Abby's forehead, making her growl indignantly. - Oh, sorry!
Our friend was clearly not happy about this attitude, and increased the pressure, but I did not add divine energy to the spell in vain. The complication of its structure occurred according to my desire to keep the beauty in place, and Harley's mana together with the ready-made spells of evil exorcism acted as an additional frame, around which there were about ten thin gold chains. Despite their modest size, they were as strong as steel cables, and as if they were more tangible. Abby's chances of escape were still high, even if she had the support of her incredible magical power, but John still had time to finish his preparations.
"De purificatione conscientiae! - The man shouted loudly, pushing the finished construction toward the fixed dryad.
"Ra-ar," scooping up more of her patron's energy, Green's avatar literally burned away the excess mana around her body, but there was still a batshit residue of hardened foam that just enough to allow Constantine's spell to catch up with its target.
The girl's eyes changed color from green to their usual red in almost a second.
"Oom-my head," Abby cradled her humming head in her arms very touchingly, and Harley and I hurriedly surrounded the avatar with care and attention.
"Well, congratulations on your first fight together," said the reanimated dead man who had caused Abby's breakdown. - But it would have been better if we'd spent this effort on fighting Black.
"Oh, Frankie, don't start lecturing again. Or should I remind you who uncovered our group when we came to pay a courtesy visit to Morgana? - Konstantin asked, lighting another cigarette.
"Revealed by someone who didn't notice the signaling network reacting to the increased magical background."
"Friends, friends, there's no need to quarrel," the satyr joined the conversation, placing his huge paws on the shoulders of the disputants and forcing them to sit down slightly. - The main thing is that we were able to help the little girl to curb her powers.
"Hmpf, little one..." the dead man gave the two and a half meter tall dryad sitting on the ground an attentive look.
"Of course, I remember her as a little girl," the satyr commented with a smile of nostalgia. Given its rather intimidating appearance and a set of large fangs that clearly demonstrated that the forest creature was not eating berries and mushrooms, such a smile might well have caused a heart attack in an impressionable person.
"Only she looked very different back then," his voice was filled with regret. - She had to take the form of a past Guardian of the Forest because of her initiation problems. I told those old stumps she wasn't ready. Is it hard to wait at least five years until the girl realizes her purpose? Noooo, the Forest needs a protector, and I don't care if we could get another crazy Guardian.
"Abby, do you know him? - I asked the girl, who was still in shock and reacting a little sluggishly, as if she were back in the days when we'd just met.
She nodded weakly at my question, and I cast diagnostic spells to see what John was up to. The warlock wasn't an idiot for harming Green's avatar when she was helping the Earth, but it was hard to call a man who was leading three Lords around by the nose adequate. Besides, he's just a rather murky type.
A quick check showed that at the level of the avatar's solar plexus there was a magical valve that regulated the flow of mana, and around the head there was a thin halo-like structure designed to calm the mind. The thing is actually relatively primitive and serves as a kind of analog of magic valerian, at least if I could figure out its function correctly.
"Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves," the magical hybrid said suddenly, turning toward us. - My name is Shepard, and I'm a nature totem. The big green guy's name is Frankie, and don't mind his mumbling. He looks rough, but he's got the heart of a true knight. Well, you already know the blond guy.
"I seriously suspect that the heart thing isn't far from the truth," I replied. - You were in the movie Frankenstein's Monster, weren't you?
The green dead man wrinkled his nose as if he'd bitten into a lemon.
"I had the misfortune to tell my story to that Englishman... I twisted everything. They still make jokes at Oblivion, and it's been half a century. And since you know our names, it might be a good idea to introduce yourselves. Besides you, your name is already on the lips of the entire magical world... Huh, it's been a long time since so many initiated mages appeared in the human world. The Baron and Nick were almost boiling with happiness when eight students came to them at once."
"So, I propose to do it on the way to the headquarters, because we have already lost a lot of time, and tell us where you managed to get acquainted with such unusual demons, - John got in with a rational proposal, with which no one argued.
As it was announced, the acquaintance was arranged on the way to the headquarters, which was a rather large mosque. It was from it that a stream of golden particles was beating upwards, which formed a dome, and some of them fell with golden pollen on the bloody wall, creating additional protection.
"So Dr. Fate found out about Black and put up this barrier? - I summarized after Shepard's short story.
"That's right, greenie," he nodded good-naturedly.
"Please call me Joker, or Jay, as my friends do."
"All right, Jay."
"Hey, could you do that? - Konstantin perked up. - Then address me by my name, too... Please.
"No, blondie," the satyr shook his head negatively, smiling faintly. - It was just that green didn't sound right, so I had to agree.
"I didn't really want to..." The mage muttered quietly, only to pounce again a moment later on Simon, who was showing a good grasp of demonology.
But Bats and Lantern got Frankie as their interlocutor, and although I would have been interested to hear about the adventures of the reanimated dead man, asking the satyr about natural forces and patrons was much more informative.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực