Chapter 226: Dispel

What the Abyss am I supposed to do about this? Will thought, bringing up the map in his mind’s eye. It showed that the hallway beyond the door was red-hot and getting brighter.

There were blooms of fear marking individual’s locations as more people became aware of the attack.

The Wyrd room is…there. Will made a tiny physical map and stuffed it in his ear.

“Your master will die for this!” Luis Akul’s voice barely cut through the roar of flame.

In response, a chilling laugh echoed through Will’s map, radiating nonchalance. Even through the map-earpiece that dulled the sound, Will could tell that the owner of the laugh truly did not give a shit.

“They’re not staying dead. Fuck!” Mark Wyrd’s shouted “Which way did they go?”

Go? Did they take Amanda Akul already? Will consulted his map and spotted his tag for Amanda Akul flying into the distance, radiating fear.

“Are you good?” Will asked, approaching Brianna as he headed for the window.

“My real body’s nowhere near this mess,” Brianna said, unlocking the window for him. “Go out there and kick ass to your heart’s content. Just don’t die.”

“I have literally never done that in my life,” Will said, giving Brianna a good-luck pat before sprinting out the window, picking himself up with Phantom Hand and whipping out into the cold air beyond.

Outside the palace, he could see the heat of the battle inside, the glow of the hallway radiating through several windows, and scorch marks where the Wyrd’s balcony had been scoured by flames.

Will turned his attention towards the retreating ‘Amanda Wyrd’ tag he’d slapped on her earlier in the day.

It was kind of a habit at this point to mark people of interest on his map.

Where’s Fabron, anyway? Will didn’t see the man’s tag on his map, which meant he was already outside Will’s range.

So, all this chaos is being done solely by his minions?

Or…he found a way to burn the tag off. That could be a problem.

Will focused on Amanda Wyrd. It wasn’t hard to make out where she was, because the woman was being carried by a humanoid blazing with flames, with wings of pure fire that extended thirty feet outward, creating a shining beacon that stood out like the sun against the backdrop of faint stars.

Will readied himself to swoop in and-

“WHO DARES VIOLATE MY PEACE!?” Zodiac’s voice seemed to peal from every surface in the entire stronghold, vibrating from the very crystal itself.

Oh, right. Will glanced over his shoulder and spotted a brilliantly glowing figure rising above the palace. The old man’s white robes and white hair were radiating light like a star, making him difficult to look at.

Through squinted eyes, Will spotted oceans of miasmatic structures rolling off of Zodiac, unfurling into a massive skein of telekinetic force.

Oh, that could be bad, Will thought, dodging around a rope of miasmatic structures the size of his torso as it whipped past him, strands engulfing the entire stronghold.

I wonder if this is how he tows islands together, Will mused, throwing his hands up in surrender as another invisible rope wrapped itself around his limbs.

As far as telekinetic constructs went, it wasn’t quite as potent as Phantom hand, but there sure was a lot of it.

“William Oh. What’s your role in this?” the telekinetic bindings around Will spoke with Zodiac’s voice as they squeezed down around him.

I wonder if I could learn to do that with Phantom Hand.

“It seems like Fabron’s summons are kidnapping Amanda Wyrd. I was pursuing.” Will said, pointing towards the flaming wings receding into the distance. Short and to the point.

“I will deal with it. The last thing I need is more Lords rampaging through my Stronghold.”

The telekinetic bindings loosened, allowing Will to slip out.

“Feel free to watch.”

Why waste the opportunity? Will thought, taking a moment to mentally jot down the shape of the miasmatic structures in Zodiac’s Ability in his map’s Legend.

The tangle of telekinetic force lunged forward, covering a half a mile in the blink of an eye, crashing down around the distant pair of flaming wings…

And then burning away like flash-paper.

It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but Will saw how the bits of destructive miasma in the flames latched onto the telekinetic force and broke apart the miasmatic framework channeling the Charge through it, unleashing brilliant miasmatic blue flames as it was consumed.

Zodiac growled and his telekinetic constructs shed their burning portions before snatching up bits and pieces of the stronghold and flinging it at the fleeing burning skeleton.

So umm…what if it hits Amanda Wyrd? Will wondered. Actually, what would I do against that flame? I’ll have to pick off the creature and grab her while it’s ragdolling. There’s gotta be a gap between when it dies and when it comes back.

Will began flying forward, just below his top speed, weaving through the tangled forest of telekinetic force.

“What do you think you’re doing, William?”

“With respect Lord Zodiac, the situation requires precision!” Will shouted, catching up to the burning creature cutting through the air.

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As Will arrived beside it, he identified it as a man in heavy armor whose entire body seemed to luminesce, glowing between the gaps of his armor, burning wings erupting from his back, holding a squirming hostage in his arms.

his helmet had a thin slit in it, the interior black save for the burning eyes staring back at Will.

How is she not burned? Will thought, spotting Amanda, whose Conflagrations were seemingly rolling off the burning creature, like water off oiled canvas.

Will could only assume Fabron wanted her unharmed, because in such close proximity to that corrosive flame, her shields should’ve long since burned away.

Makes sense that whoever is behind this would want her alive.

The explosions that rolled off the burning fae sizzled the air around him, forcing Will to roll out of the way, narrowly missing one of Zodiac’s constructs before he regained his place.

A moment later, Will got ahead of the fae and-

A beam of the corrosive faefire shot out, prompting Will to juke, opening up a path for the armored flier to shoot past.

This is gonna be rough, Will thought, lunging back just close enough to snag the armored ankle.

Ow, ow ow!

Will released his grip as the metal sizzled against his skin an instant before a flaming sword swept through the spot he’d been a moment before.

Will wanted to put a Blessed Steel chakram through the creature’s head and rescue Amanda in the time but he wasn’t sure how fast the fae’s reflexes were.

Would suck for it to use its hostage as a meatshield at the last second.

That’s why it’s on fire! Will realized as soon as he started thinking about it in terms of meat shields and damage output.

Mark Wyrd was a Tank subtype. There was no reason to believe he wouldn’t cover his own wife with a damage absorption shield. The fire damage that Amanda should be taking was probably being circulated between this guy and Mark Wyrd.

How long will that last? Will thought.

If Mark Wyrd was getting hit with the corrosive flame that tore apart miasmatic Structures, eventually his Thorns and Lifesteal gimmick would get worn away. Either that or the damage-sharing Ability.

The fae was either immune or highly resistant to fire damage, as well as the corrosive effect from their own flames.

Then there was going to be a problem.

So if I shot at this guy and he moved Amanda in the way, chances are I would then get hit by Mark Wyrd’s thorns.

Wait…how is this guy immune to his own flames?

Will spun around his target in midair, cleaving just close enough to deflect the wild slash by arresting the burning fae’s arm.