Chapter 151 – Apophagorga Redux

As soon as the beast emerged, Mirian sent up the flare. To her dismay, Apophagorga didn’t react like it had the first time.

After a roar of annoyance, it charged the first team. No amount of rifle fire or spells could get it to turn around, even after she launched flares ordering an advance of the other teams. Instead, the beast kept going, pushing through the barrier rocks and ripping up the trees. This time, the team scattered in all directions before it reached them, but the titan still devoured one of the arcanists. The others were ordered to loop back around and join other teams, but Mirian doubted they would. Something about being charged by a 15-meter tall myrvite had a way of disarming people’s courage.

Even with the advance, the beast’s charge had brought it out of range of everyone but the specialized riflemen who could still snipe at it. It made straight for the hill again.

But why? We’ve barely scratched it from our position. She ordered the retreat anyways.

As she met its red glowing eyes, she felt a sense of familiarity. Is it my soul you’re hungry for? Guess I’ll be bait again. This time, she had two extra soul repositories, and had practiced using soul energy while levitating and casting. She shot into the air and started casting greater coruscating beam every chance she could, chugging two mana elixirs as she darted around the clearing to bring the beast into range. Apophagorga tried its phasing charge again, but she increased her height so that she was well above it.

With the flare-assistant running for his life, Mirian used enhanced light spells to send her signals, ordering the pincer strikes she thought might prevent it from phasing.

This time, Apophagorga paused its chase in the clearing, then cocked its head. Then it charged the second team’s position, ignoring Mirian even as she flew back down, sending searing beams into its legs. Her mana was rapidly depleting, but she didn’t relent.

Second team made their way through a rocky outcropping, but the myrvite titan phased through it like it was wading through water. Four more hunters died.

One by one, it repeated the tactic, relentlessly charging each team until they were completely scattered and partially eaten. Annita’s hurled boulders and fireballs did nothing to slow it; she was stuffed into the beast’s maw. Mirian drank her third mana elixir, flying forward to try to gouge out its eyes with flames.

Apophagorga’s hide was blistered and bubbling with its black blood, but as it finished scattering the last team, it turned to face Mirian. Then it phased into the ground, wiggling until its legs were beneath it and face was burrowed so only its shell was showing.

And it waited.

Mirian landed to conserve mana. She picked up a discarded rifle and took a few pot shots at it. The bullets clanged harmlessly against the shell. She looked around for the surviving hunters. None of them had regrouped.

She threw the rifle down in disgust. “So you’re smart, then?” she told it. Something else was off. Is it like Viridian in that small changes lead it to radically different behaviors? There was another possibility, one she didn’t like at all. How connected is an Elder beast to the Gods?

Her auric mana was too thin. She simply couldn’t overpower the beast alone. Mirian sat down in the dirt and embraced her focus, examining its soul.

It was like watching a storm cloud pass across the scrublands. The size and power had an unfathomability to it. Its soul moved in the same way that thunderheads grew and churned in the sky.

Eventually, the beast lifted its head from the ground, red eyes glaring out from under the humped shell. Mirian considered sending another beam of fire at it out of spite, but thought better. It had apparently spent at least a month hunkered deep underground. She didn’t think she could out-wait it.

“Fine, you win this round,” she said, and flew south to contemplate her defeat and consider what she needed to do differently. She felt a pang of guilt for abandoning the hunters she hired, but they would be dead in six days anyways. Besides, most of them were experienced enough in the wilderness they could make their way back without problems. Despite her warnings, there actually weren’t all that many myrvites in the area.

***

Mirian convinced Torres to sabotage Troytin’s spell engines again, then also hired an assassin. She didn’t think that either attempt would succeed since the Akanan was usually alert to her most recent tactics, but hoped those attempts plus all the other annoyances she was throwing at him would impede him until he flew off in the Akanan airship prior to the invasion.

This time, she had them set up a camp around the derelict obelisk and abandon the wagons early, speeding up their journey over the rough terrain considerably.

They gathered at the spot on the 25th of Solem, this time having assembled an even larger group of myrvite hunters. In addition to the small bump in numbers from hiring a few small groups, she added in a small team that specialized in using high-powered rifles to take out extreme myrvites like manticores and larger chimeras. She tweaked her tactics and distributed even more detailed contingency plans, warning the hunters that the titan would charge them at some point. This brought uncomfortable glances around the group, especially since she’d shared more details with them about its size. Better that they’re prepared, she thought.

Then, just before midnight on the 27th, she awoke to the ground trembling. Shit! she thought. It’s too early!

She burst out of her tent, calling, “To arms! To arms!”

Her arcane sense began tingling. She looked out to the open area. The mushroom trees were still glowing. But the tremors…

The hunters were blearily emerging from the tents. Mirian readied a flare, then froze. Something’s wrong, she realized.

But by then, it was too late.

Apophagorga’s huge leg emerged from the ground and slammed the hillside right next to her, knocking Mirian off her feet. Another leg slammed down to her left. Which means the head…

She had time to embrace Lone Pine, just so it wouldn’t hurt so much.

***

She saw the Ominian surveying the world again, gazing out at the horizon. Again, the words came to her: This place…

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This place…

She wanted to ask Them so many questions. How do I defeat the titan? How do I remove another time traveler that’s gone berserk? Why did you choose the other Prophets? How do I stop the world ending?