Dire Destiny of Ours (26 page)

"It takes many weeks of feeding from humans to saturate a Seraphim," Cinder said. "The longer such saturation has occurred, the more powerful the Seraphim becomes."

"Daelissa is extremely powerful," Fjoeruss said. "But because she feeds exclusively on light soul essence, it has prevented her from achieving her full potential."

I certainly didn't want Daelissa figuring that out.

"Apologies if this is off subject," Commander Taylor said, "but can Seraphim feed on each other?"

"We can, but it doesn't have the same effect as feeding on humans," Mom said. "We aren't supercharged from such an exchange."

"We have hundreds of Templars who will volunteer for feeding duty," Christian Salazar said. "We just have to be sure they aren't drained too much. We don't want to weaken our fighting forces."

"Speaking of which," Thomas said, "our infantry will have a very hard time fighting the Brightling ground forces."

"They were outright slaughtered by the bloody city guard." McCloud didn't mince his words. "Those crystal swords of theirs shattered our steel."

"The First Battalion no longer uses crystal swords," Ketiss said. "Since those swords are charged with Brilliance and absorb magic attacks, we long ago discovered they broke apart once saturated with Murk."

McCloud grunted. "What are they using now, toothpicks?"

"Whatever they're using looks just as deadly." I blew out a breath as I thought about the fight outside the Three Sisters. "It's like their swords have lightning running up and down them."

"Vjaltis," Ketiss said. "Only the archangels use those blades. The front infantry use brightswords and glaives."

That caught Thomas's attention. "Brightswords?"

"They are Brilliance forged, but do not absorb magic," Ketiss said.

Thomas laid a silvery dagger on the table and pushed it to the Legiaros. "Our weapons are aether forged by Arcanes, infusing steel and silver into an alloy. How would they fare against brightswords or vjaltis?"

Ketiss channeled strands of Murk, lifting the dagger from the table and rotating it in midair. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the dagger settled back onto the table. "They should withstand the blows from enemy swords quite well, but because they are made of conductive material, they will be very vulnerable to aether charges."

Thomas didn't look pleased with the news. "In other words, the energy from the vjaltis and brightswords will travel through our swords and into our people. They don't actually have to strike us to win."

"I'm afraid so." Ketiss picked up the dagger in his hands. "We adapted to this by infusing our swords with Murk. The opposing charges cancel out each other for a time."

"Are you saying the energy in the swords runs out?" I asked.

Ketiss nodded. "Both their swords and ours recharge by absorbing aether in the air. During an intense swordfight, the energy output is much greater than the rate of recharging."

"How difficult would it be to infuse our swords with Murk?" I asked.

"I would have to ask our crafters," Ketiss said. "The infusion is usually done during forging. It may not be possible to do it to a finished blade."

Thomas tapped on his arctablet and nodded. "Do you have weapons to spare?"

"Not many." Ketiss set down the dagger. "Certainly not enough to equip another army."

I waited to see if Thomas or anyone else had more questions, but the room remained quiet. "I think our next steps are obvious. We need Darkling crafters to examine our arsenal, we need more volunteer feeders, and we need to determine when and where to attack Daelissa."

"Our intel indicates she's at her stronghold in Thunder Rock," Thomas said.

Shelton raised his hand. "I got an idea for upgrading the weapons that won't take any time at all."

All eyes turned to him.

"What would that be?" I asked.

"Duct tape." He motioned at the dagger. "Wrap the handle with a couple layers. It won't completely stop a strong aether charge, but it'll keep the worst from getting through."

"Duct tape?" A bemused frown crossed Ketiss's face.

Thomas seemed to seriously consider the suggestion. "Have you ever tested it before?"

"I had to get inventive on a few bounty hunting missions." Shelton grinned. "Duct tape fixes just about anything."

Thomas tapped on his arctablet. "I sent out a general notice about the duct tape. Perhaps it will work until we can look into Ketiss's solution." He opened his mouth to continue when the comm pendant on his uniform beeped sharply. He touched the pendant. "What's the emergency?"

A voice at the other end answered. "Sir, there is a large army moving northeast from Thunder Rock toward Atlanta."

Thomas bolted to his feet. "Daelissa?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Units?"

"We don't have a full headcount yet, sir, but they have several giant battle golems flattening the forest between Thunder Rock and the city." The voice paused. "We estimate they'll reach populated areas within the hour."

By the time the Templar finished speaking, everyone was on their feet.

"Scramble the Templars," I said to Thomas. "You have full tactical command." I turned to Ketiss. "I'd like you to ride the command platform with Commander Borathen. You two can coordinate your armies from there."

"Yes, Commander Slade." Ketiss saluted in the Darkling way.

I turned to the others. "Liaison with Commander Borathen for your orders. I need every available fighter between Daelissa and Atlanta within the half-hour."

"I'm not sure how we can accomplish that," Christian said. "Even operating all our omniarches at maximum capacity, we'd be hard pressed to send through so many units."

Commander Taylor spoke. "The Grotto way station might be the answer."

"It's in a densely populated area, and too far north," Thomas replied.

"What about Kobol Prison?" I asked.

The Templar commanders looked at me.

"Is it still standing?" Taylor asked. "I was under the impression the arch there was destroyed by a malaether crucible."

"Only one way to find out," I said. "In the meantime, use every available omniarch to portal our forces in." I pulled up a map and traced a line northeast from Thunder Rock. Daelissa probably knew we'd abandoned the Ranch after her last attack. If that was the case, why were her forces on the move toward Atlanta?

Thomas issued several orders through his communications pendant and addressed us. "We have twelve functioning omniarches including three inside the Queens Gate way station." He turned to Ketiss. "We'll send your troops through the arch in Colossus Stadium straight to Queens Gate. From there, my people will coordinate your travel via omniarches."

A young Templar entered the room and saluted Thomas. "Orders, sir?"

"Escort Legiaros Ketiss to the omniarch and see that he gets to Colossus Stadium." Thomas gave Ketiss an appraising look. "Do you think your troops are ready to fight right now?"

Ketiss nodded. "The journey was long, but we're ready to fight for Eden."

"Very well." Thomas saluted him. "We'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

Ketiss left with the Templar soldier. Thomas quickly coordinated with the other factions. The lycan and felycans were encamped at El Dorado with the Blue Cloaks. Most of the Daemos were in the town of Queens Gate in the valley between Arcane University and Science Academy, much to the dismay of the local citizenry.

Queens Gate was populated primarily by Arcanes. After Cyphanis Rax had taken over the Arcane Council, hundreds of citizens had gone missing. We suspected they'd been made political prisoners and moved elsewhere. I hoped Kanaan was having luck finding where they were. In the meantime, all the empty homes were providing temporary lodging for the Daemos.

"I'll rally the Daemos and await travel coordination in the Queens Gate way station," Dad said.

Nightliss entered the war room. Her eyes were bloodshot and the color hadn't fully returned to her face. She came up to me. "Why wasn't I told about this meeting?"

"You need to rest," I said.

She poked me in the chest. "So do you."

I pulled her to the side. "Daelissa is moving on Atlanta. We don't have time to argue about this now."

Her eyes widened. "Why would she attack Atlanta?"

"That's what I want to know." I motioned Bella to us.

"Nightliss, what are you doing out of bed?" Bella made a tsking sound.

By now, the room was nearly empty.

"Justin." Thomas pointed to a red line and a blue line on a holographic map hovering above the table. "We're assembling at the blue line. Perhaps you should leave from the Queens Gate omniarch."

Since I didn't have an image of the destination, I couldn't use the omniarch here to reach the rendezvous. "I will." I saw how close the red line was to the Atlanta airport. "Why is Daelissa attacking Atlanta? It doesn't make any tactical sense."

"I received word that the Exorcists have activated their covert agents in Washington D.C. and other centers of government around the world. It would seem she's preparing to launch a political offensive." Thomas's eyes seemed to gaze into the distance. "I think her strategy in this attack is twofold. First, she plans to show the world what she's capable of. Secondly, she knows you and I call the Atlanta area home and will rise to defend it."

I pshawed. "We'd defend any city threatened by her."

"True, but she likely believes this attack guarantees we'll send everything against her."

I almost asked why she'd want to provoke us but it didn't take long for me to see the underlying strategy. "She probably knows something about our Darkling army. She knows we're still recovering from the last battle." I tapped a finger to my chin. "She's had over a week for her fresh Brightling troops to feed on humans while the Darklings have just arrived." I deactivated the map holograph and tucked my arcphone back into my pocket. "Daelissa knows she can beat us right now. If we had time to supercharge the troops, it might be a different story."

"That leaves us with few possibilities," Thomas said. "Either we fight her now and do our best to survive, or we prepare for the long term and let Atlanta fall."

I pondered the idea.
Atlanta is my home!
My inner demon growled like a dog defending its territory. No, I couldn't stand by and do nothing. Besides, there were other reasons to defend my home turf. "By the time we prepare for the long haul, Daelissa's political operatives might have taken control of major governments." I shook my head. "We could be fighting the nom military before long."

"That is a possibility." Thomas gave me a grim look. "I spoke with McLean about possible Illuminati help."

"The last time I talked to him he said they had a new leader who was pulling the organization back together."

"That's why I spoke with him." He picked up the dagger he'd handed to Ketiss earlier and sheathed it. "Your father has also activated the Daemos operatives in various world governments. I can only imagine the brutal games of espionage playing out at high levels."

"One thing is for sure," I told him. "The world will be a very different place a few hours from now."

"I'm afraid you're right." Thomas sighed. "The Custodians are attempting to manufacture another evacuation, but there simply isn't time to clear a major metropolitan area."

"Fausta is going to pop a blood vessel before this is over." Once a master-at-arms for the Colombian Templars, the feisty Italian was now in charge of keeping the noms blissfully unaware of the Overworld.

"I should go," Thomas said. "I'll see you at the rendezvous."

"I'll take care of Nightliss," Bella said.

"I should be fighting!" Nightliss said.

Shelton groaned. "Great, we get to babysit a tired angel while you have all the fun."

Nightliss gave Shelton a dangerous look. "Do not talk about me as if I am a child."