Reach For the Skies (2/2)
A few explosions later, the Queen is running down the wall stairs and making a break for the palace center. "This time…," she thinks, "This time I won't make the same mistake I made with the last fortress I took! I have to find the Master key for THIS castle before anything else!
No doubt, the human called 'Haalfrin' realizes what she is trying to do, so the Queen knows that she doesn't have very much time before the man catches up to her.
As the Queen is running through the heart of the fortress, she swiftly kills every Arkin she sees, and she leaves a trail of newly spawned Ants to spread out and make war with the demons in her place.
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Haalfrin is immediately notified of what's happening up in the keep, and he curses aloud. Of course, he knew it was only a matter of time until the Queen found her way up there, so he's not THAT surprised.
Realizing that with the Queen able to spawn Ants in the Valor Hall itself, there's no point in firing the cannons on the enemy down below.
After he tells all of his cannon masters to stop firing, he turns around and flies back up to the fortress to hopefully recover the Master Key before the Queen gets it.
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The Queen has studied the Threshold's Master Key, so she knows what kind of Aura it has. With this as a reference, she's able to pinpoint the most likely place she can find the other Key.
Unfortunately for her, natural Spatial defenses in this fortress are making it next to impossible for her to find her way to where she wants to go.
These hallways are enchanted with the same spells in the basement maze, which make it so that space literally wraps around in unnatural ways. This way, you could go down one hallway and wind up going in the complete opposite direction.
The Queen may be getting lost, but Haalfrin has been in these halls for thousands of years by now; he knows how to find his way through.
Thus, despite the Queen's rampage through the fortress being uncontested so far, Haalfrin quickly catches up to her…
Maybe Freyya's Mantling Ritual is working, but by some impossible stroke of luck, the Queen fumbles upon the entrance to the main control room, where the Valor Hall's Master Key is kept – all just in time for Haalfrin to arrive to try stopping her.
Of course, it's not like these rooms are labeled or anything, so the Queen might not know that she's directly in front of her destination… so Haalfrin tries to bluff her out.
"You don't even know where you are, do you?" Haalfrin says to her telepathically. "You're lost. No. You've lost."
Why would the Queen care about a stupid "Master Key" if the demon summoner himself is right in front of her?
Disregarding the 2 doors in front of her completely, she lashes out with a large explosion – hoping to incapacitate the man or even kill him.
…Unfortunately, when the dust settles, the Queen is shocked to see that the man is standing there unfazed.
Clicking her mandibles furiously, the Queen charges forward with no regard for her own life, and she attempts to bite the man in half.
Of course, despite the Queen having a clear advantage in raw strength, Haalfrin had fought her personally enough times over the years for him to know a trick or two to keep the fighting even between them.
Specifically, Haalfrin knows how to SOMEWHAT counter the Queen's seemingly indestructible mana barrier.
If he hits her hard enough, the Queen's feet will still leave the floor, and she'll go flying. This is because shielding yourself AND anchoring yourself to the floor are technically 2 separate spells, and the Queen can only use 1 spell at a time.
After all, despite being indestructible so long as she has mana, the Queen still weighs the same, and it doesn't take very much force to throw light things like a slim woman's body around.
And so, the Queen is knocked clear across the room and smashed against the wall without putting up much resistance.
Despite being unharmed, the Queen is disoriented by the sudden movement. "Ugh…"
Before she can even get on her feet properly to counterattack, the man is already in front of her and delivering another kick.
In the few moments when the Queen isn't flying through the air, she catches sporadic glimpses of the man… and seeing the brewing black aura of death around him unsettles her.
Realizing that she won't have any opportunity to counterattack without her army to back her up, the Queen grows furious and decides to release an unfocused, area-of-effect attack – much the same way she did after her second victory against Dakka.
Of course, the Queen doesn't have to worry about being fatally wounded in the moment she drops her shield, since she can just revive in another Ant. However, she still doesn't like to do unfocused mana blasts, since there are few situations where this isn't a waste of energy.
Fortunately for the Queen, doing an area-of-effect attack was the right choice.
The nuclear blast blowing from her skin fills the hallways, and all the doors around her are blasted down.
The Queen used so much mana that for a brief moment, the air in the hallway was brought to temperatures close to the surface of the sun.
With Haalfrin'd Dra Name, he's barely strong enough to take the damage directly, though he'd have burnt to ashes if her blast had been sustained over a few seconds instead of being a brief flash of power.
Before the light in the hallway has a chance to dim, Haalfrin uses this opportunity to jump forward and slap the Queen's head off.
Despite "winning", the damage is already done.
In a panic, Haalfrin runs back to the control room and finds all the equipment blasted to ashes away and all the Master Keys melted into oblivion.
Ugh… These would take several weeks to rebuild… Assuming his people have a chance to do that. With no castle defenses keeping the place protected, and with the Queen reviving somewhere else in the Hall of Valor, the entire place will be taken before the rest of his army gets a chance to regenerate.
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Once the Queen revives again as another Ant, she sees through her children's eyes on the surface that the demons' cannons are no longer working. She also sees with her own eyes that the mana running through the defenses here are chaotic and unfocused now.
Did she… destroy the Master Key in her last attack there? What kind of luck is that?
Of course, the Queen never would've considered that a certain goddess's Mantling Ritual had blessed her with uncanny luck and a victorious Fate.
Realizing that now is the best opportunity, the Queen orders all of her Ants to attack with more fervor. In order to help with their morale, she tells them all with a victorious grin, "The Demons' sky fortress is defenseless!"
As one, the millions and millions of Ants still remaining on the ground start piling on top of each other in order to reach the sky fortress – this time being completely unhindered.
After a few short minutes, the Ants are swarming over the sky castle's walls en masse, and the remaining Arkin battle for their lives.
They'd have normally run away, but they haven't been given that order yet, so they stubbornly hold the lines and hope that things are going well elsewhere in the fortress.
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Haalfrin closes his eyes and feels thousands and thousands of Wills appear in his Soul Realm… and he knows that there are barely any Arkin in his fortress left.
The demons and their human summoner… have lost.
Feeling heavy in his heart, Haalfrin contacts the surviving Arkin, and he gives them all a solemn order. "Flee from the fortress and escape into the plains below; the Ants have won this time."