Chapter 58 #2
The first gamble would be called soon: Would the Sanctuary barrier survive?
“200 yards and closing,” Invia announced without lowering her spyglass. “I don’t see any obvious signs of mages on the frontlines, but I also don’t recognize most of these species of demon. Every single one of them could be ward-breakers. It’s impossible to say.”
“Abby had orders to alert us if she saw ward-breakers in their ranks,” Ashley added.
That statement of fact was meant to be a reassurance.
Abby monitored the invasion and knew more about demonkind than any of us, but her not seeing ward-breakers didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Hiding the weapons that could neutralize our greatest form of defense would be standard procedure for most any invading force, demon or otherwise.
“150 yards.”
The barrier was everything. If it fell, we were finished.
“100 yards.”
The city shook as eight explosions detonated one after the other. I went to the window to see.
Every crystal tower built around our border billowed black smoke. The enemy had infiltrated Sanctuary to sabotage us from within.
“Sound the evacuation.”
With Voice of the People, I announced to my citizens, “The enemy approaches. Escape through the gate to the Capital or the gate to the Grubiit dungeon. If you cannot reach either, shelter in place and hide.”
Horns blared all across Sanctuary, and the people who hadn’t already fled my city now ran for the gate to the Capital. Abaddon’s army shouldn’t be able to follow them through, but my citizens had far more ground between them and safety than stood between our enemy and us.
The demon army broke into a run.
“50 yards… 20… Ha!” Invia broke into giddy, maniacal laughter.
Abaddon’s forces crashed into the barrier, sending ripples of confusion through their ranks.
They destroyed the towers powering our barrier. The barrier should have fallen, and demons should be inside, swarming my kingdom. Hitting the wall that was supposed to have fallen sent Abaddon’s forces into disarray.
The crystal towers were an off-handed idea I had for a misdirect early in the construction of Sanctuary South.
The real source of power for the ward was Aurketzu’s soulstone, and that was buried beneath the city, but the people of Sanctuary always talked about how important the towers were.
We increased guard patrols for them when the war first began to heat up, and we increased them again when Abaddon’s forces appeared in the northern lands.
Abaddon’s agents fully succeeded in felling the towers, believing they were responsible for maintaining the barrier, but their sabotage had no effect.
The demon army thought the barrier had been neutralized when they began their charge. The chaos that spread when they found that to be false suggested they did not have another method prepared for breaching our defenses.
Abaddon’s pride led him to underestimate me.
This was the hubris Aurketzu always warned me of, but I had little time to ponder the moment. Our counteroffensive began, and that demanded all of my attention.
We buried hundreds of bombs in the snow around Sanctuary, planting the most dangerous parts of our arsenal closer to the mountains, well away from the city, so no Fuck Abaddon Bolt bombs inadvertently hurt our people.
The closer bombs were powerful but far more basic by comparison.
Blue lightning rolled across the snow plains, spreading like impossibly fast tree roots, crawling across the demon army, cooking each soldier on its way to arcing to the next. The ones who were fortunate enough to survive sounded the retreat and raced back toward the mountains.
The city shook again, but the tremors were smaller this time.
Thanks to Abaddon’s mages, no snow obscured our view of the mountains in the distance.
FAB bombs went off one by one, filling the air with white clouds of smoke and debris.
From seeing these go off in the heavens, I knew that craters bigger than my city would be left behind–and little else.
And they kept exploding. If this was going to be a last stand, I couldn’t hold anything back. When this was over, the mountain border on that side of the kingdom would no longer exist, and all of the demons crawling over it would be gone as well.
“Abby,” I called. When she appeared, I said, “Send the angeli.”
She nodded and poofed away.
While Ashley and Invia monitored the destruction just beyond our walls, the rest of us turned our attention to scrying glasses.
Thousands of dungeon and tower-grown celestials poured out of gates we hid in the northern kingdoms like the valves of a dam had been opened.
They struck Abaddon’s army from behind, targeting the reserve forces he had assembled on that side of the mountains.
These weren’t Byron bots or Gol-Gol golems, so this battle looked much more like an actual war.
Demons and celestials alike slew one another in a storm of frenzied violence.
We would lose a significant number of celestials in this attack, but that was acceptable.
We caught Abaddon by surprise. His backline was flatfooted, and the story of a sky filled with celestials raining my fury upon demons would spread quickly through the hells.
-62 Progress to Your Fall.
Progress to Your Fall: 29 / 100 (Abaddon, King of the Abyss)
Abaddon’s reputation would suffer as much as his army’s morale. They were told this war would be easy. They were assured that my defeat was certain. Their all-powerful leader lied to them and left them to die.
The victory was thrilling and deeply satisfying, but this war wasn’t over.
Abaddon yet lived.