God of Nothing

'Good work.'

Aleph outside the walls, watching as the army of darkness dashed madly towards the city he was protecting.

"Well?" an impatient Iona said from beside him.

"I can hold this position on my own. You and your squad should go man the outer wall."

"Alright. How are the children? You think they can handle the townsfolk?"

"My disciples are doing an adequate job with the civilians. We can count on them to hold the city."

"Okay… Well, I'm going up there. You sure you don't need anything down here?"

"No, but stay vigilant against the emissaries. If a herald is here, then he must have brought his followers along. We may have a cure for their curses, but these beings are dangerous besides that. I'll be counting on your squad to fight them off."

"Got it!" Iona said as she began to float herself up to the wall. Aleph raised a hand, calling after her as she drifted away.

"I'm counting on you to take command over our troops, Iona. Worry not about the herald, for I shall take care of him."

He saw her nod just as she stepped onto the wall. It was a risk to put her where the fighting was at its fiercest, but he believed she could conduct this battle even as she fights in it.

And so Aleph stood alone, standing upright as the wave of harbingers came crashing towards him. He met them head on, splitting the ocean of bodies in two.

He killed every harbinger in his path, eyes looking to the giant yellow beast he was closing in on. It casually trotting along, muscular legs reminiscent of a lion, if a lion was as big as a house.

Aside from the ones Aleph actively attacked, the harbingers were focused on the city, perhaps correctly assuming that it was their best bet at claiming lives. Maybe their tactics were to kill off the weaker ones before ganging up on him or, most likely, they believed that the herald would be enough to deal with him. Whatever it was, Aleph still sliced through them. Each one that falls means one less that Kyrios had to deal with, and that paltry amount could be what causes the line to break.

Eventually, he found himself marching alone towards the creature. The harbingers actively avoided him now, splitting way before he got to them. It suited him just fine. He was only able to fell fifty or so harbingers, but that was enough of a warmup. He walked more deliberately now, matching the enormous creature's stride. 

As if they spoke about it beforehand, the herald and godling stopped in unison. They were about fifteen paces apart, which works out to about three or four for the demon. Aleph had to look up at him even this far away, clearly seeing the enemy he faced even in the waning moonlight. 

The Herald of Oblivion commanded a powerful presence on the battlefield. It looked like a mishmash of various beings, with the body of a lion and wings of a bat. Its face was a tiger's, while its tail was segmented and spiked as if from some sort of centipede. At the end of its tail lay a human head, eyes closed as if asleep. The tiger lowered its head, bending its hind legs while keeping its forelegs straight. Even such movements caused the ground to shake, but it was nothing compared to its speech. 

"I greet you, God of Nothing."

The human head spoke, its voice echoing with force. His words caused the mana in the air to tremble as if even it feared the one who spoke. It made every hair on Aleph's body stand on its end, his senses warning him of danger from every direction.

"You know my status, yet you dare face me alone? I admire your bravado, but it looks like your master sent you to die by my hand."

"Oblivion takes even gods, Lord Aleph. Even time erodes immortals." The herald answered, and the human head's mouth split open in a chilling smile. "But I see that you are neither at the moment. Are you possessing an avatar?"

Aleph prepared for battle, letting go of his weapons and allowing them to orbit around him. He stretched his arm to the side, and the spear attached to a strap on his back snapped into his hand. He bent his knees in a runner's stance, gauntlets and knives pointed directly forward. 

"Not answering? No matter. I look forward to how your memories taste. Come, my children! Dinner is served!"

He could feel multiple presences surrounding him now, accompanied by hissing and clicking of chitin dragged across the ground.

"It's time for you to return to the Abyss, child. Along with your brood." Aleph spat.

Insects reared up all around him as he said this. Aleph looked around and saw that they were massive human headed centipedes, eyes and mouths bared and filled with sharp teeth.

"Kakakakakak! Such boldness! I will enjoy seeing your husk wander oblivion, my Lord." Oblivion said, giving the insects the signal to pounce.

__________________________________

"Dark Haste."

Rayse's body exploded in purple light as he jumped, meeting the flying emissary in mid air. It evaded his spear thrust, easily maneuvering in the air despite its speed. It circled back around to slash him open with its talons, but Rayse commanded the spearhead to swivel in its direction. He got pulled along in its momentum, looking like a purple comet as he sped towards his target.

Faced once again with the prospect of being skewered, the beast once again opted to evade, flapping its wings to propel itself upwards. Rayse predicted this move and casted a spell.

"Scale shot!" His shield, strapped to his back, sent out a single scale to strike his foe just as it evaded his spear.

"Kaaaaak!"

 The sharp piece of metal punched through one of its wings, making it lose altitude. It tried to glide onto the wall, but Rayse went to pursue it. A diving spear thrust later, and he was standing atop a dead emissary. He did a quick slash at the back of its neck, before carving out its heart.

The nearby recruits stared at him slack jawed, flabbergasted at what he had just done. Rayse belatedly noticed this, and decided he needed to remind them of where they were.

"Focus up, guys. The ones below are about to be in range. Start shooting as soon as they  get close."

They quickly turned back around, aiming down their crossbows at the wave of demons about to hit the inner wall. The enemies' momentum was severely slowed, first by the traps they set up, and then by the outer wall they created to funnel these beasts to where their paltry number of rangers could strike at them effectively. Some stubborn demons chose to try and bring down the outer wall, but Iona's squad was there, raining down spells at any creature that tried to do so.

Rayse looked over the battle, pacing himself while absorbing his newly acquired spoil. It was starting out alright. The flying emissaries had scattered after seeing what befell their overeager comrades, and were now forming up with some wind attribute demons, floating emissaries in robes that were similar to the one Aleph first killed.

"Hey. You alright?" Lacey asked, landing beside him.

"Yeah. I got this. You?" Rayse said, showing her the crystal in his hand.

"Shot my target out of the sky. He's probably trampled beneath those harbingers. I'll dig through the corpses later."

"Wanna share this one then? I wanna go back out there soon."

"Sure. I'll get you one back."

Rayse tossed her the half absorbed crystal before shooting back out. Lacey made some footholds for him, allowing him to get a running start. Soon, the purple comet tore through the sky once again, going after the emissaries that were forming up in the distance.

It all felt a bit surreal to Rayse, shooting across the sky like this. He had just defeated an emissary. Quite easily, at that. Now he was barrelling towards about a dozen more in hopes of exterminating them. He was a far cry from struggling against mere hounds now, as his powers had literally given him wings.

Brig and Brandon fell in line with him, each improvising their own versions of flight. Brig floated as if carried by the winds themselves, while it seems that Brandon stood on the flat of his blade, riding it as it sailed through the sky. Brig pointed them to their target, taking the lead.

"You guys ready? Don't have to kill 'em all, just drive 'em closer to the wall for Eric to have a crack at them." he commanded.

"Eh?" A bewildered Brandon exclaimed. "But I'm pretty sure he could–"

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud whip crack, followed by a flash that briefly interrupted the dark of night. Tendrils of blue lightning skated across the air, forking to where the enemies were converging. They tried to scatter, but that left a couple to bear the brunt of the attack. More burnt bodies crashed into the ground below

"Dude, really? What's that guy like when he was whole!?" Rayse sputtered as he closed in at one of the stragglers, driving his spear into its back as it was disoriented from the unexpected attack.

"He couldn't do that before! Wait, could he? I've only ever seen him drained, so… Nevermind, let's clean up and fall back. Plenty more on the floor we need to take care of."

"Crescent Blow!" Brandon shouted, spinning with his blade as it flipped over his head like a thrown sickle. He carved through the beasts, slaughtering the rest of them.

"Skreeee!"

Some of the demons sent wind blades at him to try to deter his path, but Brandon sliced through those just as effectively. Rayse and Brig backed him up, engaging the beasts before they could create something much more harmful.

More thunderbolts fired from behind them, smaller than the first but accurately hitting their mark. Soon, they had complete control over the air, and were on their way back.

"Whew." Rayse said as he landed with the others. He pulled his spear out of the back of the first demon he killed, and immediately set to work on getting to its heart. Brandon was already recovering with the same method as he landed, immediately sitting down and calming his breathing. Brig landed next, clapping Eric over the back and complimenting his skills.

"Frequent breaks, kids. Good." Iona said. She was doling out several fireballs at the harbingers below, raining death on the ones that were attacking the outer wall. Some emissaries tried launching projectiles back at them, but their attempts were thwarted by their earth mages, who made certain parts of the wall stick out to block the attacks. 

"Brandon, go back and support Lacey once you're able. The amount of harbingers on the main gates are beginning to build up. Ray, come here with Brig, I need to ask you something."

"Yes, ma'am. Leap!" Brandon answered, leaping back onto the inner wall to support the recruits.

Rayse walked up to Iona, 

"Look over there. See what's happening?" Iona said, pointing over at something on the horizon. 

Rayse's heart sank. The battle just started, but there was still an unending stream of bodies headed to them. He had been pacing himself and replenishing his mana every chance he got, but there was so much–

"Not those, kid, get a hold of yourself. I meant over there, with the big yellow one."

Focusing back to the present, he found what Iona was pointing out. In the distance, there was a spot where harbingers steered clear of. In it, Aleph was locked in combat against the herald and its brood. From Rayse's spell assisted vision, he could see that the followers were pestering his master, attacking from his blind side whenever he tried to focus on the enemy. Aleph was managing alright, with the flashing blue things that were orbiting around him, but he couldn't land a proper shot at the herald, who seemed fully content with lobbing spells from afar.

"I need you and Brig to go and support him. Oblivion's trying to wear Aleph down with his followers, but I need him fresh enough to be able to hold this position. Here, take these." Iona handed him a satchel, opening it up to reveal several potions.

"These can guard you against the curse of Erosion. Take one each right now, and bring along a couple extra before you go there. I'd go myself, but these emissaries below are kind of annoying, and–" 

The wall shook, interrupting them. Eric poked his head out and slung a lightning bolt right at the one that fired the blast. 

"Sorry!" Polo shouted apologetically. He had misread the trajectory of the shot, causing it to hit disturbingly close to their position.

"No need to say more, Iona. Rayse and I can handle it." Brig accepted the satchel and wore it over the shoulder. Then, he offered Rayse a potion as he downed one himself.

"Ready? We're about to go fight a herald."

Rayse gulped the potion down, gulping an extra time out of sheer nervousness. The surrealness of the situation is gone now, leaving him with the reality that as well as they were doing, their reward was to face countless more demons before the night is through.

"Not at all."

"Hahaha! Didn't you face Deceit by yourself that one time? You'll be fine!" Brig clapped him on the back, as if to strike his nervousness away. Eric came to him next, gripping him in the shoulder.

"Hey Rayse, give them a good beating for me will ya? Apparently, one of those smaller insect-like things made my memory like this."

Rayse saw the earnestness in his eyes. He remembered how their attacks had literally changed his friend's personality. It chilled him to the core, but even more, it terrified him that Aleph was out there facing it alone.

"Okay. I'm ready." Rayse steeled himself as he lined up with Brig. They jumped in unison, their mana propelling them into the heart of the army of darkness.