Mark of the Fool

Chapter 863: No One Wants Plan B

“I’ve used probably about half of my mana stores, but the regeneration technique is recovering them quickly,” Prince Khalik said. On his shoulder, Najyah’s neck swivelled, her eyes appraising their surroundings with their cold, predatory gaze.

“I’ve got over three quarters right now.” Thundar stretched his back and neck.

“And I have just about three quarters as well,” Isolde added, looking at the prince. “It makes sense for you to have used more power than we did: you had to use a lot of earth magic to bury the fae gates, meanwhile, we could be more sparing.”

“Indeed,” Khalik said, watching the ground, a frown creasing his brow. “And I might have to use it again, I do not see any tunnels nearby.”

“None of the summoned monsters found any,” Alex said. “But—” He held out his staff. “We should be able to give you a break. How’re your mana pools doing?” He asked Cedric and Drestra.

“Aye, I’s got plenty.” Cedric tapped his chest. “The ol’ mana pool’s big, plus I hardly cast any spells.”

“Well, I used plenty of magic, but because my mana pool is enormous,” Drestra said, having returned to her human form. “I hardly made a dent in it.”

“Good, good,” Alex said. “I’ve got over three quarters and rising. We should be alright for whatever’s waiting.”

“Aye.” Cedric looked down at the earth, then kicked a rock. “Don’ doubt th’ Ravener’s gonna have a whol’ shite load o’ nasties waitin’ down there.”

“Yeah.” Hart gripped his weapons. “I don’t see any Ravener-spawn lurking anywhere. Not one. And that probably means the big black ball’s saving up its strength.” The Champion looked at Alex. “You said those Army of Heroes spells are starving it of fuel, of fear, right? So how much longer are they gonna last?”

“Hard to tell.” Alex looked up at the darkened skies. “It’s hard to tell how much time’s been passing here…but I’d guess, maybe another couple of hours.”

“So we got enough time to get down there,” Hart said.

“Maybe.” Alex looked at his astral engeli. “Any idea where the divine energy leads to? Like, do you know exactly where the god’s body is?”

She shook her head. “I can sense the trail, but not precisely where that path ends: it travels too deep.”

Alex winced. “That means the lair is big.”

“No surprise there.” Merzhin’s tone was grave. “In previous cycles some Ravener lairs were as large as cities. Or even bigger.”

“Yeah, I remember reading that in some of the historical records,” Alex said. “We have to assume that we’ll be down there for a while. We’ll need to move as quickly as possible but…we can’t rush ahead recklessly. There’s only one shot at this. If we all die, we lose. If the Ravener finds a way to get away, we lose. If the Ravener’s destroyed before we find a way to stop it from reforming, we lose.”

“We only win if we get to it, shut it down, and kill it for good.” Thundar cracked his neck. “And that means, we gotta move fast, but we can’t let ourselves get lured into traps or anything else.”

“Exactly,” Alex said.

“So what’s the plan, boss?” Hart asked.

The young archwizard looked at the floating platform the group was surrounding: the same one holding the earth stabilisation machine, the poisons and the soul-shredding injectors.

“Our first priority is to protect the dungeon-stabilising device,” Alex said. “If it gets destroyed, the Ravener could shift walls and crush us. Our second priority is to protect the injectors and the poison. We’ll need those to disrupt its ability to reform. Our third priority is protecting Merzhin.” He nodded at the Saint. “You’ll be our healer: we’ve been lucky so far and haven’t taken any injuries. But now that we’re going into the wolf’s den: who the hells knows what kind of traps and ambushes it set up down there, so we’re going to need you to heal us.”

Merzhin nodded. “Of course, Alex. I shall protect everyone as best as I can.”

“Sounds like a reasonable plan so far,” Theresa said. “What else?”

“Tactically, we’re going to be relying on our fighters.” Alex nodded to Claygon, Bjorgrund, Asmaldestre, Hart, Theresa, Brutus, Grimloch and Cedric, even though he could fill more than one role. “A lot of our biggest, most destructive spells could backfire when we’re deep inside those tunnels. Any explosion, placed badly, could wipe out our team, or even raise the temperature down there, cooking us. A big enough explosion could cause a cave-in…there’s a lot that could go wrong. And remember, we need to manage our mana: I don’t think the Ravener’s just going to let us walk up to it and shut it down. When we find it, we'll still need to have a lot of our energy left.”

“So since you spellcasters can’t just use spells thoughtlessly, you’ll need us to kill everything down there as we go,” Theresa said.

“I like that plan. A very good plan.” Grimloch grinned.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Basically—we’ll also have to adjust as we go, depending on how wide the tunnels are, but we’ll start with our warriors on the outside of our formation, and all the wizards—and Merzhin—in the middle with the equipment. I’ll summon plenty of monsters for back up.”

“An’ wha’ happens when we get t’the Ravener? Wha’s gonna happen then?” Cedric asked.

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Alex frowned. “That’s hard to say before we know exactly where it is and what we’re dealing with: but the basic plan is to kill anything guarding it, then lock it down. We don’t want to destroy it immediately, we just want to tie it up and make sure it can’t escape…and most importantly, doesn’t kill us. Meanwhile, Isolde and I’ll be working on attaching the injectors to its exterior…and inside of it.”

“Wait, inside?” Isolde focused on Alex. “What do you mean?”

The others were looking at him, puzzled.

Alex’s expression was grave. “Inside, the Ravener’s much bigger than it is on the outside, and getting to certain key mana nodes would have to be done from the inside.”

“Wait, how’re we supposed t’ get inside?” Cedric asked.

“Not ‘we’. Me and Claygon,” Alex said. “I’m going to be using the Traveller’s power to try and get inside. I need to know where I’m teleporting to, but I studied Uldar’s schematics, and they should give me a good idea of where I need to teleport to…”

“You sound…unsure…father…” Claygon said.

“Well, an ‘idea’ of where I’m going isn’t exactly perfect,” Alex said.

“You teleported to me,” Merzhin pointed out. “And you had no idea where I was.”

“Yeah, but I was near death at the time.” Alex rubbed his side where Gabrian had nearly eviscerated him. “Which meant I was closer to the after-world and Hannah’s soul: my connection to her and my power were stronger because of that.”

“So that means your power will be stronger again, if Hannah comes back,” Theresa pointed out. “So you should be able to teleport right inside the Ravener.”

“But hold on.” Prince Khalik ran a hand through his beard. “What if Hannah does not come back in time? This battle is sending her a lot of faith, but we have no guarantee she will be back.”

“I’ve got faith that she’ll soon return. She feels closer,” Alex said, one of his streams of consciousness still praying to her. “And besides, her coming back in time is only Plan C. Plan A is for me to get close enough to touch the Ravener: if I can pour my mana into it and guide my mind through its structure—like I can with the dungeon cores—that should give me enough guidance to teleport inside.”

“Alright, but I notice you did not mention a plan B.” Isolde crossed her arms. “We are not going to like your plan B, are we?”

“Hells, I don’t like Plan B,” Alex said. “It’s only a last-ditch desperation move that goes like this: I’ll need one of you to stab me, so I start bleeding badly, coming close to dying. If I bleed enough to be close to dying again, I should be near to Hannah's soul, and by tapping into more of her power, I can teleport into the Ravener, even if I don’t know precisely where I’m going.”

“That’s a terrible plan.” Theresa took a step forward. “Have you lost your mind?”

Most of the others stared at him, shaking their heads. Words like craziness, risk and timing kept being repeated.

Khalik and Isolde looked horrified, saying in unison, “That is complete madness!”

“I can’t even argue, it is a terrible plan, but if I can’t succeed in teleporting inside the Ravener just by touching it—and if Hannah isn’t back, which we can’t guarantee that she will be—then that’ll be our only shot. One problem with plan B is that if I’m bleeding out and vulnerable, every monster around is going to be trying to kill me while I’m down. Which means, I’ll need some of you to protect me while the rest deal with the Ravener. And—” He looked at Merzhin and Cedric. “—I’ll need to teleport one of you inside with me and Claygon if I get inside. I’m sure I won’t be in any state to heal myself with blood magic.”

“As much as I ain’t keen on yer plan B…’f ya hav’ t’do it, then take me.” The Chosen nodded. “Merzhin’ll b’ needed t’ heal everyone’ else…since…wait, if yer gonna b’ inside the Ravener, what’s everyone else gonna’ b’ doin’, whether ya gots t’ use this plan B or not?”

“Fighting the Ravener,” Alex said. “Keeping it pinned down and making it use as much of its mana as they can, then striking the final blow once Claygon and I shut down its ability to reform.”

“But what of Uldar’s throne?” Merzhin asked. “How does that come into play?”

“Right, that’s going to be another tricky part.” Alex looked to the north. Even from miles away, he could see faint explosions from Baelin and Aenflynn’s battle. “They’ve been fighting for a while now…I bet a lot of Aenflynn’s focus will remain on Baelin.”

Alex turned to Merzhin. “The throne is in his castle, but he has a powerful divine ward covering the chamber that it’s in. Once we get to the Ravener, I’m going to try and teleport inside to start the process of poisoning it. That should distract it and weaken it; after that, I want to teleport the two of us to Aenflynn’s castle. While Baelin’s keeping him busy, you break through the divine ward, then we destroy the throne.”

“Destroy it?” Merzhin’s eyebrows rose. “Are you sure? Can we not simply take it back from him?”

Alex shook his head. “He’s made some kind of connection with it, and I don’t know how far we’d need to take it to break that connection. We can’t take any chances, so we should destroy it: that’s the only way to guarantee the connection’s severed.”

The Saint paused. “That…makes sense, I suppose. But why wait? Should we not go there right away?”

“I considered that,” Alex said. “But, I don’t want to leave the Ravener free to do whatever it wants. The last thing we need is for it to start helping Aenflynn if it figures out what we’re doing. Basically, we have to make sure they’re both occupied, take the throne away and destroy it. After that, we come back here—right after we and Baelin rip Aenflynn in two—then, if I didn’t get in before, I work on getting into the Ravener, hopefully without having to use plan B, then we do what we have to do to shut it down. Baelin can help us with the Ravener.”

“Alright,” Hart said. “So in a nutshell the plan is: we make sure both of them are occupied, you and Merzhin destroy the throne, we take care of both Aenflim-flam and the big ball and we stop it from coming back. Sounds a little chaotic, but it makes sense. And if you have to use plan B, just say the word, and I’ll help you with that.” His jaw clenched.

“You got it, and thanks, man,” Alex said, meeting Hart’s gaze before turning to the others. “Anyone have any objections or see any problems?”

“It is a risky plan.” Isolde shook her head. “And it requires precision from all of us…but it could work. If we achieve one part of the plan—either destroying the throne or the Ravener first—then the other parts will become easier to achieve. However, should we start to fall, then failure can cascade. Still, I think it could work well enough.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“Alright, then,” Alex said. “If everyone’s on board, then there’s no sense in delaying any longer.”

Alex raised his staff, conjuring two elder earth elementals and a swarm of lesser earth elementals. He spoke to them in an elemental tongue of earth. “Alright, all of you. If you’d be so kind: I need you to dive into the ground and dig some tunnels for us. Big ones. Keep digging until you find other passages underground: that’s where we want to go.”

The earth elementals rumbled their agreement, and dove into the earth.

For a moment, Alex was struck by a wave of nostalgia: he remembered how he, Grimloch, Thundar, Caramiyus and Angelar had fought an enormous earth elemental in the Barrens of Kravernus.

And now, the same type of elementals were helping them, digging their way into the Ravener’s lair.

The young archwizard exchanged a reassuring smile with Theresa. “Alright, this is it. Pray to the Traveller, everyone.”

In front of them, earth elementals carved a tunnel in the ground.

It spread wide and ominous—like the mouth and gullet of a great beast—while moonlight quickly fell away, leaving the tunnel pitch black beyond a few dozen feet.

The young archwizard provided light, conjuring a glowing swarm of forceballs, sending them down to light the way.

The General of Thameland floated forward.

His companions followed him into the yawning earth.