Portals of Infinity: Kaiju Page 5

"Well, I wanted you to know first of all that Holse's observation was correct. The allied Army is settling in for a long stay. They've been planning this for some time now."

  "And you knew this, of course?"

  Fel smiled, "It's another one of those god things, William. I knew but couldn't act on it, until I was 'made aware' of it."

  "So, what is King Stivik going to do? Think he'll make a stand of it, or will he gather up his family and try to make a run through the blockade?"

  "Stivik is weighing his options, what few he still has."

  "What about Tantrus? Surely his priests and followers are not very happy about this situation?"

  "What Tantrus does in his temples and with his priests is beyond my sight, you know that, William."

  "Well, aren't there anybody else's followers or priests inside the city? I'd expect there to be some! That place is huge after all."

  Fel shook his head slowly, "Tantrus's priests and champion have been very busy for the last two years. They scoured the entire city, from one end to the other, killing any rival priests, and any followers of any rival religion. Large sections of the city have now been blessed and warded. Tantrus has been moving to keep the eyes of the other gods and goddesses from seeing into the city for some time."

  I thought about that a moment, "That's not good, is it?"

  Fel shrugged, "Tantrus is about to be forced out of the game. It's only natural for him to do everything he can to hide his follower's moves. I don't see what he can possibly do, but whatever it is, it won't involve us."

  "Is that why we're not part of this holy war?" I asked wondering.

  Fel laughed, "No, we weren't invited to the party because everyone else thinks I'm strong enough already. The other leaders feel the same way about Rachel. They didn't want her to have any claim on the city either."

  "I'm not sure she would have wanted it," I paused and took a sip of my beer. "She's mentioned to me more than once that she's worried about being overextended. She'd like to spend a few more years consolidating and get Holden secured via Baron's wedding before moving on again. I think her eyes have been looking more to the south."

  Fel nodded. "I'm going to have a task for you in a few weeks, for now you can stay and keep an eye on things. But it looks like the situation here is going to be static for a very long time."

  I nodded, "Static is good. Besides, it's nice for Barassa and Stivik to be somebody else's problem for a change!"

  Fel smiled and reaching over gave me a pat on the shoulder and I fell into a deeper sleep.

  Six

  Saladin - Edgemire

  I woke up with a start; there was a loud noise, a very loud noise.

  It was hard to describe, it was primal, and full of anger and terror, but it wasn't natural. It sounded like a cross between the monster of all elephants, and the sound you'd think a large warship would make if it sailed across a reef and tore off its metal bottom.

  I could hear the frightened shouts of people as they awoke, Laria was suddenly clinging to me in confusion and fear.

  I grabbed my weapons harness with one hand, her with the other, and I ran outside of the officer's barracks into the pre-dawn light.

  The sound came again, clearer now that I was outside, and I could hear echoes from the earlier noise. Whatever it was, it wasn't nearby.

  I threw Laria over my shoulder and ran for the tower. Officers were starting to spill out of their quarters and started trying to make some order out of the mess of confused and panicking people.

  "Are we under attack, Will?" Holse yelled as I ran past him.

  "Not yet!" I said and slinging my harness over my other shoulder I climbed up the tower ladder as fast as I could.

  When I got there, both of the guards on watch were standing, transfixed, looking to the north, towards Barassa with their mouths hanging open.

  Setting Laria down I turned to look as I donned my weapon's harness, then froze myself.

  Rising out of the center of the city was a monster. A large monster. A Huge monster.

  "What... what is that, thing?" Laria asked, seizing my arm in a death grip and trembling against me.

  "I'm... not sure," I said slowly. At first I thought it might be a dragon, the thought of that scared the hell out of me, and I remembered to do the eyes and ears things for Fel, whatever it was, he would surely know!

  As it rose up onto its hind legs, its body reminded me more of a t-rex than a dragon, though it had much larger and thicker arms. Something about it looked familiar, but I couldn't place exactly what.

  It reared its head back, and let out that horrible cry again, then bending forward a beam of, something, came from its open mouth and it started to scour the city in front of it.

  "It's destroying the city!" One of the guards said.

  "The attackers must have summoned it!" The other one said.

  I watched as it jumped forward and started to stomp its way towards the east end of the city, its massive tail slamming into buildings in its wake.

  When it got to the wall, it kicked it down, then stomping out; it stared in on the army that was gathered to the south.

  "I don't think the army summoned it," I said.

  "What in the name of Feliogustus is that thing?"

  I turned and saw Holse panting hard and looking with the rest of us. He must have come up the ladder right behind me.

  "I don't think it's a dragon," I said.

  "What's a dragon?"

  "Something like that, only with wings."

  "Well, thank Feliogustus that it can't fly!" Holse said fervently. "I hope it can't swim either!"

  We watched for the next hour as it chased the troops to the south of Barassa around, breathing on them, stomping on them, bending down low and apparently even eating them.

  Many of them fled before the monster, how many died I had no idea.

  It turned then and stomped westward, around the outside of the city, which obscured our view of what happened to the army stationed there, though from the number of times it used its breath weapon, I'm sure it was fairly nasty.

  Then suddenly, it turned south, and stomped through Barassa, once again doing massive amounts of damage from what we could see, until it reached the harbor, where it jumped in, destroying or swamping all of the ships, as it sunk out of sight, beneath the water in a massive wave.

  "Do you think it's coming this way?" One of the men asked.

  I shook my head slowly as I watched; it was big enough that if it started swimming this way, we'd see the water move.

  "I think its resting," I said.

  "What is that thing?" Laria asked.

  I looked at my arm, where she was still clinging to me tightly. Her claws had sunk in fairly deeply and my arm was rather bloody. We'd been up here for hours and I hadn't even noticed.

  Laria noticed me looking at my arm then, and she gasped and slowly withdrew her claws and let go.

  "I think we need to have a staff meeting," Holse said looking at me, and then looking back at Barassa. A number of fires had broken out in the city now, and what was left of the army to the west was pulling out rather quickly.

  "I'll be there soon," I said and healing my arm I gave Laria a hug, "I just need to check on a few things first," and then I followed Holse down the ladder.

  I'd hoped to be able to go take a nap and talk to Fel about what was going on, there was a small church here, but I didn't think it was big enough for him to be able to manifest his voice and talk to me.

  But the camp, the town, and even the army, was still in chaos. The sound of the thing, whatever it was, was quite fear-inducing, and the sight of it stomping around and destroying both Barassa and the army attacking it, hadn't been very reassuring either.

  So I found myself having to call on my champion's aura and had to spend the next hour improving morale of the army and then calming the general populace down. When I finished with that, I went and joined Holse and the other officers.

  "Ah, finally," Holse sighed as I j
oined the meeting. "I didn't want to bother you, whatever that thing is, the effect it had on morale needed to be dealt with first."

  "Which leads us to the next question," Second Adams said. "What is that?"

  I shook my head, "I have no idea. I haven't been able to talk to Feliogustus yet to see what he can tell me about it."

  "Where did it come from?" First Mossic, who had come down with Holse asked next.

  "I'm not sure, but I have my suspicions, and they're not good."

  "Oh?" Holse asked.

  "Remember that wyvern that we had to deal with up in Hidden Vale?"

  Everyone nodded.

  "You think it's from the same place?" Holse asked.

  "The same, or similar; and that's bad because most of our weapons can't hurt it."

  "But you killed it, didn't you?" First Mossic asked.

  "The thing that I killed was a tenth the size of this monster," I said looking around the room. "Killing this thing isn't going to be easy and I have no idea where to even start. Right now, it's not our problem, thankfully. But that's not the worst of it."

  "It gets worse?" Third Hicks said looking rather forlorn.

  I nodded, "I'm afraid so, if the portal that thing came from is still open, we may be seeing more of them."

  Holse nodded and sat up straight and looked around, taking stock of everybody.

  "Okay," he began, "here are my orders. Mossic, take the army and leave, immediately. I want you to wait up at Rivervail for further instructions. Send one rider back to the Capitol with the information of what happened here, a second to Duke Eklin in Marland, and a third to King Charles in Holden.

  "Now go."

  "Yes, General," First Mossic stood up, saluted, and left, taking his aides with him.

  "Second Adams, you are to return to Marland immediately with your brigade."

  "You're leaving us undefended?" Third Hicks said his eyes wide in surprise.

  "You saw what that thing did to the Northern army!" Holse said looking at him. "I'd rather not draw its attention here to us with lots of soldiers milling around."

  "You have your orders, Second Adams."

  "Yes, General!" Second Adams stood, and saluted, leaving the room with his men in tow.

  "Now, Hicks," General Holse said turning back to him. "I want you to take your men, and go around town and see who you can talk into leaving until this problem is resolved. Take those that are willing to go, and have your men escort them to one of the towns south of here. Keep a guard in the tower at all times, and if that thing starts to cross the river, send out riders to warn us, then evacuate the town.

  "Understood?"

  Third Hicks stood up and saluted, "Yes, General. Sorry for doubting you, General." He then turned and left the room.

  Holse looked at me and sighed. "I'm leaving with Mossic. If you have any suggestions, Will, I'm all ears."

  Standing up as Holse got up to leave I shook my head, "I haven't a clue, Holse. Not a single one."

  I went and found Laria; she was in the room, packing our things and obviously more than ready to leave.

  "When are we leaving?" she said to me as I came in and sat on the bed.

  "Not for a while yet," I said stretching. It was mid-afternoon and I was starving.

  "Let's go find some food."

  "Food?" She said and looked at me.

  "Yes, food. Everyone is still rather panicked, including you. That thing isn't going to be coming over here anytime soon. So I need to take the time to calm everybody down, and my sitting down and eating will hopefully do just that. Plus, I'm starving." I said and standing up, I took her hand and led her outside to see if we could find a meal.

  With the army packing up and heading out, the mess was already closed, but when I got to the inn, they were still serving food. In fact the place was rather crowded with locals.

  "Hey!" One of them yelled as I walked in.

  "Yes?" I said while flagging down one of the harried serving girls and looking for a place to sit.

  "Why is the army leaving? Who is gonna protect us?"

  "If you have family, I would suggest you evacuate to the south. The local garrison is going to be setting that up for whoever wants to go." I said, using a cantrip to make sure my voice was heard by everyone.

  "Right now, there isn't anything we can do against the monster, and we felt it would be best to move the army away, so as to not draw its attention. Until it crosses the river, if it crosses the river even, it's not our problem.

  "There is a huge army on the other side of the river, for now, I'd rather let them deal with it. Anyone here disagree with that idea?"

  I looked around and everyone was shaking their heads. More than a few people were muttering that not attracting any attention was the best idea they'd heard so far.

  "So, what happens now?" Laria asked as we sat down, several people had cleared a spot for us and a serving girl came over with a platter of food and a pitcher of ale.

  I shrugged, "I won't know until I've had the chance to discuss this with Fel. I need to find out how to kill it first. After that, well there are two champions on the other side of the river, so we might not even have to deal with it."

  Laria shivered a bit and leaned into me as I started in on the food that the serving girl had left. I was a bit surprised that I wasn't feeling anything urgent from Fel. Then again, there were four different religions involved on the other side of things, and two of them had their champions there. It may very well be that he figured they had this well in hand and that he didn't need to worry about it.

  After we ate I returned to the tower with Laria and the two guards normally stationed up there to see what was going on.

  There were still a couple of fires burning in the city, the blockade barrier that had been across the harbor had been broken, probably when the monster had settled into the water and caused the wave that swamped or sunk most of the ships. So while the port was now unblocked, there wasn't a single ship floating in the harbor.

  I could see some elements of the attacking Northern army were gathering to the west of the city, a lot further off than they had been before. There appeared to be military units to the east going through the wreckage as well, though whose side they were on was anybody's guess from this distance.

  Occasionally there would be a disturbance on the surface of the water in the harbor; I guess the monster was still there. What it was doing, I had no idea. Sleeping or eating perhaps? Something as big as it probably burned a lot of energy moving around, so maybe it wasn't active for very long periods during the day.

  At least I hoped it wasn't. And if it needed water to live in, that meant it was a lot less likely to come up the river and cause problems. At least not past Rivervail, where the falls were, or so I hoped.

  By the time night had come, all of the army units were long gone, and Third Hicks had organized a large group of townspeople who would be heading to one of the towns further south of here come morning.

  I had freed Tom and Jeri from the stalls where the wolats were normally kept, and were keeping them nearby, just in case we had to leave quickly. Considering the way they were now acting, I think they were more than happy to stay near us as well. Apparently the cry of that creature had spooked more than just the townspeople.

  § §

  "Fel!" I said sitting up in the bar, "What the hell is that thing? Where the hell did it come from?"

  Fel shook his head slowly, "We're not exactly sure, but we think Tantrus just went 'nuclear' on us, to use one of your world's expressions."

  I looked at him blankly, "Huh?"

  "It's a doomsday weapon. Apparently Tantrus's temple was built on top of, or next to, a rather large gate to an underworld sphere. A number of us are starting to suspect he had figured out a way to use it to his benefit, or possibly even had a deal with one of the gods in the negative plane.

  "So, when Tantrus realized that the situation was desperate, for him and his religion at least, he had his priests clea
r the portal entrance, and this is what came out."

  "Is the portal still open?"

  Fel shook his head, "The monster did so much damage to the city when it came out that we're fairly certain that the portal is obscured for now."

  I sighed, "So, what's our next step? How do we kill it?"

  "We're not sure."

  "What?" I said surprised. "You're a god, how can you not be sure?"

  Fel gave a small laugh, "It's from the negative plane, William. We can't see into it, just as they can't see into here. This is not a common monster; tracking down the myths isn't easy for something like this. We have a lead, and we will be pursuing it."

  I nodded, "Who's 'we', anyway?"

  "The rest of the gods on the plane of Saladin."

  I blinked. "I thought you weren't on speaking terms with the other gods?"

  "William, this monster could destroy the entire world. Our armies can't stop it, and if anymore come through that portal, we're in serious trouble. This thing isn't like a dragon, where you can reason with it, try to bribe it, without having to resort to killing it.

  "This monster isn't much smarter than a wolat, if that. It's the most dangerous and toughest life form on the plane it came here from. All of the other gods see how dangerous it is, and are willing to do what they can to help."

  "What about Tantrus?"

  "Considering the monster kicked over his temple and ate half of his priests, including the high priest, Tantrus isn't capable of doing much of anything. Not that anyone wants anything to do with him anymore," Fel sighed. "Tantrus over played his hand. Maybe he had been hoping for something else, something he could control, but that thing did as much damage to Barassa as it did to the armies surrounding it."

  "How badly were the armies hit?"

  "About a third of the soldiers were killed. Evean organized a fairly large pikeman's square that annoyed it enough that it decided to go sleep in the harbor for now."

  "Well good for her. Can I talk to her about it? Maybe she can tell me something to help us if it comes across the river."

  "Sure," Fel said and suddenly Evean was sitting in the bar with us.