The Twelve Apocalypses: A Damned Soul's Path to the Abyss-Chapter 103 - 154: Magical Mayhem

The first surge of magic hit about two weeks later. It rippled through the air as an all-encompassing wave just before dawn, creating a rather abrupt and rude awakening for anyone even remotely sensitive to mana.

I jumped up in bed, wings flaring and eyes glowing with a sudden deathly intensity. If Mia and I still slept like we used to, with her on one of my wings, I'd have launched her right into a wall. Fortunately, I simply stood with her clutched in my arms, while she gripped me so tightly that some of my feathers came away in her hands.

Moments later, we were storming into the grand entrance hall of Glaustro's home. He and Bronwynn were already there, awake and grumpy.

"What was that?" I demanded as the door slammed shut behind us. "You felt it, right?"

"Of course we did. It was impossible to miss." Glaustro's voice was surprisingly steady. "Whatever or whoever that was, we need to locate and neutralize them. Quickly."

Our distinguished majorness was not messing around. His eyes were wild, but otherwise, he was the perfect picture of a calm and forceful officer who kept his head in a crisis.

Remembering all the drills he'd forced us through recently, I winced. I still wasn't behaving like an officer. I'd been so lost in a haze of panic that I hadn't stopped to think about the example I was setting for the troops.

Seeing two sergeants rush through the city like headless chickens probably wasn't great for morale, I admonished myself. Then again, Bronwynn is here. How in the world did he get here so fast?

Before I could follow that thought too far down a rabbit hole, Imthala joined us. With all of the sergeants assembled, the core of our little army was complete. We were just starting to organize a scouting mission when a frantic Methialia burst through the door.

"M-Major…!" she gasped, gulping down one huge breath of air after another. I felt a surge of renewed worry for my captain. A tiny bit of running shouldn't reduce a demon to such a state.

Imthala responded before me, dashing to Methialia's side. I looked around for a chair. Since the building's grand hall didn't have much furniture, I pulled on my mana instead, causing a somewhat comfy armchair to form right behind the trembling, heaving captain.

Imthala sent me a thankful glance and settled Methialia in. Briefly, I was caught between concern and annoyance that I still hadn't figured out how to conjure truly comfortable chairs.

Funny what my brain prioritizes during emergencies.

"Easy, Methi, easy," Imthala soothed. "Calm down first before you try to say anything."

Methialias flushed harder, but she nodded and focused on breathing. Only a few moments later, she was ready to make her report.

"That wasn't just mana. I did feel pure mana, yes, but… there was a lot of Divinity there, too. It's almost like it was hidden inside the mana wave, but it was there. It made me feel alive, and like half my body was suddenly working wrong, all at once. I felt it approaching a few seconds beforehand, but there was nothing I could to warn anyone."

She stopped abruptly and stared at the ground, like she was expecting us to punish her. None of us intended to do that, obviously, but the instinctive response was alarming. I reminded myself to dig a little deeper into her past. If this was her first reaction, then there was a lot more to her story than what she'd shared.

Glaustro obviously shared my worries. Even though we were in the middle of an emergency, his eyes softened, and he spoke in a gentler tone than usual. "Thank you, Captain. Without you, we would never even suspect these recent events had anything to do with Divinity. Now, I'm sorry to demand this of you, but can you tell me what's happening with the sources of Divinity you've been tracking? Have any of them moved?"

The demoness immediately nodded and closed her eyes, furrowing her brow in concentration. It was several minutes before she sighed and opened her eyes.

"No… No, I don't think any of them did. They are all still in the same positions we marked down before. But they all feel more… solid, and definitely more powerful. I can't really explain how I sense them, but if I were to compare it to sight, they're both bigger and brighter."

Glaustro nodded. "Excellent. You may return to your rest. If any of the sources move, please let us know as soon as you can. I'd also like you to be on the lookout for this strengthening. If they show signs of growing significantly stronger over time, tell me, and we'll take care of them. We can't allow threats to grow unchecked so close to us."

Methialia looked relieved. But when she tried to stand, she stumbled, flushing again when Imthala was forced to hold her up.

Imthala glanced at Glaustro. "By your leave, Major, I'll escort Captain Methialia home?"

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"Do so, Sergeant, but hurry back."

"Imthala?" I called out before the two demonesses could leave, then followed up in a much softer tone of voice. "Thank you for taking care of my captain."

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She gave me a determined, if embarrassed, nod. Then the two departed, leaving me with the three people I'd come to trust above all others.

The silence was broken quickly by Bronwynn's worried voice.

"What are we dealing with here? A mana wave that size must have covered the entirety of this world. And it affected everything, too. Can you feel it?"

He gestured widely at the house around us. His implication alluded me for a second, but when I looked deeper, I understood.

The wave had left behind a gift.

Every object I saw, from the furniture to the door to the crystalline walls I'd raised, was now imbued by mana. The mystical substance was thin, a mere wispy presence, but it was so pure and unaspected that it could be nothing but the mana of Breskwor itself. It was like the entire world had taken a step forward, and everything on it had been enhanced to match that advancement.

Except that was impossible.

"What is happening, Bronwynn?" Glaustro demanded. "This kind of sweeping change… it shouldn't be happening. Not on a newly born world! Even worlds with Wills that are fully awake can't do something like this. Maybe on an extremely powerful, ancient world… maybe. I've heard rumors. But in a world this young?"

He shook his head helplessly and started to pace. "We need to find out what's happening."

"I guess we have to go out there and look for answers, then," I quipped, carefully concealing all my positive emotions about this idea.

Judging by Glaustro's scowl, he wasn't fooled.

"And you'd just so happen to look for Wilhelmina while you're out there?"

"Maybe I'd come across her, but you wouldn't be able to blame that on me," I wheedled. "That would just be chance. Pure cosmic meddling. I would be looking for the source of the mana wave, and that's it."

I crossed my arms and tried to look sincere. Glaustro's scowl only deepened.

Then, to my surprise, Bronwynn chose to back me up.

"Look, I don't like the thought of him getting into trouble either, but we do need to do something. I was fine with waiting things out for a while. We've made a ton of progress with the city, and with training. But we need to know what's happening. Besides, it's unlikely Wilhelmina decided to stay in our vicinity."

This speech earned an accusing look from Glaustro, but it was brief. The major closed his eyes and ground the heel of his palms into them for a moment.

When he looked at us again, all his control from earlier had returned. "Fine. Yes, we need to explore Breskwor. You can't blame me for wanting to keep everyone together so we can respond to threats quickly, but I guess I am acting a little… unwisely. I…"

He trailed off. The look of anguish on his face made Bronwynn quickly draw close to place a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" the pink-skinned demon asked.

Glaustro sighed. "I thought I could avoid separating everyone just a bit longer. I know it's an inevitability. You each have troops of your own. But I don't like the idea of fighting away from each other. Every time I've let you out of my sights, you've managed to get into some kind of trouble!"

"We got into plenty of trouble with you, too," I pointed out.

"But in those cases, I could at least get you out of trouble myself!" he bellowed, calming down again quickly when Bronwynn squeezed his shoulder in support. "Fine. Fine! I'm alright. Yes, we need to move faster, but we need to organize it properly first. Before we do anything, we need a comprehensive plan of how we'll sweep the surrounding lands and claim any Divinity within a certain radius. We can't afford to have gods spawning in our backyard!"

"True, that will help keep us all safe," Mia chimed in softly, earning a rare smile from the major.

I bit back my complaints. After all, he wasn't wrong. It wasn't normal for an army unit to rush into something without making a plan.

But no matter how much sense it made, I was annoyed that he was suddenly imposing so many rules on everything. It felt like we were starting to get bogged down by bureaucracy already, and we didn't even own a fully operational city yet.

Still… I had to admit this felt like an important step, too. After starting as a disorganized mob, we finally resembled something approaching an army.

Under Glaustro's discerning eye, we'd been training in how to advance, how to march, how to engage enemies together now that we had much greater numbers, and even battlefield communication and coordination.

Some of it was overly complicated and tedious, which grated on my nerves. I occasionally wanted to remind him that Lieutenant General Crewe didn't care about such things, but…

Crewe's forces on Lagyel almost fell apart the second he couldn't handle the enemy leaders on his own.

I couldn't forget what happened when those jinn attacked our capital on Lagyel. They had put the lieutenant general on the back foot, however briefly, which left all our units fighting on their own against an organized and rapidly advancing enemy. Did it really hurt us that much? Maybe not, but that was due more to the power of certain individual demons than to Crewe's leadership.

It seemed like a popular strategy for demon leaders: scatter a bunch of pieces across the board, and then put yourself in charge of dismantling the opposing leadership. Cut off the head of the snake, and the body flounders. No coordination and not much brain power required. Simple, and mostly effective.

But also very, very fallible. Crewe only kept succeeding because he could take control and properly guide his troops when he cared to, and because he was overwhelmingly more powerful than most enemies he might encounter.

Glaustro was determined to move beyond this messy style of leadership. He had even gone out of his way to sort out the question of lieutenants and petty officers, stripping some of the rank and granting it to others who performed well. When I wasn't fed up with the training, even I could acknowledge that it was inspiring to see our soldiers so organized and in tune with each other.

And we were still just getting started.

So, ultimately, I didn't begrudge Glaustro taking four full days to iron out every detail of the plan. It was important to be prepared before deploying our troops against the world of Breskwor in earnest.

Unfortunately, Breskwor refused to wait for us to be ready.

The second magic wave hit on the second day of planning. The third wave hit only hours later. Each wave did something to the world at large, and each arrived from no discernable source. Even Methialia could only detect them a few seconds before they arrived, but she was helpless to say where they came from.

When we finally sallied out into the snow beyond our city walls, we all knew we had to find answers quickly. Otherwise, we'd be at the mercy of whatever storm was brewing.