"Ah… Help me!"
**Squish**
"No!"
**Squelch**
The tragic defense continued, people dying one by one, stepped on, clawed, torn apart, and eaten.
**Crunch** **Crackle** **Boom**
"R- retre- Argh!" A knight captain ordered as he was lifted into the air, struggling, his lower half bitten off.
Before being fully eaten, the knight captain crushed a crystal in his hand, the shards began sparkling before combusting into a large explosion, blasting off the demon's head. Despite this, the demon's head began to bloat, slowly regenerating. It had already consumed the captain's Divinity, giving it a new terrifying trait.
Mortified, everyone slowly backed up to the raised platforms, their last line of fortifications.
"We're out!" The sisters announced.
"Our arrows aren't piercing!" The archer shouted, to the horror of everyone.
The numerous deaths had allowed a number of demons to consume Divinity. Although it was not a significant amount of it, it was enough for it to be a noticeable problem. The demons began developing different features. From hard scales appearing on parts of their bodies, to increasing sizes, grappling tongues, serrated teeth, acidic blood, or just simply more strength. They were getting stronger, and the wave of demons showed no end.
"Check the medical tent, I need a bandage!"
A female mage from the adventurer group who was out of mana nodded, rushing into the tent, darting inside the room, scrounging for anything of use. Inside the tent were the injured. They were either unconscious, or were ones who hadn't awoken since their last battle. On one side of the tent were dead bodies of knights that they were able to pull from battle, minimal, but reassuring that their Divinity is way out of reach. One stood out, a single body that was both familiar, but seemed wrong to her. It was the body of the woman they had fought.
The woman whose head she had personally disintegrated, had seemingly fully grown back, twisted to the side. Confused, she began examining the body, her injuries gone, like nothing had ever happened. An arrow head rested next to the woman like her body had just "puked" it out.
"Huh?" She raised her eyebrows, seeing small, tendril-like appendages slithering into the back of her eye.
She poked the woman with her wooden staff.
**Fwip**
The body jolted into a sitting position, her head still sideways, limp. It shocked the mage, making her step back, aiming her staff towards the woman.
**Crack**
In a single instance, she grabbed her head, twisting it back into the correct orientation. Her head, now fully functional, turned, looking at the shaking mage who unsteadily held her staff. The woman guided the staff down with her fingers before standing, scanning the room.
"Aaah!!!"
Screams from outside caught the attention of both of them, jolting the mage back into action as she remembered why she entered the tent in the first place. She began frantically looking around, completely forgetting about the woman. Finding rolls of bandages, she was about to head back before being stopped.
**Swoop**
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Protested the mage as the bandages get snatched from her hand.
The woman took the rolls of bandages, wrapping her chest and lower half, covering herself. She then took the mage's cloak for herself. Powerless, the mage stood there, allowing it to happen. She was near dry, and exhausting her Mana completely would leave her vulnerable, unable to even walk.
"Thank you…" The woman said, a volume barely able to be heard.
The mage showed a face filled with shock, it was the first time she had heard her utter tangible words. The woman left the mage alone, leaving the tent. What greeted her outside was the sight of countless demons swarming the expeditioners, or rather what was left of them. They stood guard at the other end of a semi-transparent wall, a barrier similar to that of the one they use to block out the blizzard. It was much denser, layered, radiating an aura of gold.
The priest and the sisters maintained the wall, an item glowing in the priest's hand. A relic crafted by the Church, engraved with runes shining with silver light. They were all that stood between the demons and the rest of the exhausted expeditioners.
**Crack**
The demons on the other side pounded on the walls, clawing at it, throwing debris, some even throwing themselves into the wall. It was slowly cracking, the priest struggling to keep his composure.
To maintain the wall, the priest has to expend his Mana, taking a significant amount to activate the relic itself. To repair it, he had to consume more Mana relative to the sustained damage. Should one of the layers break, he would need to permanently use a portion of his Divinity if he wanted to do so without deactivating it. Others may assist in this process, but it does not fully ease the burden, still requiring a significant amount of effort and resource commitment equal to the force applied to the wall.
The rest of the expeditioners began despairing, some attempting to console the others to try getting back on their feet. Morale is at an all-time low. Reinforcements have already been contacted, but the arrival of which will take longer than they could hold. By the time they arrive, the camp would already be completely wiped out.
Demons by themselves, despite their horrifying anatomical mutations, a demon bereft of Divinity can be easily disposed of. Most of the time, only small to medium demons would appear, large ones are a dime a dozen, and those that have yet to consume Divinity could very easily be taken down with a single spell.
Even a small expedition group like theirs is equipped with resources able to deal with these hordes, even if the horde has numbers that are in the thousands. A normal expedition around a 100 men strong would be able to triumph against tens of thousands, and a large expedition group like the one they were promised to be reinforced with, would be able to clear even a hundred thousand or more. The demons would usually come from a single direction, that of their nest. Normally, they would come in waves, with only a few dozen every while or so, in long intervals, allowing rest and the reconstruction of fortifications, making it a battle of attrition through many nights, but one that was more than bearable.
The horde they've been facing has been irregular, sending demons in the hundreds each wave, sporting multiple large demons, with barely any resting time in between. Swarms after swarms of demons came rushing, a sight you would only see in the early days of the defense in Kaldur's pass. Not only did they encounter a strange human in Frostburrow, they had to also deal with this anomalous situation.
Speaking of the strange human, the expeditioners who had encountered her previously, recognized her white flowy hair, appearing before them, walking past them, towards a knight.
"H- Hey! That person…"
"How is she…"
They were in utter disbelief. They had seen her as a headless corpse, dead on the floor. To their knowledge, no one in their group was able to use resurrection magic, something that only someone at the level of a saint could perform over the course of multiple days. She no longer seemed feral, she was composed, an air of grace surrounding her.
The woman walked towards a knight whose helmet was bent open, cowering at the sight of her. She took a spear that laid next to him and broke it off, shortening it.
"Borrowing." She stated, quickly turning away.
She then walked towards the barrier, standing behind the priest. She scanned the barrier and observed the situation on the other side.
"Can… Walk through? She asked the priest.
"...Huh? What?" The priest, struggling to keep his composure, was confused at the question.
A sister turned to the woman, recognizing her, stepping away from the barrier, cowering in fear.
**Crack** **Crack**
The barrier cracked further as the sister's assistance was removed.
"Can I walk through…?" The woman reiterated.
"Are you… Guh- Crazy!?" The priest struggled even more, his face shrinking in pain.
"I will walk through." The woman said with a deadpan tone.
"Hey!" The priest yelled, failing to stop her.
She walked past the barrier, to a small clearing made on the other side, as a large, bloated demon stepped back, only to start throwing itself into the wall.
The woman raised her spear, throwing in at the demon.
**Fwoosh** **Squelch**
The demon burst open from the impact, its insides were flying into the air. She began getting swarmed by smaller demons. With an all familiar speed, the expeditioners watched as she killed demons in a single strike, blowing their heads open, tearing through them one by one, regardless of whether or not it had consumed Divinity.
One demon was dragged by its leg, lifted into the air and slammed into the ground, crushing a small demon. She slammed it again into another, and then once more until the demon's body was no more than mush, with its leg detached. She discarded the leg, rushing towards another cluster of demons. She swiftly tore demons in half, snapping their necks, ripping their limbs off, using their own claws against the others. Waves upon waves arrived and she tore through them, unresting. Even the larger demons stood no match. She would go for their legs, lowering them down before stomping on them until they were nothing but floor batter. She continued this until the other side of the wall looked like a mass grave for demons.
The priest relaxed, letting his guard down, deactivating the relic, the wall dissipating. The first time they were able to rest. The priest and the sisters collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.
"Who is that woman?" One of the knight captains asked.
"We don't know! She appeared in Frostburrow, and then we fought. We killed her, she should be dead!" A mage explained.
They could do nothing to help, they were all exhausted and their resources were little to none. They could only watch as the woman tore through the hordes of demons, leaving piles of bodies in her wake. The scene was familiar, like the piled demon corpses at Frostburrow, confirming that she had been the cause.
She fought with ferocity, her attacks were crude and savage but they struck with such force that technique mattered not.
…
Once rested, the expeditioners began clearing the demon's bodies, shoving them to the side, collecting usable material as they went, while the white haired woman continued her fight.
The bodies of demons inexplicably decay if left untouched and undisturbed, disappearing on their own. They slowly crumble into dust unless their parts are dismantled and wrapped in cloth for an entire day, in which case, it persists, even after the cloth's removal. The process is unknown and none have found the cause for the phenomena.
The sun began to rise, the demon waves finally seemed to end, the woman still ever so lively in battle, keeping the same expressionless face.
…
After a while, even the blizzard began to let up, removing the need to use a barrier for it, conserving even more Mana. The woman had also finished off the last few demons. The rest either retreated or were dead.
She began walking back to the expeditioners before-
**Boom**
A pillar of golden light came crashing down from the sky, separating the woman from the expeditioners, creating a sizable crater in between. The light faded, and in its center stood a heavily armored man. His blinding white armaments were gilded gold, inlaid runes sprawled all over. Beside him was a woman adorned with glamorous garments and decorations in the same color palette.
A paladin had arrived, accompanied by his saintess.
With the larger expedition group still a day away, once they received a report from the forward expedition requesting immediate reinforcements, they requested the church for emergency deployment.
In extreme cases, the church can be contacted. They will assess the situation, gathering the capital's clergy. After careful deliberation, the church approves deployment commencing a sequence of events.
During special occasions, a Paladin and a Saint is always put on standby. They are posted in an empty room, knelt, and chant prayers repeatedly until they are told to stop. When needed, a group of mages are called in. They begin to cast multiple spells targeted towards the pair, drawing sigils, engraving glyphs, creating a magic circle underneath, whilst the pair continue their prayers.
Teleportation is a spell that is activated between two specific locations. These locations need to be assigned beforehand, drawing an intricate magic circle on both locations to activate.
This is not that spell.
Once activated, this spell transforms the targets into pure light, launching them into the desired direction. At their behest, they activate another spell that blasts them downwards at extreme speeds, decimating anything underneath. Once impact is made, one final spell is activated to reconstruct the pair and their equipment, effectively bringing them to their destination. This process is lengthy, requiring skilled mages to perform. A single mistake can cost the lives of both the paladin and the saint in transit.
To onlookers, they only witness its effects, a pillar of light that stretches into the heavens, disintegrating all that dares to stand in its way, leaving all but a crater in their wake.
This process was hence dubbed, "Heavenfall".