Alma
/ Alma 86 The Sacrifice
Screams of rage, terror, and despair filled the air as a grisly massacre continued down below. It, for all intents and purposes, looked like a genuine hellscape from the ground level.
The charred corpses of millions of Infested had created an unspeakably toxic stench of death and diseased flesh. Massive rivers of boiling blood gathered into giant lakes of the noxious poison. The crimson sky above had set everything under it aflame — be it flesh, bone, or blood.
Even the barren, empty land of the void had been terraformed in the wake of the fight. The crushed and melted remains of the Infested had even formed a thin veneer — a horrifying glaze of gore — that had the appearance of shining red soil. Charred corpses that had been left piled on top of each other formed blackened mountains of death.
Nothing had been spared.
It was such a disturbing scene of inhumane slaughter that the Devil himself would've been plagued by nightmares about it for the rest of his life…
We're almost there…! There's only a little bit left until we reach the hole!
Lu'um and Reed had made significant progress in their charge toward the hole and had covered a majority of the distance, save for the final kilometer or so. It had gotten much more difficult than when they had initially started — the Infested had started to pour into the void even faster than before to make up for their losses.
They could afford to waste as many Infested as needed. After all, they'd torn apart an untold number of realities.
Entire multiverses worth of fodder had been converted into Infested. It did not matter to them if a million of their slaves had been destroyed.
They would simply pour another million, ten billion, hundred trillion of their slaves into the hole. As many as the situation demanded.
"We're not making any more progress, sweetcheeks! There's too many of them!" said Reed as he hurtled another barrage of meteors down upon the overflowing waves of Infested below them.
The chaotic meteor show did little to advance their cause, though. When two Infested turned to dust, another five seemed to take their place almost immediately. The Infested seemed to have been given new orders from the look of their growing numbers… and that did not bode well for Reed and Lu'um.
"I think that they've caught onto our plan, Ka'an! The Outsiders have stopped playing around — they've probably sent word to all of their forces now! We need to move NOW! We'll likely be overrun in a couple of minutes if we don't close the hole RIGHT NOW!" said Lu'um.
If she was right, they'd already run out of time. The Grand Swarm would soon descend upon them — the total sum of their forces. An endless army so massive it could not be described with mere words.
The word 'infinity' alone could not appropriately describe the Grand Swarm. It was much more than that. So much more.
It was an entity made of multiversal despair. All-encompassing and unstoppable, the Grand Swarm was the Outsider's answer to those who would dare to believe in the measly, foolish concept that was Hope.
That they would survive and emerge victorious against them, who had lived longer than their reality was old.
For those who'd confidently put their faith in the 0.001 percent chance that they would prevail.
It was their answer to those who had chosen to ignore the other 99.999 percent of the truth.
Lu'um grit her teeth in frustration and said, "Get ready to block the entrance with everything you've got!! I'm going to clear the way!"
"How are you goin—"
Reed was quickly dragged off of his serpent by Lu'um and then pushed behind her. She gathered a frightening amount of Anima and then compressed them into two motes of pulsating light.
"Cover your eyes and wait for my signal, Ka'an!"
Lu'um gazed at the two serpents with an expression of sorrow on her face but knew it had to be done. She released the motes and the serpents ate them in response, aware of the fate awaited them.
They did not mind. It was an honor for them. They would gladly fulfill their duty and join their kin on the other side.
The serpents hissed in pain as their bodies struggled to hold the power that they had been given. They would not be able to hold out for much longer, but it did not matter to them as long they could clear the path for their masters.
The feathered serpents, Lulu and Rara, gazed at their respective masters one last time.
Farewell, little sun. I wish you all the happiness in the world.
A gentle, feminine voice called out to Reed inside his head. He dumbly stared at the serpent who had reached out to him and suddenly felt his chest hurt as if he lost something precious…
The other serpent seemed to have said something to Lu'um because she looked on the verge of tears. She nodded silently and then pulled Reed back behind her in preparation…
The twin guardians suddenly shone like bright, shining stars. The Anima within them had reached a critical point. They could no longer hold in the power within themselves.
Together, they charged into the swarm and bulldozed headfirst into the invading swarm near the entrance of the hole and swallowed as many Infested as they could manage on their way out of the hole.
Charging into the Outside, the duo sped into the gigantic tendril of the Grand Swarm that had begun to move towards the hole and then they…
Were gone.
A blinding flash of light bathed everything for a split second. It was as if a hundred stars had gone supernova together.
The attack that Lu'um had prepared for the Holy Church seemed… insignificant compared to this.
This was different — in the way a flickering candle was to the surface of the sun.
The explosion had been so energetic that it had traveled all the way back into the void from the hole. A wave of pure heat and light entered through the hole and instantly turned everything into nothingness.
The Infested and their many corpses had been erased from existence. The firestorm, too, had been instantaneously put out like the flickering candle it was in the face of true power.
Reed looked around. Empty darkness greeted him as if their fight against the Infested had never happened in the first place.
"Ah..."
It was difficult to process but he understood. Had she not protected him, he would have been erased in an instant. There was no way in hell he would have been able to survive that.
"I'm going to start closing the hole. Keep guard around the entrance…"
He positioned himself near the edge of the hole and gazed outside. The titanic swarm of Infested had been slowed but it had not been enough. It'd only be a couple of minutes until they'd reach the entrance again.
"What's your plan, boy? Time's ticking. They're going to be here very soon and we're going to have a lot of ugly to deal with."
Reed stared at the swarm outside and said, "I can't fight them like Lu'um can and I can't perform anything crazy complicated."
Simple. Direct. It has to be something I can achieve with my limited abilities.
"I'm going to patch the wall. Form an aegis and hold back the swarm with sheer power because that's the only thing I have going for me. I'm going to be gathering more Anima than I can control so I'm going to your help keeping it in check…"
"Ah, I guess that'll work… It's simple enough for you to pull off and easy enough for you to handle. It'll be an endurance test at its core, then," said Lacrima.
Reed gathered as much Anima as he feasibly control and then quickly started to work, building the massive aegis. The more layers the aegis he could build, the stronger it'd be in the end.
But it came at a price. The more of layers the aegis had, the more Anima he would have to invest into it and the greater the strain it'd be on him to keep the aegis up once the Infested started attacking it.
It was a dangerous game of sorts — he would have to find out where the sweet spot was. Should he play it safe in pursuit of control, the aegis would be weakened. He'd have to hope that the aegis would hold long enough for Lu'um to finish the job…
But if he completely forsook control he'd end up with a powerful, but highly unstable aegis. It'd suffice against the Infested but if he lost control of the technique at any point in time… it'd be over for them…
Chapter end
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