23. Battle

23

BATTLE

B attle takes the night as Ariana, Quinn, and I resonate with our incredible new Music, plus Staphylogenes’ heart, ringing towering phrases of Ascendant sigils through the darkness. Explosions of magic concuss all around us; everything is lit bright as day as our power creates an astounding union of music, light, and sound.

Still, the Vampire Council is strong, brutal as they fight us. Just as we thought, our worst enemies are immune to the Music as they fight like wild banshees of black smoke, howling darkness, and furious blood lances.

Coming for us.

Our people are unified, however, by the bonds that join us. Fae, Dark Fae, and Vampires fight together for the ideals we hold dear, as Quinn, Ariana, and I seethe with a combined magic through our new Music.

It’s all colors of light and all shades of darkness, as we blaze like entire galaxies going supernova. Our people are with us; Eiseth and her warriors from Britain dart in and harry the Council’s best with their furious Pictish magic. Gunther and his Vampire-Giants are like boulders heaving down mountains as they crash into the Council’s warriors, barreling them down .

The three Returned Revenants fight with us also, seething all over the Council’s highest members as furious black smoke. They drain the Council with their former Revenant wiles; piercing shrieks go off from our foes, as the once-Revenants accost them.

Ariana’s parents, Adicus and Illyria, have marshaled our people into order, making coordinated attacks to smash the Council’s forces, but we’re taking deep casualties. Devi whirls like a dervish beside Alleno and Curio, Alleno protecting my flank as I fight with Quinn and Ariana.

But even Devi’s bitter blades, Curio’s furious winter winds, and Alleno’s devastating swaths of dark-light can’t completely save us. We’re losing fighters left, right, and center as we battle; the Council Vampires are just that terrible in their might.

They’re ancient and powerful with how they control their minions and remaining Sanguinis warriors. As Altenni rushes in now on her tawny wings, biting off heads, I see Commander Junius and a gleaming battalion of Summer Fae Brightwatch roar into the fray. Nearby, Adicus marshals a towering brigade of Darkwatch as Illyria commands the Dark Fae who have joined us from Venice.

Battle is everywhere, swaths of complex Faeanic sigildry mowing down the Council’s forces as our Music careens, deafening in the night. Our power overcomes many of the lesser Vampires, turning them to our side as the battle rages.

As Ariana shrieks pure Music now like a harpy, blasting caustic violet Vampire spears to smithereens as the Sanguinis ’ black armor is shredded by her voice alone, I snarl in my shifted Fae visage, my short fangs animalistic as I hurl furious phrases of Ascendant sigildry into the Vampires.

Those phrases of Ascendant Sigils come to me on the fly now as we fight. My Light burns hotter than ever, careening blue-gold and all colors of the rainbow around me as I battle. Quinn’s is an explosion of fire, devouring foes as he thunders with power, his longer fangs bared in his furious visage as his onyx eyes burn .

Even Ariana’s visage has shifted, as she screams her powerful Music to the night. Her Fae-fangs delicate, her cheekbones are viciously high as her ears lengthen and her eyes burn a hot crimson-copper through the jade. She is glorious, fighting naked with her wild red hair streaming all around her and talons piercing from her fingertips. I feel overwhelming joy that she is my mate, along with Quinn.

My Light burns hotter, brighter—obliterating in the night.

But our enemies are powerful, vicious and cunning; I recall something Quinn once said, that the Council Masters have the positions they do because they are far more than regular Vampires.

Most of them can turn other Lineages into Vampires, like Gunther’s people, creating a kind of masterful, hybrid undead. Those hybrid Vampires are horrible in battle now, as they drain our allies, heave into us, and fight.

A horde of undead Vampire-Dragons swarms us; as they wing hard into the battle, draining us in tremendous swaths with their terrible magic, it’s all Altenni and a brigade of Summer Fae can do now to contest them. The three returned Revenants join them; the Vampire-Dragons are soon swarming with Revenant-smoke, though their power is still mighty as they roar and heave the Revenants away, to fight on.

The Romeros are a bitter duo, turning an entire section of the battle into a wicked laughing, dancing frenzy. They seem to have up-leveled their power somehow since they tormented Quinn with Florian’s help; it takes Devi, Curio, and an entire host of Quinn’s Dark Fae barreling into them to make them pull back and stop, though it simply starts again elsewhere as we fight.

But with a powerful whirl of his winter winds, Master Ilyov joins the battle now, arriving suddenly through a portal from Novakitsk. As his Ice Giants storm the battlefield, wielded in masterful drives by his Dark Winter Fae warriors, their Winter Wights shrieking and lighting up the battle with their screaming power as they fly overhead, the Romeros pull back.

But they only go as far as a regiment of enemy Vampire-Giants, hiding behind them as they battle Gunther’s forces in a tremendous war that hammers our flank. Giant-on-Giant death thunders through the night, as they roar like yetis and howl.

Master Ilyov directs his forces there. Suddenly, the enemy Vampire-Giants are being crushed by the towering Ice Giants of Novakitsk.

As Curio and his sister Clariss stand back-to-back now with gruesome smiles, wielding them.

But as the Romeros dart out from behind the failing line of enemy Giants, rushing for Quinn, I see fury in their eyes. Wrathful, they’re coming for him; hastily, I roar for Ariana so we can block them off from getting to him.

All at once, I am surrounded by a cadre of Vampire-Sirens, singing songs to silence Ariana’s and my Music. I can’t get to Quinn—but in a whirling dervish of the most terrifying scarlet blood-blades I’ve ever seen, Devi is there.

As Devi rushes in with a small but exceedingly vicious cadre of female Scarlet Fae warriors, I see they’re somehow immune to the Romeros’ wicked power. As the two factions crash into each other, Devi rips in with her blades—and slices open Calla and Eduardo’s throats so deep, it nearly takes both their heads off.

Satisfaction roars through me as wrathful joy explodes from Devi in the night. She’s a powerhouse of fury, as the Music sings through her like never before. It gives our allies renewed might; me, Alleno, Ariana, and Quinn roar as Devi’s inundating pleasure hammers us.

Fighting on like the Dark Fae we are.

But even as the Romeros are vanquished, our foes hammer back. The Dragon-Vampires, undead Giants, and the Vampire-Sirens surge in to pin me, Quinn, and Ariana inside a furious circle now as we fight. There are Council Masters here, too; I recognize them through Quinn as he roars, making his blazing energy into spears to kill them.

But they are furious and fast, turning into wraith-smoke at our drives, or portaling elsewhere on the battlefield, the moment we rush in. The Council Masters come from every nationality around the world; furious faces from China, Thailand, Mexico, Egypt, and Rome come at us as they summon their most loyal warriors into our fight.

Though this area of central Rome was already in ruins, a part of the old city I know well, our raging drives of the Music blast towers of stone and fallen domes to smithereens now as we rage, rush, and fight. It’s not part of the city the Vampires have repaired because we’re inside the former Summer Fae Palace of Light, decimated in the War of Rome when the Vampires took the city.

But something about being inside my former people’s ruins gives me strength now—even as Quinn, Ariana, and I are suddenly backed into a corner by a rush of the Vampire-Dragons. Wielded by the Mayan Master, they are a tornado of power as they create horrifying winds, towering storms, and black fire as they fight.

Facing off with them, Ariana screams the Music with her voice in a furious harmonic. Somewhere in the ruins, Staphylogenes’ heart hears her; her magic explodes at the Vampire-Dragons now, as Quinn and I join it.

Screeching, they slam to the ground, roiling in pain as our Music smites their ears. It boils their undead brains from the inside out. Quinn blazes with fire, seething it all over the undead Vampire-Dragons.

I sear with Light, scorching them to ash.

As the Mayan Master roars, coming for us like a thunderbolt for killing his creations, Eiseth and her people suddenly portal in, standing in a furious brigade before us. The Mayan Master and his remaining people clash with Eiseth and her fighters. But she is not alone, surrounded by an incredible army of Asian Vampires who portal in now to help us.

Their leader is a screaming hurricane of death, as she whirls inside her spinning fury of bright silks. We leave the Mayan Master to Eiseth and that Asian Mistress, as we feel Master Ilyov and his forces from Novakitsk finally penetrate the outer ranks of the Council.

Though a few of the Council Masters, like the Mayan Master, separated from their group to fight us, most of the Council’s ranks have drawn back in an impenetrable knot now with their most elite fighters. They hammer back drive after drive of our best magic, even as they resist our Music’s powerful sway.

They’re not budging, as that knot sunders everything we throw at it. Worse, even more fighters are streaming into the battle, portaling in from those Council Masters’ Dark Havens all around the globe now to fight us.

From a battle of a few thousand, we’re overwhelmed now by a battle of ten thousand, as those remaining Council Masters empty their entire Dark Havens to fight us. Even the three returned Revenants are having a hard time subduing them, as incredibly elite Vampires fight back now, responding to their Council’s need.

Though I revel in the battle, and Ariana revels and drinks in the brutality of the fight, Quinn drinking hard from the explosions of energy all around him to bolster his magic, I feel us giving everything we’ve got. Even though Staphylogenes’ heart still resonates our unique, new Music through this battle a hundredfold, turning massive swaths of it to our advantage, we’re being overwhelmed by sheer numbers now.

This is far different from our fight to retake the Dark Haven of Florence; this is the Vampire Council throwing everything they’ve got at us in an all-out war now as they battle to undo us.

Ariana’s parents, our Summer Fae fighters, Quinn’s people plus his three returned Revenants, even Ilyov’s masterful drives are failing now. Though the Music that streams through us all joins our power, letting us share our magic many ways, we’re flagging from this never-ending battle.

Because the Council’s forces are just that strong and immense. I feel them understand they can simply overwhelm us with numbers now, no matter how many we turn to our Music, slay, or blaze into ash.

It’s then that desperation finally takes hold inside me, darkening my Light. But even as I begin to despair, a deep lethargy of battle trying to swamp my bones, I suddenly feel new allies come to us.

As a tirade of multi-hued black smoke barrels in, seething all over the battle and draining our enemies to the max, I understand it’s Quinn’s thirty remaining returned Revenants come back to us. They have come to honor their ties to Quinn and our trio, who liberated them with our Music. They fight for us now, as I feel our towering song flood their hearts.

Giving them furious power—to fight.

Not only that, but I feel Quinn’s fierce celebration as the three Dark Fae Council Masters suddenly turn on their brethren—ordering all the people they command to attack the Council from the inside.

It’s devastating as those three turn ranks. As battle erupts from within the ring of Council Masters now, those three Dark Fae heaving masterful drives of magic into their once-fellows, Quinn rages with utter delight.

I hear his song lift to the universe and echo it with my own towering might. Ariana’s rainbow-dark wings swamp the battlefield as she screams with thundering overtones of joy.

And we battle on, bolstered by those who have come to us.

I feel the tides of war turn, finally. At last, the Council Masters are running out of warriors to throw at us; the combination of our allies with the thirty returned Revenants, plus the turncoat Dark Fae within the Council’s ranks are too much for our foes.

As our Music surges brighter, higher, hotter, deafening the battlefield now as we roar, rage, and fight, we all receive new energy. Power floods us, enlivening our muscles and beaming through our bones as even Quinn’s Vampires begin to glow with a formidable Light, as if the very sun itself shines through us.

The effect on our enemy Vampires is overwhelming. As all our people beam with light, I feel the Council’s forces pull back. Terror swamps them as our sunlight sears a hundredfold, cutting terrible swathes through the battle now as enemy Vampires are burned up from it, instantly.

As another presence joins us now, I feel our enemies heave back yet again; the terrible, incredible presence of the Wanderer Cereus has joined the battle, though I have no idea where she came from .

She’s just suddenly there, glowing with a vicious nimbus of moonlight all around her as she whispers, “ Grow, ” in an ear-slicing voice in the night. Enemies all around her explode into a riot of night-blooming flowers and vines as her creations grow right through their flesh.

Killing them, as the earth reclaims their bodies.

Enormous mounds of flowers and night-blooming vines grow in a riot now through the old Palace of Light’s broken reaches. It’s somehow fitting, as the tide of our battle finally favors us, our enemies shrieking horrible deaths by the hundreds now as our allies fight.

Our ideals burst all through Quinn, Ariana, and myself, in addition to our people, as we feel victory on the horizon. Because a number of Council Vampires have already been slain, and others are quickly pulling back, trying to gather their fighters and dash through portals to get away.

We come for them, ready to finish this. The battle is all but won now, as I feel the remaining Council Masters and their people finally pull back into a hard knot.

I feel our Music winning; entire swaths of our enemies’ people are finally being turned by our Music now, as Quinn, Ariana, and I celebrate, and Staphylogenes’ heart celebrates with us.

We’ve somehow made it back to where we left the heart, beating inside its crystal case as if glorifying in the battle all around. It beats in a frenzy now, each pump heaving a glowing nimbus of light-waves all around it, which surge out from its crystal case.

Those waves keep it safe in the battle, no fighting happening in a ring around it. But as Quinn, Ariana, and I find ourselves back beside it, fighting our last foes before the rest suddenly pull back, throwing down their weapons in surrender, I feel the heart celebrate.

Because something about it loves our glorious fighting, our unified Music, and our belief. I feel it celebrate not just in our victory as it heaves pure Music out with us, but in our ability to become unified as one.

As if that was what it wanted all along, the heart suddenly gives a single, thundering beat. Harder than anything it’s yet done, that pump hammers a ring of white light out all around it, spreading through the entire battle and everyone in it in a flooding wave.

I feel that incredible beat call to us; to Quinn, Ariana, and me, and all our people unified here in battle.

But it also calls to something else.

Which comes flooding in now—terrible in the night.