Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (23 page)

“Fine, you can go,” Jonathan said reluctantly. “But you’re letting me take you out for dinner tomorrow night, somewhere proper in Tropica.”

Alice thought about it for a while. With her spontaneous kiss it seemed that she had gone too far to turn back now. Her relationship with Jonathan was going to happen and that was that. While there was still a world left for them to have a relationship in.

“Fine, you have a deal mister,” Alice said, going to shake his hand.

Instead, Jonathan leaned in and kissed her again. This time their tongues brushed, and Alice’s mind filled with sparkles and stars. “Deal,” he said softly afterwards.

“Why don’t we go tonight?” Alice asked. “After I’m done in the Gloom.”

Jonathan chuckled. “It is the night, Alice. By the time you get back from the Gloom it will probably be morning.”

Alice shook her head. Being a bad sleeper and goddess-knows how far beneath the surface did not mix well. “Okay, tomorrow night it is then,” she said happily.

Jonathan had been right. By the time they had gathered some free Trinity and Inquisition guards, got themselves equipped and headed to another safe house, it was already in the early hours of the next day. They had arrived at a mansion in north-western Rura, deep in the forested hills near the mountains at the far edge of the continent, which was used regularly as an outpost and a Catacomb entrance and exit for Trinity members in the region. Unlike her other safe house visits, this time they had been greeted by other members of the Trinity of Old, all dressed down in casual wear but clearly Supernaturals with their red, purple and yellow eyes. The place was also very old but it had been looked after a great deal more than the other safe houses that she’d seen. Like the times before, Alice occupied one of the rooms on the second floor to make her crossing, and Jonathan stayed in there to await her return while the guards mingled with the mansion watchers.

The trip had been just what she needed, a chance to vent her rage and clear her head, although she had avoided obvious harm and danger a little more than her other visits; she had plans with Jonathan that she definitely wanted to be intact for. Alice stocked up quickly and carefully, only entering combat when she knew that she could win without a doubt, and left the dark dimension without a scratch.

After the sickening blur of inter-dimensional travel had ended, Alice minimised her book, slid it back in the thigh compartment of her power armour, and turned to greet Jonathan. She had expected to see him standing close to her with a big smile on his face, but instead he wasn’t even in the room. Alice left the room and saw him standing by the wooden balcony that ran alongside the inside of the second floor.

“What’s going on?” she asked frantically. There were guards downstairs by the front door peeking out of the windows and arguing about what to do.

Before Jonathan could answer, an extremely voluptuous Vampire woman covered head to toe in dirt and green gore smashed through the wooden front doors. Armed with a glistening sword, the woman made for the central staircase that would take her up to where Alice and Jonathan were standing.

Alice gripped her hammer and moved towards the staircase when a second intruder smashed into the mansion, taking the front door and most of the surrounding wall with it. Trinity guards and Inquisitors were blown away from the scene, and Jonathan and Alice fell to the floor.

From the floor, Alice watched an armoured Demon woman, who was a horrendous pink and black spider from the torso down, as it shook off the debris and make room for itself within the building’s large hallway entrance. It immediately swung a gigantic obsidian blade at the Vampire woman. The Vampire narrowly dodged the attack and hit the stairs face first with a thud. Without thinking twice, driven purely on instinct, Alice got to her feet and launched herself over the wooden railings.

The Spider Demon reversed her hold on the serrated blade and lifted it, ready to execute the Vampire before it could get up. Alice wasn’t in range to strike with her spell-forged hammer so she drew her submachine gun and fired wildly at the foul creature. Plasma bolts pinged off its black and silver plate armour or sizzled into its chitinous hide with little to no effect. Spotting a large crystal chandelier above, Alice aimed at it and fired as accurately as she could whilst still advancing towards the Demon. The bright blue energy bolts connected and the chandelier came crashing down onto the creature’s shoulders and abdomen, and slid off onto the floor. The Lord Inquisitor’s attack had little effect, but the Demon turned away from the Vampire, and with a distorted hiss it slammed one of its armoured legs down towards Alice. She rolled out of the way only to find herself in the path of the Demon’s massive black sword, but a shockwave from above deterred the attack.

It was Jonathan. However, the Mage couldn’t help for long; a giant dark green spider ploughed through the window at his level, and was soon followed by another. He blasted them to pieces with his force magic but more made their way into the building, and soon the place was filled with the horrible Gloom giant spiders. Trinity Supernaturals retaliated with guns, melee weapons, fangs and claws, and magical attacks. Alongside them, the Inquisitors swept through the eight-legged horrors with swaths of plasma energy and high powered bullets.

As Alice recomposed herself she saw that the Vampire woman had got up onto her feet, slung her bag to the side, and readied herself in an uneasy attempt at a sword fighter’s stance. Underneath her soaking wet raven black hair and layers of dirt and grime, Alice could see a beautiful and determined face, and she immediately recognised her from the Omni’s propaganda. It was Veronica Reynolds, Winston’s wife.

An intensely hot explosion from behind made Alice stumble forward, and she turned to see that room behind her had been incinerated by witchfire. Some Inquisitors and Supernaturals had been caught in the blast, and they wailed and screamed as the unnatural magical fire consumed them. As a Trinity Mage sent waves of frost and ice towards the green flames, a demented humanoid stumbled in through the charred hole in the wall that its attack had created. It was some sort of repulsively deformed half-Mage half-Demon, and Alice was sickened to the core at the sight of the cackling crippled hybrid. It sent another blast towards the Trinity Mage but Alice quickly suppressed it. The Mage sent two long lances of ice flying towards the hybrid and they shot right into its chest, pinning it to the floor at an awkward angle. Alice ran towards it and smashed her hammer down onto its madly laughing half-masked head, knocking it clean off its shoulders. The body slumped onto its icy restraints, and parts of it bubbled and melted into a bubbling black pool that stank of death itself.

Veronica was going toe-to-toe with the Spider Demon, dodging its stabbing bladed legs and sweeping obsidian sword, striking back where possible, but the Demon was giving her little opportunity for retaliation. The Vampire Bloodmage shot her wispy red magic at the creature but it only managed to singe a few blood vessels and scorch some patches of pink and black skin, and any magic directed against the Demon’s armour simply dissipated on impact. Veronica finally got a lucky break when Jonathan directed another shockwave at the Demon in-between fighting its dark green minions. She savagely hacked at one of its front legs, and her blade flashed as it bit through the armour, corrupt chitin and blackened flesh within, severing it completely.

The now seven-legged Demon screeched so loudly the glass in the mansion cracked, and it redoubled its assault on Veronica. As Alice rushed to join the fight as she had originally intended, she noticed that the Demon was unusually obsessed with attacking the Vampire. It was surrounded by enemies, but the only thing it was interested in was Winston Reynolds’ wife.

Alice swung her hammer sideways, snapping another one of its legs off. The wound gushed out black coagulated blood, and the Demon screamed and suddenly slashed downwards at the Lord Inquisitor. The serrated blade gouged along her shoulder pad and into down into her breast plate, before the Spider Demon wrenched it out with such force that the shoulder section of her power armour was torn off completely, and Alice was launched off her feet. She crashed into the wall but moved as quickly as she was able. A bladed leg shot right into the space that she had landed in only seconds before.

Veronica didn’t waste any time, deftly launching herself towards the humanoid body of the Demon and clambering behind it. She began rapidly swinging her spell-forged blade at the Demon’s head, but as the creature bucked and rocked, the best she could manage was glancing strikes on its well armoured torso. Veronica grabbed a hold of its pink ponytail to steady herself as the bucking beast tried in vain to rid itself of its vampiric rider.

Down on the ground, Alice was dancing dangerously around as she deftly dodged the six remaining bladed legs. As Veronica continued to pester the Demon’s upper form, Alice was afforded with more chances to strike. Unfortunately the damage to her armour had caused her right arm to seize up at random, leaving her to fight less effectively with her wrong hand. The sound of metal clanking on metal continued from above and as Alice dodged another stabbing leg she smashed through another, without pausing for a breath she ran under the Spider Demon’s hideous body and slammed off another on the other side.

The Demon thrashed, bucked and screeched. It could no longer sustain its own weight and crashed to the ground. Veronica let go of its plume and slashed sideways, cutting through hair and then neck, and in a flash of bright light the Spider Demon was decapitated. The masked head rolled off along the floor towards Alice and she stopped it with her foot like it was a football. The Lord Inquisitor swung her hammer down with her left hand, and with a bright spark of white light and a massive crash, the head burst into rank black pieces. Alice felt like she was developing quite the knack for crushing Demon skulls into bits.

The Spider Demon’s body quickly decomposed and melted into a huge pool of corrupt stinking black sludge. Without their master, the giant spiders became uncoordinated and confused, and some even scuttled off casually like nothing had happened. Any Supernaturals gifted in the art of healing magic quickly tended to the wounded when the battle was clearly over.

Veronica seemed to snap out of her battle fury and realised with a start that she was surrounded by enemies. She backed up the massive staircase with her sword held out in front of her, and red magic danced in-between her fingertips in her free hand. Jonathan walked slowly down the stairs towards her with his hands held out in a gesture of peace.

“It’s okay; we’re not going to hurt you,” Jonathan said calmly. “Who are you?”

“She’s Veronica Reynolds,” Alice said as she released the catches on her ruined armour. “Isn’t that right?”

Veronica nodded slowly. “How did you know that?”

“You put your wedding on television,” Alice replied dryly.

“Oh... yeah,” Veronica said dazed. The wedding seemed like a lifetime ago to her, after the recent barrage of unpleasant events.

“What did they want with you? I thought they were on your side,” Jonathan asked a bit more guardedly than before.

“I’m in the Archmage’s way,” Veronica admitted angrily. She had no reason to lie if they were going to kill her soon, especially not to save Omniosis’ foul hide. “So he sent an old friend to kill me.”

“Lewis Thorne?” Alice guessed as she freed herself of more defunct power armour.

“How-?” Veronica stuttered.

“Your friends Alexander and Brooke told me that he walked them straight into a trap,” Alice replied. “And yes, they’re alive and well on Central Isle,” she added before the confused Vampire could ask.

Veronica’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to kill that lying two-faced bastard Lewis, I swear.” For a drawn out moment, Veronica locked eyes with Alice. “Who are you anyway? Apart from an extremely powerful Book Wielder,” she said, gesturing to her eyes.

“I am Lord Inquisitor Alice Eve, and yes, I am also a Book Wielder.” Alice gestured to Jonathan. “This is Jonathan Knight of the Trinity of Old.”

Veronica laughed. “Wait – you’re the leader of the Inquisition
and
a Book Wielder? This shit is getting so messed up!”

“Believe me, I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I found out about the news of my Supernatural status,” Alice grumbled.

“So... are you going to kill me?” Veronica said casually. “Because we may as well stop the foreplay and get down to business if that’s the case.”

“I don’t see why I would,” Alice said coolly. “We have the same enemy now, after all. Besides, I could use your help with talking some sense into your husband.”

“We need to make him see that he’s being manipulated by the Archmage,” Jonathan added.

“So you’re the reason I’m here,” Veronica said mystically to Alice. “You work for the goddesses?”

It was Alice’s turn to be confused. “What do you mean, and how do you know that?”

Veronica shook her filthy head side to side quickly. “I… I sometimes see things, or feel things, things that guide me. I was on my way to steal a ride to Industria when I came this way instead, looking for this mansion. And in all honesty, I don’t know how I know about you and the Goddesses. I take it that they’re real after all then?”

Alice sighed. It looked like she’d met yet another seer. “Don’t worry, I get it. It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like that. We’ll get you to Central Isle, to your friends Brooke and Alexander, and you can all get on the radio to Imperia City. Maybe you can all get Winston to believe just how much danger he and the rest of the world will be in if he carries on doing what he is doing.”