The first sign Jadis saw of Glanum was a shining yellow light rising high into the sky.
Initially, Jadis wasn’t sure what the light was. The sun had just lowered below the horizon and the landscape had been blanketed in twilight darkness that made it hard to see anything clearly. When she spotted the strange golden light above an indistinct outcropping in the distance, she thought it was just an unusually bright star. However, as the minutes passed and they flew ever closer, the star increased in size and brightness.
“What is that?” Jay pointed over Aila’s shoulder.
“I believe it is a spell,” the redhead said as she adjusted the flight path of the Leviathan to point more directly towards the shining light. “It’s illuminating the area below it. I am also almost certain that it is positioned directly over the city of Glanum.”
“Yes, it should be,” Alban agreed as he studied the map he had pinned to a board that he held in his hands. “The road is on our left, and that hill with the four peaks is on our right. Glanum and the river Haliax should be dead ahead.”
So it was a flare. Possibly a signal of some kind, but Jadis agreed with Aila that it was more likely being used as a method to provide light for people to see by. She doubted anyone would put a giant glowing sign over their heads, attracting the attention of every Demon within miles, just because they needed a little illumination for the regular activities of a city after dark, though. No, that much light wouldn’t go up in the sky without the orders of the person in charge, which meant that the military commander overseeing Glanum needed good vision for their soldiers. Which also meant that they weren’t worried about attracting the attention of Demons. Probably because the Demons were already there.
While her Jay self stayed by Aila and Alban in the cockpit, her other two selves exited the airship to stand on either side of the railed balconies. Dys went out on the left and was joined by Eir, Thea, Sabina, Severina, Meli, and Violetta. Syd went out on the right, followed by Kerr, Bridget, Sorcha, Alex, Maeve, and Noll. Split up as they were, there was plenty of room on the balconies for them all to fit, though Jadis had to make sure her selves stood at the back to avoid blocking the view for anyone else.
“I recognize that spell,” Severina said, having to raise her voice due to the cold wind whipping past them. “That is the work of Aelius. He is a Seraphim, and a Paladin of Valtar assigned to this front along with several others”
As Severina spoke, Jadis made sure that her Jay and Syd selves repeated her words to those who were near them, just to make sure everyone was equally informed. They didn’t have a communication network yet, but Jadis could fill the role in a pinch.
“What about those?” Bridget asked, pointing to the airship’s right.
Looking where the orc was pointing, Syd saw that several orange balls of fire had slowly lifted up from the land and were arcing away from them, basically going in the same direction as they were. As she watched, several more burning orbs of various sizes appeared across the horizon, stretching miles to the northeast and southwest. In a matter of moments, the number of lights in the air went from dozens to at least a hundred.
“Fire balls,” Noll growled as he leaned forward, his clawed hands on the rails of the airship. “Wizard spells. That many at once…”
“It’s a full-scale attack,” Severina spoke calmly. “Jadis, tell Aila to keep well away from the line. We don’t want the ship to be hit by an allied spell or whatever the Demons might have on their side. I’ll go tell Tegwyn.”
With that, the Seraphim leapt over the side of the platform, her wings spread wide. With supernatural grace, she flitted away under the keel of the airship, reappearing in Syd’s sight before flying over to the Behemoth. Jadis didn’t focus too much on Severina’s flight, though, as she saw the huge wave of fire spells land.
Huge gouts of flame rose up from where the orbs hit, briefly lighting up the darkened landscape with a hellish blaze. Most of the spots where the fireballs hit quickly fizzled out, which told Jadis that there wasn’t much to burn where the spells were landing. Still, just the sheer magnitude of the fires hitting along the wide stretch of landscape was awe inspiring.
“I suggest we unroll the flags,” Aila said as she made a slight adjustment to their course. “Just to be sure.”
“Agreed,” Jay nodded as her other two selves set about unwrapping the large bolts of thick cloth they had stored in rolls outside.
Two identical banners, both sporting the full regalia of the imperial standard, were pushed over the rails of the balconies on either side of the Leviathan. Jadis knew from testing that they were large enough that anyone standing on the ground should be able to easily see the blue eagle and recognize that the airship was with the empire. They had another flag that could be flown on the Behemoth, but they hadn’t put it on before launching that morning, which was an oversight on their part. Still, Jadis was sure that anyone could tell that the two ships were together.
As they drew closer, the walls and towers of the city became clearer, as did other aspects of the landscape that Jadis had not been able to see at a distance.
Glanum was situated on a bend in a wide river called the Haliax. The river flowed from the northeast to the southwest, where miles away it eventually emptied into the Siren Sea. There were many of those low hills covered in tall grass and scrub brush around the city, along with low, wide trees grown in orderly orchards that looked almost flat from above due to their unusually shaped branches. A large, earthen berm had been built up along the southern shore of the Haliax, tall enough that Jadis doubted that the river would be visible from ground level. There were walls and towers lining the top of the berm as it stretched off into the distance, and even though it was hard to see, she could tell that the structures were roughly done. It looked like the raised earth and walls had been built recently, likely in response to the demonic invasion.
The city itself was a multi-tiered fortress surrounded by a moat on one side that was fed by the river. The tall outer wall of the first tier was ringed with solid towers that had blazing beacons shining from their tops like lighthouses. The densest collection of buildings was in that lowest level of the city, with no structure taller than three stories. The next tier of the city was raised up, with its own walls and guard towers surrounding it. The buildings in the second tier were far larger and less densely packed, though they didn’t appear to necessarily be residential mansions. Many of the structures located on the second tier had the look of either scholarly institutions or public works. The third and final tier of the layered city was by far the smallest in terms of area, but it was also the tallest. Huge towers interlaced with marble pillars rose up towards the center of the middle tier. The dense structure looked like a mix between a castle and a reversed roman colosseum, where the stone seats were on the outside and led up to a circular central tower.
“Do you see that?” Kerr asked, her voice almost too quiet for Syd to hear over the wind.
“See what?” Syd asked as she squinted at the walls of the city.
“Look at the ground,” the archer said, pointing a clawed finger. “Beyond the river.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Confused by the directions, Jadis swept all three sets of her eyes across the terrain on the other side of the Haliax. The darkness of the early night made it hard to see, but the intermittent explosions of fiery spells would temporarily light up the landscape, giving Jadis moments of visibility. At first, she didn’t realize what she was looking at. She thought the dark masses she could see strewn across the ground were just the scorched remains of trees or other debris. Then she noticed that those charred multitudes were moving.
“Are those all Demons?” Syd asked in awe.
“Yes,” was Noll’s succinct reply.
There were thousands of Demons. Tens of thousands. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. A huge, writhing mass of barely comprehensible bodies flowing as one wave of destruction all along the northern bank of the river. Their numbers stretched far into the distance to both the east and west, touching everywhere the hail of wizardly spells were falling. Wherever a ball of magic fire would hit, the mass of Demons would part around the flames, revealing the ruination of trampled, barren earth beneath. As soon as the fire died down, the wave would rush back in, filling the space as the massive press of bodies continued their march forward.
A retching noise distracted Dys from the horrible scene. Looking to her side, she saw Meli leaning over the side of the rail, vomiting out the contents of her stomach.
“What’s wrong?” Dys asked as she put a hand on the Dryad’s shoulder.
“Are you well? Do you need healing?” Eir asked from Meli’s other side, one hand already glowing with holy light as she touched the thin woman.
“Can’t you feel it?” Meli asked, her voice shaking as she wiped her lips clean. “The poison. It’s all poisoned. The air. The water. The ground. It’s all polluted. The foulness burns my senses, even from here.”
Jadis couldn’t sense what the Dryad was referring to. Meli was a being centered around the health and growth of nature and the wilds, so she no doubt had some extra sensitivity that she lacked as a Nephilim. However, what Jadis could smell was a rotten odor on the wind. Smoke billowed up from where the mage fires were landing, but it wasn’t just burning Demon flesh that she could smell. There was terrible stench of death in the air, and it was only getting worse the closer they got to the city.
Not the city, Jadis corrected herself. The front lines were the source of the foul odor. It was the scent of destruction on the wind, seeded by the fanatical followers of the God of Death and Corruption.
“Bring us in over Glanum,” Jay told Aila. “I don’t think the timing of this attack is a coincidence. Samleos set up this party for us, and if I’m supposed to be the guest of honor, I don’t want to keep the fuckers waiting.”
“What should I do?” Alban asked, a nervous tinge to his voice.
“Once we get close, I’ll need you to take the controls,” Aila told the younger orc. “I’ll be needed out there. Sabina will come inside and provide the power. You just need to keep us steady.”
“Yes ma’am,” he nodded his head seriously, all business.
Outside, Jadis was having similar conversations with her companions.
“Sabina, Violetta, get inside,” Dys told the two women. “Stay next to the cockpit and stay away from the fighting.”
“I have my siege crossbow,” Sabina said, though she was already moving to the door.
“Keep it ready but stay in the cockpit. We need you there.”
As the two rushed inside, Dys turned to the three who remained on that side of the ship with her.
“None of us have ranged attacks,” she started by stating the obvious. “Until we land, there isn’t much we can do. Eir, I want you inside. Stay near the doors and be ready to heal anyone who needs it. There could be flying Demons.”
“Yes,” Eir agreed without argument.
“Thea, stick with Eir. Sorcha will stay with both of you, too. Protect them.”
Thea wordlessly saluted Dys, her expression as serious as steel.
“Meli, stay on this side of the ship with me. Since we don’t know what might attack us, we need to be here to respond if anything tries to get on board.”
“I can do that,” Meli nodded, her voice still a little shaky, though her resolve to fight was evident.
“Good,” Dys said as she turned back to the fore and eyed the approaching frontlines. “Because I think I can already see some shit in the air we aren’t going to like.”
As her Dys self gave orders, her Syd self was doing the same on her side of the ship. Everyone was getting ready for the upcoming fight in their own way, and even though Jadis could feel nerves prickling under her skin, she also felt confident in her power and the preparedness of her allies. Bridget was already exuding her Stamina Beacon, while Sorcha was in the process of using her stamina regeneration wand on everyone on the airship. With Eir around to heal her, the goblin witch was able to use her Minor Health Oblation multiple times to refill her magic reserves without having to worry about losing all her health. Even Noll got a boost from Sorcha, which was something she knew the powerful warrior would put to good use.
Glancing over at the silent veteran, Syd noticed that he was pulling out a long package that had been tied up in leather. She had seen it among the rest of his belongings he had brought with him on board the airship, but she hadn’t asked what it was. The answer to the unasked question was revealed when he untied the strings binding the package and pulled out a bundle of six-foot-long javelins with barbed heads.
As he stood with his bundle at the edge, he looked over at Syd with a frown on his wolfish face.
“Don’t tell me you still don’t carry a ranged option with you.”
“Okay, I won’t,” Syd shrugged.
“She doesn’t need a ranged option,” Kerr gloated as she put one foot on the top of the rail and readied her massive bow. “Not when she has me around.”
“Yes, she does,” Noll disagreed in his blunt way.
The sight of Kerr’s arrows and Noll’s javelins reminded Jadis of a resource that was available to her that she absolutely should take advantage of, even if it wasn’t ideal.
“Sorry, taking these,” Jay said to Sabina as she grabbed several large quivers of crossbow bolts that had been set by the wall near the smith’s oversized crossbow.
“You don’t want to take the crossbow?” Sabina asked as Jay delivered one quiver of thirty arrows to her Dys self.
“I’ll do better without it.”
Each bolt was about two feet in length and had a broadhead on the end. While it wouldn’t be as easy to throw as the purpose-made javelins that Noll had, Jadis felt confident that she could chuck some bolts a good distance if she needed to. And, as she heard the twang of Kerr’s bow shot echo over the wind, she knew she was going to get the chance to practice her throwing. Soon.
Dark shapes, once barely visible in the low light of the sky, were heading straight for the airships.
230