//------------------------------// // 740 - Turning Up the Heat // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Lex wasn’t able to react in time as the monster bore down on him. Fatigue, injury, and surprise all conspired against him in those few seconds as the seven-headed monster closed the distance between them, shockingly fast for its size. While under normal circumstances that would have been sufficient time for him to not only think up a new plan, but begin acting on it, that level of acumen was beyond him in his current state. Instead, he could only stare at his approaching death, his thoughts a quagmire of disbelief, frustration, and regret. That last one came through the strongest, knowing that dying here would condemn so many others. Thermal Draft would die, her soul becoming nothing. The mares of Fail Forward would, in all likelihood, never make it back to civilization alive. The ponies in that nameless village they’d left would continue to be terrorized and slaughtered. Everyone who’d supported his nascent government back on Equestria would be persecuted by the alicorns. He’d never find out what had happened to Sonata, or Aria, or Nosey. Nor would he ever be able to bring Solvei back. It was more than he could bear, and as a massive set of jaws closed around him – one of the lower heads being the first to come within reach of him – Lex couldn’t hold back a howl of self-loathing, knowing that whatever hardships awaited him in the Night Mare’s afterlife would be nothing compared to spending eternity laboring under the guilt of how badly he’d failed everyone he’d ever known. But even as that thought consumed him, he felt a sudden sensation of magic...and realized that it was the only thing he felt, the pain of being crushed in the monster’s jaws not materializing. A moment later he saw why, as the humongous teeth hadn’t pierced his body. Nor could they, having stopped mere feet from his flesh, grinding furiously at the empty air as though having collided with an invisible wall. Or a force field, he realized, recognizing one of his own thaumaturgical spells. Except he hadn’t cast it, and yet he’d felt – not simply sensed, but personally felt – its activation, which meant... Despite his darkvision still being active, the flames in the creature’s eyes gave off enough visible light that Lex was able to see his shadow stretched in front of him, knowing that it had been what had saved him. More than that, it had done it with its own spell; although he’d prepared that force field spell when he’d renewed his thaumaturgical magic several days prior, it was still uncast in his thoughts, confirming again that his tulpa had actually prepared its own complement of spells. But he’d contemplated the mysteries of that rogue portion of his mind before, and knew that he’d make no headway on them now. Instead, I need to figure out what to do about this thing, he reminded himself, knowing that his needing to consciously focus like that was another indicator of just how degraded his condition had become. The monster, however, had gotten tired of gnawing fruitlessly on the force field protecting him, all seven heads growling as it stepped back slowly. Fourteen flame-filled sockets glared at him...only to fade to twelve a moment later. No. That wasn’t right. The flames in the eyes of one of the heads had died down to embers, but they were still glowing, albeit only barely, even as the others remained lit. If anything, they seemed brighter now than before. Then a second set of ocular fires dimmed. Then a third, and a fourth. Each time, the undiminished fires in the remaining heads seemed to burn brighter. By the time the flames in the eyes of the sixth head burned lower, less than a half-dozen heartbeats had gone by. That was more than enough time for Lex to figure out what was happening, but once again there was nothing he could do about it. Trying to dodge what was about to happen was impossible while inside his force field – even if he’d turned to shadow, which was iffy with how badly his reserves were drained, he wouldn’t have been able to pass through the magical barrier, which also extended underground – but if he lowered it now, there was a very real chance that the beast would strike before he’d be able to get out of the way. Making the choice to trust in the magic he’d invented, even if it had been his goddess-given tulpa that had cast it, Lex instead forced himself to stand fast and try and come up with a plan to subdue the creature. Then the monstrosity attacked. Seven roars of anger came from the creature’s throats as its central head – the fires in its sockets blazing so brightly that they shined like floodlights – fired twin beams of heat from its eyes. The rays lit up the cavern, and above deafening howls from the creature’s heads there was a loud hissing sound as the air itself was scorched by the passage of the beams. Crossing the distance to their target in an instant, they slammed into the force field...which somehow managed to hold against the onslaught. But even as Lex watched, a crack slowly began to spread across the featureless surface of the transparent dome protecting him, fault lines inching their way outward from where the blazing hot rays continued to beat against the barrier. His force field spell could last for just over a dozen minutes if he didn’t end it prematurely, but a quick calculation told Lex that he didn’t have anywhere near that long now. While not in danger of collapsing in the next few seconds, the creature’s heat beams would bring it down long before its duration would expire naturally. Fortunately, that was more than enough time for him to get ready. His next attempt to bind the creature using the shard of divinity that the Night Mare had given him wouldn’t fail. That this thing, whatever it was, had managed to throw off divine authority the first time he’d used it meant that it was on the same level as Tlerekithres, having enough personal power that it couldn’t be easily be forced into submission. But that didn’t mean it was completely immune to being controlled; quite the contrary, he’d managed to ensnare it for a moment, before it had fought its way free. Tlerekithres had accomplished much the same, but Lex had been able to increase the level of power thrown at the creature, at which point only its magic had allowed it to keep fighting. But according to the Keeper, the beast he was facing now wasn’t sapient, which meant that it had no similar magic to fall back on. And while Lex didn’t dare try to bolster divine authority with his own magic the way he had back in Vanhoover – in his current condition that would probably exacerbate his injuries to the point of passing out – he’d learned during his time with Solvei that proper concentration allowed for more effective use of divine authority. It was, after all, nothing less than forcing reality itself to confirm to his will; as such, the more focused his will was, the more he could do with the power the Night Mare had given him. Of course, there were some limits he couldn’t surpass that way. As far as he knew, nothing could extend the duration past sixty seconds, nor could he make use of divine authority from more than thirty feet away, nor bring it to bear more than thirteen times in a single day. That last one was a limit he hadn’t previously hit during a fight, but was on the precipice of doing so now, having already called upon it well over a half-dozen times during his altercations with Sissel and Ganas. Similarly, he couldn’t bring divine authority to bear from behind the safety of his force field. Whether because the Night Mare disapproved of utilizing her power from a place of security or simply because of some quirk inherent in the ability itself, divine authority could only reach a target if there were no intervening barriers between himself and them. Which meant that he would only have a single shot at making this work, since when the field went down there’d be nothing keeping the creature from coming at him. While his tulpa had already intervened once, Lex couldn’t bring himself to count on it doing so again, especially since he had no idea how many spells it had stored away. Of course, that likely wouldn’t matter anyway. His tulpa notwithstanding, he had plenty of other spells to call upon, but comparing his current state to the sheer ferocity that the creature was exhibiting now, it was hard for him to imagine that they’d be enough to overcome it. Particularly since he needed to bring it back alive anyway; the Keeper had made it clear he had no interest in it if it were dead. Which meant that divine authority was his only real chance of ending this the way he needed. The only question now was when to drop the force field. It can’t possibly keep those heat beams up for long, Lex decided, watching as the cracks continued to spiderweb across the force field. It should only have so much energy to power them with! Apparently no one had told it that, however. Silently counting in case he needed to know how long the thing could keep up this line of attack, Lex felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of his neck as the heat from the shining rays slowly bled in through the cracks, the passing seconds stretching into minutes. But there was no sign of the creature tiring, overheating, or otherwise running out of power. Worse, the entire front half of the force field had become a mess of fissures, and they were slowly working their way toward the back of the dome as its structure continued to buckle under the relentless assault. If this went on much longer... Suddenly, the creature howled again, clawed feet scraping over the uneven floor as its patience – rather than its stamina – finally gave out. An instant later the radiant shafts of light ceased to batter the force field. But not because the creature had stopped using its heat beams. Instead, it turned them upward. For the second time in less than five minutes, Lex’s surprise was complete as the creature blasted the ceiling of the cave directly above his position. In an instant rubble fell, the shards of stone bouncing off the force field. But the creature didn’t cease, instead bobbing its head as it carefully wove the beams in a circle, shearing off large chunks of the cavern roof, causing massive slabs of stone to fall onto the damaged hemisphere. As marred as it was, it still held, but Lex barely noticed, instead turning all of his attention toward the significance of the creature’s new line of attack. This is the same tactic I was going to try against the Keeper! Although he hadn’t had a chance to put it into practice, his injuries having caught up with him before he could make the attempt, this was identical to what he’d planned in order to get around the Night Mare’s prohibition against killing another of her adherents within the Shrine: attack the ceiling, causing pieces of it to fall and crush the Keeper beneath them. There was no way this thing could have known that, of course. He’d never put that idea to use, so even if this was some sort of elaborate plot on the Keeper’s part to kill him, Lex knew the undying pony couldn’t have fed this monster that information. Nor was there any suggestion that the seven-headed behemoth had somehow stolen the idea from him directly; as badly as he’d depleted his dark magic, it wasn’t completely spent, and he felt certain that it would have kicked in if this thing had tried to somehow look at his memories. But just because this was a coincidence didn’t undercut how important its implications were. What that monster was doing now was beyond the reasoning of a wild beast. It required a level of creativity that something with the cognition of an animal wasn’t capable of. Which meant that everything the Keeper had told him about this creature’s lack of intelligence had been wrong, and that even if he somehow dragged it back, that floating skull wouldn’t be able to make this thing sapient. Because it already was.