NORTHERN ONTARIO
10 NOV 2011, 22:55 EST
Donna and Gwen closed in on the tiny aircraft racing through the sky, then teleported aboard. “Thank goodness you’re safe.”
Bunhill, currently a crystalline figurine of a rabbit-woman, nodded to them somberly. “No ill effects so far. Maybe we’re moving too fast for them.”
“Or it might be that we no longer use death magic,” claimed Henry from the pilot’s seat. He was still mostly human, scaled to suit the small craft. He did look much younger than Donna recalled from their last visit.
“Hopefully that’s it,” agreed Duncan. “It would make this easier. But for now, we might as well keep moving, it has worked so far.”
“How bad is the situation?” asked Bunhill. “We were heading to the Director’s office when we got your call.”
“Pretty bad. I mean, think about it. Canada had something like twenty ghouls, and we’re not exactly the most populous of places. Especially back when magic flipped from Solar to Lunar. They’re talking about thousands of portals. Apparently the Americans can locate them with their satellites.”
“That’s quite the trick,” said Henry. “How on earth did they manage that so quickly?”
“They’ve been studying the Detroit portal since it opened,” Duncan replied. “I guess they’ve had time and motivation.”
“Studying demons? Fearful work, that. Does bad things to you.”
Duncan chuckled wryly. “I noticed. And the demons themselves did bad things to the research team. Still, with the right weaponry they can be defeated. They seem to be allergic to cobalt.”
“And the world can be swiftly armed with such?”
Duncan sighed. “No. I imagine the Americans can pull it off, but elsewhere... ugh.”
“So we need a solution with global reach,” said Henry.
“We are open to any and all suggestions,” chimed Dia.
“We have to build a new Worldstone.”
“Oh sure. Just as simple as that,” grumbled Duncan. “I saw it before it got nuked, it was fantastically complex, layer upon layer upon layer. And I get the feeling that just rebuilding it as it was wouldn’t do the job.”
“No, I shouldn’t think so. Wilhelm’s library had several tomes speculating on the subject, and a copy of an ancient Greek scroll that seems decidedly on point given what you’ve told me.”
“Let me guess, Archimedes?”
“Why yes. How did you know?”
“He signed his work on the Worldstone. He’s the one that made the ‘add a new demon to the prohibited list’ easier to automate. Walt exploited that, and got us into this mess.”
“How long will it take?” asked Gwen.
They all waited, watching Henry. Eventually he sighed. “I can’t say. Archimedes’ notes are incomplete. We have most of the runes, but some are missing.”
“Show me,” commanded Duncan.
Henry took his hands off the controls of the plan to gesture in the air. Buhill squeaked and grabbed for the copilot controls.
A series of sigils appeared in the air, seven, a gap, and seven more. “I don’t know what the missing five runes would be.”
“As I thought...” Duncan brought up a ghostly replica of the Worldstone, with its enchantments glowing in an intricate series of shells, each as complex as a Faberge egg. The display zoomed in on one region, and a copy of Henry’s sigils appeared. “It looks like there have been some transcription errors as well, but...”
Henry stared at it in wonder. “With such a map, there is no chance we can fail.”
“But there’s still the question of time. How long?”
“How fast can you scribe?” asked Henry, looking at Gwen.
“Fast enough. Faster, once I get some practice at it.” Gwen gestured at the display, and it zoomed in further. “Do we really need all of this? Each of these layers only adds one thing, another demonic form to exclude. Until we get right down to the core.”
With all the outer layers stripped away, the center of the enchantment glowed before them. It was not as complex as those above, as each layer had needed to balance against the ones before it, growing complexity with each step. The runes were like nothing they had ever seen before, circles upon circles, nesting and shaping so that it was hard to tell the functional from the artistic. Perhaps it all was.
“It’s so beautiful,” sighed Gwen.
“I know,” said Duncan as they turned their attention away from the display. “Careful, I got caught staring at it and lost all sense of time.”
“I can see why. So much to unpack...” Gwen shook herself, a little golden dust scattering around her. “Right. We can do this. We need the core, and one layer containing all the demon images. It’s doable.”
“The question is, then, is it necessary? We should check with Brown, he’ll have a better idea how the war is going.”
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 20:56 MST
“What is the meaning of this?” stormed the new arrival. Colonel Morrow was a small man with a powerful build, thinning hair, and lips that seemed to always settle into a sardonic sneer.
“Your assistance is required. And we need to make sure you are not compromised.”
Colonel Morrow flinched away from the cobalt ingot Agent Brown approached him with. “What is that?” he hissed. He struggled against the guards holding his arms, but in vain.
Brown touched the cobalt to Morrow’s skin, and the man suddenly slumped as if his strings had been cut. “Damn. No wonder I couldn’t touch the spell. Demonic magic really is something else.”
“Can you remove it?”
“Don’t have to. It’s already crumbling. How do you feel?”
Morrow shook his head dazedly. “Like someone just whacked me upside the head with a metal brick. What the hell was that?”
“You’ve been studying demons. You know exactly what it was.”
Colonel Morrow’s eyes widened. “We are in deep, deep trouble.”
General Shepard pointed up at the big board. “That map shows all the demonic incursions, and a rough idea of their spread.”
The Colonel cursed floridly. “How the hell did they get out?”
“The spell that kept them at bay is gone. Now we’ve got some holding actions around Atlanta that make it look like we have a chance... but once they finish with the rest of the world, it could get bad.”
“No kidding. They could swarm us from every direction, and without trade...”
“What we need to know most of all, is whether or not we’re going to face any further portals. You brought the maps?”
Morrow nodded toward the third guard that had entered with him. “In the tube.”
They unfurled the map, and compared it to the big board. “Okay. We’ve got two significant anomalies, both of which seem to be good news.”
Agent Brown nodded. “Duncan was in northern Mexico, perhaps he can shed some light.” His phone chimed. “Speak of the devil.”
“I think we have enough of those already,” grumbled the General.
Brown answered the call with “Doomsday Central, Agent Brown speaking.”
“How bad is it?” asked Duncan. “We might have an idea, but it requires rushing some very delicate work. How long can the world hold out?”
Brown studied the map, then looked to the General. “How long can we hold?”
“Central Europe was cleared of thanovores two decades ago, part of Walt’s deal to build a Disneyland in Paris. Same for Japan. China’s six warlords meant portals in some of their biggest cities, and Russia just lost Moscow. South America, Africa, and the Middle East are just... fucked. Except Israel. Something weird happened there, all the portals in the region got redirected to Tel Megiddo, and the twelve-fold incursion there got annihilated. Someone knew what was coming.”
“Okay. So the civilized world is... in tatters, but not hopeless.”
“Look at East Germany. The swarms there have been heading west, and I don’t think they’ll stop until they hook up with the forces from Portugal and Spain. Two of the Chinese swarms are already heading toward Japan. Honestly, by morning it’ll be us and Israel. The next day? I don’t like our odds.”
“Did you get all that?” Brown asked Duncan.
“You paint a grim picture. We’ll get started on this idea, and see if we can beat the clock.”
“One more question before you go. There are two ghouls running cartels in northern Mexico, but there are no portals there. You were in the area, do you know what happened?”
Donna chuckled warmly. “Two acts of kindness. I saved those ghouls, much as I saved Bunhill and Henry.”
“Well, your acts of kindness may have saved millions of lives. Imagine if demons were swarming through San Diego right now.”
The line went silent for a long time. “My family is there,” whispered Donna. “I’ve protected them, but magic doesn’t stand against demons.”
“If we don’t get those portals shut...”
“On it.”
*** *** ***
NORTHERN ONTARIO
10 NOV 2011, 22:59 EST
“Okay. We need a new Worldstone. Henry, Bunhill, what are we looking for?”
“Best would be a large, single crystal, still embedded in the rock where it formed to maximize the sympathetic connection to the world.”
“Makes sense. Now the question is, where to find a good one? We’re flying over the Canadian Shield, some of the oldest rocks on Earth. So somewhere around here should be a really good one. But where?”
They were all silent for a few moments. “Vanessa has an idea,” said Gwen.
“Vanessa?”
“Here,” chimed Vanessa’s voice from Gwen’s crystalline body. “Gwen left a crystal here at the club. We’ve been following what we can.”
“Are you all safe?”
“So far. Sounds like that might change unless you guys can pull off another miracle.”
“It is what we do,” said Donna proudly. “But we need a proto-Worldstone to work our magic.”
“Resonance. You need to ring a chime that will make your candidate sing. And to find the best one, it’ll need to be loud.”
“One Worldbell, coming up. You might want to cover your ears.”
Duncan blinked outside the plane, and settled into a more coherent union with their three parts. They summoned the ghost of the Worldstone, and grew it until it was ten meters across. Its outer shell became real, magic-infused crystal. Then they poured power into it until it detonated, filling the sky with an impossible sound, almost too low for mortal ears to hear.
Moments later, a bright echo returned, from the northwest. Duncan marked the path with a glowing line, rebuilt the aircraft, and the four of them followed the trace wherever it would lead.
*** *** ***
HIGHWAY 78
ATHENS, GA
10 NOV 2011, 23:00 EST
A sharp crackle of gunfire caused another wing of flying monkeys to tumble to the ground and burst into ash. “That’s the last of ‘em. Keep your eyes peeled, boys!”
“Bob, there’s something advancing up the highway. Looks like a cross between a rhino and an Abrams.”
Bob grabbed his binoculars, and scanned the road ahead of them. “Looks like a bunch of ‘em. Light ‘em up as they get into range.”
Unfortunately, the hides of the rhino-tanks were made of sterner material than their rifles could handle, and the column continued to advance.
“This ain’t workin’. Did Coot ever get any 50 cal modified?”
“Dunno. Let’s go back and ask.”
As the fire group started to retreat, the world echoed with a sound as big as the sky. The demons stopped, and turned their gaze to the north.
“What in the name of all the saints was that?” asked Bob when he could hear again.
“Dunno. But it might be good news.”
“How’d you figure that?”
Jim pointed to the tanks. “They’re goin’ back.”