Apostles of Doom

Gadius and Gaius poked their heads and shoulders out of their door, as did Sir Lady Serah. Barabus gestured at them to follow. They headed down the corridor.

As they passed Heron’s quarters, Barabus stuck his head in. “We’ve got a signal!” he said.

Heron leaped to his feet. “Indeed? This is an astoundingly amazing accomplishment; the odds are astronomical!” he exclaimed.

They all made their way towards the bridge. As senior leaders, they were all quartered on the same deck as the bridge, so they had no need to scuttle up or down ladders. They all filed onto the bridge, where the Captain and XO were working over the mapping table.

“We’ve got a lock on a signal!” Temerlain told them.

There was a clattering noise as Sir Samwell sat up straight in a chair he’d been lounging in. “You’ve detected Talarius?” he asked incredulously.

“Well, we’ve detected a Holy Emanation of Tiernon. There is not going to be anyone else outside of the ship doing that,” Temerlain pointed out.

Sir Samwell made an expression of… well… uncertain agreement? Barabus was not sure how to interpret the knight’s expression.

“Where?” Captain Cranshall asked.

“Here are the approximate direction and distance from our current location.” Temerlain handed XO Stevensword a small piece of paper. The XO tapped some buttons on the edge of the map table and a green dot appeared on the map, which was currently set to the scanning range of the Inferno, with the Inferno being a red dot in the center.

“Near the edge of our range,” CSO Halferth noted.

“Did we not scan that region in one of our earliest sets?” Captain Cranshall asked.

Halferth’s brow furrowed in thought, and then he grimaced. “It would have been at the outer range. We are trying to do have some overlap.”

Sir Samwell had been staring at the dot, his brow also furrowed. “I think that must be a false positive. There is nothing there — no fortress, no city, no volcano.”

“You seem to know your Abyssal geography,” Gaius commented somewhat sarcastically.

“You spend enough time being chased by demons, you get a pretty good idea of hiding places. There really is nothing there, or at least there should be nothing there. I would find it very odd if your demon was held up there,” Sir Samwell stated, ignoring the sarcasm. To Barabus, he seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Well, what else do we have to do here, other than look?” Sir Lady Serah asked.

Chancellor Alighieri, who had entered the bridge during their conversation, chuckled. “I believe the good lady is correct.”

Captain Cranshall nodded. “To that location then, Stevensword, set course.”

Chapter 136

Astlan, Orcan Plains, Twenty Leagues

Southwest of Jötunnhenj: Early Fifth Period

Tal Gor scanned the sky around them from Schwarzenfürze’s back as they continued on their journey, now fully armored and hopefully prepared for battle. He had to use the term “hopefully” because none of the orcs had any experience in aerial combat. Yes, they had done air-to-ground attacks against animals while hunting for the feast, but fighting enemies in the air? That was not something many orcs ever did. True, there were stories of orc tribes that had tamed dragons, but that seemed a bit fanciful.

It had been a bit difficult to get Schwarzenfürze fully fitted out again, as she had suddenly decided she wanted a snack of plain grass and shrubs. It was just like the stubborn D’Warg, to get hungry just when they needed to prepare for battle. He was chasing her around, trying to make sure everything was in place. Eventually, however, he had gotten her properly fitted and his own weapons readied and in place for quick switching in combat.

The D’Orcs had recommended that all the orcs start with crossbows for distance combat. As with Tal Gor’s staff, the D’Warg harness had long tethers that could be knotted to iron rings on the crossbows, ensuring they would not fall if dropped. That was critical when one had to switch to close-quarter combat with axes or swords.

Of course, it was not at all clear to Tal Gor how that would work, not without accidentally slicing a D’Warg. Zargvarst, however, had assured them that unless their weapons were magical, they would not be able to seriously harm the D’Wargs, other than to perhaps throw off their balance or impede their wings’ motion.

Lob Smasher’s primary battle axe was inscribed with runes of power, so that would be a problem, other than that none of the orcs had any arcane weapons that would harm the D’Wargs. Except for Tal Gor, of course. His staff was a shamanic staff, and its mana pool stored his mana. It had some other shamanic properties as well; however, as far as he knew, the blade, metal teeth and mace parts of it were not magical.