A Relatively Powerful Mage

Emelia stared at the display, too horrified to look away. People were being killed in droves, the powerful Azala easily slaughtering anyone who attempted to stop them. Conventional pre-integration firearms were almost completely ineffective, requiring nearly an entire magazine's worth of ammo to bring down a lower-level drone.

The largest of the Azala, the Titans, rampaged through with near impunity. They trampled over any unfortunate victim who was in their path, including vehicles, which were reduced to scrap. Fortunately, there were only around a dozen of those monsters.

Her focus was taken away from the gruesome display to one of another form. The field hospital had been set up in an auditorium, and the agonized shouts of the newly arrived injured could be heard from across the hall. At least Emelia could make herself useful now.

She moved throughout the massive room, triaging the various injuries. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that there were too many severe wounds for her to focus on full healing. She fought down a wave of nausea as she saw people with severe acid burns. One unfortunate person had their entire body covered in acid burns, their features completely disfigured. Almost worse than the physical injuries was their emotional turmoil. She could feel the terror of people who knew they were dying, the desperation of someone in such agony that they wanted it to end.

Emelia fought the urge to pour everything she had into saving victims who were on the brink of death. She could save any of them, but if she expended all her mana, saving one or two people, more would perish while she waited for her mana to recharge. Despite all her spells and abilities, she still had to triage the injured, and that meant condemning people to death.

She did her best to stay in control, not allowing her empathy to influence her capacity to save as many people as possible. She worked with determined efficiency, using magic to stabilize those with severe injuries. The first healing spell she used was Shared Burden, sacrificing her own HP and transferring it to the target. She used about half of her own HP, gaining the benefits of Martyr for any subsequent healing spells. She would have used even more HP, but the amount of pain would have impaired her judgment or even put the baby at risk. As it was, the pain was severe, exceeding the worst cramps she had ever experienced.

Fortunately, Emelia wasn't entirely reliant on magic. For slightly less severe cases, she relied on her mundane training as a nurse, which mainly consisted of applying bandages and setting up IVs. She also administered potions, treating them like any other medication. Unfortunately, all their supplies were woefully inadequate for the severity of the situation.

Despite her best efforts, the number of people coming in with severe injuries always exceeded the number of people she had healed. Sometimes, she didn’t even have a chance to save them, the victims having died before arriving. Nothing could compare to the pain and suffering within this room; the Chixel invasion and the fight against the Sentinals were minor skirmishes compared to the current carnage.

As the number of patients increased, the seemingly vast space became insufficient. People were forced to wait for a bed despite critical injuries that needed attention. The moans of the dying drowned out any other noise, and the stench of burning flesh mixed with excrement wafted through the auditorium. Many of the volunteers, who had little experience with such an unpleasant reality, quickly became ineffective as they succumbed to the morose environment.

Emelia had gone through her mana once, having expended it in a relatively short amount of time, when she felt Imri panic. A moment later, his thoughts came to her through their telepathic connection.

‘Any signs of Azala coming your way?’ Imri asked via their telepathic connection.

‘Not that I’m aware of. Why?’ Emelia replied.

‘I think I just spoke with the leader of this Azala incursion. They were threatening to come after you,’ Imri explained.

‘How do they even know about me?’

‘The queen got into my head and dug through my memories. She knows almost everything, including effective ways to threaten me,’ Imri reminded her.

This time, it was Emelia’s turn to panic. She had considered the queen's invasion of Imri’s memories as a sort of information leak, like a hacker getting access to your passwords. Unfortunately, it was much more than that; she knew everything about him and how he would respond. She even wondered if the queen knew him better than she did.

‘Don’t worry, I think it’s still me and the world core that they’re after. I think this is just a means to make me fight on their terms. If they try anything, I’ll be there in an instant, but in the meantime, I’m going to try to get some of my mana back,’ Imri explained, having misjudged the source of her concern.

‘I’ll let the major know, but after that, I will continue saving as many people as possible. I don’t want you to come in here and whisk me off somewhere I can’t help the injured,’ Emelia insisted.

A minor annoyance flitted through the bond, suggesting Emelia had correctly guessed his plans. When the emotion subsided and he didn’t respond, she took that as acceptance. It didn’t take her long to find the major, as he hadn’t moved from the command room. He stared at the dwindling number of displays, emanating concern but not showing it on his face. Emelia quickly relayed Imri’s concerns, the major nodding along.

“The strongest Azala have been converging on this location, including most of the Titans and Despoilers. I assumed they wanted to remove our command structure, but this also explains it. However, it's strange that they haven’t attacked; they could probably overwhelm us as it is,” he said.

“Imri thinks they’re trying to lure him into a fight,” Emelia explained.

“They would still need to engage to make that an effective threat. No, it seems like they’re waiting for something else, but I just can’t fathom what it would be. My first guess was reinforcements, but most of their remaining forces are already nearby,” the major said.

Emelia passed along the intel, feeling Imri’s growing concern rising again. The fact that he hadn’t done anything yet was not a good sign; if he could have taken the Azala in a straight-up fight, he would have done so immediately. Everyone was exhausted, and they had only withstood the opening salvo.

Sylvi landed gently on the skyscraper, her Low Gravity enchantment working as intended. As they moved further from the convention center, they encountered less and less Azala. She had even considered going to street level for the remainder of the distance but had decided to continue jumping from building to building to play it safe. Unfortunately, their enchantments were running low on mana, and they wouldn’t be able to take the same way back.

“It’s that building,” the baroness said, pointing to a towering residential highrise just one jump away.

They did one final mana check, and several of the rings needed to be recharged from the soldiers' personal mana pool. Between creating a cloud of umbra and supplying the enchantments, most of the squad was nearing their limits.

They all made their way across the street without issue, having done around a dozen low-gravity jumps in quick succession. Even the baroness no longer had issues. Unfortunately, their target building was too tall to reach the roof, so they were forced to enter several floors down, with the wraiths shooting out windows as they neared.

“Alright, it's time to find out what these security features are,” Sylvi insisted as they regrouped near the stairs.

“First, to enter the penthouse, you can only reach it via the elevator, which requires a 4-digit code,” Leslie said.

“Which requires electricity,” Ashlyn added helpfully.

“Second, there is a squad of security guards on duty at all times. They’re armed and have orders to shoot on sight, excluding me, of course,” Leslie said, pointedly ignoring Ashlyn.

“Anything else?” Sylvi asked.

“If anything goes wrong, the Nexus will be sealed in a state-of-the-art panic room,” Leslie explained.

“That’s it?” Sylvi asked, to which the baroness nodded.

Ashlyn rolled her eyes, undoubtedly thinking the baroness’s presence was unnecessary. Sylvi agreed with that assessment, but that was irrelevant at this point.

Everyone paused as they crested the top of the stairs and moved into the hallway. The first security feature had already been bypassed; a large section of the ceiling had been dissolved, allowing easy access to the penthouse above.

They entered what was left of the penthouse. The bodies of the security team littered the floor, their features frozen in an expression of panic and horror. Each of them had large slashing wounds that covered their body, which had left the once pristine space a bloody mess. There was no sign of Azalan fatalities, and the only indication that the guards had even put up a fight was the numerous bullet holes dotted throughout the room.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the bad news. The final security measure had been as ineffective as the others, with a large hole torn through a security door that could have withstood explosive charges. Inside was a large empty space, presumably where the Nexus had been. Fortunately, it didn’t look like the Azala had been interested in the other content within the safe room, and the laptop sat on a desk within.

“How could this have happened?” Leslie asked, taking the carnage in before nausea overtook her. While Sylvi felt for the woman, she didn’t have time to comfort her; they needed to get back with the intel as soon as possible.

“Any security on the laptop?” Sylvi asked when the baroness had stopped retching.

“Just the usual login stuff, with two-factor authentication,” she said after wiping her mouth off with her sleeve. Ashlyn nabbed the device and stowed it in her pack the moment after Leslie had finished speaking.

“Did you get a notification when the Nexus was taken?” Sylvi asked.

“I did,” the baroness said with a nod. "It was during the fight with those flying things. I was too focused to have time to look at it, and then, with all the jumping and running, I sort of forgot about it.”

“They could be anywhere by now,” Ashlyn pointed out.

“That’s not immediately important. We need to get this intel back to HQ,” Sylvi said, remaining focused on the mission. Everyone nodded, including a reluctant Leslie, who was no longer a baroness.

As they prepared for the return trip, a flash of movement caught Sylvi’s attention. One of the deceased men, who had several deep gouges in his chest, had moved. Sylvi quickly inspected the corpse and found what she had feared. A parasite that looked like a bundle of nerves was wrapped around the core, its tendrils expanding at a visible rate. The Azala didn’t need living hosts; they simply needed the organic material that had once been a living being. If they were infecting people faster than they were being killed, then the city was doomed.

“They’ve been infected; we need to remove the cores,” Sylvi ordered.

Everyone but Leslie quickly moved to obey. The former baroness, who had been looking ill before the need to dig through chest cavities, turned and dry heaved, having long ago emptied her stomach. Having long ago become adept at this extraction, the wraiths quickly gathered the cores and dispatched the parasites. Every single corpse had contained a growing Azala.

“Do you think this was a fluke, or are they infecting everyone they kill?” Ashlyn asked.

“I doubt this was a fluke. They might not have time to infect everyone, but I’m guessing it's closer to that,” Sylvi said.

She took out her walkie-talkie, intending to inform HQ of the developments, but her attempts were greeted with only silence.