God of Nothing

Rayse woke with a start, standing up so fast it made his head spin.

"Relax, kid. You're safe." A voice to the side said.

"There's a bucket right next to you. drink your fill and calm down."

Rayse looked dumbly next to where he was sitting, and sure enough, he saw a bucket filled with water and a ladel dipped into it. He took the ladel and drank his fill, before addressing whoever spoke.

"How long was I out?" He asked the man on the wall. He didn't even look his way and just kept on shooting and reloading his bowgun. Rayse took a cursory glance at the bucket beside him, showing very little bolts left.

"'Bout an hour? Not sure, I've been shooting at those bastards since you left to get Lord Aleph. We're almost out of things to shoot with."

"Master? Is he okay? Where is he?" Rayse asked as he flexed his arm, testing his movements. No pain.

"Sir Brandon said he's fine, just needed to rest a bit."

Rayse looked at the man closely, just now noticing who he was talking to.

"You… mister Jean?"

"...What?"

"Nothing, it's just… You seem calmer, is all."

Jean actually stopped shooting and looked at him. He looked… Embarrassed? Far from the grizzled man that was against him and his friends from the get go. He scratched his face, before giving Rayse a little smile.

"Haha, yeah. After she chased that dragon away, another round of those flying bastards came out, that little girl, she just blasted 'em out of the sky too. Made me think that maybe we can do this after all, you know?"

Rayse snickered to himself. That sounded just like Lacey. He wished he could have seen her go on a rampage after she saved him. He looked over the wall, but she found her down on the ground, defending the main gates with Brandon and Sonia. They seemed to be handling it fine, sufficiently backed up by the archers. 

"Say, did you see where that dragon went?"

"After falling? I'm not really sure. He fell around there–" He pointed to a particular spot, out of the sea of charging harbingers. "But it's gone now. Maybe it fled?"

"...Maybe." He said introspectively. "Thank you. Say, didn't you need some ammo? Hang on."

He scanned the battlefield below, feeling for the arrowheads. They were each treated with crystal dust, improving their performance and more importantly–

"Return."

–gave mages the ability to retrieve them with ease. Hundreds of arrows dislodged themselves from the harbingers below, alive and dead alike. They swiftly gathered, hovering a few feet in front of Rayse.

"Aaah!"

 The surrounding bowmen got spooked, some even diving away from the sudden barrage of arrows. Rayse belatey controlled their speed, carefully setting them down where he was laying down a few seconds before.

"Sorry, didn't realize there'd be so many. Mister Jean, could you send word down below? This lot needs sorting, and I see quite a bit that needs new shafts."

"...Huh? Oh, okay." Jean jogged down the wall himself, still shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh, and I should do this, too." Rayse picked up his shield aiming it at the throng below. He searched for items on the ground once again, this time for a different sort of material.

"Return!"

Trails of silver popped up from the ground, slicing their way through the mass of harbingers. The scales made their way back into Rayse's shield, bloodied but still deadly sharp. He took some time burying all of them beforehand, aiming for a situation like this.

"..."

The bowmen stopped once again, this time not uttering a single sound. They were stunned, abruptly given a breather by Rayse's trap.

"What? I just bought you guys time! Sort this pile out and divide the usable ones among yourselves. We'll be here a while, so best do what you need to." 

""A-aye sir!""

Rayse retrieved one of his extra spears and dropped down from the wall, slowing himself right as he reached the ground.

Sonia mussed up his hair as soon as he arrived.

"Hey! Good job! We can still go, but we welcome the break."

"Hey, quit it! Oh, I missed a few, hang on." 

He gave Lacey a wink as he charged, killing the stragglers each with a swift spear thrust. He made sure to strike through the heart, breaking the crystal within and absorbing the contents.

Soon, the entire corridor between the two walls were cleared of harbingers. It was littered with corpses, so it seems they've been fighting for a while.

"This looks plenty… What do you think, Lace?"

"Hmmm, yeah, I want to confirm with Miss Iona, but this should buy us even more time…" She answered. Rayse looked more closely at her. She seemed alright, but one of the floating orbs Iona gifted her was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, did you use an orb on the dragon?"

"Ah, yeah, I needed to replenish myself quickly after hitting Deceit with that thunderbolt. Most of my mana's fire now as a result though. Not gonna be too liberal with the wind magic for a while."

"...You know I got hit by that too, right?" Her smug smile was all the answer he needed. Rayse shoved her playfully before asking, "Where'd you learn that spell anyway?"

Lacey smiled widely at that. "Took a page from your book and I stole it from Eric. I keep losing to its speed, so I figured it would be handy to have. Did you like it?"

"Oh, I loved it. Deceit wasn't  as much of a fan though. It got away?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Morphed into something else as soon as it landed. Looked like it was wounded beforehand. I heard you hit it with a light attribute attack?"

"Yeah. We saw that big Illuminate spell didn't we? I just copied its attribute and fired it with your scorching ray as a base. I'm glad it worked."

"You make it sound so easy, Ray. Where do you get these ideas from?" Brandon cut in. He was doing the same thing he was, piercing each dead harbinger in the heart to absorb the mana from them.

"Oh, you know. I picked them up here and there. I got inspired by you copying Brig's wind blades, now that I think about it."

"Oh, really? Yeah, I guess I did do that, huh?...Hey, that's mine!"

He batted away Lacey's hand as she tried absorbing some of the mana he released in the air.

"Hey, I've been fighting since we brought down that Deceit! I need some of this back."

"You gather them, then!" The two bickered like that until Sonia got between them.

"You kids are insane." she said, shaking her head with an ever present smile. 

Rayse was smiling too. It didn't matter if they were in the forest behind Rayse's house or surrounded by dead harbingers, these two always found a way to argue.

"Alright, let's get back up there for the next phase." Sonia ordered, so they all used their own means in climbing up the outer wall, where Iona and the rest of her squad were.

"Master!" Rayse said as soon as he saw him, he ran to where he was sitting, looking over his condition like a worried mother.

"Enough, child. I am alright."

"B-but–"

Rayse's hair got another mussing, this time by his master. "Thanks to you and Brig, I managed to get away without issue. Thank you."

Rayse pulled himself together, sitting right beside him. He knew he was alright, of course. Others had told him so. But he was still glad Aleph made it out okay. Being rendered immobile after depleting your entire mana pool was something he had intimate knowledge on.

"...So, we're facing two heralds, huh? Any news on them?" He asked, eager to change the subject. Aleph shook his head.

"They were not that gravely wounded, but I believe they will be more careful now. I expect them to be a lot more wary, but Deceit is unpredictable, so we need to stay vigilant."

Rayse breathed deeply. They fought off two heralds this time. That's quite a feat. More importantly, he and his friends actually played a role this time, instead of being common foot soldiers when they defended Hios.

"You did well, Rayse, but now comes the difficult part." Aleph said, taking the wind out of his sails. He pointed at the horizon, the soft moonlight lighting far more than Rayse expected.

"The wave hasn't stopped since we started. Dawn is a few hours away, but the longer this goes on, our place becomes less and less secure."

Rayse gulped, staring at the unending mass of blue bodies headed their way. "With this much… Are they trying to just trample over us!?" He said incredulously. There was nothing to do about it, though. He stood and nodded at Aleph, before going back to Iona, who was speaking with his friends.

"–So once the people are ready, start the operation."

"Yes, miss Iona!" Lacey said, running back to the direction of the town. Rayse wondered what that was about, but Iona probably saw it on his face, so she explained.

"It's part of our plan to buy time, Rayse. Don't worry, Lacey has it well in hand."

"Hmmm. Okay. Where's Brandon?"

"He's down there." Iona pointed. Rayse looked and found Brandon and Luke clearing out the harbingers attacking the outer wall. He was a a storm, every powerful swing of his sword taking out two or more at once. His sword created a large open space wherever he stood. Luke supported him well, just sending harbingers flying towards Brandon's hurricane of steel.

"Go with them. Oh, and reinforce the walls, will ya?"

"Got it!" Rayse said, raring to go once again. He needed to replenish his and his equipment's mana. Luckily, there was no shortage of mana down below.

Thud!

Rayse landed heavily onto an unsuspecting harbinger, caving its skull in. He followed through with a quick stab to its heart before swiping his spear at a wide area. He fought his way towards his friends, patching up any damage he spotted on the walls.

"Hey!" He greeted as he got close. It seemed he was still a bit far, because they did not hear him over the clamor of battle. A change in the air made him turn, and what he saw made him urgently run to Brandon and Luke.

It was an emissary, one of the ones that was hurling flames at the wall earlier. It set its eyes on Brandon now, hands ablaze with black flames.

"Dark Haste!" Rayse rushed him, even ignoring the nearby harbingers to get at him quicker. He managed to bring him down before his spell manifested, but still. 

Tsssshhhk!

He slashed at the demon's throat, and it sank to the floor, desperately trying to prevent himself from bleeding out. Rayse turned to deal with the harbingers now, when he saw a dark light at the edge of his vision. It looks like there was more than one emissary targeting Brandon.

"No! Scale Curtain!" Rayse shouted, throwing his shield over the mass of harbingers. It sailed over their heads, hovering to a stop over Brandon. Still spinning it sent scales in all directions around Brandon, creating a barrier to protect Brandon from all directions.

Massive tongues of black flames enveloped him, but Rayse had no time to worry about Brandon. He spotted where the flames were coming from and went in on the nearest one. Rayse leapt over the heads of the harbingers as he looked for the hidden emissary. The demons tried to grab him, but he was far too quick. 

He eventually found him, skewering him through the eye. He followed that up by moving in close and gutting him with a knife. Swiftly getting the heart out, Rayse fled back towards the clearing Brandon had created, waiting for his friend to emerge from the flames.

The heat was unbearable even from this far out, but Rayse was confident that Brandon had it well in hand. Instead, he tried to find where the other emissaries were, only for find body getting ragdolled in his direction.

"Hey, kid. You alright?" Luke landed after it, wiping his brow as he saw Rayse.

"Did you find the rest of em, mister Luke?

"I think there was one more. Got away though. Their conversation was cut short when, confirming Rayse's suspicions, a flood of red light emerged from within the black flames. He recognized that light instantly.

"Uh oh. Duck!" Rayse warned as he dropped down to the ground, pulling Luke down with him. 

A second later, a massive sword erupted from the flames, creating a terrible arc through dozens and dozens of Harbingers all around. All was quiet for a moment after that, save for the cracking of the little embers that the black flames left behind.

"Return." Rayse commanded, guiding the shield back into his hand as it retrieved the scales as well. It revealed Brandon, who was panting as his aura blade dissipated.

He looked refreshed, laughing as he saw the pair on the ground. They both of gave him looks filled with venom, angry at firing off such a massive attack close to his friends.

"Heh heh heh, get up guys, you look ridiculous." He teased.