Chapter 454: Heads

Aaron and May skidded to a stop beside Wess’ barricade. They dove behind it, only risking a glance back over their shoulders once they’d taken the relative safety of cover. The sight that greeted them was a grim one.

The demon had grabbed onto the portal with a second hand and was pulling it open wider still. Most of its body was still swallowed by the swirling magical energy. Nothing but its hands were visible — but given how big the portal had become, it wasn’t hard to guess just how big their next enemy was.

It struck Aaron that all the wooden barricades in the world wouldn’t have been enough to stop something like this. Not even a stone fortress was going to do much against such an enemy.

“That is one big bastard,” Wess breathed, tilting his hat back as he stared at the arriving monster from over the top of the barricade.

“What the hell is something like that doing here?” Aaron hissed. “I thought these waves were supposed to scale linearly! That’s Expert 5!”

“It could be a weak one,” May provided, though she didn’t sound too confident in her own words. “Level isn’t everything. It could have terrible foundations!”

“I don’t think that’s going to matter all that much at this point,” Aaron said through clenched teeth. “Even if its built its soul on complete and utter garbage, that thing is still an Expert 5 monster. It’s going to walk right through us.”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Wess said. “Do you really think that’s going to happen?”

Aaron and May both turned to him.

“It might,” May said.

“Of course it isn’t,” Wess said with a scoff. He adjusted his hat. Then he grinned. “Because that would imply we’d be standing in front of it. We have legs, my good friends. The town doesn’t, though. It might be fucked.”

“This is not the time,” Aaron growled, looking back to the massive monster. The portal had stopped moving. The magical disk was rippling as if someone had thrown a stone into a lake. Arcs of power leapt off the portal and scorched across the ground around it, growing larger with every passing second.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Alyssa racing up to join them. She planted her giant paintbrush in the ground as she arrived, her breath heavy.

“What the hell is that?” She hissed. “Why is—”

“We don’t know either,” Aaron said. “I don’t suppose you know any way to take out an Expert 5?”

Alyssa shook her head. Her features were pale. “No way. Maybe if we had the whole town. But the casualties…”

“Way too high,” Aaron said grimly. “Not to mention the next wave. If this is what happens on the second one, what are we supposed to be prepared for in the third?”

“Don’t worry about the third right now. That’s a problem for later,” Alyssa said, shaking her head without letting her eyes leave the rippling portal. “I already had someone run back to tell Orchid the situation. I hope the same thing isn’t happening back on 274-50. We might be screwed if it is. But even if it isn’t… I don’t think we’re getting out of this unscathed. A lot of people are going to die. But we can’t just let that thing get to Mirrorwane. It’ll tear it apart.”

“What about that big ass weapon Mite’s building?” Wess asked. “It close to done?”

“I don’t know,” Alyssa replied. “But if it was, I think we’d know by now.”

Wess grimaced. “You know, this is typically where I would suggest the art of the tactical retreat.”

“To where?” Alyssa asked. She turned to Wess, her eyes narrowing. “Are you implying that we just abandon the town? Where do you think you’ll go after that?”

Wess blew out a sigh. He shook his head. “No. I’m afraid I’ve gotten rather attached to this place. But what can we do against something that strong?”

Aaron’s thoughts spun in desperate search of a solution. They couldn’t stop something like this. He wasn’t delusional. But the Trial’s rewards had been variable. Maybe there was another way. He just had to figure out what it was.

“Wait,” Aaron said. “It’s taking that thing way too long to get out of the portal, isn’t it?”

“Not for much longer,” Alyssa said grimly. “We’ve got a minute at best.”

“Exactly,” Aaron said, his heart starting to beat faster. “That’s it. We’re not supposed to fight this thing. It’s stuck in the portal. All we have to do is keep it that way until the Trial ends.”

“You’re kidding,” Wess said. “Are you sure?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Aaron asked, already striding toward the portal. “Come on! We don’t have long! Alyssa is right. If we don’t do anything, that monster is breaking out in the next minute at most.”

The others darted out after him, and they all broke into a run.

“How do we stop a portal from opening?” Wess asked. “And you do realize that if we fail, we’re definitely going to be the first ones dead, right?”

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“Worry about failing later,” Aaron replied tersely. “It only matters if you fail.”

“Spoken like a true gambler,” Wess said, laughing as they all skidded to a stop just a few feet away from the enormous portal.

Buzzing energy prickled against Aaron’s skin. He could practically taste the thick magic filling the air. Wess was right about one thing. If they couldn’t stop the Demonlord Executioner from coming out of the portal, they were definitely all dead.

“Should we just start shooting?” May yelled over the crackling energy arcing all around the magical disk.

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “Aim for its fingers. They look—”

Wess swung his enormous gun up in a smooth motion. There was a loud crack and a flash of light. A bolt of magical power screamed through the air and slammed into one of the monster’s knuckles. The finger twitched slightly. Wess’ shot had done no more than sear a small section of it. As far as Aaron could tell, it hadn’t even broken the skin.

“Well, shit,” Wess drawled. “Looks like I tickle.”

May snapped her fingers. A bolt of lightning barked through the air and slammed into the same spot Wess had shot. If it did anything, Aaron couldn’t tell. The monster didn’t even flinch.

May’s eyes narrowed.

“Shoot it again.”

“With pleasure,” Wess said, taking aim once more.

“I can try to seal it,” Alyssa said, but the uncertainty in her voice was evident. She raised her brush. “It’s probably much too strong for me to completely stop. But I might be able to restrict the portal and make it harder.”

“Do anything you can,” Aaron said with a sharp nod. “Weaken it as much as possible. Even if it’s just a little.”

“Then what?” Wess asked, his gun barking a second time. Magic screamed through the air to slam into the monster’s finger a second time. It barely even flinched, but Aaron was pretty sure the scorched spot on its skin got a bit bigger.

“Working on it,” Aaron replied. He flexed his fingers, then glanced down at the coin in his hand. His jaw set. “Just do what you can first. I’ll only have one shot at… well, anything.”

Alyssa raised her brush into the air. She let out a sharp breath, then spun it around and drove its back end down into the dirt.

“Partial Soul Manifestation,” she said. “Dream’s End.”

Alyssa grabbed her brush, ripping it free from where she’d stuck it a moment before and sweeping it through the air in a sharp slash. A ripple of pale gray energy swept out from it and drove into the portal.

The two energies met with a loud, buzzing hiss. Tendrils of gray shot out from Alyssa’s Soul Manifestation, spreading to reach across the large portal. They thinned as they extended to wrap around the entire portal, warping and popping in their attempt to encircle the entire thing. A loud hiss filled the air.

Alyssa’s magic trembled. The ripples in the portal grew stronger, and the demon’s hands clenched tighter around the edges of the disk. Whatever she’d done was clearly pissing it off — but it didn’t look like it would hold for much longer.

Bolts of magic and blasts of lightning crashed into the monster’s finger on repeat as Wess and May unloaded attacks into it. Other townsfolk raced toward them, catching on to what they were doing and running to help.

Aaron tuned all of it out. Even if the whole of Mirrorwane showed up, he wasn’t so sure they’d be able to hurt the Demonlord Executioner enough to actually stop it. And Aaron wasn’t smart or strong enough to stop it himself.

He knew his limits. Orchid or Claire or Alex might have had an idea on how to fight something like this, but Aaron didn’t. Fighting it was out of the question for him. It was simply too powerful. But he didn’t need to fight it.

Aaron raised his coin, setting it on his thumb. His eyes narrowed. A bet like this was going to have an immense amount of magical weight behind it. Anything strong enough to interfere with a monster this powerful was going to do leagues more to him if he lost.

If winning this thing can hold an Expert 5… then it’s probably going to kill someone a whole tier below it.

But he didn’t waste time considering that for longer than an instant.

Losing was for people who played fair.

May was counting on him. Alex and Claire and everyone else in Mirorrwane was counting on him. There was only ever one option for someone that went all-in on every bet.

Either I win or I die, and it sin’t my problem anymore.

Despite the stakes, Aaron grinned.

All in.

He flipped the coin.

The world ground to a halt.

“Heads,” Aaron said. Pressure slammed down into him from every direction. He ignored it, even “And the bid… one hour of standing still and doing absolutely nothing.”