Chapter 42

"That was rather too easy," Julia noted. "You'd expect something a little more ... robust than a few dryad derivatives."

"Distraction," said Bryce. "The exits have now been sealed and rather effectively too, I can no longer sense the surface."

"Whatever sense you're using, it isn't one a Mage would use as I can sense the way we came and the surface of Moscow too," I replied, seeing nods off the rest of the Mages there including Rasputin.

"I rather suspect a demonic influence has spread its wings over the area and that's blocking our senses," Antonelli added. "Won't make a difference in the long run, just ensures we have to go forward into strife."

We kept moving, following the tunnel as it curved and followed what appeared to be the regular Metro line.

"Can you feel the strength of the wards woven into the fabric of the tunnels?" Morgana commented in general.

"Yes, my Mage. It would certainly keep out mundanes and a lot of magical creatures such as goblins too," I replied.

"Indeed, John. A lot of skill has gone into it, which suggests that the incident with the Huldran was simply a diversion or perhaps an attempt to see off mundane intruders," Morgana mused.

I had to admit I'd been worried about Morgana since the incident at her Manse. Her normal poise was well off and I suspected that like a burglary victim, the breach of her privacy had affected her deeply. Still at least she was coming out of it a little and taking more note of her surroundings ... at least I hoped so. I also knew there was damn all I could do about it as I'd never been able to understand her thought processes beyond the superficial, whilst she could (and did) read me like a book. Still with Julia and Simone along I wasn't too worried as I was pretty sure they could deal with any major issues my Mage might be having.

"Something wicked this way comes," intoned Antonelli, quoting Shakespeare.

What burst in amongst us was something I'd thought to be only a legend. Then again, I'd seen far too much of what was considered legend or fairy tale have very firm roots in magic or in this case Thaumaturgy. Whoever opposed us had summoned a Yaoguai, a demi-demon. Not one of the higher powers, thank God, but a malevolent animalistic spirit being that had its roots in Chinese folklore. It was also highly resistant to Mage powers. Looking rather like a skinned bear of some type, it was both swift and ferocious with taloned limbs capable of eviscerating anyone stupid enough to come within their range.

Fortunately we had amongst us several Theurgists who immediately began some form of defensive chant whilst we Mages used the effects of Magic to try and keep the damned thing at a distance. Unfortunately the thing was both strong and fast, the only advantage we had was that it wasn't like a higher power in that it was not immortal; or rather it could be killed by lesser beings such as ourselves ... assuming we got lucky.

Dodging a swipe from one of its fore-limbs by speeding up my strength and reaction times I pulled out my trusty trench sword and used it to bat away at the flailing claws whilst Morgana used a series of buffeting air blows to keep it off balance. Julia I believe was affecting the gravity around the creature whilst Simone appeared to be letting off a series of bright flashes before the creatures eyes.

If nothing else we were some sort of irritant to the thing and it ignored the chants of the Theurgists whilst darting forward to try and get at me who was closest. The sword I'd grabbed was barely enough to keep the creature at a distance and I was truly grateful to Mage Roxanne who'd taken it upon herself to teach me the rudiments of swordplay as I at least could attempt to attack various points of weakness I could see, though mostly at the moment that was the creature's eyes. I was also using telekinesis to send any available small object hurling at the Yaoguai to weaken it so that I could get in some sort of disabling blow.

The real killing blow came from those best suited for dealing with the forces of darkness of course and with a brilliant flash a beam of pure white light came from the ceiling to pin the creature much in the manner of a butterfly on a board making it scream in agony.

I was then able to use my enhanced powers to harden my blade and strengthen my arm and drive it home through the head of the creature ending its existence.

"We win again," I gasped out as I recovered my strength and equilibrium.

"Yes, that creature would have given any Mage pause and like as not been amongst a party of Theurgists before they had a chance to react," added Simone.

"Indeed," muttered Antonelli who had come forward to examine the creature.

"Not something I've run into before, not even at the Chinese border," Cyril mused.

"Whoever we face has great faith in their 'God' and is a formidable foe," Rasputin mused, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Care to speculate?" Bryce asked caustically.

"Iosif does not have this kind of ability, or rather didn't, besides this is a Chinese demonette and he would not, like as not, have the pull via Tchernobog to command one," Rasputin replied mildly.

"Demons and Angels are area specific?" I queried.

"Some are, some aren't, we don't know why and asking is a recipe for annihilation," Antonelli answered with a shrug. "Tchernobog is ... sort of, in that he's linked to the Russian people and hence to their Soviet state."

"Gotta love those higher powers," I chuckled.

"True John, very true," chuckled Antonelli in return. "I think it's part of the contract."

"I used to be quite pious until I met this man and discovered just what a bunch of posturing prima-donnas some of the angels can be," chuckled Bryce.

"Trust me, the demonic side is just as bad," Rasputin added.

"You're all as bad as each other!" snapped Morgana. "Now let's get on with this. We have souls to save and a reckoning for whoever violated my house!"

"As you wish, Mage Morgana," Antonelli replied with a sideways glance at me.

No matter how well our eyes were enhanced to see in the dark, there were powers afoot to make the tunnels seem claustrophobic and gave off the impression that at any stage something was about to leap out and attack.

"Subsonic emanations," Simone finally announced. "Not magic at all, simply another defence, one that we aren't suited to detecting as there's no Mage doing it."

"Clever," muttered Julia as she began raising some form of sound attenuating shield.

The feelings of dread we'd been experiencing dropped off immediately and we all relaxed just as we were attacked by kobolds. Kobolds are nasty creatures akin to goblins but far more powerful magically and can incinerate the unwary with their fire magic. Usually they leave humanity alone, if only because Mages tend to get involved at the behest of the various treaties we have with the mundane governments who mostly don't want magical creatures running rife in their countries as they cannot even detect them normally, never mind fight the bloody things.

"Take them quickly!" shouted Julia. "If they get a chance to combine fire magics they can be an absolute bugger to deal with!"

"Guard my back, John!" called out Morgana as she began unleashing some very nasty unsubtle spells at the milling creatures.

Unfortunately as with a lot of semi-magical creatures, kobolds are also highly resistant to the use of magic upon them. As it was, the fact that the Mages and Theurgists were also armed with mundane weapons and weren't affected by the various glamours which such creatures used to hide their presence had given us the advantage at least temporarily. That and the fact that both Morgana, Julia and Simone were far more powerful soon had the creatures trying to swarm them down physically in order to prevent their destruction. Rather than use magic I drew my cutlass and used it to keep the kobold warriors at a distance from my Mage. Simply using the odd spell to push them back physically if necessary. I noticed that the Theurgists were also doing the same for Aleksandr, Julia and Simone.

"They aren't retreating, interesting," gasped Morgana as she sought out the fire magic users amongst the kobolds.

"Same as with the previous attacks, someone has them under control, though this time not a geas," Simone replied as she literally blew a kobold to pieces with a very complex spell that merged with its defences only to corrupt them and turn them against the creature.

Watching the senior Mages in action was enough as ever to show me just how far I had yet to go in the mastery of magic. I couldn't even comprehend some of the powers they were throwing around. Not that it stopped me noting them for later study, one of the main advantages of becoming a Mage being perfect memory and what in later times would be considered unlimited data storage as memory constraints vanished when the brain of a newly emergent Mage adapted to the stresses of its new powers and became far more dense both in mass and compartmentalisation. There were other physical changes in Mages too when they became emergent, such as strengthened neck musculature to support a heavier brain and skull and an increase in nerve impulses carrying the brains signals to give increased strength and reaction times plus greater bone density, meaning that a Mage would sink in water where a normal human would float. But our understanding in the ways of medical science was only just opening up ways to understand just what was different about Mages in general compared to mundanes. Certainly we weren't a new branch of humanity, we were compatible sexually and our progeny were as human as those mundanes produced. It was the emergence itself which triggered certain physical changes and at the moment we had no clue as to how to trigger an emergence in humanity as no Mage had ever witnessed it happening. Few Mages had children who eventually became Mages, Merlin and Brianna being the only ones I could think of offhand and I'd never discussed her emergence with Brianna, though I rather doubt her father had been around when it happened. He'd simply been still involved with her mother I'd guessed or had put a trace on any of his progeny on the off chance they'd become emergent. Most female Mages simply chose not to have children if they could prevent it. The heartbreak of watching a child grow old before your eyes being far more than they could bear. Most simply waiting and hoping that we'd eventually find a way to successfully allow emergence from an outside evocation.

The expertise of the Mages as well as our spirited defence of them soon had the kobolds breaking as their morale was shattered and whatever was driving them was unable to keep them from retreating in headlong panic.

"Interesting, three different attacks by three different creatures, two of whom hold no allegiance to this part of the planet," Morgana mused.

"Does seem odd," noted Cyril, looking at Rasputin.

"I have nothing I can add," admitted Rasputin. "I never needed any magical creatures for what I was tasked with by Tchernobog."

"Yet you were aware of them?" Simone asked with a frown.

"Very much so, as with Mages those who work with other powers can see what's really there," he answered.

"Could you control them?" I asked.

"I ... I don't know," he admitted. "I suppose I could, but never needed to try. It was far easier to draw upon the power of my God and unleash that rather than use his power to direct others."

"Yet you would corrupt humanity to doing things your way," muttered Cyril.

"From a certain perspective yes, as you did too from your perspective," came his riposte.

"We corrupted no one!" Bryce snarled back.

"Tell that to the Crusaders and the Inquisition. Perhaps you'd like to comment on the Salem witch trials too?" Rasputin snapped back.

"That was not the work of Theurgists, if anything we tried to stop it," Antonelli replied mildly.

"Not nearly hard enough," Rasputin added.

"Perhaps, but that's irrelevant, we work for God and follow the commands of his angels, the allegiance of Tchernobog is uncertain to say the least," Antonelli interjected.

"He's neutral, not one of the Satanic horde," Rasputin answered.

"So you claim," Bryce hit back.

"Indeed I do, however this is getting us nowhere and we need to press on to save these souls Mage Morgana is so concerned about," Rasputin said closing temporarily the conversation.

"Whatever it is, I believe we are close, but also that they do not seem too concerned at our successes so far," Simone stated.

"Picking him up?" Julia asked.

"Definitely male, not too sure upon the number," Simone replied. "When focussed it's one, but when not it could be any number from one to three."

"Odd, most Thaumaturges are singular in that they don't tend to get along with others of their type," Antonelli mused. "Gives us an advantage at times."

"Save only you're hunting them down and they have time to prepare," Rasputin countered.

"Yes, there's always that," Antonelli acknowledged.

We were continuing to follow the traces of power in the tunnel and were keeping an eye out for traps or ambushes. It was already apparent to me that whoever was behind this had set things up that only those powerful enough to approach could do so and had deliberately set out three traps that would prevent mundanes, Mages or Theurgists alone from getting through. My one hope was that our opponent did not realise or could conceive of a mixed party trying to get to them.

Finally though I sensed that we had reached our goal, the tunnels opened out into a chamber which for all it was deep underground looked temple-like in its appearance. Great curved arches spanned the space and gilded columns rose majestically to give extra support to the cavernous spaces. The décor however was distinctly third rate.

"Tacky," murmured Morgana.

"Serious over-compensation issues," chuckled Julia.