Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

652 - Stay With Me

Prevarius’ fireball was far more powerful than any of the incendiary beads from Bolverk’s necklace had been.

That realization – coming to Lex as his sensitivity to magic suddenly screamed at him in the seconds before the devil unleashed the destructive magic clenched in his palm – sent a spike of panic through him, realizing that he’d badly misjudged the situation.

As he telekinetically shoved Thermal Draft backward as hard as he could, trying to get her clear even as he flung himself away from the phistophilus while simultaneously screaming a warning at the winter wolves, Lex was already analyzing where he’d gone wrong. It wasn’t that he had been blind to the possibility that the devil might have been keeping some last-ditch ability in reserve. With no way of knowing the full scope of the creature’s powers, Lex had been keenly aware that the creature would likely try something rather than sitting back and waiting for death.

Rather, where he’d gone wrong had been in assuming that Prevarius wouldn’t use deadly force over a wide area. He can’t use Thermal Draft as a hostage in order to force me to sign my soul away if either of us are dead. That had been Lex’s thought at the time.

But in the last instant before the fireball went off, Lex realized that he’d pressed his adversary too hard. Certainly, the creature had a goal it wanted to achieve, but that goal was ultimately profit-based – wanting to make a fortune on those soul markets it had referenced, and then using the money and attendant influence to buy a promotion in whatever infernal hierarchy devils operated within – and so was self-evidently not worth dying to accomplish. With how long devils apparently lived, since Prevarius had let it slip that he’d been a phistophilus for over six hundred years and had been an osyluth devil before that, it was far smarter to abandon an opportunity if it became too dangerous to pursue and simply wait for another chance to present itself.

And in giving the winter wolves the strength necessary to overpower Prevarius, Lex had made things exactly that dangerous for the devil.

Then there was no more time for Lex to ruminate over his mistakes as the blast struck him.

---

Thermal Draft couldn’t even cry out as the explosion struck, the heat from the blast forcing her to shield her eyes on reflex. As it was, the force of it bowled her over, causing her to gasp with pain as she lost her balance and landed on her injured wing. But she scrambled upright immediately, looking around to see what had happened to Lex and Solvei and the other wolves.

They’re alright, she told herself frantically as she blinked the spots away from her vision. That had to have been some sort of suicide blast on Prevarius’ part, just like in adventure stories. He blew himself up, trying to take Lex and everyone else with him, but there’s no way it worked. They’re all fine-

Then her vision cleared, and she saw that she couldn’t have been more wrong.

The winter wolves were lying in a radial pattern, their blackened and burnt bodies twisted, as though they were gigantic pieces of charcoal that just happened to be shaped like wolves. From the faint twitches and soft whimpers coming from them, they were still alive, but given how much pain they had to be in Drafty found that fact horrifying rather than comforting.

Somehow, by some miracle, Lex wasn’t as badly injured, lying insensate in the snow with his cloak spread out over him. But as she stumbled over to him, Drafty could see that he’d still taken a great deal of damage, his body smoking as he drew in a shuddering breath.

It’s like what happened in that abandoned factory all over again, she thought miserably as she fell to her knees at his side. He’s gotten all these horrible burns fighting to save the rest of us, and I can’t do anything to help him!

Except, she realized a moment later, that wasn’t true. That’s right! I have magic now! She’d spent all night practicing with it under Prevarius’ guidance, and while she still wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, she’d gotten pretty good at putting together some basic spells. Okay, I just need to make a healing spell. That can’t be that hard; Drafty figured out how to cast one right after Lex inducted her into the Night Mare’s faith, and she hadn’t had any magical training before that. All I have to do is start putting the pieces together…

But she had barely begun when a familiar voice rang out from across the clearing.

“Now now,” tsked Prevarius, climbing to his feet as he stepped out of the ash-lined crater that his fireball had made. “I think the whole ‘weeping damsel revives the dashing hero’ trope is very much played out, don’t you?”

Her eyes wide with horror, Drafty could only stare as the devil – looking none the worse for wear despite having been at the center of the blast – glanced around, taking stock of the situation. “It’s really a shame,” he mused, smirking ruefully at the sight of the charred wolves before turning back toward Thermal Draft. “I really wanted to see how much I could get for that stallion’s soul once I put it up for auction. But there are some people you just can’t do business with. And as much as I hate losing contracts, especially with nothing to show for it, sometimes you end up taking a loss on a venture.”

The words washed over Drafty without her really hearing them, too stunned to process what was happening. But her shock lasted only a moment before she managed to regain control of herself, turning back toward the fallen unicorn. Forget healing magic! I just need something to wake Lex up! Then he can fix the wolves and they can finish that monster off!

“You really need to learn how to control your thoughts better,” snorted Prevarius, pulling a contract off of his horns; like himself, the paper was completely undamaged by the blast. “As much as I’d like to keep trying to pressure that unicorn of yours into selling me his soul, whatever power he’s been using on those wolves is simply too dangerous.”

Biting her lip, Drafty forced herself to keep concentrating, even as she knew that she’d never finish building her spell before the devil acted.

Prevarius seemed to know that too. “Under other circumstances, I’d just slaughter the wolves, so that when you woke Lex up he’d see that there was no way for him to keep pushing the conflict,” he explained as he reared his arm back, preparing to attack. “But something tells me that you’d have him up and about before I’d be able to finish off all of them, and with how much power he was able to give them, I can’t have-, hm?”

“S-Stay away…from them…”

Drafty’s heart leapt into her throat as she heard Solvei’s voice.

Somehow, impossibly, the winter wolf had managed to pick herself up and drag herself forward, putting hersel between Prevarius and the ponies.

The sight made Drafty want to cry. Solvei looked like she was going to expire at any moment; black bits of ash – the scorched remains of her fur and skin – fell off of her with every movement she made. Her breathing was ragged, as though each tortured inhalation was a struggle. The heat pouring off of her was enough that the snow under her paws melted beneath her.

But her golden eyes were both open and fixed squarely on Prevarius.

Choking back tears, Drafty forced herself to concentrate on a reviving spell, knowing that was the best thing she could do for Solvei now.

For his part, Prevarius seemed far less amused. “Let me guess? This is the part where you posture at me in order to buy your friends a few more seconds so that they can pull off their daring recovery, right?”

Taking a halting step forward, Solvei pulled her burnt lips over her teeth, causing them to crack and ooze blood. “You-”

“Wrong,” continued the devil. “You’ve been a thorn in my side for a while now, Solvei. So this time-”

Bringing his arm forward, the contract in Prevarius’ hand lashed out, the paper flicking through the air to wrap around Solvei’s neck. Before she could so much as take a breath, the devil yanked hard on the scroll, lifting the winter wolf off her paws as he pulled her through the air to him…

And impaled her on one of his body-horns, the thick spike piercing through her abdomen and exiting out her back. “-I’ll put one of mine through yours.”

Helpless to do anything as she gathered the necessary magic, Drafty could only watch as Solvei wriggled for a moment, then went still.

A moment later, she finished her spell.

---

The sensation of waking up through a haze of agony was rapidly becoming familiar for Lex. But unlike the last time he’d woken up like this, the sickening sensation of pain refused to make way for his returning consciousness, shrouding his thoughts in a fog that made it difficult for him to tell what was happening.

Blearily, he somehow managed to open his eyes. Even that was a struggle, and the effort involved made the pain enveloping him spike, very nearly causing him to pass out again. It was only when he managed to focus on what was happening that he realized that he was cradled in somepony’s – Thermal Draft’s – forelegs, the mare weeping as she looked at something out of his field of vision. “L-Lex,” she sobbed. “It…it’s Solvei…she…she’s…!”

Solvei. For some reason, that name sent a twinge through him. He knew who that was, but the details refused to come, leaving only the emotional impressions.

Solvei was someone he hadn’t known very long, but still felt a responsibility to protect.

Solvei was someone he could rely on, making it possible for him to keep fighting when he otherwise would have been helpless.

Solvei was someone he trusted, who could have turned on him or left him, but never had.

Solvei was someone he cared about, who’s presence had ever so slightly eased the suffocating sense of isolation that had hung over him for as long as he could remember.

Solvei was someone he didn’t want to lose, not after he’d just lost so many other people who were important to him.

Slowly, fighting to retain what little awareness he’d managed to hold onto, Lex turned his eyes toward where Thermal Draft was looking…

…and saw a red-skinned creature – his enemy, he dimly recalled, though no other details came to him then – pushing a charred body off of one of its black horns.

A moment later, he recognized that the burned body was Solvei.

“…no…” he muttered, forcing the word out without meaning to. “…don’t…go…”

“Lex…” Sniffling, Thermal Draft reached over and lifted his foreleg, the one with the wire wrapped around it, pointing it toward where Solvei had fallen. Forcing herself to smile, she gave him a nod. “I’m not afraid. I know you can save her. That’s what you do.”

“As if I’d just stand here and let you,” snorted the red creature, making a motion as if to attack.

Lex was oblivious to all of it, only cognizant of the fact that he was about to lose someone else that he cared about. As much pain as he was in, that knowledge hurt worse, pushing through the unbearable ache in his body to smother him whole. No…not again…

“…stay…” he rasped, unable to think of anything except not wanting to go through that again, “…with…me…” Although he couldn’t so much as twitch, he clung to that one thought, wanting down to the bottom of his heart to not have to experience that pain once more, even as he felt his consciousness start to fade again, his wounded body simply not able to sustain the level of stress he was putting on it. “Stay…with…me…”

From above him, he heard Thermal Draft gasp, and nearby he heard his enemy do the same, but he registered none of it.

The only thing he could think of then was not wanting to be separated from Solvei.

“Stay…with…me…” he murmured as his eyes drifted closed, “…for…e…ver…”

Then even that thought was too much to sustain, and his consciousness fell away.

But this time, what awaited his insensate mind wasn’t the void of unawareness.

Instead, it was blue fire.

Author's Note:

Thinking only of each other, Lex, Solvei, and Thermal Draft struggle to keep fighting as Prevarius prepares to cut them down.

Has their last-ditch effort amounted to anything?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Ooof, that's quite a lot of damage there and as a devil, of course Prevarius would have been immune to it or at the very least resistant to his own attack. Still, did Lex bind Solvei to him through Divine Authority? Or is it something else altogether?

Regardless, the fact that Lex came to care for Solvei so much in such a short amount of time was rather touching and frankly surprising given Lex's own views on non-ponies. Then again, having been in multiple life-or-death situations back to back tend to do wonders in the trust department.

[harts fire]

But this time, what awaited his insensate mind wasn’t the void of unawareness. Instead, it was blue fire

it's time to bring the pain you just don't fuck with some one Lex cares about let alone try to kill them.

[Booster Spice]

Uhoh, forget divine authority.

This time, Lex has gone straight to Big Blue?

[Alzrius]

11038502 Being a devil, Prevarius is completely immune to fire, which is why he was able to set off a stronger-than-normal fireball right at his feet (actually a delayed blast fireball, set to go off immediately) and not worry about the damage taken. Given that he was surrounded by enemies who were particularly vulnerable to fire, it's no real surprise he went with that route; as it was, it's a good thing that Lex's augmented use of divine authority was able to give them all some degree of fire resistance, otherwise the winter wolves would almost certainly all have died from that last attack.

As for how Lex feels toward Solvei...I suspect that even he would be surprised by that. While he tends to look down his nose toward non-ponies, that's largely been an academic determination on his part; he's seen ponies building the premiere moral cultures on two worlds (even if the Everglow pony civilization isn't up to the standards of Equestria, something he attributes to the harsher environment), and so came to the conclusion that ponies have an innate moral superiority, albeit as a whole rather than individually. Which is an interesting idea, but one which doesn't really operate on an emotional level.

And while he might say otherwise, Lex is in a very turbulent emotional state right now. He has no idea if Sonata, Aria, and Nosey - the three mares he loves - have survived or not (or Feather Duster, for that matter, whom he still feels responsible for), and he blames himself for that. It's just that he's doing what he always does in the face of strong emotions: trying to bury them while focusing on whatever tasks need to be accomplished. And just like always, that let's him ignore his feelings just enough for them to inadvertently color everything else he does, usually until they can't be suppressed anymore and explode outward.

In this case, given that he's potentially lost so much, it's perhaps not surprising that he's latched onto someone else who seems trustworthy and reliable. One can only imagine what would happen if he and Thermal Draft were to get some alone time together...

[Alzrius]

11038660 Well, it's still uncertain what's happening, but it does seem like this will probably be a bad thing for Prevarius, doesn't it?

[Alzrius]

11038917 Don't forget, the blue fire was what always surrounded Lex when the Night Mare appeared in his dreams.