Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

886 - Degrees of Loss

“Don’t stop now! Go! GO! FINISH HIM OFF!!!”

Adagio’s frustrated shrieking was only barely audible over Kryonex’s pained scream, the demigod falling back as two of his legs cradled his injured face. The Siren, by contrast, was glaring at the black orb as it undulated, one hand gripping her necklace so tightly that her knuckles had turned white, the other held out toward the sphere in an attempt to reestablish control.

Lex had no intention of letting her do that, however.

In an instant, he was at Adagio’s side, reaching out and tearing the necklace from her. He received a sonic scream to the face for his trouble, but he ignored it, the magic shattering as it struck him. With her supply of aristeia depleted, Adagio had ceased to be any sort of threat to him; only the destructive power of that globe had let her make up the difference, and without the necklace she was incapable of even that much.

More importantly, with the necklace in his possession, he might be able to overpower Kryonex’s influence over the thing. Used in conjunction with Belligerence and whatever new power had let him transcend his physical body, he’d have the advantage for the first time since the conflict began.

Ignoring the way Adagio was screaming epithets at him – easily countering her ring’s telekinesis with his own as she tried in vain to take the talisman back – Lex placed the necklace around his own neck, the metal giving a chorus of tortured groans as the twisting wires of his body ground against it. Immediately, he focused his will on the orb-

To no avail.

Instead, the thing simply kept expanding, shrinking, and quivering in a chaotic flurry of motion, showing no response to his attempt to take control of it. That wasn’t entirely surprising, given how Adagio’s attempt to make it obey her had been similarly unsuccessful, but now that he couldn’t foresee what the orb was going to do, he’d needed to actively test whether that was because it required a greater degree of concentration to influence or because willpower no longer served to affect it at all.

Apparently the latter, he decided-

Just as Kryonex lashed out, a wide beam of absolute cold lancing out toward him and Adagio both.

Waving a foreleg in the Siren’s direction, Lex sent her tumbling harmlessly end over end back toward the cavern entrance even as he dodged in the other direction, the blast of power missing both of them. Go inside and stay there, ordered Lex. I’ll deal with you once I’ve finished things here.

“DON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” screamed Adagio, clenching her fists as she stood back up. “I’M NOT YOUR PLAYTHING! YOU’RE MINE! YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE-”

Lex ignored her as she continued to rant, instead sidestepping another three energy beams that lanced toward him from the wounded demigod’s position. Kryonex’s right pedipalp was completely gone, and his face was slightly pitted where it had brushed the edge of the orb, joining the collection of injuries that Lex had already dealt to him. But there was nothing to indicate that his ability to keep fighting was diminished as he conjured up a mound of ice the size of a castle and hurled it.

Directly at Adagio.

Knowing that Kryonex was trying to get him to drop his guard by rushing to Adagio’s rescue, Lex instead charged toward the demigod, not bothering to look at the Siren as he raised a hill-sized mound of black crystal between her and the gelid missile, which shattered into pieces as it struck the obstacle.

Then he was within range of Kryonex, springing toward the demigod’s mangled face with outstretched claws of whirring wire. Knowing that his enemy couldn’t target Adagio so long as he kept pressing him, Lex lashed out furiously, tearing deep grooves in his enemy’s chitinous legs as Kryonex parried his assault.

And then the demigod’s eyes flashed, and Lex found himself moving at a fraction of his usual speed.

It took him only the briefest instant to figure out what had happened, able to sense that Kryonex had frozen the individual molecules in the air around him. It wasn’t enough to paralyze him, the space between the particles too great and their collective mass too weak to restrain him, the effect functioning more like a net than a barrier.

But before he could either turn into shadow or simply tear the molecules apart, Kryonex took advantage of his momentary impairment.

One leg struck out, and Lex snarled impotently as the tip of it hooked underneath the necklace, taking it from him just as he’d taken it from Adagio. But unlike himself Kryonex apparently had no intention of trying to put it to use, his single remaining pedipalp twitching as he gave it a brief glance. “Better safe than sorry.”

Then he flung it directly at the malfunctioning sphere.

And from behind him, Lex heard Adagio cry out, followed by the sound of footsteps as she rushed out from behind the black crystals in an attempt to intercept the necklace.

Which, he knew in an instant, had been exactly what Kryonex had expected her to do, his eyes already darkening as he focused his will on the Siren who had caused him so much trouble.

But before he could, Lex reached into the pocket dimension he’d made shortly after becoming a titan, withdrawing a small diamond and crushing it.

And the gravity in the area around him increased several dozen times over.

His own power hadn’t been all that Lex had experimented with over the previous evening. He’d also made sure to use the diamonds that he’d found below Hvitdod’s lair to rebuild his arsenal of pre-cast spells, embedding several choice enchantments in the gemstones that he’d collected. Even then, he’d pressed the limits of what he could do, utilizing the spell-embedding crystal he’d found in conjunction with Nenet’s metamagic and his own ability to augment magic items to make for rapid-release spells of immense power.

The gravity well he’d just created was one of those, causing Kryonex to stumble as the downward pressure disrupted his concentration.

Turning into shadow to avoid the gravitic pull, Lex didn’t bother checking on the necklace, having already heard via his foresight Adagio’s despairing wail as it hit the sphere, unable to telekinetically grab something that small moving that fast. Instead, he immediately sped over to Kryonex, simultaneously retrieving Belligerence from where he’d thrown it. Turning back to his corporeal self just as the quill was within reach, he grasped the still-charged weapon and let the enhanced gravity take its course.

Beneath him, Kryonex cancelled out his spell, freezing gravity and trying to scuttle away, but it was too late. The weapon sank deep into his abdomen, and the demigod gave another ear-splitting screech, a jet of godsblood fountaining up from the wound-

And at the edge of his field of vision, Lex saw the black sphere suddenly rush toward them both.

Cursing, Lex barely had time to react as it sped across the valley, pulling Belligerence free and diving clear even as the demigod rolled out of its path, both ready to react depending on which of them it went after.

But instead, the ebony orb – still in a frenzy of expansion and contraction – went between them, its straight path changing into an arc...

As it moved to catch the spilled godsblood before it could hit the ground, the pale liquid instead disappearing into its lightless depths.

Immediately, the sphere ceased to move, hovering in place. But its lack of motion only highlighted how whatever was happening to it seemed to grow more intense, its size now changing so fast it seemed to be flickering in place.

Backing further away from the dangerous thing, Lex tried to figure out what was going on. Clearly the godsblood was destabilizing it somehow – its initial seizures had started when it had struck Kryonex, and now the liquid divinity was exacerbating the effect – but for it to suddenly move on its own like that...

Lex glanced at Adagio, confirming that she was inching back toward the black crystals he’d raised, her brows furrowed and her steps faltering. He knew she wasn’t behind what had just happened; even if she had regained the necklace – which the orb had swallowed in its mad rush forward – there was nothing to suggest that she suddenly would have been able to reestablish control over the thing. But if she didn’t move it, then who did?

As if in answer to that question, the sphere’s spastic trembling suddenly stopped.

Slowly, as if regaining control over itself, the dark orb expanded, growing outward until its diameter had almost tripled from its original size.

On the other side of it, Lex saw Kryonex’s eyes darken again, and knew that the demigod was bringing his will to bear on the sphere. He immediately did the same, intent on stopping it before his foe could try and drive it into him again. Its increased size – and his continued inability to foresee what it was going to do – notwithstanding, there was a good chance that its stabilization had left it able to be manipulated again.

Or not, as the sphere didn’t react to either of their efforts.

Instead, it hung in place for a half-second...and then began to drift gently in Kryonex’s direction.

The demigod gave ground immediately, and the sphere changed course accordingly, already speeding up as it tried to bridge the distance between itself and its target.

Which was all the impetus that Lex needed. He could figure out why the sphere was apparently acting without direction later; right now all that mattered was that it was targeting his enemy, which meant he needed to capitalize on the opportunity in front of him.

Circling around the demigod, he again called upon Nenet’s metamagic as he cast another spell. Immediately, a dozen copies of the astral construct that he’d used to fight Hvitdod appeared around him, and a thought was all it took to send them after the demigod.

But Kryonex was no mere dragon, lashing out as the monstrous figures lunged at him. Four were destroyed immediately, hit by freezing rays of energy as they rushed the demigod. Three more were only able to imperfectly dodge the incoming attacks, their partially-frozen forms staggered under the assault and unable to keep moving. But there were too many even for Kryonex to target, and the remaining five slammed into him, doing their best to hold him back as the sphere approached.

It was moving faster now.

Lex knew that his constructs wouldn’t be able to keep the demigod pinned down long enough for the sphere to make contact with him. But he was already raising more black crystals, compressing them and toughening them as he caused massive pillars to grow up out of the ground, looping around Kryonex’s legs in the form of thick shackles. Compared to what the demigod was capable of, they were little better than cardboard, but in conjunction with the constructs and several more spells-

Then Kryonex’s eyes flashed, and Adagio suddenly let out a frightened cry as the snow beneath her feet flowed like water, carrying her along like a leaf in a river.

Directly into the path of the oncoming sphere.

Realizing what was happening, Adagio tried to get out of the way, attempting to use her telekinetic ring to lift herself up and out of harm’s way. But again, her inexperience with that item betrayed her, the ring’s aura only causing her to lurch to the side drunkenly before sputtering out. Another sonic scream fared no better, her magic not generating any sort of recoil, and even her attempt to throw herself down and let the oncoming orb pass overhead was foiled as Kryonex caused the snow to surge up her legs, hardening into ice thicker than steel.

Lex was already moving. The sphere was continuing to increase its speed, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t surpass, closing the distance to Adagio-

And Kryonex froze the air around him again, the demigod laughing darkly. “How far will you go to save your inamorata, I wonder?”

Snarling, Lex turned into a shadow-

Only to immediately be pummeled by a half-dozen energy blasts, reeling backward and returning to corporeal form as he put everything he had into dodging.

Stop him from attacking!

Lex knew the order was futile even as he gave it. His astral automatons were powerful, but compared to a demigod they were little better than a pack of toothless hounds, able to harry his enemy but not truly harm him. Even now, as their claws swiped at Kryonex’s wounds and struck at his outstretched legs, they didn’t succeed in disrupting the ice deity’s aim in the slightest.

Meanwhile, the sphere was growing closer to Adagio, the Siren’s struggles growing more frantic as she tried – and failed – to get away. “Do something!” she shrieked, her eyes widening and voice an octave higher at how small the distance between herself and the sphere was growing. “DO SOMETHING!!!”

But Kryonex’s attacks were growing too furious for Lex to even be able to respond, let alone put a plan into action.

Once again, the demigod had managed to turn what should have been a bad situation to his advantage.

All while the orb sped up further.

“LEX!!!”

There were any number of strategies that he could have tried. From throwing her a spell-infused gem that would have let her turn into mist the way Solvei could, to teleporting to her side and carrying her out of danger, to raising her out of the way on a plateau of black crystals, to simply warding himself as best he could and taking the hits as he concentrated on telekinetically moving Adagio to safety, Lex had many options.

But just because he had options didn’t mean that they were good ones.

The same way he could think of various ways to try and rescue Adagio, he could also think of ways that Kryonex could foil each and every one of them. And he knew that if he could see how each of his stratagems could be thwarted, the demigod could also. A thrown gem could be blown off-course. A plateau of black crystals was just asking to be shattered as the orb passed through it. Teleporting to her position would precipitate a heavy push from Kryonex to knock them both into the sphere. Even accepting the damage that came with trying to telekinetically yank Adagio out of the orb’s path was risky in the extreme, since it was highly likely that Kryonex would simply harden the ice around her legs in response to his trying to pull her free.

Which left only one solution. One way to keep Adagio from being destroyed, body and soul – and Lex had no doubt that if the sphere could annihilate divinity itself, it could destroy souls – by the weapon she’d so foolishly brought onto the battlefield.

All he needed to do betray his most cherished principle, and he’d be able to keep his promise to Sonata and Aria.

Had he still been a mortal pony, Lex would have hesitated. Even as a titan, he would have balked at what he was about to do. But with the newfound clarity that his most recent transformation had given him, those doubts didn’t slow him in the slightest as he moved into position. Instead, he paused just long enough to send Adagio one simple message.

I promise I’ll bring you back.

Wide-eyed with terror, the sphere now less than a stone’s throw away from her and closing fast, Adagio looked up at him. “Wha-”

She didn’t have a chance to finish as Belligerence pierced her heart, killing her instantly.

Author's Note:

As the sphere of annihilation begins to act on its own, Kryonex uses Adagio to his advantage, forcing Lex to do the unthinkable in order to save the Siren from being completely destroyed!

Did he manage to save her from complete destruction? Will he be able to make good on his promise to bring her back later?

Comments

[SliverKing]

When the textbooks say that you need to "impact her on a deep, meaningful level," this was not what they were talking about Lex....

.... I am sorry....

[Spiritus Arcane]

That's actually pretty brilliant. Unfortunately I'm not sure if being ressurected will help her narcissistic mania. She might just interpret it as a sign the multiverse really does revolve around her.

[Booster Spice]

Ok, thats a tricky one to pull off even if you know about it.

Hey, Kara, catch.

[Not so New Brony]

Plan is sound, especially since he's already possesses the ability to resurrect the dead even without a body to work with though the problem now is to ensure that he survives to get the chance to resurrect her.

Of course, I doubt Kyronex would make it easy for him though the egg's apparently 'hunger' for more divinity means that the demigod has to keep track of the egg all while trying to launch Lex into it.

Though Booster Spice's comment made me wonder if Kara had that in mind for her payback against Adagio or if she had something else in mind.

[Alzrius]

11746884 Gold star to you: I actually, literally laughed out loud when I read your comment.

[Alzrius]

11746973 It's questionable how well Adagio will react to Lex's "kill her to save her" plan, though if he manages to overcome Kryonex and the sphere and resurrect her in the first place, he'll be doing pretty well, all things considered.

[Alzrius]

11747031 Even if she's not there very long, Adagio's afterlife might not be very enjoyable for her. Of course, it's standard that you don't remember what happened to you after death once you're brought back to life, so that probably won't encourage any behavior modification in her anyway.

[Alzrius]

11747054 It's questionable if Kara anticipated something like this; she seemed as surprised as anyone when that sphere of annihilation turned out to be the egg of some anti-divine monster, which is a major part of what forced Lex's hoof (claw?) here. Then again, she is a goddess of lies...

Still, this does put her soul out of immediate danger, which frees Lex up to turn all of his attention toward Kryonex and the out-of-control sphere. Even so, he's got his work cut out for him, especially since Kryonex is a brilliant tactician in his own right and doesn't seem to be phased by how high the stakes are. Of course, the same is true of Lex, so it's questionable how things will go. But if Lex does win, then it's likely that resurrecting Adagio will be his first move.

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

I was thinking more in the lines of splitting her in half to make her dodge the sphere but this works too. All he need now is to rez her after he wins or escape against the anti-divine egg and Kyronex.

[Alzrius]

11748669 So long as her soul isn't actually there, keeping Adagio's body intact is more of an issue of convenience (insofar as resurrection goes) than anything else, since it's easier to bring someone back if their body is present and (relatively) intact. Of course, that doesn't really matter to Lex, since he can use true resurrection, which needs no body at all. Still, I suspect that even if he's willing to put aside his personal prohibition on killing another pony (since as far as he's concerned, Sirens are ponies), Lex doesn't want to injure Adagio any worse than absolutely necessary, for Sonata and Aria's sake.

Of course, he still has to win/survive in order to bring Adagio back, but at least now he can give that his full attention.