She had brought six very large sphinxes with her. The sphinxes were more than proportional to Sekhmekt and himself and were all of the winged variety. With their golden plate and great helms, they were a truly magnificent presence.
All of his commanders were preparing, distributing the battle plans they had devised over the map table. While they did this, it was Tom’s task to prepare the battlefield. After coordinating with Völund, Phaestus had returned and given him some instructions on optimizing the battlefield.
According to Phaestus, since they had begun building the fortress over fifty thousand years ago, the volcano had never actually had a full Plinian eruption from the main cone, where his throne was. This was principally because that would be a rather destructive event for the fortress. Thus, to contain excess heat buildup, there were multiple smaller vents along the sides of the volcano and across the DoomNet. These consisted of both smaller parasitic cones and fumaroles. The goal for right now would be to bring the volcano up to full power and begin filling the channels to these vents.
In particular, they needed to channel the volcanic pressure to the vents on the side of the mountain near the invaders and release pyroclastic flows. These flows, Phaestus explained, were fluidized mixtures of solid and semi-solid fragments of rock, along with extremely hot expanding gases that would flow down the flanks of the volcano. They would move very much like a snow avalanche down the mountain, but at hurricane-force speed. According to Phaestus, the heated gases and fluidized earth would move at speeds of thirty leagues per hour or more, burying everything in their path.
Tom figured this should slow the invaders down; at least, once they were far enough in that they couldn’t quickly retreat off the DoomNet. Once the elemental forces were channeled onto the plane and through the volcano, they became a force of nature and would not stop at the border of the DoomNet, but he did not want to leave anything to chance.
In order to accomplish this, he needed to open up the portals to Earth, Air and Fire located in the volcano’s magma chamber, located beyond their current level. The magma chamber below him right now was essentially a giant, elemental soup pot where he needed to boil these three elements and let them overflow the sides of the mountain and down onto the invaders.
As he delved into the magma chambers with his mind, it rapidly became clear that this would be a tricky exercise that would require a fair amount of skill on his part. He really did not want this mess coming up and flooding his new house. So it was worth taking the time to get it right.
In the meantime, since he was opening the Fire and Air portals, he split their output and channeled them up the main cone and into the Water and Air portals above Doom, which he was also cranking open. The pyroclastic flows might move like a hurricane, but he wanted to dump a traditional hurricane on the invaders as well. Given that the DoomNet contained an electrical network, if he could manage to lower the electric potential on the ground, he should be able to pull storm lightning to the ground. They would not be directed attacks, but they would be disheartening and annoying.
If Lilith wanted to attack him with no actual provocation with the terror of a Chaos Maelstrom, then he would unleash the full power of Doom upon her forces. In some ways, it was a bit odd that someone as old and as experienced as Lilith would be foolish enough to attack a volcano.
“I don’t know how Bess and her people stand this place,” Sekhmekt complained to her husband as he worked underneath a large cannon in one of the machine shops. She was stretching and doing yoga to be ready for battle.
“You get used to it,” Phaestus said from under the large metal gun housing. “You know I like volcanos.”
Sekhmekt shook her head. “Yes, I know, I get it. Vulcan, volcano, you’ve been making the same joke for thousands of years now. However, I am not talking about Mount Doom. I’m talking about the Abyss, about being cut off from the pools!”
Phaestus chuckled under the gun. “So you’re feeling naked reduced to only the mana you can store on your person?”
Sekhmekt nodded. “This is about the only place in the multiverse where I can’t touch my god pool or the pantheon pools. I don’t see how you do it.”
“You do realize that the vast majority of individuals in the multiverse don’t have access to super-high-powered mana pools and anima jars? That the overwhelming majority of life in the multiverse has nothing more than their own reserves to work with?” Phaestus asked.
“Yes, but I am not one of the vast unwashed masses. I’m a goddess, for my sake!” Sekhmekt complained.
“Uh huh, and as such, naked as you might now be, you still have more reserves than the other 99.99 percent of life in the multiverse,” Phaestus pointed out.
“I don’t seem to recall too many objections on your part when we all signed up for this latest venture to try and get us back on our feet, to boost ourselves back up from the 0.01 percent to the 0.001 percent of life in the multiverse!” Sekhmekt retorted.
“That’s because sometimes agreeing with all of you is easier than arguing with you!” Phaestus groused. “Now, I need to concentrate on this cannon. In case you have not noticed, I am literally ‘under the gun’ to get this done.”
“Very well, ptooey on you, pêTah!” She gave him a friendly snarl that he could not see under the gun.
Chapter 115
“This weather really sucks!” Lesteroth yelled to his nearest companion, Bellyachus.
“You think?” Bellyachus yelled back. “I’m kind of glad to have weather for a change. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had any.”
“Yes, but it’s getting very hard to fly with these winds! They keep getting worse,” Lesteroth complained.
“You in a hurry to get chopped to pieces?” Bellyachus yelled back.
“No, but I’m not sure about working my ass off to fly into battle as cannon fodder for the Knights of Chaos!” Lesteroth complained.
“Better that than relaxing your way to Lilith’s dungeon!” Bellyachus shouted.
Lesteroth cursed, using an extremely unprintable epithet. “Now it’s also getting hard to see through this rain! It has really picked up in the last several deminutes,” Lesteroth complained.
“Why are you doing all the complaining? I’m the one called Bellyachus — I should be doing the belly aching!” Bellyachus said.
“You weren’t doing your job!” Lesteroth grinned over to his buddy.
CRACK!
A bolt of lightning came down just to their left about a hundred feet away.
“Unholy bat dung!” Bellyachus screamed. “That was fragging close! Are we under attack?”
“No idea!” Lesteroth yelled back.
They flew on for a bit as the winds continued to grow stronger.
Finally, Bellyachus spoke up again. “You know how soldiers going into battle are always saying ‘Today is a good day to die?’ or something like that?” Bellyachus shouted.
“Yes,” Lesteroth returned. “My favorite is ‘Tonight we dine in hell!’ ” They both laughed at that one.
“We’ve had a lot of meals down here!” Bellyachus yelled back.
“We have!” Lesteroth shouted back.
“Well, so, I know I’m supposed to say stuff like that, and yeah, I’m like forty-two hundred plus years old, but today is not a good day to die!” Bellyachus shouted.
“Don’t worry!” Lesteroth said, grinning. “You’ll get over it!”