Dawn of the Void
Chapter 63: Smite

“Now we’re talking,” said Serenity.

“Now the Smite crew are the ones who lay down the pain. Something your humble Star Boy can only do with his sense of humor.” Star Boy paused. “See what I did there?” He pointed at himself. “Self-aware.”

“Richard,” said Jessica from the side of the stage, her tone flat.

“Right, right. So! Smite. Let’s take a look.” He clicked his clicker.

Smite

Dark Vision

Shadow Step | Black Apotheosis | Living Darkness

Smite

Sacred Strike

Heavenly Assault | Empowering Light | Fortuna Aeviternum

Smite

Deadeye

Eternal Fire | Eye of the Needle | Lord’s Ruin

“Quite a spread.” Richard tapped his chin. “All of it bad ass. Let’s run through this quick. First, the mysterious Dark Vision. When this first popped up, I was like, what? How does it fit in with the theme, ladies and gentlemen? Smite is an attack, DPS Benediction, with Sacred Strike and Deadeye covering ranged and melee. But Dark Vision? Did someone mess up? There a mid-level demon bureaucrat somewhere right now getting shanked for goofing on the power spread? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was useful, especially with the magical hive darkness protecting the Black Gems, but not really on par with Sacred Strike or in theme. In short: weird.”

Richard turned back to the crowd. “But now all is revealed. It’s a precursor, almost a litmus test for those who’d be psychologically predisposed to the tier-three powers. Now, I’m not saying those folks are fucked up. Mark my words. Not saying that. But I am saying that Dark Vision had a unique allure to a certain kind of person who’d choose it over straight DPS. The ability to see in the dark indicates a desire to - what - be in the dark? To penetrate secrets? We could armchair psychoanalyze this all day. But these tier 3 powers. Hoo-boy.

“First we got Shadow Step. I mean, this is just sweet. We’ve four people who chose it already and have demonstrated their ability to use shadows as motherfucking portals. It’s literally what’s on the can. If the shadow is dark and large enough, they can step through and emerge from a different spot within line of sight. Line of sight is key. I can’t wait to run some experiments at night, but for now, this is some sweet-ass mobility. Incredible.

“Then we have the big daddy, Black Apotheosis, and really, this is the showstopper, just like Communal Benediction. Show of hands who’s seen this one in action already.”

Maybe a third of the crowd raised their hands.

“Well let’s get that cleared up. Nothing I can say is equal to the real thing. Any volunteers willing to come on stage and scare the pants off the rest of Blue Light?”

Becca immediately stood, and Richard pointed at her. “Ms. Locklear, come on down!”

She worked her way down the row, then strode confidently up to the stage and climbed the steps. Stood with her hands on her hips, chin raised, her thick black braid hanging down over one shoulder.

“All right,” said Richard. “Let ‘er rip.”

The ballroom went absolutely silent. It was as if everybody was holding their breath. Becca lowered her chin, inhaled deeply, and shadows began to stream toward her, sliding up from under the stage, the folds of the backdrop curtain behind the projection screen, flowing and wrapping around her form.

It was so fucking weird. James sat forward again. Even as he watched it take place he felt a sense of bizarre disbelief. Like watching movie special effects in the flesh. Part of his mind just couldn’t credit it, despite everything he’d seen this past week.

The shadows burned and roiled around Becca, lifting her off the ground, swelling her frame to its nine- or ten-feet height. Her waist looked almost unnaturally thin compared to her broad shoulders, her arms simian in length, her head encased in living shadow with back-swept horns.

James heard people actually gasp, felt the shock scald the air. Perhaps the eeriest par was how Becca’s shadow form had no visible eyes; he’d almost have been comforted by burning green orbs or something. Instead, her face, her head, was one uniform axe-head of a wedge, no mouth, no features at all.

“Well there it is,” breathed Richard into the mike. “Black Apotheosis. Apparently the form gives its user a general +15 across the board on all stats, which can also be boosted by Bless. The claws are wicked and earlier tore through a fire-door in one of the stairwells. Add in Dark Vision, and we have ourselves a Grade A melee combatant and straight up assassin. You wouldn’t see this thing coming up on you at night, would you?”

Becca turned her axe-blade head to stare at Richard, who paled. “Except you, Becca. You’re the best.”

For a moment Becca just stood there, wreathed in black flame, and then she released the form and dropped lightly to the stage. She winked at Richard, hopped down off the front of the stage, and made her way back to her chair.

“Woo! Intense. So, that’s Black Apotheosis. We’re going to keep researching the form. I got lots of question: does cutting through the shadow parts hurt Becca in the center? How much does the stat boost increase at night? Does the form afford any mental or spiritual protection? Lots to learn. But our last is Living Darkness, and this one’s just as freaky. No need to demonstrate, but in short, its user gains actual control over darkness. Anybody here play Vampire the Masquerade? Show of hands? We got any Lasombra fans? Clan Lasombra? No?”

Richard’s smile wilted as he gazed out over the still audience.

“Fucking nerds,” he muttered. “Anyways, this benediction allows the user to control the darkness, though it seems pretty crude right now. Extrude tentacles, cause the darkness to grow firm and grasp people, that kind of stuff. It’s a power that requires plenty of concentration and imagination, and I imagine what people can do with it will only grow as they get more experienced, but folks, it’s versatile. I was playing this one game of Vampire where the DM had these guys escaping in a minivan, right? And I used Arms of Darkness - that’s a similar power from the game - to animate the shadows in the footrest, grab the steering wheel and yank it to the side. The minivan left the road and hit a telephone pole. Bam. So much for their getaway.” Richard paused, scratched at his throat, then forced a smile. “Anyways. That’s the Dark Vision power set. Shadow hopping, living shadow, and turning into an actual shadow demon, with all of them empowered by basic Smite and the ability to see in the dark. Freaky cool.”

James glanced at Becca. She was staring straight ahead with the slightest smirk on her lips.

“Moving on.” Richard clicked his clicker, and the next power set was highlighted.

Smite

Sacred Strike

Heavenly Assault | Empowering Light | Fortuna Aeviternum

“Here we have our bread and butter, the Benedictions chosen by none other than our Major Boss, James Kelly. So Sacred Strike is a limited area of effect strike, some four or five yards deep by two wide, give or take. That opens up these other attacking Benedictions. Everybody already heard about how James cleared up the Fourth Wave with Heavenly Assault?”

Now it was James’s turn to stare straight ahead as people gazed at him.

“That’s right, James called down some sweet-ass lighting to clear the block. Other folks reported less powerful versions, so we’ll need to look into that, but in short, it’s like calling in a divine EMP which only knocks out demons. No damage to normal stuff or people, which is nice. Means we can clear out messy combat situations without worrying about collateral damage.

“Now Empowering Light is kind of like a mix between an anti-Black Apotheosis and Indomitable Resilience. The user lights up like a bonfire, gains the same +15 to every stat bonus, and causes low-grade regeneration to everyone within their radius, which seems to be about four yards right now. I’m going to want to quantify how strong this regen is compared to actual Indomitable, but I’m guessing its weaker for being an ancillary benefit. Given how demons are going to be using magical darkness, this ability to light up battlefields, amp up your stats and regenerate your allies is pretty sick.”

Richard pressed the mike to his lips and stared at the crowd from under lowered brows. “Sick,” he repeated, his voice growing loud and reverberant over the speakers.

“Richard,” said Jessica again, tone more impatient.

“What, it is.” Richard shrugged innocently. “Last Bennie. Fortuna Aeviternum. I just love it when shits get Latin. So old-school cool. Anyway, we’ve not had a chance to use this one yet, but what the people who chose it report is that you develop the chance to regain any spent Aeviternum immediately after spending it. Like some kind of heavenly lottery. We don’t know what the chances of getting your points back are yet, but given how important Aeviternum is, this one’s huge.”

“Damn,” said Denzel from the seat behind James’s. “I could use that.”

“Finally, Deadeye.”

Smite

Deadeye

Eternal Fire | Eye of the Needle | Lord’s Ruin

“Can I just say, these are my favorite names? So very cool.”

“There was just one choice,” said Serenity confidently. “Soon as the ammo runs out, everyone who didn’t take Eternal Fire will be screwed.”

“Kicking off with Eternal Fire, talk about awesome. Unlimited ammo? No need to reload? I mean, this is like, the ultimate fantasy for something like 13% of the adult US population and the entire armed forces. Seriously, Jessica and I have been in high level discussions about resources, the need for establishing ammo stockpiles in strategic locations, how to coordinate Fabricators on making ammo, and at what point we’ll need to start rationing, but this? This changes the whole equation.” Richard paused. “For a very small subset of us. But still, fantastic.”

“That’s right,” whispered Serenity, slouching down in her seat with a satisfied smile.

“But it’s not the only Bennie on the list. Eye of the Needle is trippy. This is a sniper shot power which goes beyond anything even the best players of Sniper Elite 5 could dream of, because - as far as we understand it right now - it lets the user see through walls. Let that sink in for a second.”

Richard raised both eyebrows and waited.

“What?” said Serenity, sitting back up.

“That’s right, I said see through walls, mother bitches. To a degree. It’s not like generalized X-ray vision. But if there’s a legit target on the other end, the user can get a sense of them through walls other barriers and then shoot their fucking shot through those walls, too. But yeah, there has to be a legit target on the other end. We only know this much because Ms. Castillo from Crimson Yeti discovered this ability while clearing out the last of her Fourth Wave incursion. She was panning around with Deadeye and looking for a Nem2 that had gotten away from her, and saw it moving through a building, having gone in through a window to get around her and reach the symbol. Bang! She took the shot, killed it. Didn’t leave a hole in the wall either.”

Richard nodded as he scanned the crowd. “Right, yeah? Fuck physics as we understand it. Now, some downsides: this sniper shot takes time to reload. You can’t paint and spray - or is it spray and paint? - like you can with Eternal Fire. But this could be an excellent way to target big bads like the hive queens.” He kissed his fingertips. “Beaucoup sexy.”

“Hmm.” Serenity glanced at James. “Not bad I guess.”

“Finally, Lord’s Ruin. What a name! Another ranged shot attack, which make sense, and is akin to a holy hand grenade. Slow delivery, but results in a blast radius of some ten yards up to a distance of some hundred yards. Think about that, folks: ten-yard radius. That’s a showstopper right there.”

Serenity raised her hand. “Do Eye of the Needle and Lord’s Ruin have unlimited ammo as well?”

“Affirmative,” said Richard. “They self-generate just like Eternal Fire, but again, have slower loading times. We’re gonna work on quantifying those delays asap.”

“Hmmph,” said Serenity, slouching down again.

“Don’t worry,” said James, leaning in. “Eternal Fire is definitely more your style.”

“Yeah,” said Serenity, then she brightened. “Plus I get to carry around a Ma Deuce.”

“Right?” James grinned. “Pretty bad-ass.”

“So in summary, Deadeye leads to a variety of useful powers, just like the others. Spray and play - wait. Whatever. Spray and pray, holy hand grenade, and spooky action at a distance sniping. Love it. Now, I know what you’re thinking: how are we supposed to decide which to take? Well folks, when it comes to equally attractive options where each power has definite benefits in different situations, you gotta go with what feels right to you. In some situations, clearing huge chunks of zerg rushes with a holy hand grenade will be optimal. In others, sniping a big boss will be sweet. Your Eternal Fire folks can just go to town in almost any situation. So when every choice is appealing, there’s no wrong choice. Just pick what suits your style, and then we’ll match your squad to the right situation as they come up. Yeah?”

General nods throughout the crowd.

“Now bear with me, we’re almost done. The last power set, the weird, the freaky, the hot mess that is Bless. These buffers are kind of a grab bag of different Benedictions, so let’s dive right in and see what the fuck our demon overlords were thinking.”

Sᴇarch the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.