Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 14]

"I will create the Ironwood from the roots I have beneath the city. I can create a mass of it but shaping the material into a wall quickly is beyond me." It had taken him a month and a half to build the CCT, so I didn't doubt that.

"I'll handle the shaping," I said. "I just need enough material to work with."

"That won't be a problem." The Archmage stepped forward, and the Soldiers stood behind the Constructs parted, giving way for their small group. "Penny, Winter, defend us as we work. I doubt any Grimm will breach the Constructs, but I would not put it past Salem to try and strike at us now. Jaune, fret not for the Constructs outside the walls. The Mages piloting them feel no discomfort."

Ironwood waited for us to signal our agreement before he pushed his staff forward and closed his eyes. The light flashed between his lids, shining out a thin slit of colour as his power seeped into the ground. I couldn't feel or sense that, but I did feel the ground shake. More prepared for it, I hunkered down and waited, eyes on the flat expanse of ground between us and the breach.

The flagstones bulged upward long before it appeared. The dirt and soil were pushed up, erupting like a geyser as the long and thick silvery root broke the surface. The Soldiers gasped and murmured in amazement, something I reflected. It was so much more than what I could do. I fed the Ironwood and it grew on its own, but this – it was like he had control over life and death itself. The Ironwood was built out of nothing more than his mind and his power. It was truly incredible. Not just what he achieved but what Atlas had done to incorporate it into their way of life.

The root coiled its way toward the breach. As he'd warned, it was sluggish and clumsy – inelegantly making its way forward but without any real sense of purpose. The bends were crooked and the roots path unnatural. Ironwood was forcing it into shape rather then letting it grow. The root slithered toward the wall and then reared up, forming a central pillar.

"Jaune, now!"

I stepped forward with Penny flanking me protectively. My hands touched the root and I let out a breath, eyes flashing blue as my hands burned hot, pouring fire into the root.

A shadow washed over me suddenly, followed by two more that came and went immediately.

"Don't stop!" Ironwood yelled, turning back with wide eyes, tracking the path of the three giant Nevermore that had flown overhead. Their mighty wings beat as they passed over our position and swept further over the city – flying high and not at all trying to dive down on the people. "Someone track them! Jaune, don't stop until the breach is sealed."

Right. My heart racing, I turned back to the Ironwood and focused my attention on it. The momentary inattention had caused several boughs and branches to sprout out at odd angles, some even reaching back toward us. I urged those back, spreading the branches out left and right from the central pillar to form something was not quite a wall and more a fence or gate. There wasn't enough to make a solid wall the thickness of the current walls of Vale, but that was fine. Treelike limbs of metal stronger than steel would suffice.

The complicated was the top. I wasn't sure how to make a flat surface for the defenders to fight on, and if I didn't then the Grimm would just pile over like they always had. I could will the vines to grow around that area, but those weren't flat by any means. The surface would be bumpy and uneven, sure to trip and kill anyone who tried to fight on it. Maybe the Mages can station more people here and just clear the lip with spellfire. If they poured it into the Ironwood, it should conduct it to the Grimm outside.

While the wall built itself to fit the breach, the Constructs inside stepped back, making room and avoiding being caught by the vines. One nearby stumbled suddenly and fell, collapsing in a heap. Another did the same, then a third and a fourth. More fell, sprawling out on the flagstones with their limbs bent at unusual angles. Outside the walls, the same was happening en masse.

"What's happening?" Ironwood asked out loud. "Is the Ironwood interfering with them?"

It was possible. I was pumping heat into the root and the Ironwood was reacting and growing, so maybe the same was happening to the Constructs nearby. If their joints suddenly grew vines and branches, they might lock up and make them impossible to pilot.

I glanced to the side. Penny was fine, and she was much closer to me.

One of the fallen Constructs shuddered and stood, using a sword arm to push itself up. A few others followed, shaking their limbs loose and righting themselves. They turned their blank faces left and right, taking in the scene once more.

"It must have been a momentary problem," Ironwood said. "They seem to be back under control now. Focus on securing the new wall to the existing-"

One of the Constructs lunged for me, sword swinging down.

I had a moment to gasp – and a fraction of a second to realise I couldn't pull away fast enough – before Penny was in front of me creating a huge two-handed sword out of green energy. She swept it in front of her, bisecting the Construct and hurling its two parts away. The others rushed in as well, but she leapt forward, twirling and turning her weapon into an ethereal hammer, which she brought down on two of them at once, crushing them and blasting the others aside. Without missing a beat, she turned it into twin blades and dashed left and right, cutting any Constructs down before they could get close.

"What!?" Archmage Ironwood slammed his staff down and conjured a fireball to blow one away from himself. "How!? Soldiers, stand ready! Jaune, finish that wall!"

Finish-? Now-!? The constructs on the other side! Shit! Looking ahead and through the fencelike wall I'd made, I could see the Constructs outside turn inward, attacking now the wall itself and trying to break through. The Grimm attacked them in kind, but there was no mistaking that the Constructs had turned against us. If I didn't seal the breach, they'd come through.

"Archmage!" Winter shrieked. "The CCT!"

Ironwood looked back, and together we saw three large black birdlike shapes gripping to the tall CCT in the distance, huge wings spread as they clung to its side, with one now roosting atop it.

"No." Ironwood said. "How did she know-?" He gritted his teeth. "Winter, to me. Jaune, you must stay and seal this breach. Penny, defend him with your life."

"Yes father."

"What about you!?" I howled, hands still on the Ironwood.

The Archmage already had a portal open. Winter rushed through it and Ironwood followed, neither answering me as they stepped through into the CCT. The portal winked out a moment later, leaving me and Penny behind.

"Shit!" I wanted to chase but couldn't leave the wall like this. "Penny, buy me time!"

"Of course, friend." Penny wielded a green spear under one arm and a sword in the other and didn't at all seemed burdened by concerns like co-ordination and focus. She dual-wielded them easily, using them as though she had a pair of eyes and a half of her brain dedicated to each weapon in kind. Such a display would have been impossible for a human.

The Soldiers weren't blind to the goings on. I found myself cordoned off by a ring of armoured figures who planted shields down, pushing spears over the top to form a thorny exterior. More closed in on the Constructs, not engaging but cutting them off and preventing them attacking the other defenders.

Salem saw the Ironwood being used here and knew we weren't at the CCT. That's where the Nevermore were going. Instead of attacking us, she travelled straight there.

Would it do anything if I purified the root? I tried, closing my eyes. "Purify Object."

My power rushed into it but the Nevermore remained on the tower. The Constructs continued fighting. Damn it. Whatever's happening, it's nothing to do with a spell of hers. I have to finish here and get back.

The wall was nearly complete. I'd anchored the vines into the neighbouring walls and now just had to fill in the spaces big enough for Grimm to fit through. I fed more fire into the root, urging it to grow big and strong. Leaves of metal and twigs flourished and intertwined, vines weaving together like thick coils of rope. I watched a Construct be caught in it and then form part of the wall, vines growing out his face where an eye would have been. The thing still lashed out with its one good arm, waving an axe-limb futilely.

It was done.

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 14]