The Sketch Rift: The Eternal Crusade

Scorched Air

Standing outside of the humble, once reliable steamboat swaying in the harbor, the twenty-four of those formerly within the ship (protected from the Slicer Swarm by a temporary plot hole wall) forced its final judgment. Burning the Swarm would require them to ruin the steamboat, and potentially all wooden structures in the cloud's volume, although rapidly clearing the Slicers from a vast region. They had already deprived a long-deceased fireplace of its numerous twigs from long-deceased trees, although still awaiting the ignition of the voluminous horde. "I think we all know what's better for us," Moth signaled the onset of the process with his definition of sacrifice. "To keep this cloud of paper bugs pelting us for eternity, or to give up some of our own progress to make it back without a Swarm. Let's hurry up, here."

Gnat had her methods of the flame's kindling. "It's odd to think of how much you can learn in just a few days," pomposity was not a natural characteristic of hers, but a Slicer Swarm could do much to impact general expression. "I'll handle the fire. We will carry out the plan as the Ambassador ordered: ignite the fire, and begin our marathon (after him) to the Crusade's supposed whereabouts at Grant's Shrine south of Hendera. From there on, we'll split up. Got it?"

A simple nod from each of the Thieves of Sogbury and their welcomed intruders got the job done. As each member hoisted a short branch of their own in their hand, Moth at the lead, Gnat -- in the role of a Sulukridger -- snapped her fingers from the center of the crowd. The twigs in their hands suddenly became torches, and as Slicers nearby were drawn to the heat, and avoided the waves of the sea, for they were insects (albeit massive ones), the first ones to approach ignited almost immediately. Initiating their plan of action, they one by one released their grip on the torches above the water beside the pier, allowing them to effectively burn out before further harm could be done. Moth refused to turn back as the single-file race began, the majority of the steamboats and the upper pier quickly burning to crisps behind them.

His theory was correct, much to their mild relief -- their paper-sheet wings burned out violently (but not before the flame was picked up by another Slicer), sending the Slicer to a heat-and-gravity-induced grave, crossing the Swarm in something of an uncoordinated tidal wave of indistinct blazing creatures at walking speed, and gradually forming entire fields topped with charred Slicers, while effectively and quite excessively undoing the makeover that the hills had received only hours ago.

For safety's sake, the company sped around Hendera rather than through it, declining to make a glance at it in the first place. Clearly in turmoil, the city was a jarring issue when it came to the business of exterminating Slicers, but not entirely impossible to control. The Fviron architecture in the so-called Waise Chain of temples and structures chiefly consisted of completely nonflammable materials, so its presence was guaranteed to survive the massacre. Grant's Shrine was their contender for a safe place, however, with defenses that only Moth's plot holes could breach. However, as they strayed from the conventional Henderian passage to a barely defined dirt one, something odd occurred.

The inferno that began with Gnat's ignition trick appeared to collide with another one, that had supposedly begun either accidentally in a populated area, or deliberately by a Henderian or Crusader, or potentially even another source. Nevertheless, it spherically closed off the remaining Slicers from their escape route, ensuring the Slicer Swarm that their dominance was dead forever. Despite this victory, their role had not yet been completed in the upcoming struggle that was to branch from it.