by Eric Vall
Heijing stood between Morrigan and I as she held the book we’d found in her hands. The Qianlong glanced down at the words we needed to speak then handed the book over to Morrigan and the elven woman quickly memorized them before she offered it to me. I glanced down at the worn, handwritten pages for a moment then back up at the wall. I safely tucked the book into my void pocket and brought my hands up in front of me. My women joined me, and I felt the words begin to spill from my lips.
“Adducere descendit quod murus, illud cadere,” we cried together as we held our hands in place. “compositionis iterum in potestate nostra!”
I pushed all of my power into my hands and then out. Black smoke curled around my fingers and then rushed toward the massive walls. Morrigan and Heijing joined in, and they repeated the spell once more. Emerald light sizzled out of the elven woman’s hands, and she threw back her head as she pushed all of her power into it. Out of the corner of my eye, Heijing’s hands began to close, her right one, a bright electric blue and her left, a scarlet with hints of burnt orange. The Qianlong’s powers were very different from what I’d ever seen, and I assumed she’d received them from both of her parents.
I felt all of the gods’ powers I’d taken collide and join with my own as I pushed it out of me at the wall. The grid I’d seen yesterday appeared, even brighter than before, and I gritted my teeth as I summoned every power given to me into my hands. I launched my dark power toward it as I growled even louder. Heijing threw her head back and screamed as if she were in pain, but the Qianlong didn’t pull away.
“It’s working!” Rana yelled as she pointed toward the glowing grid.
The grid began to quiver then violently shake as the color changed from bright blue to blood red. It made strange popping sounds as it broke down and began to fade from view in some places, but in others, it seemed to strengthen and cover the fortress in its entirety.
“Everyone! Above!” Annalise cried out even louder, and I barely had enough time to glance up before a slew of burning arrows hailed down at us.
“Keep your position!” I roared to my two minions as I slammed my right hand above our heads while keeping the left in place.
A massive forcefield appeared around the three of us, and as soon as the flaming arrows hit it, they exploded with puffs of ash. I kept the barrier up as I replaced my right hand next to the left. The grid warbled but still didn’t break, and I caught a soft whisper from behind me.
“It’s not going to work,” one of the Tintagal soldiers said as he held his sword tightly. “It’s not going to come down.”
“Damn right it will!” Rana shrieked as she broke rank and raced toward us.
“What are you doing?” I roared as I whipped my head in her direction. “Get back where it’s safe!”
Rana didn’t answer as her boots pounded the ground and more flaming arrows rained down, this time aimed at the fox. Rana dodged each one and made it underneath my forcefield as she breathed heavily. I went to speak, but the redhead waved a hand then slammed both of her paws forward at the wall. My eyes widened in surprise as a blinding white light blasted out of her hands and hit the grid.
“Flaming arrows are for pussies!” a voice called out from the ranks, and I knew it was Amos immediately. “You can’t touch our Master, you mage scum! Come get some, you cowards!”
I let out a loud laugh at the Decathmor’s sentiment toward the mages but then turned my attention back to the grid as something incredible happened. The surrounding areas of bright blue light turned blood red and began to crackle with sparks.
“It’s working!” Annalise screamed as she pounded Ansel’s back excitedly. “Bring it down! Bring it down!”
“Walls only keep us apart, Holy Order,” Adam shouted up toward the mages as he held his arms to his chest as if he were calling out to a lover. “Let’s bring them down so we can greet and slaughter you properly!”
Morrigan managed a loud snort of laughter as she breathed heavily, and Rana leaned her head back and cackled loudly as her white power beat out faster. All four of our powers came together in one stream and slammed into the grid. There was a loud explosion, and the four of us were blown backward. We dug in our feet and stayed in place as the sky bloomed red as the entire enchantment came down at once.
“Cannons!” I roared as I whipped around and pointed directly at Ruituri. “Now!”
“Aye, Aye Captain!” the goddess of rot screeched as she lifted the massive lit torch and ignited the fuse.
I watched as all of the fuses came down, and within seconds, they reached the metal of the cannon. The detonations that came after were so loud that I lost hearing for a few seconds and watched as the cannonballs roared through the air in slow motion. Rana cried out and ducked down with her hands over her head as the spheres flew over our heads. I lifted my eyes and looked into the faces of the mages above. They cried out and scrambled to get out of the wall, but it was too late as the massive cannonballs infused with godly magic slammed into the sides of the walls then kept going.
I watched for a few seconds as nothing happened then all at once, the massive outer wall around the fortress crumbled as if it were made from wet sand. It came down all around me, and I wrapped my three minions in a protective forcefield once again. Clouds of dust lifted into the air and obscured the other side from view, but I knew what waited for us on the other side.
I reached into my void pocket for the God Slayer and pulled the polearm free. In one swift movement, I slammed the haft of the weapon down on the dust-covered common, and the three blades sprang to life with new vigor. I held the God Slayer aloft and pointed into the space where the wall had once been. All of my armies unsheathed their weapons as my voice boomed all around them.
“Charge!”
Chapter Five
The mages beyond the rubble of the fallen wall were nothing more than silhouettes, but their hands glowed different colors and gave us a good view of where they were in the massive cloud of grey dust. The Tamarisch soldiers rushed forward and clamored over the massive fallen stones that comprised the wall. One of the soldiers was blasted backward from one of the mages attacks. He cried out as he flew through the air, landed with a loud thud, and slid across the ground on his back. We weren’t dealing with low-level mages anymore, the Holy Order had brought out their next tier of wizards that could do some actual damage to my army.
From behind me came an earsplitting roar, and I whipped around to see where it came from. Heijing stood in front of both of Carmedy and Morrigan with her head bowed. The Qianlong closed her eyes and placed her palms together as blue and emerald light began to swirl around her tiny form.
Carmedy held two smoking bundles in one hand and loaded them both into the slingshot. The feline gritted her pointed teeth and took aim directly behind the dragon and let the packets fly.
“Heijing! Now!” the feline cried out as she ducked for cover.
The Qianlong’s eyes snapped open, and they were no longer the icy blue I was so familiar with but instead a blinding white. The two bundles hit the ground on either side of the dragon and exploded with earth-shattering booms. Blue and red smoke lifted into the air as two enormous bodies took shape on either side of Heijing. In an instant, the Qianlong stepped back into the swirling pools of different colored smoke.
Through the haze, the only thing I could make out was the white of her glowing eyes. The red and blue smoke combined and detonated up into the sky as the two silhouettes merged into one. The smoke began to clear as a massive taloned foot stepped out of the smoke and then another. Heijing was gone along with the two dragons I assumed were her parents and in their places was a dragon larger than any I’d ever seen. Its flanks were pure white and spattered with red and blue, and the eyes that bore into the lines of mages were a hateful, milky white.
It was Heijing, but a different Heijing than we knew. The two souls of her parents now inhabited the Qianlong’s body, and both of the tribes were hungry for blood. Heijing’s head lifted, her m
aw dropped open, and then she blasted out a torrent of electric blue flames into the sky. The Qianlong’s wings snapped out above her and cast dark shadows over half of my army as she lifted into the sky. From the back of my troops, the transformed lizards followed suit of their alpha dragon.
The mages on the other side of the crumbled wall screamed in fear while a good few of them held their places in their formation. The three dragons circled through the sky gracefully and set fire to the remaining battlements of the wall. I gritted my teeth and gripped onto the God Slayer tighter as Tamarisch soldiers rushed past me. The men from the north clamored over the ruins of the wall and dodged more attacks from the mages. I quickly followed after them as Rana galloped past me on the back of her Bánwolf, and the redhead winked at me with a sly smile then was gone over the debris.
More soldiers were blown backward from the mages’ front, and I climbed surefooted over the jumbled mass of stone. I stood at the top and looked out over the fighting. I had the numbers on my side, but these stronger mages put up a good fight against us. They were formable enemies for my men but surely not for me. I held the God Slayer in one hand as a group of mages turned and set their eyes on my holy presence. They rushed at me with their hands raised and power pulsing from their palms.
Blasts of emerald green flew through the air directly for me, but with a backhand wave of the polearm, I deflected them, and they exploded to the left of me. The mages’ eyes widened as I made my slow descent and glared down at them. I raised my right hand and summoned my dark power to me as I paralyzed them from the waist down. The mages struggled to move and cried out for help from their comrades, but all those around them stumbled away in fear at the sight of me.
I pushed my dark power into their bodies and watched as they writhed in agony, all of their senses set on fire by the immense strength of my abilities. I felt my power move within their veins like a poison and infect every inch of their flesh as it turned grey and began to rot before their very eyes. As the mages lost all consciousness, I swiped my hand upward and sucked their souls from their dying bodies. The white spheres spun in the air for a second then drifted toward me as I walked through the forest of frozen, standing corpses. Each soul absorbed into my chest, and their strength and mage powers became my own.
The air stank of blood and death, and I leaned my head back and drank it in. I stepped away from the dead mages, they fell to the ground one by one as I retracted my unsurmountable power from them. Black smoke billowed from me as I moved around the battlefield and drove my way deeper into the fray.
I summoned up a trove of shadow slaves around me, and the faceless beasts attacked any mage that dared come near us. I felt like a grand maestro, waving my hands through the air and summoning up different terrifying creatures to torment the surrounding mages. I watched the life leave their eyes each time they attempted to defend themselves or retreat. Ice demons lumbered across the stone courtyard between the ruined wall and the still intact one.
I raised both hands at once, and two towering basilisks exploded up from the ground, throwing unsuspecting mages into the air like ragdolls. My creatures tore into the remaining wizards with ruthless vigor, and the blood of the Holy Order spilled out onto the ground. I breathed in the metallic scent and grinned hatefully.
The Tintagal soldiers in my army reveled in their bloodlust as they used their swords to gut mages. Intestines spilled to the dusty ground as the men clothed in forest green and silver hacked off the heads of more of the Holy Order members. Their voices were loud as they chanted together in unison and every once in a while, their regent called out an order from the back.
A group of twenty-five mages hustled toward me, their heads low and their hands outstretched in front of them. Orbs of light formed in between their hands as they recited spells, and I chuckled deep in the back of my throat. These men thought they could defeat me with mere magic, it was pathetic. I stalked toward them with the God Slayer loosely held in my right hand. I swept the polearm around the side of my body, placed both hands on the haft, and slammed it down into the ground.
The dirt at my feet crumbled at first and then expanded and rolled with life. I let go of the weapon and held my hands out on either side of it. The earth around the twenty mages began to disintegrate and cave in. Water started to pour in slowly at first, and the mages turned anxiously to find any means of escape, but it was too late. I summoned the power to me and called forth the lost souls I’d met before on the waters between Machstein and Tintagal.
Ghostly, translucent hands clawed up through the murky water and grabbed onto the legs of the mages. The men screamed and sloshed through the deepening water, but there was no way I’d let them get away now. The first Rusalka’s head surfaced, and she bobbed for a moment as she stared up into the face of a mage. The man seemed to be paralyzed by fear, but his senses quickly took hold, and he jerked away. Loud, high-pitched clicks came from the Rusalka and one by one, five more appeared from the rolling water.
By now, the ground had sunk low, and the water was quickly reaching the mage’s waists. The men were tightly grouped together as they kept their eyes on the waif-like women in the water. I felt the need within them, the same need I felt long ago within Baudouin’s castle’s hidden pools. The lead Rusalka launched her nude body up and out of the water as she attacked one of the mages. Her needle-like teeth sunk into his face, and he screamed as he struggled to pry her off. The Rusalka held tight as she threw her head back and ripped a large strip of flesh away.
The clicking sounds from the water-women were deafening now as the other five began to paw and rip at the mages, dragging them down into the rising water with them. I turned away as the last wizard was pulled into the depths, and the roiling water turned scarlet with his blood. I grabbed the haft of the God Slayer and ripped it free from the ground as the water drained, and the hole in the earth closed up. Their telltale clicking still rang in my head as I moved on to the next group of waiting mages.
This time, there were only five, and I faced off with them. I squared my shoulders then rolled my neck back until it cracked twice. The mages numbers were dwindling quickly, but I wasn’t quite finished torturing them just yet. Overhead, Heijing’s transformed draconic body sat perched on the broken battlements of the outer wall and roasted any mages that attempted to escape our wrath. Her glowing red eyes slashed toward each of them then consumed their bodies in flame. Charred bodies fell to the ground like dead leaves in fall and smoke rose from them as their skin continued to sizzle.
The five mages that stood in front of me were stronger than the others, probably level six or sevens if I could take a guess but they were no match for me. I leaned my head back as I gazed condescendingly down my nose at them, calculating what I would do with them. Most of the fighting around me had ended, and those mages left squirmed on the ground, barely alive, their bodies torn open and bloody.
I lifted the God Slayer high over my head, and all five of the mages’ heads rocked back as their bodies rose from the ground. I whipped the God Slayer down, once to the left and once to the right. Ten arms fell to the ground with spurts of blood as the mages struggled to scream, but I held their mouths closed. I strode toward them as I took in the pained expressions on each of their faces.
I stopped in front of the first mage and slowly lowered him so that our eyes were level with each other. I slammed the God Slayer down beside me and let it stand freely on its own. I held my right hand in front of his face and forced his mouth open with my power. I gazed deeply into his dark brown eyes as I placed my right hand across his forehead and hooked my fingers of my left into his mouth. His teeth pressed into the flesh of my phalanges but didn’t cause any pain as I slowly pulled my hands away from each other.
The mage made strange moaning noises that barely made it up his throat, and from behind him, the same action I did to him was done to his brothers in kind. The ligaments and muscle that held the mages’ jaw in place began to groan and creak beneath the skin. I pushed
all of my strength into my hands, and in an instant, they snapped. The man’s jaw broke off in my hand, and I threw it away from me as blood gushed down the mage’s front. All of them screamed but were unable to form words with their exposed, waggling tongues.
I barked a bitter laugh as all five of their tongues were unceremoniously ripped from their mouths and fell to the dirty ground with wet plops. These armless, speechless mages would aide me in the coming day, I would make them a mockery of the Holy Order as I strode in the front gates of the inner sanctum. I threw my hand out in front of me and tightened it into a fist. Red, hot chains manifested around their necks, similarly to the way we chained off my brother and I held the five links tightly in my hand.
I turned just in time as all of my armies raised their weapons into the air and roared in victory. I grinned as I held the chains of my captors aloft and forced them forward. The five wounded mages stumbled forward and groaned in agony as more blood dripped to the ground, I felt the pain wracking their bodies but felt no mercy for them. They’d willingly gone against me and my army and ultimately lost their lives to me. These five mages may have thought they’d seen the most of ferocity, but they hadn’t seen how truly evil I could be.
Heijing still sat atop the ruined wall and lifted her massive head and roared at the sky. The ground vibrated, and small stones clattered on the ground from her force as she leaped from the crumbling partition. The Qianlong landed behind me, her flanks spattered with splotches of red and blue from her ancestors. The dragon stepped forward, and her shadow overtook me as she bellowed up in victory once more.
White light sparkled around me, and I turned just as the Qianlong began to transform. The transformation was more intense than ever from the combined power of her parents’ souls. The dragon shrank in size as golden sparks flew and created a flurry all around me. Through the shroud of white and gold light, I could make out two massive shapes part from Heijing’s tiny form and hang above her for a moment. The words spoken between the three beings were in a language I didn’t know, but somehow, I knew what they said to each other.
