by Jez Cajiao
I cried out, flinging myself backwards as the jaws slammed shut before me with a click of teeth. Losing my footing, I fell back on the top few steps, landing hard on my back and staring in horror at the creature that was attacking me. I’d thought it was a regular skeleton, until it opened its abnormally wide mouth, but now that I looked properly, I recognized a creature of legend I’d always disliked, a Naga.
It was a man above the waist, a dagger held in one hand, but below the waist, it was a snake. Thick bands of cartilage and bone enabled it to move with an uncanny speed and grace, even as decomposed as this one was. It gathered itself as I braced my naginata across my chest, leaping the distance between us to pin me down. One hand grabbed the shaft of my weapon, while the other hand drew back and stabbed downward with the dagger. The blade skittered and screeched across my armored chest, lodging into my shoulder and cutting deep into the muscles of my arm. My pauldron seemed to guide the dagger to a vulnerable spot and catch it there, rather than protecting me. I screamed in pain and cried out to Oracle.
“Now! Cast it now!”
Instead of responding to me, Oracle flashed forward, her hands and lips twisting as she began to cast. I returned my attention to the naga, releasing my weapon and grabbing onto it. I started trying to throw it back, only to feel its tail wrapping around me and tightening.
It lunged forward, its embedded dagger abandoned in favor of its clawed hands and fangs, and the battle dissolved into a frantic wrestling match as I tried to dodge them all, grabbing its wrists in my hands as best I could.
I ordered Bob to push the rest back from the doors as far as he could. I sensed him surging forward, laying into all those near him and momentarily forcing them back, even as I felt the DarkSpore beginning to take control of him.
The naga’s fangs flashed forward again, and I threw myself to the side, screaming as I felt one puncture my ear, tearing the flesh and cartilage free from my head in a spray of blood. At last, I managed to plant one foot firmly on the floor. I flipped us over, slamming the naga onto its back and releasing its wrist. My right hand surged up, ignoring the claw-tipped hand that now flashed towards my face, as I forced my fingers through the rotten flesh of its throat. I felt the remnants of flesh fall apart like slow cooked meat as my fingers quested deeper until I found the solidity of its spine. I yanked my head aside, trying to avoid the trio of claws as they drove into my face, cutting into my cheek, muscles in my jaw twanging from being cut as they burrowed deeper.
Feeling the bone underneath my fingers, I grasped it and heaved with all my strength. First one and two, then dozens of strands of flesh and desiccated sinew snapped. I tore the spine free, watching its head come loose as the body began to lose all control. Its digging fingers suddenly spasmed and went limp. I tore the head free with one almighty jerk, roaring in pain and triumph, and hurled it into the stairwell. The fingers ripped from my face in a spurt of blood and ribbons of flesh as I fell backward, watching as something huge battered Bob aside. He smashed into the wall, mobbed by lesser undead attempting to butcher him while the creature lumbered closer.
It filled the stairwell, casually crushing a Scenttal under one foot as the thing failed to move fast enough to dodge. It was the SporeMother, I knew instinctively. My heart seized up in my throat. It was huge, easily eight feet across and twenty high. The tip of its head brushed the top of the low ceiling, and it seemed to be made of smoke and nightmares. Its skin was black, with pale mottled patches that revealed pulsing veins. It somehow seemed to disappear into the shadows, as though made of smoke.
It hunched down, bringing its long, triangular, prow-shaped head closer as it forced its way onto the floor and out of the stairwell. Dozens of eyes, laid out in a ‘V’ shape, ran from one side of the skull to the other. Some focused on me, others peered around the room, and still more showed the pale milky hue of blindness. Its mouth slowly opened in a smile, displaying broken teeth, blackened with age, that were as long as my fingers. A blood red tongue flashed across them, and I felt a mind that radiated with age and evil reach out and touch my own.
“What is this… a tasty morsel? You have cost me slaves, little fleshling! You will pay for that, but the power I feel filling my nest; oh yes, this is sweet, indeed…”
I tried to move, pushing myself backward, but one taloned hand slammed down onto my stomach, a finger to either side of my chest holding me in place as the middle one tapped slowly on my armor.
“Ah, ah! No, you don’t get to creep away now, my pet. You are mine!”
The talon that had been tapping on my chest stopped. Pressing the tip into the center of my breastplate, she slowly began to push, piercing her way into the metal. With a loud noise, the metal began to deform under the pressure, buckling inwards. I groaned, grabbing onto the claw and trying to force it back. I might as well have tried to lift the Tower itself.
A second arm lashed out suddenly, idly backhanding Oracle as she neared the end of the spell, breaking the form before it was completed and hurling her across the room to smash into one wall. The little wisp slumped to the ground, dazed.
The claw finally pierced my armor, the tip digging into my flesh, and a rib broke under the force. I screamed in pain as it begin to cut down across my chest diagonally from under my left nipple toward my belly button. I heard her laughing as she scooped me up, raising me from the floor to dangle in her grip as she stared into my eyes. Her tongue slowly slipped out to lap blood from my cheek, before disappearing back into her maw.
“Tasty! We’ve not fed in soooo many long; barely a morsel here and there. But you, sweet, sweet meat, with blood so red and full of potential, you will make a perfect host for a new brood!”
As she spoke, she emerged further from the stairwell. Fully half of her body was now inside the room, and my agonized eyes saw her for what she was. A monstrous spider’s body, bulbous and multilegged, carried a thick humanoid torso, topped with a blunt wedge-shaped head. Dozens of eyes arced back in a row above the mouth, climbing a frill reminiscent of a triceratops, complete with sharply-tipped bones protruding all around the edge. Two smaller arms extended from the torso, one gripping me, and the other clamped onto the edge of the doorway to steady herself as she slowly pushed herself further through.
I could see burned patches where the sun had managed to touch her on her way up to this floor. I observed the creature’s hatred of the light in the way she glared at the open windows further down the hall before focusing on my chest.
“What’s this? Something hidden? Something secret?”
I felt the full horror of such an ancient evil focusing on me entirely. This thing had killed thousands, had been alive before Columbus had sailed the seas of my world, and men far better than me had fallen to her. That thought sparked a flare of anger, and I looked into her eyes, grunting as the talon that had been digging into my chest withdrew and placed itself under my chin, raising my head to face the creature squarely.
“Well, little fleshling? Nothing to say; no pleas for mercy?”
I opened my mouth, feeling it sag on one side from the injuries I’d taken already, and I spat blood out before speaking up. “Beg you? Hell no. Ya can suck it, ya big jobbie!”
“… Jobbie…?”
“Shit! You’re a giant turd, floating in life’s oceans!” I wheezed at her, before moaning in pain as she squeezed me harder. The finger under my chin pushed into my throat as I fought for breath.
“It tries to anger us. Many have tried. Death will be slow for you, mortal, and … argh!!!!”
Her claw impacted the edge of the Baron’s rune, the one he’d carved into my flesh and filled with unholy energy. She sensed it just as her claw impacted it, and then it was too late as the energy broke containment.
The rune seemed to explode, ripping energy from my chest to punish any that dared interfere with its dark master’s design. A lightning bolt, or so it seemed, hit the SporeMother. Her claw disintegrated as the energy lashed out, hammering into her body and knockin
g her back onto the ground, stunned.
I laid on the floor for a handful of seconds, trying to make sense of what had just happened as the backlash of energy coursed through my already weakened body. Thankfully, whatever the Baron had done was obviously intended to punish whoever broke the spell, not me.
The second effect of breaking the rune was that HE was released, and he came crashing back into my mind with the force of a freight train, scattering my barely coherent thoughts.
KILLITKILLITKILLITTrespasserItShouldBeDeadShouldAllBeDeadKillITKILLITKILLIT
As the voice filled my head, I reached into my bag. My only thought was to find something to help heal me, though I’d no idea what I’d find. As I fumbled, the voice hammered into my reeling brain again, more aware than it had been in the past.
There!IsItTrueItIsHeHasItUseItUseItUseIt!!!!
My half-formed call into my bag for something to heal me was overruled by the far louder call of the voice as it saw something it wanted, and I felt something fill my hand. I pulled it free and stared at the faint silvery light radiating out from my fingers in confusion.
Silverbright…SoLongItsBeenSoLongSinceWeSawIt… use it! Use it now, you fool!!
The voice became more coherent, seeming to speak clearly for the first time. The madness that usually filled it was lessening somehow, and I saw a prompt flash up. My usual desire for the prompts to stay out of the way was overruled by someone else.
???? wishes to share memories with you. Will you accept a mind link from ????
Yes/No
◆◆◆
I blinked in confusion as the words swam in and out of clarity, and selected yes. I fought to make sense of it all as the memories began. It was clear that Oracle wasn’t the one making contact this time. It was another mind, much older, and much more broken than I could have ever realized.
A stream of memories flooded my mind, most flashing past too fast to understand. I sensed they were being directed, the mind that was linked to mine focusing tighter, until the perspective changed to cave high in the mountains. A trio of huge figures towered around me (Him?) while my servants and guard huddled in the lower halls. Their magic was barely enough to keep them safe, even as my own deflected the atmosphere to make it comfortable without effort.
I knelt before Her. My oldest friend lay dying; the birth had strained her beyond measure, coming so close after the battle with the Valspar. She had barely the strength to reach the Mountain. Others of her race had flown as swiftly as they could, but all had arrived too late. I, to my eternal shame, hadn’t even heard the call. The soldier responsible for monitoring the Beacon had taken word to his liege lord first, and Sanguis had waited until I’d awoken the next morning.
There would be consequences for this, I silently vowed, as tears ran down my face and soaked my beard.
She lay there, her breathing labored and coming in short pants. Bloody foam covered her mighty lips, as yellowed teeth like greatswords slowly slid out of view and vanished. I remembered Her as she had been when we had first bonded, barely the size of a wagon. Impetuosity of youth had filled us both as we swore to always be there for one another.
And I’d failed her…She was dying, because I’d slept the sleep of a drunkard and missed her call for aid.
Others had been dispatched to erase the stain of the Valspar from the land in retribution, but that wouldn’t help Sutshi’Amon, Ruler of Dragon’s Reach, soul-bonded to the Emperor, and new mother to a brace of three eggs. Eggs that could be the future of her race would now grow up without the love of a mother, if they survived at all, as premature as they were.
The memory changed, following conversations between myself (Him) and the towering figures of the other dragons. Accusations, anger and recriminations were thrown back and forth. The knowledge that if I (He) were any other mortal, I would have ended as a meal, rather than forcing them to kneel in supplication or to flee my (His) rage.
More memories flashed, and Sutshi spoke, charging all of us to protect her children, to raise them and protect them. She could barely speak, and still, she tried to soothe my heartbreak at her passing. The barriers between our minds dissolved in our shared despair.
I felt as though I’d never be able to cry another tear, my eyes scratchy from hours upon hours of flowing. Even now, she thought of others. I wept, barely able to choke out my words as I stroked her cheek. I swore upon my soul that I’d protect them, raise them as she would have, and gift them a better world to fly in.
I imbued my vow with all of the mana I had, sensing the changes that came from such a vow, and I saw her final smile.
Hours more passed as she slept, waking intermittently as her once-legendary strength slowly declined. Toward the end, she awoke briefly and struggled to speak before reaching out with a tentative mindlink to us all. She gave gifts to us, sharing knowledge to be returned to her children when they were old enough. To me, she gave one more gift, and it was one that had never been given to a mortal before.
She gave of her body. Dragons usually ate their dead, growing far stronger from the terrifyingly mana-rich bodies, and Dragons in turn hunted any other creature that dared to do so, with a rage that rivalled the Gods. She gave to me three vials of her heart’s blood, and her right foreleg, scales that could reflect lava, bones stronger than diamond, and all.
When she breathed her last, I accepted her gifts and departed from the mountain, leaving Amon’Tuthic, her mate, to guard the eggs. I swore that an entire legion would be dispatched to the mountain to serve and protect the Dragons while I brought peace to the surrounding lands.
The memory ended then, as I used my magic to transport my followers and myself back to the Empire, my storage heavy with Her gifts.
◆◆◆
My brain kicked back into gear, soul-shredding grief filling me as I looked down at the vial I held, filled with her heart’s blood. A sound drew my attention to the SporeMother as I shifted in the corner, still recovering from the surprise attack of the rune…and I RAGED!
This creature, this descendant of the Valspar, dared to exist?! It dared to live, let alone trespass in one of MY creations?!?
I could feel Him now, his thoughts resonating with my own. Our anger reinforced one another, feeding it, building it even as we forced ourselves to our feet. Our mana and body were weak, our spells pathetic as we remembered destroying entire continents with a single powerful creation, but for this? To erase this creature from existence, all we needed was already here.
I reached out, my Manatouch spell grasping my naginata and catapulting it to slam into my right hand. With a thought, it popped the cork from the bottle, and I poured it onto the blade.
I flooded what was left of my mana into the Silverbright as it seeped into the metal of my weapon. A steady, strong glow beginning to emanate from it as the weapon began to change.
The SporeMother lifted from the ground, glaring at me in anger.
Chapter Nineteen
I felt satisfaction radiating from Oracle, even as I felt her concern at the changes she sensed in me. She’d taken advantage of the distraction, though. Whatever we had become after He and I shared our memories, it had resulted in a drop in mana needed to cast, as well as the time needed, and she’d managed to get off the Cleansing Fire spell at last.
The flames radiated out from me, filling the surrounding area and burning into the SporeMother even as they began to heal me. She tried to back away, only to find she had partially wedged herself in the doorway when she had come for me.
“C’mere, bitch!” I wheezed out, hefting my naginata in one hand, and gesturing with my weakened left hand. “C’mere, and let me fuck you right up…”
I was close to death from my injuries, and my mana was too low to cast anything useful. I didn’t expect to live, so I resolved to sell my life dearly. She slammed her right arm down and I fell to one knee and braced the naginata across my chest, taking the full force of her attack on its haft. Her hand closed around the gently glowing weapon, and
I felt the tiny amount of mana I had remaining sucked from me, filling it. She screamed, and my eardrums vibrated with the violence of her pain. The naginata flared to life; runes that had never existed before glowed brightly against the night, and they burned into her. Her hand blackened, closing in reflex as it had. She couldn’t open it fast enough, and light began to eat its way into her. Her skin lost the nightmarish smoke-like texture as she became fully solid, no longer able to phase in and out of reality. The veins leading from her blackened hand began to fill with light, slowly seeping up her arm as her fingers charred and fell off.
Her other hand flashed out, smashing me from my feet to crumple into a wall. My naginata clattered away across the floor and the light cut off. The SporeMother was badly injured and her eyes blazed in anger and bloodlust, even as she ignored the devastation that the Cleansing Fire spell was inflicting on her. I rolled to all fours, coughing blood onto the floor, and grabbed my hidden daggers from the sheaths in both bracers as I forced myself to my feet. One way or another, only one of us was walking away from this fight, and I felt His approval with that thought. I bled heavily, the Cleansing Fire’s healing aspect the only keeping me from death already.
“Come on, bitch...” I ground out weakly, spitting a glob of blood onto the floor and gesturing with my blades to the SporeMother. “Daddy’s got something for ya!” With that, I drove myself forward, ducking under a swing from the near-useless club limb of her right arm and leapt, slamming both daggers into her face. My left dagger, held by my weak and injured left arm skittered across the skin, cutting but not carving deeply enough before my grip gave out and it fell. However, my right blade struck true, digging into one of her bulbous eyes.
I held onto the dagger as the creature whipped its head back and screamed in pain, yanking me from side to side as I ripped through nearby eyes, dangling by one arm before being slammed into the wall.
