by C. M. Carney
The High God’s glare fell across them all but settled on one. Gryph did not have to turn to know who that ire was directed towards, for a most welcome voice filled his mind.
Let’s stop playing around with this asshole, Lex sent through the link. Pulses of relief and joy flowed from all directions as the Adventure Group rejoiced. Gryph stole a glance in Lex’s direction to find him wobbly, but standing, Herne’s arm looped under his. It’s time to take this asshole’s divinity.
You heard the man, Gryph sent with a grin and activated his Leadership tier ability Inspire. Now that his entire Adventure Group was awake, each member would have their chance to hit increased by 25%, their chance to earn a Critical Hit by 10% and each would gain five temporary levels to a martial skill of their choice.
We don’t need to injure him, and we do not want to kill him. He’ll just respawn far from here, and we'll miss our chance. Concentrate all your efforts on restraining him so Lex can do his thing, Gryph sent.
And damn do I so wanna do my thing, Lex sent with a greedy chuckle.
Lex, Gryph sent. Think you can keep His Eminence distracted with your inane blathering while I devise a plan?
Gryph and his group fanned out, ready to attack. Aluran stood full and tall, his jaw tight and furious. His rage filled eyes moving from one of them to another, before coming back to Lex.
Copious amounts of inane blathering coming up. See Vonn, I told you my mouth would someday save everyone.
Annoy the High God, not me you goober, Vonn sent.
Oh yeah, right. Lex turned to Aluran and nodded. “Sup Ally. How are things at home? Any subordinate gods betray you lately?”
Gryph’s eyes snapped to Lex. What are you doing?
He knows about Brynn. He knows who you are. He knows everything. I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop him, but hopefully I can use it to knock him off his game.
Fear bit into Gryph at the thought of losing Brynn, at exposing his people to the High God’s wrath. I cannot let him leave this room, Gryph told himself and began to send his plan to the others through their shared Telepathic Link.
Aluran’s jaw tightened. No matter how in control Aluran was, the bitter taste of betrayal threatened to undo him.
“So just like everyone else, Brynn hates you, huh,” Lex said. “That’s gotta sting.”
Aluran closed his mailed fist, the muscles in his jaw raging as he clenched his teeth. “I’ll give you one last chance to accept my deal Lex. Give me what I want, and I’ll let your friends live.”
“Oh, wow, that’s a totally sweet offer. But I can’t help but notice you said nothing about me,” Lex said, spreading his hands wide. “You gonna let me live? Kinda thinking you can’t allow anyone else to learn what I know, so I’m guessing your offer doesn’t include a safe passage clause for dear ol’ Lex, does it?”
“Life is about choices Lex, sacrifice. I’ll do anything for the one I love. Perhaps you carry too much of Cerrunos in you to make that call.”
For a moment Lex mocked considering the proposal. “Here’s the thing Morry,” Lex said, mocking the name Aluran had tried so hard to hide. “I don’t really like most of these guys all that much, but I really enjoy being alive. I’m still kinda new to the whole thing, but I sure don’t want it to end. I wanna travel, meet new people, try new foods, maybe take up a hobby or two. I hear knitting is nice, but I think deicide is more my thing.”
“I have missed your wit,” Aluran said and mana built up around his body. “Too bad it will not save you.”
Gryph finished sending his plan and yelled through the link. Go! The Adventure Group jumped to action. Gryph tossed his spider silk rope and began to cast. Eris loaded her pistols with Stun Shot slugs. Raathiel used Increase Size and dove, ready to constrict the High God. Errat cast Shift and popped out of existence. Ovrym lashed out with an invisible hand of telekinetic force. Vonn took a more old-fashioned route and blasted a few Order Bolts at the High God’s face.
The coordinated assault was devastating, and it completely failed.
A gust of wind pulsed from Aluran’s left palm and flowed over Gryph’s rope. It flopped to the floor, the magic animating it dispelled. A shimmering golden energy shield expanded from Aluran’s wrist, deflecting Eris’ bullets. The High God’s right hand snapped up and a net of magma colored energy wrapped about Raathiel, causing her to crash to the floor. Errat shifted back to reality behind the High God in time to get an Earth Magic enhanced punch to the gut. Errat went rigid and fell, the victim of a Stun debuff. Ovrym’s own telepathic fist spun around the High God and hammered back into the xydai, sending him flying backwards into Cerrunos’s sarcophagus. Only Vonn’s unerring Order Bolts found their mark, but Aluran laughed them off.
Aluran grinned and then his entire body shimmered with a buildup of Soul Magic mana. Before any of Gryph’s Adventure Group could get anywhere near the High God, the energy exploded in a wave. Silver light flowed over them and Gryph felt all his strength drain from him. A prompt filled his vision, telling him Aluran had cast a spell called Soul Scythe that disrupted the soul-body connection, resulting in something like paralysis.
Gryph fell to the floor hard, as did the others. Aluran walked up to him and pulled him into a seated position against a bookcase. He turned Gryph’s face towards him. He then grabbed Lex and positioned him opposite Gryph. “Well, well, well, here we are Finn. How does it feel to work so hard, only to fail so miserably?”
Gryph struggled to move, his body screaming with every motion. “You can let me know after I tear your Godhead from you.” Gryph’s voice slurred, like a man given a sedative.
Aluran chuckled at Gryph’s bravado. “I am impressed. Few have ever had the strength to resist my Soul Scythe so effectively.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Gryph muttered. He tried to smile, but the energies humming through him made it look more like a macabre grin. Gryph swung a limp arm at Aluran. It smacked lamely against the High God’s chest and fell back into Gryph’s lap. “Take that.”
Aluran chuckled and grabbed Gryph by the chin, leaning in close. “I am quite terrified.”
“You should be pal, you know why?”
“Why?” Aluran asked, his face smug.
“Cuz I know something you don’t know.” Gryph tried to wave a dismissive arm at Aluran, but once again the power of the Soul Scythe made it weak and pathetic.
“Oh no, I do.” Aluran snapped his hand behind him and caught the coil of empyrean spider silk that had launched itself at him. He held the rope in front of Gryph’s eyes as it spasmed like an angry snake. “Your secret plan wasn’t so secret after all. You were a fool to trust your Telepathic Link in my presence, or did Lex forget to tell you I’m a Master thought mage?”
“Nah, he told me,” Gryph said, his voice strong and his eyes bright. A look of worry filled Aluran’s eyes, but his reaction came too late. Gryph lunged forward with his other arm sinking the blade of one of his throwing knives into Aluran’s throat. With a twinge of his will he cracked the quartz wafer and the virulent concoction exploded into Aluran’s bloodstream. “In fact, I counted on it.”
The serum in the blade was distilled from Arboleth Eye Ichor. It disrupted the thought patterns in the brain, making any complex task, like spell casting, nearly impossible. Aluran grimaced in pain and tried to cast, but the mana sparked and failed.
A shadow fell over the two men and Gryph winked at the High God. Before Aluran could turn, a pair of beefy hands took the High God’s head between them and twin pulses of energy exploded into his skull. Aluran seized like a man subject to an intense electrical current. His blinks were erratic, and his eyes rolled back into his skull.
Lex leaned down and spoke into his ear. “Hello brother. I’m still adjusting to once being Cerrunos, you know, since he was pretty much a giant prat. But you’ve given me the perfect opportunity to atone for that sin. Maybe, just maybe it will help me deal with my angst and guilt, help me grow as a person. So, thanks for that, fuckface.” Lex
grunted and fed more power into the High God’s head.
Aluran’s eyes rolled back and his face pushed into a look of utter shock. At the center of his brow, a gray-silver glow appeared, and grew brighter. The extraction of Aluran’s Godhead had begun.
46
A few moments before their failed attack on the High God, right after he’d awoken amidst Raathiel’s healing light, Lex had cast Commune. The extremely rare Order Magic spell drew him into the Realm of Order where he could have a nice chat with the entity he called Rubik. The DuoQuadrata was a low-level servant of the Lords of Order and Commune allowed Lex to ask a simple question. Rubik's answer would always answer truthful, if often confusing.
Lex had learned that anyone that was a part of Gryph’s Telepathic Link would join him on the trip, in spirit if not in body. So as the world slowed, and the foggy haze rolled in, Lex explained his plan to the others.
“First off, it’s good to see you again pal,” Lex said mock hugging Gryph’s spectral presence. “We thought Aluran might have eaten you.”
I thought no such thing, Raathiel sent and Gryph smiled at her.
“Anyway, awesome reunions aside, I brought us here to make a plan. As you may remember, his High Douche is a Master level thought mage, which means there’s a good chance he can tap into Gryph’s Telepathic Link.”
“So, we do not use it,” Errat said.
“That will put us at a significant disadvantage in a fight already fraught with difficulty,” Ovrym said.
“Then we do the opposite. We use the link,” Vonn said.
“And feed him false information,” Gryph said, understanding the rogue’s thoughts.
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Lex said. “See, great minds think alike.”
“What’s to prevent him from reading our minds and discovering what we’re really up to?” Ovrym asked.
“Because, Thought Magic doesn’t work that way,” Eris said. “He could, in theory, extract about anything he wanted from any of us, but it takes time and concentration. He can’t simply pluck thoughts willy nilly.”
“And we sure as shit are not gonna stand around while he futzes with our brains,” Lex said.
“What makes you think he isn’t listening right now?” Ovrym asked.
Lex turned on the xydai and gave him an annoyed grunt. “Why are you always such a Debbie Downer man?”
“I am a realist who prefers not to leave things to chance,” Ovrym retorted with heat.
You need not worry, noble adjudicator, Raathiel sent. The veils between the Realms disrupt all but the most powerful magics. Even Aluran does not possess the power to reach this far.
“You sure?” Lex asked, his tone that of a man surprised to learn his own plan could work.
I am.
“Good, okay. I have one other teensy, tiny question. Say we take Aluran’s Godhead from him, what do we do with him then? Even without it, the dude is scary tough. And we can’t kill him, as fun as that would be, cuz ya know player. He’ll just respawn, likely in the heart of his power base. So, what are we gonna do?”
“There is a place here,” Gryph said. “One Herne told me of. A cell carved from the heart of a mountain. It is where they locked away the Aspect of Cerrunos that bears his fear. We will put Aluran with him, and he will spend the rest of his days shrouded in fear.”
“Love it,” Lex said with a smile. “Brutal endless suffering is just what the doctor ordered for that asshole.” He squinted into the mists. “Now we wait for my good pal Rubik. Any minute now.”
After a delay of several seconds, during which Lex nervously stepped from one foot to the other, a shape parted the mists and floated towards them. The creature was made of a pair of dull gold cubes, one resting atop the other, connected by a gear-shaped junction. The top cube bore a mouth and a pair of mismatched eyes that examined each of them. A pair of spindly, almost rubbery arms extended outwards from the sides of the box. The bottom of the creature was another cube with its own set of arms.
The creature floated up to Lex and stared.
“Hey Rubik, good to see ya buddy. We need your help to prevent like the biggest apocalypse to happen in like forever.” The cube floated up and down and continued to stare. “Chatty as ever. Okay here goes the question. How can we defeat Aluran?”
The creature said nothing for a long moment, as if recognizing the gravity of the situation and wanting to give the best advice, or maybe it was simply being obtuse. Gryph started to fear the creature would not answer, when a monotone voice filled their minds.
SHIELD YOUR SOULS, the creature said, not aloud, but inside their heads. Then the DuoQuadrata turned and floated away.
“Thanks Rubik,” Lex said with a wave. “You’re the best. See ya next time.” The NPC turned to the others. “Okay, so anybody know what the hell that meant?”
“I know exactly what it meant,” Gryph said. “And I know what we need to do.”
*****
The mists faded, and they were back in the Archive, facing off against Aluran. The High God eyed them one at a time, searching for advantage. Sweat trickled down his brow and his eyes raged with pain and anger. He might look none the worse for wear, but Gryph knew Aluran was suffering, which meant he was beatable.
Let’s stop playing with this asshole, Lex sent through the link. It was the code phrase for them to start their subterfuge and the distraction gave Gryph the time he needed to cast Soul Shield around the entire group. The spell protected the beneficiary’s soul from the less friendly powers of Soul Magic. The shield not only prevented a soul mage from stealing or feeding on the user’s soul, it gave some measure of resistance to all other Soul Magic attacks.
Gryph did not know Aluran’s full capabilities but hoped the shield would be enough. And in battle sometimes hope was all you had. The protection drained nearly half his mana pool, but if this worked Gryph would count it as the best investment he’d ever made.
They began their attack, and it went perfectly to plan. Barely two minutes after Gryph tossed his spider silk rope, the extraction of Aluran’s Godhead was underway. Gryph ordered his spider silk rope to wrap about Aluran’s arms and torso and activated the rope’s Compel ability. He fed a command through the rope for Aluran to sleep. He didn’t expect Aluran would succumb to the lower level magic but hoped it would demand enough of his attention to prevent him from counteracting Lex’s extraction.
Ovrym, Raathiel, hold him, Gryph sent. The xydai sheathed his sword and wrapped his telekinetic hand about the High God’s legs, while Raathiel curled her constrictive coils about his upper body, reinforcing the rope.
Aluran tried to break away, tried to cast another spell, but the Arboleth Ichor was too much even for him. The gray glow of the Godhead of Soul grew brighter, the edges of its multi-spatial matrix starting to push through the skin of the high God’s forehead.
“Almost there,” Lex said through gritted teeth, sweat pouring from his brow.
Gryph knelt and stared at the man. “You have spent your life bringing destruction and pain to the Realms. Now, you will spend the rest of your days in fear. Terror is your punishment. I wonder how long it will take to break you.”
With an incredible struggle, Aluran forced his eyes to focus and looked at Gryph. “I will never break,” he said in a voice that sounded as if it were about to do just that. “I am destruction made flesh. I will eradicate everything you have ever held dear. I will raze your city, kill your people and I will force Brynn to watch as I slowly consume your soul. You will be nothing but an empty sack of meat. But before that, right at the end, we will understand each other. For you will have lost everything as I have.”
Fury built inside Gryph, but he would not fall into Aluran’s trap. He would not let his emotions interfere with the plan. He leaned in close. “You will never see Brynn again. You will never see anyone again. Your days and nights will be one and all you will know is fear.”
Just a little more. Lex grunted and turned his hands like a man str
uggling to open the rusted metal valve of a water main. The Godhead pushed further from Aluran’s head, now nearly three quarters of the way removed. In a few seconds they would have returned Aluran to the ranks of the merely mortal.
The High God began to laugh, a coughing pained affair. “We’ll be seeing each other soon, Finn.” The middle fingers on Aluran’s right hand twitched and pressed into his palm. A glow built under the skin of the High God’s palm and, with a pulse of magical energy, expanded.
“Holy shit, it’s a Port Stone,” Lex roared.
The energy twined up Aluran’s arm and around his whole body. Reality folded and somewhere else began to pull at the High God. The Godhead snapped back into Aluran’s head with a dull plop and he grinned.
But the High God’s triumph was short lived. Vonn’s arm flashed, his vorpal blade severing Aluran’s hand at the wrist. A primal scream, only partially derived from the pain of amputation, exploded from Aluran’s mouth. The energy in the Port Stone pulsed and retracted before exploding outwards. Light flared to blinding and the High God disappeared.
47
Gryph and his Adventure Group stood in silent shock for several moments. They had come so close to victory, only to have it snatched from them at the last moment. They were exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually. The silence was an unsatisfactory salve, but at least it was something.
“Well Fuck!” Lex yelled.
Gryph grimaced in annoyance, well aware that his seething anger and his soul wrenching fear was not Lex’s doing, but his own. He had failed. On the cusp of victory, he had let his enemy escape.
“What the hell do we do now?” Lex asked, his eyes wide and desperate.
