by C. M. Carney
“Perhaps she is dead,” Jurredix said.
“The disturbance? Do you think the other Prince’s ganged up on her?”
“It is a logical conclusion.”
“And therefore suspect. Baelmaera never plays the straight game.”
“No, she does not, but for the moment, it is irrelevant. We need to find a way through this door, regardless of which chaos entities lie in wait.
“You’re right,” Tal said and began the intricate forms of casting Order Magic.
“When am I not?”
Tal grumbled under his breath and turned his full attention to casting. A massive amount of mana built up inside him, and he thrust his arms forward. Planes of shimmering energy expanded outwards into the shape of a sharply pointed obelisk. Tal pushed, and the four-sided crystalline structure pierced the raging energy protecting the door. Clods of molten stone exploded outward, searing the floor.
Quicker than mortal eyes could follow, Jurredix erected a shimmering shield, protecting both Tal and the rigid guards. The walls rumbled as Tal pushed forward. “An intriguing use of Anchor of Order,” Jurredix said, impressed. “You never cease to amaze me, Tal. Your species’ minds swim with the chaos of raw emotion, yet, often as not, you push through that handicap to achieve unexpected results.”
Tal would have flipped the archon off had he had the use of either hand, but also knew the automaton was right. Anchor of Order was a Grandmaster level incantation that fed upon chaos and provided power to the hundreds of Order Lances that protected Korynn from chaos incursions. To an outsider, an Order Lance was just a tower, but when powered by an Anchor of Order, the buildings became defensive bulwarks that fed upon and transformed raw chaos into nigh unbreakable barriers.
The tower they now lay beneath was one of the greatest of Korynn’s Order Lances. Yet as powerful as the artifact was, an open Realm Gate, tapped directly into the primordial chaos, would soon overwhelm the protective magics of the lance. Tal wasn’t using his new anchor to strengthen the lance but to drain the chaos magic protecting the door.
“What is your plan once we are through the door?”
“No idea. I’m making this up as I go.”
“Reassuring,” Jurredix said as the rumble grew stronger. The anchor was glowing with a furious inner light and more gobbets of molten chaos thrummed against Jurredix’s shield. A shriek rose, somewhere between the screeching of metal on metal and the howl of something ancient screaming in fury.
Then the Anchor of Order smashed through the door casting molten stone and raw chaos in a wide arc before it stopped, hovering in midair. For the briefest of moments, the debris floated in an undisciplined halo as if gravity itself had paused.
Tal stared into the room, using a concentration technique taught to all novice Deacons. The room beyond the door was a large circular gallery. At its center, a ring of spinning red metal hovered above a rail of the same. It reminded Tal of the magnetic magics used by earth mages during large-scale construction projects.
Twelve members of the Synod stood in a half-circle, each feeding tendrils of red-orange energy to their leader, the chaos mage Rowyn Vex. The twelve writhed in agony, and for a moment, Tal felt sorry for them. Whatever Vex was doing to them, it was both painful and unexpected. I warned you all, Tal thought.
As disturbing as the Synod’s torture was, the pulsating hole to another place flickering in and out of existence at the center of the spinning ring was the true terror. Amidst the swirling maelstrom of unrestrained chaos lurked several massive shadowy forms. They were getting closer, larger.
The Princes of Chaos. Nearly all of them. Working together?
Never in all of known history, had the Princes of Chaos joined forces. Their mutual hatred and distrust ensured they had never combined their efforts. It was one of the few reasons that chaos had not overwhelmed the other realms long ago. The Lords of Order were weaker than the Princes of Chaos, but they were organized, disciplined, united. That had been their strength. If Chaos has united, then the Realms are doomed.
Gravity dredged time back to the present and the halo of molten debris flew forward into the room ahead of the Anchor of Order. The Synod took the full brunt of the assault, and every one of them went down, screaming in both terror and elation as fiery debris shredded their bodies.
Tal pushed with all his will and the anchor flew towards Rowyn Vex’s unguarded back. A moment before the deadly point of the anchor impaled the chaos sorcerer, she spun and extended her palm outwards. The anchor stopped not because it hit an unseen barrier, but because Vex had somehow leached all the momentum from it. The anchor floated in the space between Tal and Vex, calm as a sea bird riding an easy swell.
Vex was a stocky woman whose keen mind and immense skill with chaos magic had enabled her to rise to the pinnacle of power in Xygarrion. She was as fierce in battle as she had been on the council floor, and her actions had snatched at least one victory against the Prime from the jaws of defeat. She hated the aetherial creatures more than anyone, which was one reason Tal had always considered her a friend, despite their conflicting philosophies.
“Hello, Tal, I’d hoped you’d show up.” Vex’s voice had a scratchy quality to it that enhanced her confidence. “This will be so much easier with you here.” She grinned, and Tal watched as a writhing cloud of energized particles oozed from her very pores, expanded and then contracted like the erratic breathing of a dying animal before it flowed back inside her.
“A Chaos Spore,” Jurredix said, his normal placid voice tinged with fear.
“It cannot be,” Tal said, but then Vex grinned, and he knew the archon was correct. A Chaos Spore was a splintered shard of one of the immortal motes of sentient chaos mortals called the Princes of Chaos. When bonded to a host, the spore allowed the Prince to act through them beyond their eternal prison.
Is this why Baelmaera is missing? Has she possessed Vex?
The Chaos Spore was a cosmic hack of sorts, the only way for a Prince to breach the impenetrable barrier the Source had long ago set about the Maelstrom. But the energies of chaos were virulent, and in short order they would consume everything the host was, leaving nothing behind but a scoured, soulless husk.
How did Vex succumb to this?
Tal had no time to consider the question, as Vex twisted her wrist, tearing at the fabric of the anchor’s crystalline matrix. If she destroyed the obelisk, then any hope of closing the rift forming inside the metallic ring would die with it.
“Kill her,” Tal commanded, and Dyrria and her guards rushed into battle.
Vex clenched her free hand and chaotic energy flowed around her arm in erratic whorls. The shredded remains of the Synod quivered and then stood like macabre marionettes. They lurched towards the approaching guards and Tal knew his unwilling allies would be dead in mere moments. I am sorry Dyrria.
“We need a plan,” Jurredix said, nodding towards Vex, who had returned her attention to the anchor. “Until we secure the anchor, it remains vulnerable. It cannot hold up to that kind of strain for long.”
“Dammit,” Tal muttered. There was only one way to stop Vex, and he was sure it would end up with them all dead. “Take the anchor,” he yelled to Jurredix. The archon gave Tal an odd glance as if to question his mental state. While powerful creations of order, archons were incapable of harnessing the power necessary to cast Anchor of Order.
Worse yet, their rigid modes of thinking made them ill-suited to shifting their mental state quick enough to tame and direct the chaotic energy inside the anchor. An archon’s job was to protect the anchor once it was set. To handle one before that was unheard of, akin to heresy and would likely end with all the stored energy of the anchor exploding in their faces.
“This is a bad idea,” Jurredix said, but to his credit his hesitation was brief, and he took control of the anchor, freeing Tal from the burden.
“Have a little faith. You’ve spent so much time with me; you’re likely to have acquired some of my irrational thought
processes. Use them.”
“We are all going to die.”
“Probably,” Tal acknowledged and tapped the amulet at his throat. A crystalline matrix of Order Magic expanded around him like a blocky set of armor. The armor upped his physical attributes by a staggering amount and also provided a perfect defense against Chaos Magic, for like the anchor, the armor fed on chaos energy. Tal jumped, soaring over the shuddering anchor, threw both hands forward and dual cast Order Bolt.
Forty knives of pure order energy raced towards Vex. Order Bolt was the first offensive spell taught to every Deacon in training. It was weak at low levels, but in the hands of a Grandmaster of Order Magic, it was a devastating weapon. Because of his level and the Perks he’d chosen, each bolt did 50 points of damage, and they never, ever missed. The barrage of missiles rained down upon Vex, their impact causing searing blind spots to flash in Tal’s vision.
He blinked his eyes clear to see Vex grinning at him, untouched behind a swirling field of shimmering blood orange energy. A moment later the field blinked out. Tal wasn’t surprised. After all, Vex was a Grandmaster of Chaos Magic. The higher tiers of both spheres granted their users various degrees of immunity to their opposite. How else could they devote themselves to combating them?
Tal landed just as he finished casting Irresistible Binding, his real attack. His glowing fist punched into the floor. A pulse of kinetic energy moved through the floor and raced towards Vex. Just before it reached the chaos sorcerer, it twined into a spiral pattern of mathematical precision. As the pattern twined larger and larger, nodes of order burst through the floor. As each one emerged, ribbon-like bands of white energy exploded outwards, wrapping themselves around Vex’s arms, legs and torso.
The bands wrenched Vex’s arms back mid casting, and her face turned to a pained scowl. Through pure force of will, she stopped the mana from surging back into her. Her strength impressed Tal, but he had expected it. He grimaced and wrapped additional shining bands around Vex and then lash themselves to the shuddering anchor.
Tal was about to close his fist and slam Vex onto the diamond-sharp point of the anchor when the chaos animated corpses of the Synod slammed into him. Curse the Maelstrom, I forgot about them. Fists and magic pummeled him, and his armor’s health plummeted.
He reached out, searching for Dyrria or any of her guards, and felt the flicker that told him his sister-in-law still lived. He commanded her to his side, where she sliced the heads from three of the Synod corpses in mere seconds. The rest kept pummeling Tal, but he had enough of a breather to focus on Vex and the anchor.
He closed his fist and pulled Vex towards the point of the anchor. This time nothing would arrest her motion. Tal rejoiced, but then the vile entropy of raw chaos scalded into his brain and the anchor shuddered to a stop. Blood flowed from his nose and he looked up to see the first of the Princes of Chaos pulling itself through the aperture of the Realm Gate. The monstrosity was well over a hundred feet in height as it dragged itself into Korynn. The beast was horned, its crimson skin dripping gore and blood like sweat.
Mixengettorax, the Lord of Rage and Blood roared in triumph, knowing in mere moments all the Realms would feel his wrath.
“Jurredix, give me control of the anchor.”
“It does not have sufficient power to seal the breach.”
“I know. I have another idea,” Tal said and looked his longtime companion in the eyes. He spoke no further words, for they needed none. The archon understood that neither of them would survive what they must do. He ceded control of the anchor back to Tal. “It has been an honor, my friend.”
“I will see you in the Forum when we both coalesce,” the archon said.
Tal nodded and let his mind flow into the anchor. Its structure was near failure, weakened by Vex’s assault, but it would hold long enough for Tal’s purpose. He pulled the anchor forward and altered its course ever so slightly.
A dagger wielded by one of the Synod penetrated his armor and sank into his side. Before the pain could distract him, he detached his mind from the cares of his body. He heard himself scream as a searing pain assaulted his nerves but told himself it was not happening to him. He pushed all of his will into the anchor and it accelerated.
It sped right past Vex, whose momentary grin of glee faded when she realized his true goal. The point of the anchor slammed into the rotating Realm Gate, punching all of its power into the metal, releasing the incredible energies of the rift. The explosion shredded Vex’s body, threw Jurredix backward into the far wall and tore off one of Mixengettorax’s arms. The concussive force tossed Tal up, cracking his armor.
The Realm Gate twisted and spun tearing at the hole between realms. It expanded and then contracted, bisecting Mixengettorax before spinning down into a singularity. The Lord of Rage and Blood screamed and transformed into a stream of energetic particles that were then sucked back into the Realm of Chaos.
For several seconds the world turned quiet and then the singularity pulsed and exploded in a blinding white flash.
In the city above, children and guards, pedestrians and shop owners all stopped as a deep rumble rose. Confusion had no time to become a concern, much less fear before the ground ruptured and the city exploded.
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Acknowledgments.
I couldn’t have made this book what it is without the help of numerous people.
Thanks to Erica, my first reader, my fiancé and the love of my life. Thank you for being you.
To my awesome Beta Readers, including, Erica Berry, Kenneth Wayne Darlin, Ezben Gerardo, Ian Taj El, Lance Wheeler, Ramesh Prabhu, Geo Smu and the others who gave me feedback. Without you guys, The Forsaken God would not be the book it is today. Thank You.
And thanks Lou Harper for the awesome cover.
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