“KLANGSCHWERT!” The orcs shrieked in realisation, turning on their heels and running back towards the entrance they had broken in through. The reaction as astonishing to the elves that pulled themselves up onto their feet and shuddered in horror at the image of a green acid-like spray being spat out in the shape of arrows towards the figures. When they were hit they fell on the ground screaming and dying in agony, the lone form giving an angry snort of irritation before looking towards the trembling elves. The orcs and hobgoblins were too terrified to fight anymore, too eager to be free of the legendary killer that was already doing things to prove the rumour. When the majority reached the tunnel entrance towards their seeming escape route the sucking-hissing sound began again, and the elves stared in awe to see the figure drawing up a massive, concentrated shot of green energy within their scythe-bladed whip before they shot it out at the escape passage. There was a sudden explosion and the whole stone plaza full of these enemies erupted in green fire and blood as the blade shot rapidly back and forth, culling the burning figures without mercy before shooting back to the waiting hand of the Klangschwert.
Had it not been for the prominent chest, the fact the being was wearing white robes designed to fit a woman and its feminine eyes… the figure could have been mistaken for a man and it humbled those around her. The legends of the Benaga had been sullied by the thought she was a traitor and yet once more Anouk was proving that she was no different to any of her ancestors. With these orcs seemingly removed the figure turned around slowly with a blink and faced Martum as he trembled upon the ground in terror. She looked very angry and perhaps a little tired, but she could sense the danger and she needed to get up to the courtyard to save her sister and face the archdemon.
“Martum… send the message up the tower that anyone who stands in my way is going to die…”
Eighteen: Klangschwert
“The greatest thing that Nabuto gave to us was life… sacred life that should be worshipped in all its forms. Though we deem some to be ugly and dark in nature, we must accept that they have been given life for a divine purpose and are necessary. If we truly love Nabuto, then we must truly love life and accept that all living things are good and evil.”
- “The Forbidden Scriptures of High Priest Budigad”, Translated by Loteg Varris
The Kingdom of Virenheim was in a state of complete malady and the King lay staring up at the spore-filled sky with tears running down his cheeks as he considered all the horrors overtaking his beautiful kingdom. He could feel the hate of the demon upon his form and the pulsating of the stones remaining as they practically battled to keep the magic shield up alongside the wizards. The Mage Circle were trembling as they maintained the shield against everything else save the doorway the Karayan was keeping closed. They could feel the burning, feel the agony of the creature hitting against the door as they tried to pour strength into the structure and Zehna tried to erase the markings from their position and stop it being used again, however the finger creeping about the courtyard was of more concern.
“If that thing touches the stone or the priest it’ll pull the Archdemon behind the wall. He may not be as strong in that form but once in what would we be able to do to stop him Lord Zehna?” One of the young mages trembled as he stared out the windows to the scene down below. Out there was the twitching and disgusting piece of flesh scuttling about towards Alagpo. Damara was scrabbling to get up and attack it and the Karayan was still strapped to the door, pushing back each punching motion made by the angry archdemon hanging from the wall by a lone hand. The statement made the other beings tremble, but they kept their focus and merely nodded to his suggestion. Yes, there was some real trouble coming their way if someone did not deal with that finger, but Zehna was already contemplating that bitter thought and swiftly he turned towards the king with a sigh of dismay.
“My lord… we may have to pull the shield all the way about the courtyard and lock them in place. It means we can set up a spell strong enough to destroy that section and possibly remove the demon. It is a serious risk and I know it has not been done before… but it looks like it may be our only option. Would you grant me permission to do so?” Zehna questioned with an anxious tremble as he looked out towards the chaos beyond and pondered the options before him. There would be little they could do to save Damara and the Karayan in that instance, the pair would have to perish alongside the monster and with it the house of Benaga would no longer exist! That thought jabbed into Zehna’s heart, he felt only guilt for what had taken place and yet if this was necessary, this was necessary. “My King?”
A trembling hand lifted to halt any thought and slowly the king pressed his weakening fingers to his ear and gave a rather cruel cackle of amusement.
“Our Executioner is arriving… give her the chance, but if she should perish you have my permission to destroy the courtyard and all those upon it.” The king stated with a curiously wise nod as if he could already see the future. Zehna looked at him in total confusion and concern, he could hear nothing but the screams of the soldiers escaping the dam walls and then he looked out to the situation and spotted something whirling within Damara’s hands. He grinned in delight, she might just be pulling up the power of her bloodline to fight this situation….
“DAMARA! DESTROY THAT FINGER RIGHT NOW!” The Karayan barked in fury as he felt something heavy slamming at his back and nearly fell forward. He stepped through the stone, his great clawed feet with their three toes on display to the world at last as he jabbed them firmly into the rock, crunching into it to keep firm. He felt other parts of his body he was not particularly eager to show trying to stretch out to give him strength, but the Karayan was not sure what Damara would think of it in this moment and tried to focus on holding the demon out. The young woman finally seemed to awaken to the gravity of the situation and turned towards the creeping digit that shuffled like a leech towards the fallen priest.
Damara could feel the blade formed by the crystal ice sitting within her hands, but she could hardly believe that she was summoning such power. She did not even want to look at her hands in case she lost the concentration and the fury that was developing within her and begging to be aimed at the foul finger. Her stomach was coiling in disgust to see the digit rotting away within the shield’s power, but she could also see it was starting to develop a gaping maw of vicious teeth at the severed end that was facing her. She knew it was expecting attack from a blade, that it would chomp metal in half, but she was not sure how it would feel about ice and with a curiously wicked flare within her eyes, she jumped at it with a violent swing of the blade as the creature made a screech of shock.
Within Damara’s ears came that trickling sound of beautiful, calming music as if she were hearing rain outside dropping deep down into the caverns, pinging off the crystals to make them vibrate in pleasure before dropping in a deep gulp into the waters below. It was relaxing and helped her focus, it closed off the sounds of terror from the other beings within the universe about her and stopped her worrying. She felt as if she were in a dream, that there was nothing more to do but her task and expect it all to end well and her world to return to normal the moment the song stopped. She drew the glittering and near invisible shard of ice through the black and green finger, severing it neatly in half and making it yelp like a wounded dog and practically ping up in the air. She watched it land with a messy squelch in an oozing heap upon the ground and then she heard the Archdemon’s holler of agony breaking through the calm of the song and making her drop to the floor.
Damara smothered her sensitive ears, an action copied by every being remaining in the walls and even within the King’s Tower at the grating noise. Elves vomited, ears bled, and eyes bulged and nearly exploded at the sound of agony ripping across Virenheim. The Archdemon swung its wounded hand back from the door, giving Karayan time to shut it firmly and slump against it with exhaustion, his shoulders trembling and his body creaking with an unfamiliar tightness. He could hardly cope with the noise of the b
east screaming himself, but he knew that he couldn’t spend the time resting and had to try and scrub the symbols away.
Pulling his agony filled body away from the door as the demon continued to scream and the elves wordlessly crumpled onto the floor with the pain, the Karayan stood up and stretched out his long arms within the shroud. What had not already begun to melt away when close to the demon stretched out to rub at the letters, the shroud recognising the wish of its master and began eating away at the letters with a pained and slow manner. The Karayan had never known this shroud, this entity about him, to have been so slow or indeed to appear so pained before and it made him upset and fearful. Though perhaps it was probably just a parasite living off him in a symbiotic relationship, he had never known himself not to have it there to shield his hideous features from the world that shrank at the sight of him or to comfort his loneliness. He could see the agony within its notions and he whispered to it to keep going, that everything was going to be alright in the end and they would be safe. The words seemed to encourage it onwards and the Karayan kept his body pressed against the door as the screaming stopped and the Archdemon woke to what was going on.
Damara pulled herself up off the floor, her nose bleeding heavily and her head feeling as if it were filled with liquid, but despite the dizziness she managed to gain her balance. Any fear that she might have suffered some internal damage, being so close to the beast’s scream, were ignored by the sheer pride she felt to have caused such agony. As she regained her breath and calmed her heart rate, feeling renewed confidence, her eyes turned toward the remnant of the finger that seemed to be shuddering but was not destroyed. Each gentle vibration caused a curious liquid to bubble out of the little streaks upon the flesh and slither down onto its wound akin to a tree producing sap. Somehow the more it oozed the more it seemed to wash away the pallid pink lines upon its form burnt in by the ice of her blade and Damara growled in frustration. The finger might not be able to be completely destroyed, but it certainly did not like the ice and she formed the shard again with a violent sneer towards the enemy. This time her fury crackled into the blade’s form, making it hiss as it froze the water in the air about it as she lunged at the quivering worm-like mass with a roar.
The archdemon noticed that the little female had figured out its weakness to the ice magic and swiftly it seemed to ignore the door and turn its great skull towards the direction of the finger. It must have been concentrating hard to heal the finger and indeed to control it, for when the Karayan noticed the manner the strange eye-sockets of the demon seemed to swipe with a thin membrane of dribbling pink, he could tell it was focusing on Damara and he stopped wiping the notes to pull out his axe from his shroud. The moment Damara struck at the finger again, her blade shattered on stone! The creature had managed to dodge her! As she had swung the digit had ripped itself in half suddenly and avoided the blow, forcing Damara to follow-through to the ground and land on her knees in between its stinking form. Once it felt her heat between its great rotting slices, the digit suddenly began to slam its form back together, closing itself in around Damara as she tried to stand up and stabilise herself. She gave a shriek of agony when it pinched about her waist, the ooze burning at her clothes as she scrabbled to try and walk out or pull herself free from the mess. At her reaction the shroud over her hair launched down neat whipping tentacles to fight it back. Damara was able to summon another shard of ice to cut through and then the Karayan was beside her.
His axe slammed a chunk of the finger off and the claws on his free hand grasped Damara’s waist and yanked her clean up off the ground. He severed the tendrils that tried to latch onto her, the shroud snapping at them as it swarmed down the Karayan’s arm to cover Damara’s body protectively although it was burnt by the ooze of the finger. When the Karayan had Damara free she thanked him before the remnant of the finger suddenly seemed to go limp. The pair stared at it in shock for a moment before they felt the ground wobble and something smash through the rest of the doorway still left over. The Karayan was able to throw Damara aside as the great hooked hand of the demon latched around him and smashed him into the ground. The Karayan gave a roar of agony as the hand burnt the shroud, knocking the muzzle from his mouth so that the shroud shimmered to try and cover his features and he continued to groan. The squeezing motions encouraged a sound of cracking and popping as Damara pulled herself up again and turned to attack.
Her friend and guardian was in danger and she was ignorant of the strange face being revealed to her, the seemingly human one marred at the mouth by long lines of black tattooing like a spider! Damara galloped in with the ice sword forming within her hand, snarling in fury as her ears began to shut out the sound around her save a beautiful singing voice. Damara could only feel calm as she heard it, her sword was crackling with steam as its freezing form reached the heated limb of the horrendous demon. The moment the ice blade came screaming down into the hand, it produced such a high-pitched whine that the Arch-demon gave a groan of irritation and loosened its grip over the Karayan. When her blade touched it, a piece of flesh exploded but the blade shattered into water. The demon gave out the most angry, painful screech since the Karayan had chopped off a finger and the Karayan was able to wrestle it more. Damara then swung her arms up again, the ice blade forming in her grip and the song playing in her head even more beautifully as the demon screamed out again as Damara hit it once more.
“Keep going Damara… hit it one more time and I can get away from it!” The Karayan groaned, his voice strained and barely audible against the crackling sound of the demon’s flesh and Damara’s sword. Her eyes began to sparkle with a lilac edge as she slammed the glittering glass-like blade against the limb again and again. The demon continued to scream and holler out in agony, producing great sudden barks like a wounded animal as the hand was slowly hacked and the Karayan was able to wiggle slightly out of its grip. But with her attack now clear to it, the Archdemon was able to pull back its pain to look towards the body of the priest and the remnant of his finger still within the circle. Its eye sockets opened wide and a strange bright circular light of gold seemed to shine within and suddenly the prone form of Alagpo began to twitch. The Karayan noticed and gave a snarl, watching the piece of finger still lying on the stone start to twitch and hurry towards the priest’s form. “Leave the demon… kill the priest! Damara kill the priest!”
“Kill the what?” Damara squeaked in surprise, her ears clearing of the haunting song as she looked towards the muscular figure of her friend and then the words came clear. The priest? The priest! But surely Alagpo was dead already? Damara turned her head about, squeaking in disgust as she spotted the shuffling scraps of limb hurrying towards the seeming corpse of the priest as it twitched. Damara permitted her fear to overcome her form again, she remained frozen to the spot in panic with all her powers seeping away as she watched the limbs of the priest pull themselves up in disjointed and unnatural actions as if he were a puppet being untangled. The motions made her own knees clack against each other in the trembling terror of disgust at this unholiest of sights, despite the fact a demon was present behind her. She had always known Alagpo to be incorruptible, that he should never have come this far and just as if she were seeing the form of a baby click away in such distress, Damara felt heat leaving her body and her conscious mind slipping away as it could not fathom this moment.
The piece of flesh shuffled to the body as it stood on rickety joints with the bones grinding, clicking and crunching as the body was spun about to try and move to the flesh. Whatever had been considered the personal facial features and identity of the priest, it seemed to have melted away as the face was little more than a melting skull that turned on a cracking joint to stare Damara’s way with a sickening pop as the turning motion dislodged its stance. The head bent awkwardly, upside down and its jaw of teeth shone out in a hideous grin as the head lolloped towards her and she remained locked to the spot, no blade within her hands as the flesh touched the boots of the corpse and
screeched. There was a sudden roaring scream as if the remnant of the being within this rotten shell was enduring agony at the touch and Damara fainted onto the ground as the Karayan roared at her to get back up and do something!
As Damara remained swooning upon the ground, bursting into tears at how horrible it all was and how much she wished to be woken out of this nightmare, the fleshy piece of the archdemon burnt its way into the bone. The pained screeching, howling, yodelling of Alagpo’s soul echoed about to make all those still able to hear cringe in despair and sway in sorrow for the betrayal to their beloved god. Finally, the sound stopped and from the great sockets of the eyes, long spider-like limbs with a myriad of joints and twitching tips that flexed vividly in a ripple at the rim of the skull strained out. Damara pulled herself up into a sitting position and was soon on her feet screaming in horror as the spider-like limbs of a new piece of demon galloped after her in a sudden rush. It may not have teeth or anything with which to attack her, but the husk of the priest behind fell into dust and the sight of something so disturbing was enough to make her run.
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