03- The Apostles of Doom

by J. Langland

  “I am Wall Commander Kharkurd. The vicar general sent word you would be joining us,” the commander said. Definitely a woman, Teragdor decided.

  “Our honor. Blessings of Tiernon be upon you,” Teragdor told her, making the gesture for a secular blessing. Mana levels were too low for a traditional priestly blessing. “I am Teragdor.”

  “Blessings of Torean upon you,” Rasmeth said and gave her secular blessing as well. “I am Rasmeth. How can we be of most assistance?”

  The commander gestured for them to join her behind her wall, which had a glass window to allow her to view the battle in relative safety, and currently, privately. She looked out to the surrounding army. “They are still setting up camp, constructing their equipment, organizing their troops. They are not yet ready for full aerial combat. Fortunately for us, there is much more preparation required for an aerial assault across the moat.” The commander sighed and looked out the forces hovering on the other side of the moat.

  “I imagine one-hundred-and-fifty-foot siege towers take some time to construct,” Rasmeth said.

  The commander nodded and pointed down the wall to where such towers were being constructed. “True. However, they have other options. Zombie dragons carrying passenger wagons that they will try to land on the walls,” she informed them. “For the moment, though, they are simply testing us. They have not brought out the heavy infantry, nor any serious magic; at least, not against us or the Wardens above us.”

  She gestured to the Sky Wardens above their section of wall, who were flying in complicated patterns that made targeting them difficult. “I hear the ground battle to get a bridge over the moat is much more intense, but up here? My guess is that they are working to see how incapacitated we are. They are looking to see how we respond; are we healing soldiers that are wounded with clerical rituals or traditional healing?” She shook her head, and then used her hand to direct their eyes to what Teragdor suddenly realized was a lich on an ice dragon behind the Unlife troops that were shooting at people on the wall.

  “The lich is also looking at the mettle of the Sky Wardens, who have not taken the battle to them yet. Which, I believe, according to history, is unusual for us.” The commander shook her head “However, to be honest, I am speaking from book knowledge and speculation. Only the older alfar have seen a force this large. In my two hundred and four years of life, we have only seen isolated attacks against the outlying farms and villages.”

  She looked back and forth between the two apostles. “Understand that we train our whole lives for such a scenario as this, and yet for the vast majority of our soldiers, this a new, untested situation, particularly given that we are cut off from the Heavens. We did not train for that; we have relied very heavily on our priests being able to smite the undead. Under the best of circumstances, my men would be scared today; given this morning, they are terrified.”

  Teragdor nodded and looked out towards the skies, thinking.

  “When do you think they will mount a more serious attack?” Rasmeth asked.

  “I have no idea. From the books, the night is always the heaviest. Even with the cloud cover, the vampires and vampyrs are sluggish during the day, as are wights. They use a lot of wights, as you might imagine, basically reanimating every ghast or ghoul that dies on them. The jiangshi are more functional, but not that much more so. So I would expect a full barrage come nightfall, unless they determine we are so weak that they move sooner.”

  Rasmeth shook his head. “What are jiangshi?”

  “They are a sight,” the commander said, shaking her head. “When you see one you will not mistake it. They are very intelligent Unlife, very devious. I think the best term might be zombie vampire. Their motions are stiff, like most zombies or mummies, and rather than walk, they generally hop. However, unlike zombies, they can move very fast if need be and older ones can leap vast distances in a heartbeat, as with vampires, they have fangs to consume the animus of the living.”

  Holy Saint Stevos, hear the prayer of your disciple, the Apostle Teragdor, Teragdor prayed while Rasmeth talked. Stevos had promised him this would work, but he’d never done a prayer like this before, so he was still a bit surprised when Stevos responded.

  I can hear you, Teragdor, Stevos said in his mind.

  Commander Kharkurd says that so far, the enemy is testing us, determining how weakened we are before deciding how and when to attack. Most likely it will be at nightfall, but possibly sooner if they see weakness. Further, the soldiers, while well-trained, are inexperienced and now terrified by this morning’s events, Teragdor prayed.

  That would make sense. What do you recommend? Stevos asked.

  There is a lich on an ice dragon monitoring this section of the wall; I was thinking of sending it a clear message that we are not defenseless. Something to surprise them and give them pause, even as they did to us this morning. What is the best we can do at the moment? Teragdor prayed.

  One moment while I check with Beragamos, Stevos replied, going quiet for a few moments.

  Suddenly Teragdor sensed another presence in the prayer; it was Beragamos. May I commune with you, be one with you, using your senses and join you in your body? Beragamos asked him.

  Teragdor blinked in surprise; he did not know avatars could do that. Uhm, certainly, he replied.

  Suddenly he felt the warm presence of Beragamos even closer than before, completely inside his skull. He felt his hands lowering from their prayer position as he himself walked out from behind the shield and over to the wall to stare down at the vast horde of Unlife below, and then surveyed the sky above. Interestingly, while arrows were still falling, none struck his armor.

  His eyes suddenly went to the lich on the ice dragon and within seconds he was staring the lich directly in the face, as if close up. That was the fastest transition to one of the Holy Sights he had ever experienced. He felt his head nod as his vision returned to normal and his body turned back towards the commander and Rasmeth, both of whom were looking at him very oddly. He walked about halfway back.

  I think we can give them a show, something a bit more than a single apostolic spell, Beragamos said. I will return to you momentarily.

  Teragdor shook his head as Beragamos released him.

  “What was that about?” Rasmeth asked in concern. “That was very strange of you.”

  “That was Beragamos; he sort of possessed me to investigate the situation,” Teragdor said wonderingly.

  “Possessed you?” Rasmeth said.

  “I think it was a Holy Communion. I read about in my apostolic books, but have never experienced one, obviously,” Teragdor said, blinking a few times. “He thinks we can do something to give them pause.”

  “Really?” Rasmeth asked.

  “Praise be to Tiernon!” the commander said.

  “I am sure we won’t be able to do it too many times, but right now, while we have the reserves, we can try to make them a bit nervous, to reconsider,” Teragdor said.

  Teragdor felt Beragamos’s presence again. I am back. May I borrow your body once more? Everything I am going to do is in your apostolic books and within your power to do, but I am going to be doing three or four things at once, and I fear you have not had enough training to put them all together, Beragamos explained.

  Certainly, Teragdor replied.

  He felt Beragamos re-enter his mind, his being. Teragdor found himself setting his great shield down. He then removed his gauntlets, laying them down gently. His body moved to an open space on the wall. As he did so, his mouth began to speak in a chant, however it was in no language that Teragdor knew.

  Within moments, Teragdor was shocked to find himself rising into the air, his hands held wide at his sides, parallel to his shoulders. Could he be a more obvious target? His body rose to about twenty feet above the top of the wall. His eyes moved to stare at the lich on the ice dragon. Teragdor was at the same height as the lich, and they had a line of sight for direct eye contact.

  At this point, all of the Un
life forces outside the moat in their vicinity were firing at him, yet their arrows went wide. Teragdor once more found himself chanting, but this time it was a new chant—a very loud chant, again in a language he did not know.

  He felt his eyes boring into the lich’s red-ember eyes. The lich was clearly paying attention, curious as to what Teragdor was doing. Suddenly and without warning, Teragdor’s sight was blinded by an intense flash of light as he felt himself, or rather Beragamos, flowing from his eyes to the lich’s eyes.

  Teragdor heard a horrendous screeching noise that he suddenly realized was the lich screaming in pain. As the scream became louder and louder, Teragdor’s sight returned. The lich and his dragon were bathed in a very bright, heavenly light that crackled and danced around them in small bolts.

  And then it was gone, the air still, no more screaming lich. Just a cloud of dust floating to the distant ground below. The lich and its dragon were simply gone. The Unlife’s aerial forces had all turned to stare at the lich, who was now no more.

  Teragdor found himself floating back down to the battlement, his feet touching down lightly. Beragamos chuckled in his mind. Perhaps that will give them pause. And then the archon was gone and Teragdor slowly lowered himself to his knees, feeling extremely worn out.

  Citadel of Light, Storm Lords’ Command Post

  “What is that priest doing?” Ramses asked, staring off towards the Citadel. “Is he purposefully trying to make a target of himself?”

  Exador turned to look where Ramses was staring. He blinked and shook his head, focusing his demon sight on the priest rising above the wall. “That’s not a priest!” he exclaimed in surprise.

  “What is it, if it is not a priest?” Baba Smert' asked in her typical acidic hiss.

  “It’s an Apostle of Tiernon… and… if I am not mistaken, there is also an Apostle of Torean up on the wall,” Exador replied, puzzled. “The armor style is also that of the Church of Tiernon in Astlan, not that of Nysegard. This is very strange.”

  “Is an Apostle of the Five Siblings similar to the Dark Apostle?” Baba Smert' hissed.

  “Not typically that powerful. It is a rank that is higher than a High Pontificate, but a bit lower than a prophet. Technically, prophets are often saints who were apostles when mortal,” Exador said, squinting, “I would argue that the Dark Apostle was most similar to a prophet; however, their methods of ascension to power are quite different.”

  “Your time leading the Rod has certainly paid dividends,” Ramses noted.

  “There were a—” Exador was cut off, startled as what appeared to Exador to be twin golden yellow laser beams flashed from the apostle’s eyes to those of the monitoring lich.

  “That is odd; how can we see beams of light without clouds or smoke to diffract the light?” Ramses asked.

  “It’s Heavenly Fire, not exactly a laser beam,” Exador said.

  Suddenly the lich and its dragon lit up brightly with coruscating Heavenly Fire.

  Exador made a smacking noise with his mouth. “Would not want to be that lich or its dragon.” The light brightened; if he extended his hearing he could hear the lich’s screams of agony.

  “That scream,” Baba Smert' hissed. “His phylactery is under attack! Yet it is thousands of leagues away!”

  The Heavenly Fire from the apostle’s eyes vanished and within but a few moments, so did the glowing lich and ice dragon. Only a cloud of smoke and perhaps steam remained. Exador shook his head in amazement at the sight.

  “How did they do that?” Baba Smert' hissed angrily. “You swore they would be cut off! You have failed to block their off-world access!”

  Exador shook his head, puzzled. The old bag of moldy bones was seriously angry. “No. The wards are up, the beacons are working. I have no access to the Abyss, nor can I plane shift. Try for yourself if you do not believe me.”

  Baba Smert' muttered to herself for several moments and then said, “Fine, your magic seems to be working. How did they do that?” she hissed angrily.

  “Well, they somehow managed to import a couple apostles from Astlan into their fortress before the wards went up. Perhaps they also snuck in a few saints, who are now powering the apostle,” Exador said, shrugging.

  “And what are we to do about that?” Baba Smert' asked angrily.

  “Any avatars would be similarly cut off from the heavens. They would only have so much mana easily available to them. Yes, they are formidable, but their resources will most likely be applied to priests in the Citadel so that they can heal their people, keep the Holy Water fresh, et cetera,” Exador replied.

  “You seem to know a lot about these priests. Your recommendation?” Baba Smert' asked.

  Exador shrugged again. “This is a siege. It may be a longer siege than we expected, but it is a siege. We deal with any avatars the same way we deal with any resources in a besieged fortress. We wear them down, slowly, battle after battle. If we hit them hard enough, for long enough, their resources will run dry.”

  “I believe Praelgeis said there are over a quarter million mortals within the Citadel. What if they have worship services to recharge the avatars?” Ramses asked.

  Exador inhaled deeply, thinking. “There is only so much mana they can store, and they can only process mana so fast. We have to hit them hard enough, long enough to force them to use more mana than they can process and so deplete their reserves.”

  Exador looked to Baba Smert'. “It may be a bit more difficult than we expected, but nothing has really changed. You have your largest army ever, and they have the least divine assistance that they have ever had. Victory is still ours.”

  “It had better be,” Baba Smert' somehow snarled and hissed at the same time. Exador simply gave her a tight-lipped smile. He truly did not like this revolting sack of rotten meat. He was beginning to see why Bess had refused to even deal with the Storm Lords.

  Krallnomton: Midday

  I thought you were going to pray? Ruiden asked Talarius.

  I was, but I can’t seem to get my mind still enough to concentrate on a prayer, so I’m trying to meditate, Talarius replied.

  We have heard a lot of disconcerting information this morning, Ruiden agreed.

  Do you believe any of it? Talarius asked.

  Well, a grown woman popping out of a brain tumor after surgery is difficult to believe, but I’m not an expert on gods, Ruiden replied, and then, somehow sounding rather morose, he added, I’m no longer much of an expert on demons either. I thought I knew what they were, and now I don’t.

  Talarius shook his head. I don’t care about that ridiculous story. Hephaestus admitted that you can’t necessarily take a god’s origin story at face value. No, what I can’t accept is that Tiernon and our Church has always taught us that demons are demonstrably evil. And now I find out that a demon—the demon I tried to permanently kill—is not only a recycled demon prince, but if I believe that mirroring and Hephaestus, is the stepbrother of my god?

  Well, I for one was relieved to find out Tom is actually a god. Makes me feel like less of a failure as a demon-slaying sword, Ruiden said. Talarius wasn’t sure if it was serious or joking. It expressed very little emotion as a golem when speaking, and its thoughts were only marginally more expressive.

  I mean, I can maybe accept that demons and D’Orcs, and even saints are mortals who are converted by magic into immortals, Talarius said. I don’t like it, but I have enough evidence, and a lot of corroborating independent testimony, that I cannot really deny it. But the fact that Orcus, the villain of Church legend, slain by Sentir Fallon, is the stepbrother of my god?

  So when you say your mind is not still enough, do you really mean that you simply do not want to pray to Tiernon and ask him if he had his stepbrother murdered? Ruiden asked.

  Talarius put his face in his hands, groaning. Something like that. It’s simply too insane to believe. But so much of all of this is too much to believe! Where do I draw the line? Are there even lines anymore?

  Ruiden was sil
ent.

  Talarius shook his head and got to his feet. I really hope we are going to the Citadel to battle the Storm Lords, he said. At least I know that the Citadel will bring me no more questions; that we will simply fight against the darkness. Good versus evil. Things will be much simpler there and in the glory of combat, I will not have to think.

  He sighed. “Tiernon! I really need to stop thinking,” the knight said out loud. “No more questions; no more confusing and contradictory information that I can’t deal with!”

  Citadel of Light, Battlements: Early Fourth Period

  Teragdor was once more on the battlements after a short rest. Unfortunately, slaying the lich and its dragon had only seemed to antagonize the enemy. The Sky Wardens were now fully engaged in trying to stop incursions over the wall. Several zombie dragons had already tried to deliver wagons of zombies to the tops of the walls. The Sky Wardens could beat them back, but in many cases they were able to unload their zombie passengers.

  That meant the soldiers on top of the wall were now fully in battle and the battle priests engaged. Teragdor had never heard of battle priests until he’d met Karis, but they did seem to be a good idea. They were priest combatants who waded into battle and fought the Unlife directly, giving regular soldiers an edge in combat both with protection rituals and blessings as well as quick healing.

  That was essentially what he and Rasmeth were doing at the moment. With more troops now engaged, they did not have the mana to spare to do major attacks. Interestingly, as with the battle priests, the emblem on his shield was actually a consecrated symbol of Tiernon that he could use as a normal Holy Symbol, thus giving him a free hand for his mace.

  He had cast the Apostolic Ritual of Unlife Aversion upon himself. This provided him and those around him with a region in which Unlife were not only hindered but actively and painfully repelled. He was trying to use it in such a way as to push the zombies off the top of the wall. Preferably the outside wall, but there were people on the ground on the inside prepared to deal with any zombie mush that might try to crawl or ooze away from the impact site.