03- The Apostles of Doom

by J. Langland

  I’m in! Tom shouted to any that could hear his mental shout. He released the flames and focused on the power of Excrathadorus Mortis. He willed the blade to send forth its power into the giant’s body. He willed the full power of the blade to devour the antimus, to burn the tendrils of darkness. “There is a lot of Darkness here!” Tom exclaimed out loud. He shifted his links and began funneling mana from Doom to the blade to enhance its power. Doing this, he was suddenly struck by the memories of curing himself and the dagger. In some ways, it felt like a repeat of that event; however, this time it was the Mana of Doom doing the cleansing—burning through the giant’s body, wiping the infection from it. Searing the tendrils, watching them shrivel.

  Tom followed each tendril and suddenly realized that there were tendrils—links—extending from the giant’s back towards the Storm Lords. Tom and Excrathadorus Mortis followed those links, consuming and transforming them as he went. As he moved through the links, he soon saw where they were going; the tendril links split into thirteen separate links.

  Each link led to a lich! He followed the links to each lich, locking his connection in place and then delving deeply into the first one, the one standing to the right of the others. Into the literal heart of Darkness. He scanned the link, even as he felt resistance. The lich was fighting back, battling him and his dagger! Tom grinned and began pulling more mana. It looked like this was going to take a lot of mana. Time for his stepbrother to start paying off his debts. Tom began pulling from Inethya’s connection to the god pool. With the added power, it was suddenly much easier to beat back the liches’ resistance.

  There! Tom mentally shouted in triumph. He’d found the link he had been searching for. The link to the liches’ phylactery! Time to put an end to this evil!

  Tomb Gate Vicinity

  “What has happened?” Praelgeis hissed as he suddenly felt his off-plane links restored.

  “The interdiction has fallen!” Baba Smert’ hissed.

  “They were already circumnavigating it. I doubt it shall matter that much,” Daerth Tromlane noted.

  “I shall contact Exador nonetheless. I want it back,” Praelgeis hissed as he pulled a mirror from his robe’s pocket. A sudden commotion from the commune controlling the hrímthursi caused him to turn his attention.

  “Something is happening with the hrímthursi!” Daerth Tromlane exclaimed.

  Baba Smert’ levitated into the air to peer at the battle. “Orcus is on the back of the hrímthursi! It is something of his doing!”

  Praelgeis returned his attention to the hrímthursi commune. The liches were clearly battling something. It was as if their links were becoming unstable, guessing by the gestures and the spells they appeared to be frantically casting.

  Suddenly, Tertiblisthy went completely rigid, as if in a death rictus, and began chanting furiously. Praelgeis’s eyes narrowed in on the lich’s visage. There was a look of sheer terror on his face. Praelgeis was not sure he’d ever observed such a panicked expression on one of his own kind.

  Without warning, Tertiblisthy began screaming. It was the scream that shook every lich to the core of their dark essence. Tertiblisthy’s phylactery was under attack! He glanced to the other members of the commune, who were frantically casting spells of protection upon themselves.

  Praelgeis winced as Tertiblisthy suddenly exploded in a blackness-shattering cloud of dust and expired bindings. “This is bad!” Praelgeis shouted.

  Suddenly the lich next to where Tertiblisthy had been standing locked into a rictus, fighting for survival before emitting the dreaded, horror-inspiring, phylactery screech. Praelgeis winced once more as another cloud of black dust rained down upon them from the second exploded lich.

  “This is…” Baba Smert’ shook her head, unable to describe what she was feeling.

  The third lich began screeching its phylactery wail.

  “I think the speed of the attacks is increasing!” Daerth Tromlane shouted.

  “It would make sense; Orcus now has a template for exploding anyone linked to the hrímthursi! Have those controlling the other two do whatever it takes to get Orcus off the hrímthursi!” Praelgeis shouted as another cloud of exploded lich rained down once more.

  “Exador!” Praelgeis shouted into the mirror. “Get back here immediately! Forget the wards, we need to go to plan E!”

  “Plan E?” Exador asked in shock. “I don’t see how things could have shifted against us that quickly!”

  “They have! If you want an army for Freehold, you’d better get back here and save it!” Praelgeis hissed.

  “Fine! Just make sure your wizards are ready with the spells I’ve provided you for this situation,” Exador hissed back.

  Citadel of Light, Southern Wall

  Tom finished off the last of the thirteen liches controlling the hrímthursi. He pulled himself back and ran through a final check of the frost giant. The risi was clean, and alive, once more. Excrathadorus Mortis could not only destroy antimus; it could, in this case, also heal the damage done. Does that make it a dagger of healing? Tom wondered.

  He pulled the blade out, willing the wound to close. The giant had been standing stiffly, but now quickly collapsed to the ground. Tom looked up to find Roth Tar Gorefest, Darg-Krallnom, Inethya, Targh and his soldiers, along with Morok and many of his soldiers, all battling to keep the other risar from attacking himself and the frost giant. Tom worked to try to un-crumple the frost giant so it could rest a bit more peacefully, as much as possible at least.

  As he got the giant rolled over onto his back, his eyes fluttered open, his breathing deep and steady. He blinked at Tom and suddenly grinned. “Lord Orcus. Praise Loki, I should have suspected it would be you who could save me from my damnation! I owe you much!”

  Tom smiled. “For now, honor that by staying as safe as possible and getting your strength back. I need to assist the others.”

  Morok! Tom called to the commander. Have your men guard our recovering friend here!

  Will do! Morok replied.

  Tom glanced up, noting that Ruiden was in his golem form and looking to find ways to strike the giants without slicing an ally. Unfortunately, things were so tight that there were no good opportunities.

  “Ruiden, why don’t you go check on the northern wall and see if you can help against that risi?” Tom suggested.

  “Excellent idea!” the sword replied before launching itself over the wall.

  Tom stood and turned to examine his options. The eldþursi had his back to Tom. Perhaps some cold fire to cut through the fire giant’s hot fire? Time for another cleaning! Tom leaped onto the eldþursi’s back.

  Citadel of Light, Inside Northern Wall

  Talarius moved back and forth, trying to keep his aim on the bergrisi’s eye in order to blind him with lightning bolts from his bow. It was tricky work, made trickier by the relatively tight confines of the inner courtyard. Unfortunately, with the giant slamming against the inside walls, the courtyard was soon going to be much bigger.

  “We need to drive him outside the wall!” Stainsberry yelled.

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” Giant-Hilda roared back in exasperation. She was standing on top of the inner wall opposite the collapsed wall and holding her hammer as if it were a croquet mallet. She was trying to knock the stone golem hard enough on the chest to trip it over the rubble behind it, moving it closer to the outside. “I could really use a thaumaturge to turn this thing to mud!” she boomed in her giant form.

  “Can they do that? Melt stone?” Stevos asked.

  “I have no idea; I would hope a sufficiently powerful one could do so,” Hilda replied.

  Talarius glanced around once more to ensure that the adjoining courtyards—thank Tiernon for the segmented nature of the Citadel and its courtyards—were finally emptied. Carpets had been ferrying people wounded by the collapsing of parts of the inner walls as the stone golem careened off them. There had been a lot of casualties; he had no idea how many deaths.

 
Talarius looked to Stainsberry, who had suddenly moved to one of the walls and was rummaging through his Bag of Safekeeping. Good thing the interdiction was lifted, Talarius thought. Unfortunately, he could not think of anything in his own bag that would be more useful than his bow. His Rod of Smiting could chip away, but to get the most damage he would need to be braced upon the ground, or something other than the air under his feet. He let loose another volley of arrows in quick succession, but all the stone golem had to do was blink to protect itself. It singed its stone eyelids, but did little else.

  Talarius heard a whistling noise and looked up to see Ruiden spinning towards him. The spinning glaive stopped rotating and reformed into a golem beside Talarius.

  “In its stone form, there is not much I can do against this golem,” Ruiden said.

  “I know; I’m in the same boat,” Talarius said. “We are going to have to come up with plans for such situations in the future. This is not something I had ever seriously considered.”

  “Our challenges have certainly expanded under Lord Tommus,” Ruiden noted.

  Talarius chuckled. “I cannot argue that.”

  Citadel of Light, Southern Wall

  “Okay,” Tom said out loud, “now all we have to do is keep the normal Unlife away from our recovering friends.”

  “That’s not going to be a problem!” Darg-Krallnom shouted. Tom looked towards the commander, who gestured to the Unlife that had been surrounding them. “They are in retreat, I suspect to reorganize. Surround the leadership, protect them at all costs. A very good thing for us!”

  Tom grinned and turned back to Inethya.

  “Incredible!” Inethya said, shaking her head. “That dagger was able to do what my rituals could not.”

  “This was a very strange situation. The Storm Lord’s spells were guarding the antimus tightly, but more importantly, the core souls of the risar were locked inside as animus. They were imprisoned within their own incarnated forms,” Tom said.

  “I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Inethya said.

  “Nor have I,” a new voice said behind Tom. He turned to see that Beragamos had returned now that the interdiction had been shut down.

  “I note that someone has once again been stealing mana from heaven,” the archon said sternly.

  “You try to re-turn three risar controlled by thirty-nine very powerful liches, now permanently slain, without using every drop of mana you can get your hands on,” Tom said somewhat sarcastically. “I also admit that Tiernon’s mana is very pure and most efficient.”

  A tremendous crashing sound from the other side of the Citadel brought their attention back to the fact that there was still a fourth risi attacking the Citadel.

  “Enough resting. We have more work to do!” Tom said, launching himself into the air. “Morok, bring your people with m;, the rest of you guard the risar in case the Unlife return!”

  Tom had to blink at the clouds of dust and debris rising from the north side of the citadel. The outer wall had been breached, and two of the three inner walls in that courtyard segment had also collapsed. Those walls had contained corridors and rooms embedded within them; he hoped everyone had gotten out.

  Two giant knights, two hundred feet tall, were battling a stone golem. Talarius was flying around shooting lightning bolts out of his bow as Ruiden periodically dove in to scrape the risi. Stainsberry was on one of the walls, casting a spell. Several other avatars were flying around shooting various beams of light at the stone golem, all to little affect.

  Tom glanced back towards Stainsberry, suddenly recognizing the cloud forming in front of the Knight Magus. “Stainsberry! No!” Tom yelled, moving towards the Knight Magus while keeping close watch on the Cloud of Disintegration.

  “Stainsberry, there is a live, non-antimus soul trapped inside the giant. He is possessed and being controlled by liches! I can cure him! Shut down the cloud!” Tom yelled.

  Stainsberry looked towards Tom and nodded, then abruptly changed his chant and the motions of his hands. Tom hoped he could get the Cloud of Disintegration shut down safely.

  “How do you propose stabbing that?” Inethya yelled.

  “We need to force him into his mortal form!” Tom yelled back.

  There was vwooshing sound as Morok and his elite squadron drew their lichtshwerts. Tom nodded at the twelve D’Orcs to dive in.

  “We need a stone-to-mud ritual,” Hilda said, although at two hundred feet tall, her voice boomed louder than a normal shout.

  Tom looked to Beragamos, who looked pensive and finally nodded. “I think I can make something work. It’s not part of what I normally do, but it should work with some modifications.”

  “Great. I need him to stay in flesh long enough to stab him, maybe a little longer!” Tom shouted. He noticed that Morok’s crew was able to cause burns on the stone golem. That was more than most could do.

  Beragamos nodded and began chanting and gesturing. Within perhaps a few minutes, the sharp corners of the stone golem began to visibly soften, to melt. Tom moved to get into position. The golem staggered as one of its feet started to melt. It turned, ignoring the two giant knights, and swatted at one of Morok’s D’Orcs, glaring at Beragamos.

  Tom assumed it was the fact that the archon was glowing and shouting things about mud and stone and Earth that tipped off the golem drivers—the lich commune—as to who was responsible. Tom moved to reposition himself even as the golem moved to try and swat Beragamos from the sky.

  As the golem’s arm moved upward, his forearm began to bend the wrong direction as his elbow began to liquefy. The golem roared in anger and suddenly flashed to flesh. Tom lunged quickly, assuming he had only a small window. He had to aim high, at the base of the neck, to avoid the risi’s stone plate armor.

  In! Excrathadorus Mortis pierced the giant’s neck and Tom began to clean the giant. After the first three he had gotten an optimal pattern down, balancing the tendrils fighting him and the necessary cleaning. However, this big fellow needed a lot of cleaning.

  The risi started changing back to stone! He could not blame it because Morok’s people were getting in very solid blows. Tom took his left claw and carved it into the stone golem’s neck to hold on. Excrathadorus Mortis was in and linked to the blackness. It would not be dislodged, but Tom might be. He opened the flood gates to Doom, the Doomalogue and Tiernon’s god pool. He had a lot of work to do and he needed to do it fast, before the golem did too much more damage.

  After what seemed like a small eternity, he was able to clean the golem to the point that he could follow the links to the commune. He was surprised to find that the bergrisi had seventeen liches controlling it. He got his initial lock on the liches and moved to the first.

  Suddenly Tom felt indescribable pain coming from the other links. The liches had found a way to protect themselves. Surprising, given that they were on opposite sides of the battlefield, but he assumed the commanding Storm Liches had somehow got word to them.

  Tom had to withdraw slightly and put up mental walls to numb the pain of the attacks. He had no idea what they were doing, but it hurt. He created his own link to the other end of the commune link.

  Morok, I need you and a couple others to follow this link to the lich commune controlling the risi. They are putting up a fight; I need you to distract them. Do not kill them here; I need to be able to hunt down their phylacteries so I need them functional, just unable to cast spells! The D’Orc was from Visteroth, a world where the orcs had evolved to combat the Unlife. Morok would fully understand what was needed.

  Understood! Morok said, and pulled three of his elite to follow him.

  Tom turned his attention back to the liches of the commune. They were fighting their way back. He was losing some ground. He took a deep mental breath and waded once more into the pain. It would be very helpful to understand what they were doing so he could combat it. He really needed animage training; perhaps Morok could help with that. The D’Orc was an animage. At the moment, all he c
ould do was press against each link in succession, testing for weaknesses, pulling back if the pain got too great.

  The Unlife are in motion, Morok reported. They are pulling all their forces from this side as well, gathering the remnants of the army on the plain before the main gate. I would guess they are about three-fifths of their original size. There are ghouls carrying coffins, I assume the vampires. I would call it a retreat, but they are gathering in a single large area rather than leaving the field.

  Keep me informed, Tom replied. He twisted his head on his shoulders; he was developing a real headache battling these seventeen liches. One would push back, driving him back towards the bergrisi, and Tom would respond, only to have one of the others advance. It was not a question of sheer power; he clearly had more, but they were using wizardry, which everyone had informed him could be much more effective per unit of mana spent.

  After what seemed like an eternity, one of the links suddenly weakened and Tom moved in for the kill. The lich was distracted, as he’d hoped, and the others started to press upon him, but then three more suddenly backed off. That was sufficient; the pain was lowered enough so that he could proceed.

  Within moments he had the link to the phylactery, and then the lich was screaming in fear and agony. It warmed the cockles of Tom’s soul to hear a creature that thrived and fed upon the fear of others to feel fear, agony and pain itself. Where had that thought come from? Tom suddenly wondered. He shook his head even as the lich exploded, and he moved to the next.

  Northern Courtyard

  “He’s coming down!” Talarius shouted at the D’Orcs surrounding the suddenly flesh-and-bone bergrisi, trying to control its collapse. He sighed a breath of relief; Tom had managed to bring the giant down. Talarius peered at it. It was rather amazing; the bergrisi looked very different, obviously alive and healthy, than it had before. That was not something that Excrathadorus Mortis could have ever done when he’d had it. Technically, he thought to himself, it’s not really the same dagger anymore. He closed his eyes for a moment before moving to land on the inner wall. The giant, heavyset knight had shrunk down to normal size and was standing on the wall beside Beragamos.