Faerie's Champion
Page 50
Jess’s grin was fierce, predatory. “That is because these souls are under my protection, Gordolon of Blackskull! A cry of Claimance has been made for these souls, by virtue of Primacy! They are of my land, children of my garden, and I claim them as Jessica de Calenbry, Paladin and Knight Protector of all the lands of Dawn! These are my people, foul demon, and you shall not have them! You, who sought to twist magics pristine and wonderful to your own vile ends, you who have sought to use deception and lies to twist and warp truth, your reign of deception and foulness ends now!”
Soren stepped back, hissing in absolute loathing before growling an inhuman curse, a squirming mass of abyssal strands instantly weaving into a spell of blackest night, launching at Jess a hellish wave of power, screaming with the horror of a thousand thousand souls lost forever to the Void.
The realm itself seemed to shriek and die as the tarry black fountain of death flooded towards Jess.
Jess's laughter was tinged with madness, her expression a chilling mirror of Soren's own. Her mithril blade was unsheathed with breathtaking speed, seeming to scream as it cut through the air, near instantly severing the thick pulsating abyssal strands of darkest power that had bound Gordolon's hideous spell into existence.
With a horrific wail, the terrible wave of power was ruptured into oblivion, raw strands of agony sent shrieking into inconceivable dimensions of imagination and memory, the utter devastation caused by its passing seeming to destroy not only the pristine gold veined marble of which the grand chamber was formed, but cutting into the very essence of Faerie, the air itself seeming to scream and bleed from the wound of the dark magic’s passing.
Gordolon stumbled back, momentarily stunned as the fierce black chords of power, the fount of his terrible magics, snapped back into his body after being so savagely sundered. "No, there is no way! I am the match of Lilith herself! No one can wield abyssal magics that reach as deep into the Void as I. No one! My chords were shielded! No magic can severe them.”
And in that moment a dark, hungry part of Jess delighted in seeing the hideous mask of vile hatred that was Gordolon's true face crumple with naked fear.
"What are you?" the foul demon snarled. "What angel dares to break covenant in infernal affairs? Such is forbidden! Such is outlawed! I shall see the Heavens themselves burn for this transgression!"
Jess snarled. "There is naught before you but I, Jessica de Calenbry, champion of the realms of man and Faerie both! I will see an end to your horrors, foul creature of Hell! It is time for your deceptions to end. Let the truth reveal itself at last!"
Gordolon scurried back, even at that moment hissing a dark symphony of energies into an unspeakable final wave of oblivion, Jess intuiting instantly that should he complete said magics, it would create an unholy rift between this realm and Gordolon’s own fiefdom, sacrificing it in some unimaginable cacophony of destruction that would rupture into Faerie with unspeakable consequences, no doubt hoping to kill them all.
“Jess! He seeks to destroy Faerie, no matter the cost!” Twilight cried, and Jess nodded, knowing exactly what she must do.
Her crimson gaze was fierce, and for all that Gordolon crackled with inhuman voidal energies, something in Jess's gaze was enough to cause the lord of Hell to stumble and gasp, desperately trying to hold together the madly pulsating framework of his final dark spell.
“You had mentioned how bitterly you resented the mirror and its power not being given freely to you by a girl you had manipulated with lies and deception, as if such an artifact could be wholly claimed by any means, save that of Truth," Jess said, her words echoing sonorously through the chamber. "Quail before me, Gordolon, for you shall never claim the prize you seek! It is now forever beyond your reach. For I have been granted all rights and privileges to the Mirror of Truth by none other than Angelica, daughter of Dawn, she who you had warped and twisted by darkest magics! No vile connivance or force compelled her, only the knowledge that I cared for her, and would see this travesty end!"
Gordolon roared his hate. “No. No! Such is impossible! You will burn, vile half-breed! My spell is complete! There is nothing you can do! Behold, as my dark arts bring together an unholy union between both realms, sending us all hurtling into the Void!” His smile was but a twisted grimace, so filled with hate and bitterness that Jess almost pitied the vile creature before her, even as she strode towards him, fierce and mighty, a warrior out of legend, blade raised high.
Yet Jess did not strike. Rather, she pointed her blade at the heart of the great shimmering mirror. A mirror that seemed even now to grow. Not in size but somehow in stature, in essence, in its primal nature. As if in some unfathomable way it was the true reality, and the vast, partially ruined chamber around it was but an ephemeral projection of its own majesty.
Jess turned then, grimly nodding as her foe’s attention did not waver from her terrible blade in those crucial moments, even as it pointed at the heart of the mirror. “I, Jessica de Calenbry, do assert full Claimance upon the Mirror of Truth, freely given to me without coercion or deception, honorably bequeathed by the rights and laws of this realm!”
Jess felt a fierce chill as an unfathomable wind seemed to blow through her; terrifying, freezing, and exhilarating all at once.
Her heart raced as her being was filled with a heady potency unlike any she had ever known before. This, she sensed with equal parts awe and wonder, must be what it meant to wield the magic of Faerie. Dizzying and intoxicating, even as her familiar’s hiss reminded her that this realm was at the brink of peril. She knew, deep in her bones, that she could wield this artifact of unspeakable power in ways unimaginable; reshape this reality, even as the first terrible rumbles presaging a forced merging of two diametrically opposed realms began to echo through the chambers.
All calmness broke, Talvi's faerie council looking, for the first time that Jess had ever seen, afraid. All pretense of perfect poise and control evaporated with the world's terrible rumble.
"You feel it!" Gordolon whispered, his voice a terrible mixture of hate and desperate hope. "Yes you do, queen of Hell. You too feel the power within. It is not too late, Jezabelle. Use it! Use the power of the Mirror of Truth to reshape reality itself into a dream beyond compare! Wield the souls even now compelled by your bidding. Together, we can reforge this realm into a place of darkest wonder, sweetest delight! My fiefdom need not destroy us. We can channel all its abyssal power into a fount of endless energy, fueling magics beyond compare, for eternity!"
Gazing at the corrupt and twisted creature before her, Jess did not waver. She knew what she must do.
“And I, Jessica de Calenbry, do grant full Claimance of the artifact before us known as the Mirror of Truth, to the true queen of this land! Let her wield its magics with all rights and privileges reclaimed, my gift freely given!”
And Jess gasped and stumbled, even as Gordolon's scream of fury turned to a hideous screech of agony, the brilliant light of the suddenly flashing mirror hitting him dead on. Jess shook as all the terrible, beautiful magics with which she could have shaped an entire universe flooded out of her, and she felt herself cry with the loss of it, the ache of it, even as Twilight's roar instantly transformed to a wail that curdled Jess’s blood.
Jess gasped in horror, coldly certain she had never heard her beloved familiar in pain before.
It was Talvi. His terrible blade was raised high, covered with the blood of her beloved Twilight, who had immediately intercepted a charging Talvi, he who had been but heartbeats away from piercing her with his blade.
“Twilight!” Jess screamed, horrified by the dark blood trickling behind him, the pristine marble hissing and bubbling as it was etched by her familiar’s crimson trail.
“Jess! Ward thyself!” Her familiar’s cry a desperate plea, Jess raising her blade just in time to counter Talvi’s powerful Oberhau strike, his blade screaming through the air and shaking Jess with the force of his blow. Never before had she faced a foe so terribly strong, his primal power augme
nted even further by the twisted abyssal strands Jess could sense filling him even now with frenzied madness.
After a blistering series of furious overhand blows Jess did all she could to counter, Talvi leaped back, coldly measuring her form for weakness, blade raised in Ochs, the very air shrieking as it brushed against the ancient artifact, bleeding drops of silvery ether against the edges of Talvi's weapon, so sharp was his terrible sword. A blade even now pointed directly at Jess's throat, Talvi a coiled spring waiting for the perfect moment to launch himself forward with deadly thrust or hew, his form as flawless as it had ever been.
"How dare you, wench! You have ruined everything. Everything! When I trusted you! When I felt your love to be true, us destined to be together! All for naught! You but a pawn of my sick and twisted mother, she who has consigned me to the terrible rot and decrepitude that is only my burden to bear in all this realm! Tell me, Jezabelle, what bounty did she grant you to twist our love into a selfish lie, serving only your own ends as you one day dance upon my grave? Tell me, vile demon in truth! I would know what bounty she placed upon our love, to entice you to reveal your true foulness!"
"Talvi," Jess whispered, rendered near speechless by her beloved's hate-filled bile. "Talvi, it's not like that, no! Your counselor is warped, possessed by a demon from Hell! Everything he told you was a lie. Just look at him, Talvi. Gaze at what your counselor has become!" Jess's gaze flashed to Gordolon, even at that moment howling like a beast, caged and tormented, his whole body alight in a curious silver flame. Not daring to gaze upon the surface of the Mirror of Truth herself, dreading a glimpse of something too terrible to bear, Jess nonetheless knew something had changed about the mirror.
She felt a bittersweet solace, despite the anxious dread she felt for her beloved Twilight, realizing that, somehow with her bequeathing the artifact to its rightful owner, the true power and nature of the mirror had awakened once more. Jess had but to glance at Gordolon to sense the renewal of the mirror, his body even then ripping apart in ways too hideous to imagine, the vile and twisted nature of his carefully hidden demonic essence forced to reveal itself even as it bubbled and burned, no longer cloaked by the foolish counselor Soren who had been enticed and corrupted by Gordolon over countless years, the faerie becoming but an empty shell Gordolon had used in his bid to destroy Faerie utterly.
Like a disguise and suit of armor at once, it had allowed Gordolon to manifest in this realm, manipulating the magics and denizens of Faerie directly, utterly protected by its faerie host. Yet now the host was wilting at last to dried bark and ash, having been corrupted long ago, until the body of Soren was no more, and only the madly writhing demonlord remained, whose flesh even in that moment was fiercely burning and smoking as it was scalded by the harsh light of the Mirror of Truth, pinning it in place, even as it was slowly consumed.
Shaken by what she instantly understood, as if the mirror had spoken directly to her mind, Jess could spare no more than a glimpse, Talvi's cry of dismay making it all too clear he did not understand what he saw, too far gone into madness to understood the truths Jess sensed the mirror conveying to her, even then.
"Soren!" Talvi spat, and Jess shuddered to see the hate in her lover's eyes. "You killed him! You twisted him with your demonic curse, you foul half-blood, and you killed him!”
With a roar Talvi redoubled his onslaught, powerful overhand Zornhau blows mutating effortlessly into a series of crosscuts peppered with powerful thrusts to groin and throat the instant Talvi sensed weakness, even as Jess stumbled back, doing her utmost to parry and counter each of her former lover's fearsome blows, executed with a precision that was inhuman and a speed that left his movements but a blur to the naked eye. Jess had no choice but to immerse herself in her own battlefrenzy in a desperate bid to keep up with Talvi's awful onslaught, the Faerie Prince having seized and claimed the Vor utterly.
Jess lost herself in the mad exchange of battle, time dilating to a crawl, pieces of ruptured masonry seeming to tumble through the air as if sinking in mud, the result of a massive Oberhau blow that shattered tiles Jess had just barely tumbled away from, off balance and backpedaling, her mithril longsword raised with desperate haste, even as Talvi unleashed a vicious sequence of perfectly executed blows.
Lethal overhead slashes mutated to wickedly fast thrusts, Jess's desperate parry off-set by blindingly fast Durchwechseln technique, his blade sliding underneath Jess’s own to spear forward with blinding speed, a deadly blow that would have plunged straight through her heart, had Jess not twisted aside with speed born of inhuman desperation, Talvi's deadly sword instead slicing into her right shoulder even as she spun away, blood spraying forth as inconceivably strong mithril links burst under the terrible force of a blow landed by a weapon made out of the pristine distilled essence of Faerie itself.
A bolt of terror rocked through Jess. Had the strike been even a fraction more true, her arm would be crippled. Even now the pain was shocking, and she knew that weakness from bloodloss would affect her within minutes, if she was lucky enough to live that long.
“Jess!” Twilight roared in her mind, and Jess grimly blocked her familiar’s cry from her awareness, sensing instinctively his terror for her, as well his desperate bid to open doors of horror within her mind she was desperate to keep shut tight. “Jess! You cannot hold back! Talvi is not the man you thought he was! You fell in love with an image, a fantasy! This twisted creature before you will kill you! You must strike true!”
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Desperately Twilight made his silent plea to her, yet Jess would not listen, even as her shoulder burned with hot pain, unleashing a furious roar from her that caused the utterly masterful Talvi to stumble back, in that moment utterly disoriented.
With pristine clarity born of incalculable experience in fields of battle she could recall only in darkest dream, Jess knew that should she lunge forth in that instant with her true might and fury, she could pierce her lover's heart, and end the battle in that very instant.
She did not strike.
Gazing upon her lover, eyes alight with a furious infernal rage, knowing the man who lashed out at her was a man fueled by terror, loss, and strands of darkest manipulation, she found herself breaking every hammered rule of combat her masters had ever instilled in the forge of the training field, in the crucible of battle. No matter how bitter or sweet the circumstances that brought two people to the point of bearing live steel, no matter how deep or tragic their story, once the blades were born, it was time to kill. To strike with fierce and terrible precision, to show no hesitation, no mercy, until one’s foe was utterly bested, every strike made with the wholehearted intent to send her enemy crashing to the ground in death.
Yet Jess couldn’t help but hesitate. So many nights she remembered gazing into Talvi’s eyes, holding him close, delighting in his warm smiles, the way he would hold her so tenderly and stroke her crimson locks before kissing her with such adoration. The sweet playful conversations of the family they would one day share, joyous evenings spent racing on horseback for sights beyond the horizon, delighting in the wonderful dream that had been their life for so terribly brief a time.
Yet Talvi, the man she had loved with all her heart, had been so warped by hatred, fear, and darkest manipulation, that his gaze was filled only with the cold loathing of a ruthless killer, a look her masters would have utterly approved of.
“Jess!” Twilight pled, even now preparing to spring forth at Talvi’s back despite his grievous wound, and Jess knew on some level how terribly overmatched they were, fighting an avatar able to channel all the power of Faerie, might unlimited by any force save the turning of the seasons themselves, a lifespan that had been warped and extended by unholy magics, magics which had twisted and distorted him to hideous effect that only Jess and her familiar could see.
Yet the terrible warping of his soul had done nothing to hinder his battlesenses or combat prowess, as Talvi instinctively spun around to cleave Jess’s beloved familiar in two.
Marble cracked and exploded under her feet, such was force and power of her stride, sound left far behind, light itself seeming to bend in that split second, as Jess slammed into the man she had once thought to marry, such a short time ago.
With a roar and flash as the air itself ruptured and ignited, her blade struck Talvi's own at inconceivable speed, the very laws of space and time warping to Jess's fierce will, the entire vast chamber buckling as the force of the blow sent everyone still standing flying through the air, eardrums bursting from the terrible shock wave as two avatars of opposing realms crossed blades with the full might and force of both their worlds.
On some level Jess knew that were it not for the Faerie Queen even then using her mirror to lock their saga deep within story and Dream, that the palace entire and every mortal and lesser faerie within would have been obliterated by the horrific energies released as their blows tore through the air, light itself shattering as all the onlookers seemed to freeze to glass in those moments Jess and Talvi lost themselves to Oblivion's frenzy, desperation and fury buckling the very fabric of the realities they knew.
And for all his inhuman strength, fueled by the rage and fire of an entire realm of Faerie, it was Talvi’s awful blade that cracked under the crucible of two colliding realms. It was Talvi who lurched and gasped as Jess's mithril blade, resonating with the powers of the great Void itself pricked his throat, Jess pinning him with her deadly gaze, time once more crashing down upon them.