by C. M. Carney
“We are the Scourge. You have been named heretic by the High God. Give us the weapon, come peacefully and you have our word we will not hurt you. Refuse and we will unleash every one of our considerable gifts to ensure all you know is pain.”
*****
Fear clutched at Sean’s heart, but he was a born and bred rebel, and would not let his fear deter him. Sean looked at the wooden wand in his hand and then, extended the middle finger of his other hand, adding a “pffft” with his tongue for good measure. “Yeah, don’t think so.”
The Scourge gave Sean a sinister smile. “Have it your way.” The soul wraith launched himself towards Sean, but the archon moved between them and reached for the Scourge.
The Scourge moved faster than Sean’s eyes could follow and his blade punched into the space between the archon’s cuirass and faceplate. The archon twitched as the blade warped the currents of energy that acted as the automaton’s nervous system.
The archon lost control of its motor functions and it spasmed violently. Arcs of blue-white electricity erupted from the automaton and lashed the air. Sean ducked to avoid an arc and fell to the floor. He crab walked backwards, his back slamming hard into the edge of the Order Engine.
The Scourge twisted his blade and severed the connection between the archon’s head and body. The head rolled back, held by the thinnest of energetic tendrils. The archon’s upside-down face stared at Sean, looking for all the world like the victim of a botched beheading.
“I would strongly advise that you move aside,” the archon said calmly. “I will only get one opportunity."
“Opportunity? What opportunity?” Sean sputtered, but rolled aside on seeing the archon move.
“This,” the archon said and wrapped both arms around the Scourge and leaped backwards into the Order Engine. As both inhuman creatures passed through the edge of the device, the archon triggered the field. A sphere of slow time expanded around the two combatants.
The Scourge's sword arm moved at half speed, slowly, inexorably removing the archon’s left arm. As the arm fell to the floor, time slowed again and by the time the Scourge's arm came down for the killing blow, time moved at a quarter normal speed.
The Scourge’s arm skittered and jumped forward as it tried to counteract the temporal dampening, but by the time the tip of his blade entered the glowing mote of order energy that was both heart and brain to the archon, time had slowed so much that only one-second passed inside for every one hundred outside.
“No!” Sean yelled and stood, ready to jump inside the Order Engine in some vain attempt to save the automaton who had saved his life.
Stop! came a voice nowhere and everywhere. This Iteration Of Me Is At An End. There Is Nothing You Can Do To Stop That.
“I can’t leave you.”
I Will Reform, In Time.
“You saved me, and I’m not even Harlan.”
I Know.
“You know? Then why did you help me?”
It Was Important, Required. I Have Decelerated Relative Time Inside The Order Engine. The Scourge Will Be Trapped For One Week, Two Days, Eight Hours, Twenty-One Minutes And Three Seconds. Then It Will Be Released. You Must Be Gone Befo…..
The Scourge’s blade sliced through the archon’s core and the archon died. A second later time seemed to stop inside the Order Engine. Sean held the white wood of the weapon to his chest and wept.
That was where Gryph and the others found him a few minutes later. Gryph helped him to his feet and asked him what had happened.
“He died saving me. He knew I wasn’t Harlan, and he did it, anyway. Why would he do that?”
“Because what we do is important.”
“That’s what he said.”
Gryph squeezed Sean’s shoulder in a sign of solidarity and then looked down on the weapon. “Does it work?”
Sean gripped the wand, a rueful grin crossing his face. “Only one way to find out.” He turned the weapon on himself. Gryph’s eyes went wide, and he reached for Sean, but the weapon fired before he could stop him.
59
Gryph expected the wand to fire a dramatic beam of energy, or a pulse of lightning, something that would have satisfied the raw effort and pain that had gone into making it. But there was none of that. Instead, the smallest of distortions, like a beam of heat passing through the air flashed from the tip of the wand into Sean’s chest.
Sean’s muscles froze like a man in the throes of an electrical shock. He tried to speak, but the only sound that came from his mouth was a sputtering wheeze. A trickle of drool slipped from the corner of his mouth and his eyes rolled back into his head.
“Catch him!” Gryph yelled and Errat reached out with his massive hands and caught the smaller player. He eased him to the ground and Gryph went to one knee, placed two fingers on Sean’s temple and cast Telepathic Link.
Gryph closed his eyes and sent his consciousness through the link. He flashed down a vortex of swirling color and landed in a child’s bedroom. Next to him stood Sean. The man seemed oblivious to Gryph’s presence, and he was just staring at a young boy laying in his bed, patting an old golden retriever. There were tears in the boys' eyes.
“You’re going to love it at the farm,” the young boy said, patting the dog gently. “You’ll get lotsa pats and you can run as much as you want.” The boy sniffled and turned towards the closed door to his room. His gaze looked through Gryph and Gryph realized that the boy was a young Sean.
The door opened a second later and the kind voice of a man called though. “Sean, it’s time.” The man entered, lifted the dog from the bed with a grunt and carried him from the room. Young Sean followed, eyes misty.
“Buster will love it at the farm, won’t he dad?”
“He will son. He’ll have a great time.”
Father and son left the room and then the world shifted again, pulling Gryph and Sean from Sean’s memory.
They were back on the floor near the Order Engine and Sean’s eyes snapped open. “Easy, easy,” Gryph said. Sean inhaled as he returned to consciousness and Gryph held him until his emotions settled.
“Oh, Buster, dammit,” Sean said, a ragged sob filling him, which then turned to a scowl. “Well, fuck me. I can’t believe my parents got me with the old ‘we’re taking the dog to a farm’ lie.” He let Gryph help him to his feet. “What a bunch of assholes.”
“So the weapon works?” Gryph asked looking down on the shaking player.
“Apparently,” Sean said, rubbing a forearm against his nose and sniffing.
“You okay?”
“I miss Buster,” Sean said with a sob.
“Yeah, he seemed like a good dog.”
“The best,” Sean said, wiping his nose. “He would do this thing with his paw, when he wanted to play.” Sean mocked a dog smacking him in the face. “Sure it hurt sometimes, but I loved it.”
A throaty ‘MmmmHmmm’ interrupted the nice moment. “I hate to be a douche, but I think we should hurry. This guy is moving.” Gryph and Sean turned to see Lex pointing at the sphere of energy contained within the Order Engine.
The Scourge was moving, slowly, yet inexorably. Gryph stared into the man’s flecked black eyes and saw determination bordering on the zealous. In that moment Gryph understood that the man would not stop, ever. And then, because of his Identify talent, he understood something else.
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“What?” Lex squealed, gripping his broken arm. “Why the hell not?”
Gryph pointed towards the Scourge. “Because he can help us find Brynn.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Call it a hunch.”
“You’re going in there on a hunch?”
“If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
“He doesn’t,” Vonn said.
“I might,” Lex countered and glared at Vonn.
“Lex, do you have a better idea?”
Lex nodded his head up and down spastically. “Ye….. No
! I do not, that doesn’t mean your stupid idea gets to win.”
“Lex, this is why I am here. I need to save Brynn, just as …”
“I must protect Gryph,” Lex muttered in annoyance. “Yeah, I get all that, but this guy kicked all of our asses, then came in here and tore through the archon like he was a dollar store Threepio.”
“I have something the archon didn’t.” Gryph held up his hand and a shining silver glow built around it, becoming a near blinding beacon.
“You know we can all make our hands shiny,” Lex whined in a defeated voice. “Doesn’t make you special.”
“Yes, and I’ll need all of your shiny hands to make this work.”
A few minutes later Gryph finished explaining his plan and had cast a variety of buffs on himself. The others stood in their places, ready to do their parts. Lex and Vonn stood behind and to each side of Gryph. Ovrym and Errat stood behind Lex. Sean stood behind the others looking unsure.
Lex looked at Gryph. “I’m coming with you.”
“You’re in no shape to be fighting anyone, and I need you here. And if the worst happens, you need to go after Brynn.” He reached into his bag and grabbed one of the Advanced Health Potions and handed it to Lex. “It’ll take a few days, but your arm will heal, assuming you don’t do anything dumb with it in the meantime. Stay here and heal.”
“Dude.” Lex moved to stop Gryph, but Errat and Ovrym restrained him. Lex looked down and then nodded slowly. “If you get yourself killed, or eaten, I will kick the crap out of your corpse. My arm may be broken, but my kicking feet are right as rain.” He kicked an invisible target several times as proof.
“Fair enough,” Gryph said with a wry smirk. He looked to the others. “Everybody ready?” A round of nods confirmed that they were. Errat tightened his grip on Lex, arresting any last-ditch attempt to protect Gryph.
Gryph turned back to the Scourge. In the time it had taken them to plan, the Scourge had moved barely a millimeter. This has to work. He grabbed the length of spider silk rope and moved his other hand through the intricate gestures required to cast Animate Rope. Behind him the glow of blue-white mana rose.
“Now,” Gryph said and tossed the rope towards the sphere of slowed time, activated his Boots of Deftness and then jumped. A second later a dozen Order Bolts zipped past Gryph and into the Order Engine. The bolts of energy instantly slowed and then the length of animated rope followed.
Gryph passed through the event horizon and into the Order Engine and for the briefest of moments he felt like he was being torn apart. Because my body is moving at two different rates of time? Gryph thought, but then he was through and the sensation ceased.
Time turned back to normal and Gryph watched as the Order Bolts punched into the Scourge. As expected the force of the blows caused the man to grunt in pain and stumble. Also, as expected, the bolts did minimal damage, as the Scourge’s Magebane Armor absorbed a large percentage of the mana.
So far, so good, Gryph thought and sent a mental command to his rope. The length of shimmering golden-white silk snapped forward and wrapped itself around the Scourge’s sword arm, arresting the blade’s advance. Gryph sent the Compel command to the rope but was not surprised when the Scourge ignored the attempted mental domination.
The Scourge grunted more in irritation than pain and his eyes snapped to the rope as it twisted his arm, forcing him to drop the sword. Gryph unfurled his spear and thrust forward empowering it with Penetrating Strike, Impale and Yrriel’s Bite.
The spear tip was a mere inch from the Scourge’s face when the world shimmered, and the soul wraith moved. Gryph scowled in irritation. He hadn’t expected the attack to work, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t grumpy about it. The irritation exploded into pain as the fingers of the Scourge’s other hand jabbed up and into Gryph’s ribs.
Pain exploded through Gryph and his health dropped by 100 points. Of course, this asshole is a ninja too. Gryph bent over at the waist from the force of the blow as the Scourge launched his knee upwards and into Gryph’s face. Pain exploded in a spatter of blood as the blow broke Gryph’s nose and stole another 100 of his health. Gryph fell backwards, losing his grip on his spear, as a third blow hit him in the throat for another 150 points of damage.
Gryph heard a strangled chortle and realized it was his own failed scream. It was barely five seconds into this battle and his health was already down to 164. The next blow could kill him, and he couldn’t have that. The Scourge pulled his arm back and brought it down into the side of Gryph’s head. Before the pain could reach him Gryph activated his tier ability Refraction. The Scourge grunted in pain and shock as the force of the blow backlashed into him.
You have used Refraction.
Refraction is the Apprentice Tier Ability for Light Armor and allows you to refract the damage of a successful attack back upon the attacker. This ability is usable once per day at your current tier.
You have refracted 150 points back on the Scourge.
The Scourge stumbled backwards more in shock than in pain. Gryph took advantage of the brief respite and triggered Moon Flare. His breastplate exploded with a brilliant white light and healing warmth flowed through him to the tune of 280 points, bringing him nearly back to full health. But you can only do that once dude, he heard Lex say in his head, knowing it was his own asshole subconscious.
Gryph rolled away from the Scourge and reached for his spear. A look of rage filled the soul wraith’s eyes, and he extended his free arm, his hand aglow with fiery yellow mana. In a panic Gryph cast Life Shield. A bubble of translucent green energy snapped around him as a jet of flame erupted from the Scourge’s hand.
An evil grin flowed across the soul wraith’s face as the flames ate away at Gryph’s shield. Damn, Fire Magic does make you crazy, Gryph thought and then panicked as he watched the shield’s health counter descend quicker than a plummeting plane that had lost all engines.
He extended both hands and launched a volley of Soul Bolts. The shards of silver energy slammed into the Scourge’s chest and the Flames spell ceased. A second later his Life Shield blinked and failed. The Scourge grinned and raised his hand again.
Gryph sent a desperate order to his rope and watched as the length of spider silk unfurled some of its length from the Scourge’s sword arm and snapped around his free arm. The rope yanked just as the renewed Flames tore from the wraith’s palm, exploding upwards towards the ceiling. The Scourge howled in rage and pain as the rope wrenched his arms backwards. He glared at Gryph and the silver flecks in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a deep purple-black light.
Shit, Gryph thought, recognizing the color of Death Magic, and tried to move aside. Twin beams of ragged necrotic energy erupted from the Scourge’s eyes and punched into Gryph. Horrifying pain surged through him as the putrefying energy began to kill individual cells in his body. He spat up blood and his flesh began to desiccate.
In seconds he’d lost nearly half his health. The pain was crippling and Gryph knew if he didn’t do something soon, he would die. His mind scrambled and the memory of the first hack he’d learned on entering the Realms pushed through the fog. With a herculean effort he dragged his five remaining Attribute Points into Constitution. He felt a surge of life and his health bar refilled instantly.
The Scourge blinked in surprise as his death attack ceased, his eyes flared back to normal. “How do you still live?” the Scourge sputtered in shock.
Gryph wanted to laugh at the Scourge, wanted to taunt him, but unfortunately the hack had done nothing to counteract the death spell’s debuffs.
Debuff Added: Necrotic Poisoning.
You suffer from Necrotic Poisoning due to exposure to high amounts of Death Magic energy. Your physical attributes are reduced by 80% and you are afflicted with exhaustion.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
NOTE: Due to your 50% resistance to Poisoning, the attribute reduction and cooldown are reduced by half.
A hacking cough pushed a spatter of blood past Gryph’s lips.
He felt weak, decrepit, like an elderly man about to take his last breath. I’m going to die, he realized. As the Scourge walked towards Gryph a shifting haze of black smoke flowed from his back. It formed a quartet of tendrils that grew ever more solid as they arched up and around his shoulders.
Gryph tried to raise a hand, but he could barely move. The Scourge reached down, grabbed the edge of Gryph’s breastplate and hauled him upwards pulling him close. Gryph saw the cascade of stars return to the black void of the Scourge’s eyes and felt fear.
“We’re going to give you a choice,” the Scourge said. “You can die a meaningless death or join us and serve a higher purpose.”
The tendrils of oily smoke solidified into the heads and bodies of four black scaled serpents. They opened their mouths, hissed and snapped their jaws down onto Gryph.
60
Pain surged into Gryph and within seconds the spectral serpents had reduced his health to a paltry 25 points. Then, without warning, all four fanged mouths released him. Gryph spat up a gobbet of blood and tried to focus through the pain.
“Did you say something?” Gryph said, his voice cracked and pathetic.
“We said, you are dying, nothing can change that. But death does not have to be the end. We offer you a choice. You can choose the bleakness of whatever afterlife your soul has earned, or you can choose a higher calling and dedicate all that you are to the service of the High God.”
“You’re talking about Aluran, aren’t you?” Gryph said, weakly tapping at the Scourge’s chest. “Are you and him buddies?” His hand grasped at a silver flecked gemstone at the Scourge’s neck. “Oh, that’s a pretty necklace.”
Fury filled the Scourge’s eyes, and the serpents pulled back. As one they hissed at Gryph. “We serve the High God in all things. We have meaning. We have purpose. Mock us at your peril. Choose now. Will you bask in his holy light or fall into the darkness of purposeless death?”
