by Eric Vall
“Infernum or inferno, let’s kick his ass,” Annalise replied as she smashed the blades of Bloodscale and the other sword together, and the sparks flew through the air.
Carmedy placed a sizzling bundle into the slingshot and pulled it back with narrowed eyes as she singled the wizard out. The feline let out a hiss as she bared her sharp teeth and took careful aim. She let fly just as Tuzakeur advanced on the goddess once more. The small bundle hit the wizard’s chest, guided unerringly by the magic of the elven slingshot, and exploded into bright blue light as it crackled and popped against his flesh.
Tuzakeur screamed in pain as the caustic potion bubbled up and burned the left side of his face. The feline scrambled to her feet as the sorcerer fell away from the Tichádáma, and the goddess turned her head, saw us, and her expression cleared in relief. The tall woman looked directly into my eyes.
“The moon is waning, and I am, too,” the goddess shouted to me and I saw the hand that held the huge sword was trembling.
“The moon?” Rana questioned with uncertainty, and my swordswoman pointed upward to the ceiling where the jagged rock and stone came together to create a skylight. Directly above the hole, the moon shone through. I watched it for a few passing seconds as the moon shifted, and a sliver of the black sky was exposed behind it.
“The Wailing brings her no power, it is a meaningless ritual,” I told them as I brought the God Slayer up to slam it down onto the rock below my feet. “It is the moon from which she gets her power. The moon is moving out of its highest point in the sky, and her power is being cut off until the next full moon.” With that, I swung the polearm over my head and brought it down directly in front of me, and the blades came to life from the blessed weapon.
Tuzakeur stopped for a second when he caught sight of me, and the thin, pale lips beneath the hood frowned. Was that a note of fear, the same fear he had shown me before? Whatever the case, his momentary distraction let the Tichádáma lunge forward and stab deep into the sorcerer’s chest.
It should have been a lethal blow, but there was a second where Tuzakeur’s entire form blinked in and out of view, then he disappeared only to reappear in a puff of black smoke behind the goddess.
Carmedy wailed as the sorcerer brought his hands down in the middle of the Tichádáma’s back and black necromantic power blasted through her being and out her chest. The Dáma made no sound as she wobbled on her feet for a second then fell. I stepped forward with the God Slayer at the ready as the sorcerer bore down on the fallen goddess.
The Tichádáma’s gray eyes were wide with horror but still sharp and filled with rage as Tuzakeur stood over her. The goddess held the holy sword firmly to her chest as she struggled for breath.
“Give me the Eye of Alipsis,” Tuzakeur barked, and even so, the goddess below him smiled despite the blood filling her mouth and staining her pearly white teeth. The sorcerer leaned in even closer as he reached for the sword the goddess still held onto tightly. “Give it to me, now.”
The Tichádáma closed her mouth, and I watched with pleasure as her cheeks sucked in, and she spat a ball of blood and saliva into Tuzakeur’s eyes.
My minions silently spread out one by one in preparation of attack. Rana was the first to strike, and the fox-woman threw her elven daggers with surgical precision. The twin blades spun through the air and buried themselves in the sorcerer’s body, one in his upper shoulder, missing his beating heart by inches, and the second between his ribs.
“Nooo!” the wizard screamed as he tried to pull the daggers out of his body, but unfortunately for him, his eyes were streaming blood and the wand in his hands made the efforts clumsy and pointless.
“He’s distracted,” Annalise hissed under her breath as she darted forward with both swords at the ready.
Tuzakeur stumbled backward as he both tried to get away from my wife and pull Rana’s daggers from his body, but the High Queen was faster, and she drove her blades into the evil mage with a triumphant scream.
“Die!” my queen shouted as her beautiful face became even more beautiful with her rage. The silver tips of the blades tore deeper into Tuzakeur’s chest until they poked out of the mage’s back, and sickly yellow blood began to seep from the wounds.
I stared at the strange blood, and then the smell hit me for the first time. It was the scent of rotten meat, and I gritted my teeth against the foulness as I gripped the God Slayer tighter.
“Gross.” My wife placed one heavy boot in the middle of his back, slammed him forward, and then pulled the blades out. Her weapons dripped with yellowed blood, and she then flicked them outward to clear them of the disgusting liquid.
Tuzakeur wobbled forward and away from my warrior-wife, but he was still unable to see, and he nearly tripped over the fallen goddess before she could roll out of his path.
Morrigan struck next, and her delicate hands moved in the air with fluidity I had never seen. The emerald light encasing her hands snapped like whips, and with a quick roll of the wrists, the strands tangled around Tuzakeur and lifted him into the air. The elven woman snarled, her pale lips pulled back against her teeth as she spoke elven incantations under her breath. Her mage markings burned brighter than ever before, and for a moment it seemed as if she would simply catch fire from the light. That power coursed down the green lashes, and my white-haired lover lifted her right hand to lift Tuzakeur higher into the air. Then she splayed out her thin fingers and brought them down in a smashing motion.
Tuzakeur plummeted to the rock with a warbling shriek, and the crash that came after was deafening.
The elf shouted her spell as she lifted her right hand again, and the sorcerer’s body followed as it lifted into empty space. The white-haired woman then raised both clenched fists into the air, then twisted them as she screamed.
Then her dark magic really began to work on the evil wizard.
From below the hood, thick yellow blood spurted from his broken nose and seeped between his cracked lips. Tuzakeur’s right arm underneath the shadowy cloak twisted at the elbow, and the wand dropped from his skeletal hands. Then Morrigan slapped her hand through the air as if she was swatting a fly, and the sorcerer was sent flying across the room.
He slammed into the far wall and made a sound that did sound a bit like a fly getting squashed.
I watched with interest as I stepped closer to the struggling wizard. My minions had the matter well in hand, but I wanted to see how they would all strike the final blow. As I did so, Carmedy rushed past me with another smoking bundle right as the sorcerer struggled to stand. With a rush of electric blue smoke, the wizard brought his wand back to him telekinetically, and then he motioned as if he was going to begin another horrific spell.
But he was too late.
Carmedy was ready for him.
“Demon spawn, get that bad guy!” the feline hissed deep in the back of her throat as she exposed her pointed teeth. The bundle left a trail of thick, blood red smoke as it sailed through the air and landed right in front of the battered sorcerer.
There was a moment of silence as the bundle bubbled up, and the wizard took a wary step back. Right when he assumed he was a safe distance away, the bundle exploded with a thunderous clap. The red smoke nearly obstructed the sorcerer from view, but as I watched, the thick smoke solidified and morphed into a shape I remembered from days prior. Though the body’s form was not entirely correct, crudely formed from Carmedy’s concoction, what stood in front of Tuzakeur was a towering demon, its black horns curled and pointed at the tips as it tested its newly formed jaws. The scarlet eyes from below the hood widened, and he took a few scuttling steps backward as the demon spawn advanced on him with menacing curled hands.
Tuzakeur was too slow as again he tried to summon the power of his wand, but the demon spawn grabbed him up by the ankle and stuffed the meat of the wizard’s leg in its massive jaw. The alchemical monster’s huge, bulging black eyes rolled in their sockets as it bit down and severed the leg completely as the spawn swallow
ed it down with the smacking of its lips. The demon dropped Tuzakeur and roared as it beat its chest angrily, then it slammed its head down and squashed the wizard like an annoying bug. Tuzakeur’s screams were loud and warbling as they echoed around the room. The demon pulled back, and somehow, Tuzakeur still clung to life, even able to move as he lifted his wand into the air with one shaking hand.
“Et abierunt! Apage!” the wizard screamed incantations as he jabbed out once with the wand, and with a flick of his wrist, the demon made of smoke began to dissolve. Carmedy’s demon howled loudly as its body was torn apart by an unseen wind and, with one dying roar, was gone from sight.
Now was my time to strike.
I gripped the great polearm in my hands and focused my dark power through its blades. Tuzakeur was breathing hard, his poisoned yellow blood leaking out all over the stone as he struggled to stand. I didn’t allow him to as I pushed my power into the God Slayer and slammed it down in front of me. The wave of crackling magenta power hit Tuzakeur like a tidal wave and threw him against the far wall again. I lifted my left hand and held him against the wall with a fraction of my power as his struggles ceased. He only kept his glowing scarlet eyes on me.
“The Dark Lord has returned,” the sorcerer whispered through his cracked lips, and the chuckle that came after was tinged with insanity.
“I have,” I growled through my teeth as I held the God Slayer out beside me and stood directly in front of him.
“And you brought some furry friends, how cute,” Tuzakeur snickered as his scarlet eyes swiveled to Rana, and the fox-woman tensed under his gaze as she set her jaw. “Hello, Rana. Spoken to your mother lately?”
“You bastard!” the redhead screamed as she took a few steps forward, but Annalise placed a hand on her shoulder and stopped the fox-woman from moving.
“Where are they?” I questioned as I pressed the largest blade of the God Slayer against his throat, and he snorted with laughter again.
“Do you really think I’d tell you?” he retorted through a smile as more vile blood seeped between his teeth. “Not even the most painful torture could get that information out of this body.”
“Very well, then I will have to use other means to get what I want,” I snarled through a wicked smile.
I pushed into his mind, using the soul sight of the puppet master god to search out for visions of Rana’s family. His memories were shrouded in black and swirling with dark smoke as I drove deeper into his consciousness. I could feel the sorcerer pushing back against me as he tried to stop my descent into his mind, but his attempts to keep me from what I was looking for were futile. I ripped his memories apart and shredded them at the seams as I searched deeper for any sign of Rana’s mother and siblings.
In my mind's eye there were other whispers of the item he attempted to take from the Tichádáma. I saw snippets of Tuzakeur traveling deep into a cavern half-filled with water, and as he trudged through the waist-deep water, he came upon a raised ledge in the rock. On it sat the magnificent skeletal remains of a beast I hadn’t seen in thousands of years. The skull of the long-dead dragon was massive, larger than some of the smaller homes in Kanashimi.
The man was tiny in comparison to the tremendous hulking beast, and he stood in front of it, shrouded in his cloaks made of smoke with his hands raised. The words that slipped from his thin lips were like a prayer, and he climbed up next to the bones and began to rummage through the ivory pieces for something. He turned away from the skeleton, his lips pulled down in angered disappointment as he cursed loudly into the open air. I knew if I searched deeper into his mind his head would simply pop like a grape between two tensed fingers, and I pulled away, enraged that I was unable to find any clue as to where Rana’s family was.
One of the last memories I ripped through made me realize something I began to suspect the moment I saw the strange yellow corpse blood. It was the birth of this man, not the passing from his mother’s womb into life, but instead, looming above me in this memory was Tuzakeur’s face, the real Tuzakeur as he used necromancy to create this clone of himself. He was speaking to his proxy in low, hushed tones, the way a mother would comfort her child, and the second fake sorcerer listened intently. This Tuzakeur in my grasp, the false one, was a piece of flesh carved and enchanted out of the real Tuzakeur. He thought he could trick me so easily, thought he could pass off a fake for the real thing, but I had noticed this proxy was not the real man.
My eyes cleared, and the false Tuzakeur’s pained face came into view where I had left him pinned to the wall. His scarlet eyes were strained behind me toward my minions and the goddess as he fought harder against my hold.
“You may not be here, Tuzakeur, but you’re listening and speaking to me, aren’t you?” I questioned as I tilted my head at the twin.
“Very clever, Dark One, it seems you’ve figured it out,” the clone coughed out. “Would you really think I would go on such a trivial errand myself and risk facing off with you unprepared? I’m no fool.”
“Then it is no matter if I kill this body?” I smiled as I pressed the blades of the polearm deeper into his clone’s throat.
“I would be quite sorry to see it go, but much like your own avatar, this is merely a flesh suit I can place my subconscious in,” the proxy whispered under the hood through a chortle. “But I still came here for a reason, and I would like to succeed before you lay waste to my creation.”
The scarlet eyes of the twin moved, and I glanced over my shoulder as Carmedy slowly helped the goddess into a sitting position. Scarlet blood poured from the wound on the Tichádáma’s chest, her gray eyes were hazy, and I knew that not only her powers were waning with the moon but whatever Tuzakeur had done to her had brought the great goddess to the brink of death. The goddess’s hands came up as she held the claymore out and offered it to Rana. The fox-girl’s blue eyes went wide, and she shook her head as the goddess offered the sword more forcefully this time, her beautiful face pulled down in a pained grimace.
“Only the pure of heart are able to wield the Eye of Alipsis, and I give it to you,” the Tichádáma whispered as blood dribbled from between her lips.
“I-I don’t even know how to hold a sword, let alone how to fight with one,” Rana protested as she placed her paws on the goddess’s hands and pushed the sword away, but the Tichádáma shook her head feverishly.
“When I die, the sword must be passed down to someone or it will disappear from existence,” the Dáma murmured through labored breath. “I did not choose you as my successor, the sacred item did.”
“D-did you say s-sacred item?” the redhead asked in a hurry as she stared down at the glowing sword the goddess offered.
Before our eyes, a light glowed around the sword as it transformed. It shrunk and became a glowing, moving pool of molten metal as it reshaped itself in the air. The newly formed necklace dropped, and the goddess caught it in her shaking, outstretched palm. Once more, she offered the necklace to Rana, and the fox tentatively reached out a paw to take it from the dying Dáma. The pendant at the end of the chain was the same sapphire as the stone at the end of the goddess’s sword, and the metal that held the stone in place was sculpted into the shapes of vines and leaves.
“One of the sacred items, also known as the Holy Sword, the Eye of Alipsis. It has multiple uses … ” the Dáma breathed out as Carmedy allowed the goddess to lean back on her in the goddess’s last dying moments. “Hold the stone aloft and look for it when you are searching for items, and it will show you the w-way… When you wish to produce the sword, s-simply think of i-it and place your h-hand over your c-chest, the sword will do t-the r-r-r…”
“Rest now, your godliness,” the feline whispered as tears appeared in her large emerald eyes. “You don’t have to speak anymore.”
“No!” Tuzakeur screamed in rage as the Dáma’s pale hands reached out and placed the necklace around Rana’s neck. The goddess’s fingers trembled as she tenderly stroked the fox-woman’s cheek. “The Eye of Alipsis
is mine!”
“I’ve grown tired of your incessant babbling, come back in your true form and then you can challenge me,” I growled as I thrust the God Slayer into his skull.
The point of the blade pierced through his right eye and then exploded out the back of his skull. The destroyed eye dripped blood and ooze down his sunken cheek, so I pushed all of my dark power and strength into the weapon. It shook with my power, and the clone’s skull cracked as the weapon ripped through the bones in his face. Stinking blood and grey matter erupted upward and stained the stone as the clone’s head exploded like a squashed cherry tomato. The proxy’s headless body wobbled on unsteady legs and fell sideways to the ground unceremoniously. I stepped away from it and wiped the blood from my face as I made my way to rejoin my minions.
We were silent as we surrounded the Tichádáma, and I watched with a twinge of sorrow, sad that I could not fulfill Haruhi’s wish the goddess would die a peaceful and worthy death. I knelt beside her, and Annalise produced the severed hand from her pack and offered it to me. I held the greying limb in my gloved hands and stared down at it. At this moment, it seemed almost pointless to offer it to her. She had asked for it when she was alive and well and now, as it was plain to see, her power and life were drained from her.
The Dáma swallowed thickly as her darkening eyes swiveled to me, but then they rested upon the hand I held out to her. The laugh that bubbled up from her throat was thick and wet, but still, a small smile spread across her lips as she reached out and grabbed the sigil ring between her fingers. Once the ring was in her possession, I tossed the severed hand aside and turned all of my attention towards the Tichádáma. Despite Carmedy’s protests, the goddess struggled up into a sitting position and examined the ring with loving eyes.
“I didn’t want to speak it earlier, but I know you,” the Tichádáma panted as she wiped at the blood at the corners of her lips. “I recognized your face. You were once a boy I liked to watch play in the gardens of the heavens. You are the son of Chirus, aren’t you?”