Apprentice

by Nicholas Hale

  One of the smaller terraces was completely vacant. It was the one that Lorian had been looking for—the terrace where he had been imprisoned. And tortured.

  He landed right in the middle of the runic circle and saw that the devices were still whirring, although they were stationary. His mouth began salivating almost uncontrollably the moment his feet hit the circle. He could feel the heart in his chest pounding, and his legs go weak. He wasn't sure what these changes meant, but he tried not to look at the godling, which only seemed to worsen the feeling.

  "If you're going to do what I think you're going to do..."

  "You think it's stupid. I know. Now shut up," said Lorian softly, looking around for the chains.

  He finally found the chain that Rhaen had cut. He could feel a sense of dread overcome him as he reached for the chain. Even this close to death, the godling was undoubtedly powerful and would try to consume him once again.

  But he knew this time would be different. The demonic essence trapped inside his body hungered. He could feel it every time his eyes fell upon the godling.

  The moment he held the chain, his fingers were pulled around it so tightly that he could feel them being crushed.

  He threw his head back and yelled, but what came out in the place of his voice was a guttural roar. He could feel the movement of the essences inside the chain, but this time it was the other way around.

  The sensation was very similar to the first time he had connected with the Lumen, only much, much stronger. His eyes rolled back into his head as the intensity of his roar increased.

  Lorian heard the chain hit the floor and opened his eyes. Something was wrong. He was seeing out of his own eyes, yet it felt as if he was inside another person's body. The godling was lying in front of him, withered to bone, yet he strangely felt empty of all the Lumenar energy he had drawn. He lifted his hand and looked at it.

  A claw. His hand had been replaced by a brown claw. This wasn't the ethereal claw that his hand had transformed to when he was battling Auros. This was real flesh. Laughter escaped his mouth.

  "Five thousand years..." he heard himself saying, still laughing.

  Something was very wrong.

  It was as if Lorian was a prisoner inside his own body. He was able to hear, see and feel with it, but it felt as if he had absolutely no control over his own body.

  In his peripheral vision, he could see that his entire body had transformed. He was hunched and his body had grown to at least thrice its original size, ripping through his clothes in the process. He could feel the large, black leathery wings flapping on his back.

  Somehow, all the Lumenar energy he had consumed had released Mog'rath.

  "I sense your surprise, human. But fear not, we still share this body, so I wouldn't do anything to willingly harm it. If you can stop thinking for a few moments, I need to summon my minions. I owe our captor a debt of severe pain."

  Before Lorian could respond, the creature raised both its hands, forming a sphere in front of it. It began casting in a language Lorian could not understand. Some of the words contained sounds that he was sure could not even be pronounced by a human tongue.

  Two large slits appeared in the space to either side of the demon. They slowly separated to reveal two smaller demons that looked a lot like the Azhurai.

  Mog'rath snorted derisively in response to Lorian's thoughts.

  "Lesser Azhurai. Do not compare them to me."

  The two demons stepped out of the slits, completely materializing in this plane, moments before the slits disappeared.

  "Well, well. The twins of Gimlun. I did not expect you to heed my summons so easily," said Mog'rath in a mocking tone.

  Both the lesser Azhurai shifted uncomfortably at this. Lorian could see it in their eyes. Despite their menacing appearance, they were truly afraid of Mog'rath.

  "I heard you began serving another, after my demise."

  "Mighty Mog'rath! I kneel before you. You must believe me, I—"

  The talking abruptly stopped as Mog'rath reached out and wrapped his claw around the smaller demon's throat, lifting it off the ground.

  "I need not your groveling, miserable worm. Even though you are Sitri, you flatter yourself if you think I ever expected any more from you."

  Mog'rath turned his head to look at the second demon while the first one still struggled.

  "See how your twin stands there silently, awaiting my command. That's all I need from you. Your complete obedience."

  The claw loosened, and the lesser Azhurai fell down gasping for breath. It quickly gathered itself and stood next to the other.

  After a moment of silence, the second demon spoke.

  "Will the rest of the Sitri be joining us, Master?"

  "I do not yet have the power to summon them. Even keeping the two of you here is more than I can handle, so make your time here useful."

  "We await your command, Master," said the second demon, bowing its head in deference.

  Mog'rath walked to the edge of the tower and raised a claw towards the sky, pointing.

  "The dragon," said Mog'rath, pointing one long nail towards the skeletal dragon that Rhaen was battling.

  Without a word, the lesser Azhurai took flight toward the dragon. Looking at their size, it seemed a lesser Azhurai would fit in the massive dragon's maw if opened wide.

  "They fear me—and for good reason. But do not mistake that fear for weakness. They are Sitri. They are more than capable of the task."

  Lorian was a little surprised at how quickly the two demons had obeyed the commands. They weren't even completely aware of what was happening here, or where 'here' even was.

  "It's not their place to question. They are used to millennia of serving in such battles, simply as extensions of the will of their betters."

  Mog'rath spread his wings and leapt off the tower, flying toward the magical storm. Lorian could see that the two lesser Azhurai had already engaged the dragon. Rhaen appeared to be surprised, but she was still casting her spells against the dragon.

  The two demons, true to Mog'rath's word, were well suited to the task. One was flying around the dragon's open mouth launching demonic magic at it. The other was latched onto the skeletal wing of the dragon, tearing it apart with its teeth and claws.

  Lorian lost sight of the lesser Azhurai as Mog'rath burst through the clouds. Lorian felt magic of the Lumen against Mog'rath's skin. The cloud was comprised of tiny golden particles that formed the residue of Lumenar magic. Tiny sparks of black lightning and black dust floated around in between the golden clouds.

  A shadow was visible in the distance.

  Mog'rath started moving faster and pulled back his wings just before he reached the shadow and brought them together in a single, violent stroke.

  The force from the wings created a gale that cleared out all the dust around the shadow, revealing Amadeus.

  The mage was genuinely surprised to see Mog'rath, and it showed on his face. At that distance, the demon towered over the human. Lorian could feel his own mouth stretch into a grin involuntarily as the demon smiled at its captor and torturer.

  The surprised mage regained his composure and began casting. Lorian thought its arm would break at the speed Mog'rath moved. In an instant, the demon had one claw wrapped around the mage's chest, and the second around his arm.

  Fangs bared, it lunged at Amadeus's head. For a second, it looked as if the demon would succeed in ripping off Amadeus's head, but instead Lorian felt as if someone had hit his face with a large war hammer.

  Although Lorian felt the instinctive need to recoil, the demon, completely ignoring the pain was still trying to force its way through the black defensive shroud. Amadeus continued casting with his free hand under the protection of his shroud.

  Lorian tried to scream as a globe of black energy formed between them. Even trapped inside the demon's body, Lorian was still able to assess magical power. The globe had enough compressed energy to rip the demon to shreds. Despite Lorian trying
to scream and wrest back control of the body that they shared, the demon relentlessly pushed towards Amadeus's head.

  Lorian tried bracing himself for the explosion, but there was nothing he could do—even his eyes were not under his control. The globe exploded, blinding Lorian. He felt the dark energy spread over the torso of the demon's body and burn. The demon roared against the pain.

  When vision returned a few moments later, he saw Amadeus standing a few feet away. His arm was missing. Lorian tried to look from the corner of his eye and he could see that the demon was holding the arm in its claw, dripping blood.

  Mog'rath raised the torn arm over its head, and let the blood drip into its mouth.

  "Food, human. For all the power you possess, you are nothing more than sustenance to my kind."

  Lorian could feel waves of fear-inducing magic emanating from his body. He had heard of this kind of magic before. Several creatures, even on the mortal plane could use it. An aura that would magnify even the slightest trace of fear and doubt into sheer terror and dejection.

  Looking at Amadeus, though, Lorian knew the man did not feel it. The only defense against such spells was to curb the traces of fear completely. They were ineffectual if you didn't feel any fear at all. Despite losing an arm, Amadeus was staring at the demon coldly. His black shroud was already trying to cover the mangled stub attached to hit shoulder.

  Mog'rath lunged at the crippled mage, fangs bared. The mage disappeared and before Lorian could even notice that he vanished, his entire body began burning.

  The demon was enveloped in a column of black light.

  Lorian could feel the pressure increasing. They were trapped in a spell that was pushing them downward with increasing force. The pressure on the skin was enough to tell him that an ordinary human would have been crushed into the ground below them if they hadn't been incinerated due to the heat first. Lorian screamed as he heard the cracking of the demon's bones.

  "Steel yourself, whelp!" said the demon, addressing Lorian.

  The feeling of panic that Lorian felt was enough to somehow make him regain control of his limbs partially.

  "No! You will not!" roared the demon.

  The roar had deafened Lorian completely. The control was gone as quickly as it had returned. The demon turned around, facing the source of the black column of magic. Amadeus was right above them, facing downward, hand held out releasing the spell that was destroying them.

  Parts of Mog'rath's body were stripped bare of flesh. And then, incredibly, the demon began laughing.

  "To think that one such as you had me imprisoned for seven hundred years!"

  The demon stretched out one hand and struck aside the column of blackness in a single blow. The stream of blackness was redirected away to the side.

  "Impressive, demon. But we both know how weak you are right now. You are tethered to your former powers, but sharing a body with the boy has weakened your connection to them. Where are the hordes that should follow in the wake of your rebirth? You have summoned but two lesser demons to aid you."

  Lorian could feel the demon's rage as it heard Amadeus's voice. So it seemed Mog'rath did have an ulterior motive in convincing Lorian to share his body. Ignoring its wounds and the lingering black fire on its body, the demon once again rushed to meet Amadeus. Only to be struck down again. Half of its face had been seared off with a jet of black lightning.

  "Weaker than my former self? Undoubtedly. But you are a fool if you think me weaker than you," said Mog'rath.

  Amadeus continued firing more spells at the demon, but in spite of suffering unimaginable wounds, the demon's tenacity didn't waver.

  "You, the former commander of the Sitri, should know the limits of borrowed power," said Amadeus. "The Lumenar energy you have consumed will not last you long enough to defeat me."

  The demon laughed once again as it made an effort to strike Amadeus.

  They seemed at an impasse. Mog'rath was physically strong, fast and incredibly durable, but Amadeus was still able to keep up with it, while firing spells from a distance—spells that more than made up for his physical frailty when compared to arch-demon.

  "You are right. Much of my true power still lies beyond my reach. But in all your wisdom, you forget one thing, mage."

  Amadeus released a necromantic lance aimed at the demon's head. Mog'rath raised its wounded hand and caught it inches from its face. Black corruption oozed from the lance covering the demon's claw, spreading onto its body.

  Casually tossing aside the lance and ignoring the spreading corruption on its body, the arch-demon spoke.

  "This body that I inhabit now is my weakness. But it is also the greatest weapon I have against you."

  Amadeus had a look of surprise on his face.

  "You do not yet see it? The boy, fool! You have built this plane from your own essences, binding it to the simulacrum. When you let him in, you knew that he would be bound to it as well. It was the only way you could capture him."

  Amadeus's look of surprise turned into horror. It was the first time Lorian had seen anything akin to fear in the man's face. Although Lorian was nowhere near as knowledgeable or powerful as the demon or the mage, even he could see where the demon was heading.

  "To manipulate this kind of magic requires abilities beyond the grasp of ordinary humans. The boy is a prodigy among your kind, but it would take him a thousand years to unravel the mysteries of the links that bind him to this plane. Therefore, you thought nothing of binding him to your plane. To one such as me, however..."

  Lorian could feel strange vibrations through his body as the demon finished with a playful yet ominous tone.

  "Let me show you…"

  The vibrations increased and Lorian began hearing loud rumbling noises. They didn't seem to have a source or a center. It seemed they were emanating from everywhere. Lorian felt nauseous.

  And then came the deafening crack.

  Mog'rath's roar had been loud and menacing. The dragon's roar even louder. Lorian knew he would witness many more magnificent things if he ever got out of this alive, but he knew at that very moment, that he would never hear a sound like this again.

  It made Lorian want to crawl into a corner and cower. He wished to forget that sound. He knew it would give him nightmares.

  The sound of a world breaking.

  For a moment, Lorian felt that something was wrong. He saw Gawain standing a short distance away. His master had been a silent observer since Mog'rath had entered the battle.

  It wasn't that the mage appeared to be made entirely out of gold. It was that he was upside down.

  It took him a few more moments to realize, but he understood as Mog'rath began laughing maniacally.

  The demon had literally turned this entire world upside down.

  Chaos. The word was meant to describe situations exactly like this one thought Lorian. He heard more rumbling sounds and looked up to see the towers above him.

  All of Amadeus's vast armies were falling.

  One of the towers completely broke away from the floor and it too began hurtling towards the sky, bringing with it a rain of debris. Other parts of the castle were following suit.

  He heard the dragon roar again. The massive creature did not have the time to pivot and maintain balance, as its opponents had. And it appeared to be missing an entire wing. While they had been almost evenly matched before the turn of events, it appeared that Mog'rath's minions had the upper hand now. The lesser twin demons were ravaging the skeletal dragon, completely oblivious of the shift in gravity. Either that, or they were far too used to fighting under such conditions.

  Through all of this, Mog'rath continued to laugh. Amadeus was clutching his head screaming and looked to be in agony. The ties between him and this plane had been too deep, and the distortion seemed to have affected him very adversely.

  Avoiding massive chunks of stone debris from the falling towers, Mog'rath began flying toward the struggling mage. Lorian could feel the demon's murderous intent. I
mages of torture flashed across his mind.

  The demon would pay Amadeus back for every single indignity it had suffered as his prisoner.

  Suddenly, Lorian felt a strange warmth across his back. In an instant, he felt has if he was being pulled out of the demon's body. Tiny golden globes appeared all around the demon. All of them exploded in a single instant into a brilliant flash of gold, blinding both the demon and Lorian.

  "Insolent mortal fool!" roared Mog'rath.

  "You will give back what you stole..." came a calm voice.

  Even blinded, Mog'rath still had his sense of smell. Lorian could feel the demon hunting for Gawain. He felt claw connect flesh and hoped that Gawain wasn't wounded. Apparently, the loss of sight meant very little to the demon.

  "You can still walk away from here, human! He is your enemy as well!"

  Lorian felt sensation returning to his limbs. Somehow Gawain was undoing Mog'rath's work. Lorian suspected that Gawain was releasing the Lumenar energy that Mog'rath had consumed.

  "I know not how you control Lorian's body, but it ends now."

  At this point, Lorian could partially move his limbs and his head. He could feel the demonic features receding back into his body. The effects of Amadeus's spells, however, remained. Pain followed the sensation of regaining control.

  "Stop, Master! Please!"

  It was unbearable. His left leg was just bone stripped of flesh. His entire torso was on fire.

  "You want your trifling piece of dead god back? So be it!" yelled Mog'rath.

  In a single flash, Mog'rath completely emptied their shared body of the Lumen. It felt much like waking up.

  "Are you all right, child?" asked Gawain, floating toward Lorian.

  "I think so..." said Lorian, looking at his own wounds. Parts of his body were stripped off flesh, and he ached everywhere.

  He looked at the Lumen dissipating around them and felt Gawain's touch on his body. He was still covered in a layer of gold, but even through it, Lorian could see the wounds.

  The battle with Amadeus had taken its toll on Gawain. He looked close to fainting. There was still something strange about him. Looking at him made Lorian uneasy. He had the same sensation before Mog'rath had taken over his body while he was with the godling. Perhaps this was how he would feel if he were close to the Lumen.