Apprentice

by Nicholas Hale

  Lorian suddenly felt something swelling inside him. His inner magical well. But he hadn't cast anything, so how could he have retained anything—

  "Master, get away! Now!" yelled Lorian, pushing Gawain away.

  He suddenly felt the last remnants of the Lumen that Mog'rath had hidden inside his magical well. He hadn't been able to test that power with much more than elemental fire, but he had known that it was capable of holding more than just elemental magic.

  He never thought it could be used to retain the Lumen.

  Even before Gawain could react, Lorian's hand exploded. The claw. He had seen it only once before when he had first attacked Auros. It shot out of his hand and wrapped its long fingers around Gawain's body. It was too late for Gawain to react.

  Lorian watched helplessly as the hand tightened. Gawain's Lumenar shields shattered with the force of the grip. He saw blood spurt out from Gawain's mouth and his bones crack as Mog'rath crushed the life out of Gawain.

  The claw, having extracted its revenge on Gawain, disappeared. A large golden spear struck Lorian in the side of his stomach. It pierced through him, sending him flying away from Gawain.

  Rhaen. She caught Gawain just before the mage went into free fall. The golden armor had disappeared, and Lorian could see the frail old man coughing up blood.

  "Mog'rath, what have you done..." asked Lorian as he felt blood pour out from his side.

  "What have I done..."

  Chapter 56

  What had that little shit done! Rhaen was cursing Lorian as she held Master Gawain.

  "Master! Can you hear me?"

  "The...boy. Lorian..."

  Gawain coughed up more blood as Rhaen supported him. She was almost at the end of her magical ability. It was all she could do to maintain flight. Even attempting a simple healing spell would drain her completely letting her fall.

  She would have to wait for at least an hour.

  Meanwhile, flying was the only thing she would be able to do. She silently cursed the dragon. She had exhausted almost every offensive spell she knew against the blasted thing and it was still alive...undead.

  She had been at Norvind while Naxannor was laying waste to Ryga. She shared the same hatred towards all things demonic that any Rygan did, but she was glad when the two smaller demons appeared and fought against the dragon. It had given her time to recuperate and join in the offense.

  She could feel the hungry gaze of the demons upon her, but they were single-minded in their pursuit of the dragon.

  And Irith'arcana stood against all three of them.

  The demons had completely devoured one of its skeletal wings, its tail and its lower jaw, yet the dragon kept fighting. And she was gladder still when she saw the larger demon rip off Amadeus's arm. She still didn't know where they had suddenly appeared from, but she was guessing they were probably from Amadeus's castle. She would have guessed that they were former minions that grasped an opportunity to turn on their master.

  Until the larger one turned the entire plane upside down.

  Rhaen couldn't believe what she was seeing. For a moment it appeared as if the demon was the one that turned upside down, but as she felt herself falling into the sky head first, she knew that to be wrong. Everything else had.

  And then suddenly she saw the demon disappear and Lorian take its place. Her relief at seeing him had driven away all thoughts and suspicions...for now.

  Until she saw the claw come out and crush Master Gawain. She reacted out of pure instinct. She had to somehow get Lorian away from Master Gawain, and she used the last offensive spell she had.

  "We need to get out of here. This entire plane is collapsing," said Rhaen.

  "It isn't his fault," said Gawain's weak voice. "You need to find him."

  Not his fault my foot, thought Rhaen.

  It was destroying her to see Master Gawain in such a vulnerable state. He had numerous wounds on his body from his battle with Amadeus.

  She heard loud rumbling as she saw two of the towers break away from the castle above her and start falling down. These were the largest ones. She flew toward a safe spot, narrowly avoiding a large railing. Attached to it were several undead warriors.

  If it were up to her, she would have left Lorian in this hellhole of a plane and made for the nearest escape, but Master Gawain's words had been clear. It wasn't his fault. Whatever the explanation, it would never be enough for her to forgive him, but for now, she decided to obey her master.

  "Lorian!" she yelled.

  She continued flying toward the large slabs of concrete that had accumulated at the bottom. Flying towards the sky below her was a strange sensation. She wondered how much further down she would have to go, but she found her answer when she saw a ground of sorts.

  All the debris from above them had settled to form a ground of sorts. Now that she thought about it, it seemed the most logical answer. Even created worlds needed some consistency. If this plane was Amadeus's creation, his mind would have forced itself to correct the inversion that demon had caused, creating a ground.

  More debris was raining down as she landed on the floor. She had to find him quickly. The debris was bringing along with it more undead. Most of them were being destroyed as the stones crashed into each other, but some of them were surviving.

  Where the hell was he?

  She walked along the debris filled floor and started searching. She was still looking around when she heard a small cackling noise next to her.

  "Looks like we do get something out of this trip after all."

  She turned around in a quick motion and saw them. Their large bat-like faces were unmistakable.

  And the stench! It was unbearable as they walked towards her. One of them leaned forward to smell her. She instinctively recoiled, wanting to slap away the face, but she reconsidered looking at the razor-sharp teeth. These demons were incredibly fast. She had seen it when they fought Irith'arcana.

  "What do you want?" she asked, if for nothing else, to buy time. Master Gawain was unconscious and she was completely drained of magical power. She considered trying to fly away, but she doubted her speed of flight could match the demon's wings. Even if she didn't have Gawain's extra weight to bear.

  "Do you remember our last time on a mortal plane?" asked the same demon ignoring her question.

  "Honestly, I don't. I hunger as you do, but we need to find Mog'rath."

  "Fuck Mog'rath," spat the first demon.

  The second demon visibly winced at this while the first one continued speaking.

  "Are you blind? Did you not see how weakened he was? And he had the gall to summon us here!"

  "We are his thralls."

  "Were his thralls!" roared the first one. "Have you forgotten that the Sitri serve Malfas now? And have you, of all his minions, forgotten what Mog'rath has done?"

  "I haven't, but if Mog'rath can still summon us..."

  "I don't see the rest of the Sitri here. And you heard him say it. His own words. 'I do not have the power to summon them.'"

  "And yet you fell to your knees the moment he summoned us..."

  "Because I had no way of knowing how weak he was!"

  "Weak? Did you see what he did to this world?"

  Rhaen hoped they would continue arguing. She thought of making a break for it, but decided against it. The first one was really keen on making a meal out of her, and making any sudden movements was the worst thing she could do. This was a bad situation she was in. She needed to somehow find a way out of this predicament.

  *

  "Get up, you! Get up!"

  "Ouch!" yelled Lorian as he felt a shock spread through his body. He opened his eyes and saw a hamster sitting on his chest.

  "How did you even find me?" he asked, groaning. His body still hurt.

  "Your smell," replied Orcus. "You still bear some of the stench from your transformation."

  The transformation. Damned Mog'rath. He hoped Master Gawain was fine. And Rhaen. Rhaen had struck him with a Lu
menar lance. He put his hand to the side of his stomach and felt a small scab.

  "You were bleeding out from there. I cauterized the wound for you. With the very lightning spell you ridiculed, by the way. It would seem you owe it your life."

  Lorian raised an eyebrow. It seemed the oracle was quite resourceful even in the body of a hamster. He sat up and looked around as Orcus scrabbled onto his shoulder. He was sitting on some kind of ground. This appeared to the bottom of the world. Strangely, this had been the sky of now upside-down world.

  "What exactly happened there?" asked Orcus.

  Lorian knew what Orcus was referring to.

  "Consuming the Lumen seems to have given Mog'rath enough power to take control of my body. Master Gawain, somehow, released the Lumenar energy that Mog'rath was using. Or at least that's what I think happened."

  "This doesn't trouble you then?" asked the hamster.

  Lorian was asking himself the same question. Mog'rath had essentially taken control of his body, trapping him inside. Yet he felt a strange sense of safety while inside the demon. He didn't know if it was because their essences were bound together now.

  "A little."

  He had been out of control ever since he had entered this plane. A weak and helpless victim. First the godling had tried to consume him. Then, it had been Amadeus's minions. He had been put into an arena as an experiment and a plaything.

  And he finally been used as bait by Amadeus himself. That had been the worst. The essence drain. He had lost most of his essence, had been cut off from magic altogether and had been on the brink of death just a few hours ago.

  Then Mog'rath had changed it all. He was now alive and well.

  And it didn't end there. Lorian looked up and saw the vast floor of the world above him. The castle was still attached, but parts of it were crumbling and falling down.

  Mog'rath had done this.

  He remembered the fight with Amadeus. The arch-demon had taken spell after spell from one of the most powerful mages to have ever walked the mortal plane. He had ripped out the man's arm. And then he remembered the crack of the breaking world. It sent a shiver through his body as he remembered how loud it was.

  Mog'rath had destroyed a world. He, Lorian, had destroyed a world and exacted vengeance on all the beings responsible for both his and Mog'rath's suffering.

  True, he had ended up hurting Master Gawain in the process. But he knew Gawain was alive. The claw didn't disappear because Rhaen had struck him with the lance. It disappeared because Lorian had willed it. As much as the demon wanted to do it, Lorian knew that it would only have happened if the both of them willed it.

  "Just a little," said Lorian again.

  "The humans who came here to this plane. They are here to save you?"

  "Yes," said Lorian, wondering where Rhaen and Master Gawain were.

  "So... we can't leave without them?"

  "Most definitely not," said Lorian sternly.

  "Then there's something you should know..."

  *

  "They would recognize his essence, even in his human form!" roared one demon.

  "You're going to get us killed," hissed the other.

  "Coward!"

  "You overreach. Your 'plan' serves no practical purpose. Even if we could kill Mog'rath in his human form—"

  "We will!"

  "—what use would Malfas have for the carcass of a demon he already thought deceased?"

  "It would elevate us in his eyes!"

  "Fool! Malfas cares nothing for us. Even if we are Sitri, we are lesser Azhurai."

  "Think about it! Malfas is the last of the covenant!"

  "The last of the covenant? Malfas is a pretender who seeks to twist the weight of the covenant's name to his own ends! He was never one of the covenant. His petty campaign of revenge against Marichogu is all he cares about!"

  "Short-sighted fool! The bulk of the Sitri hold out against him because they don't see a leader worthy of commanding them. They believe Mog'rath will return. If Malfas were to produce Mog'rath's head—even in its misshapen human form, they would recognize it and kneel in front of him! With the Sitri standing against him, Marichogu would have little choice but to stop the war and join Malfas! The covenant would be reborn!"

  "You are deluded! The Sitri would never bow to Malfas! They would sooner disband!"

  Rhaen didn't understand a single word, but was silently thanking the fates for every second that the two demons argued. The noisy louder demon that wanted to eat her was now more focused on convincing the other that they should hunt down and kill this Mog'rath.

  It had given her enough time to recuperate some energy. Master Gawain was still unconscious, but she could feel him regenerating his strength as well. Lorian's attack, thankfully, hadn't been fatal. He did suffer some internal injuries, but he was out of danger for now and was regenerating his magical energy as well.

  The two demons in front of them were formidable opponents, but they didn't need to defeat them. Only disable them temporarily while they made their escape. The demon's destruction of the plane had opened several scars into the simulacrum. They could pass through any of them and they would be in Castle Norvind once again. Hopefully the two demons would remain in simulacrum until their summoning was dismissed.

  *

  "Are you sure about this?" asked Lorian.

  "You said you have two good spells, right?" asked Orcus in return.

  Lorian nodded.

  "Battling them is not really an option then," said Orcus.

  Lorian walked as quietly as he could. The stone debris had assembled in this region to form a floor of sorts. And lying in the center of that debris was Irith'arcana.

  "He looks dead to me..."

  "He's a she. And Irith'arcana doesn't die as long as the master lives. The only way to destroy her is to destroy the master himself."

  "And the master is still alive?"

  "Very much so. His essence is very intricately tied to the plane. Several times in the past, when the master, out of desperation, wished to leave the plane, he ended up nearly killing himself while unraveling his own essence from the simulacrum. To prevent it from happening again, he placed several wards of protection in his own mind and on the plane. Mog'rath managed to destroy most of the essence links to the plane, so the master has gone into a sort of stasis. He will remain that way until the damage to his own essence and mind are healed."

  "How long does this stasis last?"

  "The last time it happened, it lasted a few years."

  Lorian let out a whistle. Judging from the extent of damage to the plane, Amadeus would be asleep for at least a hundred years.

  The sounds of breathing grew louder as Lorian approached. The dragon was covered in a black fluid that resembled Amadeus's shroud. The liquid was flowing all over the skeletal dragon healing its wounds and reconstructing broken bones. Lorian couldn't help but admire the dragon's incredible powers of regeneration.

  "Are you sure it won't eat me?"

  "Trust me. Irith'arcana is the master's finest experiment. Despite undeath, she retains much of herself since her days of life. Given no commands from the master, the moment she sees the two demons, she'll forget all about you."

  They were standing right in front of the dragon's maw now. Lorian felt his skin burn as the breathing of the dragon released specks of black breath that struck him. He raised his hand and counted mentally in his mind. He would need just one good strike. Three, two, one...

  *

  "Stand aside if you wish to! But do not attempt to stop me!"

  Rhaen shivered as she heard the roar. The dragon. It was still alive.

  The two demons heard it as well because they stopped arguing and fell silent. They immediately crouched into attacking positions. There was a louder roar this time, and it was accompanied by earth-shaking stomping. Rhaen turned in the direction they were coming from, as did the two demons.

  A large pile of debris burst apart, revealing the dragon, once again t
heir foe. The moment it appeared, it released its black breath, enveloping the floor. Its target had been the two demons, but the span of the breath was large enough to even put her in danger. Rhaen leapt to the side avoiding the breath. She pulled Gawain behind a rock as another stream of black breath poured out. She felt the rock she was leaning against heat up. Black corruption was creeping over it and towards her. Rhaen slid away from it and dragged Gawain with her.

  This wasn't necessarily a bad situation, she thought frantically. It might be just the break she needed. She knew nothing of undead dragons, but at least for living ones, demonic creatures were an anathema. Some dragons had even joined in the war against Naxannor as he made his last stand at Azanar. She could hear the snarls of the demons as they engaged their opponent.

  She froze with fear when she felt a hand on her back.

  "It's me," said Lorian, sidling up next to her.

  "Where the hell were you?" she hissed.

  The boy seemed well enough, and it was all she could do to not reach out and strangle him after what he had done to Master Gawain.

  "I was arranging for that little distraction."

  So, the dragon was his doing.

  "We need to get out of here...now," he continued.

  Master Gawain had said that it wasn't his fault, but she was wondering if she could really trust him. It wasn't him as much as the transformation he underwent.

  By now, she knew that the demon that had fought Amadeus and Lorian were both the same. She knew very little about the conditions under which they happened to share the same body.

  Was this even Lorian she was talking to? Or was it this Mog'rath in his guise? She would have liked more information to base her decisions on, but as she heard another roar, she decided that he was right. They had to get out of here first.

  Trusting Lorian was the better of the two options. The other was to wait here until they got caught between the two demons and the dragon.

  "We should be able to make a break for that scar," said Rhaen, pointing to a red scar a short distance off in the sky.