by Dante King
I turned to see her with Nabu’s foot in her hands. She pried a ring from one of his toes and grinned.
“The putrid old man’s fingers were too fat to wear it on his hand.” Elyse lifted up a large ring, set with a gleaming red ruby. She slipped it onto her finger before she picked up her mace and walked to the cathedral’s center. Moonlight shining through the stained glass bathed her in a myriad of colors.
“I call on the power of the Lord of Light!” she cried. “Shower me in your warmth, fill my mind with illumination, and protect me with your brightness!”
As it had with Nabu, the moonlight turned from silvery blue to dazzling gold, and I watched, spellbound, as Elyse herself was transformed. Unlike Nabu, she didn’t turn into a towering warrior. She remained the same physically, but magnificent golden armor materialized, covering her body, and her flanged mace also turned gold and grew larger, into a two-handed weapon.
“Armor suits you,” I said. “Can that mace do what Nabu’s warhammer did?”
“If I’m able to draw on the power of natural light, I can channel and focus it, as Nabu did, into holy fire,” she explained.
She aimed her mace at a pew and blasted out a river of white flame that turned the heavy oaken bench to ashes in seconds. The fire wasn’t quite as intense as the one Nabu had used, but it was impressive.
“Nice! But do you have to be standing in a source of light?”
She walked out of the beam of light, and instantly, her golden armor disappeared and her mace shrank back to its normal size.
“Unfortunately, I do, yes,” she replied. “Nabu’s mastery over the magic was far more advanced.”
“Perhaps augmented by his devotion to the Blood God,” Rami suggested.
Elyse shuddered. “Perhaps. Something I will never stoop to. I serve the Lord of Light, and him alone. Nevertheless, with this bishop’s ring, my other powers will be enhanced. Witness this.”
Her fingers began to glow, but instead of the usual golden rope, golden chains now cascaded out of her hands one link at a time until they snaked through the air like hungry serpents. They coiled their ends around a life-sized marble statue of Nabu on the other side of the cathedral. With a snarl and a jerk of her hands, Elyse ripped the statue off its base and flung it. It hurtled through the air and hit the floor with a boom, shattering into a mess of marble chunks.
“Handy,” I said with an appreciative nod, “very handy.”
“The cleric should consider serving the Blood God.” Rami smiled conspiratorially as she gestured at Elyse’s cleric robes, spattered liberally with the blood of Nabu and his followers.
“I guess I was a little overcome when I was, um, taking my vengeance.”
“The whole ‘covered in the blood, brains, and skull fragments of my enemy’ thing probably isn’t the best look for a bishop,” I said. “For a northern barbarian, sure, but for a cleric in the service of the Lord of Light? Not so much.”
“I’ll have to find something else to wear,” she muttered. “I don’t think this mess is going to wash out very easily. I’m sure there are plenty of robes in Nabu’s chambers, though. Let’s go have a look.”
“Shouldn’t we be worried about more guards?” I asked.
“No. Not now that I wear the bishop’s ring. There might still be some who are loyal to Nabu, but the strongest among them are now corpses.” She gestured at the bodies lying in the cathedral.
“Got it.” I turned to Rami. “You coming?”
“I’ll just sit here a while,” she answered. “I need to do some thinking.”
I nodded. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
Elyse and I went behind the altar to the sacristy before we crossed into a side corridor. Elyse pushed open the door, and we entered a rectangular chamber that stank of incense. A collection of ceremonial robes hung from an open wardrobe, and a large, ornately carved desk was decorated with icons of the Lord of Light, chalices, and scrolls. Leather-bound tomes sat within a dusty bookcase, and it looked like none of them had been pulled out for years. Anyone who walked into this room would suspect that Nabu was nothing but a regular bishop.
Elyse went to a door at the back of the room and tried to turn the doorknob but found that it was locked.
“I’ll go back and search Nabu’s corpse,” she said. “The key’s probably in one of his pockets.”
“No need to waste time doing that.” I stepped up to the door. “We’ve already smashed so much stuff in this cathedral that a broken door isn’t going to make much of a difference.”
“I wouldn’t want to give the people more work to—”
I booted the door with a powerful frontal kick. With a sharp snap, the lock ripped out of the frame, and the door swung open.
“Ugh,” I gasped, and stumbled back as a wave of foul-smelling air hit me. “Smells like a troll’s ass in there!”
“By the Lord of Light!” Elyse lifted her hand to her nose.
I had a feeling we weren’t going to like what we’d find in the room, but morbid curiosity urged me on.
“Let’s see where this stench is coming from,” I said grimly, holding my breath as I stepped into the gloomy chamber.
Chapter Seventeen
At the back of the room was an altar covered in a thick coating of black, congealed blood and rotting bits of gore. A curved dagger rested on top of the altar, and a discarded white dress of some sort, splattered with blood, lay on the floor.
“I guess this is where Nabu used to make his sacrifices to the Blood God,” I muttered.
Elyse nodded, pinching her nose and staring around her in horror. “Worshipping the Lord of Light in the open while making sacrifices to the Blood God in secret. No more evil deeds will take place in here. And we’ll make sure those poor girls get decent burials.”
“We will. In the meantime though, you need to change your clothes, and I think one of these will suit you nicely.”
I walked to a rack with more white dresses like the bloodstained one lying on the floor, but these were clean and unused.
“I’m not wearing that!” Elyse objected.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s what that monster made his sacrificial victims wear before he cut out their hearts!”
“Exactly. What better garment to remind you of the injustices you’re fighting against and keep that fire in your heart burning?”
Elyse stared at the white dresses, considering my point. “I’m not sure I agree.”
“You’d be honoring the memory of the girls. You’d be saying a permanent ‘fuck you’ to Nabu and anyone else like him.”
“Perhaps.” Her eyes were starting to glisten, but she was still unconvinced.
“You could be like an avenging angel,” I continued, “meting out justice for every poor girl sacrificed in those rituals.”
Now, instead of revulsion, Elyse’s eyes lit up with a fierce, determined fire.
“Yes,” she murmured, her gaze locked on the dresses. “That’s perfect. An avenging angel.”
She walked over to the rack and picked out a dress in her size. “I’ll get changed in the other room. I can’t handle the stink in here any more.”
We left the room, and I headed back out into the cathedral to allow her to put on her new dress. She came out a few moments later, and it was immediately clear that her new dress was a vast improvement over her frumpy cleric’s robe. Now, instead of her body being almost completely covered up, it was almost completely revealed, and what a welcome change that was.
The little white dress was very low-cut, and it had a generous amount of cleavage, displaying a large portion of her full breasts with the top edge of her areolas peeping out above the fabric. It was pleasingly tight around her slim waist and flat belly, and it flared out a little over her hips. The bottom ended just below the meeting of her thighs, giving me an unobstructed view of her long, shapely legs. The elastic edge held the strapless dress in place around her breasts, revealing her slim shoulders, whi
ch, like the rest of her body, were creamy white.
I made no secret of my staring. But instead of being offended, Elyse flashed me a flirtatious smile, and she blushed subtly. She turned around, providing me with a view of her round ass pressing gently against the back of the dress. A V-shaped opening started right above it, revealing most of her smooth back.
“It fits perfectly,” I said, “but you might have a little trouble hiding that mace of yours now.”
She ran her fingers through her hair, her gaze locked onto mine, and there was an unmistakable hunger simmering in those sultry eyes.
“I’m not just a bishop anymore.” She smiled. “I’m a warrior of Light. I’m not going to hide my weapon. I’m going to wear it proudly at my side.”
It seemed that she had changed more than just her clothes. I had to admit that I was a fan of this new Elyse.
“Welcome to the Badass Weapons Club,” I said with a wink. “I think you’ll like our perks, right, Rami?”
Rami, however, hadn’t moved since we’d entered the sanctuary. She remained as glum as ever and simply shrugged in response. Her eyes were locked onto the amulet in her hands. I figured that it would take more than just a joke or two to cheer her up.
I didn’t have time to sit around and do that now, though. Isu’s silent call seemed to be growing more urgent.
“Hey, Elyse,” I said, “are there catacombs beneath this cathedral, where old bones and bodies are stored?”
“There are,” she said. “They’re part of the network of crypts we went through to get here.”
I started to turn toward the exit, and she moved as if to come with me, but I held up a hand to stop her.
“I’m going alone,” I said. “You two stay and rest up here for a while. I’ll be back before long.”
Before I left, I summoned more skeletons from the corpses of Nabu’s soldiers. I left the Crusaders untouched, because I had other plans for them: I hoped Isu might grant me the power to summon a greater undead than a skeleton. I also didn’t want to use my powers to tamper with Nabu’s corpse; I couldn’t stand the thought of having his skeleton fight alongside me.
With my replenished undead army behind me, I left the women and picked up a burning torch to light my way into the crypts. I didn’t know where I was going, but I figured Isu would guide me. I wasn’t wrong. As soon as I set foot in the crypt, an icy breeze whipped through the maze-like space and rippled down a murky corridor. Isu’s presence was strong here, and more prominent than it had been in the cathedral above. However, I could feel that I wasn’t quite upon her just yet.
I pressed on, and again the chilly breeze licked my body before it rushed around a corner. I followed it, heading ever deeper into the crypts. Soon enough, I found myself in the catacombs. This part of the crypts seemed older than the rest, and the musty smell of old death lingered in the air here.
It was comforting.
Ever since I’d started on this journey, this necromancer’s path, I’d begun to think about death and the dead quite differently. I’d never feared death, but I hadn’t exactly thought about it much either. Now, though, I was feeling increasingly intrigued by it, thinking about the mystery of it, the afterlife—or, rather, which one of the many versions of the afterlife the different zealots tried to peddle was closest to the truth—and what lay beyond that one-way door. As a necromancer, I was now in a position to learn more about it than I ever had, and it filled me with a desire to know even more, to dig deeper, ever deeper.
The wind directed me around one more corner, then down a spiral staircase. I was deep in the belly of the crypts now, and the narrow chambers I was walking through were packed with decaying skeletons, stacked up in piles in alcoves in the walls. As I reached the end of the chamber, where an ornate doorway led to another room, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Without a moment of hesitation, I spun around into a fighting stance with Grave Oath in my right hand and a throwing star in my left.
My undead paused behind me, and they hadn’t moved to attack the figure. The reason was clear: standing before me was a familiar figure, although she was clothed this time. Long dark hair tumbled in silky cascades around her snow-pale shoulders. Pert breasts shifted invitingly beneath a figure-hugging dress that glinted and shimmered metallically in the torchlight, as if made from the iridescent scales of some mythical rainbow serpent. The dress, slit on both sides to expose long, curvaceous legs, hugged a slim waist that flared out into rolling hips. Atop this sensual body was a pale, achingly beautiful face dominated by a pair of hypnotic auburn eyes set beneath strong arched eyebrows. Her full dark lips stood out against the paleness of her skin.
I lowered my weapons and relaxed. “Good to see you again, Isu.”
She walked like a tigress, inviting and threatening at once, her beguiling eyes never once leaving mine as she approached me. “The gift of Nabu’s soul,” she purred, “was exquisite, Vance. Thank you. My powers grow ever greater. All thanks to you. And, as you know, when my powers swell, so too do yours.”
She drifted past me, slid around to my rear, brushed her fingertips with a featherlight touch across my left cheek.
“What power does my mighty necromancer desire?” she whispered into my right ear as she circled me, leaning in close, so that her icy breath sent a chill scuttling down my spine. “Ask it of me, and I shall grant it.”
“Those dead Crusaders in the cathedral,” I said, “would make excellent allies. But not just as the usual skeletal warriors. You gave me the power to raise beasts before, like I did with Fang. Now, I want to be able to do that with humans.”
“You desire the flesh to remain on their bones?”
“I want zombies, yeah.”
“I suspected that you would ask me for such a thing, so I have already prepared this power for you. There is only one thing I ask for in return.” She gave me a sultry smile as she came to my front and ran her fingertips slowly down my chest.
“I already gave you the souls of those crusaders. And Nabu’s soul. What else could you possibly want?”
Again she leaned in to whisper in my ear, and the chill of her icy breath condensed on my cheek. “A kiss.”
“Well, that’s easy enough.”
I slid my right arm around her waist and slipped my left hand through her dark mane to pull her close. Her wet lips parted hungrily as I pressed mine against them, but instead of sharing a passionate kiss, a gush of paralyzingly cold liquid surged into my mouth from hers.
Suddenly, both of her hands were clamped on the back of my skull in a vice grip as she held me fast with surprising strength. The torrent of freezing liquid tasted like old blood, and it filled my body, not just my stomach and throat but my lungs, my veins, my arteries, everything. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t react. All I could do was drown from the inside as the viscous liquid filled every cubic inch of my body.
Then, as suddenly and forcefully as the torrent of liquid had started, it stopped. Isu released me from her grip and pulled her lips off mine. It was as if the liquid vanished too, absorbed in the blink of an eye into my body, with the sensation of drowning abruptly ceasing. Indeed, I now felt both lighter and stronger, my muscles seeming to swell with a new, exciting strength.
“Well, that wasn’t quite the kiss I was expecting.” I frowned. “You could have warned me you were going to do that.”
A wicked smile flashed across her face. “It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun for me then.”
I chuckled humorlessly. “Next time, the joke’s gonna be on you. So, after whatever that was, I can now raise humans the way I did with Fang?”
“You can indeed. Use this new power wisely, Vance.”
I nodded. “There’s something else I’d like to ask you about.”
“Anything for my favorite necromancer.”
“It’s possible for me to raise beasts and men, but what about gods? Would I be able to bring a dead god back to life?”
“First, you’re not truly
resurrecting dead beasts or men. When you raise them from the dead as skeletons or zombies, they’re not the same as they were when they were living, when they had souls. Instead, they’re more like biological constructs, shells with shadows of their former selves, and echoes of their lost souls.”
“You’re not really answering my question.”
“If you really want to know, then yes, it is possible to resurrect—in the full sense of the word—a dead animal, human… or god. But there’s a catch.”
“What is it?”
“Only the Death God or Death Goddess can resurrect someone from the dead, soul and all. No matter what powers you manage to obtain, Vance, the power to fully resurrect someone will never be within your reach. Regardless, why are you asking me about this? Are the powers I have very generously given you insufficient?”
“My friend Rami is pretty broken up about Xayon’s death. I was hoping that you would want to do me a favor and raise her back to life.”
In response, Isu threw her head back and cackled with mocking laughter. “And resurrect that capricious creature? Ha! As if I’d even begin to entertain the idea of wasting my precious time and power doing such a thing.”
“I figured you’d say as much. So, that brings me to my next question. I know that it’s possible for mortals to become gods. How would I become the God of Death?”
She laughed again, but this time her laughter was far darker. “Why should I tell you that?”
While I’d been asking her this question, I had honed in my focus, paying meticulous attention to the most subtle of her reactions and movements. As soon as I’d asked about becoming a god, her eyes had flickered very, very briefly to Grave Oath. And when she’d answered the question, her feet had slid ever so slightly back, and a sudden wariness had come over her. Her muscles tensed fractionally, as if waiting for an attack.
The answer to my question was in my right hand.
There was no time to think, to ruminate on the consequences and repercussions of what I had to do. If I wanted to become a god, there could be no hesitation, not even a speck of it.