Dungeon Master 8

by Eric Vall

  Emerald fire blasted into the air in the shape of a burning phoenix, and my eyes slammed back down to Morrigan as the elven woman twisted her body, her arms moving fluidly through the air as they produced more green fire and blasted it out toward the lines of gods waiting ahead of us. Elven words fell from Morrigan’s plump lips as she slammed her hands out in each direction as more deities broke rank and ran toward us.

  There was a physical shift in the air, the changing of the winds as my warrior queens bared down on the gods. I felt it in the deities’ bodies, a fear growing and poisoning their attacks. They were weak, and it was visibly clear, not only to us but also to their mass.

  Somewhere, my father was watching all of this unfold like a poorly put-together play, and I could sense his building rage. Everything I told him was true, the heavens would fall to their knees before me, and as I took a second step forward up the incline, I raised my head, squared my shoulders and rested my eyes on the line of brothers ahead.

  Each of them looked like mirror images of one another, their genetics undeniable because I knew that in some way, my face resembled theirs too. I didn’t inherit their soft cheeks, rounded lips or high, feminine cheekbones, all those came directly from Qyris. The goddess of the sun may have been my intended mother, but in the end, Eris had been the one to bring me into the world. The goddess of the Underworld was the one I received most of my powers from, and I knew at some point during this conquest, I would have to look directly into her black eyes and steal the life away from her.

  Eris had been the only one who’d seen some good in me and put me in charge of the Underworld, but she was still as dark and hateful as my father. She’d cast away Malsumis, her only true son, and left him to die in the sulfur pits. I glanced back at the pale man over my shoulder as his body shifted and changed in the fog of black smoke encircling him.

  Just as my true god form was returned to me, each of the four gods taking up the back stretched and morphed back into their pure forms. They towered over my women just as I did, and I glanced at each of them for a few seconds, taking in the changes.

  Ruituri was still the shortest out of all of them, but she’d changed the most. Her mortal body from earth seemed like a mockery of the beauty that posed before me now. Her glossy gray hair whipped around her as the rotted flesh healed and closed up right in front of my eyes. Her skin still had a grayish-blue hue to it like the dead, but it glowed with health as her feral yellow eyes lifted and sparkled in the bright light filtering all around us.

  The goddess of decay’s tattered clothes from the mortal world shrank and melted away to reveal armor that I had seen once before in the forest outside of Sangiam. Ruituri lifted her head and smiled stunningly as her armor formed fully around her petite frame. The plated chest piece that came down from her shoulders cupped her breasts and put them on display for all to see, and if I looked close enough at the ample cleavage, I could see purple veins over the colorless flesh there. The spiked pauldrons over her shoulders twisted to sharp tips, and the cuirass over her stomach plated together at a seam and then flared out at her hips into sharp points like knives.

  The plating of her armor was shaped into the same type of blackened metal as the rest of it, but it came down into a point between her legs. Most of her thighs were bare and what was covered was partially obscured by blood-red swaths of ribbon that rippled as she walked. Her gauntlets were long and came up above her elbows, and the flesh between the arm coverings and the pauldrons were wrapped in the same scarlet ribbons. Her armor looked like it was a weapon all in itself, and from the way she sauntered up the path, she knew it and knew how to use it.

  Ruituri reached behind her back and pulled out the skeletal bow she’d used in front of us many times before. The goddess of rot cackled with insane laughter as she pulled back the bow’s string with no arrow within its cradle. The air shimmered around the goddess as an arrow began to form out of thin air, and the stench of it reached me in waves.

  The gray-haired woman glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, grinned and then rolled forward onto the gold cobblestones. The sickly yellow arrow whizzed through the air with a crack of thunder and buried itself in the lower stomach of one of my brothers. Ruituri sat in a crouched positioned as she readied her bow again and aimed at one of the gods racing down the path.

  Noxious green fumes lifted from this one as the goddess ripped her arm back and let the arrow fly through the air. I watched its movement as it cut through the air and left a trail of smog after it. The sharp tip of the arrow plunged deep into the eye socket of a running god, and he fell, toppling over the gods behind him as he rolled down the hill.

  The brother who’d been hit with the arrow stumbled as he followed after the leader. His whole body bucked forward as black poison spread across his stomach and worked its way up toward his chest. My brother cried out in pain, gritted his teeth, and then fell forward to the gilded ground, retching out black vomit mixed with blood.

  The infected god lifted his hand and brushed the legs of his brothers as he cried out for help. None of them turned or bent to help him as more poisonous black muck spilled out from his belly to the ground, and my stomach turned in disgust.

  “Brothers!” he croaked as he attempted to crawl across the stones. “Please! Father! Help me! Spare me!”

  His cries were ignored by both my siblings and my father, who watched over us from above. The lead god didn’t look back at him, only kept coming toward me as his brother died at his feet. His reaction toward his fallen brother was almost symbolistic of how all gods treated each other in the heavens and on earth. None of them cared for or loved each other as the three creators intended, they only saw other deities as rivals to be destroyed.

  A voice whispered in my ear, the soft whispering so gentle that I felt tears almost come to my eyes. I blinked them away as the pastel-colored sky deepened and shined with rays of gold. I gritted my teeth, knowing the next trick my father was trying to pull. I scoffed as I focused in on the lead god, bent my knees and raced forward with Allagis held high over my head.

  “Kazama,” the feminine voice so soft and gentle breathed into my ear, and I shook my head with a loud snarl. “My son, Kazama, my beautiful firstborn, you mustn’t hurt your brothers. That was one of the first lessons I ever taught you, or have you forgotten your own mother?”

  I was nearly to the leader, Allagis shifting in my hands to a colossal silver halberd. The sharp point at the end glinted, and the faint lines of attack appeared before my very eyes. I followed through them as I brought the combined spear and battle-axe over my head and then slammed down.

  “Kazama, no,” Qyris’s undulating voice whispered into my ear. “Don’t you remember the things I taught you? Don’t you remember your own mother? You must have memories of your mother somewhere in there, I know you do, my son.”

  Pain stabbed in my chest as her words hit me like a physical attack, and I screamed in rage as I brought the halberd down onto my brother’s skull. He didn’t have time to react or move as the blade smashed through the bone and into his pulsing brain. I yanked the weapon backward, ripping his head free from his shoulders, and I stared down at his blank expression for a moment.

  I didn’t hesitate as I gripped the hilt of the weapon, my eyes desperately searching for the lines of attack and finally finding them as they pointed out where I should move next. My feet moved effortlessly as if I weren’t the one in control of my body, and Allagis shifted once more in my hands. The silver metal darkened to a deep brown as the blade and spike molded into a large sphere with deadly spikes pointing out in all directions.

  The faint lines flashed before my eyes, and I followed through them with fluid motions as another one of my brothers brought up his hands to stop it. He was too late, I was too quick, and Allagis was too powerful as it fed off my energy. The metal spikes entered into his face, and then the metal sphere hit. His head exploded with such force that it bathed the gods behind him in scarlet blood and bits of grey m
atter.

  I raised my head to the sky and screamed, all the emotion within me all of these years finally coming to a boiling point. The hate and rage I held for my father, the resentment and abandonment I felt for my mother and finally, the slight and pain I had for the younger brother who received all the things I should have.

  I grabbed Otia’s chain I had tied off to my waist and ripped my broken brother forward in front of all the gods racing toward me.

  My brother stared up at them with pleading eyes, but I looked directly up into the sky as the clouds began to beat golden yellow. My father wouldn’t face me head-on but instead, had sent my mother out to distract me and finally to fight me.

  Her form took shape in the clouds, and I had the urge to look away from her ethereal face, but I forced myself to look directly into her shining eyes. I forced Otia to his knees and presented her favorite son to her, broken and dying in his true home.

  “You were never my mother!” I screamed up at her as I raised Allagis, the translucent strings of movement clear and tied to Otia’s thin neck. “I was never your son! You cast me out of your sight as soon as I was born! I was never your son! My blood is of Eris, and she is my true mother! You are a farce! Look, Qyris! I’ve brought back your favorite son, look upon him! Look what I did to him! Do you call me your son still? Am I of your blood and body still as you stared down at this broken boy, stripped of his powers? Tell me now, Qyris, do you still consider me a son?”

  My voice boomed out as sweat dripped down my bare chest, and I didn’t give my proxy mother a chance to respond as I swung Allagis down. The mighty weapon rippled with life, transforming into a longsword before mine and the other gods’ eyes. Otia looked into my face as tears spilled down his dirty cheeks, and yet, I felt no remorse. This was what I intended to do to him all along, bring him out in front of the parents that doted on him, and execute him like a common thief.

  The translucent strings of movement glittered before my very eyes, and my arm swung down in an arch. I almost closed my eyes at the last second but willed myself to keep them open as the blade cleanly cut through Otia’s neck. Right as the head fell, I brought up my left hand and curled it into a fist.

  My dark powers swirled around him, consuming the soul that attempted to flee from his empty corpse. The white soul screamed and writhed in pain as it was eaten up by my powers and barred from access into the spirit realm. His soul would be lost in the void, never to find a place to rest unlike those who I’d spared. I raised my hateful eyes toward Qyris and let my left hand fall to my side. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she shook with emotion, but I felt no pity for her as a faint face appeared directly over her shoulder.

  My hands tightened on the hilt of Allagis as the wide-set dark eyes opened, and the flowing black hair shifted. It was a face I knew well, one I hadn’t seen in such a long time that it made my heart throb in pain. I was glad in this moment that my women were off fighting and didn’t have to see the face of the goddess they’d tried so hard to save. The goddess my mother had personally condemned and cast out of the heavens.

  The Tichádáma turned in the air, graceful and poised as ever and stood directly behind Qyris. I may have possessed her powers, but I’d released her soul into the spirit realm where she belonged.

  “Mizu no on’na,” I whispered, and the goddess smiled at me as she slowly began to fade from sight.

  I wasn’t sure why she’d visited me at a moment such as this but seeing her here, with the person who had taken her life and her love away from me gave me more strength than I expected.

  “What?” Qyris snapped as she glared down at me with wide, horrified eyes. “What was the name you just spoke?”

  “Mizu no on’na,” I repeated myself as my women blasted past behind me and a wave of heat brushed my long hair to the side from one of Heijing’s breath attacks. “The Lady of the Water, you remember her, don’t you?”

  “You dare speak that heretics name in my presence?” the goddess of the sun snapped as she slowly lowered from the sky, and I got a better look at her.

  She was just as I remembered from my childhood. Her curly blonde locks rustled down to her waist, and her sharp turquoise eyes pierced into mine like daggers. Her cheeks were soft and sloping while her lips were plump and red like a rosebud. She wore golden bands around her wrists, upper arms and gilt chainmail over her hips. A swatch of royal purple covered her chest as she stepped from the air onto the cobblestones in front of me.

  Qyris was much smaller than I remembered, almost childlike compared to my massive body that towered over her. Her eyes stabbed into me hatefully, but I ignored it as I lowered Allagis and took a step closer to her. Her face was exactly how I recalled it, the firm frown in place that she always looked down at me with. She hadn’t changed in all the thousands of years, and I could still feel the scorn pour from her skin as I came nearer.

  Every word she’d spoken to me was a lie, Qyris never considered me her son, I wasn’t her favorite. To her, just as with my father, I was an abomination to them, a scourge upon the heavens and earth.

  My heart ached as I looked at her familiar face, and as I took another step, Qyris drew back, lifting her pointed nose into the air with disgust. I held Allagis loosely in my hand as I spread my arms wide to her and then gestured to my being.

  “You made me, Qyris,” I stated in my grave, oaky voice, and the goddess’s aquamarine eyes narrowed on my face. “I may not have come from your body, but I am still your blood. Why did you not accept me as your son? I may not have been born from your body, but I am still a part of you, just as I am with my father. Why did you never love me? I am still your son.”

  My words seemed to affect her more than I expected them to, and I had to fight to keep the devilish grin from spreading across my lips.

  “K-Kazama…” Qyris whispered as she looked uncertainly toward the sky where Chirus watched.

  “You never cared for me, you never even touched me,” I whispered in the softest voice I could muster as I dropped my shoulders. “I was your son, and yet, you still couldn’t find enough love in your heart to accept me. You cast me away before I was even thrown from the heavens. What child deserves that? Qyris, why didn’t you love me? Why didn’t you care for me? Didn’t I deserve it? I was your firstborn, and you looked upon me like a deformed creature crawling at your feet. Mother, forgive me, for whatever I’ve done, will you at least now, forgive me and accept me?”

  “Qyris, don’t listen to him!” Chirus shouted, but his voice was far away. “He’s lying to you, stupid woman! Can’t you see?”

  “Mother,” I murmured in the most pathetic voice I could summon up. “Please, let me be your son, for once. I am your son, Qyris, all of this time I’ve been part of you, I will always be a part of you. Accept me, Mother.”

  “Kazama…” Qyris muttered as her eyes swiveled to the corpse of Otia.

  She’d lost her most treasured possession as her favorite son’s blood continued to drip out of his wounds. I listened to her thoughts as her aquamarine eyes shifted back to me and then softened. Her tensed hands relaxed as her expression calmed, and she took a single step toward me.

  I enclosed Qyris into a tight embrace as I wrapped my arms around her. My father was nearly going mad, shouting at her, but she couldn’t hear him through my powerful illusion. In her mind, I was the perfect son now, I’d done no wrong in my life, and she would do anything to protect me in this fabricated world I’d created for her.

  “My son…Kazama…my son…” Qyris whispered into my shoulder as more tears spilled down her cheeks, and I raised my eyes toward the sky as my right hand came up behind her back.

  Allagis morphed in my hands, shifting into a copper dagger. The runes carved into its blades flashed evilly as I swung my arm inward. I felt the knife connect and enter into Qyris’s back as her warm blood ran over my hand. I pulled the dagger out and stabbed savagely back in, striking her spinal cord and severing it completely. The goddess tensed and then went limp in
my arms as I let the illusion drop from around her mind.

  “Qyris!” my father screamed enraged, and I chuckled deep in the back of my throat.

  I cradled her like a sick child for a moment as I examined her pained face. Her aquamarine eyes glared at me with fury and agony, but there was nothing she could do now as I slowly laid her down on the ground. I flipped Allagis in my hands, and the holy weapon shifted before her hazy eyes.

  “You never gave me a mother’s love,” I murmured to her as I stepped over her dying body. “But perhaps when I eat your soul, I’ll experience some semblance of that.”

  I placed my hand out over her chest and ripped her lily-white soul free. It fluctuated through the air as I stared down into her eyes for one last moment. The light in her eyes faltered as her soul absorbed into my chest and Qyris was gone from this world.

  Then I threw my head back and laughed.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Qyris!” Chirus screamed from the skies. “No! Qyris!”

  “Spare her your words, Father,” I boomed as I glared up at the swirling clouds above my head. “Your love for her was shallow and tainted. If you had really cared for her, you wouldn’t have sent her down here to test her strength against mine. You didn’t love Qyris, she was your pawn! Just as Otia was!”

  “You know nothing!” Chirus roared, and before my eyes, the pastel pinks in the sky boiled scarlet and burnt oranges with his rage. “The love between Qyris and I was pure! A love that will last on into the eons even with her gone!”

  “You speak of love, but you know nothing of it, Father,” I stated as I set my jaw and glared out over all the fighting. “I thought I knew what love was, set by your example, but everything you taught me about emotion and feeling was wrong. When I met Isolda, I was rageful and mean, I cared for her like a wild animal would. Ravaged her with my love, lay it upon her with reckless abandon. You may have stolen her away from me, snatched away the life we would’ve had together, but it made me stronger than you would ever believe. If it wasn’t for Isolda and my women, I would’ve never learned how to love and be loved back, and meeting them was entirely because of you. So for that, Father, I thank you.”