by Eric Vall
The Holy Order came next, but it would take more than just my minions and I to fight off the whole army that the mages possessed. I nodded to myself as I decided on the next course of action. I needed to gather the combined power of all of the nations I had under my control, and I reached out to them with my mind. First, I sought out Makar in Valasara. His journey would be the longest, but he promised that he would be there with soldiers in tow.
I then reached out to Ansel Decathmor, and he pledged that he’d be there in a day and a half with the Tamarisch and Tintagal armies on his fastest ships. I called to Shida on Kanashimi who I’d put in charge of Kanashimi, and the older shopkeeper-turned-mayor nearly talked my ear off but confirmed that he and his people would fight alongside us. I spoke with Carmedy’s parents all the way back on Mauntenraion, and they guaranteed that they and the people of the other islands would be there to act as healers. I would assemble the largest army the world had ever seen, and would crush the Holy Order beneath it.
With all of that settled, I finished my dinner and wiped the plate clean. Morrigan and Haruhi were still nose deep in the book Carmedy had found in the dungeon. Morrigan spoke as Haruhi quickly wrote notes on a scrap of paper. They formulated a plan on where to attack the stronghold and where we should enter after that. I was proud of them, this seemed like a job better suited for Annalise, but they were doing fine as they puzzled it out together.
As the night dragged on, my women and I settled down for bed. We didn’t have the tent that we usually used, but we nestled in together on a pile of soft blankets and settled down for the night. An hour or two passed, and I could tell from their breathing that neither of them had fallen asleep. Morrigan tossed and turned restlessly beside me, and I sensed that something wasn’t right with the elven woman.
And then I heard it.
The sound of three beating hearts near us in the forest, they weren’t close enough to hear them speaking or moving, but I could hear their thoughts almost perfectly over the span of acres between us. I sat up immediately, and both of my minion’s turned to look at me in confusion. Morrigan had sensed what was happening but hadn’t realized it herself. I reached into my void pocket for the God Slayer before standing.
“What is happ--” Haruhi whispered, but I lifted a single finger and placed it to my lips.
The sage nodded then crawled over to her belongings where her holster lay. She quickly unclipped them and held them tightly in her paws. Morrigan stood and then helped her sister to her feet. The two women huddled close to me and waited for further instruction as I listened carefully to the far-off sounds of the intruders.
Morrigan’s wholly black eyes met mine as Fea and Macha lifted silently into the air. The two ravens flapped their wings and sailed off in the direction the sounds were coming from. The elf stared at me the whole time then spoke to me using only her mind.
“South of here, three of them, wearing black cloaks like the ones before,” Morrigan’s voice went silent as Fea and Macha reported more to her. “No weapons on them, they seem to be low ranking mages. Not powerful at all, probably sent on patrol. It seemed our disturbance in the city caused a rift, now they’re searching for anything suspicious.”
“What do we do, Master?” Haruhi’s voice echoed in my head as she looked up into my face with wide, frightened eyes.
“We go after them,” I stated in a low voice as I slammed the haft of the God Slayer down, and the blades exploded up from the inside of the polearm. “They are our enemies, after all, and we cannot allow them to live.”
My minions and I tracked down the three Holy Band members through the thick forest, and before long, we could make out the bobbing light of their lantern. I stood in the shadows with the God Slayer at my side and just watched them move for a moment. Everything that Fea and Macha reported was correct, and I thanked them silently for it.
The three men in black robes spoke in tired, annoyed tones to each other. From what I could tell, they were relatively young, in their late teens, early twenties and weren’t very experienced. They stumbled through the brush and cursed aloud to each other; it seemed that they weren’t very cautious or they were just plain stupid.
“What are we doing out here?” the shortest member shouted from the back as he pulled down his hood. “We’ve been walking for three hours! It’s dark! I’m hungry, let’s go back!”
The man at the front, who looked to be the leader and the oldest out of the group swung back with a hardened expression.
“Duncan! How many times do we have to tell you? We’ve been given this mission directly from the elders! If we do a good job, we’ll get rewarded, so keep your eyes peeled and your mouth shut!”
The man named Duncan screwed up his mouth and adjusted his flaming torch in the air. He looked like an adult baby with his round, chubby cheeks and his beady muddy water eyes.
“Duncan is right, Salazar, we’ve been out here for a long time, if we turn back now we’ll be able to go home and sleep for a bit. If we keep searching like this, we’ll be out here until morning comes.” The middle man spoke up as he too pulled down his hood.
This man looked younger than the other two, and his dark hair blended in perfectly against his clothes.
“I swear to the gods above,” Salazar groaned as he threw back his head and trudged on. “We have to find something, if we come back empty-handed, we’ll be punished, hell, we may even be taken down a level.”
“Oh man…” Duncan whispered as his sausage fingers came up and stroked his chin. “I just got to level two mage, I don’t want to go back to level one, I’ll be sent back to chamber pot duty, and that really stinks.”
The young men didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything around them, if they looked harder in our direction, they would’ve been able to see us easily. I wanted to laugh, these were the people the Holy Order sent after me? It hadn’t been confirmed that they were looking for us specifically, but from the disturbance I’d created in town, I thought they would have sent someone more powerful or at least trained.
I glanced over at my minions, and their eyes were hard on the three men. I knew it wouldn’t take much to take them down, but I needed just one of them alive. I grinned widely as I settled my gaze upon the one I wanted for questioning.
“Go around, we will come at them from all sides,” I said to my women through their minds, and they nodded to let me know they heard. “Tell me when you’re in position.”
Morrigan floated off silently into the darkness as Fea and Macha flitted down to her shoulders. I turned my head and saw Haruhi’s back disappear as her fluffy white tail swished out behind her. The three young men moved forward, but their steps were slow, and I couldn’t wait. I listened to my minion’s hearts as they moved into place, and they calmed me down a bit.
“Ready,” Haruhi’s light voice called through my head.
“I am ready,” Morrigan’s voice echoed right after.
“One, two, three,” I counted down as I gripped the God Slayer with both hands. “Go!”
I brought the polearm up over my head and slashed it down until the blades smashed into the dirt. The ground erupted in blue flames, and they raced across the ground toward the three Holy Order members. My women burst out of the forest just in time before the fire completely enclosed the mages in a circle of heat.
My boots crunched against the dead leaves at my feet, and behind the wall of fire, I could make out the shapes of the struggling men. I stopped at the edge of the ring and stared in for a moment. The men fought against my minions, but they had an obvious disadvantage: they were unarmed and unskilled, unlike my women.
I stepped through the wall of flames, and their eyes fell on me at last. All three men were on their knees, two of them held down with Morrigan’s power. The chubbier one name Duncan was in tears as he stared down the barrels of Haruhi’s revolvers. I came to stand between my two women, and all three men looked to me with wide, horrified eyes. I was the man they were searching for, and they’
d fallen into my trap. There was no turning back now, their lives were nothing more than dust on the wind once I was through with them.
“Fucking shit,” Salazar breathed as he took in my holy armor and the God Slayer in my right hand. “You’re … you’re him! You’re the god we’ve been looking for! We found him.”
“Shut up, Salazar!” Duncan sobbed as snot dripped from his pig’s nose. “If we turned back when I said we should have, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
“Actually, you would still be in this mess either way,” I grinned, and my voice came out darker than I expected as I loomed over the three young men. “But which one of you will give me the information I need? You can tell me on your own, or I can squeeze it out of you. It is your choice, boys.”
I didn’t need to threaten them because of the mind powers I possessed. I could easily look into their brains, take the information that I needed, and then kill them, but I liked to watch these little worms squirm in fear. I towered over them, and they watched me with terrified expressions.
“We won’t tell you anything!” Salazar snapped as he puffed out his chest and pretended he wasn’t pissing his pants in fear. “You can’t hurt us! We’re mages! We could fight back and kill you easily!”
My head rocked back, and the forest echoed with my loud laughter. I couldn’t contain myself, what the young man just said was absolutely asinine. I rolled my neck and gazed over at my elven woman. Her wholly black eyes met mine, and she smiled evilly to me.
“My dear, what kind of damage can a level two mage do?” I questioned her, and Morrigan’s black eyes swiveled back to our hostages.
“Summon spirit guides, summon water, put out small fires,” the white-haired woman’s eyes slashed to Duncan, and the chubby boy jumped in fear. “And clean chamber pots.”
“So which of these powers will you use against me?” I sneered down at Salazar. “Go on, fight back and kill me, boy.”
Salazar and the second man glared up at me while Duncan blubbered from beside them. The leader set his lips in a hard line and did nothing in retaliation. I barked out a laugh, and Duncan jumped and shrieked at the sound.
“Which one of you will tell me all that I need to know? It looks like I have too many men, I only need one of you to tell me what I need to know.” I smirked as I bent my knees and lowered myself to eye level with them.
“We’ve sworn our lives to the Holy Order, we would never betray them! Kill us if you have to!” Salazar snarled.
“We’ll never tell you!” the unnamed man shouted in my face, and I simply raised my eyebrows. “Kill us, you’ll never get a word out of us!”
“I’ll tell you!” Duncan screamed as he threw himself forward and crawled toward me on his belly. “Please spare my life, I’ll tell you everything you want, just don’t k-k-kill me!”
“Look, ladies, we’ve found the most intelligent member of the group,” I chortled as I stood to my full height, and then I dropped the smile from my lips as I glared down at the other two. “Kill them, they’re no longer needed.”
Chapter Sixteen
My minions did as I asked, and Haruhi repositioned her revolvers to point at the unnamed man. Morrigan’s left hand dropped from him, and she turned all of her attention toward Salazar. The oldest member’s body froze and then was consumed by the mage’s emerald power. Duncan sniveled and watched from my feet as the librarian pulled back the hammer of the revolver and stared down the sights at the unnamed man.
“The Holy Order will destroy you,” Salazar spat as he glared up into my smirking face. “Good always wins over evil.”
“Is that so? Tell that to the nations that have fallen to my name and submitted to my power.” I snarked back, and this time, Salazar didn’t reply, only closed his mouth tightly and prepared for death.
“I’m so sorry, Salazar, and to you too, Kian,” Duncan hiccuped through his tears, and the two kneeling men glared over at him. “I never wanted things to come to this.”
“You’re a coward, Duncan,” Kian spat out, and the chubby man jerked back at his comrade’s tone. “You always have been and always will be, and you will die a coward’s death after this monster is finished with you.”
“Salazar…” Duncan muttered, and the leader of their group didn’t look in the chubbier man’s expression, only squared his shoulders and looked up into Morrigan’s face.
“Do it,” Salazar commanded to the elven woman, and Morrigan raised her eyebrows in surprise. “At least I die knowing that I didn’t betray my people and that the spirit realm waits for me on the other side.”
I cackled with loud laughter as I grinned down at the young men before me. They had no idea the power that I possessed and what exactly I could do.
“No, the spirit realm doesn’t wait for you, I can prevent you from going there entirely,” I grinned down at him as I placed a hand on the elf’s thin shoulder. “I’m going to personally send both of your souls down into the deepest pits of the Underworld. Duncan is the real winner here, his soul is going to be released into the spirit realm once we kill him. Maybe next time you’ll learn to give information when it’s asked for.”
“W-wait! You’re going to k-kill me?” Duncan shouted, and the wicked grin on my lips only grew larger as I gazed down at our captured piggy.
“Of course we are,” I sneered as I bent and gripped him by his square chin. “Did you really think we’d let a member of the Holy Order go? You must be dense, my boy.”
My cackling laughter lifted higher as I let go of his chin and stood to my full height. I towered over the three men, and Duncan sobbed even louder. His companions showed him no sympathy, he’d gotten himself in this situation, and it was hilarious to me that he assumed that I would spare his life.
“I won’t tell you anything!” Duncan cried as he attempted to crawl back over to his companions, but I grabbed him by the collar and held him back. “I’ll die alongside my brothers! You can’t kill me! I’m Duncan La Faire! The mighty level two mage! I’ll blast your ass to the Underworld and back! Don’t tempt me!”
“With what?” I chuckled as I lifted the portly fellow up from the ground and held him up by the scruff of his neck like a disobedient puppy. “You’ll blast me back to the Underworld with tiny water spells? How cute.”
Salazar and Kian hung their heads, and I turned my attention back to my women as I held tightly to our hostage.
“As you were, ladies,” I stated, and both Morrigan and Haruhi nodded.
The sage’s revolvers exploded as she squeezed the triggers, and I watched in slow motion as the flint scrapped forward with bursting sparks and ignited the black powder. The two bullets whizzed out of the barrels with twin puffs of smoke and spiraled directly at Kian. The Holy Order member had his head low, and he seemed to be praying as his lips moved silently. He didn’t lift his head or even flinch at the sound. The first bullet entered into his chest with a spray of red blood against his black clothing. His body was thrown sideways by the impact, and his head rocked back as the second bullet entered just above his right ear.
Kian’s body slumped to the dirt with the whisper of black fabric. I bent forward, locked eyes with Salazar, and plucked the dead man’s lifeforce from the corpse. I held the swirling orb of white energy in my hand, and Salazar watched it with wide, glassy eyes. I clenched my fist over the sphere, and a loud crack resounded around the empty forest. Wisps of white smoke flowed from between my fingers and floated down to the ground where they sunk into the dirt.
“Morrigan,” I uttered her name in my deep voice, and the elven woman nodded.
Duncan groaned from his place in my vise-like grip, but there was nothing he could do to stop any of this. He’d chosen his side, and I wouldn’t let him look away as we slaughtered his comrades.
Morrigan threw out her hand encased in emerald light, and Salazar was forced to his feet. The Holy Order member’s head slammed back as he screamed in pain, and the emerald fire from the elf’s hands covered all of his body. Morrig
an whispered elven words as the emerald light crackled faster and higher, and before our eyes, Salazar’s clothes melted away. He began to scream as the emerald fire sunk into his flesh, and he was lifted from the ground.
In a matter of seconds, Salazar’s skin bubbled and burned away to reveal the muscles and meat below. The leader screamed and jerked in agony, but there was no stopping Morrigan now as the sinews of his body were soon eaten away by the emerald fire, leaving nothing but his fully intact skeleton. Salazar’s lifeform hung in the middle of the ribcage, and I reached in and took it into my hand.
I looked deeply into Duncan’s eyes as I closed my fist over the life force for the second time. It cracked and crumbled to the ground just like Kian’s, and Duncan gasped for air as he stared horrified into my face. I let go of him, and as he dropped to the ground, the circle of fire surrounding us went out. Duncan scrambled to his knees and attempted to scurry away, but I held him in place with my immense power.
“So, you’ve refused to give us any kind of information?” I asked as I loomed over him.
“I-I won’t tell you a thing!” Duncan cried as he struggled feebly against my power, and I gestured to Morrigan with my left hand.
“My love, would you like another lesson?” I questioned as the elven woman came closer. “Like we did with the leader of Kanashimi.”
“Yes, Master,” Morrigan purred as she floated closer and stood in front of Duncan. “I would love to learn more.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Haruhi, but she was busy reloading her revolvers. I could tell from her body language that this wasn’t exactly something she wanted to see, but she wasn’t going to shy away from it either. The sage had chosen this life when she came with me, and violence was something that occurred often now. Her hazel eyes met mine as she loaded the revolver with a new piece of flint and black powder, but then she quickly looked away.