by G R Fabacher
The room was a large central hub over what appeared to be a bottomless chasm. Several paths converged, but none of the paths were open as deep purple wards were cast over the archways. Damon didn’t even bother shooting them. Even he could tell that these were even more robust than modern military wards. That and his attention was fully focused on the melee going on in the center of room. Dozens and dozens of small fish-belly-white creatures with milky eyes and distended potbellies.
They skittered forward on wickedly sharp claws, there unnaturally long arms and legs giving them the appearance of hideous mutated spiders. Their bodies were covered in pulsing tumors and growths. Some even had extra limbs or feathers.
“Shite!” Damon shouted.
Boudira was swinging her hammer, smashing clutches of the creatures back into the pit, only for them to be replaced by more.
“Hey, guys, if you haven’t noticed we have a bit of a goblin problem.” She said.
Damon began shooting into the throngs of the Bleak-Kin by the edge, careful not to shoot into the small ring that the corpsmen had formed.
“Give us the quick version.” Damon said as Shaya made hole so that they could join the circle of defenders.
“The quick version is that the head paladin bitch we’re after, Varant, ran ahead and by the time we caught up she had activated the security, and then these goblins started climbing up the walls and trying to kill us.” Shaya said, taking shots at goblins that got too close.
Damon began formulating a way out. “Which way did she go?”
“That’s easy,” Boudira said, “north-most archway right behind Shakes over there.”
“Shakes?”
“The new blood, not doing too bad so far.”
Damon watched as the elf held two Union rifles. Each pair of hands holding them at his hips so that he could shoot from the hip with greater accuracy. There was something to be said for the elven advantage of having four arms.
“Okay, so how do we get out of here and go after that stinking whore.” Hellaina said, spraying a wall of roiling bleak-kin.
“Hey,” Damon said, “I know this isn’t the best time, but why could we get in here, when every other door is warded like damnation itself is trying to get in?”
“Firefly blew up that arch with a grenade.” Shaya said.
“Guilty!” The beuteo said while torching a whole other swath of goblins.
“I hate to be the adult here, but I don’t want to get eaten by goblins today!” Hellaina shouted.
“Right,” Damon said, “Boudira can you slice these wards?”
“Actually,” she said, “I think I can. They’re strong, I mean… like super strong… but they’re not very sophisticated. I think even you could cut these wards, but there are a few hundred goblins who want very much to not let me work.”
“Well, we’re here now.” Damon popped off a single shot and drilled a goblin through the eyes. “Okay, Shakes—“
“We would prefer our given name—“
“Nope, Shakes, I need you to kill every goblin between the door and us. Got that?”
“This task would be beyond the abilities of one—“
“Great, good team spirit. Get on it. We’ll watch your back.”
The remaining corpsmen formed a semicircle at Shakes’s back, opening up a continuous stream of fire with Sparky and Willow pouring fire down the sides. Boudira slid on her knees and whipped out her toolkit and began poking with her wand and stylus.
The mass of goblins pushed against the fire, climbing under and over each other to get at the fresh meat. Firefly flooded the foreground with magical fire, blue-purple flame cooking the creatures. Her wall of flame cut out abruptly and she dropped the rig that allowed her to use her dual flame throwers. She took a step back and kicked it into the goblins. Reaching to her thigh she pulled out a blunderbuss and began firing. Each shot unleashed hundreds of small crystal caltrops. The weapon’s fire enchantment igniting them all as they flew through the air toward the massive of monsters.
Shaya herself pulled her twin elven daggers from their sheaths. Using her armor and natural ability the blades became twin flashes, shearing off limbs and opening veins. She kicked a goblin over the edge and whirled her blade through another’s abdomen. Each wounded goblin seemed to incite the others to attack not only the corpsmen but also their own kind.
“Okay, got it!” Boudira called out.
The ward dropped and the team laid down fire until they were all through.
“Put it back up!” Shaya shouted.
“Way ahead of you.” Boudira said. The almost solid ward popped back into existence. One goblin had been mid-leap when the ward reignited and it slammed into it. There were shrieks at first, but the momentum of the creature carried it fully into the barrier. Each layer of flesh sublimating away in a pink-purple oily smoke until there was nothing left of the goblin.
The rest of the goblins looked on. They seemed to sniff and search for their lost friend before giving up and hauling away their dead.
Damon dropped his rifle and put his hands on his knees breathing deep. Shakes ditched one of his rifles and reloaded the other. The others were similarly catching their second wind. Shaya let her rifle down. “I’m so damn glad you guys made it.” She said. “Where is everybody else?”
“We had some casualties.” Damon said. “We lost Joyride. Jurza lost an arm so I left them with Em.”
“Where’s the Unie leader?” Hellaina said. She tossed her empty rifle aside, her fists crackling with power.
Shaya shrugged, “I imagine Varant is heading toward wherever the weapon is located. She had a lot of Union paladins, but I think between the goblins and us, she might be alone now.”
“Good, that’ll make her easier to kill.” Hellaina said. She stomped down the hall and Damon slid his war mask down. The rest of the corpsmen followed.
The interior of the ruin was just as massive as anything else in the Magi ruins. They entered into what looked to be an underground city. Their faceplates compensated for the low light automatically. Damon scanned the area, spiral steeples pointed up, the buildings shared the same rounded characteristics they’d seen so far.
Faded paint chipped and flaked off of the intricately carved reliefs. “Hey why don’t elves have cities like this?” Damon asked.
“How do you mean?” Shakes said.
“Well aren’t you all natural born mages like Sparky?”
“It’s not the same.” Sparky and Shakes said at the same time.
“Elves have a collective form of magic that requires we be melded with the trees of our forests. Half-breeds can do this also but it’s harder for them. We shape the world around us through a… combined will. It’s very localized, but allows for great feats of magic unlike even that of the Ahmagistratii.”
Damon didn’t pretend to understand it.
“How are we going to find her in this place?” Aszna said.
Shaya looked around, “My scryer isn’t very reliable this deep in a magic field, but I think I have a reading to the west and below us. Really far below.”
Boudria stopped, “Wait,” she held out her arms to stop the others from walking past her. She ambled toward some kind of half pillar sticking out of the ground. “I think this is a totem.”
“A what now?” Damon asked.
“It’s sort of like proto-runic technology.” She said, “Magi would channel magic through it and it would have an effect. It was more energy efficient and time saving than coming up with a pedantic new spell to do something rote.”
“Sparky?” Damon said.
Hellaina walked up and channeled some of her power into the totem by gripping the large central crystal. Before them a silver disk of energy appeared in the air before them.
“A lift? I think it’s a lift.” Boudira said. She lowered one stubby foot, stepping onto it with exceeding care. “A little more magic, Sparky?”
Hellaina’s eyes flashed a light shade of purple, and the lift began moving downward slow
ly.
“Everybody on.” Shaya said. Sparky was last, giving the totem a little more magic. She had to hop down on the silver disk. Damon hesitated before stepping aboard. Elevators made him anxious.
“Seems really inefficient if the last Magi on has to hop down on the lift before it gets too far. Also why wouldn’t they just fly?” Urani said.
“We may have been doing it wrong.” Boudira said, “Also, you can run pretty fast, right? But you don’t run everywhere all the time. Magi probably don’t feel like flying everywhere because of the energy it would take to do it constantly.”
“That or it’s a cargo elevator.” Damon said, pointing to the depiction over the archway they were headed to. The symbol for a stack of boxes was fairly universal.
The round magical platform came to rest by a matching totem to the one above.
The corpsmen took no time getting off, not sure if the disk would last. It winked off as Aszna took the last step off.
Boudira looked at the lift and totem apparatus. “I wonder if there were any safety features or if we just got lucky, looks like a long way to the bottom.”
Hellaina began walking forward, “That signal’s not far now, come on.”
Shaya grabbed Damon by the shoulder, “Is she okay?”
“No, none of us are. Joyride died saving her from these… they called themselves Blackguards.”
“Shite.” Shaya breathed.
“Come on, if she’s by herself she’ll probably get herself killed.”
“Yeah, Varant’s an incredibly powerful mage. We saw her work first hand before she managed to give us the slip and activate the security system.”
“Don’t the Unies hate mages?”
“On general principle yes, but I have a feeling that certain exceptions are made in the spirit of hypocrisy.”
“Come on let’s catch up.” Damon said.
Chapter 26
Damon and the rest of the corpsmen followed the signal and emerged into a cavernous cathedral. There were crystal coffins lining the walls, rows upon rows of them. Some were staged vertically, but most were stowed horizontally. Paths and stairs running to the multiple levels. The scrycomm became unbearable white noise.
“Gah,” Damon grunted, “I guess we’re going with normal talk for now.” The corpsmen all turned off magical intercommunications.
As they approached center the coffins became more and more ornate in design. The clear crystal of each of the sarcophagi showed that they were empty. Damon looked down at the center of the altar and found the largest and most ornate of the coffins. It was cloudy and Damon couldn’t make out its contents. A manic helmetless Varant knelt before it. There was a purple aura around her as she worked, seemingly unaware of the world around her. Above the altar a stylized statue of a Magi in robes stood with its head looking over the coffin. Like an elf it had four arms, but it was more robust than the lithe forest folk. In its lower arms it held a large sword and its upper arms were folded, hands making some kind of prayer symbol. It had three eyes, all of them but the one in the midst of its forehead were closed. It was an ancient symbol of prophecy.
Sparky let out a feral shout and exploded down the stairs, fire wreathing her form as she lunged at the high paladin. Varant turned and backhanded the girl. The magically imbued strike threw Sparky into one of the crystal sarcophagi on the lower tier. It cracked, depressing at the impact, and the lid fell off when Hellaina extricated herself. The lid crashed to the ground in pieces and slid down the small steps to the floor below. She struggled to a knee, panting heavily.
“Foolish, girl.” Varant spat. She drew her pistol and shot at the remaining corpsmen who scattered.
Damon fired blindly, but the rounds hit Varant’s personal wards, sparking. The high paladin slapped a hand down on the sarcophagus and grunted. “There, it is done.” She felt to her knee. “You cannot stop the march of the Union anymore, you damned lot of degenerates.”
The lid rose up and spun before cracking and exploding like a rainstorm of diamonds. Varant covered her eyes but reached into the coffin to find whatever weapon lay with its entombed inhabitant.
She barely had time to look surprised as the gray hand shot out and grabbed her throat crushing her windpipe with unearthly ease and tossing her away like she was refuse from the night before. The tails of tattered robes billowed up as the form rose, first parallel with the floor but then the figure rotated ninety degrees and turned to face the Lich Corps squad.
It was as tall as an elf, it had four arms, two eyes and it looked like a corpse.
“Saints and Stones!” Damon shouted and opened fire.
“Saint-es… and… sto-nes…” The creature inflected. It casually held its hand up and the flechettes sparked off a solid black ward.
“Shoot it, shoot it!” Shaya said, priming a grenade.
“Shoot eet… shoot… eet.” The creature said.
Shaya threw the grenade and the creature gestured. The magical explosive rotated and he examined it. It exploded and the creature recoiled but was otherwise unharmed.
“Alrachz, va’dauram!” Shakes swore.
“By… theee… great… totems of my fathers…” The creature called out.
Sparky cast a ball of blue-purple fire at the creature. “Die!” She screamed.
The fire washed over the creature, it held out its right two hands. The fire curve around the wards and died out like the last gasp of a candle.
“I… already have.” The creature said, its voice as hollow and empty as a cold night. “It’s not something I wish to experience again.” It turned its glassy atrophied eyes toward Hellaina.
“Such anger and rage in a dust-child so young…”
The creature floated down to Varant and touched her forehead. “Ah, yes… gifted dust-children. How wondrously perverse.” The artifacts that the Union and Republic had fought over flew up to his hand.
He fiddled with them until they became some kind of focus. “Ah, yes!” He said, “I placed this key so long ago, and now… yes… they’re gone! The black ones are gone.” The creature seemed to pay no mind to the corpsmen in the room. He floated around.
“Why are they all empty?” He said looking into the multitude of coffins. “Could she have swayed so many to her cause?” All four fists clenched together.
“No…” he breathed, “No. No! No! No!” The creature ripped the lid off and smashed it into the ground. “Where are my followers?”
The creature moved toward Varant’s corpse. “What do you know?” He touched his foremost of three fingers on his lower hand to her forehead. A moment passed before it rose up, “Nothing. She thought me a weapon.” It cackled, laughter like cracking bones. It pulled back its tattered hood. Its head was bald, it had curved ears, its desiccated features clearly that of the Ahamagistratii.
“I am no weapon, I am a god. Even now I can feel the magic of Terrasti, fat and happy. Ready to be bent to my will.”
“All in favor of getting out of here?” Damon said.
The other corpsmen looked at each other and nodded. The creature turned to them, as if finally seeing them for the first time.
“Dust child…” it said focusing on Shakes. “Why do you have four arms?” The creature held out its hand and Shake’s armor began to tremble, but its enchantments held. “Bah, what? You have no magic! I can’t feel it! You are just a normal thing of dirt and ash. Yield!”
Black energy smashed into Shakes. The other corpsmen opened fire but their rounds were foiled by the thing’s wards once more.
Shake’s helmet ripped off, but it seemed to be the only thing that the monster could manage. “What mockery of magic is this?” He looked at Shake’s four eyes with his two.
“No…” The creature held up two arms in shock, “No she couldn’t have.” The thing roared his frustration. “Damn her to the Void!”
The walls shook, Damon fell to a knee.
The creature ran its hands over its bald head. “That is fine, I have been asleep lo
ng. My plans will merely change. There are more. Yes. I can find more.”
The creature turned to them. The corpsmen had been trying to edge quietly out of the room. Shaya was providing a shoulder to Hellaina.
A black ward slammed down over the archway. “No, dust children. You will not flee like rats to your caves. You, abomination!” He pointed to Shakes. “You wish to return to the trees?” He spat the word trees.
Damon reloaded his weapon.
“What?” The creature tilted his head, observing their armor and painted skulls for the first time, “Are you?”
“We’re the Lich Corps.” Shaya said proudly.
The creature cackled again. “How delightful. Do you even know that word you use? No… allow me to educate you.”
The creature swept all four hands outward. Black bolts of lightning cracked around. Shaya turned and shielded Sparky. The armor wards held.
“I,” the creature boomed, “am a lich. I am your new master. This puzzling magic you wrap yourselves in will not save you for much longer. Yield now and join my new army, and I will burn everything away. All the things that hurt and wronged you. The corruption.” He looked at Damon. “The unfairness.” He looked at Shaya. “The arrogance.” He looked to Boudira. “The loneliness…” he looked at Hellaina.
Damon wondered how the Magi was reading his mind. It was supposed to be an impossible feat, but yet he could feel something in his head, like cold oil dripping into his ears.
Damon shook himself and prepared to shoot at the lich. From his right Shaya shot first, beating Damon to the trigger. Catching him unprepared, the flechette managed to hit the creature square in the head, snapping it backward. Purple smoke issued from the hole.
Slowly the lich raised its head back to look at the corps, “So be it…” the lich said.
The lich flew toward him so fast Damon barely had time to pull his sword and make a slash. The lich took the blow on the shoulder, its undead body already healing the wound. The Lich picked him up and flung him into the statue. He felt the masonry crumble beneath the impact. He rolled onto his stomach.
Aszna unloaded with her blunderbuss. The fire hit his dry body and ignited his cloak. The lich made a small gesture and the fire extinguished. The creature panted, his breath hollow and crackling.