Which only drew further attention to the danger he represented.
“Come forth, Knight!
“Come forth and meet the end of your journey, the end of your hope, and the end of your paltry dreams!
“Come forth to meet the one true judgment—the demise of all you stand for and represent!
“Come forth and meet the same destiny I have granted to many Lightsworn before you and will grant to many more to come!
“Come forth and meet your doom!”
Lucius floated by my shoulder, his essence coiled and wound as tightly as a newly forged spring, ready to be unleashed. All around us, the other el’amin were arrayed in loose formation, their powerful songs deep and abiding, joining together in a subtle complementary accord that reflected their differences but bound them together in mind and heart in common cause.
We were the very antithesis of the gathered demonic host.
I just hoped that the meeting of the two groups did not cancel us all out.
Most especially us.
“For someone whose soul is as empty as Maeraeth’s social calendar, the juel’dathra certainly has a lot to say,” quipped Saedeus.
Unwilling to take the jibe lying down, even when faced with imminent battle, Maeraeth countered, “The demon’s essence is as empty and pointless as your logic, Saedeus, for the demon has no soul.”
“And he certainly seems to enjoy saying it,” finished Saedeus, ignoring Maeraeth entirely.
While not strictly true, for the demon made no outward signs of emotion whatsoever, his speech certainly had the feel of something oft repeated and reused.
Much like his clothes.
Letting Maeraeth and Saedeus finish their conversation without me, turning to Lucius, I asked, “Are you ready?”
“What else could I be?” was his reply.
What else, indeed?
At least he was ready.
I was less than certain of my own role in all this, but, as in many of life’s most momentous moments, there was little choice but to act.
So, act I would.
Cloaked in song, my Voice full and alive, I wreathed myself in potential, in the magic of the moment, the flexibility of the possible, and the liveliness of chance.
Though I was far from the demon’s equal in combat, I was certainly his better in making the most of what I was given.
In this, as in performing to an audience, I played to my strengths.
I just hoped somebody would listen.
The sky opened and rain poured from the heavens.
Great torrential gouts of precipitation streamed downward, obstructing my vision. The parched earth greedily sucked in this water as quickly as it fell. Sheets flowed across the elementals’ backs, splashing upward and outward with each drop’s impact, staining their rough stone surfaces as water droplets and rivulets joined together to cover their craggy surfaces completely. Water rushed down the mountain slopes, runnels merging with rills that would soon become fast-flowing streams.
The timing could not have been worse.
I could barely see the demon where he waited in the near distance before us.
The rain made little difference to the infernals, just as it made little difference to the elementals.
I was not so lucky.
Lightning cracked, the flash revealing the gathered demonic horde in shades of livid, indigo-white light, a snapshot of despair above a landscape eagerly slaking its thirst.
This was not at all how I would choose to face the waiting group of juel’dara.
Perhaps the wrong people were listening.
As rain poured over me, blurring my vision and muffling my hearing, and my heart filled with growing despair, in an unexpected instant my emotions flipped, turning from fear into elation.
The rain, the thunder, and the lightning were Uërth’s song. Her music, crashing and pealing; her song, rhythmic and susurrating; her chorus, varied and vibrant, was the world's expression of her majesty and power—the elements alive.
Falling from the sky, rushing past my ears, pouring over my feet, the world’s magic cradled us and held us within its fold.
The power of the elements embodied surrounded us.
We were home.
Though I was drenched, though the ground beneath us was quickly turning to mud, fortune had turned to our advantage.
Now we had to hope our luck would hold.
Lucius exploded forward, fast enough to leave a sonic boom in his wake.
The demon, the innocuous-appearing man, merely raised a hand.
Time stopped.
Lucius floated in place above the ground, the violent path of his acceleration visible in the fractured path of water droplets he had traced through the air and the line of roiling, churned-up dust held in stasis in mid-flight.
The sky was filled with water drops, an untold multitude of gray tears halted in free-fall, each one a scintillating slash or dash of implied dynamic momentum arrested in place.
The man spoke. He did not yell, despite the distance still between us, and his words were perfectly clear. “This will be between just you and me, Knight.
“Your sword and mine.
“My destiny and your end.”
I screamed and leapt forward, charging downhill, the still raindrops parting in shattering splashes as I pushed through the curtain of water. Loer’allon blazed with Light as I brandished her lambent blade, her luminance cutting through the brume, allowing me to clearly ahead even as her Light turned all the frozen droplets to aureate molten gold.
A multitude of voices joined my roar—Saedeus, Maeraeth, Alric, along with so many others—in a sky-shaking challenge.
The demon did not react, his soulless gaze as untouchable as ever, certain of his superiority and imminent victory.
I grinned, for I was no longer facing the demon alone. I had an army at my back, a legion in my hands.
The demon raised its Cimmerian blade with casual disdain, full of haughty disregard for such an unworthy opponent, for he knew I was not truly an Empyrean Knight.
I did not even wear a Knight’s sigil shield.
“Your soul will soon be mine,” the demon growled without inflection as I closed the distance between us, passing Lucius’ motionless form on my right as I advanced.
The beating of my heart was no longer driven by fear, but by the elation of my voice joined with so many other worthies.
The symphony of a host of heroes swirled around me, each but a note in the rising choir of our unified voices. Within this torrent of eldritch essences, three voices stood out above all others, closer in time, place, and significance—Maeraeth, Saedeus, and Alric.
Their voices wrapped around me protectively in affirmation.
“Fear not, Ilya. We are all here joined with you. I will help enliven your mind and body,” said Alric.
“I will shield and shroud your essence,” added Maeraeth, his voice warm and full of reassurance.
“I’m just here to help,” said Saedeus ambiguously. I could feel the smirk on Saedeus’s face as he offered his vague support.
Our swords clashed, Darkness struggling to engulf Light, Light struggling to burn away Darkness.
The demon was far and away the superior swordsman, even with my hand empowered by Alric’s, even with Loer’allon expressing my utmost potential, even with my enlivening song coursing through my veins, expanding my abilities far beyond anything I would normally be capable of achieving.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the demon’s sword passed my guard and entered for a decisive strike.
Nothing happened.
His blade passed over my chest, sliding away without any loss of speed or momentum.
His sword simply could not cut through.
I smiled then, for Master Nomba’s—no, Maeraeth’s—Aegis protected me.
Darkness simply could not abide within.
Slashing across his body faster than I could register, faster than I could even imagine registering, t
he demon struck with full force across my stomach before I could even begin to raise Loer’allon in defense.
His black blade went astray once more. Had he been any lesser a combatant, the power and velocity of his attack would have thrown him off balance, but he remained as poised and controlled as ever.
Again and again he struck, far too quickly for me to count the blows, again to no avail.
I did not stand idly by, however, as he struck. Though he parried my blows with ease, I began stepping forward, pressing my attack, using my body to interfere with the motion and mobility of his blade.
Doubt, or something very much like it, crossed his face, the first emotion or response betraying his preternatural calm.
I smiled, raising my Voice in exultation, wreathing myself in my song, an aria of untouchable lightness, empowered and alive.
Loer’allon caught his hand with but a glancing blow, but a blow nonetheless.
A single drop of ebony blood fell to the ground.
Wrath filled his gaze then, raw and terrible, as he unleashed a gout of swirling Darkness with his offhand, one that made the gulf between the stars seem as bright as the light of noon on the summer solstice.
The seething maelstrom of wicked arcana never reached me.
A bright explosion of power tore through the massed demons, mowing through their ranks with terrible finality.
Saedeus was beginning to make the demon’s power his own.
Rage slowly turned to confusion and confusion to fear as my own blows rained down, fueled by a rising tide of opportunistic purpose from the multitude of guardians within Loer’allon.
I could feel the Darkness within the demon stirring, being drawn outward relentlessly through the gashes sliced across his body by Loer’allon’s shimmering edge.
The demon surprised me then.
He did not offer a terrible counter to our combined assault.
He did not redouble his efforts in an attempt to overpower our astonishingly successful attacks against all odds to the contrary.
He did not throw himself upon our mercy.
His eyes flickered in fear, in dawning realization of the inevitability of his defeat, and he tried to escape.
But escape he could not, for Saedeus held his essence, the Darkness within the Lightless gulf that was his heart and soul, and would not relinquish it.
Instead, Saedeus lit this essence on fire and let it burn.
Impossibly bright and terrible, the demon’s power was unleashed, a blast of sorcerous flames that scythed through the ranks of demons, incinerating any infernals that remained, turning what was left to light and heat.
With a triumphant howl, I opened myself fully to Loer’allon, her song becoming my own, the songs of other Angel Swords joining in chorus with us to enliven my blow. Loer’allon found her mark, slicing the demon’s head off cleanly at the neck as our united voices echoed through the valley.
Both far in the distance and near at hand, across the Uërth entire, I could feel this celestial refrain rising as the Angel Swords’ accompanying ensemble spread their songs in tandem across the land.
These songs would help remake Uërth anew.
In a terrible flash of power, the demon’s essence burned to nothing and was no more.
He had met his end in a new beginning.
With the demon’s fall, time began once again.
The falling rains washed away my fears and failures, and I was glad.
Renewal’s Beginning
An Elysian chorus emanated from Loer’allon, the celestial music springing forth from all the Angel Swords, life-enabling founts spread across the Uërth in a divine web.
Perhaps the Empyrean Knights would like to join and lend their Voices to the choir.
Heading northward toward Kerraboer, traveling across the sere Plains of D’rith Sinae, Lucius and the elemental band with us, we would soon find out.
Epilogue
As the world slowly began to bloom and blossom around him, Luecaeus floated southward, adrift on the breeze, one seed among many seeking a suitable spot to land, a place to grow.
Perhaps the time had come for him to settle and become but another rock in the garden.
At least for a while.
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Glossary of Terms
People, Places, and Things
Abyss – the nether realms of Chaos.
Abyssal – a curse.
Adros – a mighty river in central Maeron.
Aegis – Sigil Armor, Sigil Shield or Empyrean Aegis. Armor worn by the Empyrean Guard woven entirely from magical Art.
Aerilon – a sidhe of Il’alen.
Aeruyn – a famous archmage from ages past best known for her theory of Metamagic Convergence.
Alric – Knight of the Empyrean Guard, defender of the realm and its peoples, and protector of the Light.
Alaurana Leyalia – literally, ‘those who walk in Light.’ A sidhe name for themselves.
Alaurana Nuerda – literally, ‘those who walk in Darkness.’ A sidhe name for demons.
Mistress Alyendra – a Singer. Teacher of Ilya.
Al’zakara – a flesh dancer or skin dancer. A demon capable of taking over and subjugating a human host.
Angel – heavenly beings of great wisdom, compassion, foresight, and power.
Angel Sword – blades crafted in Heaven for use by the Heavenly Host explicitly to destroy agents of Chaos, demons, fallen Angels, and their ilk.
Arcana – magic in any form.
Arcane tempest – a magical storm fueled by magical energies.
Archmage – a highly skilled, powerful practitioner of the arcane arts.
Art – the highest expressions of magical endeavor.
Bailiff Landsdown – principal law enforcement authority in the town of Balde.
Balde – a small village in the Graven Wastes, hidden within the vast forest of Silvaeron.
Bank – short for life bank. Extensive vaults of living things preserved within Kun’Daer. Many other fastnesses have similar reserves as well. Samples range from seeds to fundamental biological structures suitable for recreation.
The Big Book of Knowledge – an interactive instructional guide intended to teach students the entirety of human understanding as they become ready. Often the sole method used to teach students.
Bolwen – a village in the Greensward Valley.
Bouras River – a river in southern Maeron.
Bruen D’Aber – Speaker for Kun’Daer.
Chaos – the original, primal substrate from which the Multiverse derived. Also a name for those entities stemming directly from its depths.
Chaos Gate – the gateway to the realms of Chaos allowing demonic incursion into Uërthly realms. The Empyrean Gate was created by the Heavenly Host to seal the Chaos Gate and hold back the legions of Chaos. With the fall of the Empyrean Gate and the Heavenly Host, the Chaos Gate is open once more.
Choosing – a rite of passage into adulthood where a young apprentice decides on his or her future.
Craft – high magical arts. See Magic or Art.
Creation – a general term for higher magics or great Art. Also, the macroverse.
Crystal Caverns – a cavern in Kun’Daer filled with precious gems ands stones. Also called Heaven�
��s Refuge and Starfall.
Darkness – that which is unholy, Abyssal, of Chaos, or unclean. Also, energies or magics from demonic sources. A corruption of primal Chaos.
Deep – the Abyss.
Demon – a powerful being of Chaos.
Djen’caer –literally, ‘soul singer’ in the Old Tongue. Those who sing to express the true essence. Called Singers.
Djen’gar – literally, ‘soul guard’ in the Old Tongue. Manifestations of spirit that protect the soul from which they arose.
Djen’lum – literally, ‘soul dancer’ in the Old Tongue. Masters of the djen’gar.
Djen’toth – literally, ‘soul stealer’ in the Old Tongue. An almost extinct branch of humanity capable of taking some of the knowledge, power, and ability from the lifeblood of those they have slain. Thought to have arisen as a means to protect humanity from demonic assault.
Doeren Muer – a range of mountains in central Maeron. Home to numerous fey races and creatures of great power. Also called Heaven’s Edge and Leyalia D’anuer, among other names.
Dragon – one of several intelligent races of Uërth; gigantic flying reptiles of awesome power, wisdom, and arcana.
Dragon’s Teeth Range – a range of mountains in southern Maeron.
Dro’mangus – massive demons embodied in powerful, monstrous forms.
Dryad – magical beings with deep connections to the land and great magical skill. Kin to sidhe.
Legacy of the Blade: The Complete Trilogy Page 51