by Aleron Kong
He had hoped it would not come to this, that the demon would not have to be released, but in case it had to be, Richter had prepared as best he could. His Gift of Tongues ability would not work on higher or lower languages, so Richter had known he wouldn’t be able to speak the demon’s language. Luckily, where his ability failed, the Hearth Mother’s knowledge had succeeded. Whether it was due to her centuries of study or her insanely high Lore level, she had known how to translate a simple message into the Common equivalent of Daemonspake. Part of him screamed that this was stupid, but another part knew that if you were going to do something stupid, you committed! Pulling Sion into a confused bow, he shouted the words Hisako had taught him.
“Aet knaroq gazcise hig! Cru undead lizt oevit kru! Haik ttoru ciq!”
Richter had basically just said, “Greetings, mighty demon lord! The undead creature is going to attack you! You should kill him first!” He’d been a bit surprised that undead was the same word in Daemonspake and Common, but apparently it was just one of those things. Now he just had to hope that he hadn’t totally whiffed the delivery. An “ich bin ein Berliner” situation with a giant demon and a pissed off lich lord was not what he needed!
Silence reigned for a long second, but Richter remained in a bow. His heart thudded painfully, afraid the demon would snuff him and Sion out of existence at any moment. Thankfully, the lich broke the silence, “What did you say to this thing?”
Richter might not have spoken Daemonspake, but the demon spoke Common with no difficulty at all. The demonic being lasered in on the lich and took a step towards the undead. It seemed that a greater Air demon didn’t like being called “thing.” That one step was all it took.
Singh let all of the charged magic in his staff loose at once. The entire beam shot into the demon’s chest and began to burn. The freed hellion’s perfectly sculpted body blackened, but only for a moment. Without even needing to speak a word of Power, armor sculpted of hurricane winds covered him from head to toe, and an axe of pure blue-black lightning appeared in his hand. The demon’s right wing snapped forward and acted as a shield to block the lich’s attack. Some of the metal feathers sloughed off where the eldritch beam struck, but it was clear that the wing was as strong a defense as a tower shield.
With a growl, the demon snapped his axe down in mighty overhand blow. The lich showed fear for the first time, lifting his staff with a snarl. A bubble of neon-green light phased into existence and stopped the blow cold. Electricity played over the entire magic shield and would surely have harmed the lich if the shield hadn’t completely encapsulated his body. Singh pointed his free hand at the demon and cast a spell that shot a spike of pure metal from the floor into the demon’s back. The monster spun, using his two wings as curved shields, but the eldritch Earth attack still scored heavily. Feathers and a few drops of black blood fell to the ground.
The demon cursed in Daemonspake and threw his own hand forward. A cyclone of biting winds mixed with lighting shot against the lich’s magic shield, buckling it inward. This time, it was Singh who cursed. His barrier began to fail, but the undead raked a hand upward and a wall of grey metal shot up from the floor, bisecting and disrupting the lightning vortex.
The battle continued between the two powerful creatures. The demon might have easily bested Singh in almost any other setting, but in the center of the lich’s power with the powers of the Mausoleum to call upon, the fallen angel’s victory was not assured. The two battered Companions watched the fight unfold, knowing that either of the two monsters outclassed the both of them put together. No matter who won, the victor would undoubtedly destroy them immediately after. The two looked at each other as they continued moving towards the end of the walkway. Both men were sharing the same thought. We’re fucked.
As the battle between the demon and the lich raged, the allied forces of the Mist Village and Hearth Tree waged their own war. The few wounded that had been brought back through the portal had been sorted into those that could be healed later, those that were only moments from death and those that could not be saved. The first and third groups were carried to the House of Healing by a small army of waiting mist workers. The second group was being ministered to by the village’s healers, using both magical and non-magical methods.
While the healers performed their duties, the fighting men and women of the allied forces were engaged in battle. Undead had poured through the portal. On four legs and two, resurrected creatures fought alongside undead melee fighters, archers, magi and rogues. The sprites let loose with imbued arrows, blasting the first wave of Death creatures to pieces. All except one skeleton that was completely black.
The voidling took three hits from imbued arrows at a distance of only two dozen yards. It was knocked to the ground but got back up, a horrid scream issuing forth. The archers sighted upon it again, but a commanding voice stopped them. Sumiko strode to the front of the battlements and dual cast a powerful spell. Life’s Reckoning only harmed the undead, but the sixth-tier spell unleashed an inferno of Life energy into the voidling.
The unnatural creature had been corrupted by the void mauler’s chains of dominance, but enough of its original nature remained that it was susceptible to her Power. It shook like it was being vibrated apart at the molecular level and golden light began to seep through cracks in the black void magic that coated it. While it fought Sumiko’s magic, a second wave of undead came through the portal and began to attack it. Two seconds later every one of the voidling’s bones exploded, and five undead were also destroyed in the blast. Sumiko ducked behind a battlement, her head throbbing from having channeled such powerful magic. She lay her back against the stone, and more than one archer on the battlement sent her a look of praise and appreciation.
Melee undead began hacking at the portcullis. The bars were not only steel, but were also strengthened by the magic of the Dungeon. Despite that, the attacks of Professed Warriors could not be ignored and the metal began to bend under the hammer and axe blows of the undead. The meidon and wood sprites fired down from the battlements and through the portcullis. Their imbued magic took a heavy toll on the attackers, but the physical damage was massively reduced due to the undead’s nature.
The skeletons had no vital organs in their torsos and zombies did not fall in pain when an arrow struck their leg. Head shots could destroy the lower level zombies, but skeletons shrugged such blows off. Many of the invaders wore armor which stopped critical shots.
The undead also had ranged fighters of their own. Arrows enchanted with Death magic or tipped with poison and disease shot up at the Barbican’s defenders. Four sprites died within the first minutes of the attack and twice as many were injured to varying extents. The allied forces continued to fight, bolstered by the second-tier Fighting Spirit of the Mist Village, but more enemies continued to pour through the portal. All the while, the battle between the devastator and the mauler grew closer to the gateway as well.
Richer and Sion knew none of this. Their attention was completely focused on the behemoths battling before them. Singh and the demon had released insane amounts of power in their battle and neither was showing signs of stopping. Richter and Sion had needed to dodge stray bolts of lightning and beams of eldritch energy. Any of them could have killed either Companion even though they were not the intended targets. Worse, the battle between the two unnatural creatures was moving closer towards the end of the metal walkway. That meant it was getting closer to the two mortals who wanted no part of it.
“Okay,” Richter whispered with near panic in his voice, “fuck this. We’ve got to get out of here. Get on my back.”
“Why? The lich closed the wall, and besides, there is a demon between us and it.”
“I know!” Richter shot back, irritated. “They’re a lot farther from the wall now though. I can cloud run us out into space, then run back to the walkway when we’re past.”
“And just hope that they don’t see us?” Sion demanded.
“Yeah,” Richter sn
apped. “Then we’ll have to climb the wall.”
“That wall is two hundred yards high!”
“Then we better get started!”
“You do realize that I was shot with my own imbued arrow, right? Now you want me to hang off your back and scale a gigantic wall?”
“I got shot too! And I have a way bigger mana pool than you!”
“Pfff. Your weak-ass skill level in Imbue Arrow doesn’t pack nearly as much punch as mine,” the sprite fired back at him. “I also got thrown off a roof!”
“You’re complaining about that?” Richter yelled incredulously. “Look at my face. He cut off half my fucking face!”
Both friends were just psyching themselves up to literally run out over the abyss, something that was admittedly dodgy considering all the injuries they’d just listed. They were also both secretly praying that lich and demon would just tumble off the roof and solve all their problems. Singh spared a furious glance at the two bickering friends, but a near-decapitating attack of the demon’s lightning axe made him focus on his enemy once more.
The Companions had seen the anger in Singh’s face. That convinced Sion of the wisdom of Richter’s plan. A second later, the chaos seed was on the move. As his foot glided out over empty space, his internal injuries shifted. The pain made him stumble and Sion cried out in panic as they dropped suddenly, but Richter found his footing and pushed hard off the air with his next step. It made his vision blur, but they gained altitude and he kept running.
While they circled the two monsters, Richter risked a glance over at Singh. It was with a sigh of relief that he saw that both demon and lich were too busy to target them. For a moment, the chaos seed was tempted to Analyze the hellish creature, but he didn’t dare risk it. If it felt his inspection the way Singh had, it might attack them. Instead, he focused on running. Even with Richter’s injuries, they successfully circled around the high-level battle and made it back to the walkway. Sion hopped off and they prepared to climb.
Even though Singh had not been able to attack them while they were over the abyss, seeing them about to climb the wall was too much. He would not let them escape! Richter was the reason the demon was here at all and the hellion had caused him pain for the first time in centuries. If not for the Mausoleum he would have been destroyed already. Though neither the demon or mortals atop the roof knew it, each time he suffered damage the majority of it was transferred to one of his minions. The Core building not only let him control a massive undead army, it let him call upon their power as well. Even the damage of the banshee scream would have destroyed him if he hadn’t channeled most of the damage to his undead slaves. Even so, Richter’s attack had cost the lich over a hundred health and several Professional undead had suffered the final death. Singh would not let these affronts pass!
The one thing the lich hadn’t lied about was the timing of drawing energy from the Exile he worshipped. If he were fighting the demon only one day later, then all the energy contained in the giant sphere of magic above would be his to command. Right now, however, the magic was completely wild and as much a danger to him as his enemies. That did not mean Singh didn’t have access to other hidden reservoirs of Power.
With a scream of rage, Singh revealed the true majesty of the Mausoleum. Not only did it allow him to maintain an army of undead and defer damage, but since the building had reached the third level he could also sacrifice his slaves to fuel his own magic. At hearing the scream, both Companion looked backwards in alarm. Even the demon jumped back in surprise. Literal waves of power were coming off the lich, spilling out over the floor. A magical shield so powerful that it emitted blinding light had sprung up around him like a globe.
The humanesque visage Singh had adopted before was completely consumed by the eldritch power being channeled through his body. Now the lich stood in all his unnatural and desiccated glory. He siphoned every ounce of his strength, drawing it willingly from his minions. Ten percent of his army dropped lifeless at once, draining the maximum amount of mana that he could siphon in a day. The voidlings fighting the undead roared in triumph as they pressed their attack, but none of that mattered to Singh. His power was now legion!
The demon felt the growing strength of his enemy and summoned a lance of pure hell lightning. In response, the lich conjured a bolt of eldritch power. The two nightmare magi threw their magic at the same time. Though the power of the greater demon could lay waste to an army, the magic the lich now had at his command could sunder entire cities. The two powers met and the demon’s attack was overcome.
The bolt of neon-green magic consumed the blue-grey lightning and blasted into the demon’s face. The winged being’s face charred to the bone in an instant, but the hellish creature still did not die. His skull opened in a silent scream. The blast of eldritch magic worked its way through the demon’s body and began to dissolve him from the inside out. Even his armored wings were ruined.
Through it all, the demon continued to reach towards the lich, unwilling or unable to actually be destroyed. With a snarl, Singh released the last of his gathered energy and the intensity of the beam he was firing doubled, flinging the demon off the ledge. Unlike Sion, the monster didn’t just slide off. He was catapulted out into space. The last Richter saw of him was the demon’s ruined wings flapping in vain as he dropped into the deep.
The lich turned his burning green gaze on the two Companions, wrath and fury in his eyes. Words of Power began to fall from his lips.
“Remind me what we were supposed to do when one of them won,” Sion said backing away from the furious lich.
“Yeah,” Richter said, backing up as well. “I actually hadn’t figured that part out yet. That’s why we shouted ‘Leroy Jenkins’ when we released the demon.”
“What?” Sion asked, his eyes still on the lich. “I thought that was a battle cry from your homeland.”
“Nope,” Richter said eyeing the undead mage. “More of a ‘we’re totally fucked and I hope this works’ cry. Don’t look him in the eyes!”
Before Sion could respond, Singh finished his spell and the caster took complete control of their bodies. Both men struggled, but they were under the thrall of a master magician. A moment later they were kneeling. Even with Richter’s high Wisdom, he had no defense against the true grandeur of Singh’s power.
“You vex me, human!” The cultured voice was gone, replaced by the rasping sounds of death. Somehow, even that paper-scraping tone still dripped venom, “Your demon harmed me, but I promise, you will suffer every ounce of pain he delivered one thousand times over.” Singh stopped before him, “No more games. You will meet my eyes or I will pull your friend’s very soul from his body.” The lich spoke a spidery word of Power and Sion began to scream.
Richter could not bear the sound. Besides, while Singh had been threatening them, he had finally heard from his beloved familiar and had sent a return message. He just needed a bit more time, and he’d be damned if he let Sion suffer to gain it. The chaos seed stared up at the lich and the monster inside of him stared out as well, “You want to see into my eyes? Go ahead. Look at them. Look at them, but I’ve got to warn you. You won’t like what you see!”
The undead’s glowing green eyes met his own and their minds linked!
You have engaged in Psychic Battle with the Lich Singh.
Once again, Richter was in his mindscape and found another psychic realm bordering his own. When he had connected with Nien, the Death Knight’s mind had been a dead and barren tableau of twisted trees. The melee fighter was deadly in the extreme in physical combat, but had possessed little in the way of mental defenses. Not so his master.
From Richter’s perch atop his one-story fort, he saw Singh’s mindscape. It was dominated by a single structure, a smaller version of the Mausoleum. Singh’s mental defenses were four stories tall and armored skeletons patrolled each level, representations of both the lich’s mental defenses and attack capabilities. At the summit stood Singh himself.
The unde
ad wasted no time. He raised his hands and eldritch energy spilled from them and down the Mausoleum. It blanketed the entire structure and every skeleton grew stronger as the lich accessed the Deeper Magic of Thought. Each undead defender grew larger, and when the neon-green energy touched the ground even more skeletons began to rise.
“You may think you have psychic power,” the lich taunted, “but I unlocked the Thought aspect of my eldritch magic long ago. You will find no safety here. I will have all of your secrets, and then you shall serve me and suffer for eternity!” Singh cast his hand forward and the skeletons surged from his mindscape into Richter’s.
Keep laughing asshole, Richter thought silently. He abandoned the battlement of his fort and retreated down the steps into the one fortified room the fort contained. Shutting the door, he summoned a light. There was nothing in the small room, just blocks of white stone and a door, but it might buy him more time. Alma was still too far away to manifest inside his mindscape, but she was close enough to communicate with.
The time dilation effect of the mindscape would have made it nearly impossible to speak with any non-Mental creature, but Alma’s psi dragon nature could account for that and so much more. He sent her a message about what was happening. After a short conversation, she sent back a simple promise of love, *I’m coming, master!*
Richter could do nothing but wait. It didn’t take long watching through Alma’s eyes to see that the lich’s mental power made the time dilation of the mindscape even stronger than when the chaos seed entered on his own. The dragonling could fly incredibly fast. With her Agility of thirty-six and her flight enhancement of 30%, she was four and half times faster than when she’d first entered The Land as a level one beast. Even back then she’d been able to outfly half the birds in the forest. Now she was a sleek and powerful predator, slicing through the air. Sadly, her speed didn’t help nearly as much though, not when every second in the real world took what he guessed to be thirty to forty seconds in the mindscape.