Diablo: The Sin War Box Set: Birthright, Scales of the Serpent, and The Veiled Prophet

by Richard A. Knaak

  Uldyssian sighted two Peace Warders who had broken through the wall of edyrem. At his command, the first warrior’s weapon turned on its wielder, gutting the man. Uldyssian sent his second foe flying back over his followers and into the vicious throng from which he had come, using the Peace Warder as an effective missile that bowled over a dozen other fighters.

  The edyrem were being assailed on all sides, but they were, for the most part, holding their own. The morlu had yet to join the combat, but would so very soon. Still, Uldyssian had expected more from Lilith—

  And at that moment, the ground to his left erupted in a mass of horrific tentacles that reached out and grabbed people in every direction. Two of the victims were immediately squeezed to death with such force that they nearly snapped in two. Another was raised up and thrust hard to the ground again, his bones cracking audibly.

  Cursing, Uldyssian had to abandon the front lines. He knew that he played into Lilith’s hands, but had no choice. He was not even certain himself how to handle the beast, but his powers were the best hope of defeating it before it killed again.

  Rather than seek to deal with every individual tentacle, Uldyssian focused on the area from which they had sprouted. The demon—for what else could it be?—had to lurk just below the surface. He could not imagine its size based on all the tentacles and their length, but it had to be enormous.

  Lilith had outplayed him yet again. Each of her attacks had been shrouded well. The effort had surely cost her and the priests, but it had served her. He had noticed the one, been warned of the other…but those two had kept him from ever conceiving of an attack from underneath.

  Uldyssian had no notion as to the demon’s weaknesses, but he attacked with the one most sensible. Raging flame suddenly burst at the point nearest to where he thought the tentacles originated. The fire burned not only above the surface, but also directly below.

  It had effect. The sinewy appendages flailed, flinging the creature’s victims everywhere. Uldyssian instantly spread his powers as wide as he could, creating an invisible net that caught each and every one of them. The effort left Uldyssian panting. Sweat poured over his body as he sought to lower the edyrem to safety.

  Just as he was nearly able to accomplish that, something jerked him from his feet. Uldyssian yet managed to keep his net working until he was certain that his followers would not be injured by the remaining drop, then ceased that spell.

  One tentacle had his left leg, another seized his waist.

  In his head, he heard Lilith.

  If you no longer desire my embrace, dear Uldyssian, perhaps you will enjoy that of the Thonos…

  She ended the comment with a throaty chuckle. Uldyssian swore at her, but the demoness had already severed contact. He felt the tentacle crushing his leg and focused on his adversary. The Thonos was obviously an instinctive thing, not a cunning being such as Lilith or her brother or even the demon Gulag. What fought with Uldyssian was truly a beast, which gave him hope that he could outthink it.

  But first, he had to free himself. As more of the savage appendages turned his way, Uldyssian noted that at least one had, at some point in the recent past, been cut off. The stub was still dangerous, but lacked the tapering end. That gave him a desperate idea. Uldyssian reached with his free hand to his side—where he kept a long knife—only to have the knife snared by a smaller tentacle. That did not stop him, though. Instead, Uldyssian’s mind seized the weapon of the dead Peace Warder, raised it high in the air, and flung it at the foremost tentacle.

  Energized by his will, the curved sword made short work of the Thonos’s limb.

  There came a deep roar and a tremor that sent both edyrem and Peace Warders toppling. Not only did the ruined tentacle go flying back below the surface, but so did the rest.

  Exhaling, Uldyssian started to rise—

  The entire area around him—nearly a quarter of the area of the encampment—exploded as a giant shape shot up from the depths. Screams arose as those nearest fled.

  The Thonos did not merely have many tentacles…it was tentacles. They all originated from an oval mass at the center, a mass equal to perhaps a dozen Uldyssians. From every part of it sprung limbs of various sizes and lengths, more than a hundred, if Uldyssian could believe his eyes.

  And in terms of eyes, the Thonos was also nightmarish. Over those parts of its body that were clear of tentacles were eyes, very human eyes. Most were larger than a man’s head and all were not only fixed upon Uldyssian, but doing so with deep malice.

  A score of limbs shot at him. Uldyssian shoved his palm forward and deflected most, then had to leap out of the way when two others nearly caught him. He summoned the Peace Warder’s sword to his hand and slashed at one, but the Thonos moved it out of reach.

  The gargantuan demon rushed him, moving swiftly on more than twenty other tentacles. From somewhere, it emitted another deep roar. Uldyssian could spot no mouth and hoped that he would never come near enough to find it.

  Lilith’s face suddenly formed before the Thonos’s macabre body.

  All is lost, my love…she mocked. Look about! Your precious followers are falling to my puppets! See?

  He would not have even deigned to look, for certainly it sounded as if the demoness sought to distract him further, but the Thonos stilled as if hypnotized. A simple-minded thing of destruction, it no doubt lived simply to obey what it thought was Lucion. Uldyssian wished he could have revealed to it otherwise, but even then the creature might not have ceased its rampage.

  Lilith continued to hold the Thonos in check. Uldyssian finally did as she suggested…and saw that, for once, his former lover did not lie. The Thonos’s rise to the surface had set into motion chaos among the edyrem, who thought—perhaps rightly—that they now had to fear a terrible danger looming behind them as well as the relentless threat still flowing in from the jungle.

  Serenthia’s position was the most stable, but even she was hard-pressed. He dared not distract the merchant’s daughter by contacting her, for already she fought against more than one Peace Warder herself.

  Those battling Lilith’s second army were in the most dire straits. The morlu had reached the struggle and were shoving past their living allies in their hunger for edyrem blood. In the face of such evil and aware of the terrifying fiend in their midst, the edyrem were not only losing ground, but losing faith in their own abilities. More and more were resorting strictly to physical weapons and defenses, weapons and defenses that, against morlu, put them at a severe disadvantage.

  You see? said Lilith, drawing attention back to her and the Thonos. Would I lie to you? You’ve led these poor fools to their deaths. They will be slaughtered and all because of you…unless…

  He could not help but wait for her to continue. Lilith did not disappoint him.

  You can still surrender them, my love…surrender them to me and I will call off the Triune…and my little pet, here…

  Surrender them…so that they would be taken to her and converted to her evil crusade. The myriad layers of her plot continued to peel away. Uldyssian had no doubt that the demoness would also continue the slaughter until he finally acquiesced.

  For a moment, he considered her demands. So many lives would be saved. There would be no more blood—

  But only for the moment.

  He had only one answer for her. “Better that we all die, Lilith, than kneel to you even once.”

  And with that, he thrust out his hand, aiming for the eye most dominating this side of the Thonos.

  What began as a stream of light shot through Lilith’s smiling countenance, which vanished in its wake. Before the light reached the monstrous demon, it transformed, solidifying into a gleaming lance.

  The point buried itself in the pupil. A yellow pus burst from the eye and the Thonos roared anew.

  Scores of tentacles sought for Uldyssian, who had to fight with all his wit and agility to avoid them. Some were so heavy that if they had reached the son of Diomedes they would have surely cru
shed him; others were so fine that he suspected the Thonos of using them like whips or nooses. Either way, Uldyssian dared not let any get through to him.

  If there was any consolation in his desperate situation, it was that the beast was now obsessed only with him. It utterly ignored the edyrem, a fortunate thing in that they were already struggling merely to survive. The morlu had begun cutting a bloody swathe through the left flank, their laughter chilling even Uldyssian’s heart.

  He knew that he could have helped turn or at least stem the tide, but only if the Thonos was defeated. Yet that in itself would take far too long…if it was even possible. The loss of its eye had more angered the demon than it had injured it. It was just as likely, perhaps even more so, that Uldyssian would soon perish.

  But he continued to dodge and deflect the tentacles, amazed for each second that he managed to avoid them. The Thonos roared over and over, its tone almost suggesting that it was becoming annoyed at this gnat’s persistence.

  Then, without warning, he was grabbed at the ankle. Uldyssian toppled. A smaller tentacle had risen out of the ground, rising up like a serpent from its nest to encircle his lower leg. Uldyssian had underestimated the monster’s intelligence, perhaps fatally.

  He moved to slice at the appendage, but another tentacle caught his wrist while a third tore the sword away. A fourth pummeled his chest, forcing the air from his lungs…

  Uldyssian nearly blacked out. A part of him wondered if that might be for the best; what was left but for him to witness the destruction of the edyrem and his own grisly demise?

  Yet, he struggled, albeit feebly. Uldyssian could not regain his breath and, thus, enough wit to use his powers. He felt the Thonos drag him toward it. Through blurry eyes, Uldyssian finally caught sight of the mouth, a menacing beaklike projection underneath the demon’s body. A thick tongue dripping with saliva thrust out of the mouth, seeking him.

  Stirred by the sight, Uldyssian managed to send a bolt of pure force at the mouth. It struck the tongue, searing it.

  Letting loose an ear-pounding sound, the demon pulled back its tongue, then shut its mouth. The tentacles holding Uldyssian tightened painfully. If it could not eat the human, the Thonos evidently would be satisfied with crushing him.

  Then, Uldyssian sensed a figure near him. His mind flashed back to the jungle, when Mendeln had come to his rescue against the ancient demonic presence. He had wondered where his brother was in all this; should not the fate of the edyrem have been integral to Rathma and the dragon? Would not Mendeln himself have sought to come to his sibling, just as Uldyssian would have come to him?

  Something happened, but what it was, a weary Uldyssian could not say immediately. He only knew that the tentacles abandoned him. Air filled his lungs. The Thonos bellowed angrily—

  “Mendeln…” Uldyssian managed, shaking his head to clear both it and his vision. “Mendeln, I knew you’d—”

  It was not Mendeln.

  Achilios stood next to him, firing one arrow in rapid succession after another. Those bolts, those seemingly insignificant bolts, struck true against each of the visible orbs of the demon.

  But more to the point, after they hit…they dissolved in an explosion of energies far more deadly than the point of an arrow.

  Six eyes were ruined and blue lightning crackled from each. The Thonos shivered and many of its limbs flailed about without reason. Achilios, standing like some dread guardian, pulled arrow after arrow out of his quiver…and never seemed in danger of running out.

  Recovering from his shock, Uldyssian called out, “Achilios! What—”

  Without missing a shot, the archer turned his gaze to his old friend.

  Achilios’s eyes blazed white. Expressionless, he said, “Go, Uldyssian. You are needed.”

  With that, the blond figure returned to firing. For the first time, the Thonos showed some hesitation. Several tentacles wiped at the eyes already targeted. Others began churning up the ground.

  Uldyssian, still uncertain as to whether to leave Achilios alone against this behemoth, recognized immediately what the Thonos was doing.

  “It’s going to burrow!” he shouted to the hunter. “It’s going to attack from underneath!”

  To this, Achilios remarked in the same monotone voice as before, “No. It will not. Go now, Uldyssian.”

  This time, Uldyssian listened. He did not understand this latest face of his childhood friend, but what mattered was that Achilios did appear to be holding the Thonos at bay. At the very least, Uldyssian hoped to salvage the edyrem and then return to help the archer.

  If all of that was yet possible…

  The struggle with the morlu had turned very desperate. The one beacon of hope centered around Saron. The Torajian, looking almost as fierce as the helmed warriors, wielded a long, slim sword and at first appeared to be simply using skill against his insidious adversaries. However, each time the sword hit, a flash of blue accompanied the slice. In this particular case, the result was the toppling of a morlu’s head the next moment.

  But other than those surrounding Saron, the edyrem were in retreat. The morlu and surviving Peace Warders trod over the bodies of the dead, eager for more victims.

  Pausing to catch his breath again, Uldyssian glared at the encroaching villains. He spied a morlu about to slay a Torajian and fury took over.

  The morlu let out a hiss as the blade in its hand melted. That hiss turned to a howl as the creature’s gauntleted hand followed. Uldyssian did not stop until he had reduced the morlu to a bubbling mass, an act that took him all of three breaths.

  The edyrem realized that he was with them again. Their confidence visibly rose. Under Uldyssian’s guidance, the line began to strengthen, even push back in some places the servants of the temple.

  Then, a Parthan whom Uldyssian had thought slain rose up again, ax in hand. Next to the man, a Torajian also stood. Uldyssian cheered at this sight…until a Peace Warder whose throat was a bloody tangle of sliced flesh and sinew joined them.

  All three turned to face the defenders…and all three began attacking.

  All three were dead…

  Serenthia’s anxious voice filled his head. Uldyssian! The slain! Theirs and ours! They’re rising! All of them! They’re rising!

  They were indeed. Everywhere that he looked, Uldyssian saw that those who had been killed were now standing. Some of them lacked limbs, even heads. Whether edyrem, Peace Warders, priests, or morlu, those still intact enough were now back on their feet.

  And all now marched with the rest of Lilith’s servants against Uldyssian and his followers.

  Twenty-One

  He could hear her laughter again. Lilith’s triumphant laughter. Each time, she stole hope away from him.

  But if she thought that this would finally break him, finally make Uldyssian surrender the souls of the edyrem to her, than the demoness was sorely mistaken.

  The corpses shambling toward his people were no more than shells. The spirits of the men and women they had once been had moved on. That was made even more evident by the fact that none of the resurrected edyrem used their powers. All kept to the weapons at hand. When Uldyssian probed one of the figures, he sensed nothing living.

  That settled it for him. Feeling no regret for what he had to do, Uldyssian waved his hand toward the first several walking dead. They immediately collapsed. However, before he could sigh in relief, the bodies stumbled to their feet again, weapons once more ready to add the living to their ranks.

  As powerful as he was, Uldyssian could not play this endless game against Lilith and the priests. He would have to destroy her creatures en mass, but that risked him injuring or even slaying his followers in the process.

  But there was no other choice. Each moment that he hesitated, more of those who had put their lives in his hands fell victim…and then rose to add others.

  He had only one hope, but it risked everything.

  Then again, the battle was already beyond concerning himself about that.

/>   Pull back…he commanded the edyrem in front of him. Quickly! Those that can, create a shield! Separate us from them, if only for a few feet!

  They obeyed without question, which made him cringe inside. In their minds, Uldyssian had come to save them again. However, he could no longer promise that would be the case.

  His heart beat as he waited for them to do as he said. Yet, although in some places they managed to succeed, in others it proved impossible to disengage with the morlu and the Peace Warders. Uldyssian could wait no longer. He prayed that he could control his powers enough to keep from adding too many of his companions to the casualties. Worse, he did not even know if what he planned would accomplish anything accept delay defeat.

  He focused on the mass of bodies—

  The resurrected dead suddenly began falling. Not merely those of the dead edyrem and Peace Warders, but also the slain morlu. They simply collapsed as if a gust of wind had blown all of them over.

  But this miracle was not due to Uldyssian. Startled, he looked around for the source, but could not find it.

  Then, it occurred to him not to waste this moment.

  Strike! he ordered the others. Strike before they recover!

  To their credit, the edyrem reorganized immediately. Saron and the other commanders led them forward. The surviving Peace Warders and morlu readied themselves for what was surely the last confrontation. They had every confidence in their might despite this abrupt turnaround.

  But then a voice called out in a language that Uldyssian did not understand. He did recognize that voice though, and his heart leapt at its sound.

  A figure in black, one hand holding high a gleaming white dagger, shouted again in the direction of the attackers. Mendeln, his pale face drawn and his voice strained, repeated the same words over and over.