by J. Langland
Of course, since both he and Mufasa were animus beings, they were solid to each other and ended up getting tangled up in each other’s limbs and Stainsberry ended up being unseated, which in turn, returned him to the physical realm, even as dirt and body parts began raining down on them from the explosive impact. Mufasa quickly followed; the two found themselves sitting in a very large crater in a pile of meteor and undead debris. The meteor’s impact had cleared a roughly circular region of the battlefield in twenty-foot plus diameter.
A loud yowling came from his left where a D’Warg with crushed rear legs wailed in pain. Apparently, the meteor had crashed into a battle between D’Wargs and vampyrs. He guessed vampyrs given the large number of broken teeth in the area. He cracked open his visor to get more air, even as he noted a few mangled vampyrs struggling to rise. It was doubtful they would be much of a threat unless one stepped directly in one’s mouth.
“Here lad, I’ve got you!” A familiar voice came from behind him. Stainsberry got to his feet to see Thrinarv kneeling beside the injured D’Warg. “Nasty injury! I know you’ll regenerate, but let me speed it along.” The priest said.
“Thrinarv! Well met!” Stainsberry exclaimed, pleased to see his friend.
The priest looked up from the D’Warg upon whose hands were placed for healing. “Well met Stainsberry! Great fun is afoot!” The dwarf chuckled.
“So, you are with the D’Wargs?” Stainsberry asked.
“I am moving around throughout the battle to wherever I can be of assistance with my healing or other services.” Thrinarv nodded, “And of course, a good bit of skull bashing!”
Stainsberry shook his head. “I bet the priests of the Five are jealous that you are completely unfettered in your priestly duties!”
Mufasa snarled and suddenly a vampyr behind him screamed in pain as the lion disemboweled him. Stainsberry gave his companion a thumbs-up for guarding his back. He noted that Thrinarv had a holy aura surrounding himself and his patient that seemed to keep the Unlife at bay.
“It is mighty convenient to have one’s god sitting on the same planet just a thousand or two leagues away. Much closer than the Outer Planes—or the lower ones, for that matter.” Thrinarv agreed.
The dwarf suddenly frowned. “The two of you survived crushing by shifting to the aethereal?”
Stainsberry nodded. “Mufasa was thinking fast! If it had been up to me we’d both be on the other side of that meteor.” He pointed to the ground below them.
“So, the interdiction does not apply to the aethereal realm.” Thrinarv noted, standing up; his patient fully healed and read to munch more vampyrs.
Stainsberry blinked in thought. “Well, that is fortunate.” He frowned, “however, I am not sure that is unexpected. The aethereal realms are very tightly bound to their corresponding material realm. That’s why we tend to refer to them as realms rather than planes. I know most wizards are sloppy in their terminology and talk about the aethereal plane; however, there is no single aethereal plane. Every material plane has its own aether, and you can’t travel to other material planes via one. You can, however, travel between planets. Slow going, but it does avoid the problem with vacuums.”
Thrinarv grinned, “You know you are preaching to the choir. We do study this in our seminary.” The priest told him. Another vampyr screeched in pain as Mufasa dispatched it.
“I said wizards get it wrong! Not priests. Please note, I am taking my own colleagues to task!” Stainsberry grinned at the priest before pulling his visor down, preparing to return to battle.
“To victory!” Thrinarv shouted as Stainsberry moved to remount Mufasa.
“To victory my friend!” The knight magus returned.
Praelgeis’s Command Center: Late First Period
“Well, that was a giant waste of time and mana!” Baba Smert’ hissed as two more command bunkers were plowed under by redirected meteors. One of the D’Orcs had even managed to knock an ice dragon and lich commander out of the sky with a meteor. Shortly after that, the avatars had taken to the sky with glowing Rods of Energy to begin knocking meteors out of the sky as well.
Ramses shook his head. “I have to say it again. Just as when he battled Talarius, that demon has some odd ideas of combat. Very good ideas, but most unusual.”
“Yes, and now he’s teaching his tricks to the D’Orcs and the avatars of the Five Siblings. I think we need to upgrade his threat potential,” Exador said.
“Threat potential? Of course he’s a threat! He’s the grandson of Zeus! Children of Olympus should always be considered extremely dangerous!” Praelgeis hissed angrily at the archdemons as if they were ignorant children.
“Grandson of Zeus?” Ramses shook his head in surprise. “I thought he was a demon, not a god. And certainly not an Olympian!”
Exador suddenly felt a tad nauseous.
“He is not an Olympian. He refused to join the pantheon,” Baba Smert’ hissed. “He refuses to join any pantheon; he is an Atheist!”
“That seems a bit odd, for a god not to believe in other gods,” Ramses observed.
Baba Smert’s embers darkened for a moment, as if she was closing her eyes in frustration while speaking to a moron. “Not an atheist, but an Atheist, with a capital A,” she hissed.
“An Atheist is someone who does not believe that the gods have divine right to rule over the mortal realms,” Praelgeis explained. “Some even seek to overthrow the gods. The El’adasir believe Orcus is one of these, but the Lords of Chaos are not so convinced.”
“The Lords of Chaos?” Exador asked. “You mean those gods who have refused to sign the Concord of Conciliation?”
“That is not their defining characteristic. Their refusal to sign is a matter of their nature. The Concord of Conciliation is a tool of the Lords of Law; it maintains order within the multiverse. It is therefore contrary to the rather self-explanatory goals of the Lords of Chaos,” Daerth Tromlane explained, once more as if instructing children.
Exador really did not like these foul beings. Unfortunately, overturning the status quo of the Abyss required strange bedfellows. It was most inconvenient.
“Anyway, time for Plan C—or is it Plan D?” Ramses asked, inciting burning red glares and hisses from the three Storm Lords.
Praelgeis shook his head and turned to his general-adjutant. “Have them start assembling the Tomb Gate. We need to establish a gateway to Necropolis.”
Baba Smert’ hissed angrily, “Is that safe? Things here are bad. If they capture it, they can use it to bypass our defenses and strike at the heart of the Necrology!”
“Do we have a choice?” Praelgeis hissed back. “If we are to salvage this, we need to break out the Doom Busters. The only way to get them here before we are all ashes is to use the Tomb Gate.”
Baba Smert’ shook her head, but said nothing.
Praelgeis nodded towards his general-adjutant to proceed.
“Which ones will you use?” Daerth Tromlane asked.
Praelgeis shrugged. “I am open to suggestions. I am not sure we have the mana resources to use more than a few. We were simply not prepared for this situation.”
Chapter 147
Southern Rear Battlefield, Tomb Gate: Pre-Dawn
“That is a seriously big gateway,” Ramses said, shaking his head in awe.
“I will admit that it is impressive wizardry,” Exador said in agreement. “A portal that large which can span the distance to Necropolis? And it’s portable!”
It had taken nearly two hours for Praelgeis’s minions to assemble and test the Tomb Gate, but they now had it open. It was a massive portal, approximately one hundred feet wide and perhaps seventy feet tall. It was also rather unusual-looking. It contained a number of runes that Exador was not familiar with, some of them slightly disturbing.
A large procession of undead ogres was currently pulling a very large platform through the open Tomb Gate, atop of which was what appeared to be an enormous glowing blue crystal sarcophagus limned with mith
ral runes. The sarcophagus was nearly thirty-five feet wide, twenty feet in height and well over one hundred feet long.
“Do you have any idea of what’s in this thing?” Ramses asked.
“No,” Exador replied, shaking his head, “but it appears to be very large, and based on the inscribed wards, very dangerous.” He frowned, nodding to the group of thirteen liches on the front of the platform, who were huddled in discussions. “And apparently rather complex to command and control.”
“Thirteen necromancers for one creature?” Ramses grinned. “I do not envy the Citadel, or Orcus.”
“Something that needs that much control?” Exador replied grimly. “I am not sure I envy us.”
Citadel Command Tower
Vicar General Grob Darkness Slayer and Diocate Aeris had come up to the roof of the central tower that housed the command center to meet with Tom, Targh, Darg-Krallnom and the prophets of the Five Siblings. Tamarin had naturally accompanied them since it was her job to relay communications to them from Tom.
“Dawn approaches,” Grob said, looking to Ashena. “Melona Tramen had planned to open the storm clouds to allow atunlight in before the interdiction. Will you be able to keep the skies clear?”
Ashena nodded. “I can open them, and should be able keep them clear. The Death Cheaters”—she pointed to the other tower where the D’Orc shamans were—“are coordinating with me. They are in contact with local Katsina. It should be a very interesting and powerful combination. However, due to the amount of concentration required, I will not be available for battle.”
Grob nodded. “That’s fine. Full-on atunlight is critical at this point.”
Aeris nodded in agreement.
Grob changed the topic. “What have we learned about the interdiction?”
“Our best clue comes from the sea,” Eileen Sealegs, Prophetess of Namora, said, speaking up.
“Indeed?” Aeris asked.
“There is an arc of ships holding steady at sea that is directly in line with where the surrounding road we found yesterday terminates,” Eileen reported. “Ashena’s people are reporting that there are beacons, small obelisks about ten feet tall, at the edge of the shore, in line with the ships.”
Ashena nodded. “While swatting meteors, I received the report on the beacons and was able to spot additional beacons on the circular road. I believe it is a very unusual warding that is using the beacons instead of a more traditional pentacle.”
Grob nodded. “That would be it. I think we need to break it.”
“We are working on that,” Eileen said. “We believe the simplest mechanism is to break the warding at sea, pull the beacons on ships out of alignment.”
Darg-Krallnom nodded. “Air and sea attacks, then?”
Eileen nodded. “Exactly.”
“That will be—” Fassbindr started to say, but was interrupted by Garion Hearthhand.
“Friends!” Garion exclaimed. “I think you need to see this.” The hearthean was staring to the south.
“What?” Grob asked, turning to stare.
“How far away is that?” Fassbindr asked, sounding rather awed.
“About a third of a league,” Ashena said in a hushed voice, staring at what everyone was looking at.
“Those guys must be very tall,” Aeris said in awe.
Tom shook his head as he stared at the three beings, whose appearance was causing his stomach to twist in both unknown familiarity and revulsion. Three giants. They could only be giants; three one-hundred-foot tall, undead giants.
“I have never seen a giant that tall,” Grob said in awe.
“Those aren’t giants; they are true jötnar, risar,” Darg-Krallnom said grimly.
“The one with the red cheeks and flames for hair is an eldþursi, often mistakenly called a fire giant. The bluish one with the icy hair is an hrímthursi, commonly called a rime giant or frost giant. The third is a vindthursi, mistakenly called a wind giant,” Targh told them.
“I thought all the true jötnar were locked out of Midgard after Ragnarök?” Tom asked, puzzled.
“They were, but these are some sort of abomination,” Targh said. “These, and others like them, were used to smash the cities of the Isle of Doom.”
Darg-Krallnom shook his head almost angrily. “Jötnar are immortals. You cannot reanimate something that cannot die!” Darg-Krallnom looked to Tom, his face ashen with horror. “This should not be possible!”
Targh nodded. “I agree, but impossible or not, they are extremely difficult to defeat.”
“How did you defeat them?” Darg-Krallnom asked.
“We did not. We wore them down over a century of war. Or more precisely, we allowed them to wear us down.” Targh gave a sarcastic laugh. “They would come in and attack cities; we’d repulse them as best we could, albeit after the city was destroyed and thousands had died.” He shook his head. “They require far more work, far more mana to animate, or whatever it is the Storm Lords are doing, than normal undead. Typically, they could only be deployed for a few days at a time before the Storm Lords would retreat with them.”
“You say you let them wear you down?” Darg-Krallnom asked, puzzled.
“We ensured it was not worth the effort to use them. You may have noticed that we did not rebuild the cities and have instead spread ourselves out over a large number of smaller villages?” Targh asked.
“If there is no target large enough to justify the expenditure required to use them, then there is no point in using them!” Tamarin exclaimed enthusiastically.
“Exactly,” Targh agreed.
“So there are three here. Is this typical of what they would use to destroy a city?” Grob asked.
Targh shook his head ruefully. “No. No, they never deployed more than one per city. If they were using multiple risar, they were at different cities.”
“And they are sending three against us?” Aeris asked, looking pale.
“It would seem so,” Targh said.
Southern Battlements, Talarius, Stainsberry: DOA + 20, Dawn
Talarius and Stainsberry both stared south towards the risar. They had rotated in with the coming dawn so that they and their steeds could get some rest. At the Citadel, all soldiers were on rotation schedules, even without a siege. Grob and the other leaders were very careful about keeping soldiers rested. Talarius and Stainsberry had actually been out longer than most, but even they and their steeds had limits.
Talarius shook his head. “Why do they simply stand there?”
“Risar are not supposed to be reanimatable,” Stainsberry replied. “They are immortals, like avatars or deities. Beings of pure animus and mana. If killed permanently, there should be nothing left. There would be no flesh to reanimate.”
“Perhaps, but from what I remember from school, and the discussions of Reggie and the other demons, non-material beings can come to the material world either as physical manifestations created ad hoc by mana, or as true incarnated beings. In the second case, if the animus leaves the body, you would still have a corpse. Correct?” Talarius asked.
Stainsberry nodded, frowning. “Very good point indeed; I had not considered that option. My understanding is that full incarnation is not done that commonly; and fully incarnating the body of a risi would require a lot of mana. Maintaining the body would also require immense amounts of mana.”
“On the other hand,” Talarius replied, “the most effective reanimated undead have the souls of the original owner. That’s the key difference between a simple zombie and, say, a jiangshi or lich. It would seem that if you were going to all the trouble of reanimating something so huge, you would want a higher level of undead, something truly Unlife.”
Stainsberry nodded. “I should think. There certainly seems to be a lot of preparatory work with them.” Both knights had been using the telescopic vision in their visors to inspect what was happening around the risar. They noted that the Storm Lords had thinned the presence of their forces in the path of the risar.
Ta
larius looked up to the central command tower as the wind around them suddenly began blowing heavily. “That’s quite a gust!” the knight exclaimed before moving his jaw to relieve the sudden pressure in his ears.
“Ashena is creating a very high-pressure zone to disperse the cloud cover!” Stainsberry yelled as the wind began to roar, pushing out from the citadel. He pointed over to the second tower, where their enhanced vision could see the Death Cheaters dancing.
“This is quite interesting; the D’Orc shamans are working with Ashena. Two very different methods of weather manipulation. This should be very difficult for the Storm Lords to counteract,” Stainsberry noted.
“It’s putting a big damper on the air game as well!” Talarius said, pointing overhead, where the various airborne combatants were retreating on both sides. Flying would be difficult for anyone, but particularly for winged beings and carpets.
“Not sure if these winds will last the day or not,” Stainsberry yelled over the wind to Talarius.
“This world is upside down!” Talarius yelled back at Stainsberry. “A prophetess of Krinna coordinating with D’Orcs from Mount Doom? It upends everything I grew up believing!”
Stainsberry laughed and clapped Talarius on the back. “Is it more upending than a Knight Rampant of Tiernon leading the Forces of Doom into battle? I swear that is why I love this literally god-forsaken world! The normal rules do not apply here! Anything is possible!”
Talarius grinned behind his visor, feeling the best he had felt in a very long time. True, he was exhausted from battling atunset to atunrise, but it was a good exhaustion, a righteous exhaustion that he had not felt in a very long time. Glancing to the sky, he opened his visor to feel the returning light of Atun upon his face, even as he noted sudden bursts of flame from the surrounding army as unprotected vampires and vampyrs began bursting into flames. What a glorious morning!