03- The Apostles of Doom

by J. Langland

  “I have no idea,” Stainsberry said, shaking his head.

  “Do you fly on your own?” Talarius asked.

  “Belt of Flying. Really not safe to have an aerial steed without one,” Stainsberry said.

  Talarius grinned at the other knight and nodded in agreement. “Let’s go to the command tower and coordinate with Grob,” he suggested.

  Stainsberry nodded and the two launched themselves into the air, speeding upward to the central tower.

  “Whoa!” Stainsberry yelled as they approached the command tower. “That thing is twice the size of the others!”

  “This is going to be bad!” Talarius yelled back to the other knight. “We need to head straight for the southern wall.”

  “I don’t think we can stop that thing!” Stainsberry yelled as the two shifted course for the oncoming mountain of giant flesh that was charging the wall.

  “What kind of risar is it?” Talarius yelled.

  “By its size, I’d guess a bergrisi, a mountain giant,” Stainsberry shouted back.

  “Does it turn to stone?” Talarius asked, thinking of what the other giants had done.

  “That would be my guess,” Stainsberry said. “Did you see the stone plates it has strapped to itself as armor?”

  “We need to get people off that wall!” Talarius yelled.

  “I know; I am hoping that others will realize that. I am going to try to slow it down!” Stainsberry said as they approached the wall. The giant was about one thousand feet away and closing very quickly.

  The Knight Magus pulled his staff from over his shoulder and took aim at the bergrisi. “Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” he chanted.

  The air was suddenly rent by a giant arc of the bluest lightning imaginable. The thunder crash behind the lightning was tremendous. Talarius was much closer to it this time; his visor darkened to shield his eyes. The giant took a direct hit to the chest, knocking it off course but still heading forward.

  It stumbled into the moat and screamed in pain before slamming into the base of the wall with an earth-shaking crash. Several people on the wall were knocked over.

  Talarius and Stainsberry landed. “Everyone! Get off the wall!” Talarius shouted, drawing his bow.

  “Evacuate the wall!” Stainsberry shouted in the other direction.

  Talarius fired at the bergrisi. His Holy Lightning Arrow struck, causing the giant to wince. A very small burn mark appeared on the giant’s arm. “This is going to take a lot of arrows. Blast it again!”

  “I will, but I haven’t recharged since returning. I’ve got maybe three or four more strikes before it’s drained,” Stainsberry replied as Talarius fired off another arrow.

  The giant was getting to its feet. It suddenly leaped back across the moat and began running away. “I seriously hope it’s not going back to gather momentum!” Talarius shouted.

  “Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Blue Lightning raced through the air and struck the giant in the back, shoving it forward and off balance.

  Suddenly two more two-hundred-foot-tall giants, knights in glowing plate mail (one of whom was very stout) expanded on the battlefield behind the bergrisi. The two knights raced after the giant, squashing Unlife troops beneath their feet.

  “By the power of Riven Rock, I smite thee!” the burly knight screamed, swinging a giant hammer at the head of the bergrisi. The hammer struck the giant in the head, releasing a blinding flash of light. Talarius’s visor darkened briefly, protecting his eyes.

  The bergrisi reeled left with the impact’s momentum as the second knight attempted to skewer it on his hundred-foot-long glowing sword. Unfortunately, even as he struck the giant shifted, becoming what appeared to be a two-hundred-foot tall stone golem; the knight’s sword screeched painfully along its stone surface.

  “Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Once more, Blue Lightning arced from Stainsberry’s staff to the bergrisi, this time causing a small explosion of stone as it struck the stone golem.

  “I’m going to rive your rock, giant!” the large knight, who Talarius now realized must be Saint Hilda, screamed as she once more smashed the giant, this time in the chest. An explosion of powdered stone rose from the impact site, and the stone golem stumbled back reeling. Far less dexterous in is stone form, it tottered for a moment and then fell over onto several squadrons of ghouls and ghasts.

  Talarius shook his head. From this distance he could not hear the screams, but he imagined it was horrible. The size and scope of this battle, along with their resources, had sort of shielded him from the very real horror of battling the Unlife. Yes, these ghouls were foul, infected creatures, but they were mortals; the devastation of the crushed ghouls was thus still stomach turning.

  The giant shifted to its flesh form in order to get up. The other giant knight struck at the bergrisi’s exposed elbow, slicing deeply and causing a roar of anger and pain from the giant as it stood.

  “Aim for the eyes!” Stainsberry told Talarius.

  Talarius nodded. They were at a very long range, but his Holy Lightning Arrows were not subject to the normal laws of gravity and air resistance. He focused with his visor and began releasing a quick volley. Three struck before the giant was able to turn enough to shield his eyes.

  The giant took off running away from the wall once more, the two knights in pursuit. The giant edged left, even as the army at the edge of the cleared path began frantically trying to flee the region as the giant drew near them.

  Talarius blinked in surprise as a very large zombie dragon suddenly appeared, diving out of the sky to attack Hilda. The dragon was about one-half the size of giant-Hilda, but still quite deadly.

  “Crap, here come more!” Stainsberry said as a two-hundred-foot-long serpentine dragon zombie came down and began wrapping itself around the other giant knight.

  The dragons, and now a flock of pterosaurs, were viciously attacking the giant knights, allowing the running bergrisi to get further ahead and begin doubling back. The giant was soon charging towards the wall of the citadel again. Unfortunately, the giant undead beasts attacking the two knights were taking all their attention.

  “Well, it looks like I’ve found a good use for my last lightning bolt,” Stainsberry said as he took aim at the approaching giant. “I’m going to give it a moment to get closer for a stronger hit.”

  Talarius nodded, scanning the battlements to make sure everyone was gone. He stepped back to peer down inside and saw people quickly moving away from the wall. He nodded and drew his bow again, aiming at the giant’s eyes once more, and began a new barrage.

  “Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Stainsberry shouted, even as the bergrisi shifted into a thundering stone golem charging the wall. The bolt crashed into the stone golem, causing a hail of powdered rock to fall on whatever was left below it, but its momentum did not seem to be affected.

  “Brace for impact!” Talarius shouted as loudly as he could, using his helm’s power to magnify his voice. He and Stainsberry moved above the wall.

  Talarius glanced back; the outer courtyard for this region was almost clear. People were fleeing through the gate in the inner wall. The battle was about to move inside the outer wall.

  KABOOM!!!

  The entire citadel rocked as the two-hundred-foot tall stone golem bergrisi crashed into the one-hundred-and-fifty-foot outer wall. A deafening rumble followed as the outer wall began to collapse under the impact.

  Interdiction Road

  “This is not good!” Ramses cursed. He and Exador were busy trying to stabilize the interdiction. The destruction of the Tomb Gate had sent multi-spatial ripples through the entire area. That had been the disorienting reality warp accompanying the explosive destruction of the gate.

  Those ripples had disrupted the beacons and they were s
crambling to restabilize them. However, it was now being complicated by the fact that while Atun was shining brightly on the battlefield, the sea where the beacon ships were sailing was incredibly stormy.

  His demons were reporting that the winds were dangerously high and that the sails had been furled and the ships battened down. On top of this, the seas themselves were experiencing huge waves that appeared to be independent of the wind.

  Exador shook his head. There could be no question that the avatars of Krinna and Namora were trying to break the interdiction. However, one problem at a time, Exador reminded himself.

  Citadel of Light, Southern Wall

  “What the…?” Tom shouted as the Citadel behind him shook against his back. There had been a tremendous crashing sound, and now he could hear what sounded like a rock slide in the distance.

  Tom had his back against the wall, once more wrestling the frost giant. Targh and his team were currently beset by a huge swarm of flying undead monsters. He had thought they’d made good progress over the night in killing off the large flying zombies, but apparently they’d found reserves.

  “That sounded like an outer wall collapsing!” Darg-Krallnom shouted. I’ve heard it many times before. I prefer the sound when I am the one doing the crashing!”

  Tom grunted as the frost giant managed to pin him to the ground. Inethya was busy trying to contain the wind giant with the help of Morok Death Stealer. Morok had somehow managed to get his lichtshwert to function in a magical realm. The interesting thing was that it could actually hurt the wind giant in its aerial form.

  Morok’s regiment was there as well. Now that the giants were more solidly focused on the wall, the Army of the Night—or at least, the daylight capable part of it—had reengaged in combat. Morok’s squadron was keeping them at bay.

  “Lich farts from the depths!” Darg-Krallnom shouted, and Tom glanced his way. The fire giant had just flamed and leaped to the top of the wall.

  “Shit!” The giant was about to enter the Citadel and he was pinned down. He whipped his tail around and jabbed the frost giant with everything he had, concentrating the funneled lightning from the Doom of Nysegard through his tail. He’d never tried this before, but it was worth a shot.

  The frost giant’s armor was crackling with electricity, and it finally let go of him to get away from his tail. Tom rested for a moment, thinking. They needed a new tactic; this wasn’t working. He glanced up to see several avatars attacking the fire giant on the top of the wall. Even so, he could detect screams of mortals being hurt by the giant stomping on them.

  He’d had several more opportunities to examine the risar. They were physical bodies that were reanimated, much like a zombie, but with far more bindings than any of the zombies he’d seen. The dark tendrils that crawled beneath their skin seemed to be both a shield from attacks like Inethya’s as well as a container for the antimus inside. He had also confirmed that there was some small core of animus inside the bodies. That was not something he had seen in any of the other animated undead or Unlife.

  Tom suspected that the animus inside was the true soul of the risar; that it was trapped in an Unlife prison, unable to break free. He needed to be able to cleanse the antimus, burn away the dark tendrils and hopefully release the trapped animus.

  The problem was that the black tendrils were more than capable of blocking divine magic. He needed to be able to pierce the tendril shield and get something inside the giants. He needed, he suddenly realized, Excrathadorus Mortis. Tom blasted the frost giant with fire from the Wand and began making his way to Inethya. “Inethya, do you have a link to Iskerus?” he shouted.

  “Yes. Why?” the prophetess shouted back as she swung her sword at the wind giant.

  “I need to find Excrathadorus Mortis—I left it with the arch-diocate,” Tom shouted.

  Inethya grimaced as she dodged a fist, and then she nodded. “Give me a moment.”

  Roth Tar Gorefest slugged the frost giant in the location its kidneys should be. Ice armor crinkled with the impact.

  “Bad news!” Inethya shouted. “He says it vanished from its heavily warded container. Vanished with no trace and without any seals being broken.”

  Tom was still blasting the frost giant as Roth Tar Gorefest struck again.

  “How is that possible?” Tom shouted to Inethya.

  “I have no idea! Divine Intervention?” She shrugged, refocusing on her own battle.

  Divine Intervention? If she was a prophetess, an avatar, what would she mean by something so vague as Divine Intervention? It made no sense. Tom shook his head; it suddenly made sense. She meant that Tiernon himself must have taken it.

  “Shit!” Tom cursed again. The fire was still not working. He swapped the fire for a sustained electrical blast. This thing’s armor was unreal.

  If Tiernon took it, it would be in Tierhallon. How the hell would he get it back? Did he just ask Tiernon to return it? That didn’t seem particularly likely at the moment. He was going to need to get it himself. Of course, he had no idea where Tierhallon was, so that was a bust.

  Tom frowned, thinking. Wasn’t Tiernon’s god pool in Tierhallon? Could he follow a link to Tierhallon and find it? He’d had a link to Excrathadorus Mortis. He’d turned it off, but if he got close enough, based on what he’d read in Freehold, he should have no problem reconnecting to it. He just needed to get close enough.

  “Roth Tar Gorefest! Can you handle this guy, keep him down while I work on something else?” Tom shouted to his commander.

  “We can!” the commander replied and gestured for several of his subordinates to join the battle. Big as the giants were, only so many could fight them at once before getting in each other’s way.

  Tom nodded and took off into the air. As soon as he got to a good position above the fray, he reached towards the kilt pouches on his arm. Crap! The arrows would be too small for him at this size. Tom returned to his normal size and began fastening his kilt on his waist, his tail holding the Rod of Tommus. Finally, he got one of the arrow-darts of Tiernon out and he began looking for Inethya’s link. He was going to have to drill into her link and then go through Beragamos to get to Tierhallon. He was not sure what that would take. He could see her link; it was quite wide and strong compared to what the priests had had.

  He tossed the arrow, funneling himself through it as he’d done several times now, and locked it into the stream. Don’t panic! I give you my oath, my word of honor, that no harm shall come to Tiernon, nor his avatars! Tom told Inethya, who jerked in surprise as she felt his intrusion. He could feel her shock—horror even—at his violation. I am very sorry, but I need to do something drastic if we are to defeat these risar, he said. He winced as the wind giant pounded her face with his fist. Her guard was down; she was distracted by Tom’s actions. He hoped she wouldn’t fight him; he wanted to get in and out fast.

  Tom swayed suddenly with massive vertigo. What was happening? Was Inethya fighting back? He shook his head as he felt links shifting inside the Rod of Tommus. “The interdiction is broken!” he shouted. “We are all at full power!” That was the vertigo! Inethya’s link now went straight up to the Outer Planes without routing through Beragamos.

  Tom raced up the link with his mind, up into the sky above, going where he had not previously gone. He blinked, reeling as he suddenly found his astral self in a very strange place. It was like being in some sort of house of mirrors. That was the only way he could describe it, but he had no idea what that description actually meant.

  He had very little time; he was certain his intrusion would be detected. He felt for Excrathadorus Mortis, allowing his mind to expand, willing the link to activate. Where is it? There it is! The blade was in some sort of bubble of stability. In a non-mirrored area, if that made sense. Actually, nothing made sense here; the mirror thing was simply a metaphor for how he experienced the place.

  He reached out to Excrathadorus Mortis and solidified the link. He could now understand the bubble a bit better. Excrathador
us Mortis was a physical object in a non-physical place. The bubble was some sort of pocket universe or something. This was more instinctive rationalization than anything he actually knew. But what was clear was that he could open a true gateway into the bubble to bring the dagger physically through to Nysegard.

  As Tom did so, a small ring of fire appeared before him on Nysegard. Tom reached his free hand through and grabbed his dagger. My dagger! he suddenly realized. It was his dagger. It had slain Orcus, had nearly slain him, and he had remolded it, he had remade it in his own (and admittedly, Tiernon’s) image. It had been Tiernon’s mana after all, wielded by himself.

  Tom pulled the dagger through the hole in reality even as he let his mind race back down Inethya’s link. He closed the hole to find Inethya staring at him in anger from about five feet away.

  “What in creation’s name did you just do?” Inethya yelled at him in fury.

  “I retrieved my dagger from Tierhallon,” Tom said matter-of-factly.

  “You cannot invade my link and ride it to Tierhallon to steal things!” Inethya was definitely pissed.

  For some reason, perhaps guilt at his invasion of her link, Tom also got angry. “Why not?” he snapped. “It’s my dagger. My stepbrother had it, and he seriously owes me one! I’ve known him longer than you’ve been an avatar. This is between him and me. If he has a problem with me doing this, well, he knows where I live.”

  Inethya blinked in shock, not fully comprehending what Tom had just said.

  Tom grinned at her despite his anger. “Now, I have work to do. I’m about to fix this situation.”

  He dove down towards the frost giant, the Rod of Tommus wrapped in his tail, Excrathadorus Mortis in his right hand. Keep him distracted, his back to me at all costs! Tom instructed Roth Tar Gorefest.

  Tom once again linked the two Fire Portals in Nysegard to the two Fire Portals in Doom. He then connected them to Excrathadorus Mortis, causing the blade to burst into flame. He shifted the blade into a two-handed stabbing position and crash-landed onto the frost giant’s back. Tom plunged the large, glowing, fiery blade into the giant’s back, right between the shoulder blades. The fire of four Fire Portals concentrated on a single, relatively tiny spot, burning through the icy armor.