Moonlight War- Act II (The Realmers Book 3)

by William Collins

  “Ssh, Holdron.” The old man hushed the demon as if he was an unruly dog.

  “That’s not a Dread Lord,” Sintian scoffed. “It’s a powerful high-demon, and the monkey-thing is its familiar. But it just shows, this idiotic cult doesn’t know half as much about the demonic as they think they do.”

  “How can you tell?” he asked.

  “Remember how you felt a few minutes ago, when the Asharon appeared?”

  Evan nodded. “I get what you mean.” The air of power and menace the Asharon exuded had almost been equal to what he felt in the presence of Kurrlan. He could sense great power in Holdron, but not on Kurrlan’s level.

  “And besides,” said Sintian. “A Dread Lord couldn’t be summoned and controlled like this. I’m surprised such amateurs can contain this one. But that proves it, that Asharon definitely wasn’t in the employ of this cult. So why was it here?” Sintian stared at him, his eyes narrowed.

  “It must be because of the Quantem crown,” he said quickly. “It’s so powerful that even a Demon Disciple wants it.”

  “Could be,” Sintian said slowly. “All the more reason we need to get that Gem, and quick, just in case more Asharon show up.”

  Evan felt nauseous again. It hadn’t occurred to him that more Asharon would come, not for the Gem he was sure, but for him. Rueda, what if the Disciple himself came for him.

  “C’mon,” Sintian said. “We can’t wait any longer, we need that Gem. But damn it,” he hesitated. “Bane has our Rambrace, we can’t just keep running around the temple forever, especially with all the traps in this place. Maybe we can snag the Gem and then escape into the jungle.”

  “I can get the Gem with these,” Evan gestured to his new boots. “They have a built-in camouflage spell. That will save us some sorcery for battling the cultisits. But then how would Bane and Emi find us in the jungle?” he finished miserably, realising the fault in their plan. “Maybe we should come back once we’ve reunited with the others?”

  “No,” Sintian said. “We need to steal the Gem whilst we can.”

  Their arguing was interrupted when the cultists started shouting, reacting to a group of newcomers.

  Shock shot through him as he saw a struggling Bane and Emi being carried into hall by a number of unmasked cultists.

  An orc and two human cultists dragged Bane between them, whilst an elf and two gnomes pushed a terrified Emillia before them.

  “This one killed two of our number,” the orcish cultist snarled, his arm wrapped around Bane’s neck. “They have sorcery my Bringer, a different kind to our necromancers.”

  “Hmm.” The old man shuffled forward, peering at Bane and Emi as if they were two rats his men had discovered in the larder. “What are you then, Wizards? Clerics? Or are you some of those pesky Paladins who tried to bring us down before?”

  “All of the above.” Bane smirked.

  “Sacrifice them,” one cultist bellowed.

  “Ah yes,” the Bringer cooed, “but no need to bleed them out like usual, with Holdron here we can sacrifice them directly.”

  “Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!” The cultists chanted in unison, many of them giggling in delight.

  “Holdron,” the old man cried. “I summoned you here to lead our attack on Gno-Arin city, but first, how would you like a treat? I gift these children to you, my lord.”

  Holdron grunted in approval, although he still scowled at the Bringer. “They will serve nicely. I have not feasted on humans since you last brought me some.”

  “See.” The Bringer grinned. “I know you see me as a friend really, an equal.”

  “We have to help them.” Evan tried not to let panic overwhelm him. “We have to try and free Emi and Bane, even if we die trying.”

  The situation was dire. They’d be up against cultists, necromancers and a high-demon, but he couldn’t stand here and watch Emi and Bane be sacrificed.

  “I know,” said Sintian. “We have no choice but to just ambush them all. The element of surprise might be enough for all of us to get out of this.”

  The two of them got to their feet, preparing to jump off the bridge. Evan couldn’t see another way to get into the hall quickly.

  “Use Driftdrop before you land,” Sintian advised. “So we don’t want snap our legs in half.”

  Evan nodded nervously. He’d only used the Driftdrop spell a few times in air-element class, and never from this height.

  The cultists marched Bane and Emi up onto the dais, toward Holdron.

  “Thank you all,” Bane called out. “This temple was quite tricky to navigate, so thank you for leading us directly to the Gem we came for. Now Emi!”

  The cultists holding Bane recoiled abruptly as electricity sparked around him. A second later, Bane’s sword was in his hands and being driven into a cultist’s stomach.

  “Come on,” Evan cried, jumping from the bridge. He dropped like a stone, speeding toward the stone paving slabs below. He’d already started working the air element before he jumped, and it was a good thing too, as the Driftdrop spell only slowed him down when he was feet above the ground.

  The effect was similar to using a parachute, with Evan’s body jerking up as the spell took hold, and then drifted to the floor, instead of smashing into it. His legs still jarred as he hit, though, and his knees clicked like a gunshot.

  Sintian dropped beside him a moment later, and both of them unsheathed their swords simultaneously. The cultists were focused on Bane and Emi, and not a single one had noticed he and Sintian land right behind them.

  “Let’s get ‘em,” Sintian snarled, conjuring energy magic in his free hand.

  Evan followed suit, but summoned a fireball instead, before throwing it at the feet of a cluster of cultists, as if it were a grenade.

  His fireball hit a group of six cultists in an explosion of flames, setting their robes alight. The cultists shrieked in shock, bumping into one another and spreading the fire. Even as the wider group noticed Evan and Sintian’s arrival, Sintian had already thrown a powerful energy spell which blasted several more cultists off of their feet.

  “More of them,” one worshipper cried.

  “There’s so many,” another wailed.

  “They have evil magic, run for your lives,” a third cultist screamed.

  The worshippers in blue scattered to all four corners of the chamber, scrabbling for an escape, the green robed cultists, however, began their necromancy. To Evan’s surprise, the normal cultists appeared terrified of the fact he and his companions had sorcery, the necromancers were less alarmed.

  By the time Evan realised the necromancers enchanted gloves were glowing with an ethereal blue, they’d already galvanised the bodies laying on the slabs at the chamber’s edge.

  He flinched as the cadaver nearest to him, a skeleton with only a few scraps of skin clinging to its bones, sat up straight. The skeleton then hopped off its slab and stumbled toward him, its jaw hanging loose as it admitted a dry croaking sound.

  “Holy crap,” Evan muttered to himself.

  The skeleton clutched a rusty iron dagger in its hand and raised it high to plunge into Evan’s chest. He danced away from the blow, however, and then slashed with his own sword, hacking off one of the skeleton’s arms. The bone fell to the floor with a rattle, but the skeleton came on, not reacting to its lost limb. Evan parried its sword strike this time, then hurled an energy ball into the cadaver’s ribcage. The ribs burst apart into countless pieces, and the skeletons skull bounced across the stones.

  “What is this?” The Bringer’s reedy voice bellowed out. “Who are these intruders? Kill them, kill them all. Holdron, help us!”

  Evan saw that each necromancer had fled to the corners of the chamber, where they gestured wildly with their enchanted gloves. The bodies they’d reanimated moved in whatever direction the necromancer’s hands gestured. The corpses were marionettes and the necromancers were the puppeteers.

  Emillia fended off a putrefied enemy, her sword flailing to count
er as the corpse attempted to jab her with a halberd, whilst Sintian was busy pounding another decomposing carcass into mush.

  Evan heard a choked moaning behind him and whirled just as another galvanised carcass groped for him. This one was blackened; its body charred to a crisp, even its eyes had melted. He jerked Ruaden swiftly, hacking off the outstretched hand. The hand fell to the floor with a squelch, but came on like a black tarantula, grasping for Evan’s boot. He stomped down on the hand as he drove his blade up into the burned corpse’s stomach and out through its back. The body still wriggled toward him, though, unaffected. Evan grunted in disgust, pulling his sword back out with a squelch and kicking the corpse away. It dawned on him that it was useless battling enemies that were already dead; it was the necromancers who needed to be eliminated.

  “Hordlon, why aren’t you doing anything?” The Bringer cried, staring up at the high-demon, who’d watched the battle without moving.

  “Hordlon, I command you to vanquish these foes.” The Bringer roared furiously.

  Hordlon sighed, stepping from the dais and preparing to kill them all. At first Evan thought Bane had gone insane, as he ran right toward the demon on his own. But Bane then sidestepped Hordlon and jumped up on the dais. He ran to the stone basin and kicked the salt circle apart.

  “Oi, Hordlon, you’re free mate,” Bane addressed the monster.

  Hordlon turned right back around, both his mouths grinning widely. The Bringer had been watching the demon, transfixed, and hadn’t noticed that Bane had broken his ritual.

  “Ha, nice try intruder, but I own Hordlon, he obeys only me, not you.”

  The high-demon stepped back on the dais, towering over the stooped old man.

  “Hordlon, what are you doing, I told you to attack them. Not-“

  The Bringer suddenly looked to Bane’s feet, seeing the broken salt circle.

  “No! What have you done?”

  The old man stood upright, no longer pretending to be stooped and frail. He then sprinted across the dais away from both Bane and the demon. He snatched up the Gem of Quantem and jumped off the dais’s side. The Bringer scrambled desperately with a Rambrace, managing to summon a portal. But before he could escape through the gateway between worlds, Holdron’s minion came out of nowhere to steal the Rambrace out of his hands and drive the old man back, right into Holdron’s path.

  “Holdron, you fool,” The Bringer snarled. “Your magic can’t harm me whilst I hold the Gem. Now, do as your told and obey me, before I subject you to a century of torture.”

  Holdron’s chuckle was a deep rumble that echoed around the chamber. “I need no magic to kill you.”

  “But, I-” The Bringer’s eyes went wide and he let forth an ear-splitting scream as Holdron’s hands clamped onto his head, the demon’s curved nails sinking deep. Holdron kept on chuckling as he tore the Bringer’s head off his shoulders. The Gem of Quantem hit the floor with a thud, followed shortly by the Bringer’s body.

  The cultists filled the great hall with screams now, even the necromancers were rattled. Every single one of them attempted to flee the chamber, but Hordlon ran into their midst, pulling off a multitude of body parts. The cultists begged for mercy, or pled their allegiance, but the demon they worshipped ate their limbs nonetheless.

  One necromancer couldn’t escape through a side door in time and gestured wildly, urging a re-animated corpse to attack the high-demon. Holdron simply batted the empty vessel way, before seizing the necromancer by his enchanted gloves and ripping them off. At first Evan thought Holdron simply yanked the necromancer’s gloves off, then he saw two stumps where the death-wizard’s hands had been, jetting out blood like twin fountains.

  As Holdron massacred the cult who’d summoned him, Sintian had edged ever closer to the Gem. Just as he was about to snatch it up, Holdron’s pet demon streaked past him, grabbing the Gem and scurrying to his master.

  Holdron turned away from his latest victim, a foot hanging from one of his mouths, as his minion gave him the Gem.

  “Ahhh,” Holdron sighed pleasurably. “So this is what you’re all after? Sorry humans, but you must die too.”

  Evan was at the other end of the chamber to Holdron, out of his sight. He took his chance and threw a volt of lightning at the monster, hoping to surprise him. The lightning merely bounced off of Holdron’s shoulder, however, before disintegrating.

  “The gem protects him,” Sintian shouted. “Our magic can’t hurt him whilst he has it.”

  “Then I’ll just use my sword,” Bane growled, running toward the High-demon.

  Bane swiped low, aiming to slice the monster’s hamstring. But Holdron interrupted Bane mid-strike, fling out his arm. As the demon’s arm jabbed toward Bane the green slickness that covered it flew out in droplets. Bane was forced to abandon his sword-strike and leap away. Even so the bright droplets sprayed across his armour, eating away at the material at once.

  “Hold still!” said Sintian, feverishly splashing water magic over Bane’s chest armour before the demon acid seeped through the armour and melted his skin.

  Both Venators then dived to either side as Holdron threw more demon acid. This time the toxic liquid splattered across the floor, burning the stone with a hiss.

  Evan jogged up behind the demon, Ruaden raised. Without his sorcery, the task of killing a high-demon seemed impossible, but he’d been taught that all demons could be killed if you destroyed the heart or brain.

  Holdron was focused on Sintian and Bane, he hadn’t noticed Evan at all. When he was only feet away, ready to plunge Ruaden into the monster’s back, the minion returned, running inhumanly fast at Evan’s feet, causing him to trip over and sprawl to the ground, directly beside Holdron.

  The demon looked at him with a smirk on both his mouths. He lifted a dripping foot, ready to bring it crashing down on Evan’s head. He thought fast, frantically stabbing the red button on his new boots. He turned corporeal at once, and Holdron’s foot passed through Evan’s head instead of squashing it to a pulp. Evan rolled out of the way as Sintian attacked, hacking at Holdron’s leg, which emitted a spray of bright green blood. Holdron howled, reeling back to Sintian.

  With the ghost enchantment the boots had given him, Ruaden was impossible to pick up, so Evan pressed the green button to return his body to normal. Before he could get to his feet, however, Holdron’s minion pounced on his chest and attempted to maul off his face.

  Evan writhed, throwing a powerful Stunner spell. The minion flew off and hit the ground, unconscious.

  Unfortunately, Holdron was dominating both Bane and Sintian. Before Sintian could hack at his legs again, Holdron bashed him in the head with the Gem itself, before throwing more acid that landed on Sintian’s gauntlets.

  Sintian quickly backed up to douse his gloves with water magic before the acid got to his skin, leaving Bane at Holdron’s mercy.

  Bane was on all fours and dazed by the blow to the head, the high-demon stood over him, claws stretched out to pierce Sintian’s skull, just like they had the Bringer.

  Suddenly Holdron froze, still as a statue. His expression went slack and he slowly fell flat on his face, a spiked mace sticking out the back of his head. A shocked Emi stood behind the demon, tentatively retrieving her weapon from the monster’s skull.

  Evan had been in the act of getting to his feet, but collapsed as the demon died.

  At last, it’s over. We did it.

  All the cultists were either dead or had managed to flee before being eaten, and the only sound in the hall was the four Venators laboured breathing.

  “Well… well done Emi.” He smiled at her weakly.

  “Thanks,” Emillia replied, her voice small and shocked.

  The portal the Bringer had activated still swirled to the side of the chamber, reminding Evan that it was a good idea to find for former cult leader’s Rambrace, in case it fell into the wrong hands.

  “Good mission guys,” Sintian said, after he finished cleaning his gauntlets of demon acid. �
��Although I’ll be telling the Master I was the one who killed the High-demon.” Sintian smirked at Emi’s look of outrage as he picked up the Gem of Quantem, which had lain abandoned beside Hordlon’s head, lying in a puddle of gooey green blood.

  Bane got to his feet, shaking the cobwebs from inside his head. “Rueda, am I glad this cursed mission is over. I blame being with inexperienced Venators for the amount of injuries I’ve occurred.”

  “Well, it was Emillia who killed the high-demon, and she saved you in the process.” Evan pointed out.

  Bane just scowled at him.

  “Whoa, it’s lighter than I expected.” Sintian said, holding the Gem before him.

  Suddenly, a shape swooped through the air to land on Sintian’s head. Sintian swore loudly as Holdron’s demonic pet snatched the Gem from his grasp. The monster had obviously recovered from Evan’s Stunner and was now running across the hall, their mission objective clutched to his chest.

  He ran toward the minion, Bane and Emi close on his heels, but before any of them could stop him, the koala-monkey ran and leaped straight through the portal at the end of the chamber, vanishing from this world.

  “No!” Bane roared. “After him, now!” Bane dived into the portal.

  “But we don’t know where the portal leads,” Evan said

  “Who cares,” Sintian snarled, grabbing him by the neck and pushing him through.

  Evan was consumed by the portal, leaving one bizarre world and falling straight into another.

  Chapter 40- Manslaughter

  Jacko swung for Taija with his handful of flames. Taija leaped back instinctively, feeling the fire a hairsbreadth away from her face.

  “What the hell are you doing?” She cried, backing away.

  Is this a joke? How did he do that with his hands.

  “Your-your hand is on fire.” She pointed stupidly.

  Jacko came at her again, his lips hooked into the ugliest smile she'd ever seen. “Of course it is.” Jacko wiggled his flaming fingers. “This, little girl, is magic.” He conjured more flames in his other hand and lunged at her. This time, she jumped to the side, simultaneously smacking him in the face.