by Dante King
Here, he glanced around fearfully again. A look of sudden pain crossed his face. “Agh! It comes again! Leofwine of Saxe, you are the warrior who can claim the power of my Helm. You must claim it, and drive the vile taint from the land!”
Suddenly, he raised both hands and clawed at the space around him. The air around him was foggy and vague, and there was no clear definition to anything except his figure and mine, and the intricately carved marble slabs of the floor. And yet as I watched, a black mist gathered around Ironside’s feet. It trickled upward, inexorable as an incoming tide across flat sands. It wrapped around his shoulders, tendrils of darkness flicking out toward his mouth and his eyes.
The sight of this proud and noble warrior fumbling in rising terror at the encroaching mist raised a sudden and powerful anger in me. Without thought, I flung out one hand before me and ran at him. To my surprise, a sudden bright light shone from my hand. It bathed Ironside in white light, almost painfully bright, and the black mist was pushed away from him. The evil mist gathered together, until it was like a twisted humanoid form that loomed over Ironside.
“Back, daemon!” I roared as I ran past the warrior and crashed into the figure of mist. Wild light flashed and flared from my hands and I grabbed it, feeling greasy, slippery skin in my hands. There was a high-pitched, inhuman scream of pain, and through it a deep snarling voice roared at me. It sounded not like one voice, but a hundred all shouting in unison.
“Soul Binder!” the huge voice roared. For one long moment, I was surrounded by oily black mist, and I felt it pressing on me from all sides. From deep within myself, I felt a raw and ruthless power arise, and it burst from me in a blaze of white light, suffusing every fiber of my being with pure power.
Then it was gone.
“You defeated it! You did what I could not!” It was Ironside. He stood by me, one gauntleted hand on my arm, and his face was no longer pale or afraid.
“It was the Festering!” I said. “The Festering in physical form!”
“It was. When it corrupted my Helm and drew upon my power, it disturbed my rest and brought me back to the realm that sits on the cusp between death and life. But you have broken its grip on me, and my Helm will be yours now! I pass to you my power, my skill in battle, and my mighty soul-bound armor! Go well, now, Leofwine! Cleanse the world of the Festering wherever you find it! Free us, the great warriors of ancient days, from the corrupting influence of the evil Festering, and glory in our power! Farewell.... farewell!”
Before my eyes, he withdrew, leaning backward into the mist as if all the weight had gone out of him. His face became still, and his shape became formless and vanished even as his final farewell echoed around the strange, gray, liminal space.
There was a moment of blackness, and then, as sudden as a lightning bolt, my consciousness slammed back into my body.
The explosion of energy which accompanied my return to the battle scene took me by surprise. There was a boom like a thunderclap, and an expanding blast of bright energy swept like an enormous ripple outward from my body. It washed over Cara, but it hit the encircling ratmen with the force of a cavalry charge. The foul creatures were blasted away from us in every direction.
Cara’s arrow was knocked off course and spun ineffectually away into the darkness. The ratman commander lay stunned, twitching on the ground. Cara was nocking a fresh arrow to her bow as she turned her head to look at me in amazement. There was no time to explain, and not a moment to lose.
I reached into the coffin and grabbed the Helm. As my fingers closed around the cold metal, there was a sighing noise, and the bones, the axes, and the rest of the armor in the sarcophagus all crumbled into dust. I heard the voice of Ironside echoing in my mind as I lifted the shining Helm. “Go well, warrior, and cleanse the land of the Festering wherever you find it.”
“You can count on me,” I promised that voice.
I placed the Helm of Ironside upon my head. Immediately, I felt the power of the great warrior’s ancient relic wash through me. There was a noise like the snapping around of a key in a well-oiled lock, and as I looked down at myself, I saw my own armor transformed, as if a cloak of liquid metal were flowing down over it, solidifying into a new suit of armor. As the thick plates clicked into place, I felt new strength run into my limbs.
The darkness cleared, and I could see every detail of the scene around me. I felt taller, my arms and legs felt longer, my chest seemed broader, and energy quivered through every sinew of my body.
The axe in my hand shimmered and changed. It was no longer my familiar double-headed battle-axe; now it had a huge curved blade on one side, and a hammerhead on the other, carved in the likeness of a snarling wolf’s head. From the top of the axe a footlong spike protruded.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that my twinned one handed axes were still crossed on my back, but they, and the belt of nine throwing axes which hung at my hip, also had undergone a transformation. They were cleaner and brighter as if they were all freshly polished, they were all bigger, and each one had the motif of a snarling wolf on the blade.
Through his ancient magical Helm, I had claimed the Persona of Theodoric Ironside.
Cara was staring at me in frank amazement, but she did not stop to ask questions. The ratmen around us were getting to their feet again. The big Commander had retreated a little way, and now he pushed back his hood to reveal that his head was mutated into a mass of writhing tentacles. They whipped around angrily behind him as he pointed to us.
“Destroy them!” he screeched in his high rat’s voice.
In a wave, the rats came rushing forward. Cara pulled a black bottle from her potion belt and tugged the stopper free with her teeth. She had her bow, and a nocked arrow, held in her right hand. Holding the potion bottle in her left, she poured a little onto the head of the arrow then she lobbed the rest of the bottle into their midst. A blinding flash of liquid flame exploded outward as the bottle shattered on the ground. Fire engulfed the tightly packed ratmen, and they screamed and flailed as their filthy garments and dry fur crackled and flared like dry grass in the consuming flame. They charged about in panic, setting fire to their companions and breaking the momentum of the wave.
“On, on!” screamed the Commander, and they charged again. As Cara leaped backward, up onto the tomb of Ironside, I swung my newly-upgraded axe around and waded into the ratman horde. Time to see what the Persona of Ironside could do.
The axe carved through the ratmen like a scythe through corn. With one great sweep, I took out ten of them. Blood squirted and guts flew through the air. On the backswing, the great wolf’s head hammer pulverized five more. From the top of the tomb, Cara let loose the arrow she had treated with her exploding potion. She fired it high into the air, and it ignited as it flew, sailing in a great arc up and over, and lighting up the terrified faces of the thronging ratmen. As it ignited, Cara slung her bow onto her back and drew her two long knives.
Two more swings of my axe carved a path through the ratmen back to the sarcophagus. As Cara leaped from the platform to land at my side, her arrow landed in the center of the crowd of foes with a great explosion of flame. Ratmen were hurled back in every direction. I moved to put my axe on my back, and found that it lifted and snapped into place of its own accord! I only had to think of drawing my twin one-handed axes, and they flew into my grasp.
Cara smiled at me and met my eyes, and together we charged the ratmen.
Chaos reigned in the camp. Everywhere, fires were burning. Some of the burning rats had evidently fled back to the shacks that lined the edges of the camp. These were now on fire, and the bright flames lit up the night sky and blazed with heat.
The ratmen barely resisted us, and when we charged together straight into their midst, they turned and fled. I took the heads off four with my axes, and Cara ran another one through with her two knives. That was enough. They ran from us, screeching and howling and dropping their weapons. Some clambered over the wooden wall of the camp, while other
s packed into the gateway. Many ran to the shadowed space below the walls and disappeared into holes in the ground, vanishing from sight in their underground burrows.
Cara and I looked at each other, and then I caught sight of the Commander. He was loping toward his burrow, shoving his minions out of his way in his eagerness to get away from us.
Then something changed. A black mist rose up from the black sarcophagus, whirling in a spinning vortex around the head of the great rat Commander.
“What is it?” cried Cara in alarm.
“It’s the Festering!” I answered. I recognized it from the psychic realm where I’d fought the daemon darkness and released Ironside from its clutches. It was the Festering made flesh, a conscious, living entity made of the foul taint which plagued the land.
With horrible speed, it took a hold of the Commander, and he stopped in his retreat and turned to face us. The shadowy mist congealed around him, then his head snapped back and his mouth opened in a scream of pain as the evil being wrapped itself around him and took over his will. The scream changed, from the single high-pitched scream of the rat to the low, crowd-like roar of the Festering.
“Soul Binder, you will die today!” As the remainder of the other rats disappeared into the darkness, the Commander’s body transformed under the influence of the Festering. It grew, and with a horrible squelching sound, two new pairs of arms burst from the creature’s side. The yellow eyes grew, and the jaw opened impossibly wide as the creature dropped and ran at full speed toward us, moving like a great spider on its many arms. When the creature reached us, it swung its huge forelimbs right at me, and the blow clanged off my shining armor with a flash of white light. I leaped in and aimed at the face with my twin axes, but the creature dodged with lightning speed.
Cara dropped and rolled away, pulling her bow from her back and nocking an arrow in one swift movement. The arrow flew, and another was nocked and drawn back as the first thudded into the monster’s side. It bellowed in pain and leaped at me, arms reaching out to grab me in a death-grip. I ducked, and as the beast flew over me, I slammed one axe and then the other into its muscled chest. Blood sprayed from the wounds, and I let the axes go as I rolled away. They were wedged in bone.
As I rolled to the side, the creature landed in a heap and then sprang up again. Heedless of the blades sticking out of its chest, it reared up onto its hind legs and prepared to charge again. Cara’s second arrow flew and struck it in the shoulder. The monster swayed under the impact but kept coming.
Kneeling, I reached for my belt of throwing axes and one leaped up into my hand. I flung it, glorying in my sure aim and perfect technique. This was the effect of the Persona; I had never felt so comfortable using throwing axes before. A second axe flowed from my belt into my hand as the first thudded into the ratman’s face, where it stuck. Another arrow, and then another sank into the monster’s chest, but still it lumbered toward us on its hind legs, trailing blood and black mist as it came.
I reached for my two-handed axe, and it appeared in my grip. With a yell, I charged forward to meet the beast and took off one of its legs at the knee with one mighty swing. The creature toppled, its six upper arms wheeling as it tried to keep balance. Cara ran up and stood over the creature with an arrow at the ready. The tip of her arrow glowed a sulfurous green; she had treated it with one of her potions.
The flames of the burning sheds soared high, illuminating the scene with stark yellow light and casting inky shadows all around. The roar and crackle of the flames filled the air as the monstrous ratman toppled and crashed to the ground, his maimed limb squirting steaming blood into the cold night air.
I hauled my huge axe up and spun it in the air so the wolf’s head hammer was ready to perform the final blow. Cara’s arrow flew into the creature’s heart. There was a muffled boom. Green light suffused the ratman, and his whole body bubbled and shifted, but he did not die. Instead, with terrifying speed, he lashed out with one flailing arm and caught Cara by the ankle. He wrenched himself up, his huge mouth gaping wide as he flung himself at her, but I brought the great shining wolf’s head down on the ratman’s skull.
His head burst like an overripe melon under the hammer blow, and an ugly red and black liquid splashed across the ground. His body twitched and flailed, and Cara leaped back with a cry of disgust, kicking away the clawed hand that had clutched her ankle. The black mist of the Festering rose from the ratman, and I heard that roaring multitudinous voice howling as if from a great distance. The mist rose in a cloud above us and attempted to come together again, but at that moment, a cold gust of wind swept through the camp, and the black smoke was dispersed.
Cara turned and marched toward the edge of the camp, pulling a potion from her belt. When she got to one of the ratholes, she hefted the bottle and said two words under her breath. The potion glowed yellow for a moment, then she dropped it into the hole. For the space of a breath, we waited, then there was a hissing sound and a muffled screeching from far below.
“A poison,” she stated. “It will disperse a cloud of vapor throughout the rat tunnels below this camp. No ratman will live here after this night.”
I nodded silently, then turned away. Already, the gray dust and the sense of sorrow and horror which accompanied the Festering were passing from this place. I walked back to the middle of the camp, by the now-empty black sarcophagus.
“What happened back there?” Cara asked.
“I bound the Persona of Theodoric Ironside, and I can now channel it, using the abilities of the great hero in battle.”
“Your axe work was certainly impressive. I’d love to be able to do such a thing.” There was admiration and envy in her voice, but no jealousy.
I smiled at her. “Perhaps we’ll find some way for you and I to share in this power. I can’t think how, though perhaps if we... but what’s this?”
Three items had materialized out of the air in front of me. They hung there, a great banded iron shield, an axe like those I now carried, and a green gemstone as big as my fist which glinted and sparkled in the firelight. Amazement filled me, and I stepped back to admire these strange apparitions that had taken physical form.
“This must be something to do with your new Persona,” Cara said, “but what could it mean?”
As she spoke, I felt that same satisfying feeling which I had felt after we’d killed the Arachnon, and Cara gasped, one hand at her chest.
“You feel that too?” she asked.
“I do. I think it’s from killing these creatures. It’s like coin which I can spend.”
I glanced again at the items which hung before me, and intuitively made the connection. “These are upgrades!” I said. “We’re earning some resource by killing enemies, and I can spend mine now that the battle is over!”
With one hand, I reached out toward the shield. “The shield of Ironside represents strength, and the power to protect the weak from harm. I choose to develop that pathway.”
As I spoke the words, the other two pathways receded and the shield grew larger. A branching tracery of lines spread out from it, and I could see other items at junctures further off. I couldn’t make out what they were, but I knew that I would be able to access new upgrades as I continued to progress and use the power of Ironside’s Persona for good.
Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light, and the vision vanished. I felt a lurch, as if the ground had bucked under me. White light shone around me, and blue light blasted down in a column from the night sky. There was a rumble like distant thunder, and I felt my armor changing, growing, and my height in it expanding. Looking down, I saw that the axe now had runes graven into the blade, and the armor had the same.
“You were imbued with power from the heavens?” Cara questioned in amazement.
“I chose an upgrade, and it took effect on my armor and weapons. I guess whenever that happens I’ll gain new strength and add elements to the armor that the Persona grants.”
Cara drew breath to speak, when we heard a
coughing and spluttering noise. We both whirled, and my axe was in my hands, ready for anything. But to my surprise, it was none other than the old man who had given me this mission, the man from my dream.
“It’s the Keeper!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, yes, it’s me all right!” he grumbled. He was wiping his mouth as he came over toward us. “You young people, all for bangs and flashes! Can’t even upgrade a mythical suit of powerful relic armor without a lot of fancy bright lights, can you?”
It was so incongruous that I had to smile. As he approached, I noticed that his robes seemed in better condition than when I’d spoken to him before. He seemed also to have boots on his feet, and that was another improvement.
“You know this man?” asked Cara. She had an arrow nocked and ready to fire.
“I do,” I replied. “This is the Keeper, the man who gave me this quest to find the Helm of Ironside and free it from the Festering.”
“This?” she asked incredulously. “This is the Keeper?”
“Enough!” cried the old man, holding his hands up imperiously and beginning to declaim in a dramatic tone. “You have passed the test, Leofwine of Saxe! You are the Soul Binder, Wielder of Legendary Personas whose coming has been awaited for many a long age. You are the warrior who will cleanse the Festering, freeing the innocents from its taint in many lands and across many worlds! Now that you have shown yourself worthy, you must begin your quest throughout the worlds. There are many Personas in the universe, and many great warriors whose power rests in their ancient relics. The Festering is a danger to them all, and to all worlds.”
He let his hands fall and looked at both of us thoughtfully for a moment.
“As you fight, you will gain Renown. This can be spent as you have discovered, on improving your armor and your skills. Use it wisely; as you grow in power, the cost of upgrading will grow also. The Festering can bind all things, people, animals, even places and objects, but the most dangerous bindings are the Festered relics of the ancient warriors. You will free many things from the taint in the course of your quests, and many of them will grant you Personas with new powers and special abilities. Now, I can show you your first mission.”