by Edward Brody
You have declined the quest: Free the Ancient!
Wait!... ch…Reborn! Ch.. ch….
I ignored the Gilgaroth’s continuous cries as I marched away, and its voice grew quieter and quieter until I finally stepped into the portal.
Chapter Fifty-Five
2/23/0001
“What took you so long?” Mordok asked.
“Nothing, just…” I shook my head. “Nothing. Sorry, I just got distracted.”
Mordok and Rithnar exchanged glances but didn’t question me any further.
“Argh!” a group of loud voices shouted in unison from outside the Mages Hall where we were standing.
“Let’s move,” Rithnar said. “We have little time.”
Mordok nodded and said, “Follow me.”
We made the same trek up the Mages Hall as before and ended on the floor that had been partially destroyed.
“A grand tower you have here,” Hoshgrim said mockingly, inspecting the rubble. “So many rules and such extravagance too.”
Mordok growled. “You know nothing of the Mages Guild.”
“I know you’re a wasted orc,” Hoshgrim snapped. “With your skill, you could’ve become a mighty shaman.”
“With my skill, it would’ve been a waste,” Mordok countered. “A master shaman cannot match the power of a master mage.”
Hoshgrim's eyes went wide, and he took a step forward. “Shall we test that?!”
“No!” Rithnar said. “Shut your mouth, Hoshgrim, or your head will be served on Ergoth’s dinner table tonight.”
“Argh!” voices rang out loudly again.
We all walked to the edge of the tower, and below us was a sea of orcs and goblins, all gathered as close to Fortress Morgsgorg as possible. In front of the castle-sized fort, a wide wooden platform had been erected, surrounded by torches, and in the dead center was a wooden throne where an orc—who I could only assume was Ergoth—sat patiently. Two orcs dressed like Hoshgrim were standing on each side of him, and marching back and forth in front of Ergoth was Prince Azhug.
“Tonight, we ride!” Prince Azhug shouted.
“Argh!” the orcs all roared, raising their weapons high in the air.
“Tonight, we burn!” he continued.
“Argh!”
“Tonight, Highcastle will be ours!”
“Argh!”
The prince stopped. “Who is the greatest orc who ever lived!?”
“Ergoth!” everyone chanted.
“Who is—?”
“Ergoth!” the chants roared, not even giving the prince time to finish his question.
My skin crawled at the sheer number of goblins and orcs that had gathered in Morgsgorg. The orcs alone probably equaled the entire population of Highcastle, and with the goblins and giga-goblins, twice that. Clearly, they had raised all the men of the Wastelands to be troops, and breeding at a rapid rate had worked in the Scourges favor when it came to military strength.
The orcs filled the channel running down the middle of the Morgsgorg and were squeezed around the tents anywhere they could fit. Bodies thinned the further out they stretched from the Ergoth’s massive fortress, but around the outer edges, orcs sat atop worgs, and I counted at least fifteen Great Worgs, that were no less than twice the size of the normal ones. The worg riders roamed around, herding the goblins where they wanted them to go.
“First, we travel to the Fort Destrog!” Ergoth yelled. “When the second boulder flies, half of our men ride south to Newich and the other half to Highcastle! By morning, we will be victorious!”
The orcs all roared. “Argh! Argh! Argh!”
“We must leave now,” Rithnar snarled. “We must stop them before they move out.”
“I can summon Moraga to carry us down,” Mordok said, “But I’ll need to make two trips, and it will be risky. With a gathering like this, they might take us flying towards Ergoth as a threat.”
“No need,” Hoshgrim said with a smirk. “Allow me to show you the power of shaman magic.”
Hoshgrim flung his hands out to the side, and the other two orcs tensed.
“What will you do?” Rithnar probed. “You better not try anything!”
“Behold, fool!” Hoshgrim said before he slammed his hands together, knelt and slapped his hand on the floor. His eyes were closed as he muttered, “Rise for me…”
The room started rattling as Hoshgrim slowly stood to his feet, and growing underneath his hand was a thick grey totem with a single spiral carved onto each side. He pulled his hand away when the totem was nearly his height. The totem made the air feel thick with magic.
“What is this?” Mordok said. “Why would you summon a totem here?”
“I’m not finished,” Hoshgrim barked.
He walked in front of the totem, until he was standing on the edge of the tower. He held his hands out to his sides again and repeated the same phrase again and again. “Listen to me... Listen to me… Listen to me!”
As he continued to chant, the room began rattling again, and beside the totem that Hoshgrim summoned, two smaller totems, merely the size of pegs, sprouted out of the floor. A grey, lightning-like energy sparked out of the larger totem and into the two tiny totems beside it. After a few seconds, the energy arched forward from all three totems, and where the energy met, a circle of dark, swirling energy, resembling a black hole appeared.
Hoshgrim lowered his hands and turned around.
“Some sort of portal?” Mordok asked.
“A transport totem,” Hoshgrim explained. “It does not require runes like arcane portals, so it can only be used with line of sight.”
I looked over the edge and could see that a lighter version of the swirling energy had formed on the platform where Ergoth was standing, and all the chanting had stopped as everyone had turned their attention to the unexpected oddity.
“Now! We must go now!” Mordok shouted. “Before they panic and do something crazy! You first, Hoshgrim!”
“Very well,” Hoshgrim said. He stepped through the portal and there was a loud ‘Zrrp!’ when he entered and disappeared.
“Now you, Rithnar,” Mordok ordered. “Gunnar must go last.”
Rithnar turned to me. “If this is our last time speaking, thank you again, Gunnar.”
A chill ran up my spine as Rithnar jumped through the portal without giving me a chance to say, ‘You’re welcome’. Something about his voice made it seem like he really thought this could be the last time we would speak.
“You remember what to say, right?” Mordok asked.
I nodded. “Mostly.”
“Your belt.” Mordok pointed towards the yellow belt still on my waist.
“Right. I almost forgot.” I pulled my yellow belt off and quickly replaced it with the red one. “Do I look like a master mage?”
Mordok snarled and shook his head. “No… but hopefully Ergoth will not notice. Do your best.” He bobbed his chin to me and stepped through the mysterious looking totem portal.
I pulled my hood over my head as I stepped up to the portal and took a deep breath. I was about to step into the middle of a thousand Scourge members, and if anything went wrong, I was guaranteed to die. There was no spell or ability that would save me this time; Arduous Swap wasn’t going to be enough for me to take down another orc King if it was needed.
My head swam, and I stumbled a bit when I reappeared on the other side of the portal. While the teleportation process wasn’t much different than an arcane portal using a rune, the ride made me feel a whole lot less steady upon arrival.
Mordok was standing beside me, and Rithnar was walking towards Ergoth with Hoshgrim. I kept my head down, my arms crossed, and looked only out of the edges of my eyes, so as to not draw too much attention to me.
“Lord Ergoth, the Mages Guild has an um…” Hoshgrim swallowed and struggled for words. “I am… We are sorry for the interruption.”
I got a better look at Ergoth from where I was standing, and even in his sitting position he was int
imidating. He was bald and had no facial hair, and his face seemed wrinkled into a permanent angry smirk. He wore a thick brown vest with matted grey fur wrapped around the collar. He had leather pants with greaves made of bone, and atop his head was a crown made of sharp, long claws spiking up and curving inward.
He looked up to Hoshgrim but said nothing.
“You took too long!” one of the shamans shouted. “What did you learn of the Gilgaroth?”
“Yes, about that. The Gilgaroth is taken care of,” Hoshgrim explained.
“Why did you bring these others here?” Prince Azhug asked. “We are preparing for our attack.”
Hoshgrim swallowed. “Lord Ergoth… While inspecting the Gilgaroth’s seal, I found that the Mages Guild had also taken an interest in the ancient beast.”
“What?” one of the shamans snapped. He started looking back and forth between Hoshgrim and the other shaman.
“Your highness, um…” He waved his hands towards Mordok and me. “The—”
“The Gilgaroth is no longer a problem,” Rithnar interrupted.
“What do you mean?” Prince Azhug asked. “Who are you?”
“It will no longer stir. It has been permanently pacified,” Rithnar explained. “No further sacrifices are needed, and there is no threat that it can escape.”
“What do you speak of?!” one of the shamans barked. His eyes were wide, and his nose flared.
“My Lord Ergoth…” Hoshgrim said shakily. “Allow me to introduce you to a member of the Mages Guild.” He swallowed again. “A human…”
There was an audible gasp, and a commotion amongst the crowd as I cautiously stepped forward and pulled off my hood. I heard worgs barking and multiple shouts of “human!” coming from the mindless goblins.
Prince Azhug grabbed his axe and stepped in front of King Ergoth. “What is this? How could you allow a human here?!”
“Kill him!” someone yelled, and then the whole crowd started chanting over and over. “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
“He’s not hostile!” Mordok shouted and stepped up beside me. “He’s a neutral member of the Mages Guild!”
The chants continued a few seconds longer before Ergoth casually raised his hand. The whole crowd went silent immediately at his command.
“Mordok!” Ergoth yelled. “Why have you brought this human here?”
“He’s a member of the Mages Guild—a neutral party,” Mordok declared.
“Neutral, but human,” Ergoth spat. “If your guild—if you can still call it that, alone in your tower—has business with humans, keep them in your tower.”
“My King,” Mordok said. “Gunnar here singlehandedly subdued the Gilgaroth.”
There were more gasps from the crowd.
“Impossible!” one of the shamans shouted.
Hoshgrim placed his hands in front of him and started touching his fingertips together. “It’s… true. This human is a powerful Master Mage, and when he heard of the Gilgaroth stirring, he descended the Cataclysm and subdued it.”
“Hoshgrim…” one of the shamans asked. “How can—?”
“It’s true,” Hoshgrim insisted, leaning his head forward and nearly bugging his eyes out with insistence. “I witnessed it myself—a powerful spell only a master mage could cast. The Gilgaroth still lives, but he will no longer be a problem.”
“I assure you of that, your highness,” Mordok said. “This neutral human, who wishes no ill will towards orcs, was investigating the eruption of Mount Ardorflame and realized that the Gilgaroth was troubling the Wastelands and possibly urging us into war. He chose to confront the ancient beast by his own volition as a favor to the Scourge.”
“A favor to the Scourge!?” Prince Azhug roared. “What human would help our Scourge?!”
“A member of the Mages Guild,” Mordok said. “It is part of our creed to not choose sides when acting as members of the guild. The decision was based on what’s best for all sides.”
“He’s even helped with the reapers, Lord Ergoth,” Rithnar claimed. “They will not be returning.”
“Lies!” one of the shamans cried. “An orc was taken by a reaper last night.”
“What?” Rithnar asked, shaking his head.
“It’s true,” the shaman alleged.
Rithnar turned to me, but I didn’t know what to say. Had the Reborns I fought with before decided to ignore what I said and return to the Wastelands? It was very possible, given how much of a dick one of them was.
“This human cannot be trusted!” one of the shamans said.
“No!” Hoshgrim yelled. “He can be trusted. What they say is true! The human handled the Gilgaroth with a small amount of help from Mordok and this orc.” He motioned to Rithnar.
Ergoth raised his hand, and everyone went silent again. “You vouch this as true, Hoshgrim?”
Hoshgrim nodded.
“The Gilgaroth will no longer stir, even without sacrifices?” Ergoth continued.
Hoshgrim nodded again. “I assure you.”
“And you vouch this as true, Mordok?”
Mordok nodded.
“And you, orc. What is your name?”
Rithnar stood straight and slammed his fist into his chest. “Rithnar Narfug of the Narfug bloodline.”
“Do you, Rithnar, vouch this as true?”
Rithnar nodded. “It is true, your highness.”
“Then it is true,” Ergoth said. “The Gilgaroth no longer stirs!”
“Argh! Argh! Argh!” the surrounding orcs cheered.
“Your majesty,” Mordok said as he stepped forth. “As the human has done so much for the orcs, he requests a favor in return. We orcs always return our favors, right?”
Ergoth scowled and shifted in his seat. “You may live, human! That is your favor. Hurry back to your home!”
“Boo!” several of the orcs yelled. “Booooo!”
“Kill him!” several others called out. “Kill the human!”
I was a bit surprised at the lack of gratitude, and even Mordok and Rithnar seemed surprised.
“Your highness, please,” Mordok begged. “Listen to his request.”
Ergoth waved his hand out in front of him. “What do you want, human?”
I cleared my throat and scanned all the orcs staring at me. “Now that the Gilgaroth is no longer a problem, I ask that you pull back your men and end the conflict in the Freelands.”
“Boo!” several orcs jeered again. “Kill him! Kill the human!”
Ergoth yelled, “Silence!” and suddenly jumped from his chair. He was tall, and his body looked built of nothing but muscle.
Everyone quieted and watched as Ergoth quickly strode up to me so fast that I instinctively started to back away.
He leaned down, grabbed my collar and pulled me right up to his face when he got close to me. “Master mage, huh?”
I swallowed, frozen by his menace.
“You, human, want me to end the war?” Ergoth’s breath smelled of raw meat. “Want me to call off the suffering I have planned for your kind?”
“Your highness,” Mordok muttered.
“Shut up!” Ergoth barked.
Mordok lowered his head and backed away.
“Answer me!” Ergoth yelled yanking on my collar hard.
“Yes, please,” I muttered. “For the good of both of our people. No more orcs need to die and no more humans. Perhaps you can even find peace through diploma—”
Ergoth took two steps back, turned, and took one big step forward as he flung me across the platform. I flopped hard on the wood and rolled, but it seemed clear that he wasn’t trying to injure me much from the attack. He was strong enough that he could’ve done so if he tried.
I turned around so that I could see what was going on but decided to stay on the ground so that I didn’t provoke anyone else to attack me.
“You sound like Xurrak!” Ergoth yelled as he spat.
“The human could do more favors for us,” Rithnar said, motioning his hand towards me. “Maybe
he can speak with the King of Highcastle and—”
“Quiet, Rithnar of the Narfug bloodline!” Ergoth yelled He marched across the platform and turned to the crowd. “Should we ride, orcs!?”
“Argh!” the crowd said loudly in unison.
“Should we ride?” he yelled again.
“Argh!”
“Who is the greatest orc who ever lived?!” Prince Azhug suddenly yelled as he raised his axe and marched to stand beside his father.
“Ergoth!” the crowd yelled.
“Again!” the prince yelled.
“Ergoth!”
“We will ride for Ergoth!” the prince yelled.
“For Ergoth!” everyone yelled at once.
Ergoth seemed both amused and annoyed at his son’s outburst. He grinned at him then marched past him, shoving him in the chest as he passed.
“Shamans!” Ergoth yelled. “What is your council? Shall we indulge this human, or shall we ride?”
Hoshgrim was whispering something to the other two shamans and turned around, looking startled at the sudden questioning. The other shaman’s faces had grown pale.
“Ergoth, my Lord…” one of the shamans said. “I do not care for this human, but it is our way to return favors. I believe we should indulge him.”
“What?” Prince Azhug asked, his face twisted with confusion.
“Yes, your Majesty,” Hoshgrim agreed. “It’s a great feat that this human has accomplished. It may even gain us favor with the Mages Guild in the event we need their assistance again.”
“Again?!” Prince Azhug yelled. “We do not need anyone!”
“It is unanimous,” the third shaman said as he stepped forward anxiously. “It is our council that this war should be ended due to the human’s actions. There is no more reason for us to ride if we can maintain our lives safely here in the Wastelands.”
“What!?” Prince Azhug snarled. “No, we must ride!”
“Argh!” the orcs around us yelled.
Ergoth stood motionless for a moment as he stared at the three shamans and eventually asked, “So that is your council?”
“Yes,” one of the shamans said.
Ergoth looked down as if considering things, turned, and paced a few meters away. Everyone was silent, and the pounding of his feet on the wooden planks only seemed to increase the tension in the air. When he was at the edge of the platform, he stopped and turned around. “Shamans!”