by Eric Vall
I watched her silently as she quickly piled the ancient tomes and texts together and hurried off to assist the customer, then I pulled my dark power back. If the Holy Band of Mages returned to question or harm Haruhi again, I would know, and I would go to her immediately and protect her. I replaced the orb back in my void pocket with all of that wrapped up and turned towards my minions as they climbed back on their Bantams. I crossed to them in the darkness of the night and stepped over the bodies of the dead blood-curdlers to my bird to slide into my saddle. Then I turned the Bantam towards the crumbling castle ahead, ready to battle against the god within, and from the beating of his power, he was anxiously awaiting us.
Chapter Thirteen
When we arrived at the outer wall of the once-majestic stronghold of Sangiam, I noticed something bizarre. More blood-curdlers stood and ambled around the outside, but they didn’t move to attack us as their feral red and yellow eyes followed our movement. The creatures kept their distance and stayed in the shadows, but I could still sense them there as they prowled around. Some of them were bloated, their bellies protruding out like those of an alcoholic who'd had one too many over the span of his life. The skin of those whose stomachs hung out was oddly colored also, ridiculously pink, almost purple as if they were suffocating and dying, unlike the gray and colorless ones we had faced off with on the forest path. I glanced at Morrigan, and her wholly black eyes moved over the darkness where the blood-curdlers loomed like white and gray ghosts.
“Some of them have eaten,” the elven woman told me, and I turned my head back to watch as one of the sprier, fat blood-curdlers groaned in the moonlight and rolled its eyes but didn’t move toward us.
“What do you mean?” Carmedy asked over my shoulder as she kept a frightened eye on the blood-curdlers.
“The reason some of them are fat and pink,” my white-haired lover told us. “They’ve engorged themselves on blood, and their bodies are slowly processing the nutrients.”
I nodded my head firmly then looked up towards the castle with wary eyes. I could sense the god’s power here all around us, and it emanated from the blood-curdlers as they ambled closer and created a strong wall behind us. I knew what they were doing immediately, they closed off the exit and our only means of escape. Not that I cared. We were not the types to run away from a challenge, especially myself. We could take down anyone I set my eyes on as an adversary.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Rana asked as she looked over her shoulder at the creatures. They settled into three rows of ranks as we spoke, though my attention was still more focused on the castle ahead.
“Because the deity doesn’t want them to, not yet at least,” I growled as I pointed to the massive front doors of the castle.
Before our eyes, they swung open to allow us entrance.
I urged my Bantam forward, and my minions followed after with the blood-curdlers trailing behind in their ranks. The creatures were wholly silent as we moved through, just as the others from before were except for when they died. Their bare feet shuffled across the dirty stone floor as we moved ahead of them, and I felt the familiar tug of another god’s power. I pushed the Bantam in the direction that I felt the energy emanating from.
The castle’s interior, like the outside, was ravaged. Most of the rock walls were crumbled over in massive heaps, and parts of the floor were completely fallen through. At one point, we even had to move our Bantams in a single file line to pass through a tight hall of fallen in stone.
I expected danger at every turn, but we found nothing waiting for us around each bend save for the blood-curdlers following along behind us. I supposed that danger was enough for this god. The beat of the deity’s power grew stronger the deeper in the castle we went, and there was no denying it now. I knew exactly who it was. We were so close, and I could tell it from the actions of the blood-curdlers behind us that they were eager for us to find their master. The creatures shifted around irritably and sped up their pace as if to force us forward.
Carmedy yelped as one came too close and brushed against Kura’s feathers. The feline was anxious and held her sleek black tail between her hands as she swiveled her emerald eyes around the dark, dank interior of the castle. We didn’t speak, and each time one of my minions tried, I held up a hand to silence them. I knew the god here was not only listening but watching through the creatures behind us. We would give away nothing that could aid him in the battle to come.
The path through the castle that the blood-curdlers forced us to take wound around the castle and finally opened up to a large doorway with faded green and silver detailing. One of the wooden doors had come entirely off its hinges and hung there as it partially brushed the ruined floor. I could sense the god’s power strongly now, and it was plain that he waited for us inside. As if on cue, the blood-curdlers rushed forward, their mouths hung open in silent screams as they forced us forward into the grand hall.
I lifted my eyes to the enormous doorway as we advanced. The intricate detail that had gone into making this castle told me that whoever had built this castle, one of Baudouin’s ancestors possibly, put considerable effort into making it beautiful and grand for the people of Sangiam. I could almost see it in my mind’s eye, the splendor it had once been in the times of the old rulers of Tintagal, but now, it was left to rot and crumble under the control of a god.
I wondered how he had come to reside here. Most of the dungeons we had encountered were buried deep within the earth where they had landed after being cast out of the heavens. How did this god come to live in a forgotten castle? So many thoughts and questions raced through my mind as I moved my eyes over the vast room and tried to sense out the exact location of the god. I could feel him, but he hadn’t shown himself to us just yet.
I held up my hand for my minions to stop and then pushed my Bantam forward as I turned and looked about the room for him. Drawn along the walls and the ash-covered columns were arcane runes and ancient divine symbols. I scanned them, and all of my questions were answered promptly without even speaking to the god inside. Someone had beckoned him here with magic, the runes told me, and I looked down to the floor at my feet to find the blood red markings where someone had placed a summoning circle.
“Nahum,” the god’s familiar voice called to me as he tittered with laughter. I gritted my teeth against the name he had once called me in the heavens.
“Sakenomi,” I replied back with the name I had given him in the god’s tongue as I whipped my head to search for any hint of him.
“What have I done to deserve a visit from the Bringer of Death?” The god laughed. “I had thought we were lost to each other once you fell and left me all alone in that hellish place they call the god's realm, but here you are, in my very own domain.” He sounded just as he had in the heavens, cocky and assured as always.
“I didn’t know you fell,” I told him honestly as I turned my head and followed the sound of his echoing voice.
“There are a lot of things that have happened since you’ve been gone. Lots of things have changed, lots drabber, and so many more annoying rules to keep everyone in line and check.” My old friend sighed loudly in aggravation.
“Why don’t you come down here, and we can have a proper reunion then?” I asked with a smirk.
“A reunion?” He laughed loudly, and the sound vibrated off the walls. “And by that you mean that you’re going to slay me with that big stick in your pocket and take my powers? I think not, old friend.” He chortled again as I shook my head. He hadn’t changed a bit since I had known him in the heavens.
“Then you won’t mind if I kill your followers then?” I snarled through a smile as I reached into my void pocket and pulled out the God Slayer.
“By all means,” he replied, his voice irritated but not quite angry. “They’re not my first followers, and if you don’t kill me today, then they won’t be my last. The coven will just bring me more like they always do.”
“The coven?” I asked curiously, and from
the sudden coldness in the air, I could tell that was information he hadn’t wanted to let slip. “I see. You’ve been very busy babbling in the dark arts, my friend.”
“I haven’t personally, but my lovers, well, they have.” The god chuckled back, and though I was here to kill him and take his powers for my own, I did want to look at his face just once and remember the times we had spent together as boys.
“Is that why you were thrown from the heavens?” I asked through a smile as I advanced on his horde of blood-curdlers. “For fraternizing with mortals?”
“Seven mortals to be exact, but yes,” he proudly replied, and I scoffed to show him my displeasure.
“You were always one for the dramatics,” I mused as I eyed the blood-curdlers and decided where I should start first.
“Isn’t seven a bit excessive?” Rana shot out. I stopped and blinked at her for a second as she gave me a quick wink.
“Excessive? Oh, my dear, absolutely not. I would have a hundred women in my coven if I could,” the deity replied back in a purring voice, but the fox stood firm as she hardened her features.
“You just seem like a wimp to me.” The redhead shrugged as she looked around the room with disinterested eyes. Annalise’s eyes widened in surprise at her sister’s sudden bold words, but a feral grin grew on her lips as well in anticipation of the battle to come.
“Excuse me?” the god shouted, and the walls of the room shuddered with his power. I knew then that Rana’s words were doing exactly as she planned.
“I mean, you have all these women running around and doing your bidding,” the fox stated in a bored voice. While Rana taunted the god, Morrigan’s dark eyes lit with a fire I hadn’t seen in a while as she looked down at the red symbols painted on the floor.
“You were summoned here by the witches. That’s why you do not have a true dungeon. You may have one, but it must be in some far off place that you cannot reach within the confines of the summoning circle,” the elven woman snarled through a broad smile as she moved her wholly black eyes over the walls to help search for the god.
“And you won’t come out and face Master head on?” the redhead sneered through her giggles. “You’re a coward. You’re afraid of what might happen to you and your followers.”
I turned as I felt his power reach its peak, and the god I had once known in the heavens appeared at one end of the red summoning circle. His face was exactly as I remember it. His curly hair was as white as snow, almost like Morrigan’s, but somehow lighter, and his large eyes were colorless but not milky and sightless like Nergal’s. His skin was tanned a rich brown, and all across his bare arms and parts of his exposed chest, runes were drawn and stained into his skin where the coven had placed them. Clothed in deep blues, purples, and reds, he looked out of place in the dark and dirty castle, and he looked better suited for the country of Valasara. He still had a boyish face though he had grown a few inches since the last time I had seen him.
Pain swelled in my chest at the sight of him. This god was one of the closest beings that I could call a friend in the heavens, and now, I would have to end his life with my own hands. His lips spread into a smile, and a faraway sparkle lit up his eyes as we stared at each other, and I knew he was feeling the same thing that I was.
“Euron.” His true name spilled from my lips as if not even a day had passed between us, and his smile widened even more as he looked into my face with remembrance.
“It’s not every day I come face to face with the God of the Underworld, is it, Nahum?”
A collective gasp rose up from behind me from my minions, and I gritted my teeth as a smug smile spread over Euron’s face. He tilted his head at me, and his white crown of curls shifted in the darkness of the hall as he chuckled softly to himself.
“They didn’t know, did they?” the god asked, and I steeled myself, I knew this was coming and that I would have to tell them about who I was eventually and where I came from, but I hadn’t thought he would have brought it up so quickly. “I figured you wouldn’t tell them. You were always so secretive when we were in the heavens together, and I guess you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Neither have you, Euron,” I growled through clenched teeth. “You’re still the pompous ass that I remember.”
“Don’t be that way, at one point we were so close, and I would have called us brothers.” Euron smiled as his eyes shined with nostalgia.
“We are brothers no more. We are enemies here and now.” I told him as I reached into my void pocket for the God Slayer, but the white-haired god clicked his tongue and waggled a finger at me.
“If you want to play with me, why don’t we do it like we did when we were children?” the deity asked, and I raised my eyebrows to him in surprise.
I could clearly remember the times we had spent together in the god’s realm. Euron’s parents, like my own, served with the High Order, and more often than not, we were thrown together as playmates while our parents were away on business. Our powers hadn’t fully developed to what they were today, but I remembered him using his power on passersby. The funny thing was that most of the time when my minions and I entered into a dungeon, we had no clue what power the god inside controlled, but this was different, this was Euron, a man I had spent most of my childhood battling against. I knew I couldn’t spare him, and he knew that I wouldn’t go easy on him as I had before.
My powers had developed quicker than his in the god’s realm, and I would spare him the full brute force of my power when we played together during that time.
Neither of us showed any sign of weakness, but from the glimmer in his colorless eyes, I knew this was a fight he didn’t want to go through. I had to admit to myself that the fondest memories that I had from the heavens were not with my family, my parents and the line of blood-brothers that came after, but instead with the god that stood in front of me. Euron was right when he said we were like brothers, and I felt a wave of sadness rush over me as the white-haired god stepped forward, and a cerulean and maroon power danced up from the stone around his feet to obscure him from view.
I never had reservations or second thoughts when I fought against other gods in their dungeons, but when I looked into Euron’s face, and he gave me a winning smile, for a second, I wanted to spare him.
However, I quickly thought back on the sickly and dying people of Sangiam and the blood-curdlers that they became and knew what had to be done.
I pushed my dark power all around me almost as he had done into a protective shield of undulating black smoke. While I was much stronger than him, he had always been a trickster with something hidden up his sleeve, so I wouldn’t take him lightly. Surprisingly though, as we danced around each other in the red summoning circle, he didn’t pull anything as I assumed he would. Euron’s colorless eyes flitted to my minions and took in each of them in time.
“Funny that none of them look like Isolda,” Euron smirked over to me, and all my women took a step backward towards their Bantams.
“Isolda is dead. Why would I seek out women who resemble her?” I asked in a calm voice.
“I guess it’s a preference thing.” Euron shrugged as a wave of his power shot out at me like a whip, and I countered it with a wave of my right arm and a surge of my black power came up. “I filled my coven with redheaded women, red like fire, red like rage.”
“Just like Lilith.” I rolled my eyes as I thrust out both arms, and my obsidian energy rushed forward like fire. The darkness of my power consumed his own energy, and he jumped back with a light chuckle. “All gods know not to fall in love with demons, Euron. They don’t possess hearts in those callused bodies.”
“I took a chance.” Euron laughed lightly as he faced off with his impending death. “Can’t you give me some credit?”
“Did you fall for her? Did she promise you something if you left the heavens for her?” I inquired as I summoned the lava god’s power and melted the floor behind his feet, but Euron only tittered good-naturedly as he hopped into the air
for his cerulean and maroon power to catch him like two pairs of hands.
“As the God of the Underworld, Nahum, you should have told me that all the sweet words that fell from her lips were lies disguised as love.” Euron smiled sadly as he brought his hands up in front of him. At his command, his power moved like whips as he struck out at me wildly, but I deflected them with backhanded waves.
“I didn’t have to tell you those things, Euron, you should have known them yourself.” I laughed finally, and the god’s face broke for a second in relief as if it were a sound he waited for this entire time.
“Aye, but I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway.” Euron shrugged, then he whipped his hands through the air before he flattened them and brought them upward towards his chest. His power swelled underneath me like a wave, but I moved the dark smoke around my feet, and his assault fizzled out with loud crackles against my shield.
“Demons will be demons. You should have learned that after your first encounter with one,” I scolded him lightly. “But you never learn, dumbass.”
“Hey, now, you control the demons, ‘O Dark Lord.’ You could have gotten in a good word for me or controlled them or something, dumbass,” the white-haired god mocked back through a smile, and he watched as darkness fell over my face.
I knew what we were doing, and I looked down at the dark power that had lifted me off the floor and surrounded my body entirely. We weren’t fighting against each other to the death, but instead, we had reverted to our old ways in the god’s realm. I had slipped into the old routine so quickly, and Euron watched as I slowly lowered myself to the floor. My heavy boots slammed against the rock as I gritted my teeth. His face fell in sadness as he too lowered himself to his feet.
“Ah, I see.” Euron sighed as he looked at me across the summoning circle, and I watched as he shaped his colorful power around him like a shield. “It’s time for us to get serious about this. We aren’t children anymore, and well, my life is on the line.”