The Forsaken Hero

It was hard to find the right place to make our stand, given the mountains crawled with demons. But with Gith’s sharp eyes, we located a wide, snowy meadow sheltered between two peaks. It wasn’t huge, not for the spells and arts that would be thrown around, but the white blanket was untouched by claws, boots, and hooves.

”I’ve called for help,” Jenna said as we landed. ”But no one’s close enough. It’ll be five, maybe ten minutes before a team fights their way through.”

For combatants of our level, five minutes was only a little shorter than an eternity.

”How are you feeling?” R’lisesa asked, gingerly letting my feet down.

”Better,” I lied, still pale and clammy. ”I can draw a lot more of my mana now.”

That much was true, though I withheld the fact that if I did so, I might very well pass out. That didn’t stop me from trying, grasping just enough mana for a seventh-circle spell.

”Celestial Grace.”

Binding ribbons of fate and life mana wove around the seven of us, lifting us gently. It took the weight off our shoulders, buoying up our bodies and souls. The grip of the poison lessened significantly, and I took a long, shuddering breath, stretching sore muscles. Borealis fluttered on my shoulder, his feathers regaining their luster.

”Why didn’t you add this to the Nexus?” Jenna asked. ”We could have used it back there.”

I shook my head. ”I’m too weak, even with a second-level body. Trying to spread it to so many would have killed me.”

”We’re trying to avoid that, remember?” Kahlen said dryly.

Our reprieve was short-lived. Two beings slammed into the ground on the other side of the meadow, kicking up a storm of snow and displaced earth. Their silhouettes strode through the blizzard, one tall and bony, the other hunched over, their limbs skewed at awkward angles.

”Stay back,” Luxxa murmured, moving to stand in the front with Kahlen. ”We might be a level down, but your power sets us on equal footing. They won’t reach you.”

Gith vanished, melting into the night. Jenna started chanting, readying a seventh-circle spell. Both R’lissea and I grasped our mana, but held it. There was too much on the line, too much required from us, to risk casting the wrong spell.

Hag’s voice floated ahead of the poison demon. ”So, you’ve finally stopped running. It’s strange. I didn’t think you knew how to do anything else.”

She looked just as I remembered, thin and bony, with a scaly sheen to her oily skin, and slit serpentine eyes. A forked tongue slithered between fangs. She didn’t bear a weapon, but her nails were long and curved, taking natural, unfiled points. Her veins stood out just like mine did, only darker, twisting beneath her skin like worms.

”I told you,” a second voice said, jagged and raspy like an insect chittering. ”She’s tenacious. She refuses to die. I wish she had. Then Luke wouldn’t have betrayed us.”

”Your attachment to the apostle is ill-placed,” Hag snapped, her glowing yellow eyes searching me. Her lips drew back in a grin. ”But that will be amended. Your loyalty to Rash’alon has guaranteed you a place in the horde.”

”I’m not loyal to him. I’m loyal to the cause. Luke has seen us as far as he can,” she snapped back.

The second speaker emerged. She was humanoid, with thick, shining carapace plating her body. Her limbs were shaped in segments like an insect, with a heavy pincer for one hand, and a curved, scythe-like blade for the other, like a praying mantis. Thin wings shivered beneath a parted shell, making a dreadful rasp. Her face was terrifyingly human, with soft skin around black segmented eyes set in human lids, but the facade shattered lower. Her jaw had been replaced by clacking mandibles, seamlessly fused with her flesh. A pair of antennae sheltered behind a single beetle-like horn jutting from her head.

Both of their souls, demon lord and apostle, were near the peak of eighth-level. Kislee was worn, with several long gouges scarring her armor, but Hag’s soul brimmed with power. Every footstep caused the plants to wither and blacken, and the venom coursing through my veins to burn a little hotter.

”It’s a pity it had to come to this, Xiviyah. I kind of liked you.” The apostle spoke as if she knew me, as though we’d spoken.

I clutched my horn, my head throbbing, but the only memory that came to me was the awful coldness of Oblivion.

”There’s no need to waste words on prey,” Hag hissed. ”What use is pity to the damned?”

”Y-You won’t win,” R’lissea said, her voice shaking slightly. ”We already figured out your poison. It won’t hurt us anymore.”

”Us?” Hag tilted her head, apparently forgetting her words of a few seconds past. ”It was never meant to grace your flesh, hero. But you, Oracle.” Her tongue slithered across her lower lip. ”Delightful. The apostle was right, as usual. You might be immune to magic, but your body is weak and tender. Just a drop was enough to turn your heart black.”

”You mean Jessia?” I whispered, my heart constricting.

”Surprised by her betrayal? She’s been working with us from the start. Since before that fool apostle ever killed Rash’alon.” She grinned maliciously. ”She would have wanted to spoil that little secret herself, but given you’ll be kneeling before Rash’alon, and your companions are moldering in the snow, she wouldn’t have had the chance.”

The longer she talked, the more time we had to recover, and the greater chance Luke, or the Fatesworn, could rally to us. I had already called for Fable, but his response was terse. A demon lord wasn’t something you could just leave. Fyren had informed me through the mark he was bringing every Fatesworn inside and outside of Haven down on our position, but I’d already seen the impossible task it would be to fight their way to us. Our enemies had set the perfect trap, exhausting us with numbers, and stripping away my defenders one by one.

”Enough rambling,” Hag sniffed, raised her hand. ”Try not to die, Oracle. I would prefer presenting you alive than dealing with the inconvenience your death would cause us. No reason for a god to build a kingdom when he can simply inherit it.”

Seven magic circles blossomed beneath her feet, and the air turned thick and sickly sweet. Purple vines sprouted from the ground, forming flowers that twisted like jaws, with thorns like teeth, and dripping toxin for saliva. Each vine was easily thicker than I was tall, the bulbs the size of Fable’s head.

”Life magic?” R’lissea gasped

”Death blooms, these are,” Hag said, reaching up and caressing one like a pet. ”I think you’ll find them most entertaining.”

She waved her hand, and the monstrous flowers shot towards us, jaws gaping open. Kahlen’s swords flashed in front, slicing through plant matter, but they were harder than enchanted steel. His blades left shallow gashes, diverting only a few of them. Luxxa was more straightforward, using an art. Light spread from her shield, expanding into a bubble around us. A flower chomped down, cracking it, but it held.

”Adaptive Resistance isn’t working,” I said, clutching my staff tightly. ”These things are actually strong, with real force. Not just mana.”

”I know everything about you, apostle. I know every weakness, every vulnerability. She prepared us well for this fight,” Hag cackled.

Kislee didn’t stand by and watch. She blurred, weaving through the vines so quickly she seemed to teleport in front of us. Her mantis blade slashed once, then twice, and Luxxa’s art shattered. R’lissea conjured several sixth-level elementals that leaped at the Death Blooms, tackling them away, while the rest of the Star Guard engaged the apostle. Gith’s arrows flitted from the darkness, pinging off carapace sturdier than castle walls. Luxxa’s sword scraped off her arm in a flash of sparks, leaving only scratches.

Kislee’s claw shot out, aimed at Kahlen. He narrowly avoided it, but only because of the power of Celestial Grace.

”Too fast,” R’lissea gasped, already starting another spell. ”She’s even stronger than when we fought before!”

”Tepid Tide!” Hag’s cry rang across the meadow.

Purple sludge exploded beneath her feet, rising in a tidal wave of filth. It broke over our heads, the frothing surf a sickly green color, and crashed down.

”Shining Aegis!” I cried, projecting the eighth-level ward around us.

Gith darted forward, returning from the trees and sliding under the wall before it could form. But his appearance gave too much notice. Kislee darted forward, narrowly managing to enter the ward with us. I didn’t know if it was because she feared Hag’s power, or if she intended to take us all on her own, but it deprived Kahlen and Luxxa the chance to rest.

The wave parted in a river around our island, flooding the meadow. The poison surged violently, hissing and boiling against my magic, but it failed to penetrate. R’lissea’s elementals melted into the currents, but the Death Blooms seemed to drink it in, radiating a light of its color.

The wave sloshed over our heads, submerged my wards entirely, then gradually began to sink again. Toxic rivers cascaded through the forest, disintegrating trees and scouring the brush away as it flowed into valleys and crevasses.

Again, only a little of its power was direct mana. The rest was a true toxin fabricated just like Kahlen’s swords. Fate alone knew how far it would spread, unchained by a need for mana. The taint would seep into the ground and last for decades, a permanent scar to those who came after. A reminder of the horrors of a poison demon.