"Could he do that, Lord? Free
the New Kingdom?"
"Yes." The Black Lord glared at
him. "Quite easily."
"Then you intend to kill
him?"
"Absolutely. Fetch the
girl."
Ellese gazed at the image in her
scrying glass, her heart leaden. Bane stood on a hill in the area
that the previous battle had blackened and gouged, awaiting the
Black Lord. A demon host gathered at a respectful distance, facing
him. She fought back the tears that threatened to blind her, biting
her lip. He looked so small and insignificant against the backdrop
of huge demons and dark sky. His pale skin almost glowed in the
gloom, and his hair shone like a raven's wing. The more power he
Gathered, she had noticed, the more the darkness strived to protect
him with the powerful allure it bestowed.
The most senior healers of the
Goddess' Temple stood before her, awaiting news of the battle upon
which their lives depended, while the rest continued to pray in the
chapel. Their faces were tense and gaunt with worry, their hands
clasped to stop any nervous wringing or fidgeting. These were women
whom she had always revered as the most exalted of their kind,
given the sacred trust of the greatest abbey in the land. Their
seer sat at a table nearby, gazing into her own glass. Her cry
jerked Ellese from her reverie, and made the Elder Mothers
tense.
"He comes!"
Bane turned as dozens of earth
demons rose without warning. The earth was already black and
covered with ash, so no rings surrounded them. Their number grew
rapidly, and they gathered in a circle a short distance away,
awaiting their master. A preternatural hush hung in the still air.
The lightning and thunder had ceased a day ago, when the Overworld
had accepted defeat, and the storm of its struggle had died. Now
the clouds hung like a shroud over a dead land.
A surge of dark magic signalled
the arrival of his opponent, and the Black Lord appeared in the
centre of the demon circle, still clad in his droge form, Mirra
held at his side. He used a little magic to light a fire, and
scores of fire demons stepped from it. Arkonen walked closer,
dragging Mirra by her arm, his expression smug. Bane noticed that
the arm Arkonen held was wrapped in a cloth, and appeared oddly
misshapen. After retching in the aftermath of the Move, Mirra
stared ahead with empty eyes.
Arkonen made an expansive
gesture with his free hand. "Well, here I am."
"Indeed," Bane replied. "Still
hiding behind a girl, I see."
The Black Lord smirked. "An
excellent shield."
"Because you are too cowardly to
face me without her. You know that in a fair fight you would
lose."
Arkonen laughed. "You have
become arrogant, and proud. I came for some sport, nothing more. If
you do not adequately entertain me, seeing you watch her die might
prove more enjoyable." He glanced around at Bane's demons. "An
impressive army, but useless against me."
"I see you brought your
own."
"Yes, it should be interesting
to watch them pound each other to dust and ashes. A waste, though.
But it will be even more entertaining to tear you apart."
"It should be amusing to see you
try."
Arkonen's eyes narrowed. "Such
confidence, for one so young and stupid. You forget, I have been
around for more than two thousand years, and most of that time was
spent as a god. You, on the other hand, have barely managed twenty
years, yet you think you can beat me. Amusing, indeed."
Bane's lips twitched into a
slight, chilling smile. "One thing I have not acquired in my short
lifetime, is the need to ramble on about the obvious as if everyone
else is an idiot."
The Demon Lord gestured, and an
eir'greth sword appeared in his hand. He leapt forward and brought
the weapon down in a mighty stroke that clove the Black Lord in
half from head to crotch. The halves melted away into the shadows,
and Arkonen swelled, his form taking on a four-armed, three-eyed
demonic aspect with great bat wings. Red sparks swirled within the
blackness like swarms of tiny, maddened fireflies, and his yellow
eyes shone, lamp-like. His red maw curved in a foul smile, and his
laughter bellowed forth.
Behind Bane, the earth demons
hurled their twisted iron spears with enough force to penetrate
stone, filling the air with an eerie whistling. The shield that
sprang into being around Arkonen consumed all but two, and the
holes they tore in his shadow form swiftly closed. The Black Lord's
earth demons loosed a hail of whistling iron death at Bane, but his
fire demons rose to snatch them from the sky and turn them to slag.
The few that got through Bane batted aside with a lash of force.
The demons roared and stamped, shaking the ground with their
massive legs.
Bane swung the sword again,
severing the arm that held Mirra. She tottered as her support
vanished, and an earth demon raced forward to try to snatch her
away. A lash of power from the Black Lord turned it to scattered
soil, and Mirra fell, writhing. Arkonen's shield consumed another
volley of iron spears in fiery flashes, and his fire demons rose to
parry them as Bane's did. The earth demons drew the crude spears
from the ground, forming them within the earth with their will and
causing them to rise to the surface.
Arkonen dragged Mirra back to
his side, then flung a bolt of dark fire that ripped rocks and soil
from the ground, hurling them at Bane. The Demon Lord went
sprawling, rolled as his shields deflected the mass of earth, then
sprang to his feet and vanished. The Black Lord snarled, his eyes
seeking his opponent with raking beams of hot light. The flying
spears buzzed like wasps, and fire demons' eyes melted them. Bane
Moved to Arkonen's side and grasped the Black Lord, his Gather
causing his opponent's wings and two arms to shrivel. At the same
time he dispensed with the invisibility, its purpose served.
Mirra staggered free and fell to
her knees, gagging. Another earth demon ran forward to grab her,
but Arkonen smashed it aside with one of his remaining arms. The
seven runes on Bane's chest shone with the power of his Gather, and
the banshee song howled around him. Unable to contain so much, Bane
channelled the excess upwards in a column of darkness that burnt
the thunderheads away, and a beam of sunlight shot down. Arkonen
growled and leapt aside. An earth demon sprinted to Mirra and
snatched her up, but five of Arkonen's minions rushed to intercept
it, their fists ripping chunks from its earthen body. Demons raced
into the fray from both sides, those that served Bane struggling to
protect the girl.
Bane strived to hold Arkonen in
the light. The power he directed upwards tore open the clouds even
as the Black Lord dragged him away from it. Arkonen's strength
surpassed Bane's, however, and his aversion to light gave him more.
Shadows rushed into the Black Lord to replace those that Bane's
Gather drew from him, and his hands reached for Bane's throat. The
Demon Lord raised the sword and slashed at Arkonen, lopping off the
remaining arm on his left side.
The Black Lord howled with fury,
regenerating the lost limb in a few moments, and his right hand
almost closed about Bane's throat. Bane released him and Moved,
reappearing close to the embattled demons around Mirra. He lashed
out with a shadowy scythe, annihilating several of the Black Lord's
minions. Spinning to face Arkonen as he sensed a threat from
behind, he Moved again as a huge boulder thudded into the ground
where he had been standing. It rolled into the mass of demons,
bowling several over.
A swift glance assured Bane that
a demon held the girl safely, protecting her from the mighty brawl
around it as earth demons struck each other, breaking off clods of
soil. Several fire demons joined the fray, burning the struggling
earth demons. The lash of their molten eyes crisped demon soil,
turning it to glowing slag that sloughed off in streams of lava.
Several earth demons sank down in defeat, their power consumed.
The battle's dull roar filled
the air, the gritty thudding of the earth demons' blows combining
with the booming and growling of fire demons' flames. Bane burnt
several more earth demons to dust, cursing when he could not
release the one that held Mirra. Several of his demons had formed a
protective wall around it, but more of Arkonen's minions rushed
into the melee all the time, replacing those Bane destroyed. The
larger battle continued around him, spears whistling through the
air to be destroyed by fire demons before they could strike either
of the greater antagonists.
Bane whipped around at the sound
of several dull booms behind him, to find Arkonen charging towards
him, having just destroyed the four fire demons that had sought to
stop him reaching Bane. Before the Demon Lord could leap aside,
Arkonen smashed him backwards and sprang after him, as lithe as a
cat. Bane raised the sword in time to stab it through Arkonen's
belly, slowing his attack, and jerked up his legs to plant his feet
against the Black Lord's midriff, holding him at bay. Releasing the
sword, he smashed his fists into Arkonen's face, tearing the shadow
form and obliterating one eye.
Arkonen reared back and raised
his fists to crush Bane, who flung up his arms. A domed shield
sprang into being, absorbing the blows. It drew power from the
attack as Bane renewed his Gather once more, and Arkonen recoiled.
The Demon Lord yanked the sword from Arkonen's belly and swung it
in a lightning-fast slash that almost cut the shadow form in half.
The Black Lord howled and recoiled again, allowing Bane to jump up.
Two demon spears tore through Arkonen and thudded into the ground
near Bane, making him step aside with a glare in the general
direction of the throwers. Although they had not been aimed at him,
their trajectory had been poorly judged, and he did not wish to
perish by one of his own demons' spears.
The Black Lord paused, eyeing
Bane, who glared at him. Exertion quickened his breath and sweat
dewed his brow. The damage to Arkonen's shadow form had already
repaired itself, and his Gather thickened his substance to solidity
once more. Bane had only suffered a few bruises so far, since
Arkonen had not yet chosen to resort to edged weapons. That, Bane
sensed, was about to change, for the Black Lord's fury grew with
each setback. The Demon Lord glanced at the mob of battling demons,
where his minion still held Mirra safe but could not move. The rest
seethed in a thudding, growling melee around it. Arkonen followed
his gaze and gave a grating chuckle.
"Worried about your sweetheart,
boy? If my demons do not tear her apart, I will, and I shall enjoy
it." A false smile twisted his ugly maw. "Last chance to stop this
stupidity, Bane. Take the girl, go somewhere and clear the skies. I
will let you live there with her."
Bane's lips curved in a
contemptuous sneer. "How generous of you. I can take half this
world if I choose. I do not need your permission. The fact that you
are still trying to bribe me only proves that you know you cannot
win."
"Maybe not, but nor can you,
and, if you continue with this, she will die. Then what will you
have achieved?"
Bane Moved to Arkonen's side and
swung his sword in great strokes that sliced through his shadow
form, shredding it. The Black Lord growled and vanished, fragments
of his substance dispersing like smoke as they drifted down. Bane
also became invisible as he continued to swing the sword, then he
spun, the sword out flung, meeting a resistance that told him he
had struck Arkonen again. Leaping aside, he lashed out, using his
best judgement of where Arkonen would go next, but this time the
weapon cut air. He stood still, the sword poised, and stretched his
senses to find his opponent, searching for the frisson of dark
power that would give away Arkonen's position. The whistling of
demon spears had stopped, since they no longer had targets to aim
at, and instead they engaged each other in brutal combat.
Sensing a presence close behind
him, Bane dropped and rolled, holding the sword close to his chest.
He leapt up and lashed out at the spot where he judged Arkonen to
be. The weapon cut air, and his senses warned him of a presence
beside him as clawed hands closed around his neck, tightening in a
choking hold. Bane swung the sword, and the blade met the
resistance of Arkonen's shadow form as he sliced through the arms
that held him. The hold on his neck vanished, and he gasped smoky
air.
Deciding that invisibility gave
him no advantage when his opponent was also invisible, but only
consumed power needlessly, Bane relinquished it. Arkonen appeared
before him, a contemptuous smile on his ebon visage, his eyes
bright with mockery.
"Stupid boy. You will not learn,
will you?"
Arkonen conjured a sword and
leapt at the Demon Lord, swinging it in wild, but well-aimed
strokes that forced Bane to jump back and parry the attack with his
weapon.
"See what we are reduced to,"
the Black Lord said conversationally as the blades clashed together
in a shower of sparks. "Trying to chop each other up with mundane
weapons like dirty humans."
"I am human," Bane snarled,
parrying another swing of Arkonen's sword.
Bane retreated from a barrage of
scything strokes, able only to fend them off. He had not been
trained to use a sword, and neither had Arkonen, yet he did seem to
have a little more skill than Bane possessed, perhaps gleaned from
years of idle experimentation. All Bane knew was what he had seen
human warriors do in battle, skills that had impressed him with
their brutal deadliness, prompting him to occasionally conjure a
sword and practice with it when he was alone.
That had not prepared him for a
proper sword fight, however, and he retreated before the Black
Lord's onslaught, the clashing blades numbing his hands. Arkonen
matched Bane's unnatural speed, and his mortal body was a grave
disadvantage in a physical conflict. One good cut from Arkonen's
weapon could cripple him, and he could not afford to lose another
battle. The demons, finding that their targets had reappeared,
stopped fighting each other and hurled their spears again, filling
the air with eerie whistling.