Author's Note: Wow-ee. This chapter was pretty intense to write. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. And if anyone's wondering, yes that is a reference way down there. You'll see it. I usually don't do references but this just fit too well.
I, Eternity
First Era Echo: The Final Battle
They set off again that sunset. When the moons rose high, they at last reached the walls.
"This is where we split off." Leon said. Pelinal gave him a nod as he and Rizzar'al began to stalk along the walls. The company began to smash at the main gate, Pelinal at their side. Together, they splintered it easily. Shouting like demons, they ran in. Pelinal strode forward, unflinching, towards white-Gold Tower.
From the top, Umaril looked down with a smug smirk.
"Humans..." He muttered, almost chuckled. "They will break." He waved his hand and walked back down to the throne room.
Leon and Rizzar'al reached the point in the wall where, by Rizzar'al's reckoning, Hektor's home was nearest. Unveiling his vicious claws, the Khajiit warrior flung himself up the sheer wall. Not to be outdone, Leon used his vampiric nails to do the same. Atop the wall were two guards, who were dispatched effortlessly. They found the stairs and climbed down.
"Now, if I recall, his mansion is in this area, right after this next turn. Be on your guard, there are soldiers everywhere, and he likely has a personal garrison." Rizzar'al said.
"Who is he, anyway?" Leon asked. "Where did he get so much pull?"
They looked past the corner, saw two soldiers. Like the ones on the wall, they fell quickly.
"He is one of Umaril's personal vassals. He was born to it." Rizzar'al said. "This is it."
The mansion was much larger than the surrounding ones, and grandly decorated with statues and fountains.
"Well then." Leon said, "Let's do it!"
The company had lit fires all along the merchant district. The soldiers had been distracted, led to the company as they had planned. David, sword in hand, had taken up the mantle of leader for the duration of the assault.
"Keep pushing!" He roared. "Let's kick them in the balls for every slight against us!"
The company echoed the roar as the soldiers reached them at last. David dodged aside a blade and thrust, drawing first blood. Ripping the sword from the body, he began to cut his own swath through the enemy. His tattoos began to smoke until they ignited, and a wall of magic leapt from him. A sadistic grin spread across his face as the blood ran down his body.
Pelinal walked on. Now and again, Ayleids would throw themselves at him, and without a thought he cut them down, not missing a single step. he reached the door to the tower, and a burst from his killing light destroyed the great golden doors. He walked in and began his ascent.
Leon and Rizzar'al used a public table as a battering ram, smashing down the doors of the grand manor. They walked in, weapons at the ready. Hektor's personal guard stood, a line of eight warriors in armor unlike anything Leon had ever seen.
They stepped forward in unison, as though they were of one mind, and drew their own blades, again in unison. The wickedly curved tools of destruction stank of fearsome enchantment.
Leon jumped at one flank as Rizzar'al jumped at the other. With the claws of his left hand, Rizzar'al gutted the first, spilling his entrails on the floor. Leon swung his sword down, cutting another in two, before whirling around and decapitating another. Rizzar'al thrust through the heart of yet one more, and stared down the half left alive.
Sarah reached David in the center of the battle. Both covered in blood, surrounded by warriors, they grabbed hands. Each channeled their magic with their love of the other, and glared at their opponents. With a yell, a shockwave erupted, killing what survived of the first battalion of soldiers and destroying half the storefronts.
"Go around!" David commanded. "On to the next district!"
Pelinal reached the top of the tower, and found himself at last in the throne room of Umaril.
"All right, you son of a whore!" He shouted. "Come and face me at last, like a man!"
Umaril, his gaze only mildly interested, looked at the human. His feathered wings seemed a perfect piece of the art on the wall behind him, a completion of the ultimate mozaic, a thing of pure and untarnished beauty.
"Kill him." he said, languidly, and the surviving Ayleid Chieftains all leapt from hiding and fell upon Pelinal at once as Umaril watched, bemused.
Leon and Rizzar'al ducked beneath attacks, their moves syncronizing to do the most damage they could. In mere moments, the guards lay dead.
"Any of the women alive would be downstairs." Rizzar'al said. "I've always wanted to take this bastard down. If he's done anything to my Shiara..." Rizzar'al's face became so twisted with hate Leon barely recognized it. They headed down the stairs as quickly as possible. The stench was overpowering. Fear and death reeked from the very walls and wails of torment came from the doors. Each one was opened, and the prisoners were released one by one. None of them were Caelia. In the final door were packed the residents of Rizzar'al's village, scared but otherwise unharmed. One woman, an almost-human but with fangs and a tail, jumped at Rizzar'al and hugged him.
"Shiara..." He said, hugging back. "I'm so glad you're safe."
"We're not done yet." Leon said. "You get them out of here. I'll go deal with Hektor."
"But I-" Rizzar'al began.
"Your duty is to get all of them to safety." Leon said. "I'll hit him twice as hard for you!"
Rizzar'al dropped into a smirk. "All right, human. Send him my regards!"
Leon walked them up, and Rizzar'al escorted them the rest of the way. There was a flight of stairs going to the upper floors. Leon could feel the presence of two living things.
"All right you bastard," Leon snarled, "now you'll get what's coming to you!"
Pelinal raised his shield in time to deflect the first blow. He swung his sword and the head of a chief fell. He brought it around and parried, then cut the hands off a warrior before kicking him in the face. A sword glanced off his armor, he turned and cleaved a head in two with a grunt. There was no pleasure in this fight. He wanted to fell Umaril, and no one else. That was when the arrow pierced his armor first. He grunted, barely reacting. he didn't know how to react, as he had never bled before. The white of his armor was tarnished with red. Then another arrow hit him in the shoulder. This time he made a hissing noise before felling another chief as Umaril sneered. when the third arrow pierced his chest he let out an inhuman cry that echoed all across the city.
The company was stopped in its tracks as the wail reached their ears. That moment as still targets cost five lives in the first second.
"Duck! Find cover!" David shouted, his momentum broken. The arrows continued to rain until they were pinned down.
Leon walked up the stairs as he heard the scream. He knew in his heart what had happened, but he also knew he had to continue. He stepped into a massive antechamber and saw at last his enemy.
"Well, well." Hektor said, smugly stroking his beard. "I see you are still alive."
"So you remember me." Leon said, throwing away his gauntlet. "You stole my love and marked me forever. Now all my rage is getting shoved right up your ass!"
Then Hektor made a gargling noise. A choking, hideous cough that could only barely be called a chuckle before he burst out laughing, a sound almost as terrifying as Pelinal's scream.
"Fool human!" He said. "Your woman, the women of the village, what do they mean to me? Nothing. What your hatred allows me to become? That is everything."
"What are you...?" He followed Hektor's gaze towards the wall behind him, and his moth hung open in absolute horror.
"Caelia?" He said. He smelled the life in her, a bare spark. She was naked, hung by spikes through her arms, shoulders and torso. He smelled the magicks keeping her alive in torment, keeping her blood in. "You..." Leon had no words vile enough for the black hate that spilled from his tattoos and smoked across the floor.
"Yes, that's right." Hektor said. "Now, direct your hatred at me!"
Leon obliged, firing his spell with every fiber of his being as a ball of solid hatred. It impacted Hektor, and the resulting explosion tore the wall from the manor.
Pelinal, alone on the floor, was on one knee as the pain ripped through him. His hand reached up and tore off the arrow, then the cuirass, then out of his chest he pulled the Red Diamond.
Umaril laughed then. "You see now?"
"You may have created me..." Pelinal said, tearing the head from the Diamond and placing it back in his chest, "... but I'm me. Nothing you do will ever change that!"
Umaril laughed mockingly. "You sorry puppet, you discarded doll!" He drew his massive blade from it's place next to his throne. "Self-awareness is above you and the human filth!"
Pelinal threw his mace. On the pure, serene, beautiful face was a look of sublime horror before it impacted. The blow distorted his features, breaking his nose and jaw in several directions at once. Blood dripped on the golden armor and Umaril unfurled his wings, his face permanently a mask of utmost horror.
"Die!" He wailed, thrusting the blade through Pelinal. Pelinal dragged himself in agony up the blade, and with a might blow cut off Umaril's right wing. They both screamed in unimaginable pain. Umaril crumpled to the ground, and Pelinal hacked off the other wing in two blows. The surviving chieftains watched in horror as their rebellious toy and their king fought in a bitter struggle to the death.
Sarah and David were the last alive. Surrounded, they looked eachother in the eye.
"To Sovngarde, brother."
"Yes sister." They said, embracing. Their tattoos glowed white and they exploded, taking the entire district with them.
Leon walked over to the hole, and black tentacles whipped forward, binding him. He heard that horrifying noise as Hektor rose, a maniacal glare across his face, the hatred of the spell fused to his body.
"Now you will see the awesome and terrible power of a truly cold hatred." Hektor said, before throwing Leon across the room against the wall. Leon got up and ran at him with a shout, but a tentacle flew across him, slamming him hard in the face and lifting him a dozen feet in the air. Hektor impact-juggled Leon for some time, laughing all the while. At last, he hit Leon sending him straight down. He burst through the floor, then through into the basement. Hektor reached down, grabbed him, then threw him up through the roof.
He rose there too. Leon charged at him again, and was again hit hard. He felt his nose break and heal again. The smoke and clouds coated the sky in a reddish glow, making Hektor look even more monstrous.
Pelinal ripped himself off the sword, his wounds glowing red. "I am not a puppet!" He roared, then dove at Umaril with such violence it repulsed even the cheiftains. His mace found its way back to his hand, and it came down on Umaril's right wing-stump. The king shreiked in pain, before cutting off Pelinal's left hand. Pelinal screamed as well, and in turn he stabbed through Umaril's shoulder. Off came his right leg, just before he cut off Umaril's head.
The head landed with a thump on the stone floor. The High King was dead, but Pelinal realized at last that he had failed before the chieftains tore him limb from limb.
Leon charged, again and again. Hektor continued laughing in the red glow of the fire. "Don't you see? It's hopeless!" He said, hitting Leon again. Leon stood up shakily, clutching his side. His ribs had broken. They were healing, but he was regenerating slower and slower. He knew he only had a limited amount of time before his immortal body would take more than it could handle.
"It's never hopeless." Leon said, managing at last to cut off a tentacle. Hektor grunted, then chuckled again.
"It was your own hatred of me that gave me this power!" Hektor said. "It is because of you I now have the power to usurp Umaril!" He used another tentacle to hit Leon again. Leon once again shakily rose. One of his eyes was swollen shut. Leon panted heavily.
"I see you are too stubborn to let fate go by easily." Hektor said. "If you weren't a disgusting, pathetic human, I might even pity your resolve."
"Shut UP!" Leon broke, his voice forming a wall of sound. It hit Hektor like a punch, and the momentary lapse was enough. Leon cut one of the tentacles supporting him, and he fell face-first onto the roof. He stood on his feet, but the tentacles still writhed behind him. One lunged out, and Leon cut it off before jumping forwards. He managed to cut across Hektor's face, opening his nose. Hektor punched him in the chest, knocking him back. He slowly rose again on the tentacle-legs.
Snarling, Leon took two steps forward. The tentacles whipped again, and he sidestepped.
"I've had enough." He said, a white tentacle whipping from his own hand to deflect Hektor's. "The war, the violence. It's not helping."
"What? How?" Hektor asked.
Leon's left hand began to glow, and he put his hand forward, cutting through another tentacle.
"Slavery, it's just... wrong. On so many levels. This world was made so we could be free!" He shouted, pointing towards the heavens. "My god, the one true god, is the god of freedom!"
His hand glowed brighter, and a massive drill exploded forth.
"My god is Shezzar who goes missing! Shezzar who has been found!"
He launched the drill forwards, and destroyed all the tentacles at last.
"My god is Shor, the god who lives on as a part of me!"
He raised the drill again.
"Now. I'm done!"
He pointed the drill forwards, and aimed it right at Hektor's head.
"Giga! DRILL!! BREAK!!!" He shouted as he launched himelf bodily through his enemy at last. Hektor screamed as he died, and the drill disappeared.
He jumped down into the room where Caelia hung. Weakly, she looked up at him.
"Leon..." She said.
"Caelia!"
"I think I'm dying. Hektor's enchantment kept me alive. It is finally my time." She said.
"No, not yet!" Leon said. "I have a way to save you."
Her eyes lit. Leon, as gently as he could, took her off the spikes. He bit her in the neck, and focused his power on enveloping her. Making his own vampire blood a part of her being. Her wounds began to close. She would live, but become like him in three days. He helped her up.
"Now, we need to go and see if we can help Pelinal."
They walked out the door, after Leon grabbed Caelia some clothes, each supporting the other. Leon looked up and saw soldiers of the Ayleidoon staring down at them. He reached for his sword just before they all began to die.
Morihaus charged through the front line, bellowing. Alessia swing her blade left and right.
"Alessia! Morihaus!" Leon managed to bark out, relieved. he had been too weak to fight any more.
"We couldn't let you guys grab all the glory!" Another voice said.
"Rizzar'al?" Leon asked.
He stepped forward. "I ran into these guys on the way back. They spared a few men to escort my people home. Now, let's finish this!"
"Been waiting to hear that!" Leon said, as all eyes turned to White-Gold. "Now let's do it!"
