Chapter IV: Of Steel And Stone
The journey was indeed long filled with hardships, to many and most undeserving of telling, the largest problem seemed to be Jay. Elrohinile learned spells to conceal Jay's appearance, made him look like a human, which was no issue; the issue was Jay's need to feed. Often the Journey from town to town would weaken Jay to a near death point, his skin often whiter than sheep's wool. His strength would fall and he would often perspire terribly. He would take small amounts of energy from sleeping villagers, but it seemed that it was not enough. He told us that the master fed off the energy of his children, and since he was not feeding regularly, he was being drained of his own energy reserves.
We were now about six days travel from the kingdom Karod'Zileah and approached the Harkloang woods a dense and lush forest. I could feel something off in the woods, the sent of death came at us from all angels, filling our lungs. Jay looked around and smiled darkly to himself, he knew what we were up against and it made him happy. I glanced around; I began to notice blood covering the ground and trees. As we walked further the stench grew and so did the blood, it was old blood, dried and even bleached by the sun, the dirt had been died red. Vegetation had been pushed down and broken as though something had been dragged through the forest, as we followed the trail we began to hear voices. They spoke in grunts and shouts, no words formed no clear language being spoken, noises like animals, then I knew what were up against, berserkers.
Men but not regular men, they were wild and powerful, transformed by magic and hate. Their brains were as mush, they desired only too kill, no words could calm them and no known magic could cure them, they were terrible hunters killing everything and anything. Killing them was difficult, they did not feel pain or fear, they were beasts, you could slice and cut them but still they would come. Luckily, night had fallen two hours ago and Jay seemed to be very glad to know that the berserkers were near.
"I'll handle them," Jay said in a low voice, his arm extended to the south and there stood two very dangerous looking berserkers. They appeared to be drow berserkers, clothed in animal hides and caring very large axes. Jay smiled, "tonight I feed, and feed well," with that he transformed into mist and began to move along the forest floor.
The berserkers didn't seem to notice him but as we stood silently the wind shifted, and the berserkers caught our sent. They turned to face us, unable to see us they began to slowly move in our direction gripping the wooden axe handles. As they moved closer, the blanket of mist rose before them and Jay took form. His hands grasped their heads covering their mouths; their howls silenced. Effortlessly Jay lifted them, legs flailing, striking him, Jays hands began to glow a pale green, and the color began to fade from the berserkers faces, the hatred in their eyes faded and were replaced by fear, their flesh began to sag, the hair from their heads fell, and they grew skinny and aged. Their axes fell to the ground, Jay tightened his grasp and their jaws shattered and spayed blood onto him, and he released them, their bodies dead before they hit the ground.
Jay turned back towards us, his skin was less pale, and his eye was glowing a deep red, an evil smile covered his face. As he walked towards us, three more berserkers came crashing through the forest, howling like demons, flames burned in their eyes. Jay spun around on one heel and walked towards them, he picked up the fallen axes and through them with incredible speed and power, the fist axe struck the middle berserker, splitting his lower right abdomen spilling the creatures internal organs onto the ground, the second cleared its head off, blood spraying like a fountain into the air. The head landed just a few seconds before the body, the other two did not seem to notice and continued to charge, the first swung at Jay, Jay's hand grasped the handle of the axe and pulled it from the berserkers hand and flung it at the other. The axe imbedded itself into the skull of the berserker nearly cleaving it in two; the berserker's body fell and slid about a foot along the ground leaving a smear of blood. Jay grasped the last berserker's throat and began to feed off its soul. Once again, the creature aged quickly, Jay squeezed and soon a loud snap could be heard and the beasts head fell back lifeless, Jay released the corpse. He turned and began to walk towards us, his build had grown, his face only vaguely pale and covered in blood, his hair shone in the light of the moon, his eye had stopped glowing.
"That felt good," he said in a hushed voice the smile crept slowly back over his face, his voice seemed darker. "Worry not, I don't feed like that often, but I was in dire need of the energy, and berserkers are teeming with it."
"I never witnessed a vampire feed before," I said softly, and then I raised my head and stared at Jay, "I pray I do not see it again."
Jay smirked, "arrogant, just like all humans, I do not scoff at you for eating a cow, or another beast. You feed on them to survive, just as I do with mortals, without this energy I die, I do not get the same charge from beasts as I do men or elves. These are my sheep, my cattle, what the meat these animals provide for you, the living provide for us."
"That is all well in good, but our creatures are dead before we begin to eat them."
"Believe me Zamieon, once a vampire catches its prey it is dead." He cocked his head to the side to beckon us follow him, he laughed darkly to himself.
Jay had been right though there was little difference between him and me, I killed for my sustenance as did he, what difference does it make from whence it came, always we feed off weaker creatures, why should it be different for a Vampire. The night air once filled with death was now past us, as we trudged through the thick growth the smell of nature filled my lungs. Fresh air carried with it the scent of wild flowers, the air was colder then I was used to, my breath hung in the air before me like smoke from the fire. I shivered, and hurriedly began to put my coat on. The ground was already becoming wet with fresh dew, voices of the ferries and wood elves echoed through the trees. Songs of nature's children played through its majestic halls of green and brown, leaves blew and trees swayed in the wind, movement surrounded us, beasts moved quietly hunting the night for a meal.
We walked the rest of the night without trouble, as day broke we made camp, by my best estimations it would be another night of walking until we made the other side of the forest. Luckily, this was a short cut; we would have only another day's travel from there, instead of the four that it would have taken to walk around the woods. Jay transformed into a wolf and made himself comfortable on the dew laid ground, both Elrohinile and my self pulled a large piece of deer hide over a low branch to shade our eyes from the sun. Soon with little talk, my eyes closed and I was out, sleep crept quickly over me.
I awoke some time after mid-day, the sun still hung high in the sky, Jay and Elrohinile were still both sleeping, I stood up and began to walk west. I soon came upon a small creek fresh water flowed almost everywhere in this forest; I bent down closer to the water. I cleaned myself off, and then I drank of the water. As the cool breath of the water touched my lips the taste of iron filled my mouth and immediately I spat the refreshing water out, blood. The taste would remain for a while for the felt as though it had coated my tongue with iron. I looked from whence this river had flown, it was flowing from the west, it would seem that mush death lay before us.
I went back to camp and woke the others, Jay growled still in wolf form Elrohinile woke with less anger and more enthusiasm, I suggested we start moving now as we had already missed some kind of slaughter.
"What do you mean 'slaughter?'" Elrohinile asked her voice filled with worry.
"The water in the stream teems with the taste of blood, no single creature could taint the water as such." My voice was as still as I could make it, I had become excited, I had long been waiting to test my powers.
"Show me," Jay called out as he fixed the last button on his shirt. I took him to the stream; he bent down and drank form the water, huge gulps he lapped up, drinking almost greedily. "Your right Zamieon, there was death, a great deal of it and magic as well, dark magic. This blood is old though, I can taste its staleness, and I'm guessing two to three weeks old; we should press on and quickly."
Thus, we doubled our pace and made a near run to the edge of the forest, even at near full speed the journey took four hours. The sweat beat down my face drenching me, leaving my face and hair sticky, my shirt soaked through the back. The sight that awaited us on the other side was far less than favorable. Scorched black earth covered in corpses, some beaten and cut the rest charred and black. There was no stench of death here though but the presence of magic was all around, truly something terrible had happened here. Jay moved into the black earth and began to rummage through the bodies, soon finding what he was looking for.
"Here it is," he said pulling a banner from underneath on of the bodies. "It's the sign of the House of Rakorlanz, a great kingdom of rouges and assassins. Most honorable men, now most are dead, killed by that filthy Rezillian." Jay spat at the mention of that name.
"You knew him?" I asked as I slowly approached Jay.
"Aye I knew him, not sure if he was worse a mortal or a vampire. In his time he made killings like this simply for fun, this is not a challenge for him; he uses powerful spells to defeat his enemies."
"How can you be sure it's him?" asked Elrohinile as she made her way towards us.
"This place reeks of his stink, his scent is like the plague, it spreads to anything that gets too close to it, and nothing can get that kind of smell off. We vampires can smell each others scent like wolves." Jay stood up, and turned to the west, "we should hurry, for there is no telling just what kind of damage Rezillian has already caused in Karod'Zileah." Jay transformed back into a wolf and bounded away at full speed to the west.
Elrohinile and I followed as closely as we could, running the rest of the way to Karod'Zileah. We arrived only about an hour before nightfall, I was sweating heavily, my heart raced, my lungs filled and emptied in rapid successions. The sight that befell us was a horrid one, bodies hung from the outer walls of the kingdoms ramparts; nails driven through them, the area reeked of death and decay. It seemed that some of the bodies had been there for some time, others were still moaning in pain, blood trickled down, wetting the ground around the wall. We began to walk around the side of the wall to the main gate, screams of pain could be heard coming form the city, it was enough to freeze your blood. Two of the largest stone golems I had ever seen guarded the gates; they made trolls look like Halflings, at least ten feet tall a piece.
As we walked towards the gates, a voice came from the tall grass; "pssst, travelers that way is not wise come into the grass I'll take you somewhere safe." Jay sniffed the air and nodded his furry head, to signal that it was safe, as we moved into the grass a hand tugged at my coat. I looked down to see a man in soldier's armor; his long brown hair was unkempt and full of dirt, as were his clothes and armor. "The kingdom has been over run by a fowl creature, follow me, I'll take you to the others."
He led us down a small trail of pushed down grass, it would seem that this vampire was not concerned with the survivors, it was far too easy to track them. The path led to a hole in the ground, a large hole about six feet in diameter, as we climbed down we found ourselves in an underground tunnel system. Torches hung on the walls providing dim lighting to the caverns, the stranger led us down a well-worn tunnel, I heard a thud behind me and quickly turned, it seemed as though Jay was going to remain in wolf form. "There are few who escaped the town, after that monster released those golems, the rest are either dead or in the dungeons waiting to die. Every night Rezillian adds another to the wall, the screams are beginning to drive those of us here mad."
"Why is he doing that?" asked Elrohinile in a monotone voice.
"He wants us to deliver one of us to him."
"Why don't you comply?"
"This person is the only one who may save us from the chimera beast he made."
"Chimera?" A voice behind me called, Jay had turned into his vampiric self.
The soldier was startled, but that changed into anger as he drew his sword, "you brought another one of those here with you, how dare you!"
"Please if I was anything like Rezillian you'd have been dead three minutes ago." Jay spoke as he brushed past the soldier, "now, please, tell me about this Chimera."
The guard sheathed his sword, "I guess your right, Rezillian spent little time in killing most of the royal guard. The Chimera was once our finest warrior, Dawnslo, son of Dannoth, but Rezillian changed him. Now he is one of those golem creatures, only he is a combination of stone, steel, man and demon, no weapon we have used can even scratch him. Not only that but he has a strange black magic sword, no actual blade, just pure dark energy surging from the hilt."
"And this person is so important why?"
"We don't know, its just fairly obvious that if Rezillian wants her than she is the last person he should get."
"Who is she?" I asked, curiosity was getting the best of me.
"Follow me I'll introduce you all to her." The guard continued deeper into the cave, until we came upon a group of doors that ran along a long hallway. We walked to the end and turned to face a heavy Iron door, the guard placed his had on the door, "imbelum ifinuim." The door opened without a creek, a young women lay on a sheep skin bed. "Allow me to introduce to you Sheris, priestess of Iniufus goddess of light. Sheris these people are..."
"I am Jay, a Vampire who has been sent to rid this land of my kin."
I stepped forward bowing, "I am Zamieon Malanchite, immortal and last of the hunters."
Elrohinile stepped forward, "I am Elrohinile Treeblossom, shield maiden of Asgard, I have been sent to protect you." This was news too me, I had no idea that she had more information of the mission than Jay or I.
"Quite the party you have," Sheris replied a faint smile pressed upon her face. Her beauty was beyond compare, she had long dark brown hair, and deep green eyes. Her face was flush and smooth, filled with youthful energy, the dim light shone off it as if it were as clear water. It seemed to make her glow, and then it dawned on me that it was not her glowing it was her robes, the robes of a priestess of light are blessed.
I decided that I wanted to know just what had happened, "so what did happen here, how did things end up like this?"
Sheris began to speak, quietly "It started four weeks ago, the court seer, and a great man named Quilathous disappeared, leaving his apprentice Rezillian in his place. It seemed odd that no one questioned what happened he just seemed to slide into place. He quickly gained the trust of the king and court, but he made things change in a hurry. Relations between Karod'Zileah and our neighboring kingdoms crumbled we were on the brink of war, and no one seemed to care, Rezillian was pulling everyone's strings. Then about two weeks ago the House of Rakorlanz came and war was to be waged. Rezillian and Dawnslo led our soldiers into combat but the house of Rakorlanz greatly outnumbered us, but that did not matter in time. On the field it was a slaughter, soldiers rushed into combat nearly an hour before nightfall; from what I hear bodies cleaved away at one another, blood covered the ground. Then night fell, and Rezillian let loose his furry, fire rained from the heavens, explosions lifted the earth, tore through bodies and armor.
From what Dawnslo had told me there was not a man on that field left alive, luckily, most of our troops were off the field at the time; Rezillian had given a signal for them to retreat. The smoke could be seen from the castle, and the stench was overpowering. The following night there was a celebration for the victory, our mead hall was overflowing with bodies, music and laughter was deafening. This was also the last night that I had seen Dawnslo, he had told me much about the battle most just horrors of battle, he seemed to have a hatred towards Rezillian, said he was a mad man, a murderer. Dawnslo was the only person who seemed to see through the smoke cloud that Rezillian had blown over the rest of the kingdom, even over myself. The next day everything changed, it was early morning and there was word that Dawnslo was missing, as well as Rezillian. At midday there was a large ruckus at the gates of the city, Rezillian and an army of about fifty golems were standing at the gates demanding that the king surrender the castle and all the civilians within its walls to him. Naturally he declined, he sent a squadron of one hundred soldiers to dispense with the golems and their leader, unfortunately they were no match for one of them.
When they attacked only one golem fought them, the smallest of the group, the soldiers weapons broke upon its skin like the tide off rocks. The golem smashed their skulls in with its fists, blood soaked the ground and screams echoed through the courtyard. The golem was Dawnslo, the face was the same, but his eyes were empty devoid of life. Within moments they had broken the gates open, the crashing silenced the screams for a moment, then the screams doubled as the golems began their massacre of the people, I was knocked unconscious by the running people and when I awoke I was here, the rest I believe that you already know."
Jay seemed to have been struck by something, "beg your pardon my lady, but how long have you known this Dawnslo?" His eye seemed to shine in the dark as though he had some dark plan boiling inside his mind. "Well I've known since we were children his father fell in combat, my father was his father's childhood friend so naturally he took Dawnslo in." She seemed surprised by Jay's curiosity.
"You were close than?"
"Well ye-yes, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."
Jay turned to Elrohinile, "Your spells to transform a persons form, can you do animals as well?"
"Beg your pardon," came a near stunned answer.
"Can you transform some one into an animal?"
"Yes."
"All-right, I've got a plan, now pay attention I only want to go through this once. Zamieon, you and I will attack the city head on, guard boy, sorry I missed you name, have you got maces, flails mourning-stars, anything blunt and destructive?"
"Names Garrik, and yes flails and maces."
"I'll need two of each; we'll clean most of the golems out of the city and make our way to the castle, if I know Rezillian that's where he will be held up. Now Zamieon I can handle Rezillian but I will need you to hold back Dawnslo, but be careful; if I am right his blade is called the Fushilartsoi, a blade forged by demons, powerful enough to strike down the gods. I'll signal for you then Elrohinile, you'll bring Sheris to us."
"I can get her there simple enough but what will the signal be?"
"When flame and lightning ignite the night sky, but we will have to wait till tomorrow."
"Why?" Came the gruff voice of Garrik his tone holding an annoyed tone.
"Because, fool, I like Rezillian am a vampire as such I function better under the guise of night."
"Of course, I'll show you to a free room." Garrik seemed bitter and angry by us staying but also not attempted to stop us. We followed him out of the room and back towards the way that we came, this time to an open room. "Its all we have right now, rest I'll come for you at dusk tomorrow with flails and maces, good-night, may Baulder bless you." With that, he turned and left us, and we each found our place in rest. I found it to be the best rest that I had in a long while.
When I awoke it was already near dusk, Jay and Elrohinile were both already awake and talking with one another when Jay noticed me shake off the sleep. "Well, I'm impressed hunter; most people can't sleep the night before they could die."
"Well see that's where I get off lucky, there is no way I can die tonight, or tomorrow night, etcetera, etcetera." I said jokingly, I was scared out of my mind, laughter made it less noticeable.
Jay pointed to my feet, as I sat up I noticed the flail an mace lain out before me, "you'll need those, swords are of little use against these beasts of stone. Well I suggest that the two of us make our way to the castle, and now." He turned to leave while still talking, "you remember your part right Elrohinile?"
"Of course," she spoke as she nodded.
"Fare thee well, I'll see you soon." I pulled her close, our lips met briefly, we smiled and I walked out. I followed Jay down the narrow corridor; the flail weighing heavily at my side, the mace held loose in my hand, the air was heavy in the caverns, muggy and filled with death.
We walked out into the world, the sky was red with the setting sun, as though it were on fire, there was no much distance to the walls of the castle, soon the sounds of death would echo through the silence of night. The sun continued to fall as we approached the gates, I could see two of the golems add another person to their wall, a small child maybe ten this time, screaming and crying. Her legs kicking it did no good I could hear the thunder and see the shaking of the wall as they drove the spikes into her. Her screams stopped, her head fell, she had passed out from the pain, and the golems moved back inside the gates, they moved slowly, it would be easy to take them out.
Jay stood up and allowed the ball of the flail to hit the ground; he tightened his grasp on the long metal chain of the flail. Then in a quick blur Jay moved towards the gates, I could barley make him out, I could see the flail spinning in his hand, hew drew in on the golems. The first one did not have a chance to react, the flail smashed through its body, crumbling it to the ground, the second turned only to meet with Jays flail. Rubble covered the ground at the gate; Jay motioned for me to join him, I cast a couple of spells to aid me. A burst speed spell it would allow me to keep up with Jay and a godly strength spell to make myself much strong enough to take on these hulks unarmed. I rushed over to Jay, as he tore the steel gate from the frame of the large door and flung it a few feet behind him, it landed hard on the ground sending a mist of dust flying into the air. Jay rushed into the city with me following close behind; the streets were crawling with golems, their heavy footsteps echoing off the coble stone streets.
"Zamieon, take out as many golems as you can, we don't need them coming in on our flank sides while we fight Rezillian and his main golem. I want you take the streets to the left, I'll go right, kill them all." He turned and took the streets to the right, I could already hear the crumbling of stone, Jay's screams echoed through the night.
I turned heading down the road to the left, moving quickly, weaving through side streets, my flail spun shattering through the stone creatures, their ruble falling hard to the ground. The first twelve fell easily, but my flail broke against the thirteenth, its massive stone fist hit hard against my breastplate shattering it and quite possibly breaking a few ribs. Pain shot through me, I briefly coughed up blood, and staggered back a few steps. The golem drew its arm back to strike again I caught its mighty hand in mid swing and through the hulking brute into a wall, its body cracked and crumbled. I fell to my knees, the coughing started for me again, the blood flowed fresh with every one, I cast a recovery spell upon myself. The pain went away and the blood stopped flowing, I lifted my coat and pulled the mace from my belt, I was wasting no more time I charged at the castle, destroying the few golems that still stood in my way.
I dropped my mace as I approached the large castle walls, two golems guarded the large wooden door, amazing patterns had been carved into it, lions and phoenixes covered the lower half. I charged at full speed and attacked the golems did not even have time to react; the crumbling sound of their rocky bodies was music to my ears. I stood waiting for Jay, I heard more crumbling in the side streets somewhere, drawing slowly closer, and then I saw him approaching at top speed, covered in dust. When he got next to me, he sat on the cobblestone street using his arms to support himself.
"So what do you think, managed to take down all the golems watching the city in less than twenty minutes, we could always take a rest for a while." Jay spoke with a wide smile; he enjoyed this violence, like a drug that gave him some unknown sensation of power.
"And what happens when Rezillian realizes that all his golems are gone? Will more people die; can you handle more evil on your conscience when you die?"
"People die Zamieon, men, woman, children, they all die nothing can stop that, you'll learn that in time, and in time you'll become more like me."
"That I highly doubt Jay."
"Whatever you say child, but do not think me harsh or uncaring, just realistic."
"What is realistic about letting people die when you can save them?"
"Save them from what, death? You cannot save something that lives from dying, every day that they live they die a little more, all you do by saving them from evil is prolong the dying process." Jay stood up and pushed the large wooden doors open as wide as they would go. I followed closely behind Jay who began to walk up some large stone steps leading to the higher towers. As we climbed higher I began to hear a dark voice singing, echoing through the great empty castle, once in a while a groaning or scream could be heard far below us, the people were locked in the dungeons in the lower sections of the castle. We climbed till we reached a large hallway, that was heavily lit with torches, shadows danced and cast themselves over the blood stained walls. Large windows on either side showed the night sky light brightly by moon and stars. A large set of red doors lay at the end of the hall, and there in front of the doors stood the last golem.
He appeared to be maybe five-five or five-six, just a little shorter than Jay and myself. His hair reflected the torch light, it appeared to be metallic, and the metal of his body could be seen beneath the rock, speckles of light cast along the walls reflecting off him. Jay stood in silence his eyes fixated on the golem. My heart rate started to skip beats; I could feel my palms starting to sweat.
"Zamieon," Jay started his voice a whisper. "That must be the one that can't be killed, well I'm sure you could but try not to, I think we should keep him around for a while. Just hold him here as long as you can I'll take care if Rezillian." With that, Jay vanished into a fog blanket and passed by the golem unnoticed.
This was my moment to shine; I drew my blades from the inside of my coat and charged at the golem, the torch light gleaming off the metal of my blades. The golem heard me coming his cold hallow eyes met mine; the rocky hand moved quickly and drew out an empty hilt from its side. As it tightened its grip on the hilt a blade of pure dark magic came shooting out, waiving in the air the power of the darkness reached me in an instant, and I stopped in mid stride, fear began to overcome me. I quickly sheathed my swords and cast a spell to create a sword of pure light, I knew it was not going to stop his blade for long but it was the best that I could do. We charged one another at full speed our feet echoed throughout the hall, I began to release a battle cry, my voice left me, "for my people!"
Our swords met in burst of fury, light and darkness intertwined a fury of indescribable noise rang out for all to hear, my arms shook violently as he tried to push my blade and me away. I allowed my body to fall back, my knees bent then I quickly locked them, jarred forward, and pushed with all my strength against his blade. I managed to use my leverage to throw the bastard away from myself, and he flew a good distance until he hit a pillar, cracking it. He stood up, his expressionless face did not change and his eyes, his eyes were as hallow and empty as the other golems heads had been. It charged at me again, this time it continued to swing, I matched its pace swing for swing, and when one of us was unable to block the other we managed to dodge the others blade. That lasted for about twenty minutes, until my blade faded, returned to the magics that created it, and I felt the cold dark blade of the golem cut into my stomach. Pain shot through me, I could feel the blood escaping me, I fell to my knees and doubled over, and my innards fell to the floor escaping me. I breathed heavy, and then the world went black a flash of light appeared in the darkness.
My eyes opened to see the golem opening the door at the far end of the hallway, its movements were slow and unsteady, as though something had wounded it. I tried to stand but found that I was in excruciating pain, I looked down to find that my intestines lay on the floor next to me surrounded by a pool of my blood, I had not died merely passed out from pain. I reached into my coat, pulled out one of the blades, and then quickly cut what parts of my intestines were hanging out. I became dizzy from the pain but fought to remain conscious, I quickly cast a regeneration spell on my self. I could hear the large doors open, I needed to hurry, my wound sealed, but that didn't stop the pain. As I stood up, I realized that the spell had no effect on the fact that I cut my insides out, I would not last long but I would have to try to give Jay a bit more time.
I looked forward and saw the golem walking into the brightly lit throne room I had to distract it, I threw a fireball into the center of the corridor just a little behind myself, the explosion ripped through the corridor, fire erupted lighting the whole area ablaze. I was sent flying by the explosion as were the golem, Jay and Rezillian. Both the golem and I went crashing through a window in the throne room. Glass pierced my flesh and the plummet to the ground began, I could see the ground gaining quickly on me, then just before I hit the world went black for the second time.
I have no idea how long I had been but my eyes finally opened to be greeted by the sight of the ground. I stood up, every bone in my body ached, and I found myself to be rather stiff. I examined the ground where I had fallen and noticed that it was drenched in blood, which was still wet; I guessed that I had not been out for too long. I looked up into the sky, it glowed red, the stars appeared as embers on a burning log, I examined the tower of the castle and fount the window from whence the golem and I fell from. Then I returned my attention to the ground and instantly realized that the golem already went back into the castle, I cast a flying spell upon myself and made my way back to the tower. Lights flashed from the window explosions echoed into the night, the vampires were waging war upon one another; magics were being thrown between the two.
I flew through the broken window, my feet lightly touched the floor neither Jay nor Rezillian noticed me enter the room. They were locked in combat, balls of energy hit the walls erupting as they struck, fire, lightning, dark and light energies exploded, the walls of the throne room were singed from the explosions. Rezillian appeared to be the worse for wear of the two; his clothes torn were, blood ran down his face even though the cut had already healed. Rezillian's silver hair was red and soaked with his blood, and he was starting looking tired. I heard a loud thudding sound approaching; it would seem Dawnslo was moving incredibly slowly towards us. I quickly moved to the door past Jay and Rezillian; I stood in the doorway blocking it.
The thundering footsteps drew slowly closer, echoing through the darkened hall, all the torches lay fallen on the floor. Suddenly I heard a fluttering coming from behind me; it drew closer as another set of explosions echoed from the glorious vampiric battle. I turned to se a pair of falcons flying towards me, a strange light began to emanate from around them. They landed on the floor before my feet, and suddenly their shapes, I found myself looking at Sheris and Elrohinile.
"Zamieon, go help Jay, now!" Elrohinile shouted at me, she seemed worried that our plan seemed to be failing.
"But the gole-"
"Never mind that, Sheris will break the spell on his mind, you and Jay have to capture and question Rezillian."
I quickly turned my back to the girls and charged at Rezillian, I reached into my coat and drew my blades, I found that I was moving faster than normal, adrenaline flowed through me, propelling me at speeds that were not matched by even that of a vampire. This was the power of the hunter; I could feel my blades become lighter in my hands as I closed the gap between Rezillian and me. My blades flashed in the light, I cut through Rezillian easily, and my blades moved with unmatched speed, cut after cut, the vampires' blood began to spill over the ground. The cuts were shallow but I was making many of them, Rezillian screamed in pain, he fell to his knees, the blood flowed from his wounds, they were healing quickly however not quickly enough. For every one that healed I made two more, Jay's hands quickly grabbed me and through me aside, my body hit the sidewall hard, knocking the wind out of me.
Jay placed his hands over Rezillian's and cast a binding spell on him, it would both hold him in place but make it impossible to cast spells. "Dammit Zamieon, you very nearly killed the bastard, I know that you are not used to holding back on my kind but for the love of the gods you have to learn. Though I must admit," Jay began to laugh, "it was awfully effective." Rezillian's head bobbed back and forth, as he began to slip in and out of consciousness. "I'll take him to the dungeon for later questioning; you go and make sure that the girls aren't having any trouble."
I turned my attention to the girls and noticed that the golem and Sheris were hugging one another, I walked over to Elrohinile, "I take it she broke the curse."
"Not quite, she broke the control that Rezillian had placed on Dawnslo, if it wasn't for her we'd have to kill him."
"Guess this worked out better then huh?"
Jay placed his hand onto my shoulder, "for us yes, it was better, killing that thing would have been difficult."
"What do you mean 'for us' Jay?" I asked, I had already guessed at the answer but I prayed I was wrong.
"Well this isn't a spell or curse, but it was a magical combination of creatures; so, unlike a spell it cannot be broken."
"So he is stuck like this forever?"
"Yes, and unfortunately he will live almost forever."
"Almost?"
"He will die, but it will take something like five thousand years." With that, Jay walked down the hall dragging an unconscious Rezillian behind him. I began to feel extremely tired the world around me turned black for the third time that night and I fell hard to the floor.
When I awoke, the sun was shinning above, I could barley move, my body ached all over, and I turned my head and examined the area around me. I was lying under a tree in the courtyard of the castle; Elrohinile was sitting with Dawnslo and Sheris. I groaned unintentionally as I tried to stand up, it seemed that they had heard me because they all rushed over to help me stand up. The first to arrive at me was Dawnslo, I could tell by the rough, stone like feel of his surprisingly warm hands gripping just under my arms and effortlessly lifting me to my feet. I turned to face him, life had returned to his eyes, there was warmth and compassion in his face, and I found it amazing that a golem could look so human.
"I- I am sorry for whatever pain I may have caused you last night." Dawnslo's voice was shaky, he seemed incredibly nervous, as though he were worried about me trying to hurt him. "I promise you that I had-"
"Don't worry about it friend, you were not in control of yourself, and besides, its not like you could have killed me." I pushed myself away from Dawnslo and fought to keep my balance, I chuckled lightly, "I am after all immortal."
"Are you alright Zamieon?" Elrohinile asked as she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, I turned and smiled at her.
"It takes a little more than dying to hurt me. Where'd Jay take Rezillian, I want to end this now, I want to know what comes next."
Dawnslo looked at me, "they are in the dungeon, now with all the people freed Jay took run of it to question Rezillian. I'll take you to them can you fallow me or do you need a little help getting there."
"If I fall, then I may actually ask for help but for now I may be able to follow you." Dawnslo turned and head towards the castle, slowly enough for me to hobble behind. We walked through the large doors, my body still ached, and it is all I can do to stay standing. He led me down a long corridor the area started to grow darker as we moved deeper inside the corridor, I found myself looking down a large spiral staircase, leading further down. "Dawnslo, I don't actually think I can make it down these; can you give me a hand?"
Dawnslo smiled, "of course." He easily scooped me over his shoulder and began to run down the stairs. I have to admit that the ride down hurt like hell, solid steel and rock drove into my already pained stomach with every bounce. When we arrived at the bottom Dawnslo set me down, "follow the hall to the left, you'll find Jay in the torture chamber." Dawnslo turned and began to climb the stairs slowly.
"Thank you Dawnslo, and for what its worth I am sorry for what happened to you."
He stopped in mid-step, "that is neither here nor there, I will learn to live with my curse as you will with yours."
I chuckled, "guess your right, this coming back from being dead is painful, remind me when next we meet to not do it too often." Both Dawnslo and I walked apart, the hall was long to the torture chamber. A large metal door stood shut, I pushed it open and found Rezillian tied to a rack, his arms and legs stretched out, Jay sat in a chair grinning wildly.
"Knew you'd show, I was hopping if your not too busy that is, if you wouldn't mind finishing this, he doesn't seem to want to talk to me."
Rezillian stirred and looked at me, "you think that this child will be able to get me to talk when you couldn't." His voice sounded weak and hallow, he was still in a lot of pain, I figured that it would be too difficult to crack him.
"Rezillian, you underestimate me, now you and me we can do this one of two ways. One, you could tell me what we want to know and I kill you, or two I torture it out of you and then kill you, pretty simple huh?"
"What could you possibly do to harm me human?"
"Well this for starters," I tore his shirt off and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Its funny this spell is called cleansing hands now usually it cures diseases, or plagues sometimes even poisons. But for some reason on your kind it has a rather painful effect, it will cause your, oh wait, why should I let the secret out I'll show you." My hands began to glow a pale blue, Rezillian started to scream in agony, I took my hands away. His flesh began to blister and bubble, the bubbles grew, white and filled with puss. Then the multitude of bubbles burst, spilling the stench, blood and puss all over him. His screams were high and inhuman, as I examined his wounds; I noticed that they ran rather deep; I cast a spell to stop his natural healing. I also cast a spell to stop the bleeding but still kept his flesh red and tender. "Now than what do you say, do want to talk or not?"
"Alright, I'll talk, you want to know about the master, I'll tell you all I can."
"Make whatever you have fast, or I start with the magics again"
"Alright, I don't know what plane he is on now, but in one thousand years he will return here, by then there will be nothing worth feeding off here, we'll destroy the planet then."
"That's all you have?" Jay spoke, mocking Rezillian's answer, "you truly are useless, but I guess that's all I needed to know." Jay drew his sword, a magnificent katana, the hilt marvelously carved ivory, then with a quick slice he decapitated Rezillian.
"Dammit Jay, I wanted to torture him to death."
"Sorry, but you should save it, there are a lot of vampires around, there is plenty of time for fun." Jay cleaned his sword on Rezillian's pants then sheathed it. "Zamieon, you and Elrohinile should start hunting vampires in the area, if you want information there is a clan of druids in the forests to the north." Jay then left the room, he moved quickly, his cloak flowed elegantly behind him.
"Well I'll see you later then?"
Jay turned smiling, "in about five hundred years, kill as many vampires before then as possible, after that we train for five hundred years." With that, Jay did his transforming act into mist and was gone.
I quickly ran out of the room, up the stairs and it was odd but all the pain in my body was gone. When I arrived at the surface Sheris and Elrohinile were standing and talking I did not see Dawnslo anywhere around. I walked over to them and interrupted their conversation, "Elrohinile, I need to go. I'm heading out to see the druids to the north; you should stay here and help these people get settled back in."
"I think that we can handle our selves, thank you though for thinking of us. The two of you should travel together, you'll need help, and the druids don't care for outsiders much." Sheris said, the light reflecting in her eyes, she seemed incredibly happy and optimistic.
"Well alright, then Elrohinile I guess that we should start moving."
"Are you sure that you are well enough my love, you did die last night."
"I'll be fine, but we will be going, Sheris give my best to Dawnslo, I hope that you all can be happy here again." With that, I turned and left, I did not have the patience for long goodbyes. Elrohinile on the other hand stayed behind to say her goodbyes to both Sheris and Dawnslo, I am sure that she would catch up with me later. I took off and made my way to the forest in an attempt to find the druids.
The journey was indeed long filled with hardships, to many and most undeserving of telling, the largest problem seemed to be Jay. Elrohinile learned spells to conceal Jay's appearance, made him look like a human, which was no issue; the issue was Jay's need to feed. Often the Journey from town to town would weaken Jay to a near death point, his skin often whiter than sheep's wool. His strength would fall and he would often perspire terribly. He would take small amounts of energy from sleeping villagers, but it seemed that it was not enough. He told us that the master fed off the energy of his children, and since he was not feeding regularly, he was being drained of his own energy reserves.
We were now about six days travel from the kingdom Karod'Zileah and approached the Harkloang woods a dense and lush forest. I could feel something off in the woods, the sent of death came at us from all angels, filling our lungs. Jay looked around and smiled darkly to himself, he knew what we were up against and it made him happy. I glanced around; I began to notice blood covering the ground and trees. As we walked further the stench grew and so did the blood, it was old blood, dried and even bleached by the sun, the dirt had been died red. Vegetation had been pushed down and broken as though something had been dragged through the forest, as we followed the trail we began to hear voices. They spoke in grunts and shouts, no words formed no clear language being spoken, noises like animals, then I knew what were up against, berserkers.
Men but not regular men, they were wild and powerful, transformed by magic and hate. Their brains were as mush, they desired only too kill, no words could calm them and no known magic could cure them, they were terrible hunters killing everything and anything. Killing them was difficult, they did not feel pain or fear, they were beasts, you could slice and cut them but still they would come. Luckily, night had fallen two hours ago and Jay seemed to be very glad to know that the berserkers were near.
"I'll handle them," Jay said in a low voice, his arm extended to the south and there stood two very dangerous looking berserkers. They appeared to be drow berserkers, clothed in animal hides and caring very large axes. Jay smiled, "tonight I feed, and feed well," with that he transformed into mist and began to move along the forest floor.
The berserkers didn't seem to notice him but as we stood silently the wind shifted, and the berserkers caught our sent. They turned to face us, unable to see us they began to slowly move in our direction gripping the wooden axe handles. As they moved closer, the blanket of mist rose before them and Jay took form. His hands grasped their heads covering their mouths; their howls silenced. Effortlessly Jay lifted them, legs flailing, striking him, Jays hands began to glow a pale green, and the color began to fade from the berserkers faces, the hatred in their eyes faded and were replaced by fear, their flesh began to sag, the hair from their heads fell, and they grew skinny and aged. Their axes fell to the ground, Jay tightened his grasp and their jaws shattered and spayed blood onto him, and he released them, their bodies dead before they hit the ground.
Jay turned back towards us, his skin was less pale, and his eye was glowing a deep red, an evil smile covered his face. As he walked towards us, three more berserkers came crashing through the forest, howling like demons, flames burned in their eyes. Jay spun around on one heel and walked towards them, he picked up the fallen axes and through them with incredible speed and power, the fist axe struck the middle berserker, splitting his lower right abdomen spilling the creatures internal organs onto the ground, the second cleared its head off, blood spraying like a fountain into the air. The head landed just a few seconds before the body, the other two did not seem to notice and continued to charge, the first swung at Jay, Jay's hand grasped the handle of the axe and pulled it from the berserkers hand and flung it at the other. The axe imbedded itself into the skull of the berserker nearly cleaving it in two; the berserker's body fell and slid about a foot along the ground leaving a smear of blood. Jay grasped the last berserker's throat and began to feed off its soul. Once again, the creature aged quickly, Jay squeezed and soon a loud snap could be heard and the beasts head fell back lifeless, Jay released the corpse. He turned and began to walk towards us, his build had grown, his face only vaguely pale and covered in blood, his hair shone in the light of the moon, his eye had stopped glowing.
"That felt good," he said in a hushed voice the smile crept slowly back over his face, his voice seemed darker. "Worry not, I don't feed like that often, but I was in dire need of the energy, and berserkers are teeming with it."
"I never witnessed a vampire feed before," I said softly, and then I raised my head and stared at Jay, "I pray I do not see it again."
Jay smirked, "arrogant, just like all humans, I do not scoff at you for eating a cow, or another beast. You feed on them to survive, just as I do with mortals, without this energy I die, I do not get the same charge from beasts as I do men or elves. These are my sheep, my cattle, what the meat these animals provide for you, the living provide for us."
"That is all well in good, but our creatures are dead before we begin to eat them."
"Believe me Zamieon, once a vampire catches its prey it is dead." He cocked his head to the side to beckon us follow him, he laughed darkly to himself.
Jay had been right though there was little difference between him and me, I killed for my sustenance as did he, what difference does it make from whence it came, always we feed off weaker creatures, why should it be different for a Vampire. The night air once filled with death was now past us, as we trudged through the thick growth the smell of nature filled my lungs. Fresh air carried with it the scent of wild flowers, the air was colder then I was used to, my breath hung in the air before me like smoke from the fire. I shivered, and hurriedly began to put my coat on. The ground was already becoming wet with fresh dew, voices of the ferries and wood elves echoed through the trees. Songs of nature's children played through its majestic halls of green and brown, leaves blew and trees swayed in the wind, movement surrounded us, beasts moved quietly hunting the night for a meal.
We walked the rest of the night without trouble, as day broke we made camp, by my best estimations it would be another night of walking until we made the other side of the forest. Luckily, this was a short cut; we would have only another day's travel from there, instead of the four that it would have taken to walk around the woods. Jay transformed into a wolf and made himself comfortable on the dew laid ground, both Elrohinile and my self pulled a large piece of deer hide over a low branch to shade our eyes from the sun. Soon with little talk, my eyes closed and I was out, sleep crept quickly over me.
I awoke some time after mid-day, the sun still hung high in the sky, Jay and Elrohinile were still both sleeping, I stood up and began to walk west. I soon came upon a small creek fresh water flowed almost everywhere in this forest; I bent down closer to the water. I cleaned myself off, and then I drank of the water. As the cool breath of the water touched my lips the taste of iron filled my mouth and immediately I spat the refreshing water out, blood. The taste would remain for a while for the felt as though it had coated my tongue with iron. I looked from whence this river had flown, it was flowing from the west, it would seem that mush death lay before us.
I went back to camp and woke the others, Jay growled still in wolf form Elrohinile woke with less anger and more enthusiasm, I suggested we start moving now as we had already missed some kind of slaughter.
"What do you mean 'slaughter?'" Elrohinile asked her voice filled with worry.
"The water in the stream teems with the taste of blood, no single creature could taint the water as such." My voice was as still as I could make it, I had become excited, I had long been waiting to test my powers.
"Show me," Jay called out as he fixed the last button on his shirt. I took him to the stream; he bent down and drank form the water, huge gulps he lapped up, drinking almost greedily. "Your right Zamieon, there was death, a great deal of it and magic as well, dark magic. This blood is old though, I can taste its staleness, and I'm guessing two to three weeks old; we should press on and quickly."
Thus, we doubled our pace and made a near run to the edge of the forest, even at near full speed the journey took four hours. The sweat beat down my face drenching me, leaving my face and hair sticky, my shirt soaked through the back. The sight that awaited us on the other side was far less than favorable. Scorched black earth covered in corpses, some beaten and cut the rest charred and black. There was no stench of death here though but the presence of magic was all around, truly something terrible had happened here. Jay moved into the black earth and began to rummage through the bodies, soon finding what he was looking for.
"Here it is," he said pulling a banner from underneath on of the bodies. "It's the sign of the House of Rakorlanz, a great kingdom of rouges and assassins. Most honorable men, now most are dead, killed by that filthy Rezillian." Jay spat at the mention of that name.
"You knew him?" I asked as I slowly approached Jay.
"Aye I knew him, not sure if he was worse a mortal or a vampire. In his time he made killings like this simply for fun, this is not a challenge for him; he uses powerful spells to defeat his enemies."
"How can you be sure it's him?" asked Elrohinile as she made her way towards us.
"This place reeks of his stink, his scent is like the plague, it spreads to anything that gets too close to it, and nothing can get that kind of smell off. We vampires can smell each others scent like wolves." Jay stood up, and turned to the west, "we should hurry, for there is no telling just what kind of damage Rezillian has already caused in Karod'Zileah." Jay transformed back into a wolf and bounded away at full speed to the west.
Elrohinile and I followed as closely as we could, running the rest of the way to Karod'Zileah. We arrived only about an hour before nightfall, I was sweating heavily, my heart raced, my lungs filled and emptied in rapid successions. The sight that befell us was a horrid one, bodies hung from the outer walls of the kingdoms ramparts; nails driven through them, the area reeked of death and decay. It seemed that some of the bodies had been there for some time, others were still moaning in pain, blood trickled down, wetting the ground around the wall. We began to walk around the side of the wall to the main gate, screams of pain could be heard coming form the city, it was enough to freeze your blood. Two of the largest stone golems I had ever seen guarded the gates; they made trolls look like Halflings, at least ten feet tall a piece.
As we walked towards the gates, a voice came from the tall grass; "pssst, travelers that way is not wise come into the grass I'll take you somewhere safe." Jay sniffed the air and nodded his furry head, to signal that it was safe, as we moved into the grass a hand tugged at my coat. I looked down to see a man in soldier's armor; his long brown hair was unkempt and full of dirt, as were his clothes and armor. "The kingdom has been over run by a fowl creature, follow me, I'll take you to the others."
He led us down a small trail of pushed down grass, it would seem that this vampire was not concerned with the survivors, it was far too easy to track them. The path led to a hole in the ground, a large hole about six feet in diameter, as we climbed down we found ourselves in an underground tunnel system. Torches hung on the walls providing dim lighting to the caverns, the stranger led us down a well-worn tunnel, I heard a thud behind me and quickly turned, it seemed as though Jay was going to remain in wolf form. "There are few who escaped the town, after that monster released those golems, the rest are either dead or in the dungeons waiting to die. Every night Rezillian adds another to the wall, the screams are beginning to drive those of us here mad."
"Why is he doing that?" asked Elrohinile in a monotone voice.
"He wants us to deliver one of us to him."
"Why don't you comply?"
"This person is the only one who may save us from the chimera beast he made."
"Chimera?" A voice behind me called, Jay had turned into his vampiric self.
The soldier was startled, but that changed into anger as he drew his sword, "you brought another one of those here with you, how dare you!"
"Please if I was anything like Rezillian you'd have been dead three minutes ago." Jay spoke as he brushed past the soldier, "now, please, tell me about this Chimera."
The guard sheathed his sword, "I guess your right, Rezillian spent little time in killing most of the royal guard. The Chimera was once our finest warrior, Dawnslo, son of Dannoth, but Rezillian changed him. Now he is one of those golem creatures, only he is a combination of stone, steel, man and demon, no weapon we have used can even scratch him. Not only that but he has a strange black magic sword, no actual blade, just pure dark energy surging from the hilt."
"And this person is so important why?"
"We don't know, its just fairly obvious that if Rezillian wants her than she is the last person he should get."
"Who is she?" I asked, curiosity was getting the best of me.
"Follow me I'll introduce you all to her." The guard continued deeper into the cave, until we came upon a group of doors that ran along a long hallway. We walked to the end and turned to face a heavy Iron door, the guard placed his had on the door, "imbelum ifinuim." The door opened without a creek, a young women lay on a sheep skin bed. "Allow me to introduce to you Sheris, priestess of Iniufus goddess of light. Sheris these people are..."
"I am Jay, a Vampire who has been sent to rid this land of my kin."
I stepped forward bowing, "I am Zamieon Malanchite, immortal and last of the hunters."
Elrohinile stepped forward, "I am Elrohinile Treeblossom, shield maiden of Asgard, I have been sent to protect you." This was news too me, I had no idea that she had more information of the mission than Jay or I.
"Quite the party you have," Sheris replied a faint smile pressed upon her face. Her beauty was beyond compare, she had long dark brown hair, and deep green eyes. Her face was flush and smooth, filled with youthful energy, the dim light shone off it as if it were as clear water. It seemed to make her glow, and then it dawned on me that it was not her glowing it was her robes, the robes of a priestess of light are blessed.
I decided that I wanted to know just what had happened, "so what did happen here, how did things end up like this?"
Sheris began to speak, quietly "It started four weeks ago, the court seer, and a great man named Quilathous disappeared, leaving his apprentice Rezillian in his place. It seemed odd that no one questioned what happened he just seemed to slide into place. He quickly gained the trust of the king and court, but he made things change in a hurry. Relations between Karod'Zileah and our neighboring kingdoms crumbled we were on the brink of war, and no one seemed to care, Rezillian was pulling everyone's strings. Then about two weeks ago the House of Rakorlanz came and war was to be waged. Rezillian and Dawnslo led our soldiers into combat but the house of Rakorlanz greatly outnumbered us, but that did not matter in time. On the field it was a slaughter, soldiers rushed into combat nearly an hour before nightfall; from what I hear bodies cleaved away at one another, blood covered the ground. Then night fell, and Rezillian let loose his furry, fire rained from the heavens, explosions lifted the earth, tore through bodies and armor.
From what Dawnslo had told me there was not a man on that field left alive, luckily, most of our troops were off the field at the time; Rezillian had given a signal for them to retreat. The smoke could be seen from the castle, and the stench was overpowering. The following night there was a celebration for the victory, our mead hall was overflowing with bodies, music and laughter was deafening. This was also the last night that I had seen Dawnslo, he had told me much about the battle most just horrors of battle, he seemed to have a hatred towards Rezillian, said he was a mad man, a murderer. Dawnslo was the only person who seemed to see through the smoke cloud that Rezillian had blown over the rest of the kingdom, even over myself. The next day everything changed, it was early morning and there was word that Dawnslo was missing, as well as Rezillian. At midday there was a large ruckus at the gates of the city, Rezillian and an army of about fifty golems were standing at the gates demanding that the king surrender the castle and all the civilians within its walls to him. Naturally he declined, he sent a squadron of one hundred soldiers to dispense with the golems and their leader, unfortunately they were no match for one of them.
When they attacked only one golem fought them, the smallest of the group, the soldiers weapons broke upon its skin like the tide off rocks. The golem smashed their skulls in with its fists, blood soaked the ground and screams echoed through the courtyard. The golem was Dawnslo, the face was the same, but his eyes were empty devoid of life. Within moments they had broken the gates open, the crashing silenced the screams for a moment, then the screams doubled as the golems began their massacre of the people, I was knocked unconscious by the running people and when I awoke I was here, the rest I believe that you already know."
Jay seemed to have been struck by something, "beg your pardon my lady, but how long have you known this Dawnslo?" His eye seemed to shine in the dark as though he had some dark plan boiling inside his mind. "Well I've known since we were children his father fell in combat, my father was his father's childhood friend so naturally he took Dawnslo in." She seemed surprised by Jay's curiosity.
"You were close than?"
"Well ye-yes, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."
Jay turned to Elrohinile, "Your spells to transform a persons form, can you do animals as well?"
"Beg your pardon," came a near stunned answer.
"Can you transform some one into an animal?"
"Yes."
"All-right, I've got a plan, now pay attention I only want to go through this once. Zamieon, you and I will attack the city head on, guard boy, sorry I missed you name, have you got maces, flails mourning-stars, anything blunt and destructive?"
"Names Garrik, and yes flails and maces."
"I'll need two of each; we'll clean most of the golems out of the city and make our way to the castle, if I know Rezillian that's where he will be held up. Now Zamieon I can handle Rezillian but I will need you to hold back Dawnslo, but be careful; if I am right his blade is called the Fushilartsoi, a blade forged by demons, powerful enough to strike down the gods. I'll signal for you then Elrohinile, you'll bring Sheris to us."
"I can get her there simple enough but what will the signal be?"
"When flame and lightning ignite the night sky, but we will have to wait till tomorrow."
"Why?" Came the gruff voice of Garrik his tone holding an annoyed tone.
"Because, fool, I like Rezillian am a vampire as such I function better under the guise of night."
"Of course, I'll show you to a free room." Garrik seemed bitter and angry by us staying but also not attempted to stop us. We followed him out of the room and back towards the way that we came, this time to an open room. "Its all we have right now, rest I'll come for you at dusk tomorrow with flails and maces, good-night, may Baulder bless you." With that, he turned and left us, and we each found our place in rest. I found it to be the best rest that I had in a long while.
When I awoke it was already near dusk, Jay and Elrohinile were both already awake and talking with one another when Jay noticed me shake off the sleep. "Well, I'm impressed hunter; most people can't sleep the night before they could die."
"Well see that's where I get off lucky, there is no way I can die tonight, or tomorrow night, etcetera, etcetera." I said jokingly, I was scared out of my mind, laughter made it less noticeable.
Jay pointed to my feet, as I sat up I noticed the flail an mace lain out before me, "you'll need those, swords are of little use against these beasts of stone. Well I suggest that the two of us make our way to the castle, and now." He turned to leave while still talking, "you remember your part right Elrohinile?"
"Of course," she spoke as she nodded.
"Fare thee well, I'll see you soon." I pulled her close, our lips met briefly, we smiled and I walked out. I followed Jay down the narrow corridor; the flail weighing heavily at my side, the mace held loose in my hand, the air was heavy in the caverns, muggy and filled with death.
We walked out into the world, the sky was red with the setting sun, as though it were on fire, there was no much distance to the walls of the castle, soon the sounds of death would echo through the silence of night. The sun continued to fall as we approached the gates, I could see two of the golems add another person to their wall, a small child maybe ten this time, screaming and crying. Her legs kicking it did no good I could hear the thunder and see the shaking of the wall as they drove the spikes into her. Her screams stopped, her head fell, she had passed out from the pain, and the golems moved back inside the gates, they moved slowly, it would be easy to take them out.
Jay stood up and allowed the ball of the flail to hit the ground; he tightened his grasp on the long metal chain of the flail. Then in a quick blur Jay moved towards the gates, I could barley make him out, I could see the flail spinning in his hand, hew drew in on the golems. The first one did not have a chance to react, the flail smashed through its body, crumbling it to the ground, the second turned only to meet with Jays flail. Rubble covered the ground at the gate; Jay motioned for me to join him, I cast a couple of spells to aid me. A burst speed spell it would allow me to keep up with Jay and a godly strength spell to make myself much strong enough to take on these hulks unarmed. I rushed over to Jay, as he tore the steel gate from the frame of the large door and flung it a few feet behind him, it landed hard on the ground sending a mist of dust flying into the air. Jay rushed into the city with me following close behind; the streets were crawling with golems, their heavy footsteps echoing off the coble stone streets.
"Zamieon, take out as many golems as you can, we don't need them coming in on our flank sides while we fight Rezillian and his main golem. I want you take the streets to the left, I'll go right, kill them all." He turned and took the streets to the right, I could already hear the crumbling of stone, Jay's screams echoed through the night.
I turned heading down the road to the left, moving quickly, weaving through side streets, my flail spun shattering through the stone creatures, their ruble falling hard to the ground. The first twelve fell easily, but my flail broke against the thirteenth, its massive stone fist hit hard against my breastplate shattering it and quite possibly breaking a few ribs. Pain shot through me, I briefly coughed up blood, and staggered back a few steps. The golem drew its arm back to strike again I caught its mighty hand in mid swing and through the hulking brute into a wall, its body cracked and crumbled. I fell to my knees, the coughing started for me again, the blood flowed fresh with every one, I cast a recovery spell upon myself. The pain went away and the blood stopped flowing, I lifted my coat and pulled the mace from my belt, I was wasting no more time I charged at the castle, destroying the few golems that still stood in my way.
I dropped my mace as I approached the large castle walls, two golems guarded the large wooden door, amazing patterns had been carved into it, lions and phoenixes covered the lower half. I charged at full speed and attacked the golems did not even have time to react; the crumbling sound of their rocky bodies was music to my ears. I stood waiting for Jay, I heard more crumbling in the side streets somewhere, drawing slowly closer, and then I saw him approaching at top speed, covered in dust. When he got next to me, he sat on the cobblestone street using his arms to support himself.
"So what do you think, managed to take down all the golems watching the city in less than twenty minutes, we could always take a rest for a while." Jay spoke with a wide smile; he enjoyed this violence, like a drug that gave him some unknown sensation of power.
"And what happens when Rezillian realizes that all his golems are gone? Will more people die; can you handle more evil on your conscience when you die?"
"People die Zamieon, men, woman, children, they all die nothing can stop that, you'll learn that in time, and in time you'll become more like me."
"That I highly doubt Jay."
"Whatever you say child, but do not think me harsh or uncaring, just realistic."
"What is realistic about letting people die when you can save them?"
"Save them from what, death? You cannot save something that lives from dying, every day that they live they die a little more, all you do by saving them from evil is prolong the dying process." Jay stood up and pushed the large wooden doors open as wide as they would go. I followed closely behind Jay who began to walk up some large stone steps leading to the higher towers. As we climbed higher I began to hear a dark voice singing, echoing through the great empty castle, once in a while a groaning or scream could be heard far below us, the people were locked in the dungeons in the lower sections of the castle. We climbed till we reached a large hallway, that was heavily lit with torches, shadows danced and cast themselves over the blood stained walls. Large windows on either side showed the night sky light brightly by moon and stars. A large set of red doors lay at the end of the hall, and there in front of the doors stood the last golem.
He appeared to be maybe five-five or five-six, just a little shorter than Jay and myself. His hair reflected the torch light, it appeared to be metallic, and the metal of his body could be seen beneath the rock, speckles of light cast along the walls reflecting off him. Jay stood in silence his eyes fixated on the golem. My heart rate started to skip beats; I could feel my palms starting to sweat.
"Zamieon," Jay started his voice a whisper. "That must be the one that can't be killed, well I'm sure you could but try not to, I think we should keep him around for a while. Just hold him here as long as you can I'll take care if Rezillian." With that, Jay vanished into a fog blanket and passed by the golem unnoticed.
This was my moment to shine; I drew my blades from the inside of my coat and charged at the golem, the torch light gleaming off the metal of my blades. The golem heard me coming his cold hallow eyes met mine; the rocky hand moved quickly and drew out an empty hilt from its side. As it tightened its grip on the hilt a blade of pure dark magic came shooting out, waiving in the air the power of the darkness reached me in an instant, and I stopped in mid stride, fear began to overcome me. I quickly sheathed my swords and cast a spell to create a sword of pure light, I knew it was not going to stop his blade for long but it was the best that I could do. We charged one another at full speed our feet echoed throughout the hall, I began to release a battle cry, my voice left me, "for my people!"
Our swords met in burst of fury, light and darkness intertwined a fury of indescribable noise rang out for all to hear, my arms shook violently as he tried to push my blade and me away. I allowed my body to fall back, my knees bent then I quickly locked them, jarred forward, and pushed with all my strength against his blade. I managed to use my leverage to throw the bastard away from myself, and he flew a good distance until he hit a pillar, cracking it. He stood up, his expressionless face did not change and his eyes, his eyes were as hallow and empty as the other golems heads had been. It charged at me again, this time it continued to swing, I matched its pace swing for swing, and when one of us was unable to block the other we managed to dodge the others blade. That lasted for about twenty minutes, until my blade faded, returned to the magics that created it, and I felt the cold dark blade of the golem cut into my stomach. Pain shot through me, I could feel the blood escaping me, I fell to my knees and doubled over, and my innards fell to the floor escaping me. I breathed heavy, and then the world went black a flash of light appeared in the darkness.
My eyes opened to see the golem opening the door at the far end of the hallway, its movements were slow and unsteady, as though something had wounded it. I tried to stand but found that I was in excruciating pain, I looked down to find that my intestines lay on the floor next to me surrounded by a pool of my blood, I had not died merely passed out from pain. I reached into my coat, pulled out one of the blades, and then quickly cut what parts of my intestines were hanging out. I became dizzy from the pain but fought to remain conscious, I quickly cast a regeneration spell on my self. I could hear the large doors open, I needed to hurry, my wound sealed, but that didn't stop the pain. As I stood up, I realized that the spell had no effect on the fact that I cut my insides out, I would not last long but I would have to try to give Jay a bit more time.
I looked forward and saw the golem walking into the brightly lit throne room I had to distract it, I threw a fireball into the center of the corridor just a little behind myself, the explosion ripped through the corridor, fire erupted lighting the whole area ablaze. I was sent flying by the explosion as were the golem, Jay and Rezillian. Both the golem and I went crashing through a window in the throne room. Glass pierced my flesh and the plummet to the ground began, I could see the ground gaining quickly on me, then just before I hit the world went black for the second time.
I have no idea how long I had been but my eyes finally opened to be greeted by the sight of the ground. I stood up, every bone in my body ached, and I found myself to be rather stiff. I examined the ground where I had fallen and noticed that it was drenched in blood, which was still wet; I guessed that I had not been out for too long. I looked up into the sky, it glowed red, the stars appeared as embers on a burning log, I examined the tower of the castle and fount the window from whence the golem and I fell from. Then I returned my attention to the ground and instantly realized that the golem already went back into the castle, I cast a flying spell upon myself and made my way back to the tower. Lights flashed from the window explosions echoed into the night, the vampires were waging war upon one another; magics were being thrown between the two.
I flew through the broken window, my feet lightly touched the floor neither Jay nor Rezillian noticed me enter the room. They were locked in combat, balls of energy hit the walls erupting as they struck, fire, lightning, dark and light energies exploded, the walls of the throne room were singed from the explosions. Rezillian appeared to be the worse for wear of the two; his clothes torn were, blood ran down his face even though the cut had already healed. Rezillian's silver hair was red and soaked with his blood, and he was starting looking tired. I heard a loud thudding sound approaching; it would seem Dawnslo was moving incredibly slowly towards us. I quickly moved to the door past Jay and Rezillian; I stood in the doorway blocking it.
The thundering footsteps drew slowly closer, echoing through the darkened hall, all the torches lay fallen on the floor. Suddenly I heard a fluttering coming from behind me; it drew closer as another set of explosions echoed from the glorious vampiric battle. I turned to se a pair of falcons flying towards me, a strange light began to emanate from around them. They landed on the floor before my feet, and suddenly their shapes, I found myself looking at Sheris and Elrohinile.
"Zamieon, go help Jay, now!" Elrohinile shouted at me, she seemed worried that our plan seemed to be failing.
"But the gole-"
"Never mind that, Sheris will break the spell on his mind, you and Jay have to capture and question Rezillian."
I quickly turned my back to the girls and charged at Rezillian, I reached into my coat and drew my blades, I found that I was moving faster than normal, adrenaline flowed through me, propelling me at speeds that were not matched by even that of a vampire. This was the power of the hunter; I could feel my blades become lighter in my hands as I closed the gap between Rezillian and me. My blades flashed in the light, I cut through Rezillian easily, and my blades moved with unmatched speed, cut after cut, the vampires' blood began to spill over the ground. The cuts were shallow but I was making many of them, Rezillian screamed in pain, he fell to his knees, the blood flowed from his wounds, they were healing quickly however not quickly enough. For every one that healed I made two more, Jay's hands quickly grabbed me and through me aside, my body hit the sidewall hard, knocking the wind out of me.
Jay placed his hands over Rezillian's and cast a binding spell on him, it would both hold him in place but make it impossible to cast spells. "Dammit Zamieon, you very nearly killed the bastard, I know that you are not used to holding back on my kind but for the love of the gods you have to learn. Though I must admit," Jay began to laugh, "it was awfully effective." Rezillian's head bobbed back and forth, as he began to slip in and out of consciousness. "I'll take him to the dungeon for later questioning; you go and make sure that the girls aren't having any trouble."
I turned my attention to the girls and noticed that the golem and Sheris were hugging one another, I walked over to Elrohinile, "I take it she broke the curse."
"Not quite, she broke the control that Rezillian had placed on Dawnslo, if it wasn't for her we'd have to kill him."
"Guess this worked out better then huh?"
Jay placed his hand onto my shoulder, "for us yes, it was better, killing that thing would have been difficult."
"What do you mean 'for us' Jay?" I asked, I had already guessed at the answer but I prayed I was wrong.
"Well this isn't a spell or curse, but it was a magical combination of creatures; so, unlike a spell it cannot be broken."
"So he is stuck like this forever?"
"Yes, and unfortunately he will live almost forever."
"Almost?"
"He will die, but it will take something like five thousand years." With that, Jay walked down the hall dragging an unconscious Rezillian behind him. I began to feel extremely tired the world around me turned black for the third time that night and I fell hard to the floor.
When I awoke, the sun was shinning above, I could barley move, my body ached all over, and I turned my head and examined the area around me. I was lying under a tree in the courtyard of the castle; Elrohinile was sitting with Dawnslo and Sheris. I groaned unintentionally as I tried to stand up, it seemed that they had heard me because they all rushed over to help me stand up. The first to arrive at me was Dawnslo, I could tell by the rough, stone like feel of his surprisingly warm hands gripping just under my arms and effortlessly lifting me to my feet. I turned to face him, life had returned to his eyes, there was warmth and compassion in his face, and I found it amazing that a golem could look so human.
"I- I am sorry for whatever pain I may have caused you last night." Dawnslo's voice was shaky, he seemed incredibly nervous, as though he were worried about me trying to hurt him. "I promise you that I had-"
"Don't worry about it friend, you were not in control of yourself, and besides, its not like you could have killed me." I pushed myself away from Dawnslo and fought to keep my balance, I chuckled lightly, "I am after all immortal."
"Are you alright Zamieon?" Elrohinile asked as she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, I turned and smiled at her.
"It takes a little more than dying to hurt me. Where'd Jay take Rezillian, I want to end this now, I want to know what comes next."
Dawnslo looked at me, "they are in the dungeon, now with all the people freed Jay took run of it to question Rezillian. I'll take you to them can you fallow me or do you need a little help getting there."
"If I fall, then I may actually ask for help but for now I may be able to follow you." Dawnslo turned and head towards the castle, slowly enough for me to hobble behind. We walked through the large doors, my body still ached, and it is all I can do to stay standing. He led me down a long corridor the area started to grow darker as we moved deeper inside the corridor, I found myself looking down a large spiral staircase, leading further down. "Dawnslo, I don't actually think I can make it down these; can you give me a hand?"
Dawnslo smiled, "of course." He easily scooped me over his shoulder and began to run down the stairs. I have to admit that the ride down hurt like hell, solid steel and rock drove into my already pained stomach with every bounce. When we arrived at the bottom Dawnslo set me down, "follow the hall to the left, you'll find Jay in the torture chamber." Dawnslo turned and began to climb the stairs slowly.
"Thank you Dawnslo, and for what its worth I am sorry for what happened to you."
He stopped in mid-step, "that is neither here nor there, I will learn to live with my curse as you will with yours."
I chuckled, "guess your right, this coming back from being dead is painful, remind me when next we meet to not do it too often." Both Dawnslo and I walked apart, the hall was long to the torture chamber. A large metal door stood shut, I pushed it open and found Rezillian tied to a rack, his arms and legs stretched out, Jay sat in a chair grinning wildly.
"Knew you'd show, I was hopping if your not too busy that is, if you wouldn't mind finishing this, he doesn't seem to want to talk to me."
Rezillian stirred and looked at me, "you think that this child will be able to get me to talk when you couldn't." His voice sounded weak and hallow, he was still in a lot of pain, I figured that it would be too difficult to crack him.
"Rezillian, you underestimate me, now you and me we can do this one of two ways. One, you could tell me what we want to know and I kill you, or two I torture it out of you and then kill you, pretty simple huh?"
"What could you possibly do to harm me human?"
"Well this for starters," I tore his shirt off and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Its funny this spell is called cleansing hands now usually it cures diseases, or plagues sometimes even poisons. But for some reason on your kind it has a rather painful effect, it will cause your, oh wait, why should I let the secret out I'll show you." My hands began to glow a pale blue, Rezillian started to scream in agony, I took my hands away. His flesh began to blister and bubble, the bubbles grew, white and filled with puss. Then the multitude of bubbles burst, spilling the stench, blood and puss all over him. His screams were high and inhuman, as I examined his wounds; I noticed that they ran rather deep; I cast a spell to stop his natural healing. I also cast a spell to stop the bleeding but still kept his flesh red and tender. "Now than what do you say, do want to talk or not?"
"Alright, I'll talk, you want to know about the master, I'll tell you all I can."
"Make whatever you have fast, or I start with the magics again"
"Alright, I don't know what plane he is on now, but in one thousand years he will return here, by then there will be nothing worth feeding off here, we'll destroy the planet then."
"That's all you have?" Jay spoke, mocking Rezillian's answer, "you truly are useless, but I guess that's all I needed to know." Jay drew his sword, a magnificent katana, the hilt marvelously carved ivory, then with a quick slice he decapitated Rezillian.
"Dammit Jay, I wanted to torture him to death."
"Sorry, but you should save it, there are a lot of vampires around, there is plenty of time for fun." Jay cleaned his sword on Rezillian's pants then sheathed it. "Zamieon, you and Elrohinile should start hunting vampires in the area, if you want information there is a clan of druids in the forests to the north." Jay then left the room, he moved quickly, his cloak flowed elegantly behind him.
"Well I'll see you later then?"
Jay turned smiling, "in about five hundred years, kill as many vampires before then as possible, after that we train for five hundred years." With that, Jay did his transforming act into mist and was gone.
I quickly ran out of the room, up the stairs and it was odd but all the pain in my body was gone. When I arrived at the surface Sheris and Elrohinile were standing and talking I did not see Dawnslo anywhere around. I walked over to them and interrupted their conversation, "Elrohinile, I need to go. I'm heading out to see the druids to the north; you should stay here and help these people get settled back in."
"I think that we can handle our selves, thank you though for thinking of us. The two of you should travel together, you'll need help, and the druids don't care for outsiders much." Sheris said, the light reflecting in her eyes, she seemed incredibly happy and optimistic.
"Well alright, then Elrohinile I guess that we should start moving."
"Are you sure that you are well enough my love, you did die last night."
"I'll be fine, but we will be going, Sheris give my best to Dawnslo, I hope that you all can be happy here again." With that, I turned and left, I did not have the patience for long goodbyes. Elrohinile on the other hand stayed behind to say her goodbyes to both Sheris and Dawnslo, I am sure that she would catch up with me later. I took off and made my way to the forest in an attempt to find the druids.