)Sorry this took so long. Been busy with other things.)
I do not own LOK
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How many of them were there? How many of them lay hidden behind the silver masks of the Sarafan army? How many of them were standing around him right now? Ewoden asked himself the same questions over and over again in panic. As always, he had stepped into something that was far over his head. There was demon worshipers, hidden amongst the Sarafan army. Ever since had had had the misfortunate to ask one of them about demon worship, he had found himself approached by more and more soldiers, offering him different texts from their…religion. They all varied in their style of writing, but the message was quite the same. Feed me blood, or feel my wrath.
But what could he do? Report them to the authority? Dear god, lord Moebius himself was probably one of them.
Avernus Cathedral was a towering edifice, far too near to Wilendorf and the Provincial mines for Ewoden's taste. The magnificent city of Avernus was an ancient settlement, the cathedral constructed by the church as a monument to the defeat of some ancient vampire centuries ago. A splendid sight, the spires of the cathedral itself spiking into the clouds. Ewoden and his regiment where here to relieve those already station here. After a vampire had managed to infiltrate the stronghold, they descended to fortify it for the time being until greater security measures could be taken. Sarafan sorcerers and priests were already blessing the doors, meaning no vampire would be able to open them.
Ewoden could not see why they needed to be stationed here at all. The city looked so peaceful, tranquil and settled. But, after a while something began to gnaw at him, some disturbance he could not quite place.
As they arrived through the gates of the city, some of the locals were there to greet them. Amongst them was a tall, very pale skinned man, dressed in a blood red robe. He wore a chest plate made from bone marrow, carved so it fitted over his shoulders and hung there. Two small spikes lanced out the back of the shoulder pads. His hair was raven black and slicked back over his head. His eyes were the most stunning thing. They had were completely blank, no pupils, no iris, just a white void. Ewoden tried to avoid staring at him, believing him blind. However, he had no trouble in spotting them, talking out into the middle of the muddy road.
"Good, you're finally here." He said with no hint of emotion in his voice. "We had some vampire trouble at the south end of the city, we chased a few into the wilderness by there might be some left in the shadows." He added, gesturing briefly to the city behind him. "Also, we've had demon manifestation in and around the cathedral." Ewoden swallowed hard as he and other Sarafan stepped off the wooden charts. "So do be careful those of you who get sent of guard duty." With that, he simply turned his back on them and started back toward the city gates, the towering cathedral in the distance.
"Who was he?" Ewoden asked a passing solider. The other Sarafan paused for a moment.
"Mortainious, you know, guardian of death for the circle." Ewoden had learned more and more of the Circle of Nine over the past few years in service of Lord Moebius and was now quite embarrassed that he had not know what the circle was. He glanced briefly off to the south west, and the gleaming nine white pillars that erupted from the ground and lanced upward toward the sky.
Much as he had expected of his luck, tonight, along without another few doomed individuals, Ewoden was set on guard duty up to the cathedral. He felt like fate itself had him underfoot, as if it had taken some dislike to him.
"Welcome fellow believer." Announced a voice and Ewoden froze as another Sarafan approached him, one he recognised as one of the men who had approached him with their words of the unspoken one. "Welcome to the place where we may approach the ones gaze, avert his wrath with the sacrifice and bask in his glory." Ewoden hesitated.
"What do you mean?" The other Sarafan stared at hi like was some sort of madman.
"Avernus you idiot, Avernus." He paused briefly, realization hitting him. "Oh I see, you are new to our ways." He patted Ewoden on the shoulder. "Well don't worry, after tonight I'm sure you'll be fluent in the ways of Hash, ak, gik." Ewoden felt a lump form in his throat. That was most the clincher for him. Whatever courage had kept him going in the army failed.
"Forget this!" He said to himself. He was leaving, this evening, before these strange demon worshippers could drag him down to some sacrifice or brainwash him with some occult means. No amount of loyalty to the Sarafan cause could keep him here. He went without question to the cathedral, noting down everything he needed to make his escape, trying to act normal for the time being. He had provisions with him, as well as his enchanted weapons to stave off wild beasts and other things. All he had to do was make it to some settlement, preferably far away sell whatever he didn't need and continue on, assume a new name and wait till the Sarafan forgot about him.
However, the Sarafan did not go easy on deserters. They would hunt him down, regarding him little more than the vampires they slay. He should probably find some others means. Fake his own death perhaps? While the idea was far more practical, he had neither the knowledge or the means do so. His thoughts wrapped around him, he patrolled the cathedral grounds as the day progressed, hardly even noticing the impressive amount of detail and painstaking work that had gone into the cathedrals construction. Not even the massive, beautiful marble alter inside the main hall seemed to interest him.
It was twilight when he decided to finally make a break for it, believing that if he intended to escape, he could put it off now long. Now, he had to decide in which direction to travel. No way on Nosgoth he was heading south or east, toward Willendorf. So he resolved to travel northwest, knowing of a small town at the base of the mountains called Ushtenheim. He collected what he needed where he could and began to make his way through the cathedral to the front gates, the only other way out being the priests corridors behind the alter itself and he didn't want to attract attention by going that way. However, two guards were standing just outside.
Normally, such an obstacle wouldn't have bothered him but his watch wasn't due to end until midnight. As he was pondering how to get around this, the temperature in the air around him increased ten fold.
It felt like he was on fire, the heat lashing at his skin.
"Demon manifestation!" Someone screamed and instantly all was hurled into chaos. Three colossal beasts, each arriving through a ring of fire in the floor sprung forward. They were titanic, supported by goat legs with hooves. A massive shoulder length and arms, each one large spikes jutting out of them. Their teeth glinted evilly in the limelight, eyes burning like fiery coals and finally a large set of curved goat like horns on their foreheads. Turning to see this, the guards in front of Ewoden rushed forward with battle cries, drawing their pikes.
All of it happened so quickly, blood went flying every, admits streams of fire. Ewoden found himself doing what he'd intended to do. He run, he ran from the chaos, out of the city gates, leaving his Sarafan brothers to fight alone. So that was officially it. He was a deserter. It didn't feel wrong, but then again it didn't feel right either. Presently however, he had other concerns, as he was being chased by one of those creatures.
The demon was relentless in it's pursuit. It strode over the grass plain just outside the city walls and Ewoden struggled through it, pulling his heavy armour along with him. He considered dropped it do he could run faster, but one looked back at that mouth filled with teeth and fire made him thing twice. He had no idea in which direction he was travelling, stumbling almost blindly into the forest.
The demon followed, tearing through trees and bushes like they were nothing, burning down the thick overhead vines whenever they go in it's way. It was dead set of him and it seemed, had no intention of letting him escape. His mind frantically clawed at itself for ideas, anything he could do improve his present situation.
He kept running, his feet sinking into the soft mud. He was running directly into a swamp, a dangerous place for any man. But right now he didn't care. All that registered with him was putting as much distance as possible between him as the demon spawn.
The swamp was filled with long stretches of quick sand and mud pits, ready to swallow any foolish enough to step in them. The demon lurched forward, snapping at him. The fire inside it erupting in a flame toward him. Ewoden dodged to the side to avoid it, trying to maintain his speed. Instinct kicking in, he tore his bow from his back and fire several arrows at once toward the beast. They impacted it's arm, sinking into the flesh. It screamed in out rage and kept coming, Ewoden fired another volley, riddling it's other arm. All it did however was give the demon more incentive to come after him, quickening it's pace.
Fear and instinct ruling him, Ewoden tore his lat arrow him his pouch and swung around for the final time. The demon as nearly upon him, snapping at his heels. In a moment of irrational fear, he fired the arrow at point blank range directly into the demons head.
The arrow, made from solid silver, pierced the skull of the creature and sank directly into his brain. The demon came to a complete stop, gave off one last grunt, before it's eyes went completely blank and it collapsed to the ground with a deafeningly loud thud, entangled in vines. Ewoden fell directly into the mud, coating his armour with it, several of his arrows lost into it.
Quickly he struggled over to the side of whatever pit he fallen into, using what remained of his strength to pull himself up. Suddenly, he heard a clapping noise.
Ewoden looked up toward the figure standing over him, it's hands smacking against each other, looking down at him sceptically. That face had been etched into his memory for the past year, he knew very well who it was. Shaggy green fur covering his, glowing yellow eyes and tall erect bat like ears. Dressed in gentlemen's clothing, two large golden shoulder pads with a red drape hanging from each one. His boots made from black leather, the thick layer of the put around the heals showed that their owner had down a good deal of walking in this hazardous area.
"Impressive." He said approvingly. "You managed to kill it. I thought for a moment it was going to tear you to pieces." Ewoden tried to pull himself up, but sank even further into the mud, his armour dragging him down. The figure reached down with a soft chuckle, took hold of him by the back of the neck and forcibly removed him from the swamps grip, depositing him on more stable ground. Ewoden sat there, covered in mud, his weapons lying only a foot away yet he was so paralysed with fear he couldn't move.
"V…vvvvorador…." He managed to stammer. The vampire continued his stare.
"If you know my name? Well, enough stories are told about me on dark nights I suppose." He stared at Ewoden some more. In this brief silence, Ewoden pulled himself to his feet, his fingers trembling around the hilt of his sword.
"Don't worry, you've caught me in a good mood so I'm not going to kill you." Vorador added simply. Ewoden looked a little stunned. "You may be Sarafan, but one capable of defeating a fire demon deserves his life." He leaned a little closer, revealing his fangs hidden within his lips. "How do you feel about vampirism?" Ewoden yelped and dressed his sword, holding it defensibly in front of himself.. "Thought as much." The vampire added. "Rest easy, I make it a personal rule that the dark gift is never passed to a Sarafan." He began encircling Ewoden, studying him closely. "Not physically impressive, and you stink of fear. Apart from that, a fine example of…" He paused, his smile disappearing. "man."
Ewoden stayed perfectly still, his reflexes still of high alert, ready to push him into attack should Vorador prove hostile, even though he was perfectly aware his odds of winning were remote. "Come…the swamp is no place for human or vampire to linger." He placed a cloven hand directly on Ewoden's shoulder and before he could react, a green haze engulfed him, swallowing his line of sinking, swallowing him whole. There a was a tingling displacement, and both of them vanished, leaving only a patch of burnt grass on the ground.