A/N: Danke für die Liebe, Deutschland! Eine große Anzahl von Lesern kommt aus Deutschland, was ich heute Morgen erfahren habe. Danke für Ihre Unterstützung!
-BRISINGR-
BLIGHTED eyes looked upon the sorcerer with bored disinterest. Refulgent pupils passed over Morzan, visible through wispy blonde locks that fell to scarred cheekbones. A staff twirled between dry and thin fingers, each end of it bearing the emaciated head of a Laen Elf, screaming in the final throes of death.
Rain stormed from above. It came in teeming abundance, causing Morzan's hair to cling to a pale face. His cloak wavered in the tempest, high upon a flat plateau that stood vigil over the entirety of the valley of graves.
The Wizard gripped his scabbard as he pulled a jeweled hilt free. Za'roc, his blade, hissed in anticipation. The claret blade sprung from the mouth of a wretched dragon, doused in sable ink.
Morzan dipped his head forward, allowing a stream of water to drip from his pointed chin.
"It comes as a surprise," Morzan began. His eyes took in the cursed creature before him.
This one was different. Black magic, the very same sensed within Gholobhor, swarmed in a dizzying vortex around the Sealed Elf. It seemed to be made up of numerous personalities, sources... Morzan curled fine lips into a dangerous smile as his suspicions were confirmed.
"That I could be outmaneuvered by such low spellcraft." The Dark Lord spoke easily over the storm, his soft voice chilling the air around him.
The beast he faced clasped its staff with two hands, holding it straight out before a thin and sickly body.
Earrings tumbled, ringing with a charming sound as they were molested by the vile air that rose between the Sealed Elf's cracking skin.
Blood poured freely from wounded skin, but instead of dropping to the rocky ground that it stood upon, it expanded, covering the creature in a wavering paint that constantly swirled, a mosaic of reds that kissed oranges, enveloping thin legs and shaking arms.
"Such craft is that which you taught her, is it not?" The creature spoke, its voice deep, quaking with magical power.
Morzan's eyes narrowed as he flourished his blade in front of him, bisecting the image of his enemy.
He couldn't feel Murtaghen, couldn't feel his sons. All that he knew was that this miasma seemed to spread from this Elf-
But could he truly call it such? It possessed strength far beyond even a Sealed Elf shaman- creatures who already possess great power. The magic he had felt- it truly did seem to come from multiple beings, a dark ether tethering them together into one coalesced entity.
Morzan wanted to ask what it was. He wanted to ask where it sent Murtaghen. A part of him even wanted to ask what the creature had done to him, how it had made him see something that didn't actually exist.
Was this the creature that marred his view of Oromis?
Doubt, a feeling so rare to Morzan, tickled the base of his neck.
"And I see that Alauinel is not here. Did she grant you a parting gift before leaving you to your demise? How sad." Morzan's voice trembled the wind, kicking back howling gusts of darkened air as the Elf lurched forward.
It knelt to the ground, laughing softly as eyes began to sprout across the being's chest and stomach. Each eye bore a pupil that was luminescent with an azure glow, and from each eye Morzan could sense a different school of magecraft.
"Alauinel is no doubt at the gates of Him." The creature said as it rose to its full height.
"Well, isn't my student something." Morzan said with a small smile.
Morzan pointed his blade directly at the Elf. He ran, placing his free hand at the pommel of his blade, he conjured.
Wordless spellcraft, a skill reserved for only the elite. The ability to arrange your thoughts and raw ability into tangible creations- weapons. This was the skill of Warlocks and Witches- of Demons and Gods.
Two spirits pounced forth, each one carrying a long and forked spear. They wore nothing, save for pointed helmets that bore pointed horns and spread wings. On their chests Elven markings were carved, ancient rites and rituals covering skin like a sea of tattoos.
"Now that the table has been set," Morzan spoke as he turned magic within himself. Freeing his body, he collapsed into a pool of black water.
The spirits he summoned took to the Sealed, striking at the Elf with their spears. The Elf was silent as it danced between the two appairations, blocking deadly blows as its staff flung about its body.
Morzan's dark water swam across the terrace in gushing waves, hurtling towards the Elf as it was locked within the grasp of the two ghostly warriors.
An eye flexed, rolling until it caught sight of Morzan, encapsulated within his magic.
A thin beam of light shot forth from the eye, while the Elf threw its staff into the air. Morzan's ethereal allies harmlessly passed through one another as the Elf advanced. The beam it sent continued through the dark, crashing into hard rock as Morzan's water curled away, raising itself into a defensive ball.
The ground where the light struck immediately glassed over, creating a shining beacon that glowed from the dark tower Morzan fought upon.
"Interesting," Morzan thought to himself as the Elf came upon his liquified body. His spirits pounced, attempting to skewer the elf from behind-
Two eyes opened, and in their gaze Morzan's conjured warriors froze in a magnificent light, held in place by dark wills.
Morzan sent tendrils of black liquid to either side of the Elf, reforming into a physical body behind his enemy as the Elf shot beams from narrowed eyes.
Morzan slashed at the creature's back, his sword carried in the vortex of water that once held him within. The Sealed Elf's palm swung backwards, revealing a blinking eye that locked gaze with Morzan.
The sorcerer felt heat upon his face as he collapsed into liquid, narrowly avoiding beams of light as they shot forth from a quivering hand.
A chimera, Morzan mused dimly.
Alauinel must've combined the Sealed Elf chieftains into this baneful creature to increase their power-
The elf's words swam back to Morzan as he directed his droplets into a zig-zag formation, dodging spears of dangerous light as they glassed the ground that Morzan snaked upon, only seconds behind his flowing wake.
If Alauinel is at the gate..
No. It's not possible. Even with this thick fog clouding his senses, he would be able to sense the return of Him.
His mind however, betrayed that subtle confidence.
But she's not here, and you can't sense her either.
Morzan ignored the voice within his head as he spouted forward, and formed a portion of his arm to rise above his sluice bed of water. It called Za'roc to a waiting hand, and piercing nothing but air as the Sealed Elf bent forward, sword passing harmlessly over waving yellow locks.
Morzan pulled his arm back into the black pool as the Elf's superheated magic glassed the earth. The wizard's magic torrented forward in a spear-like funnel. The Elf smiled, raising a hand that blinked impassively as Morzan's body began to take shape. Light sprung forth from the Elf's palm as the air exploded in a plume of white smoke.
The Sealed Elf jumped backwards, and thrust its staff through the air, dismissing the fog that culled from Morzan's newly erupted body, glistening in the rain, and frozen in place.
The Sealed Elf walked forward, tapping the ice-like statue of the Dark Lord. It collapsed in a shrieking gust, shards of glass screaming as they fell to the ground as if steaming shrapnel.
Morzan smiled.
Black water rose from crumbling glass, swirling across the body of the Elf. The Elf bellowed in fury and fear as Morzan directed his water to snake up the Elf's arms, take it by the wrist, and fling it across the Plateau. Morzan allowed his body to semi-form in a bubbling pool as the Elf tumbled, righting itself as it it raised both palms towards Morzan.
Morzan's green eyes simply regarded the killing light that sped towards him, and rose a hand.
The light reflected from Morzan's palm. The Elf nearly yipped in surprise, twirling its body as its own attack rebounded to the ground beneath it, causing white smoke to rise upwards into the dark skies as the ground crackled in frozen death.
The chimera looked for Morzan's fast moving pool of water. It saw nothing.
Desperate eyes bounced across the terrace.
It felt no magic, no son of men.
Morzan suddenly appeared before the Elf. The man's blade was gone, and he simply held an empty hilt in one hand, and a vacant scabbard in another.
The Chimera paused in caution, before raising its palms.
The beams bleched forth while the Sealed cackled in righteous fury and indignation.
Morzan walked into them. Instead of the light reflecting from him, it simply went into the man's body as he advanced.
"Your eagerness to kill was always a flaw of the Sealed. Caution might have saved you for a few more moments."
The Elf's magic sounded alarms as it sensed Morzan's blade, without its hilt, cutting from the ground behind it. Silent, it stammered in blind pain as the blade crept up its chest, leaving a vile and dragging wound that cut it open from stomach to sternum.
Morzan, now inches away from the still standing Elf, lifted his hilt to the end of his blade, and the red sword reformed itself around the dragon's mouth.
Morzan felt the Elf's magic once it sealed his familiars. It was a simple thing then- evade its attacks as he broke down the spell employed, understanding and deconstructing the magic until he could properly defend against it.
"A-Alauinel will-"
The chimera's dying words were cut short as Morzan took his blade with both hands and sent his sword cutting upwards. The Sealed Elf's head cut in two as Za'roc rent skull, brain, and flesh.
The sorcerer slapped his sword back into a waiting scabbard.
He looked about himself.
The darkness still clung to the land.
His eyes found themselves resting on the body of the slain Chimera. The power it used was Death Magic, but it wasn't this creature that the spell was curling from.
Morzan held his hand outwards as he shouldered his blade.
He decided he's had enough of tricks and games.
He gathered the magic within him, fueling his muscles and his mind with mana as they pulsed through engorging circuits. Right as he was about to release his energy to the curdling dark, he felt it.
Murtaghen? Morzan hesitated. Murtaghen's essence vanished as quickly as it had come. His mind tumbled in turmoil- the spell would be costly, but he had only seconds to act.
Redirecting his magic to Murtaghen's fleeing tethers, Rider chased Dragon through fates revolving doors. Morzan's eyes bled true anguish then. Tears fell freely as the man knew he was abandoning the ones he swore to protect. But..
Before Murtagh, before Eragon... Murtaghen was the one his heart called for. And thus, he ran.
-BRISINGR-
THE DEMON waited for Osorion to finish vomiting. He could feel its eyes on his back as he curled his fingers into fistfuls of hot sand. He rose his head, teary-eyed while eyes widened.
A sea outstretched before the dragonshifter. Ships scattered the ocean as waves inched closer to the coast- skeletal behemoths rising up in defiance from rocky crags and perilous rows of stone teeth.
He rose, wiping his face as he marveled at the island behind him. Osorion had never seen so much vegetation in his life. Huge palm trees bearing opaque leaves swayed peacefully in the breeze, and behind them a thick jungle roared with sounds that Osorion recognized belonging to animals- and some with a cruel tint of magic that he could not place.
The demon, bearing that familiar face of his Rider, began walking towards the looming jungle. Osorion clambered to his feet and followed, watching in amazement as the forest itself made way for the Demon. Underneath a procession of kneeling trees, he wondered if Alauinel was even alive at all.
He stopped, only for a moment, until he felt the demon's voice once more.
Come, it said.
Osorion continued to follow.
NEXT CHAPTERS: VIZĆELIA'S REUNION 04-05-19
SOLEMBUM'S CITY: 04-10-19