Still dont Own anything.
(2)
The air reeked of blood and the walls were red with destructions power, the once pure white stone architecture now dripped with malice and hate. That was the sight that greeted us as walked out of the portal, throngs of monsters lay in wait around the corner, each snarling, groaning, and acking for the taste of any trespassers flesh.
Lucan stood steady by my side, His gladiator sword grasped in his never wavering grip. His deep fatherly tone swept over us as he spoke the only words that offered any comfort. "Die well." He motioned for the Archers to take up the back, me in the middle and poor Yuko the front, her claws were the only melee weapon that would do sufficient damage and had a faster attack speed then my casting rate.
As we rounded the corner, Death Lords assaulted us. One lucky mace made it past Yuko's defenses and smashed into her armored chest, she stumbled back wheezing only to receive a giant mace in the face. Her once beautiful cheek was now slashed open and blood poured down her cheek in small rivers. I had to stop this…before she got too hurt; maybe she wasn't ready to lead…
I called upon the chaotic element fire and with a mighty swing of my staff, I sent a fireball at the Death Lords, when it struck the first, it exploded, burning the ones around it. "Retreat Yuko" my voice resonated in the hollow halls. My keen eyes kept the pacing monsters in view as I felt the wounded yuko slink to the back of the pack, her eyes glaring at me for a split second. I know I was harsh but this is war and we cannot afford to lose another warrior. She may hate me now but in the end I hope she sees I have just saved her life so she may live to save people who cannot save themselves.
Akari placed her bow on the blood stained stone floor and pulled out a healing potion, its vibrant red color seemed to be dimmed in these once sacred catacombs, for once the Amazon seemed truly disturbed by the sight of our friend bleeding. "Drink" she said softly as she offered it to Yuko. After the small bottle was done, Akari watched in a strange and yet disturbing fascination as the skin on Yuko's cheek netted itself back together. "Come sister," The Bow-zon said with a small smile, helping the younger girl up "we have destruction to stop."
As we battled monsters, I noticed something different in Yuko… like she was having an internal battle as well, like she was raging a war on something inside her, Akari noticed as well and the quiet Amazon became Yuko's outlet. I could hear her whispering furiously to Akari, spilling her angers like a tidal wave upon the war-hardened hero.
"Why did she pull me back?" Yuko hissed with a hateful glare my way, I could feel it like a burning sword between my shoulder blades. "Who does she think she is? Our leader? She just has to be perfect doesn't she…always the golden girl who wins the day" she snapped, her words biting into me. Akari walked silently through out this whole rant, her eyes searching me, as if to see if she was right or not…
"Yuko" The Amazons quiet yet commanding voice echoed throughout the evil infect halls. "She's doing what she can to keep us alive, she is the eldest and has the most experience fighting…I trust in her decisions…. why can't you? She once told me that she would sacrifice her own life before any one of us would have to fight to the death...She is our commander in this war, one worthy of song for all she has done." She paused and nodded her head at me as a small yet unnoticeable tear escaped my eye, Yuko looked like she was going to rip something apart. " Whether we win or loss Yuko, I want you to think over what she has done and the cost on her soul for doing it… she killed many and saved twice that number yet she never came out of those battles unscathed." Slowing her pace, Akari slowly made her way to the back of the troop; her bowstring on her windforce now adorned a long shafted arrow.
I gave a slow exhale. My tormented thoughts were slammed to a stop when we came upon the throne room, and I saw Baal…His twisted and deformed body was a canister for one of the most powerful energies in existence, Destruction. No longer did he look human, Four arms held his upper body aloft while his hind legs were bent like a beast, his mouth, long and full of razor sharp teeth but his eyes…. his eyes held images of universes crashing together, suns imploding and chaos. His guttural laughed echoed in this new tomb of mine and in a brilliant show of magic, he pulled forth one of his generals, Colenzo The Annihilator, leader of the Warped Shamans.
Yuko growled as she unleashed a trap at their feet, burning their already red flesh to ash. Her claws gleamed in the light of the flames…and so did the madness in her eyes. I glanced at Akari as I called forth a Meteor crushing this general where it stood.
Yet the death of his first general did not disturb Baal, it caused him to laugh again…his once human but now demonic voice rubbed my nerves raw and caused Akari to twitch. With another small flick of his wrist he called up his second general, Achmel The Cursed…This monster reminded me of the old mummy in the sewers below Lut Gholein, only twice as powerful and twice as rancid. The bones of the first general formed his minions, skinless with glowing sickly blue eyes, their skeletal hands glowing icy blue.
I felt one of their ice bolts smash into my plate-covered chest, chilling me to the bone. I shivered as I called upon the ability of Blaze, fire engulfed my body and as I step forward flames were all that was left. I was a walking torch, burning all that I touched. The frozen skeletons shrank away from my heat filled glare, with a small jump I started to run..Burning everything I stepped on. Slowly I burnt the skeletons to ash and soon that ash blew through out the throne room by some otherworldly magic…maybe it was a leakage of Baal's true power.
I looked at the general Achmel; his mummified body was littered with arrows, special delivery from Akari and the rogues. I stole a quick glance at Yuko, her once royal armor was covered in blood...not her own but the deep red of demons… a shiver ran down my spine as my sister-in-arms let out a maddening battle cry as she leapt forward, claws out and drove them into Achmels wrapped chest, killing him instantly.
Soon after he called upon more Generals… each one more terror filled then the last…there was Bartuc the Bloody, leader of Deformed Council Members, Ventor the Unholy leader of the Venom Lords and last was Lister the Tormentor leader of the Minions of Destruction… and we beat them all
Akari lowered her bow, her eyes transfixed on me, almost like she was afraid of looking at the Assassin. I wanted to stop Yuko but the sight of her ripping into the now dead monster stirred something in me…a deep vile disgust.
Baal loved it…his infinite eyes watched in sick amusement, his gnarled mouth twisted into a sneer. He laughed again, tapping his long claws on the marble beneath deformed feet. He reached forward with his magic, like a hurricane through a field, it smashed upon my mental shields, pushing and straining, slowly degrading it till I felt his power upon my mind. I stole a quick glance at Akari.She was on the ground withering in pain, her windforce forgotten at her side as she grasped her head in a vain attempt to keep out his sickening sorcery. I reached out with my numb mind and placed a small enchantment on her, one to ease the pain…then my mind turned to Yuko, I looked at her… her face upturned, eyes wide and mouth open as if to scream, yet the only sound that escaped her was a deep gurgling. The rogues and Lucan were huddled together like if they cut each other off from the world, the pain would just disappear, their desperate huddle enclosed their faces so I was unable to see if they were even conscious.
He gave a low gurgling cackle and slowly stepped backwards into a shimmering red portal that I had not noticed when we entered the throne room…. maybe because we were fighting for our lives but still…one would think that a giant red portal would have caught someone's attention….
As soon as he was gone, the magic just disappeared and I slowly sank to the floor, my stomach tightened into a painful knot and bile burned my throat, I gagged on my own vomit till the feeling of foreign magic that had invaded my body, had been cleansed. I felt a hand on the small of my back and I glanced up at Lucan, his eyes troubled and his lips set in a tight, thin line. "get up Mistress, we must go.." he glanced toward the rogues who were slowly helping the others to their feet…Yuko brushed off Uskei and staggered to her feet. The wounded rogue looked like someone had stabbed her though the heart, she looked at Akari's rogue, Noki with a lost expression. The other archer steady Akari and then wondered over to Uskei, who was enveloped in a comforting hug.
The aged Iron wolf helped me to my feet and passes me my 'magic wand' as he called it, and with the majority of my weight leaning on his broad shoulders we slowly walked toward the burning portal. I felt a friendly presence and I glanced to see Akari flitting her bow, a small sad smile upon her face…
As a broken band of fighters, we wandered towards the fiery red entrance…we were about to enter the World stone chamber, which housed the heart of the earth… No one but sacred monks and priests and now Baal have ever laid eyes on this holy object. I fear that we will be too late; I fear that Baal's evil power would have already corrupted the sacred stone. I pray, to a Deity who still listens, let none of my friends die tonight, if they be struck down, give them the strength to carry on, for they have yet to live, to love, to be happy… let them not die in a place where their soul might get destroyed by this evils power…protect them. Please.
I felt a hand rest between my shoulder blades, right were my armor was ripped open. I glanced back to see Akari, her soft voice whispered, almost like she was afraid that if she broke the silence around us, Baal would throw more minions at the ragged group. " I guess we are going to have to fix that armor if we get to Harrogath" she gave a weak smile and gave me a gentle pat on my shoulder.
But I caught her word 'If' instead of 'When'…Even the Amazon Warrior was feeling a small seed of doubt settle in the pit of her gut. She and I have been together, fighting evil since the Butcher. I remember her running into the small enclosed space, bow drawn and a thirst for blood gleaming in her eyes…we were both so young…filled with dreams of glory and heroism… we battled our way down to the hellish under ground beneath the town of Tristram, there we met up with Yuko, who at the time, seemed to be the very shadow we were fighting against…
Who knew it would end up like this… us, three survivors of Tristram, up against Destruction and a possibly corrupted world stone. Future unknown as we wonder closer to the portal…the heat from the swirling vortex was burning my skin, to the point I gave a small little cry but it was for only a second because I felt a solid hit on my left shoulder, pushing me into the burning heat.
In a blink of an eye we were standing in a room, once a giant alter to the world stone, it was in ruins… a twisted fiery red stone stood a foot away from an edge of a platform in the center of the room. The purity of the stone, that once shone a holy blue, was now degraded to a deeper red, full of destructions corrupt and manipulating evils.
Bodies lay scattered about the room, robes hung from limbs like drapes in a window, eyes staring in horror… frozen open like the last thing they saw was evil itself. Some were skinless, dull gray bones showed bite marks like the skin had been gnawed off …I pray that they were not alive when this happened to them but with Baal, one could not be sure. Others had skin, some were slowly rotting in the heat from the stone... shriveled like old parchment paper. Others bloated, to the point were nothing was recognizable, eyes swollen shut, mouth forced closed…limbs ripping the seams of the robes.
I heard a small gasp behind me, with a quick look I saw Uskei on her knees…praying to her goddess, for what I couldn't tell you, but the tears in her eyes pulled at my soul…one so young should never see this kind of horror…her large eyes turned to her Mistress...yet Yuko ignored the pleading look sent her way.
It was Akari who knelt beside the shattered rogue, grasping her upper arm and helping her to her feet "Be strong Uskei, your lady will not abandon you in this Tartarus" she whispered in her ear. The Amazon had always been the Silent killer, yet she was also the one that was to be trusted…Amazons were known for their fierce loyalty, to their sisters-in-arms, to their families and to their Goddess…everyone here trusted her to say the right thing…
Akari gave a small smile and patted the rogue on her back. The Bow-zon looked up and met my eyes, she raised her hand and on the back was a tattoo…a lavish looking eye stared at me, she said that when her eyes were closed and no Ally was around, she will see the enemy before they have the chance to sneak up on her. When she raised her hand like that I knew we should take a small breather…
With a small command we settled behind a broken pillar, crumbling to dust and memories. I felt Lucan at my back; his soothing presence dimmed the horror of what we just saw. Slowly he slid into my free hand a healing potion, and then with a small pat on my shoulder he turned back to his bag in search of something to put a temporary cover on the rip in my armor. Everyone was deep in-thought, thinking of happier times, times when death didn't follow them around, when they could go out side and laugh under the mid-day sun.
No one talked, the sound of Baal's demonic growls and cackles echoed eerily about the desolate halls, his power oscillated about the room, unsure of where it wished to caress, unsure of who it wanted to infect with its malign motives. Some shivered when the power tendrils reached out and brushed their defenses, for the power felt like the cold hands of death. A few flinched, unable to keep the terror off of their once innocent faces.
Lucan stiffened behind me as a tendril passed close by him, his face drained of his sun kissed tan and his eyes took on a haunted look. His graying hair seemed to turn darker when his face lost all its color, and he looked like a necromancer I met once, pale as death but hair as dark as the night. I knew Lucan was still of the living when he drew a shaky breath and his eyelids drooped over pained eyes, I watched him inhale, exhale, inhale until I was sure that Baal's evil enchantments did not reach my friends soul.
Slowly I got to my feet and looked at my comrades, my friend's…. my family and I noticed the wariness in their eyes and sadness that weighed down on their hearts. I opened my mouth and quietly asked for them all to stand and get ready for the final battle. I stood straight and raised my head; they need not see my fear.
"Getting a weight from life is something that everyone has to experience" I said quietly, and they all looked at me with tired eyes. "But to bare it with such diligence, honor and bravery puts you far above the common person" I looked into every single one of their eyes. "We have fought the long day, now we fight the bloody night, and its has been a Honor! NAY, The Greatest Honor, to serve with you." I paused and inhaled, my voice hurt from the heat and the dryness but they need to hear this "I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me and a day may come when the courage of men and rogues fail, when we forsaken our friends and break all bonds of sisterhood, BUT ITS IS NOT THIS DAY" I knew Baal was aware of our presence but let him fear what I was saying, " THIS DAY WE FIGHT! I BIDE YOU PEOPLE OF THIS LAND, DO NOT LET THIS TERROR ENDURE! FIGHT!" I screamed and was echoed by Akari, Lucan and Akari's rogue, Yuko gave a frightening smirk and her rogue stood quietly behind her lady. "FIGHT!" I screamed.
I raised my staff above my head and a shower of blue crystals swept about my body, Chilling Armor was the spells name. I took one look at my friends and turned away, my feet sped up to a run and I charged towards Baal, I listened and heard feet following me and a weak smile crossed my lip. Destruction.
TBC