Chapter 14:
Storming the Monastery
The next morning found them waking up in the uppermost level of the blood countess' former castle. In the small, perfectly square room just under the surface level they had entered through.
The storm outside had died down to a slightly windy overcast as they slept. It was still perfect weather for the assault, as with careful movement they could remain unseen, unheard, and unsmelt in their approach. Then it would merely be a matter of scouting and waiting for Kashya's forces to catch up. They once again prepared breakfast and ate it while walking.
The hours of hiking in such cool, but not cold, weather was oddly relaxing and pleasant, despite the battle yet to come. Izuku felt sad to be rid of the simple pleasure of the trip when they neared the Monastery enough to see its highest tower peeking over the leaves. That sadness was overpowered by his surprise at seeing the literal army of gypsies, caravanners and rogues crouched like a creeping mass of foliage in the forests surrounding the monastery.
"How in the world did everybody get here before us?" Izuku asked Isendra in a whisper.
"They know the land better and are more accustomed to the terrain. That, and they must have hiked all the way through the storm." She told him.
"How is that possible? It forced us to take shelter." He countered.
"And they were behind us by at least half a day's hike. The storm could have been much more manageable for them for the whole of the trip. It did die sometime during our time in that shack." Isendra offered.
It did make sense, but it still riled him that they failed to arrive in time to do any kind of scouting as ordered. They eventually came upon a small meadow where the leaders of the army stood in a circle. Akara, Kashya, Charsi, Warriv and Cain he recognized. The absolute wall of muscle forming a woman and her three rogue guards he did not. He guessed was from one of the other two camps in the Blood Moors. The third leader he didn't spot at first because he was so small and was standing near the edge of the meadow. He dressed similarly to Warriv, but looked older and meaner than Cain.
Izuku opted to stay far away from these strangers for now.
"Ah! Our scouts have returned." Kashya said jokingly. "What do you have to report?"
"That the blood countess was resurrected and has been using the catacombs beneath her ruined castle as a torture den and bath house for some months now." Isendra said. "And that she is gone for good now. Hence why we were held up."
The tank of a woman laughed uproariously at her explanation.
"You weren't joking when you said they were over-achievers, were you?" The diminutive and ancient caravanner chucked as he approached the circle.
They hadn't even been introduced yet, yet Izuku and Isendra had already managed to impress them. Good start.
"We have been resting and waiting for you two to arrive before beginning the assault." Akara told them. "Now that you are here, we have no more excuses to waste time. Introductions can wait for later, when you need not fear having to remember the names of people who may yet die in the coming hour. Kashya, if you would take the floor."
That was a rather depressing way of putting things, but Izuku couldn't disagree with the sentiment.
"The demon queen Andariel perverts our hallowed halls, defiling our monastery. We have tolerated this incursion long enough!" Kashya began. "But none know the stakes greater than Deckard Cain, and none have seen her evil personally moreso than him. I leave him to explain to you all the stakes."
Deckard Cain stepped forward.
"Andariel and the lesser evils once overthrew the primevils, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal." Cain explained. "They were banished into our world, and we have suffered their presence ever since. That Andariel is here could only mean that all of hell is united once more. Today's fight will be the first step in purging these nightmares from our lands, and also a taste of sweet, partial revenge against the demoness that not only has personally caused us all of this anguish these last months, but all of the horrors brought about by the primevils in our world for these eons due to her banishing them here."
Izuku's ears perked up at the mention of Baal. That name sounded familiar. Wasn't he a Mesopotamian god of child sacrifice? Or was he thinking of the Canaanites?
"If we are not victorious here, then your holy grounds shall become a permanent outpost of hell's forces, and the way east shall be lost forever. As may the war with Diablo." Cain finished.
Cain's speech did not elicit much cheer or courage in those gathered, so Kashya once again spoke.
"But we have the advantage." She told them. "This is our home. We know it better than they do, and we have the element of surprise, not to mention superior skill. This battle is winnable, and it must be won, so we shall take our home back!"
Those gathered didn't cheer out loud, but they did hold up fists and showed expressions that told of their hunger for victory.
"Our battle strategy is simple. Our archers, of which we have many, shall pretend to be the whole of the invading force and take out theirs. While this goes on, we will have an insertion team sneak around and inside. This team shall then split in two. One to unbar the gates, the other to hunt down and deliver retribution on Andariel in person." Kashya explained. "Then all of our main forces shall charge in. With most of Andariel's forces distracted by ours, it will leave the second strike team free to focus on killing the demon queen."
"Our pitchforks are sharpened, and our wills are ready." The diminutive caravanner said. "I have every trader, farmer, stable hand and more from all of the blood moors ready and frothing at the mouth for vengeance. Open those doors and we shall flood in like the great flood of the gods."
Oh. They had great flood myths too? Of course they did.
"Go now and tell everybody to prepare. That the battle begins not in hours, but in minutes." The mountain of muscle ordered.
All save Kashya, Cain and Akara scattered to do exactly that, but those two ushered Isendra and Izuku for a more private meeting.
"Destroy her! Andariel must not be allowed to serve Diablo." The old sorceress commanded. "While we thirst to personally exact revenge against the one who has desecrated all we hold dear, you two are the ones who must take her down. And once she is killed the magic she has wrought will be undone, and the magics which binds many horrors to this realm will be severed."
"Indeed," Said Cain. "From what I understand you two have been the vanguard in the fight against evil for some time now. Success after success has come in no small part from your hands."
Kashya nodded along with every word.
"What's more, ancient lore tells that while she was spawned by the burning hells, Andariel is not particularly fond of fire." Deckard said with a knowing look at Izuku. "And this little pyromaniac shall be her undoing, wield your apprentice well Isendra."
Oh, was he her personal molotov cocktail at this point? Meh, sounded about right. Fire good. Fire friend. Got it.
Charsi approached them leading a small crew of men and women literally armed with pitchforks, woodcutting axes and sledge hammers. For her part, the rogue blacksmith carried a solid metal war axe nearly as tall as she was and, Izuku suspected, heavier than he was.
"I shall be leading my archers." Kashya said. "Akara and Charsi will be leading this insertion team, which you will join until you breach the walls. Then you are to split up."
"Understood, ma'am." Isendra said.
Their platoon of some twenty five inexperienced soldiers crouch-walked with surprisingly silent steps as they snuck along the underbrush. Charsi and Akara took the lead, with Isendra and Izuku directly behind them.
At the slow rate they traveled it was an hour before they circled around the forest to reach the southeast side of the citadel.
There they crouched low and waited, watching the dozens of fallen, corrupted rogues and shamans patrol the rafters and parapets above the citadel. But they did not have to wait long. The evening sun to the west was blotted out by a rain of flaming arrows.
The first onslaught did not kill very many of the patrols, but it did get all of their attention, and it did light many of the roofs afire. Better to burn the entire place down and rebuild it later than risk failure.
The alarm was instantly raised. Bells from every corner of the fortress rang feverishly to alert all those inside, and thus alerted more abominable warriors flooded out to provide aid. Skeletal archers and mages outnumbered the fallen and corrupted rogues ten to one, but shambled stupidly along with little intimidation value.
Kashya hadn't been boasting when she said they outmatched the enemy in terms of skill, for the hundreds of rogues to the east went from raining arrows, to showing off their marksmanship. Every arrow hit true, whether enchanted with ice, fire or let loose without enchantment to speak of. Sure, the enemy's archers and sorcerers outnumbered theirs, but theirs outclassed them by leagues and bounds.
The bodies of skeletons, corrupted rogues, fallen and more all fell from their lofty sniping points like discarded mannequins. But more and more came to take their place.
"Let us go now." Akara ordered, charging forward but keeping low.
She huffed running, let alone running with such a large and overfilled backpack, and yet she persisted along in a low crouch as the rest of them followed.
They reached the wall without being noticed, between two outer towers. There, she dropped the bag and retreated behind one of the other towers, motioning for the rest of them to do the same. Izuku had a hunch about what the bag contained based on the clinking of glass he had heard coming from it all morning.
"Hey, what's good for the goose is good for the goatfucks!" Said Charsi next to him. "We should thank them later for giving me the idea. Izuku, if you would be so kind."
Izuku sent his best firebolt through Ash Bane towards the pack of volatile potions and took cover with the others in place of watching the fruits of their labor.
The boom it made put the explosion from the assault on their encampment to shame, as did the crashing of stone and metal to the ground. As soon as the noise of heavy stone on earth subsided they charged forth towards the new opening.
Several bloodied, dust-covered and thoroughly dazed creatures crawl out. They were composed of nearly a half-dozen fallen sisters, somehow wielding savers and wooden shields instead of bow and arrow, and what looked like man sized dogs crossed with lizards. One of the latter took a pitchfork through the neck which Izuku followed up with an ice bolt between the eyes. The remainder of the explosion-concussed foes fell with similar ease, and with them out of the way their thirty-strong insertion force finally entered the monastery walls.
"We have our orders, you have yours." Charsi told them. "Go through the barracks and past my forge into the chapel, from there you can descend into the deeper levels and waste that unholy bitch! We will unbar the doors."
Izuku and Isendra nodded and went on their way.
They charged through a room made entirely out of wood that had taken nicely to the fire arrows in the mere minutes of fighting it had to spread. The roof caved in behind them as they exited through the opposite door. From there they crossed a surprisingly well-maintained and gorgeous courtyard with an even more beautiful water fountain in the middle. Within it, the forms of four rogue women, armed and ready for battle, sprayed jets of fresh water from their arrow tips.
Crossing the courtyard, they entered a dining area bereft of enemies, but full of the blood and bones of the cannibalized victims of the enemies that had once been here but were now sufficiently distracted by the army at their front door.
The only resistance they encountered along the way were more goatmen, but these ones were pitch black and wielded scythes. Useful tip, scythes don't make for good weapons. They're grass cutting implements, and they don't protect you from ice bolts to the heart.
When they finally entered an armory with a great forge in the middle. There a blue demon who barely fit in the room labored over the forge, hammering at his latest creations. Even crouched low, his horns scraped the ceiling, and yet he labored with a hammer over the forge to craft weapons all the same.
They just let loose on the thing, and as their ice, lightning and fire spells peppered him he tried to turn on and fight them, but his unenviable position of being squeezed into the room like an overstuffed knapsack made it impossible for him to defend himself. He actually cried and pleaded as they struck him down, likely more in shame than pain.
They look about the room and the many freshly forged weapons thereupon.
"This is what she was stalling us for." Izuku concluded. "She was working overtime to mass produce these superior weapons and armor in order to have her armies sweep across the blood moors as a plague of locusts."
"I think you are correct." Said Isendra. "And we have already stopped this plan of theirs. These weapons are far superior to anything our allies have, and anything Charsi has been able to forge without her Malus. Speaking of."
There, in the demon's scorched hand, was a rune-covered hammer of a blacksmith. Charsi's lost companion.
"I know our mission is to make a beeline for Andariel, but should we fail, we cannot afford to leave this behind in enemy hands. If we get this back to Charsi they will have a far greater chance of having a successful second siege." Izuku reasoned.
Isendra nodded with his line of reasoning.
"Quickly. Run back and get it to her or another of our leaders, then hurry back. I will go ahead, but not far. Clear the way a bit. Scout things out." Isendra ordered.
Izuku obeyed, lifting the hefty hammer with some difficulty he charged back the way he came. He reached the courtyard to find Cain sitting on the edge of the water fountain and recuperating.
"What has happened?! Where is your mistress?" He demanded in alarm.
Izuku understood his concern, but put him at ease.
"Relax, she just sent me back to give one of you this. No time to explain, but this has to leave the monastery, preferably with Charsi, in case we fail." Izuku told the ancient man.
Warriv took the hammer with an expression of surprise.
"Good thinking young one, the Horadric Malus is too important to leave in their hands. I will get it to her. Now Go!" He ordered.
Izuku obeyed his elder and sprinted back through the barracks.
Beyond the forge many dead brown fallen and scattered ectoplasmic bones of wraiths formed an easy trail to follow. With it guiding him, he reached the chapel and entered to see Isendra doing battle with a glowing green skeleton garbed in priest's apparel. With memories of the seemingly radioactive skeleton from the den and burial grounds Izuku jumped in to aid his mistress.
He ran past the ornate sarcophagi in the chapel and dead goat men littered between them to take a position behind the glowing skeleton priest, who had yet to notice him. Isendra nodded to him and together they performed the tried and true ice and fire combo. Her icy gale froze him top to bottom and Izuku's firebolt reduced him to toothpicks. The battle was likely only that short because Isendra had already softened the thing up, but he still felt proud of the efficacy of their tactics.
They then scoured the walls of the room for any doors that might lead downward, only to find such a spiral staircase in a wide-open doorway near the entrance. Keeping their fast pace, they descend four shockingly empty levels of catacombs. They only encountered a smattering of pitch black fallen, as the bulk of combat ready abominations were on the surface. They all died pitifully at their hands. But it was not empty of other horrors.
Living flames wafted up through cracks in the floor. Pools of bubbling blood, too much to belong to Andariel's victims, did the same. Most strangely of all were bony spines, or possibly tail bones, vining through the passageways like roots of a tree. He did his best not to look at the crucified and defiled corpses of rogue sisters that served as the only source of light in places.
"This place is touched by hell itself." Isendra told him. "Here, the two realms meet and if we are not careful, we could become stranded in damnation, in both flesh and soul."
Izuku steeled himself in understanding her explanation.
On the fourth level they found an enormous square room that took up half of the floor. A crater took up most of the room, emanating from the center. It was filled with naked corpses and blood. On the far side of the room stood an ornate pair of doors, and Izuku knew the real fight lay beyond it.
They walked around either side of the crater to grasp the handle of a door apiece, and then they lurched it open. Beyond it they finally saw her.
The queen of demons sat upon a throne at the end of a hallway filled with pillars, each sporting demonic protrusions of bone like thorns on a rose.
She was disgusting, and comical.
Her digitigrade legs didn't bother him. Neither did the many spines jutting out from her at strange places, nor her vicious, dripping fangs or hooved feet. Even the quartet of giant scorpion tails jutting out of her spine like extra limbs didn't bother him much. But the bull nose rings hanging from her dinner-plate sized and inflamed nipples? That made him snort him in mockery of her appearance. The vibrant orange clown hair didn't help either.
This Andariel seemed to be in the "I hate my dad" stage of her punk rock career. He'd seen j-pop covers with scarier covers than this supposed demon queen.
Needless to say, Izuku was less than intimidated.
"Fire." Isendra ordered.
Izuku managed to cast a firebolt between his snickers at Andariel's bizarre appearance and Isendra cast one at the same time. The two orbs of arcane fire smacked her on her face. She was so big that even across the fifty-meter gap she was easy to hit.
Andariel laughed as she walked through the flame.
"You will die, maggots! She snarled.
Izuku doubted that very much. If you wanted to intimidate somebody, maybe comb your hair and wear actual armor instead of a loincloth.
Isendra kept up the firebolts as Andariel charged forth and Izuku went for his bastardized fire wall. Andariel stumbled along the flames, her attempted illusion of being immune to flame faltering as the onslaught began to seer her hairy, goatlike legs.
She resorted to crawling at them, using her two hooved feet, both arms and all for scorpion tails like spider legs. This increased her pitiful speed only marginally. As they backed away into the room they came from Izuku took the time to pop open the mana potion he was carrying in his spare hand and opted to just place it into his mouth and hold it here in his teeth. He got the impression he would be using a lot of mana before this was over.
Now they were both pelting the demoness with firebolts, aiming for the limbs in the hope that they could be severed, or else simply splintered by the blasts.
She was nearly upon the doorway when she finally attacked. Or at least Izuku thought she did, it was difficult to tell what happened then.
Plumes of green smoke erupted from her and enveloped them. The reaction was immediate. A furious rash erupted on his hands, and he felt an intense burning sensation from it all along his body, and especially his face. Then came the lightheadedness and the foul stench of it. Despite the noxious cloud of poison gas ripping his body he didn't let up his onslaught, in fact, he changed tactics.
Tilting his head back so he could continuously drink the watered-down mana potion, Izuku took hold of his bastardized fire wall spell and stoked it into a full blown inferno. The flames rose all the way to the ceiling of the great hall and far exceeded the feats of the countess the night before. Still, Andariel charged through, though she was screaming in pain now.
When she was nearly upon them Izuku and Isendra backed away to either side of the great double doors and Isendra cast her blizzard spell on the ground, making it nice and slick. When Andariel finally reached them, it was to slip comically, like a clown on a banana peel, into the crater of blood and corpses.
Izuku and Isendra, both reminded of their battle with the countess, reached out with their mana and drained the pool of every last bit of warmth, freezing it solid with Andariel in it. Andariel broke mostly free with her powerful limbs in an instant and swiped at them with the scorpion tail arms. They both ducked and rolled out of the way and responded with yet another pair of firebolts, which Izuku also followed up by flinging the empty mana potion bottle at her forehead where it shattered.
And he'd thought her earlier scream at being immolated was loud. The noise she made at two eyefuls of shattered glass could rupture eardrums. That had not been his intention, but he was pleased by the result.
From there the battle was more of a mercy killing, but they had none of it to spare. They pelted the blinded and charred demoness with firebolt after firebolt. Dodging the blind swipes of her stingers, claws and belched bile was child's play at this point. The thick plumes of noxious smoke she filled the room with, on the other hand, were unavoidable and they opted to simply accept them as a workplace hazard. And thus, they battered and beat her down with magical flames from every angle as she wailed and gnashed her death in rage at her own pitifulness.
Then, all at once, she exploded into a pillar fire straight out of exodus.
The pillar rose and drilled into the ceiling. Higher and higher it went and with it came the wails of every fallen, undead or worse in the monastery. As with Blood Raven's death, the magic of Andariel's unholy works was undone with her destruction. Just as Akara had predicted.
He looked to Isendra with a smile on his face and blanched at the sight of her.
Thick, black boils had erupted on her face and the smooth skin beneath her form-fitting chain mail. They were bursting and out from the wounds poured congealed, blackened blood. He looked down at his own hands and sure enough, he looked like a victim of the black death himself. Then he remembered he had been breathing in the stuff for almost a minute now.
No sooner did that thought strike him did his body react, vomiting his breakfast from the morning and the potions he had quaffed since Then.
During the adrenalin of battle, he had been able to ignore the effects of the poison on his vision and head, but now the light-headedness and darkness were closing in and they conspired to bring him down to the ground. To the ground he went. The last thing before unconsciousness overtook him was the prone body of his mistress across the crater, and Akara bringing an entourage of their friends and allies through the doors behind her.
This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.
Prices:
$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.
$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.