Apostles of Doom

Talarius grinned behind his visor, feeling the best he had felt in a very long time. True, he was exhausted from battling atunset to atunrise, but it was a good exhaustion, a righteous exhaustion that he had not felt in a very long time. Glancing to the sky, he opened his visor to feel the returning light of Atun upon his face, even as he noted sudden bursts of flame from the surrounding army as unprotected vampires and vampyrs began bursting into flames. What a glorious morning!

Citadel of Light, Main Courtyard, Hilda, Stevos

“That was a night!” Stevos said, sitting down on a stone bench along one of the inner walls of the main courtyard. He and Hilda had both just rotated in with their squads. The avatars did not need to sleep, but their mortal squads did.

“I do not believe I have ever put down so many Unlife in my entire life as I put down last night. And then the carnage of Ruiden and those demons? I could never have imagined such a thing,” Hilda said.

“Yes, the demons. That was very discomforting,” Stevos told her. “We were actually fighting alongside demons from the Abyss!” He shook his head. “I am pretty sure that has to be an act of heresy!”

“Stevos,” Hilda sighed, shaking her head as if in exhaustion, “I have no idea what is heresy and what is dogma at this point. But clearly, the information we have been working with is suspect.”

“Orcus and Tiernon have worked together before? How is that even possible?” Stevos asked.

“I don’t know, but Beragamos clearly knew both Orcus and his main D’Orc,” Hilda said.

“So if he knew Orcus personally and he knew firsthand of D’Orcs, why did he never say anything?” Stevos exclaimed, raising his hands.

“There is something we are missing,” Hilda replied, acknowledging the other saint’s frustration. “For one thing, I am deeply troubled by what I thought I heard about Sentir Fallon.”

“You heard that too? That has to be a lie!” Stevos said.

“Last night, as we prepared to battle, that was my thought too; however, only a few hours later, my squad was being escorted by a demon squadron. Their efforts allowed me to get much closer to master vampires and re-turn them than I could have with my squad alone,” Hilda said.

“You re-turned them? When they were surrounded by ghouls?” Stevos asked in shock.

“Yes. Probably not the nicest thing to do, but sometimes justice is harsh,” Hilda said, quoting a well-known proverb of Tierhallon.

Horns blared warning throughout the Citadel.

“What does that mean?” Stevos asked.

“I have no idea, but my first guess is that those extremely tall creatures to the south are finally moving.” Hilda said, standing.

Citadel Command Tower

“They are moving!” Targh Bowelsplitter called.

Tom turned from his conversation with Darg-Krallnom and the avatars to look towards the risar. The Army of the Night had fully cleared the path to the risar and now the giants were moving towards the Citadel. Moving with increasing speed, in fact; within moments they were running.

“We need to get going! If they hit the walls, it is going to be very bad!” Targh yelled. “I am off to my troops!”

“Ready?” Darg-Krallnom looked to the others, who nodded.

They had chosen Darg-Krallnom, Tom, Roth Tar Gorefest and Inethya to be the initial principal combatants. The four launched themselves into the air in the direction of the now-charging risar.

“Time to go big!” Darg-Krallnom shouted, raising his giant sword. Tom wasn’t quite sure what he meant until he saw the D’Orc growing larger, along with his sword and armor! Darg-Krallnom can change forms? Tom had not known that. He did another double take as Roth Tar Gorefest suddenly did the same.

“The bigger the better!” Inethya shouted as she too began to expand along with her plate armor.

Tom snorted; this would be a more interesting battle than he’d thought. He grabbed the Rod of Tommus with his tail and began unbuckling his kilt. The kilt was normal demon dragon hide and didn’t change size. During the initial charge he had worn it as an armband; this time he would need to wear it as a ring. He probably could have done without it, but he was still not completely trusting of the Five Siblings and so had wanted his arrowheads with him. As Edwyrd, he had carried them in a pouch attached to a real belt worn under his robes.

The Rod of Tommus also did not expand, as far as he knew, so it was about to become the Toothpick of Tommus. Okay, maybe not that bad. It’s about eight feet long, so it will be more like a large pen, he thought. I only hope the pen truly is mightier than the sword.