Apostles of Doom

Tom grunted as the frost giant managed to pin him to the ground. Inethya was busy trying to contain the wind giant with the help of Morok Death Stealer. Morok had somehow managed to get his lichtshwert to function in a magical realm. The interesting thing was that it could actually hurt the wind giant in its aerial form.

Morok’s regiment was there as well. Now that the giants were more solidly focused on the wall, the Army of the Night — or at least, the daylight capable part of it — had reengaged in combat. Morok’s squadron was keeping them at bay.

“Lich farts from the depths!” Darg-Krallnom shouted, and Tom glanced his way. The fire giant had just flamed and leaped to the top of the wall.

“Shit!” The giant was about to enter the Citadel and he was pinned down. He whipped his tail around and jabbed the frost giant with everything he had, concentrating the funneled lightning from the Doom of Nysegard through his tail. He’d never tried this before, but it was worth a shot.

The frost giant’s armor was crackling with electricity, and it finally let go of him to get away from his tail. Tom rested for a moment, thinking. They needed a new tactic; this wasn’t working. He glanced up to see several avatars attacking the fire giant on the top of the wall. Even so, he could detect screams of mortals being hurt by the giant stomping on them.

He’d had several more opportunities to examine the risar. They were physical bodies that were reanimated, much like a zombie, but with far more bindings than any of the zombies he’d seen. The dark tendrils that crawled beneath their skin seemed to be both a shield from attacks like Inethya’s as well as a container for the antimus inside. He had also confirmed that there was some small core of animus inside the bodies. That was not something he had seen in any of the other animated undead or Unlife.

Tom suspected that the animus inside was the true soul of the risar; that it was trapped in an Unlife prison, unable to break free. He needed to be able to cleanse the antimus, burn away the dark tendrils and hopefully release the trapped animus.

The problem was that the black tendrils were more than capable of blocking divine magic. He needed to be able to pierce the tendril shield and get something inside the giants. He needed, he suddenly realized, Excrathadorus Mortis. Tom blasted the frost giant with fire from the Wand and began making his way to Inethya. “Inethya, do you have a link to Iskerus?” he shouted.

“Yes. Why?” the prophetess shouted back as she swung her sword at the wind giant.

“I need to find Excrathadorus Mortis — I left it with the arch-diocate,” Tom shouted.

Inethya grimaced as she dodged a fist, and then she nodded. “Give me a moment.”

Roth Tar Gorefest slugged the frost giant in the location its kidneys should be. Ice armor crinkled with the impact.

“Bad news!” Inethya shouted. “He says it vanished from its heavily warded container. Vanished with no trace and without any seals being broken.”

Tom was still blasting the frost giant as Roth Tar Gorefest struck again.

“How is that possible?” Tom shouted to Inethya.

“I have no idea! Divine Intervention?” She shrugged, refocusing on her own battle.

Divine Intervention? If she was a prophetess, an avatar, what would she mean by something so vague as Divine Intervention? It made no sense. Tom shook his head; it suddenly made sense. She meant that Tiernon himself must have taken it.

“Shit!” Tom cursed again. The fire was still not working. He swapped the fire for a sustained electrical blast. This thing’s armor was unreal.

If Tiernon took it, it would be in Tierhallon. How the hell would he get it back? Did he just ask Tiernon to return it? That didn’t seem particularly likely at the moment. He was going to need to get it himself. Of course, he had no idea where Tierhallon was, so that was a bust.

Tom frowned, thinking. Wasn’t Tiernon’s god pool in Tierhallon? Could he follow a link to Tierhallon and find it? He’d had a link to Excrathadorus Mortis. He’d turned it off, but if he got close enough, based on what he’d read in Freehold, he should have no problem reconnecting to it. He just needed to get close enough.

“Roth Tar Gorefest! Can you handle this guy, keep him down while I work on something else?” Tom shouted to his commander.

“We can!” the commander replied and gestured for several of his subordinates to join the battle. Big as the giants were, only so many could fight them at once before getting in each other’s way.