Apostles of Doom

“That’s not going to be a problem!” Darg-Krallnom shouted. Tom looked towards the commander, who gestured to the Unlife that had been surrounding them. “They are in retreat, I suspect to reorganize. Surround the leadership, protect them at all costs. A very good thing for us!”

Tom grinned and turned back to Inethya.

“Incredible!” Inethya said, shaking her head. “That dagger was able to do what my rituals could not.”

“This was a very strange situation. The Storm Lord’s spells were guarding the antimus tightly, but more importantly, the core souls of the risar were locked inside as animus. They were imprisoned within their own incarnated forms,” Tom said.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Inethya said.

“Nor have I,” a new voice said behind Tom. He turned to see that Beragamos had returned now that the interdiction had been shut down.

“I note that someone has once again been stealing mana from heaven,” the archon said sternly.

“You try to re-turn three risar controlled by thirty-nine very powerful liches, now permanently slain, without using every drop of mana you can get your hands on,” Tom said somewhat sarcastically. “I also admit that Tiernon’s mana is very pure and most efficient.”

A tremendous crashing sound from the other side of the Citadel brought their attention back to the fact that there was still a fourth risi attacking the Citadel.

“Enough resting. We have more work to do!” Tom said, launching himself into the air. “Morok, bring your people with m;, the rest of you guard the risar in case the Unlife return!”

Tom had to blink at the clouds of dust and debris rising from the north side of the citadel. The outer wall had been breached, and two of the three inner walls in that courtyard segment had also collapsed. Those walls had contained corridors and rooms embedded within them; he hoped everyone had gotten out.

Two giant knights, two hundred feet tall, were battling a stone golem. Talarius was flying around shooting lightning bolts out of his bow as Ruiden periodically dove in to scrape the risi. Stainsberry was on one of the walls, casting a spell. Several other avatars were flying around shooting various beams of light at the stone golem, all to little affect.

Tom glanced back towards Stainsberry, suddenly recognizing the cloud forming in front of the Knight Magus. “Stainsberry! No!” Tom yelled, moving towards the Knight Magus while keeping close watch on the Cloud of Disintegration.

“Stainsberry, there is a live, non-antimus soul trapped inside the giant. He is possessed and being controlled by liches! I can cure him! Shut down the cloud!” Tom yelled.

Stainsberry looked towards Tom and nodded, then abruptly changed his chant and the motions of his hands. Tom hoped he could get the Cloud of Disintegration shut down safely.

“How do you propose stabbing that?” Inethya yelled.

“We need to force him into his mortal form!” Tom yelled back.

There was vwooshing sound as Morok and his elite squadron drew their lichtshwerts. Tom nodded at the twelve D’Orcs to dive in.

“We need a stone-to-mud ritual,” Hilda said, although at two hundred feet tall, her voice boomed louder than a normal shout.

Tom looked to Beragamos, who looked pensive and finally nodded. “I think I can make something work. It’s not part of what I normally do, but it should work with some modifications.”

“Great. I need him to stay in flesh long enough to stab him, maybe a little longer!” Tom shouted. He noticed that Morok’s crew was able to cause burns on the stone golem. That was more than most could do.

Beragamos nodded and began chanting and gesturing. Within perhaps a few minutes, the sharp corners of the stone golem began to visibly soften, to melt. Tom moved to get into position. The golem staggered as one of its feet started to melt. It turned, ignoring the two giant knights, and swatted at one of Morok’s D’Orcs, glaring at Beragamos.

Tom assumed it was the fact that the archon was glowing and shouting things about mud and stone and Earth that tipped off the golem drivers — the lich commune — as to who was responsible. Tom moved to reposition himself even as the golem moved to try and swat Beragamos from the sky.

As the golem’s arm moved upward, his forearm began to bend the wrong direction as his elbow began to liquefy. The golem roared in anger and suddenly flashed to flesh. Tom lunged quickly, assuming he had only a small window. He had to aim high, at the base of the neck, to avoid the risi’s stone plate armor.

In! Excrathadorus Mortis pierced the giant’s neck and Tom began to clean the giant. After the first three he had gotten an optimal pattern down, balancing the tendrils fighting him and the necessary cleaning. However, this big fellow needed a lot of cleaning.