Apostles of Doom

“He’s coming down!” Talarius shouted at the D’Orcs surrounding the suddenly flesh-and-bone bergrisi, trying to control its collapse. He sighed a breath of relief; Tom had managed to bring the giant down. Talarius peered at it. It was rather amazing; the bergrisi looked very different, obviously alive and healthy, than it had before. That was not something that Excrathadorus Mortis could have ever done when he’d had it. Technically, he thought to himself, it’s not really the same dagger anymore. He closed his eyes for a moment before moving to land on the inner wall. The giant, heavyset knight had shrunk down to normal size and was standing on the wall beside Beragamos.

All three stood there, watching a larger-sized Tom try to make the bergrisi a bit more comfortable in the confined, crumbling courtyard.

Hilda raised her eyebrows. “For a demon prince, he shows an amazing amount of compassion.

Talarius chuckled mirthlessly. “I no longer know what the phrase demon prince means. He has been more than honorable to me; more so than I deserve. He extended his trust when he had no reason to.”

“Sometimes things are more complicated than they first appear,” Beragamos agreed, nodding.

“We are all going to have to talk,” Hilda said, staring intently at Beragamos.

“We will. Things are complicated,” Beragamos said. “We still have much more work to do here.”

“We do,” Talarius said. He could not believe he was addressing the most senior archon of his god as an equal, but things were changing. “However, I have one question first.”

“Yes?” Beragamos said, raising one eyebrow in some surprise at his temerity.

“I recently saw a memory mirroring of Orcus at a wedding; the wedding of Aetherus and Eris,” Talarius stated.

“I know the image. I held the mirror,” Beragamos said.

“So all of that is true,” Talarius asked, trying to be as stoic as possible.

“That Orcus is the stepbrother of the Five Siblings — that they were once great, if undisclosed, allies?” Beragamos asked wearily.

“So it is true,” Talarius said.

Beragamos nodded. Hilda was staring at both of them in complete and utter shock.

“And they conspired—” Talarius began, but Beragamos interrupted him with a tight, teeth-clenched grin.

“We will not talk about that here, in public — not with the Unlife nearby,” Beragamos said grimly.

Talarius nodded.

~

Tom stood up from the bergrisi, who was finally resting comfortably. He turned to the fallen outer wall to see Morok and his small team flying back in. Tom smiled as they approached. “Good work! I cannot tell you how invaluable your mission was!” he told them.

The D’Orcs laughed. “And we cannot tell you how much we enjoyed the sweet, sweet singing of the liches as their phylacteries burned,” Morok said before taking a deep breath through his nose. “It is a song of joy that warms our hearts and puts wind into our lungs!”

“What news of the Unlife?” Tom asked.

“There was only a small regiment, a few hundred, protecting the commune. We took them out. All other forces are being withdrawn to the central plain. All functional forces are moving into a large circular region on the plane. I estimate about one hundred and twenty thousand, perhaps one hundred and fifty thousand,” Morok said.

“That must be a huge circle,” Tom said.

“They are very tightly packed into the circle; it is not what I would consider a battle formation,” the commander informed him.

“Have your men guard the bergrisi from any Unlife attack. You are an expert on the Unlife; join me on the command tower. We need to coordinate,” Tom instructed.

Commanders! Tom ordered. All not specifically assigned to guarding the risar or other critical points, herd the Unlife to their circle, but do not engage until further orders!

“Avatars, to the command tower,” he shouted.

Citadel of Light, Main Gate: Late Third Period

Tom hovered over the main gate with Talarius and Stainsberry at his side on their steeds. Grob was with them on a griffin; Beragamos hovered nearby as well. Tamarin had shrunk herself and was sitting on Tom’s shoulder. They were watching as the D’Orc, D’Warg and demon forces of Doom arrayed themselves in the air around the very tightly packed circle of Unlife. It was very bizarre to note the various avatars in the air with them at cardinal locations.

They had spent about a third of an hour on the Command Center, observing the frantic rearranging of the Unlife army, before deciding to supplement the Forces of Doom with avatars and simply surrounding the Unlife army, which was making it so ridiculously simple to do so.

“I do not understand what they are doing,” Stainsberry said.