The Heavenly Host

“I know,” Lilith said. “I was watching, even as I shut down Mount Doom to destroy his ability to get more mana to try and save himself.”

“So how could this be?” Sentir asked. His stomach was churning horribly at this point.

“Well, clearly this demon, whatever or whoever he is, has somehow figured out how to break your so-called Holy Ciphers. If he can steal mana from your clerics’ streams, surely he could infiltrate and corrupt your wards by the same mechanism. Further, he had a lot of stolen mana to play with. It’s not inconceivable.”

“So you don’t think this is Orcus?” Sentir Fallon asked.

Lilith shrugged, her wings dipping slightly. “I don’t see how it could be. Which is why I had completely forgotten the forlorn prophecy of the D’Orcs and the orcs.”

“Prophecy?” Sentir asked.

“Yes,” Lilith said sourly. “I had completely dismissed it and banished it from my memories until one of my commanders, who has been keeping the D’Orcs in check, reminded me of it.”

“And this prophecy says?” Sentir asked.

“About a hundred years after we killed Orcus, an orc shaman in Etterdam supposedly had an oracular vision, and it somehow managed to spread through the entire localverse and to the D’Orcs remaining at Mount Doom.”

“Yes?” Sentir prodded.

“It said that their lord and master would be reborn and return one day, and would bring mana from the heavens to claim his wand, relight the fires of Mount Doom and bring vengeance on those who had wronged him. Along with some other signs and details that frankly, I don’t recall right now.”

“Mana from the heavens?” Sentir asked worriedly.

“Yes. Thought you might not like that part,” Lilith said rather snidely.

“Have you told our other conspirator?” Sentir asked.

Lilith laughed. “No, and I will not for now. You know his boss. I have no doubt they are aware and likely concerned about this prophecy. If they knew of these events, well, I think that might cause more problems than we need right now.”

“In hindsight, maybe we should have paid more attention to it ourselves,” Sentir said.

“Perhaps.” Lilith smirked. “But, naturally, I dismissed the prophecy because, as you know — ”

“A prophecy requires a deity or similar higher power to see the prophecy through,” Sentir finished. “But what god is there for demons? Not to be rude, but you are a rather godless lot.”

“Thank you! That is actually one of the nicer things I’ve ever heard you say about us.” Lilith smirked. “However, your point is valid. What deity is seeing this prophecy through? I don’t suppose you are aware of any angry deities out to get us?”

Sentir looked up at Lilith, and his face got just a little paler.

Chapter 100

The great demon lord Tommus sat broodingly upon his magnificent double-backed throne, contemplating his newfound dominion and its many inhabitants, while idly rotating the Rod of Tommus in its holder on the right arm of the throne. Steam and smoke mixed in the air above the suspended platform of the Great Hall at the base of the active volcano that was his fortress.

Yes, Tom decided, “broodingly” worked particularly well. It seemed to him that if a demon lord was going to sit upon his throne in a large empty room, he should do so broodingly. Clearly that was all a dark lord could do — brood — and were not all demon lords dark lords by definition?

He shook his head. He had ended up taking another nap after binding Vaselle. At the time, he had thought he was unusually worn out. However, after flying down from his balcony to the throne and spending an hour or so following the throne’s links to the rest of the complex, Tom now understood why he had been so tired. It turned out he had been unconsciously feeding mana through the Rod of Tommus to the entire complex. Basically turning it back on.

It had taken quite a bit of mana to relight a dormant volcano. There were all sorts of wards that had been hibernating but were now waking up. Plus, there was some sort of elemental portal thing to... well... “Water” was the only term he could think of for it. It was that portal which was pulling moisture into the air above the volcano and creating the storm clouds that were now raining down on the mountain and creating huge amounts of steam as the rain struck the lava below the platform.