Chapter
5
" A Path Set On Skulls And Paved In Blood "
page 25 ' A Mariage Drowned By Crimson Rain Falling
On A Sealed Sword Calls For Endgame '
It was dark as the ceremony started and everyone gathered
around them. As all of the elves who remained of the
Hullack village watched them the sun started to rise
over the tree tops. He waited as she was brought up
the aisle finishing her walk next to him. The Elvish
cleric started the ceremony as Clive and Elly placed
their hands one over the other. The Elvish Cleric
ended by twisting a tie around their interlocked arms
and with that he finished saying, ". . . and
under the gaze of Corellion and all the gods of the
heavens let these two souls be forever connected."
As the light of the sun glistened through the trees
the two lovers leaned close together as they gently
placed their lips together kissing for the first time
as husband and wife. Clive and Elly enjoyed their
first piece of cake as a couple as Cade started up
the music to begin the festivities. As the music began
everyone forget about the horrors that occurred last
night as the demons swept through their gate and into
their village. The festivities and dancing went well
into the morning ending around the time that the Party
was packing up to leave. Shorin led the Party to the
basket elevator that would lower them to the ground
below. "Good luck," he says looking mostly
at Charisma, "I wish I could be as carfree as
you but I have others that I need to look after now."
Since the Party knew that Sebastians tracker, Graven
left the night before they knew they wouldn't have
to backtrack and left towards Micheal's Castle on
their own.
Two days and no encounters later they arrived ahead
of Sebastian's army at Micheal's Castle. The Castle
of Re'Jo'ress had walls over twenty feet tall surrounded
by a fifty foot wide moat with over two dozen archer
towers all along the inside of the walls. Myr was
able to use Raid as a scout to look over the perimeter
of the castle which seemed to be undefended. There
were none of Micheal's scouts or guards and the draw
bridge of the castle was down. It was an obvious trap.
The Party found a small cave close by where they could
camp until Sebastian's army arrived. Two days later
as Raid was scouting the southern area he spoted some
troops approaching Micheal's Castle. Enutrof and Kai
went towards Micheal's castle to scout it one last
time while Cade and Myr went to contract Sebastian's
army. After making sure of their identity Cade approached
Sebastian telling him about the setup of Micheal's
camp saying that, "It's a trap and you shouldn't
go in." But as soon as Sebastian approached the
thousand foot clearning between Micheal's castle and
the tree line he told his army to make camp as he
went himself into the castle to deal with Micheal.
Before leaving Sebastian turned to Cade saying, "This
was part of the deal so take it and thanks for giving
me the ability to do this," as he flipped the
gate 'key' into Cade's hands. Jonis stated, "Well
this is something that I must see," following
behind Sebastian.
Seeing Sebastian slowly march off towards the open
draw bridge Kai followed behind while the rest of
the Party tried to convince as many of his followers
to come along with them. The newly arrived people
Kevrin and Celine agreed right away along with Violet
who wouldn't see Cade go off along with Alminster
and Graven who followed behind the Party ready to
back their leader. Charisma, Clive, and Elly followed
along with the Party behing Sebastian through the
lowered gates into the heart of Micheal's castle.
From a balcony on the building that is the center
piece of the castle stoop Demetris a loyal servant
of his lord Micheal. Seeing a small group of adventurers
enter the castle he remembered that his lord was expecting
a large army to attach him soon. To make sure that
he would make any mistakes he ran through the hall
to his lords quarters announcing to his lord that,
"There is a group of adventurers as your gates
calling out your name." Micheal sat up on his
bed thinking about the last two groups that escaped
from his keep and his grasp. It couldn't be them Micheal
though to himself because they would have brought
an army along with them to defeat him. "It must
just be an unlucky group", Micheal said to himself
before turning to Demetris to tell him, "I don't
care about them send a couple hundred men to take
them out and to show them how Micheal deals with enemies."
Sebastian stood in the middle of the courtyard yelling
out Micheal's name and saying, "If you claim
that you're a god then come out here and face me so
I can show you a god's true outcome!" Demetris
stept out onto the balcony commanding over a hundred
waiting troops to attack the unwanted guests. A Group
of sixty soldiers ran out from hiding spots on either
side of the Party's location. Alminster turned to
the left raising his arms and Enutrof turned to the
right cocking an arrow into his bow. As the troops
charged out they were surprised to meet one of Alminster's
fireballs and one of Enutrof's fireball arrows which
landed in each of the troups taking out a couple of
dozen of them. Even with their numbers dwindling quickly
the soldiers fought on more afraid of what Micheal
would do to them if they failed. Archers who were
hiding in the towers took cover as they fired down
on the Party. With that Violet drank down one of her
invisibility potions and soon after Cade followed
suite. Being invisible allowed Violet to use her spider
climbing slippers to run up the side of the closest
tower so she could throw in one of her new 'bottles
of fire' into the archer's nest. She didn't have long
to escape before the tower exploded killing all of
the archers. With the few dozen soldiers finally connecting
with the Party for some close combat Enutrof, Clive,
and Charisma changed their targets to the archers
in another tower.
The entire castle was one defence after another with
a moat in the outer layers and directly behind it
a large twenty foot wall. Another hundred feet from
that wall were a couple of dozen archer towers connected
with long walkways. The largest buildings were almost
circle like in fasion with a few archer towers on
the inside reaches of the castle. In the middle was
a long two story building with two large iron bound
oak doors the same building where Demetris commanded
the troops to attack. Looking around Cade knew that
the only place that Micheal would be would have to
be that building. Since he was now invisible from
the potion he downed Cade ran directly for that door
to get it unlocked. Even though they were only a small
group of adventurers these people were laying waste
to Micheal's troops and Demetris thought to himself
that Micheal would want to know. Demetris ran back
through Micheal's Hall to the decorated door of Micheal's
room. "Excuse me Lord but that small group of
people are proving to be more difficult to get ride
of them we though. They might be the people that you
were waiting for." Micheal came out of his room
in disbelief, "They wouldn't have sent anything
less than an army after me. But, Maybe one of these
people is the head of that Crimson Knight group. I
will go see for myself." Micheal walked down
his hall and out onto the balcony to look over the
scene.
As Cade vigorisly worked on the lock Sebastian walked
out not caring about the bloody carnage going on around
him. Sebastian's eyes were fixated on the man dressed
in very fancy cloths who just stepped out onto the
balcony. He looked back at the Party as if to get
a verification on that man's identity. They knew exactly
what he wanted and confirmed that the man is Micheal.
Sebastian's feet hit the ground as he ran closer before
he jumped high into the air, "Hey God you deserve
nothing better than this," he yelled as he extended
his fist to slam Micheal. Sebastian had already cast
Slay Living and all he know had to do was touch Micheal
and his problems would be over with. A God being taken
down in the first hit was a nice way to humiliate
their names. Behind the curtains its eyes glowed as
it felt Micheal's life in danger and the guardian
moved out with incredible speed to take the attack
meant for Micheal. Sebastian's attack landed firmly
but he was surprised to find that he had hit something
else. "Shield Guardian," Sebastian said
as he landed on the ground. Micheal stepped out from
behind it, "So that's its name huh. I found it
in this castles vault. You see it would do anything
to protect me even taking damage directed at me no
matter where it stands. Its an obidient servent who
will die for me. Can you say the same for your underlings
down there? This wasn't the only thing I found because
I have two more of these." From one of the skywalks
between Micheal's Hall and on of the outer buildings
two pairs of red eyes started to glow as the other
two shield guardians started to react to Micheal's
wishes. They had one job, to get rid of the intruders,
so they jumped out of the skywalk and onto the ground
as the intruders were finishing off the last soldier.
"His life is linked with theirs," yelled
Sebastian down to his men, "It will be easier
to kill Micheal once these creatures are gone."
And as if to show them how to do it Sebastian used
his disintigrate spell to nearly destroy to shield
guardian that got in his way. Each one of the shield
guardians had a different spell of Micheals to use
and with the one battling Sebastian already using
haste the other two which were moving quickly to the
party used theirs. One targeted the largest group
to slow their actions getting Enutrof, Kevrin, Charisma,
Graven, and Kai in his grasp while the other turned
invisible so he could attack without being detected.
The Party directed most of their attacks on the only
visible shield guardian that they could while Alminster
used his powers to see the other one. With another
strike from his hand Sebastian was able to easily
disintigrate the shield guardian that Micheal had
close to him. Micheal was starting to get scared so
he ran up to Sebastian grasping him. This allowed
Micheal to use dimention door to teleport him and
Sebastian to one thousand feet over the battle ground.
Whispering into Sebastian's ear Micheal says, "The
bad news is I've just sent my strongest weapon after
your men so they will most certanly die. But the good
news is that you don't have to worry about that because
you'll be dead in a minute." Casting flight on
himself Micheal was able to stay flying in the air,
however, Sebastian plummeted towards the ground at
extreme velocity.
Even with two of the shield guardians left everyone
on the ground looked up as Sebastian started to accelerate
towards the ground but their attention was soon diverted
as they felt the ground start to shake. From inside
one of the buildings stepped a monsterous golem standing
over twelve feet tall and some five feet wide, it
was an iron golem. Jonis knew that there was almost
no was that they could destroy the Iron Golem on their
own, it was too protected against magic and all but
the more powerful magical weapons. He turned his head
as he walked out towards the Iron Golem, "I'll
deal with this creature. All I need you to do now
is to hurt Micheal." Its slow movement gave the
Party some time to react as Charisma and Clive ran
out to meet it with some ranged weapons but soon found
that both her arrows and his bullets were deflected
off off the golems heavy armor. Clive knew there was
only one way that he would be able to hurt this thing
so he unsheathed Shadow's Bane, the sword his father
gave him. Elly stayed close behind Clive as she cast
all of her protective spells on him since he would
have to battle it in close combat. For the first time
Elly released two bolts of lighting that struck the
golem slowing it down even more. Cade was able to
unlock the door but was prevented from entering by
a large wooden brace behind the other side. As Sebastian's
body slammed against the ground it made a large impression.
However, Sebastian soon stood up brushing off the
dust. "You think that's all I have," Micheal
screamed as he started his decent towards the ground
and Sebastian. From out of nothingness appeared this
glistining bronze tipped sword, Kusanagi.
As Micheal started to make the circle of fire Jonis
knew that they wouldn't know what was about to happen
and yelled out, "Take cover!" A twenty foot
diameter ring of fire flew out from the sword landing
on the ground and then Micheal drew the X of fire
directed at Sebastian resulting in an explosion as
big as a fireball hurting a few of the people who
couldn't get away in time. But, Sebastian didn't move
not even an inch and as the flames and smoke cleared
Micheal saw that Sebastian was still standing there
unharmed. Jonis jumped high into the air cracking
the golems armor with his staff as Clive stayed in
low swinging Shadow's Bane as hard as he could. They
were damaging the Iron Golem piece by piece. Unfortunitally
Cade got in to close to the beast as he was trying
to get the best firing position for his electric bolts
and got hit by the golem's large arms. Cade quickly
exited from that combat as Alminster, Charisma, Kai,
and the still slowed Enutrof finished off the other
two shield golems. Micheal flew down directly at Sebastian
swing Kusanagi as violently as he could. The two spots
that the sword struck started to bleed and at first
Sebastian didn't worry because he knew that he would
instantly heal. But this time was different, the sword
was different, or maybe this man did have the powers
of the gods because for the first time in almost a
thousand years Sebastian felt another type of pain
and it scared him, just for a second anyway. Sebastian
lunged back at Micheal with anger and a grappling
move as he started to spin around he launched Micheal
through the air an into the door Cade couldn't get
open. Micheal's body splintered the door as he flew
down towards the pool.
With most of the Party hurt, dying, or taking care
of the Iron Golem Sebastian walked along through the
cathedral's now destroyed doorway. Cade darted in
undetected as Kai ran as fast as he could to join
in. The cathedral was lined with two rows of pews
and arching columns all around, a very old design
indeed. But Sebastian looked past that to the pool
of water that is surrounded by a fence to Micheal
who was standing up in front of it. As he came trough
the doorway Kai could see the gods of the moons and
night Nott and Mani's statued up on the wall behind
Micheal as he stood up. "You know every god needs
an enemy, his demons. You are my demons the creatures
that I have to kill to prove to the world the power
that I posses. And you know good must always triumph
over demons." Micheal stepped forward with Kusanagi
still in hand saying a few words he plunged the sword
into the ground and from that place a ruinic circle
appeared expanding around him. Flames burst up from
the ground and as they died down there was a red haired
dark skined man standing there holding a Falchion.
"You think that impresses me," said Sebastian
as he approached. Micheal smircked, "Show them
your true form Kolos." Flames burst around the
man as he form grew into an Efreeti standing almost
two good men tall. Luckily for Myr who flew in this
was his best chance to use his Ice Storm spell which
hurt the fire Efreeti a lot more than normal.
Kai didn't want to deal with the Kolos and instead
tumbled past it and charged at Micheal directly. Even
though Kai got in some nice hits breakint some of
Micheal's ribs he was't going to stay up much longer
due to the heavy damage he took from the two shield
golems that he took down. Cade rolled under the pews
and made his way to Micheal as the rest tried to deal
with Kolos. Back outside with some luck, healing,
and much help Clive was able to topple the iron golem.
Jonis knew that soon he would have to do his duty
so he turned around near the end of the fight to enter
the cathedral. Kolos turned around to protect Micheal
and attacked Kai burning him then grabbing his body
and throwing it at Sebastian. That action may have
taken Kai out of the fight but Micheal was very hurt
at this point and as Myr took down the beast Kolos
he disappeared back into his fire dimension. Micheal
brought Kusanagi up again to use another power as
Jonis jumped above everyone. His staff made a jingling
sound as Jonis brought it back as swang it directly
as Micheal's Sword. Two magical sealing circles appeared
on either side of Kusanagi before they were sealed
to the sword as the staff struck it.
With that opportunity Sebastian rushed Micheal slamming
him back into the alter. Kusanagi fell to the floor
from Micheal's grasp and scattered across the floor.
With no one else around Micheal was all by himself
with nothing else to protect him so he decided to
use his last ditch effort, "It's end game now,"
he said as he pulled out the trigger to his 'daisy
cutters'. In an instant Sebastian was on top of Micheal
grasping his hand in a death like grip. Sebastian
asked what it was and Micheal responded, "Its
a trigger to the hundred daisy cutters that are underneith
this castle. They will annihilate everything in a
two hunder meter radius." "Good," said
Sebastian, "Why don't we test out its power then."
Micheal was no longer able to do anything being held
down by Sebastian's strength. Cade stepped up, "You
know that you won't die if you do this! So why do
it? At least give us compensation for all of our efforts."
Sebastian looked back at them, "Compensation?
Compensation?!? You want your payment," Sebastian
pawed at Micheal's rings tearing the necklace from
his body, the glove from his hand, and a sack from
his side he threw it across the room scattering on
the ground, "Does it make you feel better? You
have sixty seconds to save yourselves. Fifty-nine,
fifty-eight, fifty-seven. . . "
Kai was healed enough so that he could stand and the
Party ran outside into the courtyard. Everyone else
was around this area healing or being healed as Myr
yelled out, "We have to get out of here quick!"
Knowing that there would be no way that all of these
hurt people and the still slow-motioned Enutrof could
get away in time so he cast haste on as many people
as he could. Elly and Clived helped Enutrof so he
wouldn't be left behind since he was too far away
for a haste. As everyone was running out the draw
bridge Micheal coughed up some blood and said, "You
know I send a half dozen of these out with my men
days ago. No all of them have made it to their destinations
but there will be some extreme damage and you'll kill
many people if you push that trigger." Sebastian
looked down at him, "You're telling me as if
I actually care about them. Three, two, one . . .
Here's to Miricles." Everyone made it to the
tree line telling all of the soldiers to get down
as a flash brighter then the sun appeared where the
castle is. Everyone was knocked to the ground and
after a minute the light subsided and they could all
see again. Where the castle used to stand now had
only a hole over two hundred yards deep and as the
soldiers started to look around at everyone who just
escaped they started to ask where sebastian was and
what happened to him. The Party wanted to know as
well and half of them ran back to the smoking crater
with the soldiers in tow just in time to see Sebastian
rise up out of the pit floating high above it before
he landed close by. A 'see told you so' was heard
as the soldiers pushed the Party away so they could
see and touch the man who could live through such
an experience. A few started to kneel in his presence
before Sebastian said, "Never do that. I'm not
a god. Since our job is done here we are leaving this
place."
Celine gave Enutrof a big hug saying that she was
glad that he was still alive and said, "I guess
that we have to leave now so i'll leave you with this."
Celine leaned in and kissed Enutrof right on the lips
for a moment before she ran back to her company with
a little giggle. Violet showed her appritiation to
Cade for worrying so much about her. "But, I
guess that you won't have to do that anymore. If you're
ever around the Sword Coast (west coast) look me up.
I bet that I'll have some more items for you."
As the Crimson Knights marched back down south no
one cared about the outcome of their fallen comrade,
Graven, whos body was now vaporized. The Party decided
to make camp for the night and put a good distance
between them and the used-to-be castle. From the trees
soon came some friends. Shorin explained that he became
worried about Charisma and after he was able to relocate
everyone he came here looking for them. The large
flash in the middle of the forest was a dead give
away to their location and he was happy that none
of them were hurt.
They were able to take down one of the largest threats
to Harfein in a single move with the help of Sebastian
and now they had update their leaders about it. But
stuck in this forest with no quick way of traveling
except for the one gate key that leads to micheal's
old keep Shorin told them that he would lead them
to the closest human city of, Ceartree. Charisma told
them that she would be staying behind with her people
and Jonis said that he would have to leave for awhile
meeting up with them "at another time".
- Epilogue -
Far to the south across the Talocian mountains and
far east of the southern capital Volkrad a grand airship
flew through the sky from the eastern lands towards
its destination of Volkrad. The Gate they went through
chasing that creature sent them far from their home.
Since they helped the they killed the red dragon with
black eyes during a campaign against an army of goblins
they were thanked by the King. Along with a few gifts
they were given a free ride across the Cresent Coast
towards Volkrad. Zanzabar and Aisa stood at the front
of the deck watching the last light of the sun dissapear
over the horizen. She held his hand close to her not
wanting him to leave her side again. With all of the
death and destruction that has been happening to them
the past few weeks it was nice to have a moment of
calm. Aisa remembered their first night in Köbe
with all of the stars in the night sky and the moons'
light dancing on the water. She turned towards him
as a large an ominous shadow came over the entire
ship. Looking to the south Zanzabar didn't know what
it was but had a feeling deep down in his heart that
this was very bad. Its shadow streaked across the
cloud as its tail swayed gently beneith it. "DRAGON!!!!"
was yelled as everyone braced for impact. Profit came
up to the deck just in time to see the tip of the
tail making him remeber the dragon that they just
defeated. How the entire red dragon was covered in
a black ooze making it appear black. He just had a
feeling that these things were connected as a spined
tail larger than the ship shattered the air as it
fell upon the airship splintering the it into chunks.
The seven winged dragon didn't even nowtice what it
did as the airship and its fifty occupants fell from
the sky in the dark blue waters of the of the deep
ocean.
- Preview -
"Another Gate, another attempt," thought
Elrul as he stood in front of the swirling waters
of the gate. He knew why he needed to do it because
his sister was out there, somewhere, and he needed
to find her. She may be only his half-sister but she
was the last family that he had. After Delphyne destroyed
their lands and their people this was his only chance,
to escape. Walking through the gate he traveled thousands
of miles appearing at another location. It was inside
a building and Elrul saw some half dozen cloaked figures
standing around surprised by his arrival. "Leave
me alone and I won't have to kill you," stated
Elrul showing a bit of his power as he walked by these
men. That was his first mistake, underestimating their
power. Everyone that he had met had not possesed much
if any magic power and all of the ones that didn't
were too afraid of him to try anything. However this
time was different and before he knew it he had lost
all feeling and movement in his arms and legs. They
surrounded him and looked down upon him talking one
after another, "We have to make this city safe
from your kind. We will never bow down to the likes
of you. We have the power to protect the people of
this city and we will do it even if we become cursed
ourselves. Ceartree will grow strong from our sacrifices."
