The Vulture King brings a pillar of divine fire and fury down on the devourers.
The Vulture King's divine judgement shines down on the Devourers, in the form of flames from the heavens.
The Devourers are having a bad day as powerful flames from different sources, some even divine, sear their essence.
They wither and shriek in pain.
Zaidel couldn't help but laugh at some good fortune coming his way.
"Haha! Suck it!"
Saren leaps through the gates and knocks one of the Devourers' head clean off with a swipe of his fist. It bounces across the courtyard before striking the prismatic wall and disintegrating in a flash of flame.
Gently landing next to the still standing corpse Saren is startled when the headless Devourer, still animated, grasps his upper arm with both hands, the digits lighting up with necrotic green energy as the abomination tries to drain his soul.
Saren's surprise quickly turns into a scream of agony.
The Shade wizards, having reached a consensus, wisely teleport away in a flash of dark light. They hadn't reached their age by being foolish in deciding what risks to take.
With the prismatic wall in place and the Shadow mages gone the surprise assault is effectively stalled.
Meanwhile the remaining unengaged Devourers drift an additional twenty feet towards the castle gates.
"Saren! NO!"
Zaidel runs up to the still animated Devourer clutching the young Soren, and slashes at it with his magic longsword, but the undead remnant twitches out of the blade's path.
Lucas wasn't even sure if his fellows had registered when he slipped off, as quiet as he was, but if he hadn't silently left without warning the band of Drow killers that had started stalking them may have been alerted to his presence.
It had taken quite awhile to pick all nine of them off, one by one, in a deadly game of cat and mouse, and even longer to finally find and catch up to the party.
Now though he had entered the high curtain walls of the city of Al'Lamar and followed the trails till he reached the gates of the main keep, where he spots the party as they engage with some Undead horrors.
The dragon that is Lir once again pokes his head through the rainbow wall, and roars a mighty, deafening roar, blasting the devourers with potent spell.
As Alyssa begins moving below him, Kei grabs her and hugs her fiercely.
Laughing, he adds " I leave you alone for five whole minutes and you get stabbed! You're like a character from a bad Manga, the kind one of my sisters loves."
Eleven floating Devourers are caught within the Elf Kings mighty Draconic shout.
The sonic attack rattles the Undeads' frames and they look quite the worse for wear under the continual assaults they suffer.
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Alyssa moves weakly below him, stirring from unconsciousness.
"Kei? No, there's a man, dagger, bad news, he stabbed the... the..."
Her eyes jolt awake. "Kei! There's a man, he's going to invade the Gunshuu castle, he's got a bunch of demons with him and...." She looks around, noticing the torn up man on the ground, the missing Shades, and the Devourers.
"Oh."
She stand sup, pushing Kei off. "We've got to get into the castle. There's no one organizing the defenses here, and who knows how many citizens there might be left. I tried to gather as many as I could, but...." she trails off, looking thoughtful.
"Anyways, we need to get in there. Now. Can you help?"
"Damn Kammella, you're looking good!" Roland said, standing near where he reincarnated in an expansive, hot, and rather empty desert.
Kammella had been waiting for him, sitting upon her enchanted floating throne with its high back and wide arms.
When Roland had last seen her, years ago in a different world, she had been a pixie looking blond stick figure with wide expressive blue eyes and an enchanting grin.
She was still the same, still enchanting, it looked like she had gained at least two hundred pounds since their last encounter. Her limbs were much thicker and her bust and belly had grown quite large.
"Thank you!" She said in her melodic friendly voice. "After being trapped bodyless inside that douche Kamii for half an eternity I've found I quite like the taste of food and I've filled out a bit...or a lot."
"Where is he, by the way?" Roland inquired.
"With our forces, they're preparing to leave this world for good for our final quest."
Roland walked up to Kammella on her throne and leaned in close, his normal hard grimace turned joyful.
"May I have a kiss my love?" He asked, his young handsome features inches from hers.
She reached into a cup-like depression in the arm of her chair and retrieved a fried chicken leg. Shoving it into his mouth she declared:
"Have some dinner, you must be hungry after all that painful resurrection."
Pulling back then biting and chewing a mouthful of chicken he swallowed and asked;
"Shall I return to the hunt and try to kill the Nameless Warrior? Or can I take a break and spend some quality time with you?"
She waved the matter aside with a pudgy hand and answered:
"No, he would just have killed you over and over. He is as great as his legend suggests so I expended one of my nineteen Greater Alter Reality magics to send him out of the universe and unbind his part of the Seal. Now I want you to hunt the Vulture King, a true deity among those traveling souls."
Roland was quiet for a long moment.
"We are really going to do it, aren't we? Kill them all and break the Seal."
"I am honestly not quite sure." Kammella responded as she popped a hard candy into her mouth and rolled it around her tongue, savoring it.
"I believe it is the only way to save you from the Blackfire curse before it consumes your soul and gives birth to who-knows-what in your place and in a way we are doing them a favor by killing them, you know what happens when the Seal breaks."
Roland leaned back and lifted his face towards the sky as he thought.
"Mmmmmm. You're probably right, and if we kill them quickly the chances are the Wicked Man won't find out about them in time to take them and...do his thing."
Roland let out a sigh then lit a cigar.
"Yeah, I guess I really will be doing them a favor by putting a bullet in each of them."
Thanking whatever gods might still be listening, Lucas uses the Wand of Greater Invisibility that he pulled off one of those dead dark elves to pass through the now-crumbling portion of the city and he climbs onto what remains of a nearby building when he hears combat nearby, and of course, Lucas sees his squad spread out before him being set upon by some floating undead thing. It looks like they're holding their own, but they must be getting tired if they had taken on that giant worm earlier as well.
At least I can help them out from here, Lucas thinks to himself as he kneels down, quickly loading a clip of Undead-Bane ammunition, and sighting in at the closest monstrosity advancing on those outside of the protection of the Prismatic Wall.
There is a loud crack like thunder and the closest Devourer suddenly comes apart in a shower of rotten gore.
It appears the heroes have someone looking out for them.
Zaidel distracts the Devourer enough that Saren has a chance to retaliate.
He desperately kicks the Devourer in the chest. The blow is so hard that the Undead's chest not only collapses inward, Saren's foot goes straight through it. For a moment all is still, Saren stuck in a high kick position with one foot on the ground and the other stuck straight through the beast.
The necrotic energy fades and the creature loses it animation, it collapses forward onto Saren and he lets out a loud 'ooohffa' noise as he falls on his back, smothered in Undead flesh with one leg sticking straight up out of the corpse.
"Thank you kindly Zaidel! You saved me!" Comes a muffled thanks from under the large rotten body.
"No problem, dude", Zaidel responds as he helps Saren out of the undead carcass.
"Anyways, we need to get in there. Now. Can you help?"
"Of course I can. Let me go open the way. You get these people gathered up."
Kei goes to bound off, but stops himself for a moment and says "And try not to get stabbed again, ok?" then he hurtles himself into the air and lands on the parapet near the gate, looking for a way into the gatehouse.
The Devourers turn as one and drift towards Saren, hungry for his gleaming, overcharged soul.
As they move closer Saren hugs Zaidel.
"Hold me! I'm scared!"
Shaking Saren off him, Zaidel assures the godling, "Why are you worried? You kicked a hole in the last one! It's me they probably want more, accounting for my new-discovered 'god-blooded' status."
"Anyways, we need to get in there. Now. Can you help?""Of course I can. Let me go open the way. You get these people gathered up."
Kei goes to bound off, but stops himself for a moment and says "And try not to get stabbed again, ok?" then he hurtles himself into the air and lands on the parapet near the gate, looking for a way into the gatehouse.
The gatehouse had been open before to let the Gunshuu escort the civilians in but despite having been sealed the majority of the Gunshuu were actually up with Kei on or near his new perch.
Missile weapons trained over the battlements into the city they reacted with surprise when he landed but they didn't fire at him.
"Uh, how did you get up here?" One of them asked.
Lucas quickly pulls a single round of anti-undead ammunition from his bandoleer and adds it to his weapon's magazine, bringing it up to its maximum capacity of five rounds. Then, seeing all of the floating creatures turn as one towards Zaidel and someone who had to have shown up after Lucas had disappeared, Lucas did the obvious: He kept firing.
Heart-Piercing enchantment: It functions as vorpal except that a heart-piercing weapon can pierce the target’s heart (if it has one), killing it instantly.
Death Shot Deed: DC30 Fortitude save or die
Five Devourers were dropped in less than as many seconds by Lucas' sniper fire. Gunfire rang out and gaping wounds appeared in their Undead carcasses as they came apart in showers of pulverized flesh.
As Roland vanished through the portal Kammella opened for him a man appeared suddenly to her right, dismissing his invisible state.
"He can't get enough of you! The lovesick fool." The man said laughing, approaching her throne.
He was in his sixties, well built and handsome, his salt and pepper hair tied back in a long braided ponytail that dropped down to his waist. His weathered face had a distinguished look, but gleeful cruelty marred features that would otherwise appear noble.
"Gods know why at this point. You used to be beautiful but now I think you belong in a pen."
His waspish words were brushed aside, with a literal, gentle swiping motion from Kammella.
"When he looks at me he sees my primogenitor, I don't think he has fully grasped yet that I am not her. Still his opinions are worth far more than yours, because his value is far more than yours."
The man crossed his arms and laughed, his own value was unquestionably great in his own eyes, he had the easy confidence of a person that truly believes they are the center of the universe and inherently worth more than anyone else.
"And yet, when I decided to come ask you to send me back I wasn't feeling very valueless." He said.
"Ah." Kammella responded, closing her eyes and leaning back in her chair. "So that's why you've come."
He nodded, standing tall before her in his ornate platinum plate mail, unarmed. Like her he was unafraid of ambush, his true weapons potent enough to deal with most any threat.
"Send me there, I have unfinished business and my goals should line up to yours quite nicely."
Kammella considered it. What he said was true, and more importantly it would get him out of her hair, perhaps permanently. The only reason she hadn't executed him decades ago was because of the emotional attachment another, much more valued ally, had for him. Kammella had nothing to lose sending him away and quite a bit that could be potentially gained.
"Very well." She agreed simply.
"See? I'm important!" He snickered, for in his mind there could never have been a doubt.
A portal of swirling gold leapt into being before them.
"Try not to kill any innocents along the way?" She called after him.
He simply snorted and stalked through the portal.
"I jumped." says Kei in response to the question, as if merely discussing the weather and not leaping a wall in a single bound.
"Open the gate. It is your duty to protect the citizens of your city. I am very angry right now, and I would hate to take it out on you since it isn't your fault, but I will take it out on your gate, so if you want to still have a gate, then I would recommend just raising it. It will save me time, them their lives, and you having to explain why you could have just opened the gate instead of having it destroyed."
"I believe the American term is win-win."
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Alyssa's not really interested in the fight- despite her growing belief that this may in fact be real, she's none too worried about her companions. They've proven they can watch out for themselves. So she runs back, after the refugees, into the tower, to find this mysterious monarch who disappeared.
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Kammella snorted as her other minion disappeared through the portal and left her alone.
She wielded a power that in some ways exceeded that of the Gods and yet her value as a person was still up for debate among the men who served her based on her looks?
Gee, it is always fun being a woman. Maybe I should just transform into a Great Wyrm Dragon and rule in that form, that would probably be easier.
But then she shrugged and moved on, she liked her body alot, didn't really matter what anyone else thought.
She stretched in her floating throne, feeling the dry desert heat and it's bright sun warm her face.
Was she doing the right thing? Was killing these innocent heroes and breaking the Seal really the best choice? She pondered the Wicked Man and the existential threat he posed to all of Creation. While alone her power could match his after a fashion, her own organization was small, if strong. Compared to the resources of the Wicked Man though it was a drop in the ocean.
She shuddered to think of his vast armies of evil, his close allies among the Demon Lords and Dark Gods, his towering, city destroying God-Machines that marched through the depths of the infernal planes.
Would it be wiser to ally with the heroes though? Could together they stand a chance?
She hoped she was making the right decision.
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The seal was broken, the fist sign that this had happened was light filling the space. Light splashed across the hard gray walls as if coming into the space like a dawn sunbeam. It came washed in from a door way, now opening, it slipped passed a figure outlined by its passing. As More light came in it danced in scintillating caustic patterns of the odd looking silver orb in the sitting in the center of the space. The door now fully opened, held still, the light settles and into the space the framed figure looking into a chamber left untuched for uncounted time. Nothing moved but tiny motes of dust. Empty, some anti Chamber for keeping art. Some long forgot meeting room left to entropy. The roof only 2m high, the over reaching from floor to ceiling, and nothing more 4 blank empty walls. The figure moved away and the door closed, as it did the light so long missing to this space scythed out of being.
There was a long silence, all should have stayed as was, once more static for years to come, but, but the seal was broken. Others had sort to open this space and could not and now, someone, something had broken the seal and... left.
Once more into the darkness light came, this time form the orb, a green pulsing light. A flash and then it was gone, then another, another and another. A tracer work of lines started to shift over the orb, the frequency of the time between grow shorting, things where happening fast now. Power began to throb over the orb, its metallic skin rippled from top to bottom. Faster and faster, sound came dull and throbbing, and then the last ripple as it sped down the orb it the metallic skin behind it faded away, erasing its own existence.
As it came to a single point at the floor the orb was gone and there, was a form, held static a kind of statue of a woman falling backward. Arm up as if to save herself. As the last part of the orb vanished life came to the woman and she fell back, words came.
"Don't shoot I..."
and then she sit the floor, hitting is not really what she did, more sink into it and then bounce back up.
In the darkness she blinked and looked around herself.
Where the stars am I... what or the ones shooting at me...
She shook her head. Memories floods of them came into her mind. Her name was Hellan, No Michlock no Rillic to many, She shook her head again. Something deep in her mind whispered to her.
Focus!
She stopped trying to work out where she was and closed her eyes blotting out the world around her. There, there in the center of her being that point of light. Her mind locked into place, walls came up and sound images where shoot out. Had to be shoot out. The light at the center of her being grow and she know, her name. She was Qillion, and Qillion was who she was. There where things that needed to be done, things moved in her mind, as she put herself right.
She opened her eyes, yes she knew her name, knew how to make herself right, but...
Who was she and more to the immediate point where was she. There was a moment of fear as she realised she had no idea where she was. That lost feeling which lies deep in the subconscious. She forced it away.
Who was later, for now, she needed to see. Light filled the room, she had thought it and it had come to pass. She did not know how she knew this she just did. She stood and looked around, a box of a space, nothing to see but walls. No wait, whats the outline.
She walked to one of the walls and ran her hand over the surface.
There! she could feel it, a seem. A way out, she stood back and looked at that part of the wall. Closing her mind she reach out her hand as if trying to touch it, no feel it, feel what was inside. Her hand slipped into the wall and then.
CLICK!
She pushed and the door way swung open. Wonderful light came flooding in once more. She quickly stepped out of the room into what looked to be a hall way. Behind her the door swung closed. She paid it no heed. No what had court here attention where sound form up ahead. Talking she knew that much. With a look back to the door that had closed behind here. She set to find the source of the talking. She did not have to go far, for round the next bend of the hallway she found two woman talking to each other and others standing behind one.
"And you are called?"
As one of the woman asked, She had the language, she did not know how she new it but she did. She walked up to them smiling.
"Hello, I'm Qillion, Sorry to interrupt but you seem nice"
She thought to the words
"Alyssa, I wounder if ether of you could help me, where is this place?"
She looked from one woman to the other expectantly.
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Alyssa turns as the woman behind her speaks. Must be one of the refugees, she thinks to herself. Wandered off from the rest, must be in shock.
Twisting to the side, she says to the castle guard "See, she knows how to do it!"
And, with empathy on her face, she moves to the new girl. "Sweetie, we're with the Gunshuu. In the palace. It's ok, we're safe now. Where are the guards who were escorting you? Go back to them, they'll take you to a safe place."
Talking over her shoulder, she speaks again to the guard lady "I'm looking for the monarch here, or someone in charge. Would that be you?"
She looks the one who called herself Alyssa puzzled at her word.
"Gunshuu, Palace, guards escorting me, no I was on Tiller on the higher warf, I was... meeting someone when I got jumped and some... assassin shot me."
She looked down at her uniform, there where indeed dark marks on it, it seemed to be healing itself. undoing the damage.
Looking back up she added.
"I had to... jump, I am sorry this language is hard for me, it dose not have words for the things I wish to say."
She then sends to Alyssa mind flashes of images, hoping she could get and understand them.
"Do you see, do you understand?"
She asks.
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Alyssa's head spins as she's suddenly bombarded with images. She sees the streets, dark, unlit, feels the fear when the soldiers arrive, the desperate attempts to flee, and the soldiers- when they attack- it all goes dark. It's horrific, and Alyssa cries, the memories and the emotions too much for her, after witnessing the deaths on the streets.....
"Oh God, yes. I understand. Oh yes, I understand. I'm so, so sorry," she sobs to herself. She's down on her knees, now, somehow finding herself there after the mental transmission.
For while witnessing firsthand the death of this girl, despite mentally knowing that it is not her, is traumatic enough, it's something far, far scarier that upsets her.....
"Quai de Valmy. Paris. Gods, that's bloody Paris. But not Paris. Not....our Paris. Oh, gods. I don't understand. I- I don't have time for this right now. Have to get these people off the streets- but, this is important. I'll find John, yes, that's what I'll do, he'll understand, maybe, gods!"
She huffs in frustration, letting out a very pitched scream.
She looks to the new girl in surprise. "I- I don't know what to do with you right now. I- I have... other things, important things, that need to be done. And..... and I need time to process this. I'm so sorry.... Qillion. I'm so, so sorry. But I need you to trust me. Whatever you do, whatever happens, stick with me. I- I may know some people who can help."
Or at least figure out what this means.... she thinks to herself.
And, with her doing all she can do, currently, she picks herself up of the floor and faces the guard. "Ma'am, there are people outside who are dying. Your soldiers have an opportunity to defend them. I'm calling on you to organize the defense and figure out a way to get everyone- those inside the city, and beyond the walls, to safety."
And with a slight show of weakness, adds "Please."
Turning to the one who spoke to him, Kei said "Is there a place in your fortress where the citizens can be safely kept until this situation..." Kei swept his hand towards the portals vomiting out undead "...can be resolved? Also, where are your leaders during this time of strife? Should they not be out here handling this situation, or are they incapable of protecting the people they are sworn to protect?"
As he spoke, Kei looked for a place where he could wrangle the population of the city into something approximating safety. He would have a talk with the leader of this place afterwards about leaving his people to die.
"Quai de Valmy. Paris. Gods, that's bloody Paris. But not Paris. Not....our Paris. Oh, gods. I don't understand. I- I don't have time for this right now. Have to get these people off the streets- but, this is important. I'll find John, yes, that's what I'll do, he'll understand, maybe, gods!"
"Yes Paris a... Shadow Paris... arr this language is so limited."
She says to her self. Then the woman seems to huffs in frustration, letting out a very pitched scream. Qillian takes a step back in shock.
Who is John?
She files that away for another time.
The woman looked at her in surprise.
"I- I don't know what to do with you right now. I- I have... other things, important things, that need to be done. And..... and I need time to process this. I'm so sorry.... Qillion. I'm so, so sorry. But I need you to trust me. Whatever you do, whatever happens, stick with me. I- I may know some people who can help."
Qillian nods, she had brushed this womans mind, she was not evil or bad, her intent was good. Her reasons to what she had seen showed Qil that. She would trust. The Qillion held out a hand to help Alyssa of the floor. Alyssa then faced the guard and Qillion joined her at her side.
"Ma'am, there are people outside who are dying. Your soldiers have an opportunity to defend them. I'm calling on you to organize the defense and figure out a way to get everyone- those inside the city, and beyond the walls, to safety. Please"
Her mind raced, Once more into the fire, people under attack, the need to find help. Her mind sluggish now began to focus truly. She looked at the trooper in front of her opening her mind to every detail around her. She sore how the troops stood, how thire officer looked at the two woman unsure of who they where, her duty to keep the palace safe. Orders? not yet know but if she could get to the womans core, what she had worked to hard to an officer.
She needed to help this woman, she was not lying others where in danger, she made her mind up. She sent a message to Alyssa mind once more but this time tuned down to a lower power level.
::"Alyssa, I can link our minds so my sending will not be so raw and emotionally taxing. Also we can talk like this with our being overheard. You need only think your words. Do you wish this?"::
Then in the corridor Qillion pitched her outer voice to the pleading side, bring her empathy field up fully.
"If there are others like me, others who are lost and hurt here. Then the only caring thing to do is help them. What would you think if it was your mother or father out there. We have to get them help"
Turning to the one who spoke to him, Kei said "Is there a place in your fortress where the citizens can be safely kept until this situation..." Kei swept his hand towards the portals vomiting out undead "...can be resolved? Also, where are your leaders during this time of strife? Should they not be out here handling this situation, or are they incapable of protecting the people they are sworn to protect?"
As he spoke, Kei looked for a place where he could wrangle the population of the city into something approximating safety. He would have a talk with the leader of this place afterwards about leaving his people to die.
It appears to Kei that the main Fortress itself was the only building large enough to house the entire city's population and well built enough to protect them.
As the Gunshuu begins to respond he is interrupted by a commanding voice.
"Their leader was busy, but now he is back."
Descending from the sky is a sixty year old man in platemail with a long ponytail and cruel eyes. He hovers in the air without visible means of flight, a spherical field of glowing energy encasing him.
The Gunshuu look confused and bemused by the older man, clearly not recognizing him.
"Really?" The man comments, seeing the look. "You don't recognize me? Eh, I've been meaning to purge you lot anyway."
The man raises his right hand, fingers spread in the direction of the Gunshuu, and laughs as thousands of bone splinters materialize at the end of his fingers and slash in rapid fire streams to engulf much of the Castle wall. The Gunshuu die from ten thousand cuts, first their armor then their flesh abrading like a butter sculpture in a sandstorm, spreading gore splatters like red Rorschach blots across the battlements.
The stone fairs better but even the enchanted castle walls suffer damage reminiscent of the chewed, crumbling quality worked stone gets after an eternity of aging.
Laughing like a mad man the old man waves his arm in Kei's direction, engulfing him in the shard storm.
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::"Alyssa, I can link our minds so my sending will not be so raw and emotionally taxing. Also we can talk like this with our being overheard. You need only think your words. Do you wish this?"::
Alyssa response, mentally. ::"Yes. This is helpful."::
And, after a moment, ::"Thank you."::
Her outward attention is fixed on the guards, however.
::"Done"::
She sends not wishing to distract Alyssa.
Roland, still invisible on an out-of-the-way roof, hears the man speak and a small shiver of anticipation runs down his spine; he focuses in on that voice in a way he's never felt before and it's like he knows exactly what is about to happen. Then Lucas sees the man descending from the clouds above. Having emptied his magazine with the previous barrage against the floating corpses, Lucas uses the delay to reload with one clips of his standard enchanted rounds, and as soon as the man slows enough to accurately lead or aim at, Lucas opens fire.
Kei is stunned for the briefest of moments as the old man purges the castle walls.
When he regains his senses, Kei unleashes a primal scream and launches himself at the man, throwing a flying kick to get into range, then a shattering punch.
Lucas' hidden sniping tears through the near invincible Divine Shield that protects the old man.
The cruel look in the man's eyes changes to horrified startlement as his grand spherical shield shatters like an empty egg shell thrown hard against a wall. The heroic sniper's fifth bullet buries itself in the man's gut, piecing his plate mail and causing him to scream in agonized pain.
An instant later Kei's leap carries him to his target and his vicious hurricane of blows shatter almost every bone in the man's body, who drops, dead and no longer floating, to splatter across the courtyard far below.
Saren is momentarily distracted by the battle in the sky.
"Hmmm, that guy looked kinda familiar." He says, scratching his chin.
"Oh well."