Yelena

When they made it to the church the Red-Woman had been guiding them towards, they witnessed the highest density of Scorpirex they’d seen thus far.

All dead.

Outside the smashed windows of pulverized door of the building’s mouth the fly covered corpses of the reptilian-insectoids were still fresh, beginning to release the odor of death into the air that assailed Yelena’s nostrils as she and the rest of her group stepped over the mound of dead to enter the church.

Even Marius was lost for words as they trudged through charred bones, smoking skulls punctured by arrows (which Marius promptly pilfered) and bodies torn to bloody shreds by what looked like an axe that even Dimedrious would have struggled to lift.

“Who – or what – did this?” Yelena had to ask.

And the Red-Woman responded with total reverence, as though she were inspecting a holy act committed by a valiant crusader. She touched the snout of each dying monster as though they had been blessed – as though they were effigies to the deity she lived to serve.

“The Lightbringer,” was all she said.

Yelena felt her throat harden. Whoever this ‘Lightbringer’ was, if she could accomplish all this by herself, the Blackbird and his forces couldn’t stand a chance.

But the harrowing fact remained – and tortured Yelena as she waded through the legion of dead bodies – she must also be the most powerful Glancer Yelena had ever met. How would she react when she looked into the face of her once-enemy, and needed to call her friend?

Then again, the same evil power flowed in her veins, too. And it had kept her alive till now.

When they finally managed to push past the bodies of the Scorpirex, they saw the remains of the great battle that must have taken place here not long ago: blasted church pews and an altar that was still burning, blown out windows once depicting ancient frescoes more detailed than those in the tunnels they’d traveled through, and the burned-out skeleton of something vaguely humanoid that lay in the center of it all.

Looking closer, the being’s jaw was much larger than a normal humans. It’s face, more angular. She didn’t even need the Everloft to tell her that this was something she’d never seen before.

Appraisal: Success

Morphology: Desert Gnoll

Status: DECEASED

“Cause of death,” Marius whispered to her. “Synergy: Conflagration.”

It was no joke. He had seen what had killed this being, and it was the very same fire that had consumed this place.

“Your Lightbringer,” Yelena murmured. “Doesn’t seem to play well with others.”

The Red-Woman snarled but did not answer the quip. Instead, she cradled the still smoking skeleton in her hands and touched her forehead to its blackened skull.

“Be going in peace, Ty’Kelloch,” she said. “Your duty is being fulfilled. Yours was the right to rise from the ashes begat by the Lady. Your memory shall live as a monument to our victory.”

Yelena felt her fingers twitch towards her sword. Again, she ignored the impulse. But she could not ignore the words that wrung in her head. Words that held an altogether different meaning, now:

In our battles we will have victory

With our deaths, we make our sacrifice…

Then Marius gripped her arm, his ears perking up, his eyes: narrowing. He said nothing, but jerked his head towards Yelena and squeezed her arm like he’d done before, communicating through the system of the Everloft:

Uncanny Danger Sense: Enemy nearby

She checked the door, the windows, even the intestine-strewn floor beneath them.

Nothing.

Then she was drawn towards the fiery altar bearing the scorpion effigy at the end of the chamber.

She and Marius shared a nod, and quietly signaled the Red-Woman to grab Edna. They didn’t want their knowledge of whatever ambush was coming to be revealed.

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“Okay,” Yelena whispered to Marius. “Stay behind, nock an arrow.”

He’d already started doing so before she finished the command.

They moved together – she in front, sword poised for a killing thrust, and his bow aiming in the vague spot where he thought a head might appear.

And as they rounded the altar, they saw a set of pincer-like legs.

“Ready?” she whispered over her shoulder.

“You know it,” Marius muttered back. “Want me to take the shot?”

“Not yet,” Yelena replied, nodding to the Red-Woman who kept Edna under control. The last thing they needed was to make a scene. These Scorpirex were docile, for now, but that could change at any moment.

They inched closer, beginning to hear something else emanate from behind the altar, something that sounded like a mewling, dying dog – at least, that was the only reference point Yelena had for the blood-curdling dronw of pain that increased in pitch and intensity with every step they took towards the altar.

Then in one smooth movement they rounded the structure and aimed their weapons at the source of the noise.

They stopped.

For a few seconds, neither one said anything at all.

Then, as usual, Marius was the first to speak.

“That’s…that’s one ugly mug…”

He spoke the truth. Lying before them in a head of crumpled, eviscerated limbs and burned skin, was a bloated, mutated Scorpirex – it’s jaw at least ten inches bigger than its cousins outside.

Her eyes flashed before her steel did, once again:

[Morphology: Scorpirex Alpha]

HP: 3/80

She shook the numbers from her mind, looking past the cold, detached facts they represented, and focused back on the sad reality in front of her. This creature, hideous, malformed, and charred beyond belief, had no energy left in it. It simply stared back up at them, its twitching eyes holding their gazes, and its mouth moved as though it was attempting speech.

“Y’know, Yelena,” Marius said, cautiously sheathing his bow. “This big bastard’s probably worth a heap of EXP. It must be like the big Crocarachnid back in Duskwood – and in the ‘Loft, the bigger they are, the more they’re worth.”

She was about to rebuke him for his selfishness once again, when he held up his hands and continued,

“I know you’re gonna tell me it sucks,” he said. “But think about it: this thing’s on the edge of death, anyway. And I mean – c’mon – look at it. It’s a miserable pile of bones, probably suffering, probably wanting nothing more than to be put out of its misery.”

She stopped herself just before her lecture was to come, and considered his words. Once again, they were tinged with truth, even if it ultimately got him what he wanted. They thing looked up at them with something akin to sorrow in its eyes – if such a beast of the Everloft could express such an emotion.

This night truly was a night of firsts, she realized again. Here she was, an Argent of Averix – bound to purify the unclean, to cleanse the Glance from the civilized world – feeling sympathy for a being that could rend her limb from bloody limb with nothing more than a thought at its full strength.

Yet as she looked closer into its eyes, sheathing her blade and kneeling close to the dying beast, she wondered about that, too. Would this thing really see her as prey?

Or, like the glaring Red-Woman who was at this moment standing behind her, was there something more to this being who dwelled in this dark realm?

“It is being afraid,” Yelena heard the Red-Woman say. “A Ty’kella who is having succumbed to the evil of an Ida’Mallok. Its body is being enhanced for combat. It’s dream is being the death of those the one who passed through here.”

Yelena interjected without looking back. “The Lightbringer.”

The Red-Woman nodded, but slowly. “This church is being a wave trial. The Lightbringer is having no choice but to-“

“It was possessed,” Yelena interrupted massively.

Once again, the Red-Woman nodded gravely.

“I’m not blaming your Lightbringer,” Yelena said, still locking gazes with the beast moaning at her feet. “She rose to the challenge of defeating a Voidspawn-possessed being. No easy feat.”

“You are sounding like you speak from experience, Argent.”

Marius mouthed a childish “meow!” before Yelena responded, calm, and without anger.

“Sometimes death is a bitter kind of mercy,” she said, looking back now at the Red-Woman. “The Voidspawn corrupt everything we are, everything we love. They make us destroy those we once called friend, and they force us to walk a path of desire that is lined with nothing but death.”

The words were not hers. Not really. Some of the sentiment was borrowed from the works of Jael. But there was a little something there of originality – and that was her experience at the root of the words. That changed them. Charged them.

Once again, the hateful eyes of Virtir entered her mind.

“We are agreed on this,” the Red-Woman said, a little surprised, and Yelena met her suspicious gaze once again. A gaze that Yelena knew, even if it was entirely human, was once she could understand.

“Soooooo…” Marius whistled as an evidently awkward silence droned on between them all. “We killing this thing or..?”

“We will end its pain,” Yelena said, still locking eyes with the Red-Woman. “And in doing this, we will allow it to die as a free being. Not a slave.”

The dark entity in Yelena’s heart pulsed against her chest. It was weak. She felt it. And the fact that it may have just shown its anger brought a smile to her face.

The Red-Woman nodded, and knelt beside the suffering creature as Yelena made to draw her sword, rising to position the blade just above its neck.

Marius looked on with a degree of what might have been interest. She never could tell with him. But what she did next definitely brought some shock to his face: she took his hand and rested it just beneath hers, gripping the hilt of her blade as it dangled above her kill.

“A moment of mercy for us all,” she said. “if you want to benefit from this, Marius, then you’d better do the job with me.”

He suppressed a surprised chuckle that lasted about as long as the look remained on his face.

“Apolgies to the Lightbringer,” he said. “I hope she doesn’t mind us stealing her kill.”

“Be going in peace, Ty’Kella,” the Red-Woman then said, laying a firm hand on its charred, spine covered hide. Incredibly, it did not cry out. It did not fly to consume her flesh. Instead, it issued a long, mewling sigh.

And Yelena suppressed a gasp as it closed its eyes.

“Death is not being the end,” the Red-Woman whispered. “It is only a return to the conflux of creation. It is being release. It is a meeting with the maker.”

And as Yelena pondered the meaning that must lie behind her words, she and Marius brought her blade down and ended the Alpha’s life with an audible snap of its burned neck.

[Scorpirex Alpha: Vanquished]

EXP: +150

LEVEL UP

Guardian: LVL 5

EXP: 640/1000

Skill Points Available: 2

Training points Available: 1

The phrase, ‘Training points’ gave her slight pause, but she disregarded them for now. She breathed in as she felt her veins run with the flowing threads of gold that served to power her now, and sparing a look at Marius, she could tell the same kind of power was flowing through him.

Together they looked towards the open door emblazoned with the sigil of the scorpion.

And Yelena led the way this time, turning back to look upon the rest of them: Marius, the Red-Woman, and even the lumbering Edna, as she allowed a smile to pass over her, finally. In here, in this place where light dared not show its sheen, she had found a squad all over again.

“Well then,” she said, eyeing the Red-Woman as she stepped into the narrow catacombs beyond. “Let’s go meet your Lightbringer.”