Leo raised his sword towards the black-haired archer in front of him, golden flames radiating from his sword's blade, “Leave cultist, I had no fondness for the Prophet but I will not allow you to sow chaos any longer.” The woman got to her feet, Leo didn’t recognize her but he knew a cultist when he saw one.
She stared back at him, her expression calm, “We are here for that man and nothing else. I have no ill will towards you Brightwing.”
Of course, it’s about Kal…He thought, shaking his head, “No, Kal will not be taken by the likes of you,” he replied, bringing his sword downward in a small but forceful motion, “Holy Smite!”
The air around the tent exploded into golden light but the archer was faster than he expected and evaded it and began to fire a barrage of arrows just like those that had killed the prophet. Leo raised his left arm instantly and shouted, “Shield of the Brightwing!” and a shield of burning golden light appeared on his forearm, incinerating each of the arrows before they struck. Leo spared a glance to look for Kal and found the man still lying where he fell. Leo couldn’t perceive his stats while in combat but he could see that a crimson aura had appeared over him. Dalan was running towards Kal, pulling out a series of bottles from his bag as he ran. Leo couldn’t spare any more attention as a torrent of fire and lightning lanced from behind the line of soldiers currently trying to fend off some kind of acrobat. The attack forced Leo to pivot and expend a portion of mana to expand his shield but he was able to comfortably block the strike. Leo pegged them as being close to level eighty, or very strong level seventies. Leo was level eighty-two and a very strong one, there were very few who could evolve their own class after all.
----------------------------------------
Dalan stumbled as the ground shook all around the camp, each swing of Leo’s sword brought destruction beyond anything Dalen had seen before. But he didn’t have time to watch, he had to get Kal out of there. Kal was staring blankly into the sky and a crimson aura was spreading all over him and everywhere it touched it burned away the flesh. Dalan poured his best brew into Kal’s mouth but it had no effect, he wasn’t even sure if it made it down Kal’s throat before burning up.
Crack!
Dalan flinched as an enormous lightning bolt arced through the sky above them, it made him look and he wished he hadn’t. A monstrous storm was brewing, black clouds swirling with a rainbow of cascading colors surged from the horizon. Dalan staggered backward at the sight, falling to his feet. What the fuck was going on?
----------------------------------------
Kal’s mind quaked as the beings that glared down at him from the sky gathered their power. Something was happening but Kal could do nothing, his Birthright however wasn’t about to let him lay down and die. He could feel it burning him away, desperately fighting to move his body. Only one thought came to Kal as the insane build-up of energy above grew. Why did they hate him so much? What could have been done to anger such powerful beings? A storm formed above him and the power of each of these being manifested as a vicious swirl of colors. It only took him a moment to recognize one of the energies, Dhinir. Kal’s anger flared and his Birthright flared with it and though he couldn’t move his limbs, he roared, “Dhinir! Why did you do this to me?!” The world stopped the storm above seeming to pause in its writhing chaos, Dalan pausing mid-motion uncorking another brew.
“Petulant Fool, do you truly believe as you are that you are worthy of our notice?”
The voice shattered Kal’s concentration, the pain from the voice was several orders of magnitude worse than the presence of the gods. He gathered himself to reply but didn’t get the chance.
“You were supposed to be mine, you could have been my vessel for this world in the times to come but you have been broken. A final sabotage from another fool. You are Anathema. You must be cleansed from this world.”
Then time resumed and Kal vomited even more blood, he could feel even more pouring from his eyes and ears. Finally, he could move but the storm above didn’t look like it was calming, quite the opposite. Something was about to happen, and he knew it wasn’t going to be good. He sat up his body aching from whatever his Birthright was doing to him. Dalan almost shouted at the sudden recovery.
“Kal! Are you alright? Fuck, let’s get out of here,” Dalen got to his feet and drew another couple of brews that Kal had never seen before.
“I’ll live, but I don’t think we can escape that,” Kal said, pointing toward the storm.
Almost on queue, the storm condensed into a titanic bolt of power and Kal knew that it was coming for him. He didn’t think it would be him alone either, that much power would surely kill everyone here. If the gods truly meant to destroy him he doubted any of the people here could stop them.
“Dalan! Run!”
Dalan was panicked but he still smirked, “Not a chance idiot…”
Then it came, the bolt of divine power seared the sky. The dark sky became a burning sea of mana in an instant as the wrath of the gods tore down upon them. His eyes burned to look at it but wasn’t about to look away. His Birthright agreed with him, its power seemed to resonate with him in this moment. The fighting between Leo and who was attacking him paused as the divine onslaught came for them all. Soon all they could see was light… But something changed, a tear appeared in the sky above them streaking down along the path of the divine bolt. The power of the bolt suddenly faltered as the tear spread, the light being drawn in on mass. Kal's vision slowly returned and the tear began to come into focus. Inside the rip in reality were thousands of vicious glowing eyes, they observed all who stood outside of it as the power of the gods was siphoned into the tear. Then something spoke, making everyone's hair stand on end.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Finally…Let our next feast begin.”
One of the pair of eyes became a barely humanoid figure, its face gaunt and body heavily scaled. It was heavily muscled and its arms ended with freakishly large hands that were even more disturbing once Kal took in the easily ten-inch claws dripping with a viscous fluid that immediately caught fire as it fell from the creature's claws. He used Identify.
[???|??|Abyss Spawn]
Kal didn’t bother waiting to see what else was about to happen, he just ran. Dalan followed right behind him. It was lucky he did since a moment later the creature screamed a vile mockery of a woman's cry, and the tear exploded as hundreds of the creatures burst forth.
“Kal look out!” Dalan yelled, tackling Kal to the ground. They both got to their feet again and Kal saw what Dalen was talking about. The tear hadn’t stopped spreading and it was moving towards Kal fast. They both got to their feet but Kal was forced to immediately dive out of the way as the tear speared toward him. One of the slower followers who hadn’t been smart enough to run was just getting the idea when the tear passed him and a pale hand darted out and grabbed the man by the throat yanking him into the tear. A sinister cackle followed, and then a torrent of blood and viscera rushed out of the tear spraying into the air. The cackle continued as the Dalan and Kal kept running. The fighting between Leo and the other human attackers had ended utterly and now they were also fighting for their lives against whatever was flooding out of the tear. His choice to run proved the right one, Kal ran as fast as he could, he didn’t know where he was running but anything was better than turning into blood rain. Dalan was well ahead of Kal, his agility had clearly grown over the past week. Kal tried to keep up but he needed to weave around to avoid the sudden bursts of growth from the tear as he ran, drastically slowing him down. Dalan stopped and turned lobbing two of the strange brews he held at and behind the tear. Kal hadn’t noticed but several of the creatures were also following in the wake of the tear. One of the brews broke over the head of one of the charging creatures. It blinked angrily and let out a cry like the first but it didn’t seem injured in the least. The creatures continued to pour out of the tear and soon the camp was completely overrun. They both ran but soon found themselves surrounded by fighting on all sides.
Dalan was pale but rummaging through his bag and pouring multiple vials into a bottle, “What’s the plan Kal?”
Kal frowned, “Why’s it up to me? You’re the one with Intellect!”
“Well it wasn’t working when I let you come to this bloody camp, why would it be helping now?!” Dalan yelled back, “We need Leo to save our arses!”
Kal looked for Leo but all he could see through the horde was the golden flashes from his strikes.
“I think he’s over there,” he said, pointing in the direction of at least a hundred of the creatures. Suddenly a barrage of arrows fell onto the horde leaving dozens dead or injured. Then a woman in black leather armor landed beside Kal, drawing another arrow from her quiver.
“Go now! I will protect you!” she said, firing another volley of death towards the horde.
Kal figured she was the one that killed the Prophet and that meant she was fine in his books so he ran for Leo. Dalen looked less happy about the situation but followed anyway as the arched fire shafts of death towards any of the creatures he got near them. The tear still followed Kal, why he had no idea. It had grown more erratic but showed no sign of slowing as unerringly tracked Kal through the chaos snatching up any that got too close. They had gotten about halfway through the fighting and got sight of Leo and two others, a black-clad mage who intermittently conjured a wall of force blocking a wave of the creatures while a rogue danced around the horde taking out several in seconds. Leo was an inferno of golden light as he charged through the horde, dozens burst into flame around him before being bisected by his blade. He spotted them as he fought and lept over to them and the golden fire around him expanded, incinerating several of the creatures that had gotten too close. He looked at both of them.
“Good you're ok, take my hands and we can leave this place before more of these things arrive,” Leo said, sheathing his sword.
Dalan almost leaped onto Leo’s arm, “Yep let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Kal reached for Leo’s arm but suddenly he was falling. He cried out as his leg shattered from an incredible strength. He looked down through the agony and saw one of the pale hands crushing his right leg, his foot at a disturbing angle.
“Kal!” Dalen cried, leaping towards him but at the same time, something left the tear at the same moment. The thing was huge, easily twice the size of a normal man. Its body rippled with scaled muscle and it seemed to burn the air around it with its presence. Luckily Dalen stopped just in time to not get crushed as the beast charged forward into Leo who was almost thrown off his feet at the impact but just barely held his ground. The beast roared into Leo’s face and then head butted the man. This time he flew easily fifty feet and tumbled across the ground into a boneless heap. Kal struggled but the pain of his shattered leg and his chaotic Birthright made him begin to panic as he was dragged ever closer to the tear. Dalen ran towards.
“Run Dalen! I’ll be right behind you!” Kal yelled, over the fighting. Dalan ignored him and was trying to find an opening to run past the beast, an arrow slammed into the head of the creature but it barely flinched. It turned toward the archer who let off another volley, several of the arrows hit the creature in the face and even one in the eye but it just looked pissed as it let out an ear-shattering roar. The roar made Kal freeze as his blood ran cold, he could see that it had the same effect on everyone else as well. A moment passed as everyone recovered from the roar but it was too late for the archer as the beast appeared in front of her so fast that didn’t have time to react as the beast grabbed her by the face and slammed her into the ground hard. The grab alone would have killed Kal but the following scene made his bile rise. The archer was slammed into the ground over and over again while the burning aura of the beast burnt her flesh. He looked away back to his own problems and tried to dislodge the hand. He had lost his weapons the moment he was declared a heretic. All he could do was kick at the hand, which hurt him more than it hurt the hand. Dalen finally reached him and grabbed onto his hand.
“Kal, hold on! I’ll think of something.” Dalen said, his voice much weaker than its usual humored tone.
Kal knew that he wouldn’t, he was screwed. He wasn’t meant to live, at least with the gods' attack gone, maybe his friend could survive. He was nearly inside the tear, and he wasn’t about to let Dalen join him. Kal shoved Dalen hard, his strength winning out and knocking his friend away.
“Run!” Kal roared, as the hand pulled his leg screaming in agony. Then there was nothing.