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Exiles of the Holy Ascension
Chapter 39- A Bargain with the Abyss

Chapter 39- A Bargain with the Abyss

And there it was. The moment Enek’Chok had once believed impossible. A moment so unthinkable he’d had no choice but to will it into existence.

The Godknight was hurt.

The blood of a god.

On his hands.

How delightful.

“Master!”

Enek’Chok heard a dull ‘thunk’ from behind him, just as one of his elite Sentinels called out his name. He jerked his head back and saw Naruza the mystic laying flat on her back.

Enek’Chok grimaced and cursed, forced to pull his attention away from the battle that had only just begun. But his code wouldn’t allow him to ignore someone in his War Council in trouble.

“Naruza!” he called, racing to her side. “Are you hurt?”

A low moan escaped her lips as she struggled to stand. Enek’Chok joined the pair of Sentinels who had gathered next to her.

He crouched down beside her, putting one bracing hand on her back. She sat up and chuckled lightly.

“Yes, Master Enek’Chok,” she said, a little embarrassed. “It appears my connection to the Godknight might have been too strong for my own good.”

Enek’Chok saw an indication of what she was referring to: a small trickle of blood dripping from her nose.

“You’re feeling his pain?” he asked with astonishment.

Naruza regarded him with amused incredulity. “If I was feeling the same pain as he is right now, I would be dead,” she explained. “The sheer power being unleashed here is well beyond what a human—or an Aeonic—would be capable of withstanding.”

“Can you stand?” Enek’Chok asked, anxious to return to viewing the battle. The deafening thuds, cracks and shouts suggested it continued on in earnest.

Naruza attempted to get to her feet, but couldn’t maintain her balance and began to fall back onto her backside. Enek’Chok caught her and gently guided her up.

“I’m okay,” she insisted. She was weak, Enek’Chok judged, but not yet incapacitated.

“Come,” he said, guiding her back to his perch at the front of Verity’s Lament. She stood next to him, braced against one arm, as he reassessed where the battle stood.

The Maelstrom had his monstrous hand wrapped around the Godknight’s body, pinning his arms to his sides. The Godknight squirmed, but the Maelstrom's grip held.

The monster brought the Godknight closer to its face so it could look him in his eyes. It spoke to the Godknight, in words too low for Enek’Chok to hear. That a creature of such colossal size could speak at all proved that the Maelstrom was more complex than a simple “monster.”

Naruza gasped. “Is that… Is that the Maelstrom?”

Enek’Chok grinned. “Yes. Yes it is.”

“How did it… How did you get it here?”

“I summoned it,” Enek’Chok explained proudly.

“Summoned it? How did you even find it?”

Enek’Chok grinned again. “Lord Malphor provides.”

“I’d say so,” Naruza said, and chuckled in amazement. “Of all the wonders I never thought I would see...”

Enek’Chok’s grin only widened. He was pleased. Not only with how well the invasion progressed, but that this particular gambit was playing out exactly as he had planned.

“Are you controlling it somehow?” Naruza asked. Just as the question left her lips, the Maelstrom reared back and hurled the Godknight into the air. His body was barely a blur as it smashed into the base of his precious Godknight Tower. He skimmed off of it, taking a piece with him and causing it to buckle and sway. He continued to bounce end over end across the square, until he smashed back first against the wall of a cathedral dedicated to the Mother Goddess. The building, which had only suffered minor damage thus far, crumbled around him.

“No,” Enek’Chok replied to Naruza. “And I wouldn’t, if such a thing were even possible. A motivated monster—”

Naruza’s body went limp. She began to slide away from Enek’Chok, who quickly strengthened his grasp on her.

“Naruza?” he asked.

“Huh?” Naruza blinked her eyes open, looking a little like a drunk fighting to stay awake.

“Perhaps you should sever your connection,” he suggested, holding her in his arms like a dancer dipping his partner. “It’s only going to get worse for him.”

“I appreciate the concern, Master,” she replied. “But if I sever the connection, I may never be able to restore it. Establishing the link with him in the first place was the greatest challenge of my life.”

Enek’Chok gestured out towards the battle as Naruza regained her footing. The monster was striding towards the stunned Godknight, every step shaking the ground and leaving a trail of flames in its wake. Its tail moved as if independent of it, striking empty carriages and what remained of the kiosks the vendors had used to sell their wares. Everything it touched burst into flame, even as it crumbled to pieces.

“Your role was to monitor the Godknight,” Enek’Chok said to Naruza. “And confirm his diminished condition. You have done that to great success. But there is no longer any need to track him. He is here, and he is not going anywhere.”

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The Maelstrom roared and brought both fists down on top of the Godknight. The ground shook once again, this time hard enough to force Enek’Chok to brace himself on his tower’s railing.

Naruza swooned once again. Enek’Chok grabbed her firmly by the arms and pulled her closer to him. “I must insist, mystic.”

Naruza was a passionate adept at all things spiritual and metaphysical. She was wise and she was strong-willed, calm and enlightened. But physically, she was an aging human woman. Perhaps older than she appeared, if she had been using her abilities to sustain herself the way Enek’Chok suspected.

“No, Master,” she said, her eyes remaining closed. A small smile hinted at her mouth, indicating a weary gratitude at his merciful insistence.

Enek’Chok wasn’t a man used to having his orders refused. And his concern for Naruza was sincere. But she was showing a warrior’s spirit, a fierce refusal to give in.

“Very well,” he said with admiration. “But sit. Here, I’ll have Sentinel Liung—” He motioned towards one of his elite Sentinels. “...make sure you’re comfortable.”

Sentinel Liung reacted without hesitation, moving briskly across the bridge of the tower. He took hold of Naruza with surprising gentleness and guided her back to her perch.

On the battlefield, the Godknight staggered to his feet. The Maelstrom roared at him, spewing flames that immediately engulfed him. The stream of fire continued out of the monster’s mouth for nearly a minute, the flames and smoke completely obscuring the Godknight from Enek’Chok’s view.

For a moment Enek’Chok felt a terrible fear. Had they underestimated how weak the Godknight had grown? So much so that the monster had been able to incinerate him? That would be a disaster, one that would defeat the primary purpose of this invasion.

But to Enek’Chok’s relief, the Godknight soon emerged from the flames, his body smoldering. The Godknight began picking up debris—marble, stone, brick, wood—and throwing it all at the Maelstrom. He moved with amazing speed, his arms a blur of motion.

They struck the monster with an impact that would have killed nearly any other known creature. The Maelstrom brushed at his chest with little more than annoyance.

The Godknight clenched his fists and flew into the air, directly at the monster’s face. The Maelstrom whipped its tail around at ridiculous speed, making devastating contact that sent the Godknight spiraling end over end out of the City Center and deeper into the city.

The Maelstrom glanced back at Enek’Chok, acknowledging him for the first time. Enek’Chok held up a hand. ‘Be patient,’ the gesture said. The monster growled, but stayed where he stood.

“I thought you said you weren’t controlling it?” Naruza asked. She was back in her lotus position with Sentinel Liung standing directly behind her, watching over her like the sentinel he was. She was frighteningly pale and slurred her words like a drunkard.

“I am not,” Enek’Chok said over his shoulder. “We simply have an agreement.”

“You have an agreement? With that monster?”

He smiled at her. “Don’t let the creature’s size and savageness fool you. The Maelstrom is quite intelligent. And cunning.”

She nodded. “Right. But what did you offer it to get it to do what you asked?”

The Maelstrom shuffled its feet from side to side, impatiently waiting for the Godknight’s return. The City Center had been completely cleared of people, with civilians fleeing deeper into and out of the city and the Order’s forces tactically retreating. Nearly everything was ablaze now.

“Its freedom,” Enek’Chok said in answer to Naruza’s question. He turned to her and raised one eyebrow. “Do you know how the Godknight defeated the Maelstrom in their first encounter?”

“No,” she said. “But the stories say they fought for months.”

“Stories,” Enek’Chok said, shaking his head. “There’s always some truth to them. But that doesn’t make them true. It was eight days,” he continued. “And nine nights. The Maelstrom had emerged from the Voidlands unheralded, proceeding immediately to attacking the Great Kingdoms. They had no answer for it, of course.”

Enek’Chok paused before continuing, “Except for the Godknight. In those days, he protected all of us. Not just his chosen ones.”

Naruza scoffed, sharing in Enek’Chok’s sentiment.

“They fought, and for the first time in his life, the mighty Godknight had met his match. But neither one could gain or hold an advantage for long. Their contest extended across all of the Great Kingdoms, and even some of the Kingdoms of Old, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.”

“The Kingdoms of Old?” Naruza said. “Really?”

Enek’Chok nodded. The Maelstrom roared like a petulant child and began smashing anything and everything around it. It was only ever happy, it appeared, when it was destroying something.

“Yes. And it would have continued, perhaps without end, if the Godknight had not taken decisive action. You see, mystic, the Godknight never actually defeated the Maelstrom. He couldn’t. Instead he resorted to the only solution he could conceive of. A solution he has mastered over the centuries.”

Naruza looked at him in confusion. She shrugged, without a guess.

“He sent it into exile. The great and mighty Godknight, unable to compromise his absurd code. Destroying the Maelstrom was the only true solution. But instead, he simply sent it away.”

“Exile?” Naruza repeated. “But… where would you exile such a beast to?”

Enek’Chok shook his head and returned his attention to the Maelstrom. It was facing in the direction it had thrown the Godknight, waiting, and did not see what Enek’Chok saw: the Godknight, flying in from the completely opposite direction, carrying something absurdly large over his head.

“I could not explain it in a way you could understand, mystic, and I say that with all due respect. I barely understand it myself. It took me nearly three decades to find the monster and another ten to contact it and strike the bargain. None of which I would have been able to accomplish without the aid of Aetherion.”

“So the deal you made,” Naruza started. “What was it? You summon it and it kills the Godknight?”

“It won’t kill the Godknight,” Enek’Chok said confidently.

“How can you be sure?” Naruza asked.

He gave her a sideways glance. She only smiled and nodded in understanding.

“It thinks it can kill the Godknight,” he went on. “And it will try. That was the basis of our agreement, at least from the Maelstrom’s point of view. It gets the revenge it has craved, and we get a ‘dead’ Godknight. Once that is done, the monster will return to its home in the Voidlands, never to trouble the Order of the Holy Ascension or its empire again.

“Of course, it’s never going to come to that. Because there is only one outcome of this fight that I or Lord Malphor could foresee.”

“And what’s that?” she asked.

“That would be telling,” he teased. “Come, mystic. Enjoy the show. See for yourself.”

They watched together, Enek’Chok from his position at the front of the bridge and Naruza from her perch, as the Godknight finally reached the ruins of City Center. The object he carried cast a great shadow over the city, and it wasn’t until the Maelstrom noticed that shadow that it turned to see the Godknight’s return.

It reacted too late. The Godknight threw the giant block of ice—Enek’Chok guessed it had been an entire lake the Godknight had frozen—at the monster. It exploded on impact, and the Maelstrom cried out in pain. The ice began to sublimate immediately upon contact, and moments later, the great beast was surrounded by white hot steam.

The Godknight landed about a hundred yards from the Maelstrom. His armor, ornamental and unnecessary, was ripped and torn, the remains of his cape hanging limply from around his neck. He staggered once… twice… then regained his feet. He took a mighty breath and summoned the strength he needed to stand tall, ready to continue the fight...