Ominek reclined in his seat outside a cafe with one of the best views of Eryn’s boardwalk leading to the Grand Temple. A monument to the elven arrogance that drove the Federation into its current sad state of affairs. An entity that was, for all intents and purposes, on life support. It was nearing time to euthanize the patient, so to speak.
Ominek lifted his cup of hot tea and gave it a soft sip. In the distance, a massive explosion rocked the temple, blowing a portion of the roof clean off and spraying it across the city like tumbling white meteorites. The city was awash in screams when multiple smaller detonations shook the stunned city.
Ominek rose, dropping payment for his meal, and strode off towards the temple, whistling eagerly. He took in the terror as he strode. The citizens ran past him in such a panic he could taste their fear in the air. He sucked in a deep breath and sighed contentedly. A pleased smile stretched across his lips.
Thick black columns of smoke rose into the sky from multiple breaches on the temple exterior. Sauridius drop ships screamed through the air, depositing hordes of hatchlings lugging heavy spell rifles and armor. His hammer blow had begun. Months of planning set into motion for this final moment. Ahead of him, his prime target awaited.
Already subtle irregularities developed in the ArchPriest’s aura. The result of the noxious poison Lucinda administered to her lover at Ominek’s request. When his soul father Leviathos had given him this mission, he had his misgivings coming off of the defeat at Hidros. But when Leviathos presented him with the tools he’d need and a few inside agents to get started? Well, to say everything had come together nicely would oversimplify things.
The elves absolutely lacked for security measures here. Unlike the humans and their aureolium fueled magitek constructs and hyper sense of security, the elves lives almost as though they expected no one to return here to finish the task that led to their very genesis in the first place. Getting to be the administer the crippling bow lost no irony to him. Especially considering he was a a child of Sauridius the very being who orchestrated the events of Eryn’s birth in the first place. It was their natural right to decide when and how this world ended.
“Judgement has been rendered.” He said softly under the din of an exploding tavern behind him. Hatchling shock troops pounced yup on Emerald Guard response teams. His well tailored black shoes clicked softly with each step he took up the white marble steps of the temple’s ornate entrance. Inside, bodies were littered everywhere. He sucked in another slow deep breath and let it out slowly with a smile.
“Nothing gets the blood pumping quite like the scent of the freshly dead.”
A quick jaunt through the destruction saw him to the doors to the ArchPriest’s chamber. He touched the door and a complex series of wards flashed up. He threw a disintegration spell at the door and whistled while it devoured its way through the wards like magical corrosive acid. When enough of them had been dismantled he thrust his heel out and kicked down the door. It exploded into shards and splinters that sprayed out.
The ArchPriest stood in the center of a large chamber. He wore ornate golden armor and carried an impressive staff. Ominek grinned and channeled his own staff into his hand.
“A duel then? I must confess to hoping you’d have succumbed to the effects of the poison by now. But this isn’t an issue that can’t be corrected.”
ArchPriest Eaulmant stood resolute before the dreadlord in the fashionable suit. Eaulmant wore his golden ceremonial spell armor and holding the spell staff he’d crafted at the onset of the second prophecy. All the pieces of the prophecy had fallen into place. A soft sheen of sweat coated his forehead. Something he’d not experienced in quite a while. Eaulmant bit back the cough that threatened to shake loose. The dreadlord’s dark poison going to work ravaging his body.
Ominek’s brow furrowed. “My, you don’t look so well.” He said mockingly. “Was it something you ate?”
“Taunt me all you like, dreadlord. But we both know that even if you win this day, it will cost you the future.”
Ominek winced exaggeratedly. “Oooh. Such defiance. I’m going to enjoy crushing this world underfoot.”
A blast of raw golden magic crashed into Ominek and sent him hurling into the far wall before spilling to the ground with a thud. Burned flesh and singed fabric tainted the ozone. Ominek slowly pushed himself upright with a pained grunt. He extended a hand and his dropped staff flew back into his hand. Ominek pushed himself back to his feet and rolled his neck. The fact the grand priest had ambushed him like that excited him. A growl rumbled from his throat, draconic and gravely.
The ArchPriest’s aura wavered and flickered as the poison ravaged his body. Ominek quickly wove a disintegrate and fired it off. The spell tore into the far wall and dissolved a large chunk of the wall, narrowly missing the Eaulmant. The poisoned elf gave Ominek a haughty look for having missed, but Ominek gave him a nod to the bottom corner of his robe, which had a ragged chunk missing from contact with the spell.
“You’re losing your step, ArchPriest. How long do you think you can keep this dance up?”
Eaulmant broke into a coughing fit. Blood stained the man’s hand as he casually wiped his sleeve clean. Despite his intensity, the ArchPriest still gave Ominek a sorrowful look. “My end will not bring you the fate you seek. But it will bring the one you deserve.” He said, doing his best to hide the strain.
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Ominek scoffed, “Defeating you will be the first step in bringing back Sauridius.”
Eaulmant gave the dread lord a parental smile. The kind a father might while issuing a lecture to an ignorant child. “And do you believe that will benefit you? You don’t even own the body you’re parading around in. Think about it. You don’t need Sauridius, but he needs you. ”
Ominek’s expression twisted. The elf was right, even if he didn’t like the point. Regardless. He couldn’t disobey his father and expect to see a new sunrise. “I bear more than mere soul shackles. Fate has me bound.”
Eaulmant spat at the floor. Blood and black fluid splattering on the clean tile. “It’s not fate that has you bound, but your own vain need for power. You’ll create chaos and a vacuum here. But in time, heroes will rise and set right what I could not.”
“Bold words for a fool who hides in his temple hoarding his magic.”
Ominek rushed forward and smashed the bottom of his staff into Eaulmant’s stomach. Blood misted from his mouth as the air rushed from his lungs. Capitalizing on the quick stun, Ominek drove a knee into the ArchPriest’s chin, whipping the man’s head back and sending stumbling. Ominek twirled his staff a few times in graceful curves. The glowing emerald at the tip casting him in a pallid green hue and highlighting his eyes.
Ominek spun his staff around in a move that was more flash than punch. The white mythril steel haft crashed into Eaulmant’s aura, which flared. The man’s emotions were on full display within them. Defiance, determination, and anguish all fueled it, even as his body was punished internally by Ominek’s insidious poison.
Ominek pushed back off the powerful demigod’s aura and allowed his body to transform into his full draconic size. Scales, teeth, and spikes erupted from his body as his skin turned from dark brownish black to blood red. His wings burst through the roof of the living area, and a large barbed tail flicked agitatedly. Obsidian talons raked at the white floor tiles with a sound like nails on a blackboard. He let out a powerful roar that sent the ArchPriest staggering to the wall for support.
Ominek sucked in a deep breath and exhaled with his breath weapon. A death mist poured out of his maw, the keening moans of trapped spirits issued from the pallid fog as the souls of the damned reached for Eaulmant, trying to steal his powerful life energy. But their grasping hands found nothing but powerful wards as they slid by harmlessly. Ominek rushed forward in powerful strides, each foot thundering against the ground. A casual swipe of his hand obliterated one room entirely as Eaulmant dove out of the way. Shards of rock and splinters of wood flew wildly, trapped in a storm of air.
The flagging ArchPriest pushed himself back upright, sensing he was about to die anyway, and poured as much of his magic as he could physically stand to into one final attack. Ominek’s face lit up with glee. Rows of razor-sharp teeth glistened as he grinned. “Yes! Pit your strength against mine! We will see who the true champion is!”
Eaulmant didn’t point out the twisted logic there. That he’d been poisoned, and that Ominek had intentionally stacked the odds in his own favor. But clearly, this was never meant to be a match for fairness. Such were the laws of war. Destroy or be destroyed.
Ominek’s barbed tail lashed out, punching right through Eaulmant’s armor and spearing into his torso. The poisoned demigod’s back smashed into the stone wall behind him. A pained grunt eased through clenched teeth. Ominek’s snout loomed close enough he could devour the priest if he chose to do so.
The priest, amazingly, had enough power to hold his hand up as if to beg Ominek to stop. Dread spread through every fiber of Ominek’s being when the priest snapped upright. Light poured from his eyes like someone flipped a flood light on. Intense powerful magic pooled together in his palm, forming an orb of light that shimmered and rippled like water gathering in zero gee. Ominek had gotten cocky and arrogant again. His last-minute loss at Hidros still wounded his pride but widened him. He began deftly casting barrier spells.
“Shield yourself all you like. You’re still fighting a demigod, dreadlord.”
A piercing white and gold beam erupted from Eaulmant’s palm. Ominek leaned away from the searing blast, but was still too close to completely avoid it. His wards shattered like fragile glass. The beam carved a bloody canyon across Ominek’s body as scales and muscle and bone melted away in the blast. Pain and rage flooded his mind as he struggled to stay conscious. Eaulmant’s palm glowed with a second charge and every cell in Ominek’s body screamed danger. He knew he couldn’t take a second shot.
He tore the spike of his free of the ArchPriest, flicking him across the room. The magic he’d been gathering faded as the demigod forced the magic towards keeping from bleeding out. Ominek eyed the ArchPriest with contempt. Being reminded of his own mortality, so close to the precipice of success, stoked an anger in him that had subsided during his quest for revenge here. He’d allowed himself to be beaten before. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
Ominek lifted a large talon and began weaving the signs to build a disintegration spell. Just before he finished the spell, a powerful light bolt spell smashed into his hands. Ominek roared painfully as the mana of his spell crumbled and winked out. Then, SHE of all people dropped into the room from a sleek and intimidating corvette sized spell ship. The ship took some pot shots with its cannons as it moved, peppering his scales with giant fireballs.
Morwen gave her wounded father an assessing look and held her hand out. His spell staff summoned to her hand. She spun it like a warrior and leveled the business end at him. “You thought you could just sink your talons into my people and come ruin my world? MY FAMILY?” Morwen roared, her aura exploding violently, forcing Ominek to flare his own.
“At first I thought this was just some petty revenge plot, but now it’s starting to feel kind of personal.”
Ominek’s mood improved by octaves as the woman who stymied his success on Hidros now handed herself up to him on a white stone platter. It would almost make the wounds he’d suffered worth it. A predatory grin spread across his lips, revealing rows of steak knife sized teeth.
“I’m going to enjoy ending your blood line today.” Ominek crooned in a deep, draconic voice.
“Not on my watch, dreadlord.” Morwen braced herself, ready to hurl into battle.