Act three took awhile to begin, as major changes were obviously being made to the set behind the curtain. Finally, the curtain rose, and as it did, an enormous impact was simulated on the stage, creating a huge flash of light as well as a cloud of smoke, steam and dust. The scene revealed was one of devastation and turmoil. Celeste’s character had survived but her beautiful robes were now charred and torn. Many actors lay motionless and in the background of the set a large crater was visible. All buildings and equipment showed damage similar to those of Celeste’s robes. Strange, blue fragments were scattered here and there, throughout the set, perhaps representing fragments of the crashed comet. The clock face on the bell tower of what remained of the Cathedral was scorched and cracked, and stuck at exactly 12:00.
“Woe is us! The Astromancers spoke the truth when they predicted the comet would strike Dresenheim! We are destroyed’” observed Celeste, and then while she considered the scene around her, she shook her head, and reconsidered. “ Nay! This was not the great Theodor's intent. Surely not! He means to test us! Surely this is a test of our resolve and our loyalty to the Empire.”
A strangely clad actor scurried onto the stage behind Celeste. For all the world he looked to be some sort of rat headed man, with a metal basket, into which he was eagerly placing some of the blue fragments. With the basket completely full, the rat man scurried off stage to the right, behind the curtain.
Celeste took note of the actions of the rat being, and responded by saying, “I will convene a meeting of the survivors of our order. A plan of action must be developed to provide a means of ensuring that we pass Theodor's test,” and she traveled the length of the stage, ascending a flight of stone stairs to a room which now housed about ten more Theodorite Sisters. Much of the scenic remnants of the Dresenheim set remained adorned with fantastical sculptures of mythical beasts, and the meeting room was no exception. Two demon-like figures were housed in a model cage on the meeting table, and a gargoyle-like statue was formed into a flower pot, next to the Cathedral window.
Celeste called the meeting to order, but something was awry. Suddenly, the model cage began to shudder and fall apart, exposing the two Chaotic figures, which also began to move, and grow in size. From the reactions of Celeste and her fellow Theodorite Sister actresses, this was not part of the show. Dialogue came to an abrupt end, and all of the actresses retreated from the table a step or two, and drew their weapons. The audience let out a collective gasp.
The gargoyle also began to move, and suddenly leapt forward onto the back of a Sister clad in white. Pandemonium let loose on the stage!
Celeste’s war hammer flew into action striking the gargoyle in the side of its head, the force of the blow enough to break it free from the distressed Sister. The beast rolled on the floor, uprighted itself and flared its wings, flashing an uncannily evil grin directly at Celeste. He leapt towards her, driving his body forward with leg thrust and wing power, slashing fangs and claws wildly. Again Celeste's war hammer struck home, this time impaling the chest of the gargoyle. Once more, the winged demon found itself struck to the ground, and it readied itself for another attack.
Celeste used the seconds of respite to call forth more yet more light to her already glowing body, chanting a few holy syllables under her breath. A white fire erupted at the head of her warhammer, just in time to meet the third assault of the gargoyle. This time the power of the white fire was added to the force of the blow which struck the side of the assaulting beast, with a devastating result. The hammer collapsed the left side of the gargoyles ribcage, and followed through the right side emerging as a fountain of white sparks. The gargoyle stiffened, solidified, and then burst into a cloud of gray powder. Celeste withdrew her hammer from the cloud and turned to look for another enemy. She did not have to look long. The stage was swarming with all manner of horrific demonic creatures, many forming up into organized groups.
The patrons of the Olden Reik were also getting organized. Many soldiers had been present in the audience and most, if not all, had participated in the practice of bringing their weapons of choice to the performance. Were all of the citizens of Badendorf permanently armed? Apparently so. Captains formed armed soldiers into makeshift squads and crews, taking the lead to confront the packs of demonic beasts. The stage provided space for two such skirmishes and three more battles formed up in the area where moments before, an appreciative audience had sung along with Celeste’s ballads. Most of the non-combatants had fled the theater.
To James’s perception, sitting high up in the royal balcony, the opera house now looked much more like a battlefield than a house of entertainment. The only remnant of the intended evening’s activities were the bizarre costuming of the soldiers. Elaborate and varied shapes, sizes and colors. Nothing resembling a conventional uniform was visible on any of the soldiers. The units looked more like groups of chorus members of the opera troupe than infantry regiments. Yet, fight like infantry regiments, they did. Most bizarre of all was the unit of band members, which had formed up, on the stage, to defend themselves from an assault of bright pink colored horrible daemonic creatures, which seemed clearly determined to attack and suck the life out of the musicians. In their case, the weapons of choice of the band members were their actual musical instruments. At that very moment a wind player was swinging his tuba, resulting in the decapitation of the pink horror nearest to him. When James turned to see the reactions of the other occupants of the royal box, he was surprised to see that aside from a single remaining swordsman, the seats were empty, as Willhelm Fredrick and his family had disappeared.
The battle raged on.
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James felt useless as he watched from above, but noticed that most of the demonic warriors were emerging from the extreme rightmost section of the backstage area. As he peered deeply into the chaos on that part of the stage a huge form took shape. Red fire erupted, huge wings formed, and out of the resultant smoke strode a four meter tall bull headed devil, whip and colossal battle axe in either hand. His whip flared as he took the feet out from under the band members, knocking them clear off of the stage, and scorching flesh wherever it made contact.
“I challenge thou!” boomed a familiar voice. James’s heart sank. Celeste! Surely she could not stand before a beast so powerful!. But stand she did, striding forward to confront the great Demon. “Your time in this world is ending, Demon Lord!”
The Demon’s wings pulsed, and with a devastating and furious charge he pounced on Celeste, slicing down on her crimson clad form. The infinitely powerful blow hit but struck an impenetrable wall of light, in the form of a giant shield. Celeste countered with a hammer blow ferocious enough to crush any man, but against the Demon Prince, bounced harmlessly off of his ensorcelled black armor. Another axe blow was again deflected by the shield of light, but this time the force of the blow drove Celeste back, towards a large pillar which formed the left most portion of the stage. The whip too lashed out, and passed underneath the shield, a single tendril wrapped around Celeste’s leg and pulled her to the ground. Celeste struck the tendril, crushing and severing the tip of it, freeing her leg. Evil green smoke rose from Celeste’s damaged leg. She attempted to regain her feet, but could not. James screamed in terror.
“Enough!” boomed a man’s voice, and through the entrance strode the figure of an enormous man, clad in shining armor and brandishing a large golden hammer. “Accursed One! I claim this battle!”. It was Willhelm Fredrick!
The demon paused in the middle of what surely would have been a fatal blow to the Theodorite Sister, and turned to meet the challenge issued by the Kaiser. A deviously evil grin came to the face of the Devil Monster, and he deftly flew to the middle of the audience area of the opera house. Three battles separated and parted to make room for the colossal form, which alighted meters in front of Willhelm Fredrick. “A singular gift to the Devil God! The soul of the Kaiser!” pronounced the Demon. His axe flashed once more, but this time was met by the war hammer, in a burst of white hot sparks.
Sensing a presence next to him, James turned and gasped, “Sir Gilderwood! We must do something to save them!”
A countering blow flashed towards the Demon and struck the beast’s side gouging deeply into the Demon’s ribcage, but this did not seem to impede the monster. His whip once more swept forward, taking Willhelm Fredrick to his knees, which was followed rapidly by a vicious axe blow to the right shoulder of the Kaiser, clearly meant to cleave the leader of the Empire in two. Sparks again flew, as incredibly, most of the force of the blow appeared deflected by the gleaming armor. Nonetheless, Willhelm Fredrick was injured, and barely able to retain possession of his war hammer.
James realized that Oakleaf Gilderwood was chanting magic next to him and a wind gust blew in through the front door obscuring the Kaiser for a moment. By the time the disturbance had cleared, Fredrick had regained his feet, and seemed to possess renewed vigor. Three hammer blows powered into the Demon, the most forceful of which drove the accursed whip from his grasp. Each blow seriously damaged the beast, and yet despite these impacts he slashed back with his axe striking home on Fredrick's side, and again, with a more powerful blow, landing directly upon the helm of Willhelm Fredrick, driving him to the floor.
Again Gilderwood chanted, and again a refreshing gust of magical wind pushed into the opera house. This time it appeared that it might be too late. The Demon had once more raised his axe, preparing to deliver the final blow. Could anything save the Kaiser now?
A powerful “Thump!” arose, at the critical moment, followed by a flash of white light and the head of Celeste’s war hammer, erupted from the head of the Demon Prince. Screams of pain burst out from all corners of the opera house, as green gray smoke filled the building. It took several minutes for the acrid smoke to clear enough for James‘s gaze to penetrate the mirk. Sir Gilderwood too could begin to perceive the scene unfolding. Celeste was helping Willhelm Fredrick to his feet. No demons were visible.
“My assistance is required”, stated the Life Wizard, and with that he made his way out of the box seats and down the stairs onto the floor.
James surveyed the wreckage below. More and more of the opera house became visible, as the smoke and dust settled. All of the demons appeared to have left the building. Not even the corpses of the dead demons remained. Yet everywhere, men and women lay dead or injured. Presently, Oakleaf Gilderwood, made his way to Willhelm Fredrick’s side, and content with his physical state, began to tend to Celeste’s wounds. James turned to the remaining swordsman and stated, ”I must also assist the injured.”
The swordsman led the way down the stairs and through the lobby. Everywhere the injured were being helped out the main doors into the Konigplaza. The first light of dawn hung in the sky towards the north east, and James could see a makeshift first aid station forming up in the cobblestone square. Theodorite Sisters, clad in white tended the wounded. James turned away from the entrance and made his way into the main floor of the Olden Reik. By the time he reached her side, Celeste was largely healed from her wounds, as was the Kaiser. Establishing that both were ready for further excursions, Sir Gilderwood bade Celeste and James to accompany him into the Konigplaza.
The first shafts of sunlight were beginning to strike the topmost tip of the towers of the Temple of Theodor. James imagined that it was about 4:00 am, and even though none had slept this past night, it occurred to him that it was unlikely any would sleep today. In this thought, he was correct. Sir Gilderwood and Celeste worked tirelessly, throughout the day, and by day's end few of Badendorf’s citizens remained unhealed from the battle wounds suffered the previous night. Gunther Hartmann had met a charge from a squadron of armored demonic knights, who had appeared at the same time the indoor demonic invaders were summoned. Harrier was grievously wounded in the ensuing battle along with several of the Reiksguard knights who rallied to battle the demonic cavalry, but they too were largely healed by the efforts of Badendorf’s great healers. Grand Theologonist Luthar and the Theodorite Sisters were wonderful healers.
Night fell, and Sir Gilderwood’s company took to their sleeping quarters, exhausted, yet uneasy from the previous night’s experiences. James slept fitfully, reliving the horrors each time he awoke from disturbing dreams. At one point in the night, James was sure that he caught a glimpse of the devil man from the dreams he had experienced in the Wurttenburg Castle, but he could not even be sure this time if the image was experienced in a dream, or if somehow he was remembering seeing him in the middle of the Olden Reik battle.
Morning arrived, all too soon, when a servant girl woke James from his sleep. “Sir Gilderwood requests that you join him in the breakfast room,” and then continued, “May I be of any assistance, my lord?”
“Please let Sir Gilderwood know that I will join him, if you would be so kind,” he replied, and as the servant made her way out, James dressed and prepared for the day ahead.