“You may begin your futile attack.” Yugal announced, pulling his flaming sword from his back. “Greatsword of Surtr, Second Form: Axe of Annihilation.”
The titan’s words resulted in the sword changing shape into a great axe with a fiery head, and an icy haft. He rested the head of the axe on the ground and placed his hands on the end of the handle, waiting patiently.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Voros showed no concern or empathy for his seemingly fallen comrade. “Bracken is a mere infant in this business, we were felling enemies your size when he was on his mother's breast.” He ended the statement by unclasping his royal blue cloak, letting it fall to the rocky ground. The shining armor beneath was certainly of legendary class. He didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons, but the gauntlets he wore pulsed with white hot energy.
“We should thank you for cutting the weakling from our ranks.” Canela added. “Now, let’s finish this little chore. This continent reeks.” She snapped the fan in her hand closed, and vanished from sight. Specifically, she melted into her own shadow. Yugal noticed the trick, and followed the tiny black speck as it darted in a trajectory that would take her behind him.
Voros also enacted a spell, and a flaming tower shield appeared on his left arm. A matching lance appeared in his right hand, the tip of which dripped molten steel onto the frozen dirt with sizzling plops. He flew at Yugal with speed that would overwhelm most creatures. Compared to Niiya and Jade, he may as well have been standing still.
“Rend, Frosthowl.” Yugal called, and the greatwolf appeared between them in a burst of ice and snow.
Icy jaws snapped, intending to devour Voros whole. With another word in the language of magic, the flaming shield expanded in every direction forming a sphere of metal and flame around Voros. The barrier was a strong one, and repelled the savage bite. Frosthowl’s mouth was burned by the barrier, and it howled in frustration.
A cone of black ice shards erupted from the greatwolf’s maw, causing the barrier to fail and resume its regular shield form once more.
Voros flew back and away from the dangerous beast. He then spun in the air, adding momentum to a mighty swing of his flaming lance. A wide arc of red plasma launched out from the weapon, hitting Frosthowl directly in the face. The wolf snarled in pain. One eye was burned shut, and a blistering welt marred the top of his white muzzle.
Yugal looked at the the warrior named Voros with a little more respect.
Meanwhile, Canela finally reached the back of Yugal’s right ankle. She rose up from her own shadow, wielding two dark purple curving daggers which radiated a foul energy. With a single attack, she could cripple the titan. This ambush had never failed her, and she had honed the technique on dozens of giant enemies over the centuries. She crossed her arms, and tried to leap forward. Only then did she notice that her legs were held fast by a sheet of dull black ice. It didn't seem possible that a mere ice spell could root someone as strong as she, but the ice resisted her every pull.
“Normal ice could never hold miss Niiya’s minions, so I learned to incorporate volcanic ash into it.” Yugal didn’t even turn his gaze away from the battle between Voros and Frosthowl as he casually spoke to Canela. “The effect was most satisfactory, don't you agree? Feast, Cinderwrym.”
Canela sensed something happening in the ground beneath her. A horribly large presence was approaching far too fast. The first syllable of a short range teleportation spell was on her lips when everything went black.
Cinderwyrm exploded from the ground, raising its twenty meter diameter, snake-like body into the air until it’s frilled draconic head blotted out the moon more than a hundred meters in the air. The entire section of stone where Canela had stood was now inside the great Ragnarok beast’s mouth. Lava coated Cinderwyrm like water might coat a swimmer fresh out of the pool.
“C-Canela... No!” Voros whispered, watching the enormous reptilian maw slam shut with enough force to produce a shockwave. “He never said there would be beasts like this.”
The epic glowing spectacle of the lava serpent caused Voros to lose focus for a moment, and Frosthowl was no merciful beast. He realized his error and tried to leap back, but the wolf’s jaws were already closing around his hips and legs. Crushing force drove the sword length teeth into his priceless plate mail, and agony unlike anything Voros had ever experienced exploded from everywhere below his waist. Unfortunately the greatwolf wasn’t finished. He shook his head like a dog might thrash a dirty knotted rope.
“Disappointing.” Yugal said over the screams. “The audacity to think you might actually challenge lord Gray himself...” He clapped his hands, and the roaring inferno around his body vanished, and Frosthowl suddenly released his grip on Voros. The mutilated warrior flew along the ice, bouncing and rolling until he finally came to rest in a growing pool of blood at the titan’s feet.
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Cinderwyrm, apparently following a similar unspoken order lowered its great head and opened its jaws wide. A slime covered woman fell limply out, and dropped the remaining thirty meters to crack into the ice and stone next to her partner.
“Still... alive, Canela?” Voros struggled out the words between gasps of pain.
“Unfortunately.” She answered after coughing up a mouthful of acrid slime.
“I always wanted to... tell you something.” Voros struggled onto his side so he could look at her. “That time in the mountains, when we fought our way out of the wyvern nest...”
“Oh shut the hells up, Voros.” Canela coughed. “I don’t want to spend my last moments reliving my only rejection.”
“I regret it every day!” Voros interjected. “I loved you then, and still do. I just knew my family wouldn’t accept me marrying a Shadowspawn.”
“You jerk. Seriously, you damn jerk, Voros.” Tears mixed with the corrosive slime slowly burning through her skin. “How dare you say that right now...”
“You two are making me cry over here.” That voice...
They looked in unison at their companion, Bracken who was now somehow sitting just a few feet away. Every bit of his tattered clothing was soaked in blood, but his injuries seemed to have been mostly healed.
“Yours managed to survive, too?” Niiya asked as she appeared from a shadowy cloud of ash behind Bracken.
“They are fairly skilled and resilient.” Yugal acknowledged. “Lord Gray requested we keep them alive, if possible.”
“He said we only need one for questioning.” Niiya said without emotion.
Color drained from the faces of all three at that remark.
“It’s unbecoming to tease your prey, miss Niiya.” Yugal admonished.
“They deserve it. Tried to mess up the party.” She chirped back, crossing her arms.
“These two will need healing. We will be sure they pay handsomely for it.” Yugal noted, seeing that Voros was bleeding out faster than his regeneration could recover, and Canela was slowly being dissolved by Cinderwyrm’s rock melting saliva. It was a marvel that she was bearing the pain so quietly.
“Yeah, Yeah.” Niiya acknowledged. “Jade can fix ‘em up.”
“Will you invite her here, or shall we all return to EDEN now?”
“Might as well go back now, not much left to do here.” Niiya reasoned. “You guys are prisoners now. Don’t do anything else stupid...”
Niiya trailed off and suddenly tensed up. Something had forced its way into her domain. Something very strong.
Niiya’s ashes vanished then, and the land devastated by Yugal and Niiya’s relentless sparring was bathed in the light of the waning moon and stars. Another light source joined those heavenly bodies then. A ball of fire, like a comet was descending toward them. Niiya, blessed with finer senses than anyone else saw the truth of it first. The battered trio also knew what was coming, but didn’t need their eyes to confirm it.
“Lord Ogrun has come to finish us off personally.” Bracken chuckled at his own rotten luck.
The ball of fire came fully into focus as it drew closer. A chariot pulled by great equine beasts composed entirely of ruby red fire. The chariot landed, and its driver leaped to stand before them. He was around fifteen feet tall, nearly half of Yugal’s towering height yet the power pulsing from that body was in a completely different dimension. At first glance he was beautiful in a way only gods can be described. A closer look revealed a different truth. Ogrun was sloppy. His hair and beard were unkempt, and his white toga had more than a few wine stains.
“Wonderful!” He roared, and the volume of it echoed through the mountains. “Where the flames of creation meet the frost of an apathetic universe, and the Jotun beasts of the end times bare their fangs - so shall they witness his birth. The Living End, the Ragnarok Titan.” The strange godlike figure placed a hand over his chest and paused. “But you are yet too young for my taste.”
“These guys belong to you?” Niiya ignored his offbeat prophetic rambling and asked bluntly.
“Such refreshing disrespect. When was the last time a mortal looked me in the eye with such disdain?” Ogrun genuinely wondered. “Yes, those failures are mine. Hey, you three hurry up and get on your damn feet so I can knock you down again!”
Bracken stood, and the other two struggled but couldn’t stand on their own.
“Who said it was fine to just barge in demanding duels? I said invite this Gray person to a friendly sparring session. Who told you to go this far and make an embarrassing scene? I’m gonna hear about this from the egghead and the water hag, you know!” Ogrun shook his finger as he berated his near death subordinates.
“W-with all due reverence, great and radiant lord Ogrun.” Bracken gulped. “I-in the past that has always meant drag them to you by force.”
“Huh!?” Ogrun appeared in front of Bracken and twisted his knuckle into the top of the poor man’s scalp like a schoolyard bully. “You failed AND you’re gonna make excuses!? Not only did you start a fight no one asked you to, you started it with the wrong people. All of you have Appraisal, and these two have clear names and titles as subordinates of Gray. What kind of dipshits has my Collection Elite crew devolved into!? Your mom was the best, I can barely believe you share the same blood.” Ogrun suddenly stood up and straightened his wine stained toga.
Yugal and Niiya exchanged a look of deep confusion at the strange entrance and subsequent tirade.
“Alright then. I’ll just be taking these idiots back with me. Tell your boss sorry for the mistake, and I’ll come calling on him personally in a few days since I apparently can’t delegate anything to my halfwit subordinates.” Ogrun bent down to collect the two prone imperials but paused. “Huh, you really are almost goners. Those Ragnarok beasts really put ya through the ringer. Say... if that offer to imprison these guys and patch them up is still on the table, would you mind? I’m not really the type of god that fixes things.”
Niiya, who had been about to protest over the loss of the prisoners simply nodded her head. Even among all the strange things that had happened to her over the past months, this ranked near the top.
She was sending regular updates to Gray, but he had become strangely quiet over the last few minutes. She suspected he was with that woman, and the thought made her scowl. Niiya was grateful to her for bringing so many of their friends home, but hated the way she clung to Gray. With a tired sigh, Niiya watched the fiery chariot disappear over the southern mountains.
With nothing else to do and the lives of the two prisoners rapidly fading, Niiya conjured her domain and transferred them all back to her clone’s domain in EDEN.
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