Once inside the tower, we began barricading the big wooden door behind us. After lowering the metal drawbars inside we started stacking furniture up. There were a few wooden benches and some metal floor sconces nearby. With about twenty five to thirty orcs outside, it wouldn’t hold forever, but at least nothing had been waiting for us in here.
We dashed instantaneously towards the spiral staircase that led up the tower. The Oracle’s vision showed that the Cleric was on the top floor. Even though it was physically tiring to take so many stairs at once, it allowed my magic power to regenerate even further and we could process things once again after that fight outside. Finally, we reached the top of the stairs. It led out into an open room with no door. You could see 360 degrees around the outside of the tower from up here. There was a large circular magnifying glass in front of a fire pit. That must’ve been the beacon. Standing just on the other side of it was a man in lavish blue and white robes with a matching Roman Catholic style Mitre hat and a wooden staff. He had to be the Arch Cleric.
“Excuse me sir, might I have a word?” I asked.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” he replied, in an almost viscous tone.
“My name is Eric Noble and this is my partner, Lord Wraith of the desert. We’ve come here to beg for your help.”
There was an awkwards silence. The Cleric did not immediately respond. He simply stared at us. I was confused. Was he trapped here? Did he live here? Finally he replied, “Dost thou have any clue as to who ye are beseeching?”
I turned to Wraith, who looked just as confused as I was. Then I turned back and said, “We were told that we would find a powerful Cleric of the utmost divinity here in this tower. Is that not you?....err, ye?”
He answered, “Yay. For I am Apollo, Dark Cleric of the Chaos Pantheon and General of the Devil King’s army.”
…
“Excuse me…”
No further reply. The next course of action was Apollo casting a Divine Sacre Fire spell at us. Wraith and I dodged in opposite directions.
“Sorry, sir. We didn’t mean to intrude on your home,” Wraith apologized.
“‘Tis not my home ye foul meddlers!”
He then manifested two transparent black swords and said, “Unholy Sabre!”
The two swords flew towards both Wraith and I and we found ourselves in combat with them. How do you defeat a sword with no swordsmen? Wraith raised up his plasma rifle, which up until now he had strapped across his back as a last resort. The dark blade sliced the barrel right off before he could pull the trigger. I decided to tuck and roll underneath the sword attacking me and cast a spell of my own.
“Wind Blade!” I shouted as I slashed forward, producing a piercing gust through the air that flew across the room and struck Apollo. Both of the dark swords disappeared. We held out ground and waited for his next move.
“Who hath sent thee to disrupt our mission?”
“Your mission?” I questioned, “we just came here to ask for help for our friend. We didn’t know that there was gonna be an orc army here and that you’d be a Dark Cleric.”
“Thou hath stumbled upon the first wave of advancement the Devil King doth make against the Kingdom of Vale.”
Well shit. Looks like we could’ve used a few more details about this particular cleric. It’s not the Oracle's fault though. All he was doing was looking around for us. It’s not really any different than someone going to the grocery store to get milk for you and bringing back the wrong brand.
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“Listen! This has all been a major misunderstanding. We can talk through all of this,” I said, trying to smooth things over.
“Ye know not of misunderstanding! For I am High Priest of the misunderstood. Year after year I bore the scoffs of many til the Devil King brought me unto his tutelage. He hath shown me the true light within the darkness!”
Just then, we heard noises outside. The cleric rushed over to the window and looked down. We were far enough away from him but still in range of the window to look ourselves. Down below, we saw the orcs that were trying to get into the tower just a moment ago heading towards the forest. An arrow struck one. Then another. Then another! They came from Arduwan, who was now walking out of the treeline with her longbow drawn. She looked like hell, but the fighting spirit was still alive.
Apollo reacted by questioning, “What is this insolence?!” “She’s in trouble! We gotta help her!” I said to Wraith.
Before I finished my statement, he launched himself at Apollo and struck his shoulder with a dagger. The cleric countered with a sweep of his staff. This knocked Wraith onto the ground.
“I shall chastise thee with all the vengeance within my very soul. Divine Harm, Divine Harm, Divine Harm!” said Apollo, as he aimed his staff at Wraith and seemingly caused bodily aches and pains to his body.
“Ahhh!” Wraith cried out in agony.
This was bad. Arduwan was bracing for an attack from the oncoming orcs and it looked as though some of the other orcs that had followed her were starting to come back out of the forest as well. Wraith was in grueling pain and I don’t think I could cast another spell without fainting immediately. I did the only thing left I could think to do.
“Wait!” I begged. I dropped to my knees and began pleading, “Please! Someone I love is dead and their death came unfairly. It was even partially my fault that it happened. And that’s my best friend you are torturing. I don’t know what kind of pantheon of gods could give divine power to a clergyman for this kind of wickedness, but of course something like that would exist in a place like Callist!”
The evil priest stopped hurting Wraith and we could hear the clashing of steel down below. I couldn’t see, but I knew Arduwan was down there fighting her last fight judging by the condition I saw her in when I last looked.
In a somber tone, the cleric asked, “Did thou say, someone ye loved was killed?”
“Yes!”
“And these are thine friends? Of whom ye care for as well?”
“Absolutely! They mean the world to me. The blonde more than him, but I’d still die for him!”
“Hey!” Wraith said, still writhing in pain on the floor.
The cleric took a step closer to the window and waited a moment. The sounds of battle still going, accompanied by waning grunts coming from Arduwan. Apollo then raised his hand out the window and held it there a moment.
“Divine Smite!” He hailed.
Suddenly, a flash of light struck from the sky and obliterated every living thing on the ground except Arduwan, despite striking precisely where she was standing. I rushed over to
Wraith and helped him get to his feet. The two of us stammered over to the window next to
Apollo. Down below, we saw Arduwan sink to one knee. And crutch herself with her Greatsword. “Why did you do it?” I asked, “Why did you change your mind?”
He responded first with a sigh and then said, “When one begins the path of the spiritual, they are usually motivated by compassion. But my path was motivated by resentment. Your cries for your loved ones made me a believer again in humanity. I have broken my covenant with the Chaos Pantheon by helping you. My only redemption will be to form a new covenant with spirits of light instead of darkness.”
Wow. This was deep. I had no idea that just by having friends I could deconvert an evil priest. This guy must’ve been bullied hard back in the day. But then I realized something… “Hey! What happened to your old English dialect?” “Excuse me?” he asked, seemingly confused.
“The thee’s and the thou’s and the ye’s and the doth’s. Where did that go? It just disappeared from your speech!”
He fumbled a little bit and said, “Oh, well, you see, that was part of my covenant as well! I see, you must have freed me from that cursed lexicon!”
Yeah right. I get the feeling this guy is a lot like Wraith. Which by the way, Apollo started using healing magic to get Wraith feeling well again.
“I’m terribly sorry, Lord Wraith. Please forgive me.”
“Ah, it’s all good. As long as we’re all friends now!”
“Friends! You mean, we’re friends?!” He asked with excitement.
Wraith replied, “Sure thing! I mean, you can’t be friends with the Devil King anymore if we are. But if that’s alright, we can be bros!”
“Oh, we weren’t friends or anything. I was just a subordinate of his. In forty two long years, I’ve never had a real friend.”
This was odd but I wasn’t going to complain if we got what we came for and we were all better people because of it. A bunch of dead orcs was a nice bonus. Speaking of which!
“Hey, guys,” I interrupted, “sorry to cut this short, but do you think we could get down there and heal Arduwan?!”