"I hope she will see reason," Mike uttered in an absent tone as they drew nearer to the imposing capital.
Sophia, her voice laced with a touch of annoyance born from a sibling's familiarity, replied firmly, "I'm sure she will, Mike. But you have to leave it to me. Or at least, try not to provoke her about her mother again."
"Sure," Mike responded, his mind still consumed by worries that stretched beyond their friendship with Altheack. There was an unease in the air, an unsettling feeling that had settled in his chest as they closed in on the human city.
Days of travel from the rugged dwarven mountains had brought them to this moment, guided by the words of locals who had pointed them toward the capital. However, as the massive city loomed before them, an intangible disquiet settled upon Mike. Something was amiss.
It was the first time in a long while that his demonic pact, that dark and haunting connection, felt... quiet. The absence of its relentless urges for violence and destruction was almost a relief, yet it concealed a well-kept secret from Sophia.
He had always known that the pact had been deteriorating his mental state, and he suspected it was affecting Sophia as well. The insatiable hunger for power, and the dark allure that it offered, had been intoxicating. Not possessing innate magic like Sophia, he had often felt helpless in their battles. The pact had been his equalizer, his path to strength, his ability to stand alongside his sister.
Now, with his skill as a fighter and a swordsman merging with a newfound power that was truly his, he recognized the strength he had gained. His deal with the demons was straightforward: he killed in front of an audience, and the more people who bore witness, whether in fear or awe, the more powerful he became.
But it wasn't just the audience that had been a source of strength; it was the very connection itself. It had fueled him and sustained him in the darkest of moments. Yet, as they closed in on the capital, he felt that connection severed, a thread cruelly cut.
Mike couldn't deny the unease that came with it, the feeling of vulnerability. It wasn't just the urge for violence that was gone; it was the very essence of his strength. That void within him seemed to grow, an emptiness that could not be filled, a hole where his power once thrived.
As the duo flew in front of the palace, a colossal golden dome shimmered into existence around them. Mike couldn't help but wonder about this unsettling change.
"What the fuck..." Mike exclaimed, a mix of shock and panic in his voice as the shimmering golden dome encased them. In an instant, their soaring descent turned into a rapid plummet toward the unforgiving ground below.
"Basvdsa!" Sophia cried out, her voice carrying a sense of urgency and magic. Their fall came to an abrupt halt just inches above the ground, their bodies cushioned by a thin layer of magical force. Sophia's quick thinking had saved them from a potentially lethal impact.
"Not too close, Soph," Mike chided, relief in his voice as they found their footing.
Sophia shot him a pointed look. "Not too close if we didn't want to go splat," she retorted, her own sense of relief evident.
They found themselves standing in the center of a courtyard, surrounded by towering walls of stone and marble. It was a part of the inner bailey, an area normally off-limits to outsiders. Before their bewildered eyes, figures emerged from towers and buildings, rushing toward them. Dozens of men closed in, surrounding Valicar. The siblings were cut off from their demonic power, vulnerable and outnumbered.
"Fuck... this is bad," Sophia muttered, dread pooling in the pit of her stomach.
Mike's voice trembled with a mix of fear and anger as he confessed, "They cut off my pact, Soph." His rage was building, but it was a powerless fury.
From the pinnacle of a grand staircase leading to the palace, a commanding voice thundered, echoing through the courtyard. "Give up now, Valicar! Surrender the keys, and your friend's life may yet be spared," Bellic declared, his voice resonating with a chilling authority as he held a wounded Altheack in one hand, the other gripping an axe to her throat
"Take your fucking hands off her!" Mike's voice erupted in a thunderous roar, his rage boiling over as he summoned icy swords into his hands. "Silvoria!" Sophia chanted with unwavering determination, her magic coming to life.
But the situation took a horrific turn. A figure emerged from the shadows behind Bellic, they recognized him as the Pillar of the East, swift and deadly. In a brutal motion, he drew a blade across Altheack's right eye, a piercing cry of agony escaping her lips. "RUN, VAL!" Altheack desperate cry filled the air, but a savage blow to Altheack's gut sent her collapsing to the ground, Bellic's axes hanging menacingly overhead.
Panic seized the twins as they faced the potential loss of their friend. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" Their voices merged in a frantic chorus as their minds raced through possibilities. "Necromancy..." "Nuke..." Two distinct plans formed in their thoughts. "Trust me, Mike," Sophia whispered with newfound resolve. "We will save her."
Valicar surrendered, dropping their weapons. "Don't worry, I don't want to end up in chains again," Sophia added to Mike, the memory of captivity still vivid. They feigned surrender, Valicar reaching for her bag and shouting, "Okay, this is what you want, here are the keys!"
"Slowly!" Bellic ordered, the Pillar of the East advancing on Valicar, his blade still slick with Altheack's blood.
Yet, as they reached inside the bag, Altheack let out a thunderous roar, "TEASD," her transformation into a fly granting her escape from Bellic's deadly grasp. Panic coursed through her as she darted through the air, desperately avoiding his reach. It was a moment of sheer terror and confusion for her.
And it was in this moment of chaos that Sophia seized her chance pulling the S rank adventures rotting body from her bag. Her incantation, "FHADS COUSA MICAVULA," tore Lorianth's soul from the realm beyond the veil. He was thrust back into the world of the living, a bewildered consciousness trapped within his own rotting body.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The sensation was nightmarish. Lorianth was unable to control his actions or feel anything in his decaying vessel. It was an unsettling and horrifying experience as if every instinct and sensation had been replaced by a suffocating void. His panic surged, his thoughts a turbulent maelstrom of fear and despair.
"What? Where... YOU!" Lorianth's eyes blazed with a mix of rage and confusion as they landed on Valicar. However, he was no longer a sentient being but a tool, a weapon of great power under Sophia's command. The torment of being trapped within his decaying corpse intensified his rage and suffering.
"SHUT UP AND SAVE ALTHEACK!" They commanded, Lorianth's will crumbling before his new master. Now a zombie of formidable power, he summoned his swords and charged Bellic, while Valicar engaged the Pillar of the East in a deadly confrontation. The courtyard became a battleground, where the forces of holy magic and death clashed in a struggle that would determine the fate of not just Altheack, but the destiny of all involved.
Bellic's voice dripped with disdain as he engaged in the fierce battle with the resurrected S-rank adventurer. The undead monstrosity relentlessly pressed its advantage, forcing Bellic to push his newfound powers to their limits, his golden tattoo flaring to life.
Their confrontation was a chaotic dance of blades and magic, each strike resonating with the intensity of their clash. Bellic's holy axe, radiating with a brilliant golden light, met the relentless onslaught of the undead creature head-on.
"To think you have fallen even further from the last time we met," Bellic spat, his disgust palpable at the necromancy. His gaze was locked onto the creature before him, its decaying form and unnatural movements a stark testament to the dark forces that now controlled it.
Their plan, born from Altheack's invaluable information, had successfully cut off the flow of demonic magic that had once empowered Valicar. But this unexpected turn of events had brought them face to face with a different kind of adversary—one that had returned from the dead and now fought with an eerie determination.
Though Altheack had escaped his grasp and his spell, Bellic's focus remained unswerving. Their primary target, Valicar, was here with no means of escape.
As the battle between Valicar and the Eastern Pillar raged on, Sophia's mind raced, desperately searching for a way to gain the upper hand. She couldn't forget the Eastern Pillar's terrifying ability to regenerate instantly. Among the Pillars, he was considered the weakest in terms of raw battle skill, but he compensated for it with an impenetrable defense and a regeneration ability that seemed impossible to counter.
Easton had once cut him into pieces, a seemingly fatal blow, yet the Eastern Pillar had effortlessly healed himself. Fire and frozen attacks had proven somewhat effective in slowing his regeneration, but it was far from a decisive tactic. No matter the extent of his injuries, he would heal. His organs boiled when stabbed with a flaming sword, and his head grew back even if shattered and turned to ice.
It was becoming a grueling battle of attrition, and they were undeniably losing ground. The odds were stacked against them, and the Eastern Pillar's seemingly invincible defense made every attack feel futile. Sophia knew they needed a new strategy, something that could bypass his regeneration and finally incapacitate him.
But in the heat of battle, with spells flying and swords clashing, finding that weakness felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. She couldn't afford to lose hope; she had to keep fighting, keep searching for that one opportunity that could turn the tide of this desperate struggle.
Amid the chaotic battle, Valicar's armor was proving to be a formidable defense against the onslaught of holy magic. Although it absorbed most of the divine attacks directed at them, deep cuts and bruises still marred their form. Valicar had nearly lost her wrist multiple times, and Mike, frustrated, attempted to tap into the captured power within the armor. However, it was in vain. Without his connection through the demonic pact, he couldn't access the energies beyond the veil, whether they were holy or infernal. Right now, their fight relied solely on Sophia's magical prowess.
"He regenerates so fast you would think his DNA would be fucked up by now," Sophia pondered aloud, her mind racing for a solution.
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Mike asked, bewildered, as he parried another of Valicar's blows. Altheack, for her part, sent forth a wave of thorns to keep the ordinary soldiers at bay.
"When a cell replicates itself, sometimes it makes a flawed copy... maybe," Sophia replied cryptically. With a determined expression, she reached into their bag, this time retrieving their trump card. The magical nuke had a low yield, but this was their moment to use it strategically.
"About time," Mike grinned as Sophia tore open the earth, creating a hole a hundred feet deep.
"Gadsg!" she chanted, sending the Pillar of the East tumbling into the abyss. He looked unimpressed.
"You can't seriously think burying me will work fool!" he scoffed as he began scaling the pit's walls at an incredible speed.
"Here, catch, jackass!" Mike dropped the nuke into the hole before swiftly dodging to the side. Sophia chanted "Xurax," an implosion spell triggering a chain reaction in the uranium, causing the nuke to detonate point-blank on the Pillar.
The earth collapsed, a yawning chasm that swallowed the Pillar of the East whole, filling the crater with dirt and rubble as Sophia's magical shield held firm, protecting her and Altheack from the impending cataclysm. The explosion was a cataclysmic event, its force akin to the wrath of gods, searing heat and blinding light radiating from a burgeoning mushroom cloud.
From the decimated remnants of the blast site, a grotesque figure emerged. It was the Pillar, or at least it had once been. Now, it was a horrifying testament to the unyielding agony of his regeneration gone terribly wrong. His flesh was a nightmarish canvas of mutation and deformity, an aberration of nature's design.
In his futile attempt to heal, his cells had rebelled against the relentless onslaught of radiation. They grew uncontrollably, forming bulbous, pulsating tumors that ruptured and oozed a vile, viscous fluid. His limbs twisted and contorted, grotesque appendages that bore no semblance to anything human. Eyes that had once held intelligence were now vacant, cruelly replaced by clusters of writhing, bloodshot orbs that seemed to weep blood.
He cried out, not in anger or vengeance, but in the unending torment of his existence. His voice was a gurgling, guttural sound, a cacophony of suffering that echoed through the desolation of the battlefield. He had been reduced to a wretched, cancerous entity, trapped in a state of perpetual agony, an affront to the very concept of regeneration and life.
"One down," Mike proclaimed, a triumphant grin gracing his features as they turned to face Bellic. The terror etched across Bellic's face was palpable as he grappled with the undead nightmare that Lorianth had become.
"What have you done?!" Bellic bellowed, his voice a mix of anger, confusion, and fear. This display of power had taken him entirely by surprise. They had known nothing of this ability; not a hint had escaped Altheack's lips, even after hours of relentless torture. The sudden turn of events had thrown him into a maelstrom of uncertainty, facing foes who possessed secrets and powers beyond his comprehension.
For once, it was Sophia's grin that widened into a twisted smile, a reflection of her brother's dark urges that now dawned Valicar's face. Her eyes gleamed with a chilling resolve as she advanced toward the man who had caused them so much pain in this life. Her voice dripped with deadly intent as she whispered, "E=mc^2, bitch." It was a sinister declaration of the profound and catastrophic power of the atom. Together, they would redefine the course of this battle, and perhaps the very fabric of life and death itself. Bellic would either join their collection or turn to irradiated dust.