A lizard skittered its way along the cliff edge. It had hidden in a cleft during all the excitement, as the big, brutish monsters screeched and tore at the rocks, but now it had returned to sun itself along the edge and await the coming of the evening’s wispflies.
Blinking, it twitched from side to side, looking for a suitable spot to sit and watch. The sky overhead was a clear lilac haze, and perfect for drawing in what heat the little lizard would need. Tentatively, it sidled closer to the edge. Not that it needed fear the drop; between its nimble reflexes and the grip of its toes, there was little that could threaten it, even a potential fall into the canyon.
Which is why its last thought was one of mild, lizardy surprise as an enormous foot fell from the sky and crushed it underneath.
Ligo, archon to the goddess Zavastu, may she reign in fiery glory forever, landed on the cliff’s edge with a solid thump. The flames wreathing his body faded away with a hiss, including the two enormous wings that spanned his back.
It was a lucky thing the archon had managed to master his goddess’s flameform before leaving the main temple. Most of the paladins in Zavastu’s service, and even a few of his fellow archons, had barely enough control over their mistress’s gift to do more than shroud themselves inside of it. Besides Ligo, there were only two others in the clergy that had learned the more technical art of shaping the flames into wings strong enough to carry them aloft.
Unfortunately for his fellow priests, it was a rather solitary gift. Ligo had attempted to snatch several of his brethren from the air as they fell, but had only succeeded in burning them alive, a death as painfully swift as the one that awaited the others when they reached the canyon floor.
Upon landing, his flames had cut off—another unfortunate limitation of his goddess’s gift—and Ligo had been forced to sit amongst the remains of his friends and colleagues, seeing the horror that had been brought upon them etched in the terrified expressions of their death masks.
So much pointless death. Pointless loss. By the time his flameform returned, he’d burned with rage.
Now there was only Ligo, and the few priests who still remained at the temple. Still, they would be more than enough to deal with... whatever this was. This foolish avatar who had dared to defile his mistress’s territory was about to learn a long, agonizing lesson. Along with the traitorous lud who had joined his cause. How dare they spurn the kindness his goddess was granting them, allowing them to keep their homes and families!
Yes, the archon fully intended to enjoy flaying the skin from each and every last one of them. And as for this avatar?
He’d return to Ligo’s mistress in chains.
----------------------------------------
The temple loomed before Callan and the others. Even though it was only a two-story building, between the solid stone walls and the ominous aura emanating from it, the whole structure was far more imposing than it had a right to be.
Of course, most of that aura was probably just in Callan’s head, but still.
Shamain shuffled closer, inserting herself between Callan and Tervak. “What’s the plan now, boy? Still intend to peel the wall away and slip inside?”
“Unfortunately, that’s no longer an option.” Mentally, Callan pulled up his stat screen. It showed his apotheosis down to 15% already, enough for a few uses of Shape Stone, but not nearly enough to make a hole big enough to squeeze through. If they had more of the priesthood, or if Tervak and Shamain hadn’t utilized all of their orison uses back at the cliff...
Well, no sense wishing for what one didn’t have. “I’m thinking we’ll go up instead of through. Tervak, you say there’s a trapdoor on the roof?”
The elder nodded. “It should lead to the building rafters. However, there is no stairway or ladder to allow us access down.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, we still have the rope, after all. I can use it to pull you both up to the roof, and you can use the same one to scale down to free Kivi and Aldis.”
Shamain sniffed. “You think I need help scaling a simple rope, do you? When this is all over, you and I are having a race to the top of the pythian tree, and we’ll see who gets there first.”
They did manage to pull you free of the canyon, Xeph noted. Best apologize. I’d just as soon you not climb a tree that’s taller than some mountains.
“Anyway,” Callan said in an effort to bring the conversation back on task, “I’ll scale the building, make sure the coast is clear, then secure the rope for the both of you. Unless there are any other volunteers?”
Both of the lud remained silent, much to Callan’s chagrin. “Right, well no time like the present, then.”
“Honored Avatar, if I may be so bold as to ask a question.” Tervak waited until Callan gave an assenting nod. “Climbing the building will be difficult even with our god-given advantages. How are you expecting to accomplish reaching the roof?”
He glanced at the building warily, as if looking for some crenelation or other feature to lasso with their rope. Callan just smirked.
“I have my god-given advantages too, you know.”
Sticking his hand to one side, Callan summoned Wurmchain.
Alert: 4.5% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is now 19.5%
He approached the building wall. With a quick glance in either direction to make sure there were no onlookers, he swung the chain at the wall, embedding the hook as far up as he could manage. It stuck fast.
“Now for the fun part,” he muttered. Wincing, he grabbed hold of the chain. While the scales couldn’t cut through his Mountainform, it was still like trying to hold on to a cactus too tightly. The pain only grew as he got higher.
Soon he had reached the spot where the tip was embedded into the stone wall. Unfortunately, the roof was still too far away for him to simply clamber up. He swung for a moment, debating his options.
Most obvious was making another ledge with Shape Stone, like he’d done to escape the temple. But he had no idea what it would do to the building if he reshaped the stone. Or, more importantly, how obvious it would be to those inside. He was already risking enough with his Wurmchain hole.
So instead, he dismissed the weapon. As the air filled with the odorous stench of sulphur, Callan snatched ahold of the wall, using the hole the weapon left in it as a makeshift handhold. With his other hand, he summoned Wurmchain again.
Alert: 4.5% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is now 24%
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
After that, it was the work of a few painful moments to haul himself onto the roof. Dismissing the second weapon, he lowered a rope, then set about pulling first Tervak, then Shamain up.
“Where’s the door?” he asked, as the lud clambered along the side, trying to make as little noise as possible. Tervak waved him on.
“It is right over here, Avatar. We just need to—yes, there it is.”
A small trapdoor, made of the same pythian bark as the rest of the roof, lay to one side. Giving it a careful tug, Callan raised it enough for a quick view inside.
The building below was a single, enormous room. Over half the space was taken up by rows of barrels against a far wall, and another quarter was dominated by a steel cage. One which Callan could see was crowded with various lud, from cowering children to old men with shoulders slumped in defeat.
And at the center of them all, Kivi.
Mortal. Xeph’s voice pulled Callan back, and he tore his gaze away from the lud girl. Over there, against the wall. Do you see that?
Callan followed the god’s directions, and saw a slab of stone, not unlike the one that adorned the main chamber of Xeph’s own temple. However, any similarities between the two died right there.
The stone’s surface was covered with ornate cloth of a deep, rich red color, patterned at the edge in gold. No statue or effigy adorned its center, but rather a golden bowl filled with crackling flames. From here Callan couldn’t see any source of fuel, but then again he hadn’t noticed any for the braziers in Xeph’s temple, either.
At least these flames weren’t a creepy-ass gray color.
“Is that our goal?” he whispered.
Correct. All you need do is lay your hands on it, and I can handle the rest.
Callan nodded, then turned back to the others. “Alright, here’s the plan. I’ll descend down the rope first. If I can get to the altar unnoticed, great, but if not I’ll create a distraction. The two of you follow and release the prisoners. Then it’ll be your turn to keep the priests occupied while I corrupt the temple and shut down Zavastu’s powers. Think you’re up to that?”
“Suppose it doesn’t matter if we are or not,” Shamain grumbled. “We’ve followed you this far, might as well see it through to the end.”
Tervak nodded. “I shall secure the rope. Just give the word when you’re ready to attack.”
“About that. Do either of you have any food on you?” When the lud just stared at him, Callan continued, “Xeph’s powers recover faster when I eat or sleep. Might do to get a little bit more of an advantage before heading in.”
“Wise thinking, honored avatar,” Tervak said as Shamain handed over a handful of hard nuts that looked like a distant cousin to an acorn. “But we must not tarry overlong. Do you see that?”
He pointed into the distance. Callan squinted, just barely making out what looked like a cloud of dust rising into the air.
“Is that the caravan?”
“I believe so. Based on its movements, I would expect it to arrive within the hour.”
“We also don’t know how long it’ll be until those priests inside notice their friends are missing,” Shamain added. “However difficult this will be, it’s going to be a sight worse once they’re all riled up.”
“Dangit, that’s a good point. Xeph?”
You are currently at 21% apotheosis, the god noted. At the very least, we need to wait until you have enough to call upon Wurmchain again in an emergency. At least one use of Shape Stone as well would likely be prudent.
Callan nodded, then swallowed down the nuts Shamain had given him. He sat down to wait, pulling up his stat screen. His eyes bored into the bottom row.
Ugh, this is taking forever. Of course, watched pots and all that, I suppose. Not much I can do about that problem though.
The minutes slowly ticked by, and with it, his apotheosis. Shamain watched the inside of the warehouse through the cracked door, while Tervak’s eyes remained glued on the approaching caravan.
After what felt like forever, Callan’s apotheosis reached an acceptable threshold.
APOTHEOSIS: 15/25%
Rising, Callan dusted off his pants and glanced between the elders. “Any updates?”
Shamain grunted. “I spotted two cultists moving down there, looked like they were making themselves some lunch. Spoiled bastards have probably been going through our food like there’s no tomorrow. Well, when the real tomorrow comes they’re in for a sorry surprise—”
“Any sign of the other four?” Callan asked, talking over the top of the lud woman. She glowered at him, but they didn’t have the time for her usual banter right now. “Do you have at least a guess on their positions?”
“Yeah, yeah, lad, I was getting there! The others appear to be in their sleeping quarters, past the cage.”
“Alright. I’ll try to draw them near the altar so that their backs are to you.” Callan turned towards Tervak. “How’s the caravan doing?”
“Making steady progress, Avatar. Still nearly an hour away, if my eyes don’t deceive me.”
Callan strained his gaze in the caravan’s direction but couldn’t tell a difference. Given how much better lud eyes were than his own, he’d just have to trust the man’s estimate.
The time for waiting was at an end.
“Is the rope secured?” At a nod from Tervak, Callan eased the trapdoor open fully and stepped into the warehouse. “Wait until the priests are distracted before moving.”
Then he grabbed the rope and dropped from the rafters.
The rope passed through his hands with an angry hiss, but thanks to Mountainform’s protection Callan didn’t feel a thing. He gave a tight squeeze as the floor rushed up to meet him, arresting his stop before he could hit the floor. His feet touched with the softest of rasps.
Satisfied with his Mission Impossible-style entrance, Callan glanced up. A wide-eyed lilish man stood across from him, mouth partially agape, a loaf of bread forgotten in his hands.
Right. Should have probably looked before I dropped down. Chagrin flashed across Callan’s face but was just as quickly replaced with an actual smile.
“What are you—oof!” The lilish doubled over as Callan’s stone-encrusted fist impacted his sternum. He went stumbling backwards and crashed into several barrels, knocking one of them onto its side.
Callan glanced up and saw all other eyes in the room turning in his direction. Kivi stood up from the middle of the cage, the look of hope in her expression warring with terror.
Giving the lud girl a quick wink. Callan turned his attention to the five remaining priests. They had also frozen in surprise, but he didn’t expect that to last long.
“Greetings, all!” he called out. Striding forward, he leapt up onto the altar. That got the priests’ attention, and with several growls they started forward. Balls of flame ignited in several hands.
“Listen up, because I’m only going to say this once!” Callan settled hands on his hips and scanned the approaching cultists. No one was shooting at him yet, but likely only because they didn’t want to hurt their goddess’s altar. “I’ll give you six the same choice I gave the others—surrender or die. Best decide quickly now.”
The priests paused in their advance on hearing that. They glanced at each other in confusion.
“Haven’t you been wondering why nobody has checked in for a while?” Callan asked. “Why you haven’t heard from your precious archon?”
“There was some shouting in the village,” one of the priests said. “He went to investigate.”
“Yeah, that shouting was me,” Callan said with a grin. He was tempted to also tell them he was an avatar, but decided it was better to play that card close to the vest. No sense giving away the real reason he wanted to be this close to their altar.
“Archon Ligo is one of Zavastu’s greatest servants!” a small veloom called from one side of the crowd.
“And I killed him without hardly breaking a sweat.”
Silence reigned in the room. Callan could tell by the varied expressions the priests were trying to decide whether they believed his words or not. Frankly, Callan didn’t care; he just needed them distracted until—
“Hey!” At the shout, all eyes turned to the lilish priest who was only now picking himself up off the floor. “He’s just trying to distract you! Look!”
He pointed to where Shamain and Tervak were hustling their way towards the cage doors. The small veloom let out a harsh laugh.
“Foolish lud. What do they think they’re going to do without the key—” Her words died as Shamain manifested her weapon. The Wurmchain sliced through the cage’s lock with ease.
Showtime. Callan thought. The doors burst open and lud streamed out. Most fled towards the warehouse exit, but two came to stand beside Tervak.
As the cultists turned and ran, some after the fleeing lud, the others towards Xeph’s priests, Callan dropped down and placed his hands on the altar.
“Okay, Xeph, do your stuff.”
Alert: Foreign temple detected. Beginning desecration...
Callan watched as his Conviction slowly ticked downward. In moments, it was at two... one... zero.
Quick, human. Swallow the remaining shards.
For once, Callan didn’t hesitate. He shoved all three crystals in his mouth at once, gagged, then managed to get them down. Immediately his Conviction rose, only to begin dropping again.
C’mon... please!
Conviction: 2/5
Conviction: 1/5
Conviction: 0/5
Error: Insufficient Conviction to fully corrupt this temple. Please restore Conviction and attempt again.
“No,” Callan breathed. Inside his head, Xeph let out a frustrated moan.
It appears we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, mortal.
“And what’s the best approach for that? Destroying the altar?” Callan flexed his stony fingers.
The entire building would be preferable. Try knocking down several of the support beams in the middle. Just be careful not to be crushed beneath the roof when it collapses.
“Isn’t there an easier way? Why don’t I—”
“Step away from the altar, avatar.”
Callan glanced up, and a cold sweat immediately broke out across his body. Striding towards him, bathed in a suit of fire, was Ligo, archon of the goddess Zavastu.