There was a certain serenity to darkness for Nannade. Although true darkness was lost to her. The serpent’s gift made her see her surroundings even blindfolded and with closes eyes in total darkness. Nothing was ever truly black anymore. In this sea of black, illuminated by warmth, she began her hunt.
Ever since her attempted rescue mission, the cultists had increased their guards, hired more gang members to comb the ruins. Telliduso had fled the ruins, possible the entire city or even country too. And the sewers as well were much better guarded. The cultists must have noticed she was not just an ambitious girl, but a serious threat.
This time, she was prepared. She had prepared more spells than ever before and she knew exactly where to enter. Her captive had revealed all secrets to her willingly in exchange for a quick and painless death. A part of Nannade looked back in disgust and shame, but certain things needed to be buried. The high-priestess had obligations to fulfil. For now, and for ever more.
Many cultists were still patrolling the sewers, but Nannade did not avoid them. She waited for them. Around corners, hidden in nooks and crannies. When they walked by, she struck.
She initially planned on using a variation of the Embracing Shadows or Flooding Shadows spells to separate and pick them off individually, but she decided against such a wasteful use of flux. Instead, she had carved herself blades out of bones. Bones were ample below the earth here, and porous, perfect for soaking up venom. Which one of these imperial citizens would have thought that their remains would be used as venomous blades thirteen centuries after their painful death buried by rock and soil?
She observed her targets, a patrol of three. She knew the serpent was able strike with surgical precision, if she let herself be guided. She didn’t need to kill all of them, the venom would take some time to take a lethal effect. During this time, the victims had time to return to base and make reports. The fight’s echoes would also quickly draw attention by other patrols. She was prepared for all. She had found a harmony between herself and the serpent. Nothing could stand against them now. The church of one would hold its first mass tonight.
She may have accepted the title of high-priestess and relinquished her body as a temple back in the forest of dreams, but it was here, deep within the corpse of the undying city, that she had accepted the responsibilities this title brought with it and the tools she needed to wield.
The three had passed her by, she made her move. Slowly but steadily she got closer.
Only one of the guards wore metal plate and chainmail beneath, the others just padded vests and leather caps, not unlike the cap Nannade was wearing. The one with the metal plate would need a strong thrust from up close, with her dagger. The blade was narrow but long, with a thick central ridge. Ideal for catching even heavy blows and penetrating armour. Nannade had little use for slashing weapons. Her short reach and lower strength compared to steeled and trained men meant she would always be at a disadvantage, but the long and slender dagger compensated for her shortcomings admirably.
She was less than eight feet away from them when she drew the first of her knives and threw it with all force she could muster. It landed squarely in the first guard’s unarmoured leg.
The guard screamed in pain, all three of them looked around, just in time to seeNannade, lunging at them. She buried her dagger deep in the second one’s neck, gliding through the chainmail like through paper, while her left arm grabbed the first one by the shoulder and tripped him over her leg.
She pulled the dagger out of the first one’s neck, releasing a fountain of blood, turned around, and caught the third one’s spear in the dagger's upturned guard. She moved behind the tip, closer to her opponent. She was close enough for a kiss when her blade of bone penetrated his side and delivered her venom deep into his body. She left the blade there, wrested the spear from his hands and drove it several times into the back of the guard still on the floor. Then she retreatedback into the shadows.
The third guard looked around panicked, not knowing whether to help his comrades, take care of his own wound or run for his life. He did not know that each was useless. Nannade had let him run for a reason.
The guard would make it back to base, open the door and report what had happened to the others. Then the security would draw close and concentrate. A call back to the base would be made to tighten security. All of this was in the security protocol that Nannade had obtained from the woman in the fine clothes.
It happened as she had planned it. As the patrols withdrew from the sewers and the ruined city, many of them ran into her trap. None of those came back complete, all of them lost at least one of their comrades to blade or venom. The dance of venom had begun, and while none of them knew the steps, all of them would join in sooner or later.
They swept through the sewersin a tight formation. Groups of five at least, all accompanied by a priest or acolyte, meeting up, reporting, and setting out again from the junctions and intersections where they met. But none of them would find the intruder, because the intruder was counting on them to fulfil their duty. She had long slipped inside the temple. The most elite of all guards were guarding the high-priest and his closest acolytes inside the temple. But it mattered not. None of them were Nannade’s target. For now. She would leave it to the god todestroy the faith.
She knew that there was a tunnel running under the chamber of offerings, where the ritual to feed the lord was performed. She also knew that there was an auditorium next to it, one of those that had steps leading downward to a stage like in anamphitheatre. A simple Stone Grind was all she needed. She knew that apart from the door in the ceiling below the chamber of offering, there was one other exit. A hidden door that led into the sewers, to unleash the beast and guide it to the place in the ruined city where the cult needed to instil respect and loyalty.
The Lord’s Labyrinth was a series of crude tunnels, dug by claws and hands, higher than most of the other tunnels she had been in so far. How they kept him confined in here was a mystery to her, but in the end without consequence. She could smell rot and bodily effluence throughout the maze. Apparently, one person ever made it out alive, a man they called Giorno the coward, who was said to have an unnatural gift for running away just before danger arrives. Nannade did not know whether Telliduso ever was in here or whether he had faced the beast outside. How either of them managed to get away she did not know. In the distance, she could hear him grunting. He too seemed to be agitated by the chaos above, and he too was searching for her. her.
Did he take her for another offering? Unlikely. The cultists would attract him with chants and other rituals to prepare him. When was the last time he was fed? Most likely this morning, according to the regular schedule Nannade had been told.
She made it around another corner, and there in the distance, she could see him, shining like a bonfire in the night. A grotesque mix of rat and man. Not chaotic and half-formed like the werewolf. No, this union was much more guided and controlled, the cultists had done their homework. Whatever ritual they had used to bind the spirit into corporeal flesh, they had made sure to erase all will beyond feeding, as to better control the beast. It would be today that this would cost them.
The Lord of the Tunnels started coming towards her. First with slow steps, then faster, then charging at her, shaking the soil loose from walls and ceiling with his mass. From here on out, she needed to be even more careful. Although his bulging muscles seemed too large for even these tunnels, he effortlessly pushed his body through them, as if everything in his body was willing to simply flow out of the way.
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She hurried through the tunnels, towards where she knew the exit would be. It was well hidden but from within there was one significant sign: the only two tunnels towards this exit had wide grate gates installed, linked to levers above to drop down if the exit gate itself needed tending or repairs, and protect the workers from the Lord. She found the gates and forced one of them to drop by breaking the retention mechanism. The Lord could probably tear them open, but she only needed to hinder him for a moment.
Heavy breathing and angry grunting announced the Lord was coming for her. She stood behind the grate and drew one of her spells from her belt, took a step back away from the grate and braced herself. With all his might, the Lord of the Tunnels threw himself against the grate. It bent inwards, but it held. Nannade was safe.
Nannade snapped her fingers and a lance of burning fire hit the lord straight in his right eye. It howled and screamed. If they hadn’t by now, this would alert the cultists, that the intruder had been successful. The beast would, of course, not die as easily as this. He was powerful and even gruesome injuries would not stall it for long. He turned around and looked for a path to the other gate.
Nannade quickly moved to the other gate and blocked it with a column of transmuted stone. Then she used an adapted version of Stone Grind beneath her to make a little hidey-hole and once inside, made sure to cover the hole back up with a reinforced layer of sculpted soil. She could hear the Lord coming through the open gate above her, sniffing around for her. He might find her in here, given enough time, but she already heard the exit open.
By her plan, the cultists would pour in to find the Lord uncontained and then attempt to subdue him with their spells, charms and wards. At this stage, they would most likely succeed, calm him down and then re-establish containment, but Nannade knew their protocol well enough to tamper with it.
She could hear the Lord’s step above her, feel how the soil was compressed beneath his feet, making her ceiling bulge downwards. When the bulge receded, it was her time. She took Flooding Shadows from her belt, breached the ceiling of her little hidey-hole and cast the spell.
She could still easily see the warm bodies around. Most importantly, the Lord’s massive form towering directly above her. She grabbed one of his legs, dug her fangs in deep and pressed all venom she had from them. A dose as large as possible for this huge beast. It reared up and screamed in agony as the pain entered its veins. After she had done that, she ran away, into the sewers, the cultists would not see a single hair of her.
The screams and howls of the monstrosity could be heard throughout the labyrinth and the sewers, maybe even in the ruins above. Nannade could also hear the panicked screams of the cultists. The pain would be too great to contain the raging beast with any charm or ward they had. It would not kill the beast. Even the burned eye she had dealt had already healed. But the pain would remain.
Now it was just a matter of time. They would require more and more guards to subdue the beast, then they would run out. When even the arcanists could not stop the painful rage, they would flee. But Nannade was already ahead of them.
Currently, they had only one exit left open, they had made sure to make the other seals magic-proof, and they would never find the exit in the old bath-house. They would need a long rite to unseal their own tomb. For the low chance they would make it towards the only exit, Nannade was waiting for them. She sat above the stairs leading up to the surface. The door to the ruins behind her was merely barred from the inside, not locked. And sure enough, two guards made it. They both fell quickly to her dagger, not prepared for any attack. Soon after, a priest followed, he too fell quickly.
Nannade was still sitting above the stairs, listening into the sewers. The beast was no longer screaming in agony, merely weeping and wailing. Soon the poison would be cleansed from its body by its unnatural resilience, but still, it caused great agony. Occasionally, she could still hear him stomping.
For a while, she just listened to the panicked screams of the cultists being picked off one by one, trying to escape or fight back. Sometimes, she could hear incantations being screamed, but they soon died down as well.Eventually, Nannade decided it was time. She set out into the sewers again.
She found him sure enough, breathing heavily, turning and shuffling around in confusion and daze, bloody drool dripping out of his mouth. Left alone, he would soon heal up again. He noticed her and turned around. Did he know it was her who had delivered this most painful of punishments? It most likely didn’t matter; his rage was blind.
She held her last bone blade, soaked full of venom, in her left, and the dagger in her right. Various spells were pricked onto her claws. While she was fighting during her rescue attempt, Nannade felt a dissonance between her and the serpent. She needed attunement, and for this, her will needed to take a step back, so the serpent could wield her body with the skill priestess had learned. The priestess closed her eyes. The serpent’s eyes were enough, she would guide the priestess, like she had guided the snake in the pit of the temple. The bonfire before her pierced the cold darkness.
She hated direct confrontation, but the serpent demanded a dance, and so the priestess danced. The Lord’s knuckles shook the ground as he brought his fists down towards the priestess, screaming in agony at every movement. Nannade dodged left, dodged right, never backed down, rolled under the monster to cut across its chest and tendons, driving the bone blade deep into its side and leaving it there. With every drop of blood spilled, the monstrosity let out another grunt, deepening his determination to kill the priestess. But while she remained within his reach, she eluded his grasp, and soon, the Lord took a few steps back, giving himself time to heal up.
Where ever he was taking the energy to keep healing from, he had vast reserves. Reserves Nannade did not have, but she did have some venom left, two vials full. Her bone blade was still sticking out of the beast’s flesh, but the wound had not healed up, proving Nannade right in her assumptions. She took the vials, pulled out the corks, and poured all of the venom into her mouth. The serpent had understood and accepted the priestess’ cunning.
The beast was ready and came back towards Nannade. She stood with her back to the wall of a T-section in the sewers. She went as far back as she could, until her back touched the wall. The beast came for her. Nannade pressed her hands and feet against the wall and tensed her muscles.
The lord lunged, his fist came for her. She leapt up, her feet pushing her off the wall. His fist hit stone. She soared towards him, her dagger sank into his shoulder, her claws found hold in his skin, her fangs dug straight into his neck. The venom entered the wound.
A pained scream reverberated throughout the tunnels, followed by thundering as the Lord slammed his body against the stone wall, squashing the priestess, once, twice, thrice, until she let go and fell to the ground.
The priestess rolled away from the Lord, out of his reach. Her ribs ached and breathing pained her.She knew at least some of them were broken, but she didn’t know how much more fight she had left in her. She started her dance again, to occupy the beast, give the venom time to work. They danced, the priestess beginning to slug, but not being caught yet. Countless times she cut her opponent, the wounds stopped healing up and his movements became less accurate with each passing moment. His legs started to buckle, his fingers stopped closing all the way to a fist. Tremors seized his every limb.
Nannade still had many papers left. A Lash of Fire seared the Lord's eyes, Invisible Fists knocked his head about, but he kept up his offensive.
Finally, his speed and strength had died down to a human level. As the priestess stood again with her back to a wall, the Lord galumphed towards her with heavy steps. The serpent lit another paper. Two large spikes of stone grew from the wall behind the priestess, piercing the monstrosity's shoulders. His body grinded to a halt on the spikes. Nannade could still hear his breath and heartbeat, albeit slow and weak.
She picked up a particular large piece of rubble, climbed up to the Lord's head. She put one of her throwing knives to his forehead, closed her eyes and said “You can rest now.” Then she hammered the knife into his braincase.
“Impossible my ass, Telliduso, you half-baked drop-out!”
When she had confirmed the beast’s death multiple times, she walked to the temple to confirm everyone there was dead as well.
As she swept through the temple, she discovered the remnants of disgusting rituals that made her stomach churn. Many inscriptions in old imperial and murals lined the wall. Most of them concerned the resurrection of the buried city. They used the phoenix as their crest and claimed to be the true heirs to the old empire, while the city above was a lifeless imitation and a rotting one at that. They promised restoration and empowerment. But never did they mention the Lord of the tunnels, except for one room.
The room was large and squared, in the middle was a cage just big enough for a single man to stand upright, and a door in the floor. This must be the chamber of offering, where captives were dropped down to the Lord. In the murals on the walls, the Lord was depicted as a huge rat, tearing apart those that stood against the resurrection of the old empire.
She searched the entire complex. An auditorium, barracks, a cantina, sparring rooms, they had repurposed some old cellars of buildings and even the basement of a prison for their purposes. Some of the complex was newly built by them. In one room obviously already visited by the Lord, a scared cultist crawled forth from under a pile of corpses.
“Is he gone?” He asked with a shaking voice.
“Yes, but I'm here now.” Nannade took his life and his phoenix-medallion, just to have something to show the city guard. She made her way back to the Lord's corpse, she still had to bring the head up to the surface, but she’d need one powerhouse of a spell to take it off its shoulders.