I made a mistake. I underestimated one of the most powerful forces in the world, even though I had been aware of it, touched by it, and was alive because of it. I’m profoundly ashamed that I didn’t recognize this sooner.
When I ran forward, roaring at the top of my lungs, the only thought I had in my head was to cave in somebody’s skull. Even as Lady Laspa and Lord Mattigen lifted their staves to attack, I barreled toward my enemies with my rage at its height. Unfortunately, a blast of wind forced me back, knocking me flat as I tried to control my fall. I rolled with the attack, assuming an attack posture as the two Magister Lords placed themselves between me and the altar.
Lady Laspa raised her staff and started chanting in some language I didn’t recognize. It was airy yet ominous, and as she spoke it, a grey mist seemed to seep from her mouth. The mist flowed up and past where we had come from, and into the suits of armor in the hall. The mist flew into the visors of the suits, and they began to rumble; with a horrible sound, they walked. They raised their weapons and came clattering down the hall with the intention of killing us all.
Kuro and Alverd turned around and made to deal with their new adversaries. I saw Kuro pull fire from his chest, throwing a fireball at the nearest suit; it did little to stop its advance. Instead, the now flaming suit of armor brought its axe up, but Alverd swiftly moved in and parted the thrall’s head from its body with a well-timed slash of his sword. The helmet went clattering away.
Yet this was not enough to stop the thrall. It still kept coming. Alverd was forced to parry the axe with his shield, and counterattacked with a slice to the suit’s body, bisecting it in one clean blow. The suit collapsed to the ground, and Alverd kicked its axe away. And yet, seven more of the suits were still coming down the hall to reinforce Laspa.
I turned my attention to her. Kuro had mentioned before that only the death of the necromancer could stop her thralls. I sorely hoped that he was right. With another battle cry, I made a dash for Laspa, my hammer held in both hands.
Apparently Laspa was too busy controlling her minions to be able to protect herself. She made barely any move to stop me, but as I drew near, Lord Mattigen tried to hit me with another spell. He waved his staff and threw fire at me, but this time I saw it coming; my berserker-enhanced senses easily allowed me to duck under the tongue of flame blazing over me. Even as I slid under the fire, I reared back and prepared to swing my hammer.
Laspa finally responded in earnest to my attack, but she was too sluggish to evade. My swing knocked her staff from her hands, causing it to fly back to where Sheena was being restrained by several of the other Magisters. As soon as the staff was parted from her hands, the suits of armor attacking Alverd and Kuro fell to the ground, lifeless once more. With the tide of battle shifted, we all moved to attack the Magisters in earnest. I watched as Alverd, McFarlane, and Kuro caught up to me, and together we surged forward.
But then Albrecht stepped up. With one motion, he slammed his staff on the ground, and a wave of force shot out in all directions, stopping us in our tracks. Even the Magister Lords behind him seemed to quake in their boots at the display. I had to admit, Albrecht could command attention. We skid to a halt before him, and when he saw that we weren’t making any moves to challenge him, he spoke.
“This has all gone on long enough.” Albrecht roared. “This nonsense ends here.”
Albrecht waved his free hand. “I see we have an audience for what is about to transpire here. Good. After twenty years of lying, I can finally tell the truth for once. And it will be a liberating experience.”
And with that, Albrecht threw a massive lance of ice at where the two Magisters were holding Sheena. The lance landed next to the two, exploding violently. Shards of ice rocketed into their bodies, missing Sheena by fractions of inches. The two fell to the ground like bloody pincushions, and Sheena, no worse for the wear, fell to her knees. Lady Kertouli, however, immediately moved behind her and grabbed a knife on the altar, holding it across Sheena’s neck, a look of surprise and fury on her face. “You fool! What are you doing?! Why do you turn your magic on your allies?!”
Albrecht snickered a bit as he swiveled around to face her. “Allies? Oh, how mistaken you are, Embera. I have no intention of allowing the Calamities to awaken. I have sworn to protect Sheena, and now that I have proof positive of your treason, I will see that every single one of you hangs for this offense. Then, with the Council of Magic gone, Sheena’s rule as Witch-Queen will be unquestioned, and if she desires peace, then there will be no Council to oppose her will in such matters.”
Sweet Mother Evros. Lord Albrecht had pulled the mother of all triple crosses. My brain was still, sad to say, struggling to keep up with all the revelations being dropped here. But then, Albrecht continued. “I never had any intention of allowing you to sacrifice my darling niece to fulfill your insane ambitions. I joined your conspiracy merely to uncover how far it went. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that nearly the entire Council agreed on the course of war at all costs.”
Albrecht cocked his head to the side, a strangely off-putting grin spreading across his face. “Did you know that about five or so years ago, the King of Ishmar sent me a secret missive ordering me to begin pushing Sheena to accept the possibility of a truce with Ishmar? It surprised me as well. It was right after Ishmar invaded and took over Marevar. I never could’ve imagined that my hated enemy would consider his youngest daughter his best hope for peace between our nations. Secretly, I was conflicted. I still wanted revenge against him for what he had done to me, and to other mage children. But I decided to trust in Sheena.”
Lady Kertouli snarled at us. She used her knife to make a cut along Sheena’s arm, drawing blood. The blood began to flow through the air, into the urn sitting on the altar. “There’s nothing you can do now, traitor! You come any closer, I slit her throat and bleed her quick!” Sheena stared at us, mostly at Albrecht, perhaps still trying to come to terms with what was happening.
We were at a standstill. Lady Laspa managed to retrieve her staff in the meantime, and stood next to Lord Mattigen, pointing her weapon at us. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the ground shook in a familiar manner; Kertouli’s golem stomped out from a side passage and placed itself squarely between us and the two Magisters now staring us down. I’d seen the golem’s dormicite skin repel magic before, and I was willing to bet that even dragon tooth metal might not be up to the task of taking that monster down.
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The golem made the first move. It started tromping over towards us, its hands raised. Arcane circles appeared around its hands, signaling a magical assault. I threw myself to the side, narrowly escaping a lance of ice that would have impaled me through the chest had I not seen it coming. The other spell, another ice lance, whizzed past Kuro, who fell on his arse in surprise. Remaining on the defensive wasn’t going to cut it.
I was about to prepare my berserker trance when I noticed something. In all the chaos, we had forgotten about Captain McFarlane. She had disappeared, and only now did I see her, creeping along the tops of the hidden alcoves, slowly maneuvering herself above where Kertouli was holding Sheena. I needed to buy the Captain the time she needed. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was suicidal, but I threw caution to the wind and rushed the golem, fury narrowing my vision as I charged.
Time seemed to crawl as I raced at the golem. It lifted its arm to punch me, but I feinted left before sidestepping right. Driving into the golem’s center, where its immense reach would not help it, I drove my hammer into its chest with a vicious, two-handed swing that I felt all the way to my shoulders.
Maybe it was just in my head, but I could’ve swore I knocked that monster back. It staggered, and I saw with satisfaction that a large set of cracks were spider-webbing out from the point of impact. So much for being the toughest metal on earth. But I wasn’t done with the golem yet.
I rolled under the golem’s legs, one step ahead of its lumbering arms. Because it had bent down to try and grab me, it was relatively easy to scramble onto the golem’s back. It wasn’t easy getting a grip, but I locked my legs around the golem’s head and proceeded to bash it with my hammer as many times as I could. After a few strikes (I had to use a one-handed grip), cracks formed in the golem’s head. Invigorated, I redoubled my efforts.
The golem tried to grab me with its arms, but suddenly, a huge ball of ice formed on its right arm. Kuro had conjured a huge ball of ice to encase the golem’s arm, weighing it down to the point where the monstrosity could not even lift it. After accomplishing this, he did the same for the other arm; without any way to stop me, the golem lurched forward to try and dislodge me, but my grip was too tight. With a roar of triumph, I swung the hammer one last time.
The dormicite finally gave way under my vicious assault. The hammer struck deep into the golem’s skull. A wisp of white smoke blew out of the hole with the force of a geyser, knocking me off the golem. The giant metal man keeled over and fell to the ground, causing a miniature quake as it smashed the floor. In the aftermath of its passing, a stunned silence settled over the room.
And in that moment, McFarlane struck. She hurtled down on Kertouli from above, her staff raised to strike. As Kertouli was currently too busy being shocked at the fall of her champion, she didn’t see the Captain at all. McFarlane slammed down onto Kertouli, knocking Sheena away. Without Kertouli’s influence, Sheena’s blood stopped flowing into the urn on the altar. McFarlane dragged Sheena to safety, and Albrecht stepped in front of her to shield them. As Sheena stumbled to her feet, Albrecht greeted her with her staff and his warm smile.
“I promised that I would never let them harm you, Sheena. It’s time for me to make good on that promise.”
Sheena embraced her uncle, tears running down her face in rivers. Her uncle finally broke the embrace, pushing her away gently. He turned to face our foes. Alverd moved to his side. He brandished Evros at Kertouli. “The tide has turned, witch. You would do well to surrender. Unless you favor death to punishment?” Alverd’s eyes flashed menacingly. “Your choice. Either way, your scheme ends now. Make your decision.”
Kertouli’s face twisted into a scowl, but quickly gave way to a crazed smile. “You have changed nothing! You have only delayed the inevitable. Now you shall witness the legacy of our nation, the reawakening of the Slumbering Calamities!” Kertouli lifted the urn off the altar, holding it above her head, screaming like a banshee. The urn began to glow, and the blood within poured out and away through the air towards a nearby column.
The blood saturated the column, spreading over it like a sickly paste. But as the blood began to coat the column, the room shook. The column slid into the ground, and suddenly, the catacombs shook violently. An unearthly cacophony filled the room, and only after it subsided did we hear Kertouli laugh over the noise. “It has begun! Though I only have enough blood to awaken one Calamity, I can easily get more. You have not stopped us, fools. We are Magisters! The world quakes before our power! We will silence you, and then we will destroy Ishmar!”
As the ground shook, we could feel something stir behind the altar. Rocks fell from the ceiling as something gave way; the entire wall behind the altar collapsed, and we saw as something huge rose from the debris. It continued to rise, destroying the ceiling and ripping through the earth above, allowing sunlight to leak through. There was no mistaking what was happening.
The first of the Calamities had awoken.
The massive giant continued to stand up, until at long last, it stood at its full height of fifty feet. From our precarious position at the construct’s feet, we could see that it was indeed made entirely of dormicite, its skin glistening in the afternoon sun. Several tons of dirt, stone and other detritus rained down as the Calamity rose up through the soil above, punching through the ground outside of Ethenia’s front gate.
As the din finally subsided, I could hear Kertouli laughing in the background. “You see? With this power, nothing in this world can oppose us! It is not too late! Return to the fold, Prime Minister. With the Calamities, we can easily secure victory over the dragontamers! Isn’t that what you want, Gerhalt?! Isn’t it what you wanted for more than two decades?!”
Albrecht grinned. “I see you still don’t grasp why I’m doing this, Embera. I want to save Sheena more than conquer an entire nation. So rather than help you destroy Ishmar and Algrustos, I will stop you here and protect my niece, at all costs.” Albrecht suddenly conjured a fireball in his hand. “Sheena’s ancestors are not the only ones who gained power by consorting with spirits and demons. It was a terrible sacrifice to make, but if it saves her life, then I deem it a necessary evil.”
Love. Albrecht’s love for his niece was so great, that he was willing to gain the power to use magic without a staff…by selling his soul to some otherworldly being? At first I couldn’t fathom such a thing, but then I realized why. He loved Sheena like she was his own daughter. It had been the same sacrifice my father had made for me. The willingness to surrender anything to ensure the safety of one who was precious to him. I almost teared up in that moment.
Lady Laspa scoffed. “If that is the way you feel, then you can die along with these rabble!” She opened her mouth and the horrible grey smoke wafted out again, but this time, the smoke wafted into the coffins lining the walls of the room we were in. The coffins were wrenched open, and more undead knights shuffled out, their rust-covered weapons raised.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lord Mattigen made a gesture with his staff. With a horrendous screech, a rift appeared in the air next to Mattigen; after a moment, something crawled out of the rift. It was the demon that had knocked us all out. The demon looked more than eager to rip the flesh off our bones; his contractor wasn’t any better with the grin spreading across his weathered face.
I raised my hammer in a two-fisted grip. In my peripheral vision, I saw Alverd, Kuro, Albrecht, McFarlane and even Sheena preparing themselves to face their new adversaries. With so much backup, I knew that I would have no problem using my berserker trance without worry. As the rage consumed me, the only thing I saw ahead of me was the enemy, still shambling towards us.
Time to bust some heads.