The Decisive Battle, Part 2

A salvo of energy slashes rushed through the air towards Khyrs. Levi had unsheathed his enchanted blade to avenge his and Nana’s fallen guardian.

“Murderer! How could you?” Consumed by rage, Levi swung his blade relentlessly, intent on sending the master into oblivion. The other cultists gasped and shouted in disbelief, creating a cacophony that echoed throughout the immense chamber.

Khyrs sneered as he raised his right hand and chanted, “Magic barrier.” The master’s defenses effortlessly nullified Levi’s attacks. “Your efforts are in vain, boy! It seems that I will have to make an example out of you as well.”

Ancient verses slithered out of the master’s lips, and a tendril shot out from his back, seizing Levi by his throat. Nana was not quick enough to stop the grotesque appendage from lifting her brother and dangling him over the edge of the looming column.

“Let the deaths of these treacherous worms be object lessons in disloyalty!” roared the master.

As Levi dangled in the air, he began to swing his body while Khyrs was preoccupied with terrifying his followers into submission. The boy generated enough momentum to where he could safely land on the column if he freed himself. And freed himself he did when he hastily swung his sword once more, severing the tendril that was squeezing his neck.

Atrina and Valerie watched the boy fall to the platform and dash to Shaw. “We have to do something!” shouted the paladin as she tugged the witch’s sleeve.

“Not yet, Val! We just need an opening…” Atrina watched the master like a hawk. From the moment she saw Khyrs mortally wound Shaw, the witch searched for the stone on the master’s body.

“There!” exclaimed the sorceress. Khyrs flew around the platform, stalking Levi as he held Shaw close to himself. Upon turning his back to Atrina, the master exposed the stone pouch fastened to the back of his robe.

The witch aimed her wrist carefully. Atrina’s target was in sight, and she saw her sole chance to turn the tide. The rest of the world faded around the sorceress, and the only sound she heard was her own disjointed breathing.

I won’t miss, for me, for Valerie, for Sylvina! The witch chanted, “Gossamer!” A silken web shot forth and latched onto the stone pouch. Atrina tugged with all of her strength, tearing the artifact in its pouch away from Khyrs.

“No!” the master yelled in dismay. The sorceress caught her pouch, but her victory was short-lived. Now, every cultist in the chamber stared at the witch and the paladin menacingly.

“Don’t just stand there!” bellowed Khyrs. “Kill the intruders!”

Cultists nearest the duo raised their hands into spellcasting formation, but Nana suddenly pulled two glass bottles from under her robe. “Heads up!”

Shaw’s ward lobbed the bottles towards Atrina and Valerie, and they smashed against the ground in front of the two women. From the shattered bottles, a green gelatinous substance shivered and shook as it converged into a massive blob.

The sorceress and the paladin believed they had another enemy to fight until Nana begged, “If you are the witch Shaw spoke of, please save our father and the maiden!”

Parts of Nana’s spell seeped under the feet of the duo. “Hang on you two. Ectoplasm wave!”

The blob burst into a deluge of gooey streams that carried the witch and the paladin to the top of the viscous wave. The two women struggled to keep their balance at first as the ooze stormed through the ascendant path, but the spell adjusted itself to accommodate for their shifting weight.

Descendants were battered off the path, futilely casting spells to try and stop Atrina and Valerie’s advance atop Nana’s spell wave. The sorceress and the knight were not idle as they too combated the opposing cultists. Valerie swung the massive Jericho while Atrina protected them and their absurd mount with a magic barrier.

Within mere minutes, the duo had ascended to the towering height of the column. The master cursed the incompetence of his followers and readied a spell. “If you want something done right…”

Not this time, Khyrs! The witch had chosen a particular spell that she had not cast in ages to counter the master. “Shadow serpent!”

Atrina’s writhing, serpentine spell flew towards Khyrs and ensnared him. His arms were bound together tightly, and the artificial snake sank its fangs into his throat. The master’s half-formed spell drowned in his bloodied gurgling. Frantically, he thrashed in the air.

Straining to contain the master, Atrina bellowed, “Val, get Sylvina! I’ll hold off Khyrs.” The witch jumped off the oozing wave onto the column. As soon as she landed, the sorceress planted her feet and heaved.

Khyrs came crashing down, and his chin struck the edge of the column, sending him careening into the pile of Descendants who had fallen below.

Valerie rounded the last tier of the path when five cultists made a final stand. They gathered together in a defensive line and laid their palms on the ground, chanting, “Earthen lances!”

Enormous spikes erupted from the earth to impale Valerie, but the ectoplasm sprang from the path up to Sylvina’s entrapment. With her long arms extended, the paladin breached the half-sphere and extracted the Divine Maiden. “I got Sylvina!”

As the knight and the unconscious maiden fell to the column top, Nana’s spell absorbed the impact of their landing. Sylvina was saved, but they had nowhere to go. Atrina’s heart froze as she peered over the column’s edge and witnessed a Descendant shining an enhanced werelight upon the master.

The light’s intensity dissipated the witch’s serpent, freeing the master from his bondage. The hole in Khyrs’ neck healed almost instantaneously, and he snapped his dislocated jaw back into place. “Those who are able-bodied, join me in putting an end to this nuisance! Only the witch stands between us and our glorious futures. Attack!” At his command, a hoard of cultists began scaling the column through an array of flying and climbing incantations.

“What the hell are we going to do?” Levi panicked, and he clutched Shaw tightly.

“We hold the cards, not them!” Atrina pulled stone out from its pouch, and the artifact’s familiar coolness sent shivers throughout the witch’s body.

Raising her index finger to her forehead, the witch chanted, “Ring...of...FIRE!” Atrina threw her spell straight into the air above. The blazing ring grew and grew, and it nearly touched the ceiling before it fell.

“RUN!” screamed a cultist. Atrina’s fiery attack plummeted down past the column, for the ring’s diameter was greater than that of the column.

“Everyone, stay back from the edges!” exclaimed Atrina. Back to back, the group atop the pillar shielded their eyes as an infernal wall of flames exploded all the way to the ceiling. The scorching heat drew sweat from the party, and the screams of countless Descendants died in the roaring blaze.

Burning savagely for ages, Atrina’s Ring of Fire eventually subsided, leaving embers and smoke all around the chamber. Everything was quiet.

“I think you got ‘em,” Valerie gasped.

“Think again! Soar!” From the depths of the chamber, Khyrs shot into the air. The master was unscathed by the attack, and he gloated, “Did you really think you could beat me with such a feeble attack? My followers may not be as powerful as me, but their defensive spells are praiseworthy!”

Cheers and taunts echoed from the bottom of the pillar. “With the master leading us, we’re unstoppable!”

“Let’s see how tough you are without your flunkies protecting you!” Atrina raised her index finger once more, but she no longer believed that her strongest spell was capable of defeating the master.

“I have let you live for long enough,” growled Khyrs. Then, the master spoke words long forgotten by humanity, and the witch collapsed.

“Atrina! Please, get u—” Valerie’s shriek was disrupted by a tendril snatching her and Sylvina into the air. Two more tendrils abducted Nana and Levi. Only the incapacitated witch and the dying Shaw were left.

The master cackled madly. “HAHAHAHA! You see, witch? This is the fate that befalls all those who oppose me! Your demise is long overdue, but I will make you watch your friends die before I put an end to your pathetic life!”

Atrina grasped the stone to her chest as the world spun around her. It can’t end like this! Stone, help me now in my most desperate time! I need to save them, and I’ll do whatever it takes. I-I’ll give my entire self to you! Just do something!

An alien voice rang in the witch’s mind.

Excellent, Atrina. Do you know how long we’ve been waiting to hear those exact words?

What?

Questions later. What do you desire?

I need—

Need? We don’t deal in necessity.

Okay, okay, shit! I want the power to finally defeat Khyrs!

What an odd desire…

What do you mean? Are you still loyal to him?

WE ARE LOYAL TO NO ONE, especially not that self-centered braggart. We grew sick of entertaining his little ego.

Will you help me or not?

Patience, Atrina, patience. We can do anything, but you already have the power to stop him.

If I did, I would’ve done that already!

Perhaps, but circumstances have prevented you from realizing your true inner strength. Are you ready to see what lies within?

Stop wasting my goddamn time!

We’ll take that as a yes. Think carefully about how you wish to dispatch your enemy.

I still have to figure this shit out by myself? God, for a powerful artifact, you’re pretty useless.

Maybe you shouldn’t waste your energy arguing. Your friends are about to die, after all.

Argh! Khyrs can’t be killed by purely physical means. I assume he can recover from virtually any injury with that healing ability of his...Damn! I still have no idea! How do I fight someone from a different time? A...different...time…

Yes, you’re getting it…

When I first saw you in Brooksill, where did you come from?

A different time, and a different place.

I know what I must do.

Beautiful. It was only a matter of time, verdant sorceress Atrina.

-

The witch returned to the present, unaware that her mind had been whisked away. The master was still laughing triumphantly with his tendrils around Atrina’s allies, but the sorceress no longer felt weak.

Atrina rose to her feet. “Khyrs!”

The master’s laughter cut short. “What is this? How are you standing?”

“Let’s just say I took your advice about giving my whole self to the stone.”

“Impossible! Only I can be master of the artifact. No one else!” Khyrs’ eyes bulged fearfully.

“Not when the stone hates you! You’re always going on and on about being from a different time and place, and I thought it’d be fitting to send you away from this world. Khyrs, and everything you have tainted, leave this realm, and never return!”

The witch thrust the artifact towards the master, and a beam of light pierced his sternum. Khyrs did not even flinch.

“Hehehe, HAHAHAHA! Nothing can stop me, not even that pathetic stone! Now, witch, suffer in your last mome—”

A blinding portal of light tore open behind the master. Khyrs whipped his around in shock. He had no time to say anything before a mysterious force began dragging him inside. The master fought with his entire will to escape the portal’s pull, but he was no match for the immense force.

Atrina’s friends were still in the master’s clutches, and she chanted, “Squall-slash!” The tendrils of Khyrs were hacked off by the witch’s spell, and Nana’s ectoplasm caught the party members as they fell.

The master’s back touched the entrance of the portal, and he wailed in agony. “WHAT IS THIS? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, WITCH?”

“I’m only sending you to a hell of your own making. You won’t be missed here, Khyrs.”

“AAAAGGHHH!” In a flash, the master vanished from the world into the portal. The cavern began to shake, and the walls cracked, with stray fragments flying into the glowing door. The master’s realm was falling apart.

A cultist bellowed, “All is lost! Our master is dead. Flee!” Descendants scrambled towards the exit, tripping over each other as the cavern collapsed around them.

“It’s time to go, Atrina!” Valerie scooped up Sylvina, but the witch did not move, for she was staring at the stone in her hands.

-

Don’t you dare.

I’m gonna.

Why would you give us up? We can give you everything you want!

No, you can’t.

Insignificant human! You can create the world you desire with us. Only a fool would throw us away.

We weren't meant to be together. By giving you up, I’m letting go of my old self. I won’t live my life making the same mistakes. I want to change. Besides, I’m pretty sure you fall under the category of things tainted by Khyrs.

Dream much, Atrina. We have looked into your heart, and we know that you are unworthy of the life you desire. Valerie and your coven will never be yours!

Say all you want, but those are lies I won’t ever tell myself again. Goodbye, stone.

-

Finger by finger, Atrina let go of the artifact. The stone spiraled through the air and sank into the portal.

A hand clasped the witch’s shoulder. Shaw spoke breathlessly, “Leave...now…”

“Come on! Before we get crushed! Ectoplasm torrent!” Nana’s spell swept the party through the master’s dying realm, but they were not moving fast enough. The long stretch between the hallway and the cavern mouth seemed endless.

“We’re not gonna make it!” cried Valerie.

“Yes, we will. Acclerate!” The witch’s spell bolstered the ooze’s speed tenfold, and the party rushed through the cavern mouth as Khyrs’ domain was swallowed whole by the earth.

Adrenaline coursed through the witch’s veins, and she trembled with triumph as the dawn of a new day split the horizon. The master was gone, and she was free of the stone.