Karo’Kafellon laughed and raised his arms in the air. “Let the ceremony begin!”
Magical demon-fire torches had illuminated the vast cavern, hung periodically throughout the chamber Minecraft-style. Now, most of those went out, leaving only the few surrounding the alcove still burning. The ceremonial area was cut halfway into the cave wall, producing a domed ceiling thirty feet high over the back portion, while the front half stood under the cavern’s open air.
Atrax left Esther’s side, pulling a knife from a sheath on his hip. He walked toward Leah, with Selvecia falling in beside him. Tristan retreated outside the pentagram while Vithium stood twenty feet from Jace, observing the process while keeping an eye on the dangerous orc. When the demon and vampire reached the tormented witch, Selvecia started chanting and dancing, her arms and tail flowing about her body like ribbons in a slow wind. Jace had no idea what the female said, her guttural language falling somewhere between Klingon and vomiting. As she drew closer to Leah, she waved her staff over the bound woman, who displayed a look of terror on her face.
Thirty seconds into the spell, the pentagram etchings in the floor began glowing, outshining the few remaining torches and casting eerie shadows on the ceiling. Atrax raised the dagger over Leah, drawing everyone’s eyes to the weapon. The demon priestess slowed her dramatic body gyrations and chanting until she carefully angled the top of her staff toward the raised blade. The circular motion of the rod spiraled down until the vibrant black pearl kissed against the dagger’s handle.
In that instant, all the light in the floor raced through the etchings until it coalesced under Leah’s chair and then shot up through her body, causing her to arch her back against her restraints, raising her body as high as she could. The burst of light passed through her without slowing and hit Atrax's raised hand. As Leah stiffened in the chair, the vampire slammed the blade down into her chest. Light burst forth again, but this time, it illuminated her whole body, racing out to her toes and fingertips before retracting into her core and falling out her back into the stone, leaving behind a charred husk that quickly disintegrated into dust and ash.
The power raced through the pentagram until the shape was once again fully illuminated. It pulsed once and then collapsed to the center where Karo stood. The demon raised his arms in triumph as the magical energy raced up through his body, producing a cry of exhilaration from the monster. He held the upright pose for a few seconds and then collapsed into a crouch on the ground. Power pulsed around his scaley body, producing electric shocks and sparkling blue light.
Jace saw Selvecia also fall to the ground, as the demoness was obviously magically linked to her master. Light from the back of the alcove drew the shaman’s attention, and he saw Jorl down on one knee too. The trio must have been a package deal for Vithium, and whatever power Karo got from this ceremony would transfer to these two as well. Looking at Vithium, Jace saw no change in the character. Tristan and Atrax also looked unaffected.
After almost a minute, Karo struggled to his feet, his eyes glowing with power. With a primordial cry, he threw his arms wide, and electricity leaped from his body in all directions. It bit into the stone ceiling behind him and crackled against an invisible dome that covered the front half of the pentagram, revealing the demon’s prison for the first time. “I can feel it,” he said. “I can feel its strength and power. It will be no match for me. I will not remain a prisoner. I will have freedom.” He looked over at Tami and smiled. “Give me freedom!”
Selvecia had also recovered from the energy transfer and walked over to the next angel. As she moved, Jace looked for Jorl and barely found the assassin, his hazy outline as visible as a smudged image on a lens. Whatever magic he used to live in shadow had been increased dramatically. Returning his eyes to the demon priestess, Jace guessed her mana pool had likely just doubled. Whatever her improvements were, she no longer needed to chant or dance about to produce the mana required for the spell. When she stood next to Tami and Atrax arrived with his dagger, Selvecia only needed to speak one guttural word, and the floor burst into light.
The dramatic increase in power caught the vampire off guard, and he scrambled to get into position, hoisting the dagger over the prone woman. Selvecia gave him a moment to assume the proper stance and then only needed to tap her staff against the floor. The magic rushed to their location and up through the mermaid’s body. Tami arched so violently away from the inclined board that the metal bands holding her in place snapped like threads, her body rising over a foot from the table, her legs reverting to a tail and flapping in the air.
Atrax didn’t give her a chance to escape, and when the energy rushed through the woman’s body and up into his dagger, he thrust it down, pinning the mermaid to the wooden planks. To Jace’s eyes, it looked like the magic rushed out of Tami’s body like a waterfall, gushing out over the floor and filling the etched pattern like a collection of river tributaries. Her body wholly dissolved during the process, leaving behind only a moist, bloody tunic.
Once the pattern had been filled with power, it flowed back to the center in a tidal wave, flooding over the demon in an attempt to drown him in energy. He stumbled and collapsed under the pressure, seemingly overwhelmed by the onslaught. But he didn’t succumb to it; instead, he absorbed the magic like a sponge, filling his body with vitality.
Jace watched Selvecia kneel on the floor and undergo a metamorphosis as red and black wings sprouted from her back. The shaman knew from Tami’s god that her power represented freedom and watched with interest as that played out in the demon priestess’s body. After less than a minute, she stood and flexed her wings, flapping them twice to lift off the ground and take a lap around the cavern. Apparently, she wasn’t restricted by the magical dome and flew over and behind Jace’s position.
The shaman couldn’t follow her flight in his Grappled condition, so instead, he looked over to where Jorl had been. The shadow was gone, or, at least, the assassin was gone. Shadows were suddenly everywhere. Jace’s eyes couldn’t keep up with the dark patches filling the cavern as Jorl flexed his new omnipresent ability. It wasn’t simply Shadow-Stepping, as Esther could do. He was literally anywhere he wanted to be. Jace shuddered at the potential.
In the pentagram’s center, Karo rose to his feet and stretched his limbs, rolling his head about as his neck and spine cracked several times. He summoned a projection of magic again, not as powerful as the lightning storm he had produced earlier, but just enough to make the restrictive dome visible. Vithium, who watched this whole process from outside the pentagram, took a further step back as the demon approached. Karo reached his clawed hand up to the curved force field as electricity jumped between them. Slowly, a hole opened in the shimmering dome, and Karo tried to press his hand through. His muscles strained under the effort until one, and then two fingertips passed through the gap before his arm collapsed under the effort. “I’m not strong enough yet,” he growled and then smiled as he looked back at Delly hanging from the ceiling.
“Selvecia!” the demon called. “We aren’t finished yet.”
The priestess swooped in suddenly, landing gracefully as if she had been flying all her life. Her wings conveniently folded into her back, not leaving a mark on her reddish skin. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I will gladly take more power. But don’t get lost in the freedom. You feel the control too, right?”
Karo looked puzzled at first, so Selvecia demonstrated. She turned back to the captive audience. “Monks, release the elf.”
Psycho fell forward from his sudden freedom, but Jace could tell he didn’t hold out hope that he would retain it for long. He didn’t. “Fetch your bow,” the priestess commanded, no seduction required. Psycho obeyed robotically, walking a few paces to where Atrax had tossed his weapon. He picked up the bow and arrow. “Kill the wolf,” she ordered.
“No!” Draya cried, but the demons holding her locked her tight.
Jace only watched hopelessly as the ranger took a six-second bead on his canine friend and then shot her through the head. Snowy dropped dead, the demons holding her chain scattering before the massive wolf could fall on them.
“Mage!” the priestess called, turning toward Draya. Her guards understood Selvecia’s intent and released the young woman. Draya stopped fighting, and her face turned from grief to calm in a second. “Kill the elf,” the demoness commanded.
“Are you sure that’s necess-” Vithium started to say, but Karo clamped his hand shut, and the monk’s voice disappeared.
Draya turned and didn’t need six seconds. She threw a single burst of flame that struck Psycho full in the chest. His armor prevented death from an elemental attack, but his health was so low already that Jace watched it drop to one as he flew across the cavern and crashed into the far wall near the entrance.
Vampires and goblins scattered from the flaming projectile, seeing that the archer wasn’t quite dead and fearing a follow-up attack. Draya had been given an order and intended to obey. She took three determined steps toward her injured friend, but Karo stopped her. “Enough,” he said, stopping the mage cold. Her demon escorts resumed their hold on her as her will collapsed from the realization of what she’d done. “We can control armies with this power,” Karo said.
“The goal would be to get them to join willingly,” Vithium croaked, clearing his throat to rid the remains of the muting spell. He looked impressed by the display so far, though Jace could also see a hint of concern.
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“Yes,” Karo agreed. “Though if that fails . . .” He left it hanging and looked at Jace. The shaman understood that if he ever refused to command his companions according to this group’s will, they would still be able to force anyone to do anything. There was no use resisting.
“Now for the barbarian,” Selvecia said and looked over at Atrax, motioning him to the next victim. While everyone else had watched the mind control presentation, the vampire had been examining the empty wooden boards where Tami had just been and the iron chair where Leah’s ashen remains had all but disappeared.
Jace could see the terror in his eyes about what they were doing and the power they were generating, but the shaman didn’t think for a moment that the vampire would resist the call of his masters. Atrax gripped his knife tightly and moved toward Delly.
The barbarian queen hung limply from the ceiling, but unlike the two previous angels, she wasn’t restrained fully. Even without access to the ground, she still processed significant strength. Jace assumed she had exhausted herself several times when she had initially been hung there, and without proper sleep, she would never recover all her power, but she could still act.
When Atrax got within striking distance, Delly shuddered with mana, hefted up on her ropes, and swung her legs forward. The vampire had just executed two docile women and expected this dark-skinned beauty would be the same. Delly caught him off-guard when her legs rose before his face and wrapped around his neck. She didn’t have enough power to render him Helpless, but Atrax fell to his knees under the woman’s strength. He still held the dagger and shifted his grip on the weapon to stab her in the thigh.
“No,” Selvecia said calmly. “Drop it. Do not mark her.”
Atrax had no choice in the matter, and the blade clattered against the stone. The priestess looked at the situation without concern. “What is your plan here?” she asked the woman as Atrax frantically wrestled against the constricting legs. Delly’s left thigh was strategically placed under the man’s chin, propping his mouth up and removing his most potent weapon: his teeth.
“Do you intend to strangle a vampire?” Selvecia asked, having waved away the muting spell. “You know they don’t breathe.”
“I’ll snap his neck,” Delly slurred, saliva dripping from her mouth, her eyes unable to focus on anything. “I’ll crush his head.”
Selvecia smiled. “I’d love to watch you try, but I don’t think you have the strength, and I don’t want to waste the time.” She beckoned over her shoulder, and two monks came running. “Subdue her,” she commanded.
“No!” Vithium said. “Don’t!” But the priestess ignored him and commanded the monks to obey.
As soon as the men touched Delly, and the barbarian had a living connection to the earth, all hell broke loose. The cavern shook as an earthquake rumbled through the stone. One of the monks dropped dead as more power than he was capable of channeling raced through him. The other was Stunned, and Delly shifted her legs to hold him, practically sitting on his shoulders. This gave her slack in her ropes, and her fingernails shredded her bonds and dropped her to the floor.
She threw the disabled monk aside and stomped toward Selvecia. Atrax lay on the floor and scampered back from the two women as fast as he could. The priestess didn’t flinch as the barbarian got within three feet and cocked her fist back to punch. Karo punched first. Standing twenty feet away, he sent a ball of magical energy shooting over Selvecia’s shoulder, catching Delly in the chest. The woman flipped backward with such force that when she hit the cavern wall, she rebounded almost to the same position.
The priestess raised her left hand and snapped her fingers. Immense power infused the etchings at her feet, and she stepped forward to tower over the Stunned barbarian. “The spell works better if you're touching the ground anyway.” She tapped her staff on the stone twice, and the magic gathered to a point beneath the fallen woman and then shot up through her body to the poised rod. Selvecia gripped her staff with both hands and thrust it down, the blunt end ripping through Delly’s ribcage and into the rock below.
Another earthquake shook the entire monastery, and now Selvecia and Karo were thrown from their feet. Instead of energy flowing through the pentagram on the floor, cracks formed all along the pattern, opening inch-wide chasms that led straight to the center of the earth. A much larger crevice opened beneath Delly, and the dead barbarian fell. A second after her departure, fire shot up through the other fissures, and Atrax needed to dive out of the way to survive. The two demons bathed in the onslaught, and Jace saw a shadow zip into the pentagram as well.
The eruption lasted a full minute, after which the cracks closed, and everyone lay still.
“For Shimbato!!!”
The cry broke the silence, startling everyone. Jace had the freedom to turn his head slightly and saw a monk breaking from the ranks and racing toward the ceremonial alcove. It took a while for people to react, and a few demons and ogres moved to stand in his way, but the slippery monk evaded their attempts to stop him. He almost made it to the ring when Vithium stepped in his path. The monk loyal to his old god had pulled a knife from his robes while the player got in a ready stance to stop him.
Jace felt the surge of mana within the rogue NPC, and just as Vithium attacked, the desperate monk executed a magical step, where his body stretched forward thirty feet as if he were a spaceship jumping to lightspeed. Vithium struck at the blur but came up empty. Instead, the back half of the monk snapped forward, traversing the distance in half a second, such that he found himself right next to Kai Morte, his dagger out for the kill. “Your sacrifice be dam . . .” he shouted, but the cry ended in a gurgle as Tristan stepped forward.
Like Jace, the spellsword had detected the mana surge and had been studying the fighting methods of the monks over the past week, so he knew what was coming. He used his own magical speed to intercept the attack at the last second and channeled the infinite momentum of the monk to enhance his strike, skewering the man on his sword. The rebel stood Stunned, with his dagger raised to plunge into Kai’s neck. Tristan discharged a surge of electricity through his sword, blasting the monk backward to lie dying on the stone.
Cheers from the assembled crowd went up, and after several seconds, Karo finally pulled himself from the ground, shaking his head as if trying to clear the cobwebs. The demon had grown. As he straightened his spine to work out the stiffness his new strength imparted, Jace saw his horns reaching at least twenty feet in the air. His Hitpoints were now at 10,000. As he arched his back and worked out the last kinks, he howled triumphantly.
It took several seconds for the echoes to dissipate, and he finally looked down to ground level to see the dying monk and Tristan standing beside the paladin. The demon shrugged his shoulders. “I knew they all wouldn’t turn so easily.” He glared at Vithium, who still sat sheepishly on the ground after his critical miss against the loyal monk. Jace had guessed someone still served Shimbato. He had hoped it would be someone of more consequence.
“Anyone else!” Karo roared at his collected minions, specifically at the monks. They all averted their eyes and took a knee before the impressive demon. Selvecia stood beside her master. She was an inch or two taller after the transfer, and it looked like a make-up artist had airbrushed a sixpack on her abdomen, but other than that, Karo had absorbed most of this power.
The demon lord strode again to the edge of the circle, made the magical dome visible with his magic, and opened a hole. This time, he managed to stick his entire arm through the opening, but as he did, the barrier crackled and snapped, clamping down on his arm like a hungry shark, belching holy fire. Karo screamed and yanked his arm back, having taken over 1,000 points of damage in less than a round. He held his wounded arm gingerly, fearing it might fall off, the charred flesh looking like it had been through a microwave.
“The ceremony isn’t finished yet,” Selvecia said, walking over to her master and healing him.
“Then finish it!” he bellowed.
The priestess didn’t say anything else and was already summoning power to the floor. Atrax knew his role, retrieved his dagger, and approached Kai. However, he had learned his lesson from Delly, and while that woman had looked docile to start, Kai had recovered from Karo’s punch and yanked at his chains like a mad dog. Besides, he still wore his full-plate armor.
Selvecia smiled and pointed the fingers of her free hand at Kai’s chest. With a surge of mana, she spread her hand wide, and the knight's armor stripped off his body. The metal peeled off him like a banana. Instead of flying off in five different directions, the shrapnel came alive, turned in mid-air, and launched back at Kai. The steel pieces bent and molded around his wrists and ankles, throwing him to the ground and pinning him flat with his arms and legs outstretched.
Atrax moved into position, kneeling beside the knight and raising the dagger. The magical energy collected beneath the sacrifice once more and surged up through his body, infusing the knife with power. Atrax plunged it down straight through Kai’s heart. He withdrew the weapon and scampered backward outside of the ring, fearful of what might come next.
The paladin’s body melted along with his armor, filling the etched pattern with silvery metal. Karo stood in the center, looking on with a concerned expression as the viscous fluid swam through the complex pattern, filling every corner before rushing toward the center. Like a thousand electric eels, the tendrils swam up the demon's body, slithering into the cracks between his dark red scales. At first, it looked as if they might wrestle the massive beast to the ground, but he stood firm and tall against the assault, pulling up with his arms and legs to rip the living metal strands from the floor. Once free, they stopped their aggressive invasion of the demon’s body and melded gently into his flesh, lightening his reddish hue as streaks of adamantium crisscrossed his form.
This infusion of power did not bring the demon lord to his knees this time. Instead, Delly’s divine strength held him fast through the process, and less than a minute after it started, he stood transformed. He looked like a red knight, his scales infused with silver and enlarged to cover his muscled arms and legs perfectly. Jace looked at Selvecia and saw her chainmail bikini had been upgraded to curved pieces of adamantium with matching bracers on her forearms and grieves on her legs. Her skirt now sparkled with mithril chain, and even her black hair had a few strands of silver.
Karo moved again to the border of his prison and didn’t hesitate, opening a hole in the shield and piercing it with his whole body. Once again, the barrier reacted with sparks of holy fire, but now the silver strands in the demon’s armor flared to life, creating a feedback loop into the force field. Karo stood there laughing as sparks and magic crackled around him, the barrier trying desperately to hold him back, but with one final surge from the demon, the dome shattered and fell like glass to the stone, exploding into clouds of mana.
“It is done!” he cried. “I am free.”
Everyone stood amazed, unable to speak until a lone, weak voice muttered in Karo’s direction. “Must . . . Stop . . .”
The demon turned to regard the dying monk Tristan had skewered. He still had a few rounds left and lifted a hand toward the monstrosity feebly as if he had some last-ditch spell to cast. The demon lord stomped over to the dying man and squashed him beneath his foot.
A tremor ripped through the cavern, bringing everyone to silence momentarily until Vithium laughed. Soon, everyone joined in, thinking the quake had resulted from their demon’s massive strength. Jace knew otherwise. The tremor hadn’t originated in this room. His intimate relationship with the stone revealed that it had come from the previous hall, where the statue of The Last Defender stood. With the death of Shimbato’s final loyal servant, the monastery’s protector had awakened.
