Chapter Four Hundred And Seven – 407
Cobb was sweating, and his back ached fiercely. It was cold in the dungeons they had been shoved into, but so many of his fellow miners had been crammed together that all the small Goblin felt was an intense, swampy heat. It was enough that some of the older folk had passed out, and even though it cost the rest of them more space Cobb had made sure to give them room enough to lie down. At least some of them could have a little comfort, before the end.
And it was an end. They all knew it, because the crimson-armored brutes that prowled the halls made sure everyone knew why they were there. That they were being sent to die at the hands of the Temple of the Highest Flame.
Cobb pressed his forehead against the iron bars. They were blessedly cool, and it kept his mind away from the fire that waited them above. Like everyone else, Cobb had been angry and terrified in turns, but it had all faded to a cold numbness. It was like some vile Sorcerer cast a curse on his heart. He felt empty.
He had been pulled from the mines by Temple Knights and dragged up to the Miner's Layer, only to find hundreds of his neighbors all crowding the streets. All of them were marched away from the mines, up and up, through layers Cobb had never been allowed to visit. Miners were beaten badly if they tried to fight or flee, until the golden Knights' side swords dripped with blood as they jabbed them all forward. Eventually they had been shoved into the bright sunlight of the Risen Ward, and it had been all he could do not to stare at how bright, shiny, and clean it all looked. The buildings weren't cracked or crumbling, the paths weren't rutted or filled with filthy runoff. It was like a dream of paradise.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.
Then the Paladins had shown up, in their dreadful armor, taking them away from the Knights. Cobb hated the Knights, but the Paladins were worse. When those in the lead were unable to move faster than the red-plated monsters demanded, they were cut down. Simple as that, without warning or explanation. More died, until they understood.
Cobb had all but run into his packed cell.
Now he wished for his trusty pick-axe more than anything else. Two of the Paladins were pacing near the end of the corridor, doing nothing except occasionally yelling at the prisoners if they sobbed too loudly. One of them said something to the other, and laughed. Watching them burnt something inside of Cobb, a heat that had nothing to do with the sweaty Yttin all around him.
I'll kill all of you. Some...somehow. Cobb gritted his teeth and squeezed the bars. He was Untempered though, and all he managed was to hurt his hands. You don't get to do this.
The laughter suddenly cut off.
"Jord?" the other said. Cobb pressed his face to the bars, trying to see them both, but could only make out one looking around in confusion. "Jord, where'd you g"
A blue and white spear burst through the Paladin's throat, turning his words to choked gurgles. Cobb's eyes widened and his heart slammed in his narrow chest. "Something...something is happening!" he hissed at the others around him.
A Yttin shrugged, it's bandages too loose and showing its pale skin beneath. No one else even cared to shift. Cobb gave up, pushing his face against the bars again. It was silent in the corridor, absent even the sound of booted feet.
Then a woman jumped in front of him.
"AHH!" Cobb screamed, hurling himself back from the bars...and getting slapped back into them by wall of bodies behind him.
"Damn, shut up," the Human woman said. Her face and chest were speckled with red, but that didn't detract from the wide grin on her face. She jangled a set of keys. "I'm here to save you."
Cobb and the others were ushered out into the corridor, where he quickly spotted more fallen Paladins. Blood pool around them like crimson shadows, and that heat in his belly spread up into his limbs. His fingers tingled, and he wanted nothing more than to find his pick-axe and carve his way out.
"Hey, you. Take this." The woman that had freed them handed him a long dagger, more of a sword to the small Goblin. She passed out a few more to others. "Protect yourselves, yeah? There's a whole lot more to kill after this."
Cobb stared at the dagger and his own faint reflection, like a dark smudge on the razor-sharp blade. This thoughts boiled, jagged edges tumbling over themselves before a noise cut through the chaos in his mind.
"Evie, more coming down the central staircase," a woman with a spear said. The same spear he'd seen punch through a Paladin's throat. "Is everyone free?"
"Think so. Hey uh, you," the woman, Evie, said to Cobb. "Anyone else down here?"
Cobb looked around at the sea of Yttin, Goblins, Orcs, and Dwarves. There weren't half as many as he'd seen coming up with him from below. Cobb's mouth started before his brain could catch up. "There's more. I dunno where they are. But there's lots more."
"Noctis' tits."
"Tell us where, child," another woman said, this one with earthy, ochre skin. She was looking right at him. "Don't speak, just think it."
"We don't have time for this, Zara," Evie said.
"Go help the Heiress secure the stairwell. It shall be our point of egress," Zara said. Her ice blue eyes bored into Cobb's own. "Think, child."
Cobb did as he was asked. Not to be helpful but because he couldn't refuse this strange lady with hair like the sea. He blinked, and around him chaos erupted once more.
"Good, I have it," Zara said over the din of fighting. She and Cobb were the only ones left in the corridor, the rest having vanished. Too close by, a grip of Temple Knights were trying to get to the woman, but a single gesture rent their armor and flesh in a single, explosive swoop. They fell in...piles. "Let us follow after your fellows, Cobb. Shall we?"
"Uhm," he said. "Sure. Where is everyone?"
"Ahead. They are holding their own, but not for long." Cobb heard a clear, crystalline chiming and was lifted bodily by a wave of watery light.
Magic! he thought with a gasp. Cobb clutched tightly to his long dagger.
The both of them swept onward, up the central staircase.
Atar peered around the wide pillar. Knights in golden armor stood at attention only thirty strides away, their halberds gleaming in the steady light of orange Mana crystals. Beyond them, Atar knew the stairs would lead to the inner sanctum of the Temple, the heart. He tried to keep his mind off the glass flask at his waist and what lay within it, but it was a daunting task to accomplish while also sneaking like a thief. As such, his attention wandered and his battlerobes caught on a pedestal he passed.
Damnation!
A delicate sculpture of a wise woman fell and Atar's heart stopped in his chest...only for a pair of thin hands to catch it before it hit the ground.
"Careful! The Knights all have significant investments in Perception," Fiammetta scolded him as she placed the bust back on its stand. She tossed her head, red hair flicking from her eyes. "I would have thought you'd remember that."
Atar stopped himself from snapping back in kind, but only barely. It was mostly Alister's sour face staring at the Faun's back that halted himthe beautiful ponce would have fought the Disciple on behalf of Atar's pride, and it warmed his heart. Instead, he only corrected his footing. "You...are not wrong. Either way, the lady Chanter is keeping us screened."
"Doesn't mean I like diverting all the noise you make," said the Lady Isla. Her nose was perhaps too generous for her face to be called beautiful, but she was striking regardless. "An Obfuscation of this size does not come without effort. So shut your mouths and focus on your tasks."
Fiammetta made a pleased noise through her doe-like nose, and the Lady Isla shot her a glare. "That goes double for turncoats."
It was very hard for Atar not to grin at that.
They've been sacrificing people already? he realized in dawning horror. For how long?
"Why are you doing this?" he asked the Urge, hoping, dreading an answer. "What is happening in my city?"
ATAR V'AS.
Atar started. He truly hadn't expected an answer. "Highest Flame?"
RUN. HE COMES.
His eyes widened. "My Master...?"
HE HUNGERS IN THE TOMB. OH, HE HUNGERS AND ALL WILL BE CONSUMED.
"Tomb? What're youWe're here to stop that. No one else will be sacrificed here."
I MUST BURN. OR ELSE LIGHT FADES. I MUST BURN.
"I don't care. Not like this." Atar gripped the flask, unhooking it from his belt.
THE STARS AND MOONS SPEAK OF THIS. OF MY END. IT CANNOT BE, FOR LIGHT FAILS WITHOUT ME. I MUST BURN, ATAR V'AS.
PLEASE.
OH IT HURTS. THE HUNGER CANNOT BE STOPPED, HE PROWLS TOWARD US ALL, THE BEAST AT HIS BACK. FEAR HIS TEETH.
"I'm not afraid of my old master anymore," Atar said. "He cannot have his way. Not like this."
A horn shattered the silence of the Temple. First one, and then many others joined in.
"That is the high alert!" Fiammetta shouted over the roaring flames. "Atar! We must flee!"
"Go! I have to do this!"
Atar lifted the flask and reared back...only to stumble as a lash of flame slashed him across the shoulders. He screamed, and his throw fell limp. The flask fell into the flames, clattering among the bones in the Altar's basin, but it remained whole and just shy of he Urge's raging center. Unbroken.
"Burning blood and ashes!" he gasped, and a second lash hit the mage. Atar was spun around by the strike, this time to see a woman hovering above and behind him, wearing a golden veil and robes. "Matron," he hissed through clenched teeth. His back was bleeding and his Health had dropped by an entire quarter.
"Atar V'as. Truly it is a disappointment to see you here," the Matron said. Atar never could make out their features behind their thick veils, but the condemnation in her voice was clear. "Did you think you would succeed and, what? Explode the Urge with some alchemical concoction?"
All around the Nave doors were thrown open, and a flood of golden-armored Knights rushed down the aisles. Atar scanned around him, picking out Fiammetta and Alister standing nearby...but of Isla he could see no sign.
"And you Fiammetta. A Disciple, taking part in such blasphemy?" The Matron's condemnation turned to a sharp anger. "You will not escape recompense for these actions tonight."
"What you are doing is wrong," the Faun said. She was shaking, but whether that was in anger or fear Atar couldn't tell. "Sacrificing people for power is the true blasphemy!"
"Be silent, girl."
A sudden, immense pressure slammed into all of them. Fiammetta fell with a bleating cry, and Alister cursed as he was forced to his hands and knees. Atar clutched hard to the bronze railing at his side, pushing with all his Strength against a Spiritual pressure he knew as well as the back of his hand.
"Kel'lyv," Atar gasped.
His former master appeared above them, hovering atop the waves of fire Mana that poured from the Highest Flame. The other remaining Matrons and Masters, three of the former and two of the latter, descended from the vaulted ceiling. Atar could see a number of open passages up there, where they must have come through after the warning horns sounded. Kel'lyv's gray face was tight with anger as he regarded them all.
"You shall call me Grandmaster, if I deign to let you speak at all, Atar," the man snapped. Another burst of pressure knocked Atar's grip loose and he fell to his knees at the edge of the Altar. Kel'lyv looked to the others. "How many have escaped?"
"A great many, but we shall round them up shortly," a woman with dark hair cut short are her ears. "The others are still secure, however. We may begin when you wish, Grandmaster."
Instead of answering her, the bald mage cast his gaze all over the chamber, a sneer forming on his face. "What did the Flame say to you, Atar? I know it said something."
Gasps ripped from the Matrons, but Atar barely paid them any mind. His Body couldn't put up with the amount of pressure the man was pressing against him, and it was all he could do to breathe. "She said...that you are...a monster."
Kel'lyv scoffed. "Fool. I've known you since you were a babe in swaddling. Do not lie. I will ask only once more. What did the Flame tell you?"
I HURT. THE BINDINGS MUST HOLD!
This time the gasps echoed among the entire crowd, as the Urge's voice hit them all. Knights looked up in panic at the column of flame, and Atar heard the strangely strident call of doubt blaze through their Spirits.
Kel'lyv was not one to hesitate, however. "You see? The Flame withers while we prattle on. Matrons, bring out what worthless wretches we still have. The ritual must commence."
The Matrons all but fled to do as they were bid, rushing toward a set of doors far to Atar's right. Yet just as they reached the golden portals, the things blew off their hinges. The Matrons batted the doors away, but were unprepared for the silver Spears that impaled one of them, while the other was suddenly trapped by chains of ice.
"What is this!?" the Grandmaster cried out. "Knights! Form upon those fools!"
From the left, another set of doors were ripped open, and a wall of jagged ice spears blasted up from the flooring. Knights fell by the dozen, and those that survived were bisected by the axes of hulking Frost Giants. Lightning crackled and shot outward, burning yet more, and the pressure against Atar loosened.
"Fiend's Claw!" Harn shouted from yet another entryway, his axes raised up and blazing with silver light. "Kill 'em all!"
