“There is a simplicity in slaying monsters.”

  - From the Journal of Eratus Riverwood

  My world shrank to the battlefield and the forces arrayed against us. All that mattered now was to win.

  The guards rushed towards me while Deverra engaged Kallian in a melee. Caladrius merely hunched against his staff for support. The blow to his heart was not mortal, much to my disappointment, but appeared to have taken a toll.

  Shadows coiled around him from above, spiraling down to the wound in an obvious form of magical healing.

  Not so fast.

  I raised my free hand, calling forth the light in the form of a hammer, then flung it. The weapon veered past the guards, crackling with bolts of holy energy, and straight towards the mage.

  The spiraling shadows suddenly congealed into a wall, intercepting the hammer in an explosion of dust and smoke.

  There was no waiting for the result because the first of the guards got in range, far faster than its heavy bulk would have suggested. Up this close, I could tell why Kallian was so wary of them. It was a veritable juggernaut covered head to toe in plates of darkened steel and not an ounce of fear could be seen past the slits of its helmet nor any hesitation in its arm as it raised a massive greatsword.

  He swung with rippling speed, slashing through the air with enough force to cleave through a man and the one beside him.

  But I dodged away with my light-enhanced movements. The strike went wide and the guard pivoted bringing the blade back around in a downward slash. However, his footwork telegraphed his movement in advance, and so I side-stepped it once more. As strong and fast as he was, this was a far cry from the likes of warriors such as Captain Falmore.

  And I had plenty of practice.

  The last strike slammed hard on the floor, leaving an opening in his posture. Not missing the opportunity, my own weapon radiated blue and yellow as I lunged for the being’s shoulder plate.

  I expected my strike to glance off but unbalance him enough for a follow-on hit. Instead, as the blessed mithril blade touched the armor, the miasma woven through it slunk away, and my weapon stabbed through as if it was cutting through paper. Holy fire burst ablaze from the gap, which rapidly swarmed along the rest of the guard’s body.

  I drew my sword back now knowing that something unholy lurked beneath that armor.

  The guard scarcely noticed the fire searing across it unlike any living being, and attempted to grab me with its spare hand. I responded by cutting it off, revealing a stump of necrotic flesh followed by another slash that cut through its helmet. The faceplate fell apart, revealing skin knotted together in patchwork, three holes where there should have been eyes and a nose, and a mouth sutured shut by threads. A twisted remnant of a human face built from magic as dark and as twisted as the fel.

  And weak to my own affinity.

  The unholy construct collapsed, holy flames eating away at the corrupted flesh and then the smoke masking the mage cleared away.

  A gaping hole appeared in the wall of miasma that blocked my hammer, but behind it Caladrius stood untouched by the explosion.

  The mage glared at me, then glanced at Taoran who was held above by a shadowy tendril. He raised then closed his hand, causing the tendril to grow spikes that punched through the mercenary leader’s skin, his lifeforce spinning down to suture the gash across Caladrius’ chest.

  Taoran’s struggles erupted to a frenzy as I readied another hammer to stop the process but the mage pointed his staff in my direction, a purple glow glimmering into a spell. As he did so I adjusted my own invocation, forming a shield of light instead.

  Lightning bolts jolted from the staff’s end and I ducked behind my shield. Arcane energies smashed into the light-forged construct, occasionally zapping into the floor below and leaving behind char marks.

  The lightning fell away and I rose, my shield shining bright with the energies it absorbed. I took aim at the five incoming guards and hurled it like a discus, then charged.

  The spinning disc smashed into the closest armored figure with a flash, then zig-zagged towards the next one. I followed up by thrusting my sword through the visor of the stunned figure. Its body spasmed before holy energies burst its head apart in a bright inferno.

  The shield continued stunning foe after foe, and I cut a straight lane through felling one after the other until only the mage remained. The speed at which I did so caught him by surprise as he was focused on absorbing the last drops of Taoran’s life when the shield rose to a zenith then careened down towards him like a comet.

  The shadowy miasma once again formed a wall to block the attack. However, I anticipated this and I lunged in from the side.

  As the shield collided with the wall, a dark-red tendril slithered out from the lid of the urn at that moment slapping my blade away. The frozen look of surprise on Caladrius’ face was enough to tell me that whatever did this had a mind of its own. The mage was merely borrowing its power, or more likely was being manipulated by it.

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  Although the impact prevented my attack from landing true, touching the blessed metal caused the tendril to jolt back and squirm in pain before dissipating to dust. That seemed to trigger a furious reaction as more shadowy tendrils whisked from the urn’s lid, lashing out in rage.

  They forced me back as I sliced and slashed at any that drew too close. I gathered light in my free hand for a holy barrage when I noticed Caladrius toss aside Taoran’s drained husk of a corpse. And now that he was healed, the mage glowered at me with rage, muttering an incantation while pointing towards me with his staff. Mist and ice gathering around its end.

  I redirected my will from offense to defense and a split second later, a cone of frost erupted. A holy barrier sprung up as an avalanche of frost struck far stronger than I expected, forcing me to project even more of my strength to keep the barrier intact.

  I glanced at the other fight, witnessing the two elves exchange steel. The blessing of might on Kallian and the corruptive strength emanating from Deverra empowered the two to such a degree that their movements were a blur and sparks ignited where their weapons clashed. Kallian was holding her own, but Deverra turned out to be no slouch in the melee, wielding her rapier with the poise and grace of an experienced professional.

  But frost spell wasn’t the end all from the mage. A series of purple arcane bolts soared down from above and I was forced to increase the size of my barrier to deflect them. Lightning followed soon after forcing yet another exertion of power. The barrages continued and I found myself stuck in the defense as the blizzard continued to batter away. My entire strength was being spent to just prevent the barrier from cracking.

  The other fight wasn’t faring much better, as Deverra seemed fully aware of the reach advantage of her weapon, parrying away Kallian’s strikes, responding with a riposte, and dancing back to avoid the counterstrike.

  Kallian kicked a puddle of water toward her opponent’s face, fighting dirty to open an opportunity. Deverra however deftly moved aside, scowling and shaking her head.

  “How quaint,” she said.

  “Shut up!” said Kallian as she re-engaged.

  “Wasted talent. You should have taken the coin.”

  Something in the remark caught my attention but I pushed it to the back of my mind for later because I had to focus on breaking this deadlock. The strength from the lyrium had reached its peak but it was only a matter of time before it would ebb. I had no idea how much power the mage held but judging by the growing miasma in the air, rapidly reaching intolerable levels, it seemed he was only growing in strength as time went on.

  I evaluated our respective positions and saw an opportunity to shift the calculus in our favor. It would hurt but it was better than continuing this unsustainable clinch. And besides, pain was no stranger.

  I slowly trudged sideways, my movements hampered by the frost and incoming spells but not stalled. Each step drawing me closer to the two elves locked in heated combat.

  Once Deverra’s back was turned to me, I withdrew one hand, siphoning holy power and unleashing it in a wave, right as my barrier splintered apart.

  Freezing icicles smashed into my body although the worst of it was absorbed by my light-born armor. Moreover, the kinetic force was powerful enough to sweep across the floor and send me skidding across the room.

  But the wave of holy energy passed through an unknowing Deverra, and interrupted whatever unholy magic was that empowered her.

  It couldn’t have happened at a worse time as her heightened agility vanished in the middle of a parry. Her rapier slipped and failed to bat away an incoming strike. Kallian pounced on the opening as Deverra’s eyes went wide. Her mouth opened in a gasp as the dagger stabbed through her throat. And Kallian was thorough this time, running her weapon through her enemy several times before letting her fall in a gurgling mass on the floor.

  I on the other hand stood back up, pieces of my light-bound armor cracking away but otherwise unharmed. The horrible pain dissipated as the light restored what bruises I sustained.

  Caladrius stood surrounded by a mist of miasma and arcane energy, drawn from the entity in the urn. If Deverra’s death made an impact it did not show, and I did not believe he did as I saw megalomania, madness, and delusion gleaming in his eyes.

  But however powerful a mage was, they were vulnerable without the proper support. And now he had none.

  Kallian moved towards me, and she raised a brow, inquiring on how to handle this.

  “We take turns.” I brandished my blade. “Stay a distance and strike him when you see an opening. Retreat if you need to.”

  “Got it,” said Kallian, wiping the sweat from her brow and readying her dagger.

  I conjured a hammer of light and threw it at the mage, the miasma reacting to protect him as before. However, that was simply to allow Kallian and I to close the distance.

  Tendrils lashed out from the lid once more, but I was prepared for it and sent forth a volley of holy bolts which disintegrated them to dust. Kallian moved in, to which Caladrius backed away while muttering an incantation, an arcane barrier flaring to existence that deflected the incoming dagger.

  Symbols appeared below Kallian’s body, in what looked like an attempt to trap her in a magical prison. I raised my hand calling forth the light in response. Bright red circles appeared around Kallian in the symbol of freedom, shattering it apart.

  We relentlessly attacked and maneuvered, with me dispelling or deflecting the mage’s spells while Kallian struck again and again. Each exchange forced Caladrius further and further back, and I could see the sweat dripping along his face, the trembling hold on his staff, and the labored breaths of his chest. All tell-tale signs of exhaustion.

  And then his back struck the opposing wall. Kallian and I readied to finish him off and he began laughing with wild abandon. All traces of reason gone from his mind.

  “Hah… You have forced my hand. Behold!”

  His hands glowed red and the urn cracked and shattered.

  “Now face my wrath-”

  Black clouds sprung from the urn in a gust, screaming and shrieking with despair. However dense the darkness and corruption were before, it now grew to an unmatched intensity. Kallian and I were forced back, bracing ourselves against the force of it.

  Caladrius for that matter dropped his staff, his eyes bulging as he reached around his throat as the darkness lifted him up.

  “No… No! I’m in control, how-“

  “What is happening?” said Kallian.

  “He overreached,” I said, having seen countless parallels of this same occurrence, of warlocks who sought to summon and control occult powers, only to be consumed by them in turn.

  And I had no intention of letting whatever was “inside” escape, not when I could sense its malevolence even while sealed.

  “Back away!” I said, raising my sword high, harnessing the full force of the light, readying to strike it down before it could take full form.

  Kallian retreated as Caladrius’ body seemed to morph and crinkle, bending into odd shapes. The miasma densified and I could sense the very fabric of reality sundering upon itself. And through it I could feel something beyond by thought alone. Something that had been patiently waiting. Harboring a hunger that this world would sate.

  If it intended to instill fear, then all it did was strengthen my resolve.

  With both hands I slashed down, the burning blade of light smiting the burgeoning monstrosity. As light and darkness clashed, my ears rang, colors blended, as a gash ripped through reality which swallowed my world whole.