- From the Journal of Eratus Riverwood
I charged because the demon was right.
Vile miasma oozed from the ground, coating and festering the air as it waded around my barrier. I could feel the barest tinges of it clasping at the edge of my mind, murmuring with anguish and attempting to draw me under.
I pierced through it like a ship amidst a storm. The lyrium serving as fuel pulsed with a vigor that made me feel like one of those paragons of human history. Of Thoradin the first king, of Lordrain who drove back the troll empires, and Faldir who ventured through the unknown and founded the nation to which I was born.
The revenants formed a wall of shields in front of the demon as it channeled red and blue magic between its hands. Their soulless red eyes gleamed behind their helmets, as they marched to meet me. The head of my hammer shimmered with holy power as I readied it to smash through the line and strike the greater darkness beyond. I knew this borrowed strength would not last forever, and I couldn’t waste it on shadows.
The closest of them raised its shield as I swung. Metal screeched into metal, but though the revenant withstood the physical blow, holy energies pierced through and blasted it aside. I pressed through the gap only for another of its kind to swivel and block my assault. A reverse-swing smashed aside that revenant as well but only for yet another to take its place. My advance stalled as they crept around like ants, less as individuals and more like parts of a greater being. They struck in a flurry of blades, forcing me into melee, but for every one I felled, two more joined the fray.
Their purpose was but to slow me down and they succeeded as Gaxkang raised its hand with a readied spell.
A magical blue fog spewed forth like a wave, eclipsing the entire market. Sensing the danger, I raised my own hands to reinforce the holy barrier before the deathly blue chill swarmed across. Although it held, the wooden beams of nearby stalls withered away and the revenants’ armor rapidly rusted. That didn’t seem to deter them as they continued pummeling away at me.
Then Gaxkang released a second spell from its other hand, a flare of red-light shooting skyward.
Thunder echoed from the heavens. I looked up just as a blazing tornado smashed down onto my position, pinning me to the road and driving my feet through the cobblestones. Its sheer power forced me to draw the barrier tighter, reducing its area so I could focus its strength where it mattered. Where the fog weakened the stalls, the fiery winds ripped them from their foundations and sent them airborne while the revenants collapsed as they caught afire, destroyed by collateral. Then their bodies radiated a blue hue, a ghostly glow that concentrated like a fuse.
My eyes widened moments before they detonated.
The shockwaves shattered my barrier in an instant. Shrapnel flew everywhere but while my armor protected me from that, there was still the fiery inferno drilling down from above. I pivoted and raised the light-forged shield around my arm to keep it at bay. Though the shield kept me from being seared to cinders, stray flames heated my armor until the skin beneath began to cook. The Light moved to restore the burns and blisters and I grit my teeth through the raw agonizing pain.
The spell expended itself before my will did, and I rose, bearing witness to a leveled and cratered marketplace. Gaxkang stood as far from me as when the battle began.
“Why delay the inevitable?” the demon taunted, its hands glowing with the same red and blue magic. Already, another batch of revenants had risen to replace the ones it sacrificed.
If I took the same approach, it would yield the same result. Knowing this, I charged ahead but did not renew my barrier, putting the full force of my power towards the offense.
I whipped through the field in a streak of light, the revenants assembling to meet me. I hurled my shield ahead; the disc struck, rebounded off them, and left them stunned in place as I rushed past.
Gaxkang stopped casting and attempted to levitate away but realized I was moving far faster than it could fly. Moments before I caught up, it wove its hands, producing a multi-edged geometric pattern.
The world around me dissolved into an incomprehensible swirl of colors, the demon’s body twisting along with everything else. I slid to a halt, unable to fix its exact location, though I could sense its general direction drifting farther and farther away.
Whatever misdirecting hex it cast wouldn’t work. I willed light into a fist and slammed it into the road, sending a blast of consecrated force outward. Costly in terms of power but it consumed a wide berth. Through my disoriented vision I saw it catch up to the demon, igniting one of its limbs.
My vision returned to normal, right as Gaxkang blasted away its arm before the holy flames consumed its body. It retreated beyond the edge of the consecrated area, a wall of revenants assembling just past the perimeter.
I was about to give chase but paused because something felt off. In the moment I had gotten close, I felt none of the intense dread I would have expected from a demon of this stature. No sign of pain as when holy fire burned others of its kind. In fact, this ‘Gaxkang’ did not seem so different from the revenants being conjured from the ground.
I sifted through the miasma-ridden landscape until my gaze landed on the oozing miasma from the street. Something darker lurked beneath, something very much like that shadowy core I tugged against from before.
It was a deception. Even the mage’s position drew my eyes away from the true well of its power.
The revenants waited on the edge of the consecrated ground while the arcane horror readied another spell. I raised my hammer high, light poured through the weapon, taking on its shape until it extended into a celestial hammer.
The revenants staggered back, bracing for my next move. Unfortunately, it hadn’t seemed to realize I saw through its ploy.
I swung the hammer down. The road split apart and the ground quaked as I drove it through the soil, where the shadowy core was buried. I twisted it to drill deeper through the rock when something rose up to meet my attack in kind.
“Clever. I can see why that mortal conjurer fell to you. I was expecting to let you play with my puppets but you’ve forced my hand.”
An explosion of light and shadow erupted from the ground. The dust cleared to unveil a titanic gray hulk rising from the resulting crater.
“Behold my true form.”
It rose from the cracked rocks, infernal in size, with horns splitting from the back of its head like the darkspawn giant I had faced in the Deep Roads. Armored plating covered its entire hide, and jagged blades of bone jutted from its elbows. Eight eyes like an arachnid zeroed in on me, through which I could sense the wails of mortal souls that fueled this monstrosity.
Now this was a demon.
It let out a massive roar, echoing with a thousand screams as a wave of pulsing red miasma swept the market. It overtook the revenants and the arcane horror, their bodies dissipating into the cloud. The consecrated ground around me dissipated in the face of the vile energies and I renewed my barrier before it could sweep me aside.
The desecrating energy settled over the air like a fog, and every movement felt like wading through sludge. Through the shadows, I saw the demon smash a leg into the ground, a wave of rocks jutting towards me in response.
I dove away in time as it passed through, destroying a row of houses behind. There was no time to think as the demon blurred into view before me, wading through the miasmic fog like a fish through water. An elbow-blade slammed into my barrier, one strike enough to send cracks splintering across it and shove me reeling into a wall.
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My body moved before my mind did, ducking as the demon appeared in front once more, its arm smashing into the wall I was pelted against. The miasma clung onto every movement, slowing me enough that I couldn’t avoid the demon’s leg, which kicked me aside across the market street.
I rolled back to my feet and tried to regain the initiative, invoking a hammer of pure light in my spare hand. I threw it forwards, the holy weapon searing through the miasma but Gaxkang simply side-stepped it before dashing towards me. However, it failed to notice me closing my fist, causing the flying hammer to swing back around.
Moments before the demon struck, the hammer of light slammed into its back, eliciting a satisfying roar of pain. I followed through by swinging my physical hammer up to meet its head, light flaring from the impact and sending the demon tumbling backwards. All it earned me was a single shard of armored plate from its chin, and even that the lingering miasma restored before my eyes.
It retaliated in a furious onslaught, forcing me into a series of ducks, dodges, and parries. I struck back when I could. Invocations, sigils, and physical attacks, but the demon shrugged all of them off, the miasma restoring any wound it incurred. Its assault only grew in ferocity with time while my own abilities had peaked.
And so, it was inevitable that one of its attacks did land, my barrier shattering as it did. A follow-up strike struck my armor directly, sending me flinging into the ruins of one of the houses. The force of it blurred my vision and I saw dark spots indicating blunt trauma.
A rumble of laughter echoed from everywhere.
“Futile. Centuries pass and mortals are all the same. Know that you have changed nothing for my arrival is inevitable.”
The rift above grew in strength, and for a moment I saw a glimpse of the fishery, of Denerim, and the world beyond. All of which would be prey to this abomination.
I attempted to rise, but stumbled as the last of the lyrium’s power echoed through my being. I no longer held the strength of a cosmic force incarnate, let alone that of a paragon of mankind. All that remained was an exhausted man who had finally reached his limit.
Footsteps clattered through the rumble, too soft to have been Gaxkang. Hands wrapped around my arm helping me up.
I looked over to see Shianni looking at me with a concerned gaze.
“What are you doing here?” I coughed. “I told you to run.”
“Run where?” She raised a brow then sighed. “This makes it the third time you came to my rescue?”
“You.. knew?”
“Not at first. But pretending isn’t your strongest suit.”
The ground quaked. Shianni and I both looked to Gaxkang as it stomped across to finish its work. Across the road, the rest of the people I saved stood huddled together behind the ruined wreck of a house. What would happen to them if I failed?
I nodded knowingly at Shianni. Concern graced her eyes but she let my arm go as I stepped back onto the road, walking ahead to face battle once more.
I called upon the Light, upon the last etches of strength left for a final sortie. My rational mind knew it wasn’t enough. I alone was never going to be enough, not against this thing which gorged upon despair born from the endless fount of suffering that was this world.
And so, with each step I prayed. Prayers before battle were rarely necessary and more ceremonial, but this seemed like an apt time.
I prayed because I had nothing else left to bring, no tactical acumen, no clever tricks, nothing else. I prayed for the innocents here, brought here in part due to my own actions. I prayed because, if this was to be my final act, I wanted it to count. I prayed because I needed a miracle.
And the Light answered.
The heavens split apart and between the growing rift and the Black City was a beam of light shining down upon me. I looked up, shocked, as the Light bathed me in its glory. Behind the brightness I glimpsed a shimmering pattern, to which I had only read about. A holy harbinger that chimed like a bell, washing the world in a cleansing wave and bearing a power that spoke not to the intellect, but to the soul. For it was not called, it answered. And in this world that was closer to the spirit, I was the beacon to which it answered and by which it transcended the boundaries of worlds.
The beam grew until it covered the entire landscape, melting the miasma from the air. The souls of the saved looked up in awe, sorrow giving way to joy and hope springing from despair. Their bodies drifted into shimmering stars that joined the tapestry of light seeking to cleanse the world.
Shianni’s eyes met mine as her body dissipated to join the others speaking four words which meant more than any promise of glory or any quantity of wealth.
“I believe in you.”
She drifted up as a bright flare, and they began to swirl into a divine storm, forming a reservoir of faith that infused strength through my body. Not the strength possessed by the great rulers of men, who did so by the sheer force of their will. This was a power borne from those it protected, hearkening to the legacy of Uther, Turalyon, and Tirion.
And before that shifting tide, Gaxkang took a step back, feeling for the first time in its existence a very mortal emotion: fear.
It roared in defiance like a rat pressed to a corner and charged forward, to which I responded in kind. The demon repeated the same flurry of strikes as before. Now that the scales of power were balanced, skill became the deciding factor, and while Gaxkang had spent eons killing, deceiving, and claiming victory through raw power, it had never truly fought an equal.
I followed its pattern, identified an opening, and when its arm caught against my barrier, I unleashed a counterstrike. My hammer smashed into its knee, earning a shriek of pain and temporarily grounding it.
Gaxkang swept with its other arm-blade and I swept under, before reeling my hammer around to shatter its bone weapon in half. It roared in agony once more before, leaping backwards to gain space. That retreat gave me time to call upon the storm sweeping through the land, invoking a hail of holy hammers that smote it back to the ground.
And now with the miasma cleared and nothing hindering my movements, I closed the gap in an instant and struck, my hammer sweeping bright swathes through the air. Chimes rang through the landscape as each hit struck true, staggering my foe backwards, shearing off its armored plating. The regeneration it once possessed was gone as the divine storm continued to whirl around us like a hurricane.
I pummeled at it until I struck the demon’s core, its very essence, and through it exposed the trapped souls within to the Light beyond. Freeing them from the chains of despair and robbing the demon of its strength. They first slipped free in wisps, then burst outward in a torrent. Gaxkang fell backwards, light radiating out through cracks along its body. It managed one final cry before its essence erupted and was cleansed from existence.
The Light continued to shine from the heavens, even as this twisted world began to fall apart. But even in victory I sensed the Black City loom in the horizon, rivaling the Light in awe, and as I was pulled back to reality it gazed back.
Visions flashed in sequence. A colossal bulk of flesh that called to my own. A gaping gash where a heart once beat alongside seven heads bound by seven chains. I did not know what that horrifying visage was, only that it was the resting place of what had once been a god. One whose tendrils were embedded throughout every part of this world.
But even a dead god can dream.
Four chains were broken, and a fifth snapped before all went dark.
***
I breathed in the odor of fish, the soft feel of clothes around my body soaked with sweat, and boots pressed against a slick surface. My eyes opened to see destroyed crates and coffins surrounding me, along with a sword where I once held a hammer.
I was back in the fishery.
“What just happened?” said Kallian with a bewildered look on her face, still standing where she was when I laid down the judgment.
“I’m not sure,” I said. Too much had happened and it all seemed like a dream. The demon, its demise, and that horrifying visage. There was something odd though. Kallian hadn’t moved at all considering how long I had been there.
“Lorekeeper can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“How much time has passed?”
“A mere moment.”
Time must have passed differently in that strange realm. I had plenty more questions now, but as I saw the charred husk of what was Caladrius along with the shattered remnants of the urn and the absence of the demon’s presence I breathed out a sigh.
“But it’s over,” I said, feeling a tremendous burden slough off my shoulders.
“Hey!” said Kallian. “Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine,” I lied. “I just need to…”
I held myself up with the sword like a cane, but I still teetered like a collapsing building. Kallian grabbed ahold of me before I could fall.
“Maker you’re heavy!” said Kallian.
“Just set me down easy.”
She did, just as rumblings arose in distance from the coffins. I saw some of the openings begin to shift followed by panic as long sedated people woke from their slumber, only to realize they were sealed in.
“Go look for your family and all the others,” I said, hoping for a moment to rest when we heard boots and angry voices marching in from outside.
Kallian froze, and readied her dagger.
“Knight Lieutenant Riverwood. There are multiple living signatures converging upon your area. Along with a tail-end of corruption. One of those was from a being that you have met before. Signatures are associated with those you have known as templars as well as one that matches that of the Gray Warden.”
That made sense, the templars must have been drawn by the commotion caused by the battle, along with anyone else. The Gray Warden was a mystery. Not exactly welcome company, and it would be hard enough to explain everything that went down.
The most likely result would be imprisonment again, but running or hiding was beyond me now. Maybe I could…
“What is that?” Kallian pointed at a pulsing green light from my belt.
I reached down and pulled free the source of the light: the hearthstone from earlier.
“Odd. I’m not sure… It’s a-“
It crumbled to dust in my hand and the world warped around me. The floor disappeared and I found myself falling before the ground abruptly came back.
I sneezed, then caught the familiar scent of herbs and saw an equally familiar table, behind which an old crone peered at me with glimmering yellow eyes and a cup of tea in her hand.
“Well done.” Her lips curled into an amused grin.
“A…” I didn’t even manage to finish my sentence before passing out.