A boom is heard as the barrier yields to the combined power of the monstrous duo. They do not concede, throwing projectiles that you would rather not know what it is made out of as they close the gap.
Their respective weapons begin to scintillate, giving them a chance to rain down a blitzkrieg on you. You are barely able to evade their strikes which have now become nothing but a blur.
The intensity suddenly soars. Multiple booms begin to form which reverberate around you. You rashly perform a series of gestures and incontinently two humanoid entities manifest near you. A thin aura surrounds the two constructs. One wields a longsword while the other wields a bow with the edges outfitted to be used as blades. They engage the two headless bodies, sparks flying as they exchanged blows
Their fight with the headless duo gives you a moment of reprieve. An ominous ambiance suddenly reveals itself. The bloodlust and killing single-minded resolve stuns you. It is equal to yours.
You catch something in the corner of your eye. Daring not to tempt faith, you leap back. A bolt of lightning strikes the spot you were on a few moments heretofore.
" You feel it don't you? " The King interrogates. He engenders above you, spear trained on you. His eyes glow a sinister yellow.
You elude his attack. However, the consequent eruption of terra firma creates a dust cloud. He bursts out not long after, swinging his spear in an arch. You know it is bait but you have no choice.
You leap up and are met with a thunderous slam. The power alone is enough to render you torpid for a moment. You are sent flying again for the second time but unlike the first, you use that to your advantage.
You summon a conflagration device and wait for the right chance to deploy it. Your creations were still able to hold their own against the King's undead guard but not for long.
" Answer me! " He roars. His attacks begin to aggrandize, to the point that not even the powers given to you by the old god are no longer effective.
Your chances of winning are steadily declining. Your attacker knows this as well. He disappears in a sudden burst of smoke before appearing behind you.
" That god of yours," he verbalizes. " Do you know why you and you alone found its whereabouts?"
You swing your blade, aiming for his exposed neck. He does not attempt to block or eschew the attack. He simply watches you with those haunting yellow eyes.
The blade hits with a thwack, burying itself deep into his neck. Blood spews out of the newly created wound. He shows no sign of pain or discomfort, only indifference. This merely inflames you.
He merely pushes the blade away with nothing more than his finger, index finger to be exact. Sensing impending peril, you put a considerable amount of expanse between him and you.
" Your rage and insatiable appetency for revenge, " he enunciates, " has blinded you to the painful truth."
He advances towards you, and his gaze is on you. Behind him, the battle between his guards and your constructs still rages on. He pays no attention to the chaos behind him and adroitly wards off any incoming offal.
You conjure an ethereal spear, aim at his throat and launch it with incredible force. As the spear flies through the air, you hear him cackle. Scintillas of light begin to manifest at his feet.
He cocks his head to the side, forming an unnatural angle. The scintillas multiply into a myriad of light, shooting up until it engulfs his whole form.
You slam the ground, using the momentum to synchronously scour the area and catapult yourself into the air. The search comes back unsubstantiated. This brings a multitude of emotions.
" Down here, " He calls. " I need to show you something."
You twist mid-air to see him standing in front of a door. His weapon rests on his back. It then dawns on you, there are no telltale signs of the battle between your constructs and the guards.
You cast a glance and your blood runs cold. The guards float idly in the air, your constructs nowhere to be seen. It is clear that they have been defeated. But why haven't they attacked? If they had, you would have been defeated, even killed long ago.
" They will not attack." He answers the question which you never asked.
Your intuition warns you of a trap. Yet you find yourself in no position to object. So you decide to play along. You descend, taking into account of the positions of all three. The two are on your flanks, at the same altitude while the king is a few feet away, standing next to the door.
Once you land, you prioritize defense over offense, sacrificing power for speed. You take a closer look at the door. It is large, with intricate designs visible across the framework. Pulsating light runs across the designs.
You feel drawn to it. You feel solace and it is undoubtedly from this door. Although you perceive a strange presence emanating from this door, you want to walk through.
But why listen to him? It is clearly a trap. You stop, eyeing the two flanking you. They mirror you, stopping in place a few feet after you, occasionally twitching. You consider your options.
The King is in front of you, weapon by his and pointing downwards.
On your left is Xiuhcoatl, or better yet, his animated corpse. The stump where his head once was has stopped squirting out blood. His armor is beaten, an evident affestation of one of your constructs. The weapon, which is also dented and covered in slashes, is held by a crooked arm, and the armor around it is warped and pieces of bone can be glimpsed from multiple areas.
The embers can still be seen around the body. Their movements are not as graceful as before but rather erratic with some even singeing when hitting the armor. The body twitches occasionally.
Marzanna's corpse fared no better. It too had sustained damage. The armor was dented in some parts while in other places the armor was completely gone. Her blade was broken yet still functional. The shapeless forms of blood from earlier are still present. But like her dead ally, it is now moving haphazardly, sizzling upon touching the armor. The body jerks, blood pouring out from many orifices. Some land in the amorphous pools, causing a reaction.
You hear a gust of wind and instinctively raise your blade. The King stops a few feet away from you, his sickening yellow eyes now white, and lifeless.
" Why do you fight?" He inquires of you once more, his voice is barely audible. He coughs, blood forcing its way out of his chest and mouth. His grip on his weapon loosens.
" Do you," he turns to look at the door, " think the gods care?"
" I think they don't." He puts a hand in the void where a part of his torso once was. " I knew you would come."
You thrust your sword into his midriff only to be met with a reply. He grabs the blade, his gaze never leaving the door.
" You must cross." He says. You know he is not asking.
His grip on your blade begins to tighten, drawing blood from his palm. You attempt to let go of the blade. You can't. No matter how hard you try you can't release the blade.
You sense a buildup of energy around him. It becomes so strong that it manifests in the physical realm. The immediate area around him is engulfed in a red hue.
His head snaps backward, multiple cracks can be heard as certain areas around his neck begin to swell.
" Brace yourself," a twisted smile forms on his face. How he can do such acts in his current state baffles you.
His body moves faster than you anticipated. He yanks you forward with enough force that it sends you flying directly toward the door.
You try to slow your speed by digging both hands into the ground. Unfortunately, the king had somehow anticipated this.
He appears above you, guards on your flanks. The ambiance resonating with him suddenly manifests in the headless duo. Their weapons create sparks as they are dragged along the ground.
These two have existed for too long and have done nothing but be a nuisance to you. An impetuous action is a best-case scenario. You focus on the duo flanking you.
You pay close attention to their necks. Nothing of value catches your attention. The rest of the bodies have anything that you can use against them.
They must be controlled in some sort of way or form. It can't be anything orthodox. Nothing from the mage arts could have done this. The only logical answer is heretical arts.
The distance to the door continues to reduce. You concentrate, drawing deep knowledge from the god's memories. You immediately find what you are looking for.
It is an ancient spell that allows the caster to gain complete control over any cadaver that they come across. The price, their memories.
If that is the case then how come the King still has his memories or part of them?
" Witness!" He cries out. The aura around him has grown, forming a miasma. " Everything that happened you to was preordained by the gods themselves!"
This divulgence stuns you. The macabre and senseless slaughter of your family was supposed to happen?
Rage and hate begin to consume you. The memories of your family and friends flood your mind as you try to scream in agony, yet nothing comes out. Even your voice was claimed as well.
Throwing caution to the wind, you hurl your blade at Xiuhcoatl's corpse. You don't bother to see what happens as you latch onto Marzanna's corpse.
It tries to throw you off but your grip prevents that. The amorphous blood forms begin to take the shape of needles and rain down on both you and the corpse.
It swings its broken sword at you. You deflect it at the last moment causing the arm to take the brunt of the hailstorm of needles. The corpse ignores this and tries to stab you again.
You yank out the arm wielding the sword. A wet tearing sound together with the snapping of bone is heard, and blood gushes out before joining the various amorphous pools floating above you.
You launch the detached arm into the air and grab the blade. It cuts deep into your palm but you hardly feel the pain as you impale the corpse through the torso. It begins to spasm uncontrollably before the legs give out.
You call back your blade and stand atop it, using it as a means of transport. The King gives you a demented look, before swinging at you with his weapon.
You reply with a strike of your own. Sparks are created everytime your blades clash. His attacks begin to quicken and so do yours.
Out of the corner of your eye, you glimpse a figure barreling toward you at breakneck speed. Taking your attention off your opponent would be disastrous.
You fully embrace the unholy power given to you by a forgotten god and engulf the figure in azure flames. It twitches as the flames consume it.
With your newfound strength, you forsake your blade and speed-blitz him. You cock back your arm and concentrate a goodly amount of power into your fist and deliver a haymaker to his midriff.
He barely has time to react to it before you follow it up with another haymaker. You unleash a barrage of blows upon your victim.
As you continue the incessant onslaught, you catch a glimpse of the door. He was extremely determined to get you to enter. Why not oblige?
You grab him by the hair and hurl him at the door. He crashes into it. However, the door reacts in an unusual manner, it expands as the King hits it and seemingly forces him inside.
Multiple ethereal tendrils rise from behind the door and speed blitz you. They wrap around your limbs, holding you in place. They begin to retract, dragging you along.
Instead of fighting against the otherworldly tentacles, you decide to make their work easier. You launch yourself at the door and it reacts faster than you had expected, opening and letting you pass through.
Your vision turns white as you feel as though you were falling down a chasm. Suddenly a gust of wind hits you and your vision returns.
You manifest a glider and deploy it. It jerks you back upon deploying but now you can control your descent. You look around, but all that you see are clouds. The light source has to be great since everything is clear as day.
A shadow suddenly looms over you. Something massive descends from above and you are barely able to evade it in time.
The monolith continues to descend, clouds swept away as it does so. It is made of gold and has a plethora of carvings on it. It resembles a gigantic forearm.
Another appears, but from below. On it you see the King, on a knee and a figure stands before him.
Its appearance is unlike anything you have ever seen. It has a humanoid form but that is the only part that looks vaguely distinguishable. Its skin is seemingly made of the exact material as those leviathan structures. On its torso are eyes, none of which are the same. They move across its torso in random patterns, but they all have one thing in common, they are looking right at you. It disappears and appears directly in front of you.
A cacophony of voices can be heard emanating from it. It floats idly in the air, its numerous eyes merely watching you as they move across its body.
Your instincts flare, warning you to get as far away as possible. But a voice indicates its ability to teleport. Just how far could it teleport? And what other abilities does it possess?
You decide to follow your instincts and get away from the entity. The glider dissipates and you drop. You keep your gaze on the figure for as long as possible before a cloud obstructs your view.
You bring your arms close to your body as possible and descend faster. The howling of the wind assaults your ears but you push through.
Suddenly a landmass comes into view. You perform a gesture and a suit of ethereal armor manifests around you and you descend even faster, breaking the sound barrier as you do so.
You land with a crash. Dust and debris rise up high into the sky. You wobble for a while before walking normally again. You look around, nothing but green rolling elevations stretches out far into the distance. The atmosphere is peaceful yet you do not feel at peace, that thing is still out there.
The King was clearly submissive to it. Could that be his master? Or patron god? If so, how come this is the first you've encountered it? Would it not have been wise to call upon it when you attacked his realm?
As you ponder, you feel an overwhelming presence around you, it is here. Yet you can't seem to sense it, no matter what form you use.
" You've grown since we last met," a dismembered voice says.
You quickly summon your blade and take a defensive posture, creating a defensive perimeter around you.
The entity manifests itself once more. It stands just outside your defensive ward, which is brimming with the unfiltered power of the old god, the King directly behind it.
It leisurely strolls around you, its eyes still watching you. You feel it gaze into your very soul. It returns to its original position and calmly walks through the ward.
" Greetings," it speaks. " How long has it been?"
You attempt to strike the entity but your body refuses to move. The entity halts, the ambiance around it is something you can't comprehend. You have the knowledge of an ancient god and yet this thing is completely alien to you.
You gander past it and concentrate on the King. He looks down, never raising his head to look at the two of you.
" Astounding isn't he? " The entity steps to the side, giving a clear view of the King. " He's quite the specimen."
It just called him a specimen. You give it a look of shock. Even though it has a plethora of eyes, you can feel its gaze soften. It turns again, now facing the King
" Don't look at me like that," the figure verbalizes. " He's merely a creation. Nothing more."
" And so are you," it says as it veers around to face you.
Your body suddenly responds to your commands and you leap back. It makes no attempt to pursue you. Instead it turns its attention to the King who still looks to the ground. There's a flash and, the king is no more. A wisp of smoke rises from he once stood.
It disappears once more. You scan the area, nothing. The area suddenly grows dark. You look up to see one of those monolithic structures descend from the heavens. You won't be able to escape in time, or block it.
The old god suddenly appears next to you, each eye socket now releasing smoke. It grabs you by the arm before moving you both out of the way.
The monolith sized arm crashes into the ground with a boom. The god points forward, all its skulls looking in the direction where it is pointing. You look as well.
The entity floats idly a few feet away from both of you. Its form had gone from an eldritch entity, to a child. One that looked familiar.
" Does this look familiar?" It asks in a child's voice.