Part 21: Final Battle
Michael backed up reflexively. He didn't
recognize the man standing in front of him, but a queasy feeling in the
pit of his stomach made him suspect.
"You...." the man growled. If Michael had
any doubts at all, they were now gone - the body may have been someone
else's, but the voice was none other than that of Stinnett himself.
Michael's hand clenched around the stones as the
demon continued talking.
"So, that's what the old man was up to." A sneer
crossed his face. "You will be interested to know, warrior, that
your priest is dead. I crushed his throat with my very hands."
Though Michael couldn't bring himself to believe it, his face still betrayed
a shock. "Ha!" Stinnett spat. "And you will also be glad to know that
the very last thing he did was not to resist me.... Instead, he used
whatever powers he had to call you here." A mean spirited snicker escaped
the man. "I tell you this, of course, so you can reflect upon it
in your final dying moments."
"No." Michael said, his eyes riveted on his opponent.
Slowly, he brought up the hand which held the stones.
For one moment, the body which hosted Stinnett recoiled
and its eyes widened. Then its expression was neutral once more.
Stinnett quickly manages to steady himself.
The stones! The very stones that the knight had taken from him are
now here for the taking. Dabiri was a fool! Smiling, the demon
steps forward.
Michael opens his palm, closing his eyes to summon
the power within. Stinnett leaps forward, bracing himself to attempt
to resist the power that was sure to erupt.
And nothing happened.
Stinnett's momentum carried him forward into Morhaime.
Swiftly, the demon turned and took the stones from his open palm.
Michael fell to the ground, not because he hadn't
braced himself for the hit, but because he had never expected the hit to
come at all. The stones hadn't reacted! He felt physically
ill as he tried to climb to his feet. Stinnett had the stones - Michael
didn't even need to check his palm to know this. The demon was still
standing in the doorway, holding them in his hand and staring at them in
awe. Michael had failed.
Stinnett's gaze met his. "You're a fool, Morhaime.
You would have been better off had you died with the rest of your garrison.
Instead, you must now suffer."
Michael tried to draw his sword, even though he
knew it would be useless to do so. The power within it was far eclipsed
by the stones his adversary was carrying. Still, he had to try.
The demon caught the movement, however, and a moment later Michael was
thrown across the room, brutally striking one wall before slumping to the
ground.
"It's rather clear to me now what has happened."
Stinnett said, his eyes afire. "These stones do so much more for
me than they would for you, as I embrace their power. You merely
feared it. Yet you still used it, and so you were used for the purposes
of these gems. I have my memory now - I can remember every universe
I crushed, every petty hero like you whose life I extinguished, and every
resistance to my power done away with. I remember to the beginning,
when one of these very stones lifted me beyond the status of mere demon,
and made me what I am now. Ever since that day, I had searched for
them, even if I did not know it. They have also sought me out - using
whoever possessed them to try to come to me. So you see, Michael,
your use of the stones to try to destroy me was folly, as it was they who
were using you. They have finally achieved their goal.
And with them, I shall achieve mine."
The demon had advanced halfway across the room.
Now, he turned his back on the warrior, and faced the door. "I have
awaited this for a long, long time."
It seemed suddenly as though there was a cacophony
of music filling the air, and the walls of the room had begun to glow with
a holy light. A young woman walked in, carrying a sword that seemed
to be the source of everything, that seemed to drive away the shadows in
the room. Michael recognized her immediately - she was Eve, and she
was also the Goddess. The warrior felt as though he were about to
cry. He had failed. He had known it was folly to attempt to
use the stones to defeat Stinnett, he had simply been prideful, and believed
that he could control them. And now they were doomed. He didn't
care about his own death so much - he felt as though he were living on
borrowed time ever since his garrison had been slaughtered - but the deaths
of all the others - Dabiri, the apprentices, and Eve who stood before him
now - weighed heavily on him. He had failed.
"Stinnett, why do you resist me so? Why do
you hate this world with such venom?" Eve said. Her voice echoed
throughout the room, as though she were speaking from all places at once.
Stinnett snarled, an almost animal sound.
"Because they populate it! The humans! Those vile, weak, stupid
humans! Every time I have destroyed your world, in the hopes that
you would have enough sense to make something better, and every time you
have not done so!"
"Humans are mirrors, Stinnett - they are part of
the Whole, just as you and I are. Once humans awaken, the Whole can
be remade."
"Don't you see?" Stinnett raged. "They'll
never awaken! They will never figure out what is happening!
They're sheep! They bumble around blindly, stumbling across one another,
and they call it a life! Such creatures are beyond hope."
Eve regarded the demon placidly. "They need
time, Stinnett. Something you have taken from them."
Stinnett spoke through clenched teeth. "They
have no right to it! You were mistaken to think they could remake
the Whole. I will now put right what you made wrong, 'Goddess'.
I will no longer strive for something so futile as the Whole. I will
create nothingness, and it shall be eternal." With that, the demon
raised his hand up, and the stones sprang to life.
Instantly, the harmonious song that had filled the
room fell into discord. The pure light that permeated every surface
slowly began to turn a sickly brown. And Eve cried out, taking a
step back. Dabiri had been right, Michael reflected. With the
power of the stones, there was nothing - not even the Goddess - that could
stop Stinnett.
She reeled back, feeling the power of the Stones
beginning to dampen her senses. She had tried to talk to him, but
he simply would not listen. Slowly, she began rallying her power.
Eve, who was normally a passive viewer in all of this, was suddenly back
in charge of her own body. And then she was not. The Goddess'
powers were tremendous, but the stones were slowly draining them.
She did not regret their existence - they were part of the Whole as well.
It seemed that her powers were not enough - the light which always surrounded
her was dimming. She called out to the one who had alerted her, the
one that had told her that this could possibly happen. The only human
to ever carry over... Her mind send the words that she had to communicate.
One desperate plea.
"Help me...." Michael looked up at the inert
form of Larrana Claire - Dabiri's goddess. Had she spoken?
His mind was whirling - the Goddess needed help, or everything would come
to an end. He had thought himself powerless, but if she had called
out for help using Larrana then there might be something he could do.
Slowly, he got to his feet and drew his sword - the sword that he had used
ever since the battle at Ethanac, the sword that the clerics had blessed
with Laranna's power, the sword that had been proof against Stinnett's
physical forms in the past. It lay in his hand now, inert.
He closed his eyes, trying to draw the power out of it, desperately searching
for the energy he knew it contained.
A feral yell building in his throat, he leapt forward
at Stinnett, even as the light and music were fading around him, even as
he was struggling to pull the latent power from the sword. The demon
turned too late. The power that had been placed into the blade sprang
to life, coaxed by the warrior's will and amplified by what remained of
the Goddess' power. Michael's sword sliced downward, striking Stinnett's
hand and cutting through it easily. Stinnett screamed - a scream
of pain, terror, and inescapable loss - as the sword came into contact
with the stones.
Michael finds himself standing in Dabiri's temple
as he has uncountable times in the past. Seated before him is Larrana
Claire. Smiling, she invites him to sit down.
"This is no dream." She says, meeting
his eyes. "You're here."
"What do you mean? This has to be a dream,
Dabiri's temple burned down!" Michael objected, even as he sat down
across from the woman.
"Well, perhaps I was slightly mistaken. What
I meant to say is that you're not dreaming. You're here, with me
now."
"What happened?" Michael said, confused by
the explanation and hoping for a better one.
"This is where I exist. Not my body, understand,
but my spirit. And now yours resides here as well."
"I'm dead?"
Larrana laughed. "No more than I am, though
I am sure that's not saying very much. No, your body is alive somewhere,
and probably in the same condition as mine. Stinnett, however, is
destroyed. You chose your target wisely - the power in the sword
is no match for the stones, after all, it's just a bit of my power.
But it was designed to undo Stinnett. The demon was channeling the
power of those evil relics, and when your sword collided with his hand,
all that power started going back into the stones... the backlash of power,
colliding with the sword - it tore the castle apart. Stinnett's spirit
could not escape in time to escape it."
"What about Eve... the Goddess?" Michael was
unsure exactly what had happened.
Larrana shook her head. "I don't know.
I was the one who first contacted the Goddess, long ago in a former universe
when I saw that Stinnett might one day pose a greater threat than he did
then. That link has always been there, but it seems to be gone now."
Michael took this news somberly. Finally,
he spoke again. "Eve said something about the Whole... she argued
with Stinnett about it. What was she talking about?"
Larrana sighed. "I don't know. She never
told me the whole story, but I've managed to piece it together. Apparently,
before everything was created, the universe existed as one being.
Somehow, it splintered apart - into the Goddess, humans, the Stones, and
the demons. It seems as though the Goddess was trying to remake the
Whole." She smiled. "I don't know if she would have succeeded
though. However, I can hope."
Michael smiled with her. "I think you might
be right. There might be hope yet."
Cleric Gene Havens walked diligently along the path,
glancing over at the woman at his side. "Are you okay?" he inquired
kindly.
"I'm fine." She replied. She was the revered
Priestess Angene, after all. She could show no weakness, especially
in front of an inferior like Havens. She shook her head to clear
it of such thoughts - Havens didn't deserve that kind of treatment.
Silently, she walked alongside him as they crested the hill.
Cleric Havens stopped in his tracks as the ruins
came into view. "P - priestess Angene?"
Angene stopped with him, looking at the ruins without
changing her expression. It was always a surprise to the new ones,
she reflected. She felt a bit of it herself, looking over the fallen
castle. The faded power of their Goddess still lingered, as well
as the taint of the Evil one. The ruins themselves were far from
ordinary - the fallen castle at the center looked plain, but the rubble
that had been thrown by the explosion was the exception. Every rock
was the exact same size, smooth, and slightly reflective. And all
of them were arranged in a pattern, the center of which was the center
of the castle, where the legendary battle had taken place.
Havens spoke up again. "It's... amazing!"
"You know the story?" Angene inquired, already knowing
that he did. But she had a point to drive home.
Havens nodded. "Yes - the Knight and the Sorceress
defeated the Evil one, just as he was going to bring our Goddess to bay."
"And that was the result" Angene pointed to the
ruins. "A living memorial to their efforts. They have gone
on to another place, but they remind us what we exist for. The teachings
of Dabiri can tell us only so much - it is monuments like this that can
help us proceed."
Havens was agreeing with her. "It's too bad
that they're gone."
"They died for a purpose. And remember, they
have gone to a better place, just as one day we shall. And perhaps
we shall affect enough people in the next generation so that more shall
go to the better place. And they in turn shall effect more.
This is why we exist, after all."
"Yes." Havens knew this already, but it all
seemed new to him in light of the ruins.
"Come, it is getting late, and we must return to
the temple." Angene advised.
Cleric Havens moved slowly, as though waking from
a dream. "Okay, just a moment."
Angene smiled, and started to walk back to the temple
as Cleric Havens stared at the ruins.
"Amazing." he whispered again to himself.
He made an internal vow to himself that he would be more like the Knight.
Slowly, he turned around and followed the priestess home.
The End
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