About halfway down the crag with the sun barely peeking over the horizon, Shelove finds him easy enough and greets him by brushing up against him and he pets her head. Once Koronos gets down from the high cliff and back to the camp, he finds the rest of his crew getting ready to do a search for him.
“We thought something ill happened to you, my lord…” says Hybornyesis, in more of a question than a statement. He is a tall, lean man of Octavian ethnicity with rugged, but not unpleasant facial features, has lightning-fast reflexes and incredible eyesight and visual acuity; he was on watch when Koronos vanished, it occurred just before down, happened so quietly, it took him a while to notice that the Kazarian was even missing.
Despite his wooden face, Koronos is not one for deception, nor particularly adept at it either, but not really knowing what exactly happened—and is unsure how to respond without needlessly alarming his bodyguards, he lies a little. All he knows is that perhaps he was carried aloft by a sky king, or did he sprout wings and fly up there? Could a bird that large fly into camp and grab someone without being noticed? Seems unlikely, he doesn’t know or understand, so he simply says, “I went up to the peak to scout, but I forgot to tell you I was going. Let’s break camp and be on our way.”
Because he’s not very good at lying, they all know that something is amiss, so they look at each other in mild confusion; mainly looking to Corvannafax for how to pursue the matter further, but she simply shrugs, so Hybornesis questions no further and they break camp.
Being in a primitive and wild region, the hardest part about long-distance travel is crossing rivers: easier in the dry season, extremely dangerous in the rainy season. Fortunately, it’s currently the dry season, however, it’s a jungle, so even the so-called dry season isn’t dry for very long: it just doesn’t rain for three days straight like it does in the rainy season. So the group find themselves in a light right, being soaked and having to pull the occasional leach off any exposed skin.
Finally the rain breaks as they forge a small river, being mindful of any of the large predatorial crocodiles that are known to prowl the muddy rivers of the dense jungle regions. When they reach the top of a small rise, “there,” the lad points to the mountains.
The group looks up to where Daggeroth is pointing as a sky king swoops overhead, investigating the humans in its territory, but it isn’t terribly interested in them, then they see it in the distance: the Purifier Citadel. Perhaps it was once a great palace, but now it’s mostly in ruins with patchworks of shoddy renovations in the past few decades, the city-of-old that once surrounded it in a half-arc below is now completely overgrown and reclaimed by jungle, and is barely recognizable as being a city at all, let alone a once-great city.
“We don’t know their numbers or how many guards and I’d rather not get riddled with arrows before we even get inside. It’s much more preferable if we do the arrow riddling, so we go under the cover of night,” says Koronos, after pausing the group for a moment to think of a plan as Shelove lies down beside him for a quick rest while eyeing the giant bird until it disappears behind the distant trees.
All of this over a sword? No, not really, it’s the principle of it. People came into his home and robbed, drugged, abducted, crucified him and left him for dead, and he can’t let it go: there must be a reckoning. He’s gotten most of the perpetrators but not the mastermind behind it all.
While waiting, they spend their time adjusting their weapons and fletching some extra arrows— just in case.
“Perhaps you should wait in hiding here, while we go in: you’ve completed your task you agreed to, you guided us as promised. You needn’t die,” Koronos says to Daggeroth in more of a command than an optional request.
The lad nods in acquiescence, but has already made up his mind to quietly follow them in, from a distance.
Just after dark they’re on the move with their bows strung and ready. Hybornyesis takes the lead because of his superior vision and archery skill, as they work their way up the ancient pathway to the citadel, he kills the guards before he’s even seen.
They reach the main entrance and it’s open, it is usually left open because no one is crazy enough to trespass into the Purifier Citadel: the Purifiers rule these lands with terror and murder, no one dares oppose them. This fact has made them arrogant.
Inside the grand hall, there is some kind of gathering or ritual with candles and oil lamps providing the dim light, dozens of zealots humming and wearing their customary white themed attire of cloaks, robes and armors. The two guards on each side of the door die before they can even make a sound when Corvannafax and Pericles dispatch them.
In addition to the fire-light, there is a strange glow coming from the giant crystal structure above the dias, it’s a bright glowing yellow gemstone. On the dais is a tall, muscular imposing figure with long black hair holding the hilt of the Sword of the First, with arcing energy between the blade and the crystal structure and the blade is driven halfway into a large glowing crystal formation in the middle of the dias.
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It’s not the zealots that are humming, it’s emanating from the crystal structure. None-the-less, four zealots get arrows to the heart or head, then four more, and another four in just a few seconds with Koronos and his group drill arrows into the unsuspecting zealots.
The leader of the zealots yells, “kill them!”
Drawing swords and daggers, the remaining zealots charge the intruders but are hacked to pieces, hit by an arrow or have their heads bitten off or ripped off with a paw swipe by Shelove. In a matter of ten seconds all the zealots are dead or dying and the floor is covered in blood.
In the carnage, Zeyzey quietly slinked away and now watches from the shadows and quietly strings her bow.
“How dare you interrupt my ritual!? Who are you?” Demands the leader.
Koronos steps out of the shadows and up onto the dais to confront the leader and he feels it, he’s an Everliving, “I am Koronos, your people took my property, I’ve come to retrieve it and kill the man that sent them: are you that man?”
He struggles to answer at first, he wasn’t expecting to have an encounter with another Everliving, “I-I am that man, I am Malivance: The First Reborn,” he replies arrogantly, he’s as tall as Koronos and may have a stone or two on him as well, “and I’m going to finish the job that my men failed to do!” He lifts his forearm as green fire begins to whirl around it, then he aims it at the blue Kazarian and unleashes it upon him.
“No, you’re not the First Reborn, I’ve seen her and you are definitely not like her, you’re a delusional madman.” Koronos says as he holds his spear in front of him with his hands just under the blade; the green flames split apart on the spear and harmlessly pass by on each side of him. The zealot turns ash grey at this because no one has ever resisted his attack before: it’s what always gives him an advantage over everyone else, and without that advantage he suddenly feels naked.
With lightning-fast reflexes the Kazarian whips the shaft of the weapon up in an arc to smash Malivance in the chin, causing him to stumble back into the glowing sword, the hilt digging into his back a little. This causes him to look back to see what it is, as if he had forgotten it was there, he realizes maybe he could use this against his foe, he moves to position himself to put the sword between them to make it a little harder for his blue adversary to attack. Then he reaches for the hilt as Shelove comes from behind him to attack, and Corvannafax, Pericles and Hybornyesis encircle.
While this is all occurring, Zeyzey is in the shadows and is taking aim at Koronos’ back, aiming for his heart with her composite bow. But before she can let loose, her bow is suddenly pinned to a column by an arrow with blue feathers on it: it’s from Daggeroth and he was actually aiming for her hand to stop her from aiming correctly but missed. He followed the group inside and was circling the room slowly in the darkness, watching, until he saw Zeyzey taking aim.
Seeing what Malivance is doing, Koronos lunges for the hilt and they both grab it at the same time, and in that moment, green and yellow lightning arc from the sword to the crystals and then time seems to slow and stop as a bubble forms around the dais, then they poof away in a bright flash of light and thunderously loud boom as they punch a hole through the realm-barrier.
Malivance, Koronos and everyone on the dais are pulled in to the Void-space: it’s an ancient magical gateway that could only be powered by a powerful Everliving and/or two Everlivings or an Everliving with a powerful artifact, or some combination thereof. However, because of the greatly amplified power of two Everliving and the artifact weapon, it pulled everyone alive in the hall through.
The two Everliving both have a hand on the hilt of the sword still as they hurtle through the glowing, magical Void tunnel, but Koronos has had enough, and punches Malivance in the face and then kicks him away. This causes the zealot to fly into the tunnel wall and right through it, into the unknown Void realm and vanishes.
The remaining group poofs into existence in a new place, it’s a gleaming throneroom of a luxurious palace on another dais similar to the one they started from. Koronos looks around to see who made it: it’s Shelove, Corvannafax, Pericles, Hybronyesis, Daggeroth but doesn’t notice Zeyzey because she is crouching and terrified.
Sitting right in front of them on the dais is an emperor on his crystal throne with his advisors on each side of him, he is blue-skinned like a southern Kazarian people, like Koronos, and so are the advisers, but they do not look like barbarians, at all: this emperor is adorned in fineries, silks, jewels and a gleaming silver crown with a glowing blue crystal set into the front. More importantly, Koronos and the emperor can sense each other are Everliving.
The imperial guards rush in to surround them with gleaming pikes and swords drawn, they too are blue-skinned, but in fine armor and silks. The throne room is even more grand, larger and more opulent than the Octavian Imperial throne room.
The emperor stands up and speaks in a loud, firm and commanding voice in the Old Tongue, but it’s the very oldest version of the Old Tongue, “who are you, and, and… how did you do that? It’s impossible, nobody can come through from the other side, not for many thousands of years, it’s only a one-way trip… the way was shut, forever!”
Koronos can understand about one-third of the words, but his mind can understand the intentions, the same as what he experienced with Daggeroth.
The captain of the imperial guards yells at them, “drop your weapons in the presence of his imperial royal majesty! And you will answer the emperor!” His aggression seems to be mainly directed at Corvannafax, they seem none too fond of her red skin and golden locks.
“Okay, easy, everyone, lay down your weapons,” Koronos says to his group, then he sees Zeyzey as she slowly stands and he tightens his fist, but over her shoulder are huge crystal windows chased in decorative stained-glass motifs, and he can see the moon outside in the daytime sky, it’s the wrong celestial body. So, he points to the mysterious moon and continues, “...and we may have a slight problem, that’s not Sleeping Dragon.”
Koronos the Kazarian | Royal Road
