[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 283 – Terror Returned

K’thran slithered forward, sending her minions to harry the adventurers who had given ground so readily before their assault. With the power of the Lumanot at Kel’brek’s disposal, they forced open any of the sealed doors the Empire loved to use.

Doors that would have funneled their forces into kill zones, splitting up the weakest and strongest to be taken apart by the assembly line of adventurers and warriors.

Not this time.

The alliance marched where they saw fit and, though many of them filtered into the city to destroy with utter abandon, the best and strongest formed an honor guard for the two leaders. Kel’brek and K’thran.

It would take the First Heroes themselves to save the Empire from annihilation on this day.

The Granserpents themselves were forced to fall back before their assault. The pair of Immortals stationed to protect the Lumanot were destroyed utterly by their overwhelming power, leaving the Lumanot vulnerable.

K’thran could practically taste the power of the Lumanot in her grasp.

She had been watching Kel’brek the entire time, knowing full well that the idiot meant to take the second Lumanot for himself.

Not if I have anything to say about it! K’thran promised herself. She did not begrudge the grimal his ambitions. Two-headed and powerful though he was, the leader of the grimal tribes was not the smartest creature.

It was like watching a child playing pretend. If not for how horrifically bad he was at it, K’thran would have found it cute.

Every time the grimal leader blasted open doors that wouldn’t yield to the most powerful lamia magic, K’thran salivated with desire. That power would soon be hers.

If not for her toy, they would never reach the Lumanot at all. All she had to do was wait for an opportune moment to steal the Lumanot once the doors were breached.

The Immortal stationed inside would not be an issue. They had a master greater than either of their factions, and both would see to it that the Empire fell this day.

However, the grimal would be much less convinced than K’thran. He would no doubt test the Immortal’s loyalty, giving K’thran the time to swipe the Lumanot. Firmly in her grasp, she would be Kel’brek’s equal in more ways than one.

He, and everybody else among the tribes, would be forced to see her as the Queen she was.

Thoughts of conquest paraded through her mind’s eye as the doors were wrenched open. A dark set of arches recessed into the thick stone ended at another ornate gate.

A single monster walked inside, too eager to think for a moment, and was obliterated with a thrum of power that washed over each of them. A gonging alarm echoed throughout the city. The Empire’s last defense had been tripped.

K’thran hissed angrily at Kel’brek. “You said your minions would follow your orders! None were to enter until the way was clear!”

Kel’brek snarled, a deep guttural sound that sent shivers down K’thran’s hood. “They are dead. What does it matter? We will win the day still.”

K’thran motioned for her toy to enter the tunnel. Once upon a time, he had been the first mate of the Wavedancer, and before that, the Skimmer, the Sea Sprite, and, of course, the Maelstrom. All sunk and looted except for the Wavedancer.

The lamia shuddered, trying to lock away such horrible memories deep in her subconscious. It had been a hundred years and more since that fateful day.

Her sisters were dead. She and her toy were the only survivors, and he would never speak against her.

The old decrepit man shuffled forward, proud despite his advanced age. He could walk where no monster could. In his hands, he held a delicate scroll. The culmination of years of work, precisely inked and patterned for such an occasion.

With the last of the traps defeated, there was still one more defense. Though only a man was permitted within, there was still the matter of the ornate gate to deal with. A monster could have ripped it off its hinges or battered it down. They had strength that a man could only dream of.

Even enhanced as her toy was, he was no match for the gate of [Imperial Blacksteel]. The scroll, however, was another story.

Placed against the door and carefully unfurled, the potent magicks within adhered the scroll to the door. Touching a finger to the central sigil set the entire thing alight.

Only then did the toy realize his mistake.

His finger was glued to the scroll.

He screamed for his mistress’ aid, for her to help him. Surely something had gone wrong.

K’thran examined her long fingernails in boredom as the scroll drained away what was left of the man’s life force. A necessary sacrifice to fuel the spell.

A smoking, empty husk that had finally fulfilled its meager purpose crumpled to the ground.

“Even for you, that is cold,” Kel’brek stated, obviously impressed.

“A leader must be willing to use every tool at their disposal,” she said with a respectful nod.

Kel’brek’s response was overshadowed by the brilliant explosion that blew open the gate without the slightest hint of smoke. They waited a moment for their vision to clear and then marched inside with pride.

K’thran slithered beside Kel’brek, careful to keep herself a hair behind him so as not to offend the brute. There was little point fighting him until she held every advantage.

Their honor guard swept into the room after them. The gates were lying in pieces on the floor in twisted heaps. On their backs K’thran could still make out the sigils that had powered the monster killing magic.

As much as she yearned to study them and unravel their mysteries, there was a greater prize to be had here.

K’thran’s slithering stopped at the same time as Kel’brek’s heavy stomps. The destruction to the room was far more complete than the scroll should have caused. There were fire and scorch marks all over the place.

The stones were cracked and bubbled from intense heat, and her allied Immortal was nowhere to be seen.

In his place was a large man in gorgeous blue armor that shimmered like the waves of the Gulan Deep. His face tilted up and K’thran’s heart stuttered in her breast.

It can’t be.

Overcome by denial, she slithered forward, but Kel’brek held out a hand and barked an order to his minions. They came on carefully, but filled with confidence. This was just one man. He might not be the one they were meant to meet, but that mattered little.

Even the Granserpents couldn’t stop them now. What was one man?

Except K’thran had seen this man before. She knew what the power of this one man was…but she could not believe her eyes. There was no way this was the same monster that had slaughtered her entire clan!

That was over a century ago. He looked like he didn’t age a day. It must be a mistake. She was sure of it. Her eyes were simply playing tricks on her.

The repeated denial did not stop the fear from twisting K’thran’s thoughts.

Could this champion never age? Would she never be free of his power?

Terror crawled through her mind. What if he is a First Hero?

“Kill him!” Kel’brek growled. He had seen what K’thran, lost in the memories of her clan’s massacre, had not.

The man was approaching the Lumanot.

K’thran raised her bow and nocked an arrow to her cheek. She was among the finest archers in her entire clan and had only gotten better over the years.

The arrow flew true ahead of all the rushing monsters. Her aim was perfect. Even though he appeared to wear no helm, K’thran knew of the popular trend of ensorcelling helms to remain invisible until struck.

She had aimed for the tiny gap between the back of the head and the neck. It was the best shot of her life. Vengeance was finally hers!

At the last moment, a golden paw reached out of the blue-and-silver armor and swatted the arrow away. Then the golden paw made a rude gesture.

K’thran screamed.

The Lumanot flowed down like liquid moonlight and infused the monster-slayer with the power of a god.

Power that was rightfully K’thran’s!

Unaware of what she was doing, she stowed her bow and took out her staff. She had to kill him before he learned to control it. Before Kel’brek could seize it from him.

Slithering forward with her sisters flanking her, K’thran grimaced. It wasn’t the way she had wanted this to go, but killing the Lumanot-bearer would release its power and allow her to wield it.

Kel’brek would have no choice but to accept her newfound status. After all, she was helping him, wasn’t she? She would be a hero in the eyes of the monsters.

When the first wave of monsters was obliterated, K’thran’s confidence faltered. The man turned, moving like he was a statue a thousand times his size. Every movement clearly took great effort, but when he moved, he teleported from one position to the next.

K’thran’s lust for the Lumanot grew to new heights as he took out a grimal bruiser in one hit. One of the four strongest grimals in all of Kel’brek’s army had just been wiped out by a human.

Readying an insidious spell of her own making, K’thran waited for an opening and raised her glowing staff high as she slithered to the man’s flank.

As he pushed the dead monster aside, inadvertently killing the bandage-wrapped qultrubs behind the bruiser, K’thran got her first good look at the man.

Black tousled hair. Black stubble. Square jaw. And those eyes. So long as she lived, she would never forget those sapphire blue eyes. Eyes that bored into her skull like the vengeance of the sea itself.

Her spell died on her lips. K’thran’s heart stuttered and faltered.

“He’s here! Again! He’s going to kill us all! Run for your lives!” K’thran turned and slithered for all she was worth. A hundred years. A hundred breaking years and he hadn’t aged a single curse-bound day! He was a monster before, but now? With the Lumanot in his veins, he was a god among men.

Kel’brek did not know the folly he was committing. His two crocodile-like heads snapped at K’thran as she turned tail and fled for all she was worth, her face a mask of terror.

She was beyond listening. Beyond reason. The tyranny of fear ruled her heart right up until a towering blade of argent light sliced her and her sisters in half.

K’thran’s last moments were of the male fighter sweeping a blade of light across the armies of monsters as if it weighed as much as a building. Though he struggled, the blade sheared through toughened hide, obsidian scales, and even the best armor stolen straight from imperial shipments.

As the cold seeped in and the light left K’thran’s eyes, she watched in horror as the demon of her worst nightmares cut down the strongest of the alliance like wheat in a field.

He didn’t need to be clever or fast if a single touch of that blade killed any it touched. They were doomed.

She had run so far from that life, from that fateful day, only to have him appear again. At least, in death, she was finally free of him.