BEHEMOTH DEAD!

  The ratatat code on their Magebond pinged her. Quaver went Ruby and changed configuration in his scabbard as she touched her Blade.

  Less than a breath later the energy disruption to the ley lines blew through Aerefalle’s Keep, and most importantly, its Wards. Magical lights flickered, stone shook and grumbled, and flows of energy and tensions of heat and stress began to tremble through the stone all around her.

  Princess Kristie Rantha stared at the throne below and in front of her, waiting.

  Her Trembling Domain was very acute, and being able to sense dimensional movements was all part of it. When she could flex her soul and reinforce the Veil against dimensional movement, being able to sense the ripples and stresses involved in such movement was naturally something a Forsaken could develop, just like a Powered might.

  Something was coming.

  There was a flicker and flash, a subspatial transit folding across space, one of multiple ways to Teleport. The Formation underneath the stones of the Throne, out of sight, served as the Focus that Lady Aerefalle was recalling to, likely the only one who knew it existed to be Recalled to.

  There was only a hiss of magic dissipating as the most powerful leader of the Wind Faction of undead, save for Prince Geraine himself, appeared on the stones in front of her throne.

  Seven feet tall, an average Empyrean. Flowing red hair, preserved strong and vital, hints of her old beauty visible in shrunken, bone-hugging skin that was still fair, and the typical glowing eyes. She had on her trademark black and yellow robe, and the original Staff made for her by Rytheran in her hand, copies of both which had been loot items on previous Quests for those that had managed to fight and kill her.

  Kris watched her tense and look around slightly, feeling the energy flows and trembling of her home and abode around her. This disruption was going to be something very different from before, building up on the damage done by the bar being given earlier, this one triggered by the death of the Behemoth controlling the mechanisms that Scold seemed to be repairing. The shaking and shuddering of the stone sounded and felt dangerous, and real power was going to have to be spent to reinforce this place before the magic in effect stabilized and returned on its own.

  Kris watched the undead mage’s lips thin as she realized she was actually going to have to work at something this time, and still might have to deal with arriving pests.

  ---

  Lady Aerefalle was just about to raise her voice and call for her handmaidens when Princess Kristie hit her, her three rounds of studying her target done.

  There was no sound as Quaver went in the back of the ancient Dericost revenant’s skull and came out the front between her eyes, a solid length of blood-red metal gone Ruby and striking directly at her life through 200k of Life Qi.

  There was indeed a burst of black Qi venting, trying to insta-heal the Death Attack, but vivus met it and blew it into misty whiteness, re-affirming that vivus could totally crit any undead, Blooding could stop Regeneration, and a +XI Sword could cut through even Eternal-class protections and deliver the Banefire right where it was meant to go.

  Right to the soul.

  Aerefalle tried to say something, she really did, but vivus was already burning at a brain steeped in necroic energies, consuming memory, personality, and power as it did so.

  Kris rode her down, pulling out Quaver as she did so. She spun a full circle in the blink of an eye, and the head of Lady Aerefalle of ancient Dericost leapt free from her body.

  Kris snatched the head off on its way up from the stump of her head, no vivus remaining behind to eat at the corpse and give away who was responsible for her passing. Mnecromonics made it very plain that the spirit of the ancient matriarch was screaming as things she had dealt with long ago and denied all these millennia were now reaching out for her soul, and payments that she thought she would never have to pay came due.

  With a hiss of magic, not bothering to loot things which could be tracked easily, Kris was out of there on the wings of Quaver’s Teleportation.

  ----------

  I swept a few Detects over the rubble of the Behemoth, shared the findings, and everyone jumped into action, hacking and hammering at all the massive pieces even as they crumbled.

  That was mostly because the crumbling remains seemed to be falling right through the surface of Tenkarrdun’s crater.

  I floated over the top of the massive chest stone and proceeded to Shape it open. Now that it was no longer animated and magically infused, it was just stone as long as the magma within cooled and solidified.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  With cracks and crumbling, the almost-ashen magma within was forced out of the way, and I blasted the rest with cold Darts to accelerate the magical cooling as the essence of the Behemoth was drawn away for reconstruction below.

  A quite-intact figure tied to a fractured crystal Formation inside the golem’s remains was soon revealed by my digging.

  I shattered the edge of the Formation, and the crude fingers flexed instantly. After a bit more clearing, his arm could also move, and started to beat on the stone encasing the rest of it.

  It took a few minutes to clear Scold’s head and torso, then his other arm. Silently, the intelligent golem sat up and cracked and crumbled the stone about his legs, while I shattered the Matrix Formation he was stuck to and enabled him to finally stand up.

  The number of beings who saw Kris materialize inside the illusion standing atop the Seal Focus point she’d selected were exactly zero. Even the Elemental Lord Z’rzzshszyz didn’t realize when she went from illusion to Null reality, dipping the skull in her hand into the lava of the vent there to burn away the trademark long red hair there and accelerate the removal of the flesh from ancient steely bone.

  Scold’s rising to his feet was interrupted by the sight of Z’rzzshszyz surging to His own feet, looking south as the vents of the crater suddenly blew skywards again in pure flame.

  “THE BINDER’S SPIRIT HAS FLED THIS PLANE. HER KEEP FALLS.”

  I promptly Linejumped up to the lip of Tenkarrdun to the south to get a better view, leaving Scold to look after me and then clamber down by himself.

  The Elemental Lord was indeed correct. With my Mask of Clarity active, I could clearly see the walls of the Keep over there starting to crumble, the ancient magicks keeping it intact failing, by design or by default, with the death of their mistress. The lava pool around the Keep was surging and splashing with the rocks coming down, fractures expanding across the stonework, the imbalance of millennia and the pressure of elemental forces swaying and tilting…

  It took about a full minute for it to ultimately collapse, first the outer walls, then shuddering inwards to the foundation and deeper levels, imploding under the pressure of collapsing magic, surging ley lines, and heavy lava pouring into and down to swallow all signs that the Keep had ever been there at all.

  Well, guess no more Aerefalle Quests were going to be run. Also, any evidence of who killed her was going down with her.

  Pity, that.

  I Door’d back down to my previous position in a flicker of spatial magic, reappearing above the disintegrating chest of the Behemoth. “Aerefalle’s Keep is swallowed by the lava,” I announced to all and sundry. “I don’t think we need to run the last part of the Quest.”

  “Gor-damned shame, that is!” Lord Mick muttered under his breath, sending a glance in Kristie’s direction. Shadows fluttered vaguely about her, and made her seem very much like the illusion she was not, which everyone about found most amusing.

  Scold was still standing there, trembling. He had turned towards the slope rising to the south, wanting to leave, to prove he was free… and he could not take a step in that direction.

  “Well, Master Scold?” Briggs asked, stepping up calmly to and looking up at the intelligent golem looming above him. “You have a choice to make. Do you serve those gone, or do you serve one who is still here?”

  Stubby fingers opened and closed, rocks crinkled, the magma veins on his body flared and dimmed as the golem wrestled with his options.

  And then, slowly and unwillingly, Scold went down to one knee and bowed his blocky head. “Commander Briggs,” he murmured. “I will serve you faithfully, as golem to master, so long as I do live,” he promised, grinding out the words, but meaning them, as he had no choice with me there to verify them.

  I nodded at Briggs, who reached out and touched his head.

  A Source Aura flared, and like that, a snip of fate and control was evaded and severed, and the doom of the intelligent golem was subverted and reassigned.

  “I accept your service, given of free will and acknowledged as the same, Master Scold. Rise, and receive your orders.”

  The golem’s grumble was long and obvious, but he stood up immediately, head tilted, and waited for directions.

  “First of all, what were you doing here in Tenkarrdun, and do you wish to continue doing it?” Briggs asked reasonably.

  Scold actually blinked his fiery eyes. “I was examining and repairing the Empyrean machinery down in the volcano properly. It has not been maintained adequately in some times, and there are many parts that need to be replaced or upgraded. I was studying their functions and how to do so.

  “I… would not object to staying here and continuing my work, if I am allowed to leave when I have learned all that I can,” he finished warily.

  Briggs just nodded. “Then that is what you can do. I suggest you keep the Elemental Lord Z’rzzshszyz there appraised of your progress, and stay away from the Behemoth, who I doubt will interfere with you after it reforms.”

  “I… Yes, sir,” he amended after a moment. “Is there anything else?” he asked.

  “Does this place actually produce anything worthwhile? Like, oh, Minor, Major, and Greater Blackfire Stones?” Briggs grinned openly.

  “Those are indeed one of the things it can produce, and there is a small store of them built up. They are used to upgrade the lesser golums and power the Behemoth,” Scold informed him.

  Briggs lifted up a hard black rock that had survived the crumbling of the Behemoth and the way its body was now sinking below the surface of the crater. His fist flashed, stone shattered around it, and he slowly drew his gauntlet back, opening it back up.

  The egg-sized Greater Blackfire Stone glimmered between obsidian and crystalline white in his palm.

  “Why don’t you retrieve those for us. We’re also looking for supplies of Earthfire and Firestone Obsidian, if they are below the volcano.”

  “If they are not, the mechanisms below can certainly mix them into being with the Fires of Tenkarrdun,” Scold responded promptly.

  “Excellent. We’ll be stopping by to pick up any related production, and when you’re done investigating everything, fixing what you like, just wait up top here and we’ll get you back to Dereth if you like.”

  “I… Yes, sir,” Scold said slowly, wondering just where this all was going. “How long do I have, sir?” he asked, a bit stiffly.

  “As long as it takes, Master Scold. As long as it takes.” Briggs patted him on the forearm casually. “Off with you now, big fellow.”

  “Yes, sir!” The golem headed for the nearest vent as we watched, the ruptured one that had spewed forth the Behemoth already mended. I looked at everyone who held a chunk of black rock from one of the major pieces of the Behemoth… including mine, the one behind and below where Scold had been trapped.

  Yes, this Quest had come through for us after all…

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