Hierei Lar Kodal stood watch atop the shining walls of Amaranth as the godslave minions flooded the Fiend's position. Beside him, filling the battlements with the righteous and pure Light, were rank upon rank of white-armored Inquisitors. They were those that remained faithful to the Pathless despite his death. Faithful to the Light that would not extinguish, no matter the dark.

Faithful to the Hierophant, Kodal added, silently.

Not all held to their convictions, however. Paladins and Priests counted among the occupants of the Shining Walls. Their mottled appearance was unsightly among the purity of the Light, but Kodal could not gainsay the power that poured from their Aspects. The power of other gods, now somehow available to mortal men once more.

Befouling us all. The metallic blue of the Twins, the sickening bronze of Yyero, and the cloying darkness of Noctis interrupted the brilliant pure white of their defense force.

Kodal tried to put it from his Mind, focusing instead on the fight beyond the wards. His people stood safe as the monsters surged from their dens outside the city. That Dragoon, Vessilia Dayne, fought the godslaved minions with abandon, moving faster than Kodal expected and killing them far easier than he liked. Yet, like their makers, the monstrosities did not die so easily. Each mortal wound was but a pause in their relentless attack, and a killing blow just sent them back to the earth, where their soulless Essence would form once more into a fatal beast.

The Hierei watched as spore creatures crawled out of furrows in the ground with each death, their numbers multiplying as their remnants sank into the fetid soil. The shadowbeasts spawned from the darkness beneath the horde itself, constant and ceaseless in their numbers. The Plaguerats were more temporary, but they had other advantages. Nearly three times the size of a merchant's wagon, the pus-covered rodents charged through the masses, requiring half of the Dragoon's projectiles to bring them down. When they fell, their flesh burst open, releasing Fungal Horrors from its bloated corpse. The Ettin Wolves were the least in number, and they circled their prey, snapping at their flanks with jaws equal to the Plaguerats.

Kodal sneered. The Twins had gifted Amaranth less of their power than any of the other gods. Worthless creatures on their own.

He was certain the Twins were up to something—that all the gods were—but the Hierophant had ordered his cooperation. His hands were tied. All he could do now was watch, and find some satisfaction in seeing the Fiend fall.

"The minions have him on the ropes, Hierei," Commander Finks said. Though the Paladin was clad in slick black armor denoting his newfound allegiance to the Lady of the Night, he had once been a highly decorated officer among the Hierocracy. His sense of duty still shone through the dark. "I don't believe we will have to waste our people on this fight. That woman will exhaust herself just defending against the fodder. Then we will have him, as well."

“You think he cannot fight?” Commander Ranz asked. His hand never left the blue-clad blade at his hip. “This is the man that bested Mivun Tal. It would be wise not to underestimate him.”

“Mivun Tal was overcome by an alliance of fools,” Finks said, sniffing. “His Authority alone would have been enough to handle this Fiend, had he not been taken down by the rebel mages and Dragoons.”

Kodal said nothing to gainsay either one of their arguments. His Inquisitors had suffered terrible losses during the Battle of Pax’Vrell, though not nearly as many as the Paladins. The Pathless had died that day, but the Titan’s reports indicated that the Fiend had more than a little help. The Dragoons and even the mages of Levantier were suspected by her. Then Levantier had fallen into the Fiend’s hands, and it had all become clear. Kodal’s lip curled as he stared into the thresher of godslaved monstrosities that piled on against Dayne and Nevarre. He’d underestimated the man for too long and he’d become a genuine threat to the Hierocracy.

It was finally time to rectify that.

Commander Sar, in his bronze armor, scratched at his pockmarked face. Kodal leaned away from the odious man as several of his sores oozed across his cheeks. "The Manaships are marshaling, sir. They'll be here soon."

Kodal nodded. The ships would be enough to end the Fiend. Even the Hierophant would be hard-pressed to defend against Manacannon fire. He drummed his fingers against the battlements, his white enameled gauntlets ringing like dull ingots. He was confident…but it did not hurt to be safe.

Kodal reached toward his Authority, granted to him by his position beneath the Hierophant and funneled through the Great Seal of Amaranth. Power filled his limbs, radiating from the Mark at his center he’d been gifted by Ocalla Marzul herself. Strength filled him, until it felt like Kodal could lift a mountain upon his back and stomp out every enemy to the Light with a single swift blow. Authority rumbled across his Aspects, forcing his Body to tremble as his Spirit grappled with its might.

He drew on every Subordinate Seal within the Territory, his Authority only slightly less when compared to the Hierophant herself.

"Felix Nevarre," he said, voice echoing through the ward until it thundered from the sky like the sound of oncoming chariots. "Kneel."

The Authority burned through Kodal's throat, smashing across the terrain as if no distance separated him and his target. It dropped, a boot from a god sent to lay low a mortal peasant. A command that could not be denied.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Yet, it floundered, bouncing harmlessly off of the Fiend. He stood motionless at the center of an ever-widening clearing, not a half mile distant. Bright burning eyes looked up and met Kodal's own.

Authority Failed.

The Target Has Authority Greater Than Your Own.

Pain fed back into him, hitting the Authority and retreating across his aspects like a wounded dog. "Damnation!” Several of the commanders looked at him curiously, but Kodal did bother to explain. There was no point in letting his people know, not when it would only lead to a weakening of morale.

"Summon the Champions," he rasped, snapping his fingers. "Let us end this properly."

Beside him, the commanders clasped their hands, their powers gleaming about their impure armor as they put out the call to their god's champions. Kodal sucked at his teeth, hands tightening on the white battlements. It took a great deal of his Will to ignore the stain the other gods had placed upon the city. The minions outside the walls were bad enough, but inside—he suppressed a sneer. It was vile.

His three commanders all bowed their heads, their lips moving without a single word issuing forth. Across the city, two leagues hence, the Hierophant's tower blazed in answer.

"There's a disturbance in the Bracewell Market." Commander Sar looked up in alarm, his bronze armor roiling with its unclean light. "Yyero’s champion has been caught up!”

“As have the Twins!”

“What in the Light is going on?” Kodal demanded. “What's the disturbance?"

"The Lizard has revealed himself!" Commander Finks gasped. "However, Lady Noctis has sent her Champion en route to us, but she and the others have bent their attention inward.”

“Damnation, it better get here quick.”

“The minions will destroy him soon," Commander Sar paused. Swallowed. "What…what is he doing?"

Through the slight distortion of the barrier surrounding the city Kodal saw that much was the same as before. The Dragoon was doing the majority of the fighting, flying about with her damnable spears and an incredible amount of Strength. Her wings were monstrous and more than a match for the shadowbeasts that tried to pass her. The Fiend, however, stood still in the center of the cleared area—one that had not shrunk in the slightest during the monsters’ onslaught.

"Is he…digging a hole?" Commander Finks asked.

Kodal squinted, flaring his Perception. He spotted it as the Fiend reached into his jacket and pulled forth an oblong shape. A seed?

Mana rushed toward the man, sucked into the object's orbit until it flashed around him like an aurora. Those blazing blue eyes locked with Kodal’s, and he swore that the man smirked before a resounding crash shook the battlefield.

There was a gasp, not from any person or creature, but from the very air itself. Sudden, ethereal jaws opened wide around the Fiend, teeth that seemed as big as mountains split the air, leading to a darkness that Kodal could not comprehend. The commanders trembled, their knees nearly giving out as a pressure slammed against their Spirits. The barrier diffusing the effect, but Inquisitors and Paladins and Priests down the line all braced themselves against the wall.

The godslaved minions, had no such defenses.

A nigh invisible beast rose behind Nevarre, an ancient presence that Kodal couldn’t believe or understand. Fear sparked down his spine…and those ethereal jaws snapped shut. Thousands died all at once, their forms overcome by the Fiend's might, rendering them into dark, twisted smoke that poured toward him…and that deep abyss.

The man straightened, his eyes brighter than ever, even a half league distant. He smiled.

"Whatever he’s doing, stop him!" Kodal snarled. "Send out the third battalion!"

The call rang down the walls, and men and a company of Paladins rode forward through the rapidly opening gates. They charged out atop Ettin Wolves, their dual heads snapping and foaming, filled with the defensive might of the Twins. The smoke parted before them and the lances of the Paladins, the Ettin Wolves charging through that gathering, noxious aurora. The godslaved creatures replenished themselves from the earth and shadow, surging forward.

But the Fiend was not yet done. Power had poured not just into him, but into that oversized seed. He lifted it high before hurling it into the hole he'd made in the earth.

The ground buckled, chasms tearing through the ruined township and hurtling the recovering minions back. Several fell between the gaps in the earth, crushed as it shifted. Stone lifted and sod burst into the air as things moved beneath. The Paladins' charge was thrown, the Ettin Wolves rearing back, though they kept their saddles. The godslaved went mad, their already insane countenances now bent toward true madness. They threw themselves atop the Dragoon and the Fiend.

"Yes!" Kodal shouted, forcing himself to straighten his spine. "Rend him to pieces!"

"Empyrean Embrace.”

Those ethereal teeth snapped shut on the surging monsters and every single one of the godly abominations in a thousand paces vanished into foul smoke. The earth heaved and roots rose up, splitting the soil further as they crushed all that surrounded them. Monsters fled and the Paladins were forced to evade as the roots grew and thickened into building-sized battering rams.

“Unite the Lost!”

A trunk rose up behind the Fiend, growing taller and thicker by the moment as that foul smoke fed into it. The aurora-like shimmer around it surged along every piece of its bark. Branches spread out, leaves sprouting as it shot high. It kept growing until its crown reached double, triple, and then quadruple the height of the Shining Walls.

"No, that's impossible," Kodal gasped.

A deep voice, audible to Kodal and everyone else, rang out.

Territorial Authority Contested!

Atlantes Grove Resonates With The Seed Of Remembered Light!

The Earth Recalls What Once Was!

The Fiend Returns What Must Be!

The Green Harmony Sings!

Authority Acknowledged!

Hidden Conditions Met!

Earthbound clouds poured from the expanding trunk, obscuring the grinning Fiend and the vile flying wench until all Kodal could see were two points of burning blue.

Territorial Arrays Are Active!