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Epilouge: The End Is The Beginning

 
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Kalanna Rai
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:44 am    Post subject: Epilouge: The End Is The Beginning Reply with quote

Somehow I just never got around to posting this. Now is the time, the closing curtain on Leyond. Enjoy.
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Epilogue: The End Is the Beginning

He sat in what had once been a lavish room in an opulent palace. It had been thoroughly looted and mostly demolished at some point though. Likely when the southern army had broken and ran before the demon hoards. It still surprised him some days that he was here again, doing this again, but he didn't know why. When he'd failed the last time the undead horror that he served had simply plucked him up and carried him off. He'd thought to be consumed but, as fate would have it, that was not his luck. It had carried him to a pool of ichor, a blackness in the heart of a cavern, and had dropped him in it while bidding him to slumber. He'd known then that he'd be called upon in a new age to fight this old battle. It was a soul-breaking moment. He'd entered into this pact to preserve the things he'd love and, once stripped of them, he hadn't been able to get out. All that was left was the satisfaction of knowing that he was still the best at this.

The victory of the south had proven that. The turn of the age hadn't been kind to the empire he'd once been a part of. The royalty had dissolved into posh lapdogs, baring their teeth at anything to prove their ineffective ferocity. The people had been starving while the nobles had grown fat, their neighboring nations either openly hating them or only cautiously trading with them. It was no fit situation and it had been laughably easy to lead the demons against them. A people used to being lied to, the deception of the demons had seemed almost...routine to them. The spies had slid into place, the assassinations gone over easily. The only thing that had escaped him was the whelp. It irritated him...but it was part of the Master's plan and thus out of his hands. Still, an easy victory did nothing to whet his appetite.

The west was providing a wonderful challenge. Sometime in the last age they'd grown a spine to be proud of. Disciplined. Their entire nation had swung it's weight behind fighting a war. Every man, woman, and child skilled with some manner of weapons. They were tenacious, more than he'd given them credit for. The old Marshall was a canny opponent. The dead didn't require much strategy to defeat but the way he was keeping his losses minimal was something to be proud of. It was something to admire...and he did admire the Marshall. Perhaps the Master would offer him the choice to serve as well in exchange for a deal the Master didn't intend to keep. It would be almost a pity when he brought the demon forces to bare out of the south against the Marshall and his nation of soldiers. Cracking the west was key though. After one successful attack by the dead, they'd been stopped from reaching their goal of the heartland since then.

Once the west fell he'd be able to press directly north. These stupid southern fools and their petty squabbling had ensured that the heartland directly north of his current position was well fortified against him. Worse, the whelp that had escaped was now the heir apparent there. And from what his demonic troops told him the magics they had at their disposal he had at his. Scion of one of the oldest of demon lords, last offspring of the true fiendish blood. From descriptions of him he was canny, crafty. If his ability to manipulate extended to battle strategy then he'd be a most difficult opponent to bring down. But his nation did not trust him. He was Southern. He was Demon. It would make fostering unrest easier. Spies had already started making their way in, mostly unsuccessfully. Reports were coming back that something was happening in the heartland, something hostile to his forces.

He wished he had better intelligence on it. He was done with surprises. The Master seemed to know everything. Even that bumbling oaf Serig seemed to know more. True he'd just woken from his long slumber but it was vital for him to have this information. How did they expect proper results? The south was a perfect of example of how good intelligence could be capitalized on. The east was a perfect example of how going in blind was a waste of time. Although, to be fair he'd learned quite a lot from that defeat and much of it had also helped him plan on how to take the heartland.

The first attack on the east had been perfect. His troops had slaughtered the king and his immediate family all in one fell swoop. Had he only known that this boy, this nephew, had been away he could have planned for that two. Once he did know, he'd set up ambushes...but of course those had failed. Again due to his lack of knowledge. He'd been told the dragons had retreated beyond the gates. That the High Blood had died out. That Oracles were shams. All of those points had been utterly refuted. He'd gone ahead with his planned attack on the capital, using the boy's coronation as the perfect cover. All the lords of the nation gathered, visiting heads of state, and even the storm had seemed fortuitous as it grounded the defenses he'd spent days testing his strength against.

Then the blasted boy had turned out to be a godling, a demi-god, whatever you wanted to call it. In that moment he realized little had changed. He was fighting a dragon, a demon lord, a godling, and they had an Oracle. True it was one dragon, not flights of them. One godling, without benefits of by-blow High Blood bastards and a host of shining followers. One demon lord, his legion long dead and scattered, although if rumor was true their shades might still linger. Still, he'd wait till he held the west and the heartland before attempting the east again.

In the north the dragon reigned. Raising an army from his frozen keep, an army that still remembered the old ways, the ways that defeated the demons the last time they had dared step foot in this realm. The whole land of Rhimefaust was alive with the spirits that called it home. It's ice and cold the best defense against the waves of the dead that froze, like some hideous glacial wall, at it's boarders. When that failed it was certain that the dragon would come, winging out of the clouds, black and gold vengeance. It would open it's maw and the sun itself spilled from it, rays of light that blasted even the hardiest of demon and dead troops to so much worthless ash. Yet if, by some miracle of luck the male didn't show up, the female would. Slimmer, smaller, crimson and copper, she was no less lethal. Her flames caught and burned even on the surface of the seas and once demonic or dead flesh was set alight it could not be quenched.

No the far north was lost to them for now. But that didn't mean he wasn't planning on how it could be taken. He wanted to swarm from all directions, press against the length of it's boarders all at once. To batter the spirits until they went silent. To wither away the troops until they were forced to fall back, until there was only one place to retreat to. The keep posed an interesting challenge. A bone shattering cold surrounded it, a precaution placed there in ages gone by to protect the Dragon Gate. Nothing, save magic and dragons, could cross that icy waste. They'd simply freeze solid. So he'd have to make sure that the demons teleport spells were precise. Otherwise they'd overshoot or undershoot the Keep and freeze, like idiot decorations, all around it.

The sudden loss of light announced sunset, candles coming to life. And in the distance there was the hideous screaming sound of the Master calling to his demonic armies. The undead horror that had once been a dragon and was now just a creature kept alive by hate and eldrich magics. It led the demon hordes now that the demon lords were dead. It had waited an age for this. The Master would wish to hear the progress of the day. With a sigh he ran his hand through his salt and pepper hair before picking up his helm and tucking it under his arm as he strode out onto the terrace. General Saldir would not keep the Master waiting.
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sir wax
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Errr... did I miss this one? :'(

I wanna read a new Rai Smile
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Author Chapter
Kalanna Rai
Assassin for Hire



Joined: 21 Jan 2006
Topics: 173
Posts: 3102
Location: The Frozen North

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey there Wax, long time no see! Yeah, Leyond has wrapped but there are a few others of shorter stature rambling around out there. Good to see you back!
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