Lament of the Fallen

Dee agilely leaped over a searching spell that swept through the corridor she was in. These spells would have been impossible to avoid for someone who wasn’t able to see the magic power in the air, but for her, it wasn’t all that difficult. She just had to pay attention. What worried her slightly was that the sanctum of such a high ranking community used such a basic method of detection. While the method was effective, Dee figured a high ranking community like the Spider Cult would be able to use something more effective. That meant she was most likely missing something.

The Authority that had hidden her from the psion she had killed earlier would also hide her from almost any other passive detection method, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she could not sense any such methods, which meant that either the Spider Cult didn’t have any, or they could hide their detection even from her sight. If they could hide from her sight, they might also be able to see through her Authority. The presence of a goddess allowed many things usually impossible.

What’s worse, she had not seen anyone else in the hallways for a while now. The attack on the shield surrounding the sanctum was a decent distraction, but this seemed excessive. The long-dormant assassin instincts inside her were screaming about a trap. Not aimed at her specifically perhaps, but for anyone trying to infiltrate the place. With a frown, Dee once again entered the shadows and found herself on the roof of the sanctum. She needed to change the situation.

Even if there was no trap waiting for her, she would be in a better situation if the coalition forces could actually attack the sanctum properly. If there was a trap, then the shield going down and the attacks reaching the sanctum would give her enemies other things to worry about. The problem was that bringing down the shield was not a simple matter. The magical formation maintaining the shield was located in the tallest tower at the rough center of the rather irregularly formed sanctum area. She could sense several high ranking Death Lords in the tower itself, and unless she was horribly mistaken, the Champion of the Spider Goddess was also in the vicinity.

Dee allowed her special sight to roam up and down the tower, noting any details she could. The tower itself was reinforced with several layers of protective spells, so it would take several powerful attacks to bring the tower down. It was unlikely Dee would be given the opportunity to make several such attacks without retaliation. The formation itself was so powerful that Dee could see most of the details through the walls. The formation was the type that would not fall apart from light damage. In fact, unless a large portion of it was destroyed, the formation would simply work with reduced strength and try to fix itself.

She tapped her chin in thought. With a little bit of luck, she would be able to quickly appear inside the tower to strike at the formation and then make her escape, but that was also the most likely place for a trap as the formation was the obvious target for any infiltrators. The most important part of the sanctum was the heart where the avatar of their goddess resided, but the avatar was perfectly capable of defending itself, unlike the protective formation inside the tower. The avatar was a trap in itself, as few beings would be capable of killing it. And the avatar most likely wasn’t alone either.

Both paths seemed to be leading into a trap of sorts. On one hand, the tower would allow the coalition to attack the city, while on the other hand killing the avatar would cut down on their abilities heavily. Many of the Death Lords and necromancers of this place relied on the power they received from their goddess. The Champion would almost certainly receive a large shock if the goddess he served were to die, and the shock would most likely render him unable to fight properly.

“If the two optimal paths are not feasible, then I’ll have to create a third path that isn’t quite as good but will still serve my purpose.” Dee repeated one of the old maxims amusingly taught by both the assassins of Zabaniya and the paladins of the Radiant Sun, though they had their own wording for it. Dee had simply distilled her own interpretation adapted to the situation.

The Champion of the Spider Goddess was situated in such a way that he could reinforce either the tower or the heart of the sanctum if necessary. Dee shot towards the Champion’s position, keeping to the shadows. If the Champion died, the Spider Cult would lose one of their most important leaders, and that would inevitably lead to a certain amount of chaos and confusion about what to do. Dee was hoping that the chaos would allow her the opportunity to go after more important targets.

Dee slipped inside the temple looking building through a small window near the very top of the building. ‘Sometimes it was handy to be able to become smaller when the situation calls for it.’ She thought while slipping inside as a tiny fox.

She noticed that the entire temple seemed to be a single large room with a large magical pond in the middle. The water in the pond seemed to be sickly green and grey, but it was also showing a sight that made Dee narrow her eyes. The insides of the pond had a detailed map of the insides of the whole sanctum, with plenty of small lights moving everywhere. Most of the lights were simple green dots with a large golden dot at the heart of the sanctum. There were also countless of small grey dots all over the outside perimeter of the sanctum, clearly showing the undead forces still in reserve.

Dee could see that the map would show any sources of life inside the sanctum, and could also guess that any of the green dots were people touched by the power of the Spider Goddess, and the large golden dot must be the avatar of the goddess. Her attention was drawn by the voices of the people inside the temple. “Where is the intruder? I sent my forces to the location you gave me, and we found nothing except Walanni’s corpse. Something powerful made a big hole in her throat before she could defend herself properly. The attacker was almost certainly much stronger than her.”

The speaker was dressed in a dark metal armor and carried a wicked looking blade at his waist. From the voice, Dee could tell the person was male and his outline roughly humanoid shaped and sized, but the armor covered the rest. Not that Dee was much hampered by that as she could read the flow of power inside the man and recognized him as a vampire of some sort. He was mostly filled with ki, so a warrior type.

“Well, that tells us something. Walanni was our psion, so the enemy removed her to allow for free movement inside the sanctum for a psion of their own. We heard the rumors about the Five Winds having a handful of powerful psions. So our little rat is likely one of them.” The female voice belonged to the person Dee assumed to be the Champion, dressed in heavy dark robes. Her, Dee couldn’t identify, and the robes were large enough to hide almost anything below.

‘Of course the Champion of the Great Mother is female. What did I expect.’ Dee thought idly.

“That’s nice and all, but doesn’t do much to help us find that psion. Where is the rat? You claimed this magic would help us find any infiltrators, but so far I haven’t seen much in the way of results. We have strengthened the guard around the tower, but that still leaves the rat running free doing Great Mother knows what damage to everything else.” The male warrior demanded. It seemed there was a power struggle of sorts in this place. He certainly wasn’t acting servile, but clearly wasn’t in charge either.

“The rat is able to hide from the goddess’ sight somehow. A reaction appeared briefly at the place I pointed out, and then again outside near the tower. Apparently, the rat is using the power of some heretical deity to help move around and hide. But it’s only a matter of time. Our goddess is mighty and sooner or later the power of that lesser god will not be enough to hide the rat. The longer she stays here, the clearer her movements will become to the spell.” The Champion declared fervently.

‘Sorry to disappoint. Though it’s interesting to know they managed to detect me using Umbra’s power with this pond. Very interesting. I’ll have to remind Umbra of that fact the next time I see her. So much for being the secretive Goddess of Shadows.’ Dee mused.

‘I believe this provides you with an opportunity. I get the feeling that we’re looking at the military and the spiritual leaders of this community. If you could strike both of them down, the Spider Cult would be in real trouble. Assuming the avatar doesn’t step in to lead personally of course.’ Croestia suddenly suggested.

Dee frowned a bit. She was fairly confident in dealing with either of the two people alone, but two rank twelve opponents at the same time was asking a bit much. Especially if she was supposed to accomplish anything else on this trip. Then it occurred to her. Maybe there was a better way. As the two continued their discussion below, Dee started to slowly worm her way through the mental defenses of the vampire. He seemed more susceptible of the two.

Soon the vampire was starting to feel extreme paranoia and started to suspect that the Champion of the Great Mother might be playing him. The blasted wench was afraid of him, and was trying to use this opportunity to get rid of competition! She must have noticed that in truth, he was the favored son of the Great Mother and that it was only a matter of time before he took over her position as the Champion. She might even be a traitor! That would explain why all their plans seemed to fail, and all their attempts at counterattack seemed to play right into the hands of the enemy!

Dee was almost shocked how easily she was able to influence the man. The man had already had these ideas on his own; Dee was just strengthening them and making him more paranoid. She even barely had to do that. Apparently, her earlier ideas about there being an internal struggle had been inadequate. ‘Now for the coup de grace.’

Suddenly the man coughed and felt like there was a slow-acting poison in his system that was now flaring up. The feeling was all in his head of course. The thing was, being the servant of the Great Mother granted them immunity to poisons. Except if the poison was created magically by a higher ranking member of the cult. And in this case, that could only mean one person as he was the military leader of the community. “You dare poison me! Heretic! Traitor!” The vampire coughed again and pulled out his blade, lunging towards the Champion.

“Demetrius, what in the name of the goddess are you doing!” The Champion yelled in shock. She realized something was terribly wrong, but made the wrong conclusions even without Dee’s help. The vampire had been sucking up to the goddess for decades, clearly aiming for her position, though of course, he had not succeeded. She was the goddess’ favorite, for obvious reasons. She was the most devout follower of the Great Mother after all!

“Something I should have done a long time ago! You are unworthy of the goddess’ grace and it’s time that mistake was righted.” Demetrius yelled and swung his weapon at the Champion, who lithely moved out of the way, with waves of ki following her.

“So you decided to take advantage of the chaos and finally act! So be it. You’ve been a blight on our glorious community long enough.” The champion replied. The wave of ki pushed the dark hood back far enough for Dee to see the face of the Dark Elven woman. For some reason, Dee had not been able to see inside the woman, either because the robes blocked her sight, or because the power of the Spider Goddess protected her Champion.

‘Well, that went much better than I even hoped.’ Dee mused in a slightly confused state. In truth she had expected the duo to get into a heated argument, leading one to storm off in anger.

‘You can say that again.’ Croestia also stated incredulously.

The exchange of blows was heating below, and it was clear that the Champion was not the vampire’s equal in physical combat. Not surprising considering she was a priestess and her enemy was a warrior. Suddenly the situation changed as Dee sensed the whole room fill with the power of the Spider Goddess, turning the air into a powerful poison. Naturally, the Champion was not affected, as she was the one using the spell in question and was immune to the effects. Dee was right at the edge of the spell and could resist all four of the elements that made up the spell. That said, the power of the Goddess of Poison made the spell much more effective in circumventing any resistances so even Dee was slowly getting affected and would have to deal with the poison soon.

The power of a rank twelve warrior did wonders to resist the effects of any poisons, but as with Dee, this was the power of the Goddess of Poison. As a result, the vampire was now coughing and hacking. If he had been from a race other than a vampire, he most likely would already be hacking blood. “So this is how you want to do this. Misusing the power our Great Mother has granted you! Have it your way. If this is how you want to play, then play we shall.”

Suddenly all the power of ki seemed to drain out of the vampire and a million fine threads made of pure ki materialized around the Champion and started to form into a spider web that started to squeeze around the target. This, of course, immobilized the Champion who didn’t have the ability to avoid the attack, but that wasn’t really the main point. The power continuously built inside the strings, making it dangerous to cut them, as the threads seemed ready to explode at the slightest provocation. And explode they did. Even Dee was a little worried about the intensity of the explosion up in her hiding place, but luckily the power was all directed inwards towards the Champion caught within the net. Not that the surroundings survived completely without damage, but at least Dee didn’t have to shield herself, as the small cuts she received on the areas not shielded by her lavender wing were rapidly regenerating. The wing had been the most inconspicuous form of defense.

The Champion didn’t look great but was still standing, albeit barely. Her robe was in tatters, but slowly repairing itself. Apparently it was a rather powerful protective artifact. “Did you really think a skill granted to you by our Goddess would be enough to kill her Champion Demetrius? Well, I’d say sorry to disappoint you, but in this case, I’m not sorry.”

“I’m not sorry either.” A third voice suddenly interrupted the Champion and whispered into her ear, as Dee plunged her narrow but sharp dagger, made by combining the small black pearls, into the Champions heart from behind. A classic of the assassin profession; not glamorous but very effective. The blade carried Umbra’s dark power and the corruption immediately entered the Champion’s heart. Dee might not be able to cast all that many holy spells in this place, but this was the very first power she had learned from Umbra, and it wouldn’t fail her so easily.

The Champion stumbled forward and desperately tried casting healing spells on herself. Umbra’s power now coursed through her veins and made that impossible. “How…the poison…” The Champion mumbled faintly. Despite her feeble voice, her meaning was clear. It should have been impossible for Dee to approach through the deadly poison still heavy in the air.

“Oh, that.” Dee made a small grin as the black flames once again surrounded her and cleansed away any poison inside and outside. This cleansing flame was not giving off the same kind of feeling of wrongness as her other flames anymore, a little something she had learned during her time in the Plane of Fire. In fact, it now gave off no feeling at all, and as the flames were black, they were also hard to spot.

The vampire warrior tried saying something, but Dee unceremoniously cleaved his head off from his shoulders with a psionic blade that suddenly appeared in her hands. “My thanks for making this much easier.” Dee said towards the now headless corpse. After a moment of thought, she stored the vampire’s corpse as well. It wouldn’t do to leave such a powerful corpse lying around with all these necromancers present. Usually undead were not risen corpses, but they could be. And a powerful corpse could be an asset. She could’ve burned the corpse, but decided to keep the rest of her flames a secret for now.

“Who…” The Champion managed to croak out, now lying prone on the floor. She was taking a while to die, though the black veins now evident on her face told a clear story.

Suddenly a ripple of holy power seemed to radiate around Dee and it was as if an invisible gong had been struck as a deep sound went off in her head. The power clearly didn’t belong to the Spider Goddess. Dee was presented with the choice of becoming Lumen’s Champion, a choice she had already made before coming here. She had thought long and hard, and being the Champion of the Goddess of Light had too many upsides to turn down. It would serve her purposes in many ways, and the service the goddess wanted was something she had planned on doing anyway. Both her and Lumen knew she was not about to become a servile Champion. In fact, she was probably the one Champion least likely to take orders from her deity in the entire universe.

As she accepted, the cleansing power of the Goddess of Light covered the entire room, driving away the poison. Despite being so close to the Spider Goddess, she now had access to the powers of at least one deity, a perk of being Lumen’s Champion. Other deities could no longer block her access with their own presence. The symbol of Lumen floated above the entire sanctum for a brief moment before being driven away by the power of the Spider Goddess. Every deity got wind that the Goddess of Light had picked a new Champion and many Champions of the most powerful deities also got the news soon after, including the one busily dying close by. Dee could sense what happened and grinned at the dying woman. “I guess that answers your question.”

The Champion glared at Dee. She was rather clear that it was not Lumen’s power currently killing her. It was quite clearly the work of some dark and powerful deity. Dee didn’t plan to give the Champion the opportunity to recover though, and she met the same end as the vampire had just moments before. Dee had expected it but still grimaced as she got the information about the Champion of Lumen slaying the Champion of the Great Mother, apparently passed on to her by Lumen's power. This information was seemingly passed to all the deities and Champions. “Well, I doubt I could’ve caught the avatar by surprise anyway since I just killed her Champion. Still, it seems the deities have much better methods of passing on information than I thought.”

She also realized that the Spider Goddess had left behind a final present as the corpse of the Champion started to glow and become bloated. Dee barely managed to exit the building with her fastest speed, and still had to use the once again available armor of light to shield her back from the explosion of corruptive power that now consumed a fairly large chunk of that part of the sanctum.

“That would have been really unhealthy if I weren't so fast. Lumen’s blessing is turning out really handy today.” Dee muttered with a bit of exasperation. She wasn’t entirely sure how badly she would have been affected if she had been caught by the explosion, but likely it would have been really bad.

‘Look at the tower.’ Croestia suddenly said with a gloating voice.

Dee knew her expression was most likely mirroring Croestia’s as a grin split her face. The explosion was a good idea in theory, taking revenge on anyone able to kill the Champion, as there were few beings with the speed that Dee had. Unfortunately for the goddess, the idea most likely was that the Champion would be outside the sanctum when the explosion happened, as inside the sanctum she would be protected. Now though? The explosion destroyed most everything in the vicinity, and that just so happened to include the tower with the shield formation.

To be exact, the tower was barely standing, held up only by some quick thinking mage supporting it, but that was a problem Dee could solve much easier. “Let’s go give the tower a small push.”

-----

“Yes! That’s my Champion!” Lumen declared victoriously, raising her arms in the air as she officially got the information about the Spider Goddess’ Champion dying.

“YOU!” Umbra pointed at Lumen miffed at the missed opportunity. “You stole my thunder!”

“Hey, I only presented the option to her. She’s the one that accepted.” Lumen couldn’t stop herself from grinning. She was already receiving hasty communication attempts from the other gods, all of which she blocked. She knew there was more to come pretty soon. “It’s not my fault you were too stingy and wanted to go for the avatar instead of settling on the Champion.”

Umbra grumbled a bit but realized Lumen made a reasonable point. “Did the angels already get a word about you picking a Champion?”

Lumen grimaced a bit, her joy dampening a bit. “Yes, they did. I couldn’t really stop my priests from finding out considering a Champion is supposed to be a matter of pride. I made sure Dee’s identity didn’t get out, which might come to bite me back later. As a result, the whole Paradisia is buzzing, trying to find the new Champion they rather reasonably expect to be one of them.” She might have hidden Dee’s identity for now, but it was only a matter of time before the information got out.

Umbra burst out in wicked laughter. “That’s going to be a nice surprise, won’t it? The new Champion of Lumen is a demon and a Fallen.”

“Still partially an angel.” Lumen pointed out a bit defensively, even if she didn’t really feel the need to defend her choices. The words were almost automatic. At the same time, she received a communication she couldn’t completely ignore. It was a simple message.

“Congratulations. I hope whatever poor bastard took the job realizes the trouble he is now in. And I hope you realize this will not change anything.” The message was from Order of course.

“I see your dear brother-in-arms wasted no time.” Umbra had sensed the message, and couldn’t help making a jab at the now broken alliance between the primary light gods.

“Well, I wouldn’t gloat too much, considering your sister-in-arms is about to face a rather abrupt end.” Lumen pointed out, alluding to the Spider Goddess.

“Hah! That would have been a nice jab, except that we dark gods don’t keep up the pretense that you light gods keep up about being allies. The spider is an enemy of mine, just like Order.” Umbra replied easily. Notably, she didn’t list Lumen as her enemy though. Something that the other three gods didn’t miss.