Apostles of Doom

Suddenly he felt the warm presence of Beragamos even closer than before, completely inside his skull. He felt his hands lowering from their prayer position as he himself walked out from behind the shield and over to the wall to stare down at the vast horde of Unlife below, and then surveyed the sky above. Interestingly, while arrows were still falling, none struck his armor.

His eyes suddenly went to the lich on the ice dragon and within seconds he was staring the lich directly in the face, as if close up. That was the fastest transition to one of the Holy Sights he had ever experienced. He felt his head nod as his vision returned to normal and his body turned back towards the commander and Rasmeth, both of whom were looking at him very oddly. He walked about halfway back.

I think we can give them a show, something a bit more than a single apostolic spell, Beragamos said. I will return to you momentarily.

Teragdor shook his head as Beragamos released him.

“What was that about?” Rasmeth asked in concern. “That was very strange of you.”

“That was Beragamos; he sort of possessed me to investigate the situation,” Teragdor said wonderingly.

“Possessed you?” Rasmeth said.

“I think it was a Holy Communion. I read about in my apostolic books, but have never experienced one, obviously,” Teragdor said, blinking a few times. “He thinks we can do something to give them pause.”

“Really?” Rasmeth asked.

“Praise be to Tiernon!” the commander said.

“I am sure we won’t be able to do it too many times, but right now, while we have the reserves, we can try to make them a bit nervous, to reconsider,” Teragdor said.

Teragdor felt Beragamos’s presence again. I am back. May I borrow your body once more? Everything I am going to do is in your apostolic books and within your power to do, but I am going to be doing three or four things at once, and I fear you have not had enough training to put them all together, Beragamos explained.

Certainly, Teragdor replied.

He felt Beragamos re-enter his mind, his being. Teragdor found himself setting his great shield down. He then removed his gauntlets, laying them down gently. His body moved to an open space on the wall. As he did so, his mouth began to speak in a chant, however it was in no language that Teragdor knew.

Within moments, Teragdor was shocked to find himself rising into the air, his hands held wide at his sides, parallel to his shoulders. Could he be a more obvious target? His body rose to about twenty feet above the top of the wall. His eyes moved to stare at the lich on the ice dragon. Teragdor was at the same height as the lich, and they had a line of sight for direct eye contact.

At this point, all of the Unlife forces outside the moat in their vicinity were firing at him, yet their arrows went wide. Teragdor once more found himself chanting, but this time it was a new chant — a very loud chant, again in a language he did not know.

He felt his eyes boring into the lich’s red-ember eyes. The lich was clearly paying attention, curious as to what Teragdor was doing. Suddenly and without warning, Teragdor’s sight was blinded by an intense flash of light as he felt himself, or rather Beragamos, flowing from his eyes to the lich’s eyes.

Teragdor heard a horrendous screeching noise that he suddenly realized was the lich screaming in pain. As the scream became louder and louder, Teragdor’s sight returned. The lich and his dragon were bathed in a very bright, heavenly light that crackled and danced around them in small bolts.

And then it was gone, the air still, no more screaming lich. Just a cloud of dust floating to the distant ground below. The lich and its dragon were simply gone. The Unlife’s aerial forces had all turned to stare at the lich, who was now no more.

Teragdor found himself floating back down to the battlement, his feet touching down lightly. Beragamos chuckled in his mind. Perhaps that will give them pause. And then the archon was gone and Teragdor slowly lowered himself to his knees, feeling extremely worn out.

Citadel of Light, Storm Lords’ Command Post

“What is that priest doing?” Ramses asked, staring off towards the Citadel. “Is he purposefully trying to make a target of himself?”

Exador turned to look where Ramses was staring. He blinked and shook his head, focusing his demon sight on the priest rising above the wall. “That’s not a priest!” he exclaimed in surprise.

“What is it, if it is not a priest?” Baba Smert' asked in her typical acidic hiss.