Apostles of Doom

“It’s an Apostle of Tiernon… and… if I am not mistaken, there is also an Apostle of Torean up on the wall,” Exador replied, puzzled. “The armor style is also that of the Church of Tiernon in Astlan, not that of Nysegard. This is very strange.”

“Is an Apostle of the Five Siblings similar to the Dark Apostle?” Baba Smert' hissed.

“Not typically that powerful. It is a rank that is higher than a High Pontificate, but a bit lower than a prophet. Technically, prophets are often saints who were apostles when mortal,” Exador said, squinting, “I would argue that the Dark Apostle was most similar to a prophet; however, their methods of ascension to power are quite different.”

“Your time leading the Rod has certainly paid dividends,” Ramses noted.

“There were a—” Exador was cut off, startled as what appeared to Exador to be twin golden yellow laser beams flashed from the apostle’s eyes to those of the monitoring lich.

“That is odd; how can we see beams of light without clouds or smoke to diffract the light?” Ramses asked.

“It’s Heavenly Fire, not exactly a laser beam,” Exador said.

Suddenly the lich and its dragon lit up brightly with coruscating Heavenly Fire.

Exador made a smacking noise with his mouth. “Would not want to be that lich or its dragon.” The light brightened; if he extended his hearing he could hear the lich’s screams of agony.

“That scream,” Baba Smert' hissed. “His phylactery is under attack! Yet it is thousands of leagues away!”

The Heavenly Fire from the apostle’s eyes vanished and within but a few moments, so did the glowing lich and ice dragon. Only a cloud of smoke and perhaps steam remained. Exador shook his head in amazement at the sight.

“How did they do that?” Baba Smert' hissed angrily. “You swore they would be cut off! You have failed to block their off-world access!”

Exador shook his head, puzzled. The old bag of moldy bones was seriously angry. “No. The wards are up, the beacons are working. I have no access to the Abyss, nor can I plane shift. Try for yourself if you do not believe me.”

Baba Smert' muttered to herself for several moments and then said, “Fine, your magic seems to be working. How did they do that?” she hissed angrily.

“Well, they somehow managed to import a couple apostles from Astlan into their fortress before the wards went up. Perhaps they also snuck in a few saints, who are now powering the apostle,” Exador said, shrugging.

“And what are we to do about that?” Baba Smert' asked angrily.

“Any avatars would be similarly cut off from the heavens. They would only have so much mana easily available to them. Yes, they are formidable, but their resources will most likely be applied to priests in the Citadel so that they can heal their people, keep the Holy Water fresh, et cetera,” Exador replied.

“You seem to know a lot about these priests. Your recommendation?” Baba Smert' asked.

Exador shrugged again. “This is a siege. It may be a longer siege than we expected, but it is a siege. We deal with any avatars the same way we deal with any resources in a besieged fortress. We wear them down, slowly, battle after battle. If we hit them hard enough, for long enough, their resources will run dry.”

“I believe Praelgeis said there are over a quarter million mortals within the Citadel. What if they have worship services to recharge the avatars?” Ramses asked.

Exador inhaled deeply, thinking. “There is only so much mana they can store, and they can only process mana so fast. We have to hit them hard enough, long enough to force them to use more mana than they can process and so deplete their reserves.”

Exador looked to Baba Smert'. “It may be a bit more difficult than we expected, but nothing has really changed. You have your largest army ever, and they have the least divine assistance that they have ever had. Victory is still ours.”

“It had better be,” Baba Smert' somehow snarled and hissed at the same time. Exador simply gave her a tight-lipped smile. He truly did not like this revolting sack of rotten meat. He was beginning to see why Bess had refused to even deal with the Storm Lords.

Krallnomton: Midday

I thought you were going to pray? Ruiden asked Talarius.

I was, but I can’t seem to get my mind still enough to concentrate on a prayer, so I’m trying to meditate, Talarius replied.

We have heard a lot of disconcerting information this morning, Ruiden agreed.

Do you believe any of it? Talarius asked.