The Sword Of Monsters

[GLKnight]

"What is the name of the man who rules the abominations in these woods?"

Ezel's eyes remained focused, burning brightly in the low candlelight as stormy strength grew and rumbled above the corrupted grounds of the church.

"My name?" the haggard and unsightly warlock asked, flicking his eyes towards the door and bobbing his head. The approaching stomps alone told the Trapper who was about to assail him before he felt metal claws grip his throat from behind. Throttling him as he was unceremoniously pulled from his chair with ease as the hound abomination growled at the hunter's inquisitiveness.

"Why should you know anything?" Argren continued, showing the barest hints of a spine as he smiled smugly.

"A small favor for a dead man," Ezel croaked, trying to wrack his brains on how to play things out before being strangled to death. "Think of it as a way to tell your victim who his new... master.. will be-"

A simple swipe of the warlock's hand was all it took for his pet to drop the Trapper to the floor, gasping for air as he unwittingly knelt before the two men above him. Bowing deeply as his throat burned to hide his smile. Many ways to play on ego. Oh so many ways...

"Why did you release him?" Argren asked, apprentice not knowing his master's intentions. But the warlock, thinking himself smart, gently raised his hand to quiet his student.

"Other dead were unwilling," he began, gesturing at the Book Of Sutured Worms. "But a willing soul makes for a stronger beast. A smarter beast. And his is willing to call us master."

Placing his foot beneath the hunter's chin, the warlock slowly lifted Ezel's face their way. Forcing him to quickly wear the succoring mask he needed.

"Do you rebuke the demon," the warlock asked, his eyes narrowing as his crooked smile grew. Lightning illuminating the room throw the barest slivers of framed glass. "Do you give your soul to me, your flesh be mine to remake? To be my hands, my eyes, my limbs and will?"

"I swear it," Ezel sighed, lying through his teeth as he played the supplicant. "I give myself to you, body and soul."

Giving a glint of wicked satisfaction towards his apprentice, the warlock turned his palm upward and crooked his fingers. Insulting his new vessel with the air of a master to his pet as he called for the hound abomination to callously lift the man to his feet. Metal claws dug into the back of his neck with little butcher's spikes to dangle meat that made him cry out. Ezel had suffered less in his time that matched the pain of dishonor like meat for the hungry worm that he felt in this moment.

"I have pledged my fealty," Ezel gasped, swaying as he fought to keep his focus. "It is time for you to fulfil your end of the agreement."

There was a brief moment of hope birthed in that moment. A candle's flame lit in stormy twilight. But like a candle, a single puff of air was all it took as the wicked priest began to cackle with manic glee.

"An agreement?" the warlock laughed, rubbing his belly and chest languidly. "You pledged yourself to me of your own will."

Throwing his hand to the side, the sting of phantom strings slipped further into the hunter's flesh as the hound threw him towards the embalmer's table once more. A dark mirror for its master's puppeteering.

"You promised," Ezel screamed, knowing he had been too caught up in his own assuredness to realize he had been played. "You promised to tell me your name!"

With brutish efficiency, the hound abomination grabbed the hunter's throat and forced him prone. Strangling him with glee as he centered him for the ritual that was to come.

"And this is why vengeance will be his," Argren smugly hissed. Serpent's grace as he swayed in his approach. "None can match my master's cunning! None can ken his talents! None can-!"

"Argren!" the warlock shouted, slapping the back of his apprentice's head. "Do not tarry!"

"Sorry, Father Gorali-"

The look of panic on the warlock's face was well lit as lightning crashed and candles bloomed with fiery blossoms that glowed with an eerie light. Burdensome heat swelled, steamy and blistering beyond the mortal senses as the sounds of every mystical lock gave way. The chill of the grave subsumed by something older. More powerful. More damning in nature.

"Damn you," Gorali cried, reaching for the Book of Sutured Worms in sheer terror. "Do you know what you have done, you impetuous fool?"

Argren was about to answer his master before their victim fell from the slab. His body heaving as he began to retch, his body working to force whatever was inside him while he struggled to breathe. A frightening glow emanating from deep within as the light of lava flow worked its way up his throat. And with a deep, sickening sob, fire spewed from the hunter's mouth in thick and unnatural waves. A pool of tormented flame gathering between them as the air caught fire into a swirling pillar-like vortex of eternal suffering.

"What is happening?" Agren wailed, his tears flowing freely but quickly evaporating before running down his cheeks as the steam was forced back into his eyes.

"You gave them my name," Gorali screamed, trying to keep his nerve. "The gates are open! And damnation comes!"

Neither warlock nor apprentice could look away when two points of white light grew, high amongst the pillar before taking shape as two slits opened wide. The infernal heat escalating more as an evil laughter filled the room.

Deep within Harven Woods, Gehenna smiled as the storm came down in earnest. Unnatural sheets of rain soaking the ground, all except where Gehenna stood. A dome of heat and steam sizzling in the air as her eyes turned to the west. Now knowing precisely where her quarry was.

"I found you, Demasus Gorali."

[GLKnight]

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