Introduction
Wow! 76 looks like such a huge crazy number. I have to thank @lex-zaiya for being so thorough and consistent and building such a awesome story together. The end of a first "book" is in sight and Lex and I have been planning of continuing the story in a second book after this as we have created enough worldbuilding and intrigue for us to write about.
I look forward to that!
The last part of the story is here: Mortis Custos Part 75 by @lex-zaiya.
To start at the beginning of the story please see the links provided at the end of this post!
Viewer discretion is advised due to gory violence! Undead! Swords! Death! Beware!
Part 76
Adrian hesitated for a moment. There was something inside his mind, or his head that felt strange. It was more like an awareness, as though something was coming.
If he lay on his bed with the window open in winter and he felt the cold creeping in on a windless night then he felt it some in, slowly chilling him.
It was like that... but it was not coldness... though it felt much worse. There was a dread attached to it, an intent. It was coming for him. For them.
It was awokened when Magna and the others had travelled from the death realm to here. What had they done? What presance have they summoned?
"Adrian!"
He snapped out of his thoughts to see Manga, bleeding over the casket. She had been telling him something.
"We need to bring Mortis back!"
"But how?"
"I need your blood, like me! Ostia told me what to do." Magna was pleading with him, this was not a usual thing. He came forward and knelt next to her, picking up the sword she had put down in the casket.
"Alright. I will do it." He said. "Is there anything else that we needed?"
"Ostia did say that she would bring someone to help. He must just get it all ready."
Adrian had a feeling that the someone was going to do more than just help, but he shrugged it off. We have already crossed that boundary. There is blood on our hands.
He had that feeling in his soul again.
Bigger things are at stake.
Slipping from shadow to shadow, the pair creeped closer to the Church complex. Darian was the target, but they would need to collect any of these corrupt priests would be sufficient for the Pale Lady.
They floated and sped through the street, covering one another with an acrobatic alacrity that was borne of centuries worth of experience.
Lucien had left the command of the Shadowhost under the command of the other members of his immediate family. Their noble line had close bonds and the Host followed the directions of his nieces, nephews, and cousins implacably.
Right now it was more important for Lord Shadow and his half-brother to do this thing in the name of the Queen beyond Death. There were parts of the Church Complex that brought Lucien intense physical pain.
There was some sanctity left in this place, but most of it was tained by the love for money and the greed for more power over other men. Thus the sacredness was replaced with corruption, something that Lucien and his kin are able to exploit.
The root of this corruption was Darian. It would be a stroke of irony that once the life-drinkers removed the High Priest, that the holiness of the Church Complex would be restored and thus creating an area that would not be accessible to their kind.
The two of them skirted up the wall of a small priory possibly populated by a half dozen priests. They walked up tiny crevasses that a normal human would be unable to put any of their weight onto.
Once again, the centuries of experience made this feat seem almost effortless. Lucien signed to Stefan where the High Priest was likely to be at this hour.
They needed to sneak in and remove the Priest as one would cut out an infection and leave the rest unarmed so he had warned his half-brother not to kill anyone unnecessarily.
There was a trio of priests walking down the street near to where Lucien and Stefan stood on the wall. By all accounts, it was suspicious that the three of them were so muscular and that they carried on them concealed weapons.
When the trio had disappeared the pair flowed down the wall and through the street to the main structure where the High Priest would be. Lucien could sense no holy wards or uncomfortable feelings, they would be able to enter this place without resistance.
He entered the doorway first and stopped, waiting for Stefan to come through and take up the next station at the doorway of the antechamber.
As the other vampire flowed through the doorway there was a split second that Lucien knew in his dark heart that something was wrong.
But it was too late.
Time seemed to slow, or speed up, Lucien could not really tell. He was disorientated. He tried to move forward towards Stefan but he felt as if he was moving through immense pressure.
Stefan seemed supported in mid-air. Where he was meant to drop on to the floor and move towards the door he was trapped. He slowly drifted downwards.
There was a bright shimmer in the air next to the other lifedrinker. Blue and yellow flames ran and shimmered around the form of a man in ornate white and gold armor. The armor was covered in sunburst and flame motives with a few faces set with brightly shining rubies for eyes.
The whole design was fairly garish in Lucien's opinion but this was not what terrified him and this was the greatest shock of all.
I can feel terror?! I can still feel dread.
Anguish and pain were not unknown to the life-drinker, but this sheer unreasoning fear was something that he had not experienced in a millennia or more.
The flames ran over the man's unhelmeted face without leaving a blemish on his pale skin or a singe on the pencil-thin mustache or short goatee beard. He had one hand behind his back while the other hand clutched a basket-hilted rapier.
The man stepped forward neatly and in perfectly normal time and thrust the tip of his blade through Stefan's side. The vampire made a slight gasping sigh and there was a burning smell as the man's silvered sword was pulled out of his torso.
Anger boiled through Lucien's veins. "No!"
There was an explosion of dark energy from the Shadow Lord and immediately his movement returned and Stefan dropped in a pile on the floor, curled up like a wounded cat.
The darkness clashed with the yellow and blue flames and pushed the viel of deception further back revealing two more figures behind the first man.
One was a massive dark-skinned man who carried a gigantic sword. The sword had no sheath. The weapon had the same markings and symbols as the first man. This man was also armored in white and gold.
The other figure was a woman, clad in gold and white leather and light armor had two small crossbows leveled out before her.
Lucien ripped his saber from its sheath and deflected the two bolts that sped towards his chest.
"Who are you?" Lucien demanded.
"It is even worse than he had feared!" The first man proclaimed, not seeming to answer Lucien directly. "I knew the stench of evil was strong in this place! How far they had fallen if the likes of THESE were seeking council and refuge here!"
"We did not come here for refuge or council." Lucien spat.
The man with the rapier had a pained expression on his face as he looked towards Lucien. "I hate speaking to the impure but my inquiry requires answers. Why do you mean foul creature? Why did you come here? Did Darius summon you?"
"We came to remove Darius from these grounds at the behest of... the royal family. He is a traitor." Lucien tried to see if there was any sign that Stefan was till alive, but he could see none.
"At least it seems that the royals can be trusted then." The dark skinned man rumbled in a deep bass voice.
"We shall see." The diminutive woman said. "They are still consorting with the likes of this one." She pointed at Lucien with her crossbows. Lucien could see that they were already loaded for another shot somehow.
"Indeed." The mustached man said. "We cannot allow it to leave. We must cleanse this city!" The man lunged forward with his rapier coming out.
Lucien saw that these humans were well trained. The crossbow bolts stabbed forward either side of the man who lunged in with his rapier, the man behind was bringing his massive sword up above his head with both hands.
Lucien managed to dodge the crossbow bolt on the one side but needed to meet with the first man's rapier or else be in line with the other crossbow bolt. His sabre deflected the thrust and their weapons ground together as the trust pushed forward.
Lucien used his offhand to strike down this mortal and managed to knock the imperious man to the ground. He had so intently been focussing on this exchange that he was nearly decapitated by the massive blade, cutting out much faster than Lucien could have thought possible.
The cut was about a hand's breath too short of his neck or face.
He looked down and saw the reason the big man had been unable to complete the blow that would have killed Lucien. An arm was wrapped around the big man's leg. Stefan still lay on the floor but this one limb still managed to do something to save his half brother.
Stefan lunged forward and bit into the big man's calf as the massive man reversed his sword and trust it down and through the back of Stefan's neck. The blade struck the flagstones beneath and the head rolled free.
Lucien's heart burned with hatered. But he needed to retreat before these... unnatural mortals could capture and kill him. He swept from the room, flicking out a wrist to send a stake of black iron towards the massive man.
He bolted for the door and looked back in time to see that his projectile had not found its mark as the small woman had lept in the way of the projectile and it had pierced into her shoulder.
No matter. I cannot sustain a battle with these warriors.
He had never encountered their like.
He sped away from the main building. He came across some of the local priests. These were definately locals. They were bleeding and had weapons in their hands. There were other people in the street. They wore white and gold, though nothing as intricate as the ones that Lucien had just battled. He sped up behind the battling group. He saw instantly that these combatants in white were not as skilled either. He struck from behind, killing two with his saber to clear the path before him.
He ran through to their enemies' lines and killed another mortal while gripping a fourth and knocked his weapon from his hands and promptly broke the man's arm.
He had all of his usual strength and speed back. He was glad to be away from those warriors... those holy warriors, he realized. True purity.
Where did they come from?
He still needed a sacrifice, he had the man with the broken arm in his grasp.
"You will need to do instead of the High Priest." He said to the squirming man and sped off, lifting the man clean off the ground and trailing in the air behind him.
I must report to the Pale Lady... but first... the children need her brother.
Wrapup
I hope that was unexpected @lex-zaiya! Hahahaha!
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