Kelgan gasped as, from above, a man fell from the dark sky. Stormwinds arrived with him, as clouds scudded across the clear night sky. Cloaks and capes snapped taut, and the light of the Guardian dimmed, ever so slightly.
"Your Duke holds no power here, Hand!" The Inquisitor turned his sharp smile up at the falling soldier, and the Guardian did the same. A new sword was conjured from its Mana, was lifted into a high guard. "Kill that man!"
The Hand's own unnaturally large sword was brought to bear, swinging down like judgement descending. His blade, wreathed in green-white air Mana, struck the Guardian's beam of golden light...and sheared right through it.
"No!" the Inquisitor howled.
The Hand hit the earth like a boulder, cracking cobbles and his greatsword continuing through the Guardian's defenses and into its right pauldron. At the same time, a gout of fire shot from the Guardian's wound, and its entire right arm exploded into burning motes of light.
The Inquisitor screamed, a high pitched thing draped in fear. It was so intense that it pulled Kelgan's attention away from the Hand now facing the Guardian in single combat. He looked, burning his Night Eye to make out details at his distance, and saw the Inquisitor hunched over while liquid dribbled down his gauntlet.
"He's hurt," Kelgan realized with a shock. The white-enameled armor is charred along his shoulder and bicep, and blood welled up from between a savage rent in the metal. "Thangle, make me invisible! While the Guardian is distracted!"
The Gnome followed his gaze, apparently, because he gave little resistance to the idea. "It's called Obfuscation! It simply redirects the eye!" Kelgan felt a warm power settle over him, like a cloak he couldn't see. "And I have to come with you!"
An aftershock of razor sharp wind tore ahead of them, slicing into the cobbles and through several of the unconscious Redcloaks. Neither stopped it much, and that was only a deflected blow by the Hand. Kelgan hustled forward, uncaring how much noise they made. The Inquisitor wouldn't be able to pick them out in the chaos. He hoped.
Golden flames swept over their heads and windblades scoured the square with increasing violence. The clash of the Adept Hand and Guardian of the Faith was colossal, each blow shaking the earth and rolling across Setoria like thunder. Time and again, Kelgan was thrown from his feet with only his stolen halberd to steady himself. Thangle didn't even have that, and was far smaller; the man fell many times and was once caught by flying debris across his eye.
Still, the two of them stumbled forward, both bleeding and drained. Redcloaksalive or deadlittered their path, and the aftershocks of every attack could mean nothing or the approach of Avet's dire scythe.
"ENOUGH!"
Kelgan dropped to his knees, Thangle close behind him, as the Inquisitor lurched forward and down several steps. His face was ashen and his right arm hung uselessly at his side. "You tangle with forces you do not understand, Darius Reed! Stand down and the Inquisition shall let you live. Stand down, and Pax'Vrell doesn't get razed next!"
The Hand parried a gigantic unarmed blow of the Guardian, yet still managed to bark a harsh laugh. "You think I trust your word, Redcloak? Your people nearly killed my ward in Haarwatch. There was no parley or mercy then. There will be no mercy now."
"Very well! Prepare to die, Chosen Hand! Heretic!" the Inquisitor screamed. Power swirled above them all, the sun appearing in the sky as if it were noon and not nearly midnight. The Guardian raged, slamming into the Hand with renewed fervor. Kelgan and Thangle crept forward, only ten strides away from the base of the stairs.
"Pathless, heed my call! I give unto you those who violate your High Laws! Violators of the truce you've long protected!" The Inquisitor stepped down another two steps, angling his head so that he was bathed in the light of the unnatural sun. "Help me end them! Let us wipe clean the impurity of this place!"
The sun burst, changing from an orb of riotous light to a sword that hung high in the sky above the square. A sword the size of the Waystone itself.
"Skyfall Judgement!"
Kelgan grabbed Thangle by the waist and ran with every ounce of Strength and Agility he could muster. The Gnome flailed, but he could be worried about it. He hit the base of the stairs. Just four more to go!
"Reed!"
"Zara!"
A thread of aquamarine Mana swept just above Kelgan's head, scoring the Waystone's walls and igniting an explosion of furious light behind him. Thangle screamed. Kelgan leaped, halberd thrust forward.
The square ignited, and a blast that somehow pulled everything inward dominated the space. The earth rocked, pitching upward and hurtling both Kelgan and the Inquisitor from their feet. The Redcloak screeched in pained alarm, finally noticing the spearman almost atop him.
Then the Guardian detonated.
Golden fire flared outward in a ring of refined Mana, vapor so thick it was a half-step from becoming liquid. It scorched Kelgan's back, pushing at him, but he would not be stopped. The Inquisitor writhed, his own flesh boiling, and was unable to stop the spike that stabbed through his skull.
You Have Killed An Unknown Inquisitor Of The Inviolate Inquisition!
XP Earned!
You Have Gained 1 Level!
You Are Now Level 58!
You Have 3 Unused Stat Points!
Kelgan felt the System's energy soak into his core, into him, but he hadn't the strength. He tipped, fell, but rough hands caught him by his jerkin.
"A good job, Lieutenant," the Hand said in a deep, tired voice. Kelgan was put back on his feet with a lurch. "You can stand?"
"A-aye, sir," he managed. Thangle was beside the Hand, looking unburnt but utterly drained. "Is it over?"
"Almost." The Hand bared his teeth at the thick door of the Waystone. "We'll take it from here."
"The Waystone is transmitting!" Zara gasped from behind them. She hobbled up the steps, her gait ruined by a bleeding leg. "Halt it, whatever you do!"
Kelgan gaped at the state of her, and then at her words. He'd barely pieced together how to run when the Hand demolished the thick double doors with a single blow.
Light and sound turned to pressure and pain, all of it fused into a single, exalted moment of transcendent song.
Congratulations!
You Have Established Territorial Authority!
Authority Accessed!
ERROR.
Dissonance reared its head, flitting through the notes of Harmony with an atonal shriek.
Unbound Detected.
Primordial Detected.
Nymean Detected.
...
Inheritor Status Supersedes All Bloodlines!
Harmony and Dissonance met, clashed, as they did within his core. And just as within him, they settled, filling in gaps neither had shone before the other's interference. Felix's entire being hummed like a struck key, rising and falling in equal measure.
Lightning and fire tore around him, igniting the gold and silver array. Anointing it. Beneath his feet, a glyph blazed to life, filled with blue-white and red-gold light in equal measure. It depicted a complicated mash of sigils, all of them forming the shape of a single eye surmounted by a crown with nine tines.
Authority Accessed.