章 7: Last Stand
Derzina was adjusting the padding beneath her borrowed mail shirt, trying to make it more comfortable, when she heard someone shout something outside. Despite the fearful volume of their call, she couldn't make out the words. In response, a voice in her head said, "He's here."
Derzina jumped and it took her a moment to realise what was happening. Lady Atasimon had returned at last. "Who's here, my lady?"
"The Demon Lord I fought outside the city."
"Then the demons' army is already upon us?" Derzina asked, looking frantically around. Were they ready? Other than herself, most of the other soldiers were already in their positions. Clustered in small groups, they stood prepared to defend the narrow corridors and stairways of the central temple.
"No, as far as I can discern, he has come alone."
"What? Why would he come alone?"
"I don't know, but we can't afford to waste this opportunity. Order everyone to attack him at once. We must overcome him as quickly as possible."
"But- "
"There is no time to argue, if you wish to save your city, then you will do as I say."
Licking her lips, Derzina ran off to find Captain Fornon from his position on the second floor where he was overseeing the troops. "Captain," she called, interrupting his conversation with another soldier.
"What is it?" Fornon asked, brow furrowed in concern.
"We need to sally forth and attack the Demon Lord outside."
"And abandon our position? Sounds damned foolish."
"I know it must seem strange," Derzina said, trying to remain calm, "but this is what the goddess has commanded. She believes it to be our best chance of victory."
"Be that as it may- "
"Enough," Atasimon said, speaking through Derzina, yet in a voice that was nothing like hers. "If you refuse to give the order, then I shall do so myself." Her shadowy veil flickered into existence around her and her next words echoed throughout the temple. "I am Atasimon, hear me and obey. The demons' commander is approaching alone, Ortesia's killer. Now get out there and avenge your goddess!"
Derzina felt control of her body shift back to her as the soldiers around them hurried out. Only Fornon remained where he was, sitting down on one of the stone benches with a sigh. "I hope your lady will forgive me; I'd be more of a detriment than anything if I went with them."
"Then you agree that her decision was best?" Derzina asked.
He shrugged, and Derzina left him to follow the others, turning her attention inward to address Atasimon. "What's the plan?"
"Find a vantage point close to the action and wait."
Derzina hurried down the stairs to the ground floor, already lagging behind the others. Many of the soldiers had already left the temple. "Wait? For what? I thought we were in a hurry."
"We are, but we must pick our moment carefully."
"Then should I tell the soldiers to wait?"
She was about to stop one of the soldiers when Atasimon answered. "No, let them go. We must wait and rely on them to create the proper opportunity for us."
Emerging onto one of the temple's balconies, Derzina sighted the Demon Lord at last. He was already engaged with the human soldiers, cutting down a man with his halberd as Derzina watched. "Then we're just meant to stand here and watch as he butchers them?"
"We have no choice. All we can do is hope that they're able to tire him out and force him to expend some of his power, only then will we have a chance of defeating him."
"You didn't seem to have this problem last time you fought him."
"And look how that turned out, we were lucky to survive the encounter. I let anger cloud my judgement then; I cannot allow it to do so again. This is the last chance I will get to avenge my sister and save your city."
Much as she wanted to look away from the sight of her allies being cut down while she stood there doing nothing, Derzina forced herself to watch. She had to be ready for any opportunity that might present itself. That, and she as if she'd be doing them a disservice if she refused to witness their sacrifices.
She watched as a pair of militiamen thrust their spears at him, only for them to deflect off his armour as he stepped forward and dispatched them both in a single stroke. But for all his speed and strength, he was still one against many. Before he could withdraw his halberd, another soldier grabbed onto the metal haft.
As he moved to pulled it free, a pole hammer smashed into his shoulder and he lost his grip on the weapon completely.
"Now?" Derzina asked, already stepping forward.
"No, not yet."
"But he's disarmed."
"It doesn't matter. His weapon is the least of our worries."
The soldiers around Meztraxia rushed in, looking to bear him to the ground, only to find themselves covered in the Demon Lord's tiny summoned warriors. Tearing a polearm with a curved blade from one of the trapped humans, Meztraxia was about to bring it down on its former owner when he was hit by a wave of light and toppled to the ground.
Shaking off the Demon Lord's conjurations, Yormis swung the hammerhead of her polearm down at him. It smashed him against the ground, leaving a great dent in his breastplate. Rolling away, Meztraxia came up standing and seemingly uninjured.
Yormis threw out another wave of light, only for it to vanish upon touching the Demon Lord. Though faint, and hard to make out at this distance, Dezina saw a flash of purple mist as Paladin's magic was dissipated.
"Did you see that?" Derzina asked inwardly.
"Indeed. Whatever that mist is, that's precisely what we need to exhaust."
"Any idea how we're going to do that, my lady?" Other than Yormis, who was now on the backfoot against the Demon Lod, she could only see two other Paladins present. And for all the fury the soldiers had brought against Meztraxia, it was waning in the face of their mounting losses.
"The Paladins need to use all the power they have left. Hopefully it will be enough."
"Alright, then you should probably call out to them so they know what to do, my lady." Derzina braced herself, waiting for the goddess to take control.
"No, the Demon Lord would hear me and I'd risk giving away the plan. You're going to have to get in there and tell them yourself."
Taking a deep breath, Derzina ran toward the fray. Yormis was staggering back, bleeding freely from a deep cut on her arm, while others took her place and Derzina went to meet her. The Demon Lord had regained his halberd, and was once more laying waste to the soldiers around him.
"Yormis," Derzina called, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the tumult of clashing steel and battle cries.
"What?" Yormis asked, hand clasped over her wound while she kept her eyes fixed on the Demon Lord.
"I need you to use your power on him again, it's our only hope."
"Are you blind?" Yormis snapped. "It did nothing to him."
"I know, but you have to keep trying. It will work eventually, trust me."
Yormis grunted, light already forming in her free hand. Lifting her arm in the direction of the Demon Lord, she loosed another blast of golden light, only for it fizzled against his black armour once more.
"Again," Derzina commanded, not giving Yormis a chance to get discouraged, "keep trying until you have nothing left to give."
Seeing the same golden light appear, Derzina moved on. She was weaving her way through the soldiers as they alternated between advancing and retreating, when a shout cut through the chaos.
"There you are!" Meztraxia bellowed, looking right at her as he cut down the militiaman in front of him. A wave of tiny purple warriors erupted before him, and he ran through the beleaguered soldiers as they struggled with his minions.
"Shit," Derzina said aloud, drawing her sword and backing away before speaking to the goddess within. "Here he comes. Do we run?"
"There's no time," Atasimon said, taking over and turning to confront the Demon Lord. "We triumph here or die with the rest of your city."
Meztraxia felled a man with an offhand blow from his gauntlet as he approached, and said, "Let us begin where we left off."
His halberd arced through the air in a powerful overhead strike that Atasimon didn't even try to parry. Two quick steps back, and the blade sailed harmlessly past. She created a patch of clinging shadow and hurled it at the Demon Lord's head only for it to dissipate as the Paladin's light had.
Deprived of her power, Atasimon was forced to resort to ordinary steel. Deflecting the spearhead of the demon's halberd, she stepped in and slashed at his leading hand. Her sword came down hard on his fingers, but his grip remained firm.
"Is that all you can manage?" Meztraxia taunted, holding his weapon at the ready "You're even more pathetic than the last godling I killed."
"Stay calm," Derzina said, speaking within her mind.
"I know," Atasimon snapped, replying in kind before responding aloud to the Demon Lord's provocation. "My sister was far greater than you'll ever be. You may have defeated her by some stroke of luck, but I will take my vengeance."
"You're welcome to try." He punctuated his statement with a sweeping blow, and as Atasimon staggered back to avoid it, he struck with the metal haft. It caught her in the abdomen, the mail and padding doing little to blunt the impact, and she doubled over.
"Unfortunately, it appears you're not up to the task," he said, bringing the axe head down on her.
Stunned, with her mortal forming failing her, Atasimon didn't even see it coming until it was too late. An instant of regret, so intense that even Derzina felt it, passed through her before the end came.
The halberd's black blade descended, missing her by an inch. Looking up, Atasimon saw that Meztraxia was now looking back over his shoulder. Not wasting time, Atasimon regained her posture and scrambled back out of reach. Only then did she spare the attention to see what had caused the Demon Lord to miss.
Amongst the remaining soldiers, most of them injured or bound, stood Yormis and her two fellow Paladins. Each held a number of small glowing objects, the golden light surrounding them too bright to make out further detail.
They hurled them at the Demon Lord, their missiles streaking through the air with incredible force like little comets and slamming into his armour. Though the light vanished on impact, turning them back into rocks, the force behind them was enough to stagger the Demon Lord.
"Must I be constantly interrupted?" he exclaimed, raising his hand in their direction. "Enough of this."
A veritable horde of tiny warriors sprung up around the Paladins, climbing up their legs and seeking out gaps in their armour. Seeing that Meztraxia was still focused on these last champions of her sister, Atasimon dashed in.
With one hand gripping her sword blade for better control, she drove the tip into the back of the Demon Lord's knee. The blade penetrated the mail, but just as before there was no sign of blood as she withdrew it.
Before Meztraxia could bring his halberd around to strike at her, Atasimon summoned long strands of shadow that shot out and wrapped around a stone arch behind her. Setting her feet, she pulled, adding her strength to that of her animated shadows. Together, they tore the section of stone free and brought it toppling down on top of Meztraxia. With a terrific crash, the broken arch slammed into the ground and pinned him beneath it.
Atasimon ran toward the fallen Demon Lord, sword at the ready. Only part of his legs remained unburied, still covered in his black armour. There were dents in the metal where the impact had struck, and a number of jagged cracks. She jammed the tip of her blade into one of the larger cracks, piercing the flesh beneath.
There was no reaction, the Demon Lord's body was completely still.
"Is he dead?" Derzina asked.
"It's too soon to say," Atasimon said, shifting the rubble with her foot as she sought a more vulnerable location to strike.
A faint purple mist rose from the Demon Lord, growing denser before her eyes. Atasimon directed a thin tendril of shadow toward it, which touched the mist and vanished. Slashing it with her blade to little effect, she watched as the mist formed into a humanoid shape.
"What is that thing?" Derzina asked.
Atasimon drew back from it, though it remained stationary. "I have no idea, but it's coming from the Demon Lord so he must still be alive."
She was in the process of pulling more of the city Meztraxia invaded down upon him, when the purple figure surged toward her. Reflexively raising her arm to protect her face as she jumped back, the mist only brushed against Atasimon. Derzina's skin tingled and her whole arm went numb, while Atasimon let out a high-pitched scream of pure agony.
Still screaming as her now useless limb dangled at her side, Atasimon brought another piece of stonework toppling down upon where the Demon Lord lay, yet it did nothing to disrupt the mist before her and she only narrowly avoided its grasp.
Atasimon, breathing heavily, manifested her shadowy veil and used it to scale the building behind her. "There is nothing left I can do."
Derzina couldn't believe what she was hearing, was the goddess thinking of giving up? "There has to be something, you have to keep trying."
"I'm sorry, I've done what I can; my power is spent. Even if I were at full strength, I fear I wouldn't be able to overcome whatever that thing is." The purple mist floated toward her, and Atasimon fled further across the city's rooftops.
"Then you're just going to run away? What about the others?"
"There's nothing more I can do for them, they're on their own."
"So, you're leaving them to die?" Derzina shouted within her own mind. "How can you be okay with that?"
"I'm not, but I have no choice." Continuing her flight, she paused for one last look back at the temple's courtyard. The mist had stopped its pursuit, descending upon the remaining human soldiers instead. Helpless to resist the immaterial creature, they fell at its touch. "The city is lost."
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