Knight Revenant's Repenance
“Soulless, why have you brought me here?” Kalvalax said, clearly displeased. “I have humored you enough. I will not take another step until you explain yourself.”
The two Knight Revenants stared up to the top of a beautifully crafted stone tower. Few red large crystals, clearly parts of a formally whole gem, hovered above the top of the structure. The bottom was wider than the top, forming a loosely conic shape. Ledges and bridges littered the bottom half, useful for mounting archers and casters to repel attackers. While the top had special markings and unknown contraptions.
“Do you know where we are?” Soulless said, his voice coming from his shield’s mouth rather than his face’s mouth.
“This is the center of Ireth. Where some offshoot of our cult went rogue and started doing their own experiments. But my patience is wearing thin. Do not answer my question with an inquiry of your own,again. Why am I here?” Kalvalax said.
“We are here for a scouting mission.” Soulless said
“A SCOUTING MISSION” Kalvalax erupted “That is a job for the coffin smashers!”
“The inner circle sent a party of coffin smashers out, leaded by Bergoth, a highly enchanted smasher. They never returned. Plus there is something I wish to talk to you about. Something I rather not have eavesdropped upon.” Soulless said.
“So the Luzand Undead King of Nothing and the Everlasting Blight Knightmare are going to have a walk and talk in an abandoned tower. Cute.” Kalvalaax mocked.
“Yes” Soulless said as he walked into the keep.
The interior torches have been out for a while. Dust and spider webs were in no short supply. Simple stone bricks form the walls.
Soulless spoke first “We should expect nothing until the top floor. Plenty of time to chat. Let’s start with a question. In your opinion, Which faction has the most overall strength and influence in the world?”
“It’s close with the Demonspawns’ return but I think the High Elves are better by a small margin.” Kalvalax said.
“I agree for the most part but Why? They match up so poorly against us. You could easily subdue a village every night yourself with your poisons ”
“You were once a king, you should know. Power is multiplied with more people, not added. Their harmony is their strength ”
Soulless clapped “Perfect answer. Now you have highlighted the weakness of our faction. The cult of K’leth have great power but no loyalty. Look at these poor fools for example.”
As they continued up the tower, more Ireth scientist bodies were scattered. Some had scorch marks while other were cleaved in two. The most recent dead seemed to be killed with blunt weapons.
“Most Knight Revenant had a reason to take the cult’s gifts. That reason persists after undeath. These fools’ research was their number one goal. The faction’s needs is almost never on their mind.” Soulless said.
“Do you blame them? The gift of this power comes at a great cost. Your city was lost overnight and I watched the cultist do twisted things to my mortal followers and did nothing to stop it. How can I trust people like us to watch my back?
Kalvalax continued “Not to mention, we need mortal souls to continue to exist. So there is no way that a mortal faction would join our cause. ”
“There it is. The core of our problem. It is little wonder how you became the general you did in life. Your analysis skills are out of this world. And now for the reason of our little chat. Mother Cybele shared a secret with me. Her Secret.” Soulless said.
“Now you have my attention” Kalvalax rested himself and his great-sword against a wall. He motioned Soulless to continue.
“She found a way to sustain her magic without the use of mortal souls. Meaning…”
Kalvalax cut in “We can have this power without the maintenance costs.”
Soulless nodded “The Dark Lord has used our need for souls to do his bidding. But we could be free of his grasp. Cybele wants to unite the Knight’s Revenant. However, the others in the inner circle are loyal to the Dark Lord. We would need the help of the mortals to win. And that is why we are here. ”
“What is that?” Kalvalax said.
They reached the top of the tower. A large room met them with chains grinding in the back, turning large gears. The room seemed to be a giant elevator. Coffin smashers laid still around the sides of the room. One of them larger than the others. In the middle of the Room laid a hulking machine, motionless.
Soulless said “That is the Iron Twins. Dwarven craftsmanship, piloted by the souls of two brave high priests of opposite sects., This golem was created to destroy the Ireth. And it worked. Until the Ireth corrupted it. We had a feeling that the Twins were here but we were here to confirm. If we can return the machine to the dwarves and lay the souls to rest, we would gain enough favor with the mortal factions to split from the cult with Mother Cybele and built a nation to rival the High Elves.”
“That’s great. However, I am more interested in the coffin smashers.” Kalvalax walked into the room with Soulless following. “They are all dead, but the Iron golem isn’t moving. Did they kill each other?”
Soulless inspected the Coffin Smashers’ corpses. They all had similar slash and burn wounds as the cultists bodies. He then moved to the largest body. “This was Bergoth. His many years as a coffin smasher lead to him to dangerous tombs some of which were hexed. Doompriests are skilled in the art and can turn hexes into boons. This machine must have been something to be able to put Bergoth down for good.”
“Let’s get this machine out of here.” Kalvalax looks around the room, he is reminded of the soldiers he was in charge of in a different life. “Let’s not let there sacrifice be in vain”
The door’s slammed shut and the golem roared to life. The chains of the wall turned the gears and whole room began moving. The iron twins had one set of legs with two torsos coming from the waist. One was armed with swords while the other had bladed cestus of some sort. The torsos faced opposite directions so it could never be flanked.
Soulless shrugged ”Maybe it was not a draw after all.”
Soulless jumped high into the air and slammed his shield into the ground. Chains erupted from the ground., they pinned the Twins to the ground. The machine tried to worm its way out to no effect.
“Easy enough” Kalvalax walked towards the Iron Twins, his great-sword poised high in the air to finish the job. However, the Iron Twins shed the top layer of their armor and revealed a pack of missile launchers. The missiles fly briefly in the air before coming down on the base of the chain in the ground, freeing it.
“Stay down” Soulless repeats his chain attack but the golem spins at it’s waist. The swords out, it catches all of the chains and redirects them safely to the ground.
Kalvalax body disappears in a green mist. The Miasma fills the room encircling the Iron Twins. The cloud goes dark. The Iron Twin’s fist side starts swing randomly in the mist , hitting nothing. Suddenly the other side of the mist glows bright green. An energy bolt is fired from the mist and hits the golem. Then another section glows and fires another bolt. Another. Another. The bolts are cleanly hitting the Iron Twins, knocking it off balance with each hit.
The Iron Twins then ignite it’s own eyes. A laser beam fired from it pierced the ground but hitting nothing. The iron Twin spun once, the beam crossed the whole cloud but still didn’t connect. The bolts continued from the mist. They broke some armor, revealing another round of missiles. They fired and converged on a single point in the mist.
“How?” Kalvalax was launched from the mist. The cloud reformed back into him.
“I think it is learning our attack pattern and finding weaknesses. The longer this goes on, the worse for us.” Soulless said as he raised his ax and swung at the golem. Kalvalax jumped to his feet and joined the assault. Soulless fought one side while Kalvalax fought the other. The knights’ great weapons staggered the Twins with every hit. They continued to assault the golem until another round of missiles were revealed.
Soulless sprung to action and slid through the legs of the Twins, knocking Kalvalax over. He covered them both with his shield in time for the missiles to slam against it. Both Knight stood up and resumed the fight. The golem launched both of his fists. Kalvalax parried with his sword but Soulless’s shield couldn’t withstand the blow and was fling across the room.
Soulless’s body went limp and crashed hard into the ground. The Iron Twins readied and fired a sweeping laser beam across the body, cleaving it in two.
Kalvalax’s eyes grew wide. He never realized how he missed being locked in combat with a comrade. While he was always a great warrior, he was known for his leadership skills above all, and what is a leader without his people. He regretted letting that cultist talk him into sacrificing his people. He hated that he turned his people’s blight into his power. For the first time in centuries, he wished he was mortal again, so he could shed a tear for his fallen comrade.
Kalvalax imagined that Soulless felt the same. He sacrificed his entire city and had an order more time to lament his lost. That’s why he risk telling Kalvalax of Cybele’s plan. They had both traded their nobility for this undead servitude to the Dark Lord. It was a raw deal given in a time of weakness. They had the same story, just millennium apart. Soulless wanted what Kalvalax just realized what he wanted. To be free, with a friend who understood his story.
Kalvalax’s lament turn to rage when he looked at the Iron Twins. The beast made to fight the cultist, corrupted by the cultist. Two souls trapped in a prison of maddened Iron.
“I WILL END YOU HERE THEN I WILL END THE CULT OF K’LETH.” Kalvalax raised the hilt of his sword, blade facing downward. He gathered his might. His weapon swirled with green mist.
Before he could unleash his attack. The Iron Twin switched sides with dizzying speed. There was a sword coming for Kalvalax. It was too late to dodge. Kalvalax closed his eyes and braced for an impact that never came.
“Finish him.” Soulless’s voice rang out.
Kalvalax opened his eyes to see that the golem attack was stopped by chains. The chains worked their way to the main body. The Iron Twin shed more armor to prime another volley of missles.
Before the missiles could fire, Kalvalax slammed his sword into the ground. The miasma slithered under the Iron Twins and formed a spike that pierce through all of the armor. The golem flailed around as the missiles exploded in their launcher. The Iron Golem was still again. The doors opened..
Kalvalax walked to the corpse of Soulless. The body was still as well. “Thanks for the help.”
“No problem.” Soulless’s voice rang out.
“Where are you?” Kalvalax said
“Aganist the wall.”
Kalvalax followed the voice to Soulless’s shield.
“Man, I am gonna missed that body. Hey can you carry me to Bergoth. His body looks like the best fit for me.” Soulless said.
Kalvlax shook his head. he should have known better. Soulless was one of the oldest Knights of the cult. No way he was going down that easy.
He carried Soulless to the body and placed the shield in the corpse’s hand. Suddenly, Bergoth sprung to life.
“Man, I have to work this body out, I have to use both hands to carry me.” said Soulless.
Kalvalax looked back at the Iron Twins. The hole created by his last attack was very slowly closing. “Soulless, you said that two priests are stuck in this machine. What are the chances that it can heal?”
“Well, normally I would say none, but this is cutting edge Dwarf tech and the Ireth pumped this machine with enough ascension potions for an army. So maybe.”Soulless made Bergoth’s body shrug.
“I think it is healing. Let’s get out of here. We have a lot of good information to report. We should wait for mother Cybele to make a plan. ” Kalvalax said. “and when Cybele makes her move, Make me the first to know.”
Soulless made Bergoth’s body smile wide “Sure thing, friend.”