They had spent about a third of an hour on the Command Center, observing the frantic rearranging of the Unlife army, before deciding to supplement the Forces of Doom with avatars and simply surrounding the Unlife army, which was making it so ridiculously simple to do so.
“I do not understand what they are doing,” Stainsberry said.
“They do not attack; they are all just crowding together behind a very fierce front line that surrounds them,” Talarius observed. “They have crammed all their giant zombie bestiary with them into the area as well, the flying ones in the air above them. Is this some sort of bizarre last stand where they stack all the flying undead in holding patterns above them?”
Tom shook his head. He had no idea. Needless to say, they were very leery of a trap.
The only thing they had noted in terms of a trap was that wizards were frantically creating a runic circle around their forces. One might assume it was some sort of warding. However, what sort of warding could stop the divine and Abyssal forces that were arrayed around the Unlife?
Suddenly a loud voice rang out from the center of the Unlife. “Orcus! Avatars of the Five Siblings!” a hissing voice proclaimed. “You have won the field today, but we shall fight again.”
Suddenly the runes the wizards had been frantically writing around the Unlife army burst into a solid wall of flames, shooting upwards to the heavens. A massive heat wave rolled out from the area where the Unlife army was. Nothing was visible through the giant column of flame.
“Did they just incinerate themselves?” Talarius asked in shock. The surrounding forces had all pulled back several feet in surprise, but the cylinder of flame did not expand.
Suddenly the giant cylinder of flame reaching to the sky vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The Army of the Night was no more. The plain of shattered corpses and Citadel outbuildings was no more. In its place was a red and orange desert of large boulders, sand and rubble. A wave of intense heat continued to expand outward from the desert, even after the flame was gone. Distortion of the air above the desert indicated that the area was extremely hot.
“They actually incinerated their army!” Stainsberry exclaimed in shock. “How insane are they?”
Tom blinked. He had never seen this before, but he recognized the desert of home. He had heard of this spell, and had once pretended he was familiar with it. “No, they did not incinerate themselves. They performed an Abyssal Switch,” he said numbly.
“An Abyssal Switch?” Grob asked. “What on Nysegard is that?”
Tom chuckled. “Not on Nysegard anymore. An Abyssal Switch exchanges land on a material plane with an equivalent area of land in the Abyss. That desert down there is a region of the Abyss.”
“So then the very large region that was here, with the army on it, is now located in the Abyss?” Diocate Aeris asked.
“It is,” Tom nodded.
Talarius shook his head. “So the Storm Lords took their entire remaining army into the Abyss?”
“Looks that way,” Tom said.
“The Abyss, in theory, temporarily depolarizes animus,” Stainsberry said, frowning. “I have to wonder what sort of havoc that would wreak on Unlife?”
Beragamos shuddered. “I can’t imagine it is pleasant.”
“Can we locate them?” Grob asked. “Hunt them down?”
“The Abyss is a very big place,” Beragamos said.
“Trying to find someone, or a group of people, in an infinite area takes time,” Stainsberry noted.
“It does,” Tom said. He shook shaking his head and turned to Beragamos. “By the way, did you send a flying nuclear submarine into the Abyss after Talarius?” he asked the archon.
“Good morning!” Chancellor Alighieri exclaimed cheerfully as he came into the officer’s mess, where Heron, Barabus, Cranshall and Sir Lady Serah were eating breakfast.
“You seem unusually cheerful this morning despite yesterday’s disappointment,” Heron stated.
“I have excellent news!” The Chancellor smiled at them. “The link to Talarius came back up about an hour and a half ago and it’s been steady ever since!”
“That is good news!” Barabus smiled happily, raising his cup of tea in a salute.
“Still in Nysegard?” Sir Lady Serah asked.
“Indeed. It appears to be a different part of Nysegard, but definitely in Nysegard,” Dante said, nodding.
“So what caused the link to break?” Heron asked.
Dante shook his head from side to side. “I have no idea. It is uniquely unprecedented, and short of Sir Samwell’s suggestion of sudden slaying and the subsequent surcease of his spiritual spark upon the mortal realms, or an invasion of Tierhallon, I am at a loss.”
“But he is not dead?” Sir Lady Sarah asked.
“He is alive and in Nysegard,” Dante replied.
“Then we proceed with caution, but our path is now clear. We are going to Nysegard while we can still track him,” Heron proclaimed.
“To Nysegard!” Captain Cranshall nodded and moved to leave the dining room.
Tal Gor and the other orcs finished saddling their D’Wargs as Elgrida, Ferroos and several others came to bid them farewell.
“Shaman?” Elgrida nodded to Tal Gor. “With the Grove having assured us that the alvar have fled our lands, we celebrate our people’s first decisive victory over the alvar in thousands of years.” She shook his hand. “This is truly a good omen of what is to come.”
Tal Gor nodded. It was good. Trevin D’Vils had assured them that her ship, which had returned after a few days away, had verified the alvar were gone from orc lands. She had given both himself and Ferroos link stones to contact the Nimbus in the event any more alvar were found. She had also promised to proactively monitor alvaran activity.
Tal Gor mounted Schwarzenfürze. “We thank you for your assistance, and for continuing to guard the prisoners. Contact us if they need to be cast into the Abyss!” he smiled at Elgrida and Ferroos.
“Good fortune in seeking the Doom of Astlan, apostle,” Elgrida said.
“Apostle?” Tal Gor asked her curiously.
“We do not like the term Emissary of Doom; it sounds too much like a diplomat,” Elgrida said.
Tal Gor winced at the frightful comparison. He could not argue that point — he had not thought of it — but now, particularly after the last several days, it was unmistakable.
“So we have decided to refer to you as apostles. All of you,” Ferroos said. “A thousand years from now, when storytellers around campfires regale children of the Restoration of Glory, it will be much better to speak of the Apostles of Doom and the Quest for Justice!”
Tal Gor nodded with a broad grin. “Thank you all!” He looked to Bor Tal and Zargvarst, who both nodded back, and then they launched themselves into the air towards Jötunnhenj and their Doom.
The First Lacuna
Sutekh, God of Chaos, Lord of the Desert Storm, Purveyor of Change, stood before the scrying pool beside his long-term ally, Dysnoma, Goddess of Anarchy, and their very useful compatriot, Baron(ess) Tartibsizlik. The scrying pool revealed an aerial view of the battlefield around the Citadel of Light, where the Storm Lords’ army had just fled the field of battle in defeat.
“Well, Tartibsizlik, your warning was most prescient,” Sutekh noted.
“The Lord of Law, the Oath Maker has returned,” Dysnoma said acidly. “Your minion and his allies did not finish off the Oath Maker as promised.” She glared briefly at Sutekh.