“Before I was forged? But... but...” Ruiden was at a loss for what to say next.
“Are you saying you forged Ruiden in the Abyss?” Talarius asked the smith.
Völund shrugged. “Yep, in my smithy downstairs.”
“But... I was forged to kill demons!” Ruiden protested.
Völund tilted his head from side to side slightly. “Yep.”
“So why would you forge a demon-slaying sword in the Abyss?” Ruiden asked loudly, clearly disturbed.
Völund shrugged. “Where better? Sort of gets to the heart of the matter; fight fire with fire, all that sort of drivel.”
“But you live surrounded by demons!” Ruiden gestured to Boggy and Reggie.
Völund grimaced. “No, technically I live surrounded by D’Orcs. Present company and a few others excepted.” He gestured to Boggy and Reggie.
“Smith,” Talarius interrupted. “I think Ruiden’s point is this: D’Orcs or demons, why would you forge a demon-slaying sword?”
“Well, he can slay other things too. I didn’t actually start out planning to make a demon-slaying sword; it just sort of worked out that way.” The smith shrugged again and grabbed a cold spare rib to chew on.
“What do you mean ‘worked out that way’?” Ruiden asked.
Talarius was a bit worried; he had never seen his sword so distressed. If he did not know better, he would think it was having some sort of existential crisis.
“Well, I was really pissed with Lilith and her minions at the time. They’d just permanently killed a lot of close friends of mine, not to mention my host and benefactor.” Völund took another drink of water before continuing. “So I guess I sort of impressed my anger and fury towards her and the Courts into you as I made you.” The smith shrugged. “I guess in some ways I created you as an instrument of my vengeance.”
Phaestus nodded. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“But — ” Ruiden began, but was interrupted.
Whirrrr-RRAAAARRRRR-RAAAAHHHHRRRRR came the gut-wrenching wail of the dreaded Klaxon of Doom. Talarius, Boggy and Reggie jumped up from the table, nearly upsetting it.
“What in the Abyss is that?” Talarius shouted over the roar.
Völund sighed and handed the knight his flask back. “Trouble.”
Tom was still grinning at Gastropé’s rather typical shocked reaction at their first attempts to explain what was going on when a horrible, gut-wrenching wailing came from the portal. Everyone stared into the hole as the painful noise droned on.
“Is someone torturing a Ban Sidhe in there?” Ragala-nargoloth asked, covering her ears.
Tom followed his link to the command center. Vargg Agnoth was on duty. Suddenly, unconsciously on Tom’s part, the gateway shifted to the command center. Those standing in Astlan were suddenly peering through the portal directly into the command center.
“What is going on?” Tom shouted through the portal.
“Radar has detected a large incoming force from Doom’s Redoubt!” Vargg yelled back. “A very large force, easily twice as big as what we believed they had available.”
Tom clenched his teeth. He had been worrying about this exact situation — everyone hung over and passed out — and now the enemy was attacking! “Crap!” He looked to his shamans and wizards. “I have to return. You guys stay here; it will be far safer here.”
“Commander!” shouted some D’Orc that Tom did not immediately recognize. Darth Venstradt, he believed. “We are detecting signs of a Chaos Maelstrom!”
Vargg Agnoth cursed loudly, using some word that Tom did not recognize.
“What’s a Chaos Maelstrom?” Tom asked.
Vargg turned to stare at Tom, his face a very unusual pale shade of green. If Tom did not know that D’Orcs were incapable of fear, he would have sworn the commander was giving him a look of terror. “It means Lilith is sending in the Knights of Chaos!”
“Unholy flatulent monkeys of despair!” Antefalken moaned and rolled his head.
“What in the Abyss are Knights of Chaos?” Tom asked.
“They are enforcers, mercenaries, freelance knights. They are not demons, but something else, something worse, from the other end of the multiverse,” Antefalken said. “In legends they were occasionally employed by the Court to deal with rogue archdemons or rogue princes.” He shuddered. “I thought they were mere legend; they haven’t been deployed since the Great Demon Wars.”
“So, what? The extra troops are all Knights of Chaos?” Tom asked.
Vargg Agnoth made a very odd sound on the other side of the gateway.
Antefalken’s eyes popped open wide. “Concordenax forbid!” he exclaimed, his voice shaking slightly. “One Knight of Chaos is nearly a match for an archdemon!”
“Ouch! How many do we think she’ll send?” Tom asked.
“It takes at least thirteen to form a Maelstrom,” Vargg said. “And this looks like a big one.”
“Shit,” Tom sighed, feeling his stomach twist into knots.
Völund reached into a vest pocket and pulled out a small hand mirror. He tapped on it a couple of times, shouting “Command Center!” After a few seconds, someone apparently answered, as Völund shouted “What’s with the damn racket?” into the thing. He put the mirror to his ear to hear better, and then pulled it back to look in. “Then we’re going to need the heavy artillery. Phaestus and I will get on it!” he shouted and then put the mirror back in his pocket.
“What is it?” Phaestus yelled.
“Two thousand plus demons from Doom’s Redoubt and a Chaos Maelstrom,” Völund yelled back.
“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Phaestus shouted over the klaxons, looking at Völund in shock.
“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Talarius and Ruiden said in unison, looking at each other.
“Yes!” Talarius slammed his right fist into his left palm as the knight and his sword grinned like maniacs at each other.
“What’s a Chaos Maelstrom?” Reggie asked.
“It’s a dimensional rift, or disruption in reality that Knights of Chaos use to travel the planes,” Phaestus yelled over the klaxons.
“Knights of Chaos?” Boggy and Reggie yelled, both looking puzzled.
“A very bad thing!” Völund yelled.
Talarius turned to smile broadly at Reggie and Boggy. “Knights of Chaos are absolutely the most supremely EVIL creatures in the multiverse!” The knight shouted excitedly, shaking his fist before suddenly getting quite sober and grimacing apologetically as he realized whom he was speaking to. “Sorry! No offense intended...” He gestured towards the two demons. “I mean you two are extremely evil but...”
Boggy nodded. “No offense taken. I’m okay with being only moderately evil.”
Reggie nodded as well and said, “Yeah, we’re good — er, okay.”
Talarius nodded his thanks to the two demons for understanding that he had not intended to impugn their eviltude.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Talarius said, looking to Ruiden. “We must prepare! Are you stuck like that or can you change back?”
“I can change back, I think. I hope,” Ruiden said rather uncertainly; it was hard to hear the sword over the klaxons.
Phaestus jumped up and shouted to Völund, “You head to the tech armory to start getting the heavy artillery online. I’ll join you shortly.”
“Why not come now?” Völund asked.
“Knights of Chaos? Do you think my wife would ever forgive me if I did not tell her about this? Her reaction will be about the same as those two.” He gestured towards Talarius and Ruiden, shaking his head ruefully.
Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to be in the way in the command center, Reggie and Boggy followed Phaestus.