Greetings All
Happy first year of Mortis Custos. I can't compete with what @zakludick wrote. It has been a hell of a journey with many twists and turns. Sadly, as that saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." We are busy wrapping up the last few loose ends and bringing the first book of this series to an end. However, there are a few more parts before we reach the end. Thank you to all those of you that have read from the beginning. We couldn't have gotten this far without you!
Before you continue, go back and read Part 96 to avoid any confusion over what is happening.
The titan avatars fell screaming unknown words. The fire and chaos avatar tried to remove the weapon lodged within its body but was unable to. The dark avatar knew it had been thwarted. It wasn’t going to waste the last of its energy and power to hold onto the form it now had. It decided to take what it had left, and grant it to Temolach. The necromancer had dutifully served his role and would continue to do so if allowed to live.
The necromancer was unceremoniously dumped from the avatar. Although weakened by how much he had given to help great the avatar, he knew he needed to flee. The avatar was starting to crumble and the hands that were visible were beckoning for him to flee while he was afforded the opportunity to do so.
“Warriors that stand. Come to my aid.” He whispered as he half crawled, half dragged his body from the fray.
His exit went unnoticed as the chaos avatar thrashed around, yet Mortis kept him pinned while muttering a new spell. It was taking a lot out of the knight as his massive form too was starting to diminish. The chaos avatar crushed the remains of the dark avatar, but still, it screamed and thrashed, but its power was waning.
“Adrian!” roared Mortis. “I need your aid.”
Adrian stirred from the ground, groggy, and with waves of nausea. He had felt the touch of the blighted avatar on his soul, and it made him sick to his stomach. He struggled to find his bearings. Magna lay beside him, groaning and clutching a sword. She wasn’t conscious. Adrian steadily got to his feet and looked over to where the avatar lay screaming. The power that it once had was now gone. It imbued Mortis, but it wouldn’t for long. He needed to reach out to the one who tugged at his soul.
In the core of the avatar lay a single person, trapped by mounds of flesh hungering for hate and violence. Adrian knew this person, it was the young priest boy whose life had kept him in this world long enough for his sister to save him. He didn’t even know the boy’s name, but he reached for him mentally. At first, all that flooded Adrian’s head was screaming, but the more he pressed, the more it turned to terror and shame. The boy still lived, tethered by the magic that bound the two of them.
“Adrian!” called Mortis once more.
Adrian took up his shield and stumbled to where the avatar had shrunk. Heaps of hot, stinking flesh surrounded the area, and Adrian stepped on something squishy more than once. He hid his revulsion and reached a hand to the creature that lay, now pinned by the giant blade.
“No! He is mine!” screamed the avatar.
However, it had no strength to resist as Adrian plunged his hand into its flesh. There was pain, but no more than accidentally stepping into a bath that hadn’t cooled adequately. Adrian reached for the form floating in the avatar and simply said, “Let’s go home, brother.”
The avatar howled as the form reached for Adrian and gripped his hand. The princeling pulled with all his might and after some time, managed to dislodge what was left of the young priest boy. There wasn’t too much. His skin was an ugly red, all his hair was burned away, and his eyes seemed to be smouldering holes in his face. Adrian, even knowing that the priest could no longer see, kept a straight face as he pulled the boy away from the now near-silent avatar.
“I have you.” He whispered as he sat down with the dying boy in his arms.
“Our god is so angry.” Mumbled the boy. “What did we do wrong?”
“That is not your god, that is a deceiver.” Whispered Adrian.
“Then…what I did to save the prince was right?”
“Yes. You saved the prince so his family could continue with him at their side.” Adrian had tears in his eyes.
“Do…do you think the Royals are proud of me?”
“Are you proud of yourself?” countered Adrian.
“I served my people, I touched a god, I need nothing else.”
“Then go in peace, knowing you did all you could.”
There were no eyelids to close, but Adrian felt the body relax and the final breath leave it. He choked back his tears. He hadn’t even known the name of the priest that had saved his life.
“I swear your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
Magna stirred and opened her eyes. The fight seemed to be over, and she was surrounded by the stench of death and the unnatural heat of the heaps of things around her. She climbed to her feet and looked around her. She noted her brother not too far away, cradling what looked like a burned body. She then looked up as Mortis pulled his blade from what appeared to be a heap of meat and rock. She was about to ask him if everything was over and if he’d ever reverted to his natural size when she stopped. She felt thudding on the ground. It reverberated through the soles of her feet and made her teeth rattle in her head.
At first, she had thought it was a fresh army of undead, and they had been unsuccessful. She bent over to retrieve her weapon, and just as she did this, something massive flew over her head. She couldn’t make out what it was, but it was the source of the sound. She turned in time to see the creature, for there was no other way to describe it, bowl Mortis off his feet. A feat indeed, as the knight was still colossal.
“Adrian!” she yelled a warning to her brother.
Adrian looked up and saw Mortis struggling to dislodge a grotesque creature from his chest. It didn’t resemble anything like the undead creatures, but rather a human-like thing that was bursting at its seams. A massive maw that seemed to extend as it snapped at Mortis was filled with a variety of teeth, not all of them sharp. A spiked tail wrapped around the knight’s arm, while dagger-like claws tried to scratch him to pieces. Fingers and toes had burst through what appeared to be scraps of shoes and gloves to accommodate the new claws. The eyes were the worst. They bulged from sockets that seemed too small and they were an unnatural blue colour.
“What the hell is that!”
And what would this new monster be that's capable of taking on Mortis as he's filled with power? I guess that's up to Zak to decide.
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Mortis Custos Parts
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