Introduction
Welcome dear readers to another part of Mortis Custos, a Chain Story bounced between myself and @lex-zaiya. We are nearing a close of the story now, basically a book now.
Inadvertently, what was maybe going to be a quick and entertaining project turned into a long and entertaining project! We also created a whole world around our story in the process, as we went along, things began filling out and we HAD TO create more.
However, if you consider the work done in Fell Dragon and my own work that has not yet gone on Hive (but which spans a considerable amount of words)... then it is no wonder!
The last part of the story is here: Mortis Custos Part 97 by @lex-zaiya.
To start at the beginning of the story please see the links provided at the end of this post!
Viewer discretion is advised due to gory violence! Undead! Swords! Death! Beware!
Part 98
The empowered Mortis brought his massive gauntlet down onto the creature that had barreled into him. The blow sent the snarling creature hurtling backwards into the ground.
It rolled twice as it fell and then dug its clawed hands down into the dirt, stopping its backwards arc, digging furrows into the ground. It immediately threw itself back towards Mortis. The giagantic knight's reflexes had taken over and his massive sword was freed and coming round towards the beast already.
Impossibly fast, the beast managed to reach Mortis before his sword could come around and hack the creature in half. The beast instead landed on Mortis' forearms and ran up them to hack and slice at the knight's chest armor as though trying to burrow into him.
The beast was struck down once again as the massive Mortis threw his head forward and headbutted the beast. This time it smacked into the ground and lay still, bones in its body broken and bleeding from the titanic blow.
"What is this thing? Who commanded it?" Mortis yelled out loud.
Magna, who had been watching the fight with her arm around Adrian to help her stand looked about for an answer to this question. There was nobody. A patch of undead had rallied together and was quitting the field, while the rest of the field was a chaotic mess as ghouls ripped their way through an army of directionless undead.
The Lifedrinkers were nowhere to be seen and the walls of the castle were free of any attack. Arrows still rained down to skewer anything that was in range and a magic spell still shot from the wall from time to time.
A party was sallying forth from the gates of the city. The glimmer and shine from their armor and white surcoats proclaimed their identity easliy.
Magna and Adrian walked slowly and with much labour to stand closer to Mortis. They looked up at him then. He was still a giant, his knees far above their heads.
He looked down at them and gave a slight shrug. "It is temporary. The spell I used made use of the feedback and fed the power from the feedback through you two from the Avatars into myself. I had not thought it would be THIS powerful."
Magna was startled at Adrian's sudden chuckle. "What's so funny?" She demanded.
"This is so awesome!" He exclaimed. "Just look at him! He could jump over the city wall!"
Magna could only shake her head.
"Magic is amazing." Adrian said. "I cannot wait to learn more from Uncle... uh... well... from me... the old me."
The Blazeknights had arrived and Mortis stood his ground near the twins. He fully expected some sort of fanatical proclamation against him being some sort of abomination before needing to protect himself and the twins from them as well. He mentally prepared himself for his first actions in dealing with them.
None would hurt the children.
Thus he was completely taken by surprise when the party of fifty or more knights all knelt at the same time. At their lead were a small pale woman and a massive dark-skinned man, who spoke in a clear and deep voice. "We pledge ourselves to you, Ancient King!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Mortis demanded. The question was clear: He wanted to know their intentions before he would accept their pledge.
"You have defeated both the Avatar of the Dark One and the Avatar that was his equal and opposite. This being, an emissary of the Burning One... we realized now was truly a servant of the God we served." The man said.
The diminutive woman plucked out a holy book and opened it up to an illustration and held it for all to see. "This! I found this in one of the Order's holy books! That creature was from the Lord of Light!"
"And?" Mortis asked. "Is that not confirmation that your God is indeed real and very mighty?"
"But the Avatar was corrupt!" The large man said. "It killed and destroyed the innocent as well as the guilty. Our Order's morals have been challenged by the actions of this so-called emissary. We saw what it had done to Cleric Robert when he challenged the Avatar. It was evil and its God is unjust. Such a God cannot be our God."
"But you oh Lord!" The woman interjected. "You are the slayer of evil! You might come to us in an undying state. We realized that you did this as an act of sacrifice! We heard of your name in the castle: Mortis Custos. Guardian of Death. Our Order consulted and we know of none other deserving our loyalty. You are the only worthy God!"
Mortis took a startled step backward. "But... I am no God!"
"If you say so Ancient King!" The big man said. "Regardless, you are the epitome of what a knight should be and you are the one we wish to follow."
Magna released a breath she did not know she had been holding. She had been holding on to a tension she had no known she had been investing energy into. It was difficult to imagine that everything was over and...
"Magna!" Adrian yelled and she looked up in time to see a massive brown blur streak toward them. Her brother had been faster this time, shoving her out of the way and bringing his shield up. "Crystallis!" He yelled. Magic exploded outward from the shield in a fan, covering a larger area.
The brown mass collided with the magic and it shattered, sending Adrian backward. The brown mass was sent backward as well. It stopped and got ready to charge again.
Briefly Magna had a second to consider what had happened. The Adrian was laying on the ground, but seemed to be breathing. The creature before her was ready to pounce, its broken bones were mending before here eyes.
She glanced quickly to where the dead beast should be that Mortis had put down. It was gone, only churned mud and blood where it had lain. Same monster.
Her eyes flicked back and her sword came up as the beast dove through the air at her. Her sword was aimed at its throat...
...but it did not get to her.
Enveloped in purple energies connected to the massive knight's sword, it was trapped in a spell, unable to move forward. It scrabbled against the energies and the force of its rapid movements seemed to put considerable strain on Mortis' power. Magna saw the knight shrink slightly. His power was waning.
"Mortis!" She yelled.
"I know!" He called back. "Get Adrian and get out of here! I will hold him!"
She did as she was told. And then heard the cry. "Ancient King! Ancient King! Banisher of Demons! Banisher of the Dead! Banisher of Beasts!"
The Blaze Knights did not have their hands on their swords. They instead had their hands in prayer as they knelt. Their devotion shone out from them and connected with the energies that Mortis was using.
Mortis yelled loudly and swung his sword through the air, pulling the beast into the air and then the magic let it go and it sailed through the air like a missile. It flew out of sight over the treeline and beyond. Where it landed, Magna could not even hear the crash of its landing.
She looked back at Mortis and saw that he had shrunk back nearly to his original size. The Blaze Knights rushed forward, blades drawn and formed a protective ring around Mortis. A half dozen had broken off from the rest to escort Magna and Adrian to the protective ring. Two knights carried Adrian.
"Your orders Ancient King?" The large Blaze Knight said, still looking up at Mortis' enlarged height.
Mortis seemed to sigh wearily and seemed to decide not to argue. "Take us to the castle. Protect the twins at all costs and bring them to her mother the Queen."
"Yes holy one!"
This elicited another hefty sigh but Mortis said nothing.
Wrapup
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I am sure you are going to laugh at that one Lex! What ever will happen next? What was this THING that attacked them? I am sure @seki1 had a theory...
Enjoy @lex-zaiya!
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