Introduction
Welcome back to Maledicturs Terra. This is a Chain Story between myself and @lex-zaiya, meaning that we each write the parts alternatively.
If you have not read Maledictus Terra Book 1: Mortis Custos yet, it starts HERE at Part 1 and ends at Part 101 HERE. At the end of the Part 101 post you will find links to all 101 Parts!
The previous part by @lex-zaiya can be found HERE.
Part 109
Adiran and Lucien walked together to the place where King Adrian was being held. Vitex may have removed his magical abilities, but nobody trusted the man, so he had been bound in vines and put to sleep.
And then because of Vitex's own blunder earlier with Millmor, there was a lack of trust in her judgment. The Goddess seemed to be adjusting poorly and slowly to the realities and responsibilities of her actions.
Adiran reached out to open the door to the room in the church where King Adrian was being held. Before he could touch the door he felt a presence. "Something is wrong!"
"I feel it too!" Lucien said. He held one hand before himself, his hand ending in long, thin, but strong claws. In his other hand, he had his sabre. "Let me go through first. I will be able to dodge most attacks."
Adiran nodded and raised his hands, power glowed from his fingers as he began readying offensive and defensive spells to use against whatever was on the other side of the door.
"Let's go!" Adiran yelled. There was no time to call anyone else Lucien threw the door open.
Purple light washed out from the doorway, its brilliance was so overpowering that it was nearly blinding. Lucien's eyes could not adjust against the brightness easily so Adiran pushed through into the room to get a better look.
There was a mass of tentacles whipping back and forth as though it was trying to wriggle free... or more accurately, to escape.
There was blood, lots of it smeared on the floor. Before Adiran could do anything about it, the tentacles were through the bright portal and it winked out of existence.
"What the hell was that?" Lucien yelled, for once, his composure was broken.
They walked into the room and Adiran felt something dripping on his shoulder. He looked up and saw that there was a massive spray of blood on the ceiling. It seemed like such a massive amount of blood. There was no way that King Adrian has survived this.
For once, the sight of blood had Lucien aghast which made sense to Adiran... the Lifedrinker seldom partook in blood and when he did, it was done with a connoisseur's finesse and taste.
The others were running up, weapons out to see what the yelling was about, except for Mortis and Vitex. "The portal is closed already." Vitex said.
Mortis looked at the walls and the floor. "Well... that takes care of that. What was it?"
"It had tentacles! It was... escaping... like it did not want to be found out." Lucien said and turned to face Adiran. "What was that?"
Derric hissed then and clutched his hands. Magna then knew what it was. "Gallopod." She said. "How did it get here?"
Everyone, including the Godlings had their attention on Adiran. Everyone wanted answers, except Adrian, who had an idea. Adiran sighed. "Gallopod... or something like it from the same place we were in contact with them. Derric is an indicator of that energy resonance. If it was a base Gallopod, however powerful they may be, they do not have the ability to move from plane to plane. The portal would have been opened by someone or something else."
"Why?" Mortis asked, it was as much a question from the revenant as it was from Bellum within him.
Adiran shrugged. "He had no more magical powers, thanks to Vitex. Thus I can only guess that the reason he was... collected and killed was to prevent him from telling us something that they do not want us to know."
"But who?" Magna demanded.
Adiran frowned. He was thinking it over.
Adrian spoke up, indicating himself. "It could be he that wishes to claim us."
"Or one of his servants," Adiran replied.
"Which means that it could have been another powerful servant of his," Adrian added.
"Which could mean anything." Adiran said trying to keep everyone calm.
It was Adrian's turn to frown. "You are so used to hiding information from everyone. this is something you need to stop doing this time Adrian." He used Adiran's actual name, so Adiran can understood that he was speaking to him as a version of himself, not his tutor in magic. "This time, do it right for once and tell them what I already know about the identity of the person who took King Adrian's life."
Everyone stared at the mage and waited for a reply.
"It was... most likely... another Adrian."
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Mortis Custos
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