Page 294 of Of Empires and Dust
A cacophony of roars echoed from the upper levels and the branching tunnels. Within a heartbeat, Uraks were leaping from above and swarming through the tunnels.
Before Arden even had the chance to move, a Bloodmarked crashed down onto the newly-inducted Brother Endan, its obsidian claws skewering him through the chest. The beast roared, and a pulse of Taint burst outwards, its runes igniting with crimson light.
Black fire swirled about the Bloodmarked’s arm and through its claws, consuming Brother Endan. His screams lasted only seconds.
It was Brother Kevan who reached the creature first. His Soulblade carved through the Bloodmarked’s arm, the runes blazing and smoke billowing. But the beast caught him with a backswing and sent him crashing into a group of Uraks.
Arden’s feet moved even before his thoughts had fully formed. He charged forwards and leapt onto a rock before throwing himself into the crush of beasts that fell upon Brother Kevan. He summoned his Soulblade and drove it down through an Urak’s back as he landed, releasing the weapon as the creature crashed to the ground. Arden rolled, freeing himself of the beast’s lifeless body. Rising, he once more summoned the ancient weapon, green light bursting from his fist.
The Soulblade came into existence just in time to catch the downswing of a jet-black axe that had been destined to remove Kevan’s head from his shoulders.
Arden swung his blade up the steel, then snapped it back down, severing the Urak’s arms at the wrists. Without missing a beat, he twisted at the waist, threw his weight onto his back leg, and swung the light-wrought blade up through the creature’s jaw in a burst of blood.
He reached back, felt a hand wrap around his forearm, and pulled. No words passed between Arden and Brother Kevan. Thetwo knights stood back to back, Soulblades ignited in their fists. Together, they cut down anything that came close. Where Uraks moved, green light shone and bodies fell.
“Brothers!” Brother-Captain Armites strode through the thick of bodies, carving a path, six of his knights fighting beside him. They cut their way to Arden and Kevan, leaving a momentary stillness around them.
Arden released his Soulblade and grasped Brother-Captain Armites’s pauldron. “Thank you, Brother-Captain.”
“Don’t thank me yet, brother. There is plenty more time to die. Though, the Bloodspawn look to be retreating.” He glanced about at the emptying chamber. Any Bloodspawn that lingered were being cut down left and right.
“They’re not retreating,” Ruon called out as she approached, Ildris, Varlin, and Sylven with her. The new recruit, Sister Intara, knelt by Brother Endan’s body.
Ruon pointed to a large tunnel mouth on the left side of the chamber, three levels up. “They’re falling back. The Taint pulses from that direction. Whatever they are defending so ferociously lies there.”
“I will summon the Grandmaster,” Armites said, inclining his head to Ruon.
Ruon held up an open palm. “Not yet. This entire hold reeks of Efialtír’s touch, and the Essence of stolen lives illuminates the very chamber we stand in. I would not call him until we are certain.”
“Brother-Captain Gandrid,” Ruon called, “Sister-Captain Olyria, take the rearguard. Armites and I will lead the way.”
Olyria pulled her blade from the chest of a dead Bloodmarked and gave a sharp nod.
“Knights of The Seventh, form up!” Gandrid roared. “Nothing gets past us.”
“Yes, Brother-Captain!” the knights answered.
Ruon lifted Intara to her feet, then knelt over Endan. “We will find you in his halls, brother,” she whispered, her helmet receding as she looked down upon the man’s blackened corpse. “Drink well.”
She rose slowly and let out a soft sigh before pulling her gaze from the body of the man who had been called to serve The Warrior for little more than three days. “Whatever this place is,” she said, her helmet reforming, eye slits glowing a vivid green, “none of these monsters are leaving it.”
Ruon and Brother-Captain Armites led the knights of The Second and The Sixth to the third level and into the wide tunnel that sank deeper into the mountain.
“Knights of Achyron!” Ruon’s voice echoed, and Arden looked ahead to see the tunnel opening and a tide of Uraks filling it, leathery skin glowing from the red light of the gemstones. “Pain is the path to strength!”
Even as Arden echoed the cry, he was charging. Ildris, Varlin, Sylven, Kevan, Ruon, and Intara matched his strides, the knights of The Sixth mingled between them.
Each step thundered through him, rattling his bones. But so too did each step bleed iron into his heart, solidifying his resolve.
“For Lyrin,” Arden whispered as he slammed his shoulder into the wave of Uraks. Bone crunched. He leaned back, creating space, then thrust his blade into a beast’s throat, blood sluicing as he ripped it free.
He fell into a rhythm, his Soulblade cleaving bones, rending flesh, and spilling blood. Knights died around him, his Sigil burning with each loss, his heart growing harder, his soul resolute. He would not allow Efialtír to destroy this world. Not while there was air in his lungs and blood in his veins.
“Ildris!” he roared. “Push!”
“Go! We’re with you!” Ildris answered, taking an Urak’s head from its shoulders as he did, blood splattering Intara’s Sentinel armour.
Arden lunged forwards and swept his Soulblade in a wide arc, bone and flesh yielding to the might of a weapon wrought from the soul of a god. They needed to reach the chamber ahead. The Taint surged from it, like an overfull barrel of oil that leaked from a hundred cracks.
