The Death of a Deity

[Breaker]

A thickened cloud of acrid smoke enveloped Breaker as Shinsou's ice smothered the fire. His feet stung raw and red where the flames had licked. A burning sensation filled his eyes, nose, mouth, and lungs. His chest heaved, and yet he knew he must act on the opportunity created by the Telgradian.

Josh curled his legs in to his chest and rotated forward, standing sideways on the tree trunk and straining against the chains. They shifted and clicked but held fast. The log felt immovably sturdy, and the Shackles of Titan could contain a Thayne, but the chains connecting the two were plain iron, and weakened by Shinsou's attack. As the smoke cleared Breaker took a deep breath, a breath to the very bottom of his soul. He bunched the muscles in his legs and surged forward. The chains broke amidst a shattering of ice, and Breaker leaped free of the tree trunk.

He landed heavily, cobblestones cracking beneath blistered feet. The Shackles of Titan still bound his hands in front, but he needed none of his great power. Through watering eyes he watched his Telgradian compatriot fighting towards Olin, facing a half dozen guards at a time, the ice blade Shira flashing in the sunlight. However Osiris' path had carried him closer to the captain of the guard, and the puppetmaster lurking behind him.

"Shinsou!" Breaker called over the sounds of combat and the screams of civilians. He pointed with both hands. "Kill Hackney!"

The guard captain suddenly set to screaming orders, commanding men to rally to his captor's defense.

"No!" Olin cried as he saw Breaker turn towards him, "to me, guards to me!" Confused, some of the men stayed with the Lunatic while others leaped to challenge Shinsou.

Josh waded through the throng of guards, disarming and disabling any who dared obstruct him. Folk often spoke of his great powers, forgetting the legendary skill wielded by the demigod. The weapons of the mortals could not touch him, and soon Breaker bore down on Olin like a loosed bull.

The Lunatic cackled and tried to flee, but tripped over the oversized boots he wore. His white cloak splayed on the ground around him as he rolled to his back, eyes wide with horror.

Breaker pounced on Olin, pinning him against the cobblestones, both shackled hands closing around the Lunatic's throat. He did not need his great strength to throttle the small, sickly man. Olin choked and gasped, still laughing with his last breaths as the life was strangled out of him.

As Josh stood he watched Shinsou slide behind Winchell Hackney and slit the puppetmaster's throat. In a wave of crimson the man fell, and in the same moment the captain of the guard gasped as if coming up from a prolonged dive. He nearly collapsed to his knees, but his strict military mind kept him standing. He drew in air and shouted loud enough for everyone in the square to hear.

"STOP. THIS. MADNESS! Guardsmen, sheathe your weapons! These men," the captain gestured at Josh and Shinsou, "are not criminals. They are our saviors, for the Lunatic had returned! Did none of you notice a difference in my behavior?" Mutters passed among the guards as they put up their weapons and recalled the strange orders they had received of late. "This man," he put an arm around Shinsou's shoulders, "saved me from their clutches. And this man," he paced toward Breaker, "has slain the Lunatic of Serenti! Unbind his hands!"

A guard came forward with the key, and the powerful chains came off. Breaker's powers returned like the swell of a rising tide. His muscles warmed, his senses sharpened, and his soul reconvened with the Eternal Tap.

"I'll keep these," Josh said, hanging the Shackles of Titan from his belt and rubbing his chafed wrists. Suddenly remembering the silver masked woman, he searched the square but saw no sign of her. It seemed she had slipped away in the confusion. "Shinsou," he said as the guard captain ordered his men to clean up the square and restore peace, "it seems I owe you a debt of gratitude." Breaker crouched next to Olin's corpse and retrieved his stolen boots. They came away easily, and the enchantments woven into the dark metal soothed his burned feet as he put them on. The leather interior was designed to mold to the shape of the wearer's feet, but strangely, they had not done so for the Lunatic of Serenti.

It seems my boots can spot a scoundrel as easily as I can.

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Though a fit man, each step up the shoreline’s incline felt to Shinsou like he was struggling up the side of a mountain. The biting cold of the coastal wind wore the skin on the back of his hands raw red, and when he was finished ascending up the pathway of large, jagged rocks, the Telgradian found himself panting. Despite the grim feeling inside him as fatigue set in, he felt comforted by the sensation in the pit of his stomach; the knowledge that Roderick was slowing down putting his mind at ease. Shinsou could feel his energy close by, and it was only a matter of time before Roderick came face to face with his maker – whoever that was.

The Telgradian let himself sink to the floor, sprawling low to blend in with the myriad of stone that had crumbled away over the decades and broken off from the cliff above. Sighing, he let his head fall back while he tried to catch a breath. His quarry wasn’t going anywhere; the path led to an enclosed part of the coast with high rock faces on one side and the deep blue Coronian sea on the other. Separating them were jagged crops of volcanic rock that formed a twisting labyrinth of black glass. The sky above Shinsou was a gorgeous, crystal clear shade of blue and the sun illuminated the maze ahead nicely.

If anything moves, I’ll see it, you son-of-a-bitch.

With a smile smoldering between his lips, the Telgradian rested for a moment. Then, just as he crouched further, he felt that tingling sensation in his stomach grow.

He’s moving…towards me?

Slowly, Shinsou climbed to his feet and allowed his eyes to fall upon the hulking form of the approaching Roderick. The bastard had clearly finally chosen a more honourable way out than to die cowering in some rocks in the shade, plucking up the courage to approach his stalker head on. Whilst this pleased the Telgradian, he wasn’t sure whether or not he was regretting not having just showered the area with dark matter and having had done with the man. It became obvious very quickly that reading about the Terrinore inmate in the morning edition of the Chronicle and then actually being in Rok’s presence were, ostensibly, two different matters entirely. The unimaginable size of the man sent a shiver down his spine. Though wasted from his former self, Roderick was not in bad shape. He’d had time since his escape to put on a few pounds, and now the man meant to use them to grind his pursuer into the dirt.

“I’m tired of running”, Roderick spat to signal his displeasure, unhooking a large warhammer from a sheath on his back, “I’m Roderick Rok. I don’t fucking run from anyone; especially not choir boys like you!”

“Funny. You only stopped when you realised you had nowhere to go,” Shinsou observed, “But now at least you get to die with some dignity. More than can be said for some of your friends, I fear.”

Watching Roderick wield that hammer caused Shinsou emotional and nearly physical anguish but his face screwed up into an expression of annoyance when he realised that Rok’s hands were glowing. He could taste something foul in the air; the workings of arcane energies that swirled around them both as they stood only ten feet apart. When Rok swung the black, crude hammer down and utterly destroyed a pile of sturdy looking slabs of granite, Shinsou knew he was right.

“A strength enchantment? What’s the matter Rok; performance issues? Not the force you used to be?” the mocking continued as Shinsou lifted his palms.

Something stirred within Roderick’s heart at the insult. A terrible, biting rage.

“I’ll have your head! I am Roderick Rok; there isn’t a man stronger than me alive!” His scowling lips parted, and he practically spit each of the words out. His pride had been lost to him once; he refused to let this man take it from him again. He flashed forward and struck the floor with the bottom of his hammer as Shinsou thrust his right foot off to the side, digging a shallow furrow in the dirt. With a wave of his hand, a thick wall of colourless energy boomed into existence behind him. It began to shimmer and vibrate intensely and shone in the sun like a reflection of summer on a lake. Then, snapping electrical forks of black and purple began to snatch at the cool coastal air, growing in length and power before converging and interlacing around each other to form a fifteen foot wide circular portal of black and purple energy. Within seconds there were fifteen thin, dangerous spears of dark matter waiting to be unleashed.

Rok’s eyes were ablaze now; two fiery suns casting their deathly, hellish glow down upon him. Suddenly, the spears that had surrounded the Telgradian melted away and oozed back into existence again as fifteen hard scales of dark matter; the Phalanx form of his sword’s magic. The fifteen plate-sized scales interlocked to form an unbroken chain which wrapped itself around the Telgradian’s body.

“More tricks?!” Rok screamed as he launched himself at the Telgradian once more, landing on a black glass boulder to his right before flipping the hammer in his hand, snarling. If there was to be a fight, he'd have to be able to take as good as he gave.

There was no time to dodge and Shinsou knew it. A sickly crack! accompanied the hammerblow to his shoulderblade as bone shattered and scattered like shrapnel around his rotator cuff, tearing nerve endings from their flesh. The Telgradian screamed in agony but through the blearing pain somehow managed to use a free hand to lever the weapon away from him and wedge it between two rocks.

At that moment, as Rok tried to free the hammer from its vice, the dark matter chain of Enpera’s Phalanx form uncurled from Shinsou’s body like withering ivy and lurched.

“Fuck you!”

It snapped through the air, sparks of dazzling and disorienting electricity violently manifesting before disappearing almost as soon as he had commanded. The wave of hazy dark matter wrapped about the firmly planted, tree trunk sized legs of the Telgradian’s adversary, wreaking havoc on the surface of the volcanic rock about it. The chain pulled taut and lashed in all directions, tearing chunks of flesh from Roderick’s burly legs before separating them entirely from his body with a stomach churning rip!

A ragged breath later, Shinsou tried to stand up, sweat soaking his brow as he pulled his shoulder along with him. Every jolt felt like a million volts shocking his body and with every judder came a hiss of pain. As Osiris stood over his opponent, he watched the light begin to fade from Roderick’s eyes. Two mangled stumps where his legs had been bifurcated bled thick pools of crimson. There would be nothing anyone could do for the man now. In the full knowledge of what was coming, the powerful Roderick Rok could manage only a grunt as he arched his back and neck upwards, squinting and clenching his teeth as he tried one last time to look Osiris dead in the eye before collapsing pathetically into a puddle of his own mutilation.

Maybe dignity was the wrong term...