Thelvyn instinctively dropped to the ground and lowered his head, preparing himself for the crushing impact of hundreds of tons of metal. Massive stones rained down upon him, and he was nearly buried in mass'es of damp earth, but the warrior itself slammed to a halt a couple of yards above him, its eight legs pinned against the sides of the chasm. Shaking his head free from the debris, Thelvyn glanced up fearfully. He had not been in danger of death-as an Immortal, he knew he could not easily be killed-but the destruction of his mortal manifestation would have forced him to retreat to his own plane to recover his powers, leaving the Overlord unopposed
in his conquest of the world.
Nor was the fallen warrior so easily destroyed. Although it hung upside down near the bottom of the chasm, it continued to struggle. Thelvyn pulled himself free of the dirt and stone covering him and began to work his way through the darkness until he finally crawled out from beneath the trapped warrior. He still felt weak and his powers remained uncertain, but his magic was slowly beginning to return. He ran a short distance along the bottom of the long chasm, intending to climb out in a place where his enemies might not be expecting him. The fissure continued to collapse slowly in a constant rain of dirt and stone, making the task of clawing his way out even more difficult. The effort required to pull himself from the chasm was tremendous, but using magic to free himself would have alerted the Overlord to his escape.
He climbed out at last into a scene of tremendous destruction. The attack of the warriors had devastated the landscape for hundreds of yards around the area of the battle. The ground had been ripped open by several gaping fissures, and boulders and great mounds of earth had been heaved aside. The remaining four warriors stood motionless some distance away, hesitant to enter the region of destruction because of the threat of becoming trapped. Thelvyn couldn't see the Overlord, but that meant the Overlord couldn't see him, giving him a moment more to recover his strength.
What he had forgotten in his desperation was that the Overlord could see through the eyes of his warriors. One of the metal beasts turned its head abruptly toward him, its jewel eyes glowing fiery red. One after another, the immense fighting machines turned and began to move ponderously in his direction, the smoldering lights in their eyes growing steadily brighter. Thelvyn knew they would begin attacking again at any moment, and he also knew he had not yet fully recovered his full strength. Desperate to protect himself, he employed the only defense he could think of, reaching out with his will to attempt to seize control of the crystal eyes of the warriors.
The Overlord was already sending vast amounts of his own power into the jewels, turning them into deadly weapons, but nevertheless Thelvyn's will was enough to prevent the discharge of that power. He had expected the Overlord to back off once the power had nowhere to go, but it seemed that his opponent was more stubborn than he thought, considering how cautious the Overlord had been in the past. The eyes of the warriors continued to grow brighter and brighter until they blazed like small red suns, and then, one after the other, the massive iron heads of the warriors exploded in rapid succession. The enchantments that controlled them destroyed, their lifeless forms collapsed heavily to the ground.
Thelvyn immediately seized the moment to launch his own attack, leaping up and bounding across the ruins of the battlefield. In the next moment, a crushing force like a vast, invisible fist struck him in the chest, knocking him completely off his feet and sending him hurding backward. Circumstances now demanded that the Overlord fight for himself, setting aside his usual caution to act direcdy, and he was obviously no coward. But Thelvyn was no longer so easily harmed; after a moment, he was able to spread his wings and catch himself in midair, returning quickly to the circle of combat.
He drove directly at the Overlord, rushing forward at tremendous speed. Although he was hesitant to reveal his true powers so soon, he knew that this was only the prelude to their true battle. He ducked down almost to the ground and then thrust himself back up again, striking the Overlord hard just under his chest, lifting his great bulk completely off the ground and flipping him over to crash heavily onto his back. The Overlord's remaining bodyguards, some twenty gemstone dragons, attacked at the same moment, having assumed their fiery forms. They began to dive at Thelvyn in a series of swift, relentless attacks, pummeling him over and over with bolts of lightning.
He dropped quickly to the ground, trying desperately to think. Already he understood something important about his enemy: The Overlord's powers were most effective when directed through his servants like the Masters and the warriors, but he wasn't very good at defending himself. That might have been due to the nature of his magic or perhaps a reflection of his inexperience; the reason hardly mattered now. Thelvyn decided the time for caution was past; he would reveal his true powers as an Immortal and press the contest to its conclusion.
Again he leapt into the air, and his mortal manifestation melted away in the glare of silver light as he revealed himself to be the Immortal Diamond. This time he made no effort to contain his powers but allowed the radiance of his true being to shine forth, many times brighter than the sun itself. The pure, intense light drove away the fires of the Masters like a wind blowing out a candle flame. The Overlord's command of their minds and will was broken, and they fled.
Even the Overlord had been forced to turn his monstrous face from the radiance, shielding himself with the grotesque armor of his back as he began to slink away. The pure light of the Immortal seemed to be causing him great pain, burning into his very being. Diamond continued to press his attack relendessly. Suspended in the air above the scene of battle, he arched his long neck and opened his mouth to release a shaft of silver light that washed over his enemy's long back. The Overlord crouched with his head down in an effort to protect himself while smoke and flames spread across his back, eating into his armor.
And then he vanished, retreating from a fight that he had already lost. But Thelvyn was too cautious to believe that he had achieved ultimate victory, knowing he had only forced the Overlord to retreat to a place where he would be stronger. Thelvyn turned to fly swiftly toward the west, following the wide path trampled by the invading army. He was still half of an hour's flight from where he expected to find the stronghold, time that he could not afford to spare if he was to catch his true enemy off guard. He held his wings steady, as if soaring on the winds, but his speed began to increase rapidly until his form began to blur into a shaft of silver light, crossing a hundred miles in as many seconds.
In a region scattered with low, steep hills, he came upon the hidden stronghold abruptly. Like the main stronghold in the world of the Overlord, it consisted of a group of massive fortresses, imposing in size but simple and nearly featureless in design, arranged not in a grid but in two concentric rings. In the center of the stronghold stood the stone arch of the immense worldgate. The land for miles around had been stripped of trees, perhaps during those final days while the invading army had gathered there before marching to the east. The stronghold was nearly deserted now, defended only by a score of gemstone dragons that had already risen into the sky in defense.
Thelvyn slowed quickly from his tremendous speed, although he remained in immaterial form for the moment, rising upward a short distance as he cast about with his mind for the presence of the Overlord hidden somewhere deep within the stronghold. Then he gathered speed again, streaking down like a bolt of lighting as he crashed directly into the roof of the largest of the fortresses. Massive stones shattered before him as he blasted his way deep into the center of the fortress. Then the fortress itself exploded outward in a blinding flash of clear light.