Then, a familiar buzzing sound filled the air. Uldyssian let out a gasp and reached out, but his reaction was too slow. The deadly Peace Warder weapon flew at his brother, its thrower expertly aiming for Mendeln’s chest.
At the last moment, Mendeln twisted, his free arm blocking the way. Unfortunately, flesh and bone were not enough armor against such a sinister weapon. The spinning blades cut through his arm midway between the shoulder and the elbow. Mendeln’s arm literally dropped off.
The blades cut through his garments and left a shallow cut along his side, but that was finally the end of it. It said something for Mendeln’s stamina that he still stood even as blood poured from the ruined arm. Uldyssian’s brother gazed down at the lost limb, then touched what was left near his shoulder.
The bleeding halted just as Uldyssian joined him. “Let me help you with that!”
“There is no time!” Mendeln argued. His pale face had grown even more so, but otherwise he seemed himself. The massive wound looked half-healed already. “We must press! We must end this here!”
But it’ll not end here! Uldyssian realized. It’ll go on as long as Lilith continues to haunt us!
Nevertheless, he let Mendeln have his way. Once again holding high the unsettling blade, Uldyssian’s younger sibling renewed his chant. More and more morlu toppled over, the demonic strings guiding them severed forever.
Uldyssian turned to seek Achilios, but still his friend was nowhere to be found. There was Serenthia, however. She utilized her spear and her powers as if born to them. Each time a Peace Warder or some other adversary perished at the point of the weapon, another fell to a fire ball, a storm of dust, or some other conjuration.
Serenthia! he called. Where is Timeon? Like Achilios, there was no trace of him.
Dead! A morlu caught his eyes turned elsewhere and his powers defending another!
The Parthans were growing fewer and fewer and even though this night had witnessed both his brother and his childhood comrade return to his side, the loss of Timeon only emphasized again how Uldyssian’s past was being eaten away. It did not help that he saw Jonas—once scarred Jonas—commanding others in the name of his only blood relation.
Damn you, Lilith! he silently swore. No, this would never end! If she could not use the Triune, the demoness would slip away to find some other method by which to seize the edyrem…seize all of Humanity for her own.
He could not let her. He could not let her continue. Uldyssian imagined her before him, imagined her in his grip—
And so she was.
The daughter of Mephisto stood right in front of Uldyssian, her expression as wide-eyed and wondering as his. She wore no guise, appearing before him as the reptilian temptress he had last seen. Uldyssian did indeed hold her as he imagined, hands clamped painfully tight around her upper arms. Their faces were less than a foot apart.
Unfortunately, it was Lilith who recovered first. Her gaping mouth transformed into the familiar, beguiling smile with which as Lylia she had first captured his heart.
“Why, Uldyssian, my love! If you wanted me in your arms again, you should’ve just told me.”
Something snared him around the throat, constricting like a serpent. Too late he recognized it as her tail.
“We should go to somewhere more private, don’t you think?”
They vanished from the battle. Serenthia felt Uldyssian’s surprise and his subsequent dismay, but the struggle against the Triune prevented her from coming to his aid. She sensed Lilith’s awful presence and almost screamed in horror when both he and the demoness disappeared.
But even then there was nothing that the merchant’s daughter could do, nothing but continue to fight and kill Peace Warders, priests, and morlu, each of whom seemed immediately replaced by two more. That Mendeln had returned and had stripped many of the morlu of their parody of life had helped stave off the onslaught, but that was all. The servants of the temple were better trained for this chaos; Uldyssian’s followers were still, for the most part, farmers, merchants, and the like.
Yet they fought with far greater determination and skill than even she could have imagined…but would it be enough?
Two morlu converged on her. However, before Serenthia could deal with them, a succession of arrows caught the pair in both their eyes and their throats. Each strike was accompanied by a flash of energy.
The morlu dropped.
“Achilios?” she blurted. Through Uldyssian, Serenthia had been alerted to the archer’s presence, but unable to sense him herself, she had only half-believed. Now…
Now the dark-haired woman fought harder. Achilios was with her, even if she had yet to actually see him. He was with her. Whatever the outcome, victory or defeat, they would be together.
Whether in life or in death, they would be together… Had someone informed Mendeln that he would have the wherewithal to not only survive the severing of his arm but go on as if nothing had happened, he would have thought them mad. Now, he thought himself mad… but did not care. Uldyssian was gone, taken by the demoness. Mendeln could not tell what was at this moment happening to his brother, but it could be nothing good. Lilith had surely had enough of his defiance; she would see to it that he would pay for it and pay dearly.
I wanted to stand at his side, Mendeln bitterly thought. A short time that certainly was…
He considered calling to Rathma and Trag’Oul, but for reasons that he could not explain, held back. Instead, he used his wound and his bitterness to power his work. One morlu after another morlu—the fiends bereft of the demonic essence that animated them—dropped before him. Each casting took its toll upon him, though, something he did not outwardly show. Yet, there were still morlu, too many morlu, and their savage blades continued to get through some edyrem’s shield, splattering the innards of that hapless person over other defenders.
They must all be cast out if we are to win…or even survive…they must be!
A morlu broke through. Rather than attack from behind those battling the Triune, the bestial warrior headed for the children and weaker within the circle. A monstrous grin stretched across the fiend’s unnatural countenance. At the same time, two more slipped through other cracks in the ranks of Uldyssian’s followers. The edyrem had proven themselves several times over; they were just outnumbered and lacked the foul expertise of their foes.
They must be cast out! But he was the only one with that ability and had so far proven wanting. All that the dragon and Rathma had shown or taught him meant nothing. None of their methods or spells had focused on such a monumental and desperate task.
Yet, Mendeln had to try. It still did not mean that the edyrem would be saved, but to simply give up…
And that suddenly gave him an idea of how to come to his brother’s aid. It, too, was a desperate notion…
He pulled the small bone fragment from his pocket. Without hesitation, he said to it, “To my brother. To help him against Lilith.”
The fragment vanished. Mendeln hoped that he had not just made a terrible mistake, but he had not had any other choice.
That left the morlu with which to deal. Bracing himself, Mendeln ran through the words in his head. They had to be arranged just so. He no longer followed his mentors’ examples, but his own.
If the Balance decrees it, Uldyssian’s brother thought. Then it will work…
And if the Balance did not…Mendeln did not want to think about it.