Chapter 78 – Feast

The two void imps that had made the calling collapsed, their star-filled gazes dimming and chants dissipating into the night.

Hush skittered over, feeling both the forms with his delicate hands. “Call! They called…”

“Are they fine?” asked Kairon, only granting the spectacle half his attention. His mind was primarily focused on observing the reaction the humans were having with Sovereign Eye.

“Yes… They rest,” said Hush.

“Mmm. That’s good. They did their job. No—they exceeded their job and my expectations. I’m impressed. Very impressed.” Kairon wasn’t just saying that. He truly was. The result of the voidlings calling upon Pact was clear as day despite the hour.

“You two! Carry him! Take to camp!” said Shiny.

Kairon faintly heard the skitters of several brood imps, and then the sliding of bodies as they carried the unconscious imps off for a hard-earned nap.

Once they left, Shiny poked his master with one claw. “How go? It work?”

“Oh, it worked,” breathed Kairon. He covered his mouth with one claw, stifling a giggle. Under his vision, he watched in what could only be described as a fascinated euphoria as the paladin leader raised his sword and screamed some nonsense.

Then, all hell broke loose.

A hundred golden paladins blazed with a shining light from their chests. Kairon had watched them march using the magic, but fighting with it was something he was thoroughly looking forward to. A wave of gold, metal, and divine flooded towards the clans. Swords and massive tower shields led the way.

Clearly disciplined and trained, the paladins ran as one body. Each step was taken together. Each sword lowered as one. Each shield held in one wall.

Their adversary was a polar opposite. In reply, the barbarians’ mouths opened to loose primal cries of battle. Anger and bloodlust filled their expressions, as their massive war chief and several warriors by his side leapt forward. Only moments later, over five hundred warriors answered.

The sight was incredible. One side, the epitome of order and devotion. The other, a barbaric, primal, bestial tide of men and muscle.

“There’s so many of them, Shiny. So many. And they’re all here—to slay one another.”

“Slay… So we don’t need!” exclaimed Shiny. “It working!”

“Yes, yes. It is. Shiny! Prepare the brood. If this works, I’ll have you depart shortly.”

“Understood master! The brood hungers. Competition shall be defeat!”

For a moment, Kairon was pulled from his battle vision. The brood hungers? Since when has Shiny spoken like that?

The little imp’s upcoming evolution was going to be quite interesting indeed if that was any indication.

Shaking his head, he returned his attention to the closing forces. Behind them, the Valdren foot soldiers had drawn ranks and seemed uncertain as to how to proceed. Then, at some officer’s call, they too joined the fray. Slowly and reluctantly, but join they did.

As the paladins and barbarians crossed the prepared space in the middle, Kairon bit his lip. This was a major pivot. Due to the ichor well, he’d made significant adjustments to his plan. Originally, this engagement would have been far more chaotic. But for now, not a man noticed the small depressions below them in the sand. They had only eyes for their enemies.

The paladins for the men they believed to be tainted and dark. The barbarians for the usurpers and murderers of their own. And the militia of Valdren, for those the power of Pact still had them believe were their rightful inferiors, rebelling against their betters.

Mere seconds later, the first line of paladins hit like a hammer. Tower shields leading the charge, the muscled warriors of the clans at the front were practically pulverized. Screams and battle cries mingled in the night, torches and the glow of the divine illuminating dozens of bodies falling.

“Yes! Yes. More, more, more!” exclaimed Kairon. Each body that fell was one less his city had to worry about. And one more his brood could recover.

As the paladins established their shield wall, it became a wedge against the swarm that was the clans. Muscle met metal, and time and time again, metal came out on top. Barbarian after barbarian was cut down by overhand arcs of swords. Several of them were so taken aback by the unified push of The Solari that they fell backwards, only to be stomped and trampled upon by the advancing paladin line.

Despite their armor and devotion, they were not immune. First a paladin fell to a spear sticking from the eye hole in his helmet. A second under the oversized glaive of the war chief. And a third that stepped just a bit too far ahead of the wedge, being immediately swallowed by the furious clans.

Yet, it was clear the paladins had an incredible advantage. In less than a minute, he’d lost count of the number of fallen clan warriors. In fact, Kairon couldn’t even see their corpses under the golden forms that simply plowed over them. The discipline and magic strengthening of the paladins was simply too much for normal men to match.

Or so it seemed. But Kairon knew it wouldn’t last.

After only the initial engagement, the light in each of the Solaric knights was dimming noticeably. A few paladins at the front—those Kairon assumed were running low on their divine power—raised their swords and necklaces into the air.

They pointed them backwards, where the sun would rise on the morrow. As if their swords could pierce the earth and make a straight line to where the blazing light of dawn should be.

Only, nothing happened. No streaks of light answered. No power returned.

This notion seemed to thoroughly confuse the paladins. Their brethren passed them by, leaving several standing with uncertain gazes.

Now that’s interesting. The knights tried again, shouting something. Kairon focused intently, trying to parse out any feeling he might…

There! He felt it. Like some kind of blip in his domain. A droplet of something plopped against his mindscape. It tried to reach out, to connect a tentacle of awareness, and then… nothing.

Huh. When Elson had done this, the sky had answered. What changed?

Watching the ranks of paladins do battle, he considered that. Only two major variables came to mind that might cause the disturbance.

First, the night. The sun was further away. The paladins, however, seemed to think they could still call it.

Which meant… His domain. His power. It had only grown. More and more corruption had seeped into the land, his city’s claws sinking further and further.

Was it possible that it was his own city stopping the paladins from making their connection?

Kairon didn’t know, and frankly, didn’t care. It was a boon. This whole plan was meant to drain the paladins of their power and thin their ranks.

But if they couldn’t even recharge…

“Oh my.”

As more and more paladins dimmed, the light of their armor fading to plain metal, their strength waned. They stepped out of formation, raised their gauntleted hands, and then… nothing.

Kairon snorted. He wasn’t the only one to notice. The clans did as well.

Smelling weakness, their chieftain warlord bellowed. The tide of the paladins began to wane, and in their wake, a new front began to rise.

The clans had lost dozens and dozens, but more were ready. They leapt forward, spears, clubs, daggers, and shields coming down upon The Solari. What they lacked in order they made up for with pure ferocity. A female clans warrior wielding twin daggers somersaulted over a paladin, landing behind. She swept out both arms, raking the weaker rear armor on two Solari knights. They shrieked and turned, but found only air.

Like a ghost, she’d pounced on a third, bringing twin points of metal down upon her victim.

Around, other standouts began to do the same. Like beasts upon their prey, they pounced. And slowly, the orderly lines of the divine broke. Where armor dimmed and darkness bit, the clans struck.

Over the next handful of seconds, Kairon counted nearly twenty paladins that were either injured, down, or missing.

“How go?” asked Shiny.

“Good, good. The paladins are taking hits. It seems our golden friends have found their sun not as strong as they once thought,” he snickered. “And the clans aren’t exactly shy about abusing that.”

As he spoke, another paladin fell to three spears finding gaps in his armor from a swarm of warriors. Several of those warriors themselves too were disemboweled—not that it seemed to dissuade the others pressing to replace them from behind.

Then the Valdren foot party slammed into the clans’ right flank. If the initial charge had been a hammer, this was a rake. Their ranks sliced through the swarm of clans like butter. Torches fell, spears and swords rising in their places. The battlefield began to be lit by burning fires and corpses along the ground more than anything held by a man.

“Master…” Hush had approached, anticipation clear in his tone. “Is it time? We grow eager…”

“Yessss!” added his twin.

“Not yet!” said Kairon. “I’ll let you know.”

Shiny huffed. “Yes! Be quiet! Master focusing!” Then, after a short pause, Shiny cleared his throat. “Though… how many left?”

Pursing his lips, the city lord gauged what remained. “I have no idea. This has become… chaotic. I would estimate that a third of the paladins are injured or gone, and twice that of the clans. And nearly all of the—okay nearly three quarters of the Valdren footmen remain.”

While he’d spoken, many of the barbarians had turned. The rake that was the militia in their midst simply crumbled. Unlike the paladins, their armor was thin. It wasn’t meant to be in the middle of hundreds of furious warriors.

When their spears and daggers fell, they fell hard. Valdren blood rained like the skies themselves had opened up. Underneath, Kairon’s domain drank greedily. Beneath the burning pyres of corpse and debris, the orange hellscape turned crimson.

“Shiny.”

“Yes master?”

“It approaches. Gather the brood. We make for the walls.”

The little gremlin gasped. “Ohh! Good idea! We go!”

Kairon didn’t bother to deactivate his eye, but he could hear dozens of tiny footsteps. The brood hungered, he’d said.

Well tonight, they were about to have a feast.