I disassembled the Death Titan and felt its power fading away as it crumbled into a lifeless pile of corpses. The skull I was in collapsed into a shower of bone fragments. My undead troops picked off the last survivors and stragglers of the Warlock’s army while Fang and I made our way down the now-shapeless mountain of bodies.
My women threw themselves at me, and I gave each a kiss before I addressed the rest of my army.
“You all fought well today,” I said to them, “and you’ve all made me proud! But while the battle is won, my mission is not finished just yet. I came here to find the Dragon Goddess, and this tower is on her last surviving temple. I know that the Warlock was trying to create dragons. There has to be something in here that’ll point us in the right direction. Everyone spread out and search the tower from top to bottom. Come find me as soon as you discover anything!”
“God of Death, you don’t need to search,” Ji-Ko said. “I have studied the ancient manuscripts and know the layout of the Dragon Goddess’s temple very well. If you take me to the tower’s catacombs, I’ll be able to tell you where everything is, including where her bones should be resting.”
“All right,” I said. “You come with me, Ji-Ko. And Yumo, I want you to come with me into the Dragon Temple as well. Everyone else, search the tower.”
“Me? Why me?” Yumo asked.
“You’ll see,” I said to her with a quick smile.
“I’d like to come with you,” Isu said to me. “I’m interested in the Warlock’s. . . experiments.”
I shrugged. “Fine by me.”
Ji-Ko, Yumo, Isu, and I searched the catacombs for the entrance to the Dragon Temple. We found evidence of the Warlock’s attempts to create dragons; the remains of plenty of mutant creatures littered the basement, failures of former experiments. The place stank like an unwashed slaughterhouse.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Yumo said.
“And I don’t like the smell of it,” Ji-Ko said. “Be on your guard, everyone. The Warlock is dead, but evil may still be lurking in this place.”
“I’ll remain here,” Isu said. “While these foul creations are not the work of death, there might be something to be learned.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You’re not going to build anything from the dismembered parts, are you? Because I remember the last thing you built.” The image of my wooden cock would never be removed from my mind. “I don’t think you should put anything that’s decomposing in your you-know-what.”
Isu chuckled darkly. “Don’t be foolish, Vance. I’m just curious about these creations. Perhaps we could do something similar with corpses. You could create special troops for your army, suited to whatever requirement you might have.”
“You know what,” I said as an image of the perfect zombie warrior entered my mind, “you should stay here. See what you can learn.”
Isu smiled at me before Yumo, Ji-Ko, and I continued through the catacombs.
We found the entrance to the Dragon Temple at the rear of the basement and entered the first level. Immediately, the stink hit us, and I knew exactly what it was.
“There’s a cauldron of blood in here somewhere,” I said. “And probably plenty of corpses with slit throats. I figured the Warlock was working for the Blood God, but now I’m sure of it.”
I’d smelled this same stink in Nabu’s crypts beneath the cathedral in Erst, in the crypts of my own castle when my uncle had been sacrificing to the Blood God, and in the Temple of Blood we’d destroyed.
Sure enough, when we reached the next level down, we found many corpses in various states of decay hanging from butcher hooks, drained of their blood.
“What kind of terrible defilement has happened here?” Ji-Ko gasped. “This sacred temple has been violated in a most evil manner.”
“This is beyond fucked up,” Yumo muttered as she stared in horror at the corpses hanging from the hooks.
“Welcome to the world of the Blood God,” I said. “This is just a drop in the ocean, unfortunately, compared to what I’ve seen. It explains the rumors of the Hooded Man capturing maidens. What I don’t understand though, is why the Warlock used Storm magic instead of Blood magic.”
“Worry about that later, God of Death,” Ji-Ko said. “Come, we must find the Dragon Goddess’s bones. You must fulfil the prophecy and resurrect her.”
Ji-Ko took us down to the deepest level of the Dragon Temple. We entered a vast circular hall with a large, ornate statue of a dragon in the center. Much of the hall had been recently damaged and demolished, including a large portion of the dragon statue. It seemed that the Warlock had been looking for the Dragon Goddess’s bones. I just had to hope he hadn’t found them.
Then I felt a slight tremor in my chest, a summoning of sorts. There were definitely bones in here, and they carried great power.
“I have waited my whole life for this moment,” Ji-Ko said as he stepped up to the dragon statue and began feeling his way around its head. “As did every brother monk who led the Order of Blind Monks. The leader of our sect has always carried this.” He took off the jade necklace he always wore. “And this magic jewel is the key to retrieving the Dragon Goddess’s bones. Ah, yes, here it is,” he said when he found the dragon statue’s mouth.
He put his hand all the way down the dragon statue’s throat, and I heard a click as he clipped the magic jewel into place. The floor started to rumble and the pillars shook while puffs of masonry dust rained down on us from the ceiling. The statue’s belly opened up, and inside was a curled up skeleton.
Ji-Ko dropped down onto his hands and knees and pressed his forehead into the ground. “May you rise again, Dragon Goddess, may you rise again,” he murmured softly.
“You’ve found
