Tens of thousands of Blood Demons had formed up in an army on the plains, and the entire population of Luminescent Spires was fleeing in terror before it. Those who could not escape were not killed. Instead, they were captured. Through a horrifying Blood ritual cast by Blood Priests in red hooded robes, their souls were destroyed, and they were turned into Blood Demons themselves, swelling the ranks of the ever-growing army.
“You returned quickly, God of Death, yet you are arriving with those who rode the hurricane!” the Lord of Light exclaimed with an astonished expression.
“It’s me, but it’s not actually me,” I said, speaking via the actor. “It’s too complicated to explain right now, so turn your bald head back toward the enemy and keep blasting ‘em with that concentrated sunlight!”
“As you command, God of Death.” He gave me a bow and turned back to face the Blood Army, which he started blasting with beams of light from the sun.
“Is that … the Lord of Light?” Rollar’s jaw hung open with surprise.
“It is,” Isu answered sourly, before I could say anything. “And for some reason the twit is fighting for us … for now. We should slit his yellow throat before he has the chance to betray us.”
“Trust me, he’s on our side,” I said, “and he’s not going to be double-crossing us. He’s got at much at stake as any of us do, and he’ll suffer just as much as the rest of us if the Blood God wins.”
“What are your orders for us, Vance?” Elyse asked. Although she had clearly seen the Lord of Light, the god she had formerly served with such devotion, she was acting with haughty aloofness toward him and deliberately ignoring him.
“Yes, tell Drok who Drok kill first!” Drok added enthusiastically.
Ji-Ko and his monks, who now all had undead minions of their own, bowed low before me.
“This is the greatest battle our order will ever face, God of Death,” Ji-Ko said. “Each and every one of us monks is ready to die on this day, and our deaths with be glorious! Tell us what you want us to do, and we will walk the path of righteous death with joy in our hearts and honor in our staves!”
“Advance with this small army we’ve got here,” I said. “Draw the Blood Army’s attention away from the fleeing civilians, get them to focus on you. Draw them back that way, fight a slow retreat, get the Blood Army to move toward the ocean. I know you’re outnumbered by a thousand to one, but draw them in and fight like cornered beasts.”
“Where are you going?” Anna-Lucielle asked.
“Aren’t you going to fight alongside us?” Rami-Xayon asked anxiously. “I used up all my power to summon the hurricane that brought us here with such speed. I can’t even conjure up a minuscule fist-sized tornado that would blow away a mosquito now. We need you with us!”
“I’ll be fighting with you all, don’t worry,” I said. “I’m gonna be attacking from inside the Blood Pyramid.”
“Inside it?!” Rami-Xayon gasped. “Have you gone mad, Vance?”
“I trust that you know what you’re doing, Lord Vance,” Rollar said warily, “but please, please tell me that your undead army is nearby. If they do not emerge from the ocean in time, that Blood Army is going to crush us like insects under their terrible red boots. As strong as this group of gods and warriors is, we cannot resist the might of that army, not outnumbered by a thousand to one.”
“Just fight a steady retreat and draw them toward the ocean,” I said. “Trust me on this. I can’t waste any more time talking; I’ll see you all on the other side!”
With that, I directed a harpy to pluck me from the ground and fly me toward the Blood Pyramid. I had sensed a tremendous amount of death there and knew that there had to be plenty of corpses inside the pyramid: all the people who had been sacrificed in recent weeks and months to swell the power of Elandriel and the Blood God. And those corpses would take their revenge against the entities responsible for their deaths, for I would be turning them into a Death Titan.
To cover my approach, I directed my entire force of hundreds of harpies to attack the Blood Army, diving at them as they advanced. Dozens of harpies swooped down and snatched up Blood Demons, flying them hundreds of feet up into the air before hurling them down again. I flew above the attacking harpy horde, veering in a wide arc to get around to the rear of the Blood Pyramid.
When I came closer to the vast structure, I saw that there were a number of doors leading to the interior, and none of them were guarded. Why would they be? Nobody would be suicidal enough to try to get into this place. Nobody but me, of course.
I landed on the side of the pyramid, near the base, and left the harpy there in case I needed to make a quick escape. Then, feeling almost as if I was in the middle of some surreal nightmare, I walked in through the open door. A stone passage led me to the interior of the Blood Pyramid, which I quickly discovered was mostly hollow. Inside was a massive chamber, the size of which made me feel like a flea in a cathedral.
At the center of this chamber was a smaller pyramid. It was not small—it was the size of a huge cathedral—but in comparison to the much larger pyramid that contained it, it was small. The slopes of it
