Seyth, level 30Q undead Herald
The Unconquered Herald Set, which had been destroyed in the Nether, was back again, but that was scant comfort. I had no time to grieve—the temple was minutes from destruction.
I shrouded myself in Cloak Essence, cast Depths Teleportation to the half-destroyed temple of Tiamat. Crash’s long corpse lay by the stairs. The temple was at two percent durability.
There were five of them: Mogwai, Criterror and Dek (the thought flashed: Three?) had been joined by two more from the Elite, some mage girls at level three hundred and eighty with change. Dek wielded a mighty hammer and was demolishing one of the last columns left standing. The roof had already fallen in, and four of the Elite were destroying the altar. In the form of a gigantic panther, Mogwai was crushing it to gravel. Criterror and the girls worked from a distance, showering the structure with explosive arrows, bolts of lightning and shards of ice. The closest to me, an elf girl called Biancanova, was attacking with streams of white-hot flame.
I felt Tiamat’s presence, her sadness and pain, and tried to mentally speak to her. Her divine voice boomed in my head, full of grief: “Protect the temple. I cannot help you, Initial“I’ll handle it,” I promised the goddess.
The first thing I did was throw Sharkon’s Mane at Mogwai to start his invulnerability timer from Path of Equanimity, then I rushed the nearest target, Biancanova, firing off a Hammerfist. To my surprise, she survived the hit and used Blink to move a short distance away, ending up ten yards from where I hit him. I roared and rushed to catch up.
“The Threat is here!” she shouted, drawing the attention of the others.
“Focus on the temple!” Mogwai commanded. “Don’t touch the Threat!”
“Heroism’.” the second mage girl shouted, buffing the party.
Spiraling golden rings encircled all the members of Elite and they suddenly sharply gained in size and speed.
“Sheep” Biancanova muttered, pointing a finger at me.
A short flash and the world flickered. For a fraction of a second, I turned into a white sheep. Liberation nullified it and I rushed toward the elf again. Blink was still on cooldown and this time she couldn’t get away; my first Hammerfist broke the girl’s jaw, and a Stunning Kick hit her in the ear so hard, her spine cracked. Biancanova’s head leaned unnaturally to the side and her legs failed.
Minus one corrupter of the temple of the Sleepers, I thought, furious. I used Plague Reanimation on Biancanova’s corpse. And plus one minion!
Then the thought of using Subjugate Mind came to me. It didn’t take long to figure out who I wanted to control. Mogwai said Criterror was a top damager. Let’s find out.
My consciousness twinned, and I watched from two angles at once as Biancanova rose as a zombie, emitting guttural groans. As Scyth, I commanded her to attack the second mage girl, Laneiran, and attacked Mogwai, starting to take down his shield with a Combo. As Criterror, I turned in place, drew my bow and aimed an arrow into the eye of Dek the solo adventurer.
Biancanova still had her abilities, and I had no time to think about whether control of her character had transferred to the AI or not. In any case, she fought just as effectively; her hands flowed through the air, materializing whips of concentrated flame, then she lashed Laneiran’s back to shreds.
“Are you mad?!” the latter screamed, turning and seeing who had hit her in the back. As a newly-minted undead, Biancanova didn’t look much like a zombie yet, not counting her broken neck and lolling head. “What are you doing?!”
In the meantime, Dek hid from Criterror behind a column and continued to destroy the temple. At my command, the archer followed after him and hit him with a volley of Rapid Shots.
Mogwai realized the battle was going wrong and turned to me. His invulnerability was gone, and I’d managed to take away some of his mana shield while he stubbornly raked the altar with his mighty claws. Saying nothing, the hero sent me flying with a sweep of his paw, then jumped after me, pinning me to the ground and staring into my face. His cat’s eyes suddenly blurred, changing shape. The face stretched out, the body widened and grew, the paws seemed to inflate, becoming more powerful—he was transforming into a bear. I didn’t wait for the transformation to finish, instead releasing my entire supply of Sleeping Vindication, not at him in a single strike, but all around me.
It had been so long since I last used Behemoth’s gift at full strength and in the manner of Plague Fury. I surprised myself when I saw the invisible wave of death distort perspective for hundreds of yards around. Vindication dealt damage to everything I considered merited death or destruction in an area that depended on my perception. In my case—four hundred and eighty-nine yards around.
The fabric of reality itself broke when the wave of Sleeping Vindication spread, setting the sand alight and destroying every cell of my enemies from within. Mogwai flew from me as if torn away by a storm.
His mana shield was practically destroyed, and before the enemy could heal himself, I flew into battle, my fists flying, paying no attention to what went on around me. On the edge of my vision, I saw Dek. He wasn’t hitting the column anymore, but fighting with Criterror—he must have decided the ’Elites’ had a traitor among them. The zombie Biancanova was fighting Laneiran furiously. At my command, Criterror attacked her too.
Laneiran panicked, started running. Dek methodically drove Criterror’s head into his shoulders. It didn’t even take a full series of Combos to finish off Mogwai’s mana shield and start dealing direct damage. The druid, understanding that attacking would cost him dearly, managed to throw me off, then jumped onto me, pinned me down on the wreckage-strewn ground
