The Isis’ Blessing cast interrupted!
The chief Arbiter, already familiar from the contract with Hinterleaf, approached and declared:
“Scyth, you stand accused of colluding with the Destroying Plague. You have brought undead to sentient lands! The Celestial Arbitration sentences you to Banishment forever!”
Chapter 30. Celestial Arbitration
LIGHTNING SPLIT the gray clouds and thunder pealed. The gigantic crocodile Sobek snapped his jaws at the edge of the place of power, unable to cross it.
The chief Arbiter loomed over me, growing ever larger. A black holed pulsed in its burning Eye, pulling in my mind and soul. The blazing white aura around the Arbiter exploded in blue protuberances.
“Give your final statement, Herald Scyth. Is there anything you would like to say in your defense?”
Why had the Celestial Arbitration shown up now? I might have linked it to my intention to build a third temple to the Sleepers, but I’d been accused of something else: bringing the undead to the lands of the living. Was this how Snowstorm planned to neutralize whoever started the undead faction scenario? Destroying Plague Immortality and Plague Fury were overpowered abilities. Far too overpowered. An invincible and deadly player had to leave Dis — if not as an eliminated Threat, then this way instead. All part of the gameplay. Was this really it? The end?
From my stream of panicked thoughts, I pulled at the one that seemed the most important. I focused on the Isis’ Blessing icon and tried to activate it. No luck! The Arbiters’ block extended even to artifacts.
The Eye grew even larger, almost touching my face. My hair stood on end from the static electricity, my skin crackled.
“Silence confirms guilt, Heral…”
His crackling, booming voice cut off in mid-word. Electric sparks hung in the air. The beast god Sobek stood still with his jaws open, a bead of drool dripping from his mouth, the thread hanging from his lips and freezing a meter from the ground. The world stopped and exploded into shards, revealing the endless emptiness of the great nothing beneath…
Spontaneous Divine Revelation activated!
The first acid raindrop burning a hole through my helmet visor brought me to my senses. I stood in the same spot, but the Arbiters were gone. The crocodile, alarmed by my appearance, had just started to crash its way through the stone trees toward me…
A second later, I activated Isis’ Blessing and took off into the sky. Would they reach me here too?
The change in my location didn’t stop the Arbiters — the fabric of space began to distort and tear, and I shot away. The marker for the instance where I could learn the skill for making Rifts to the Nether pointed northeast. I flew that way.
My life leaked away in mere seconds under the acid rain — unfortunately, Equanimity didn’t activate outside of battle, although Diamond Skin switched on as soon as my health dropped below 10%. The skill gave me another ninety seconds of invulnerability and flight through the air of Terrastera. The Arbiters didn’t chase after me, just tore through the fabric of reality to teleport to where I was about to show up. I had to adapt to their strategy — as soon as I saw twisting space, I changed direction sharply.
The all-powerful Celestial Arbitration was inescapable. All that remained was to wait for Depths Teleportation to cool down and try to reach Behemoth in time. If he couldn’t help me, then at least he would see what happened to me.
I looked at the cooldown timer nearly every second: 9… 8… 7…
The Arbiters changed strategy. All the space around me suddenly bent, blurred, rippled — I had nowhere to run except…
4… 3…
I stopped above a small aperture untouched by the fields of the materializing Arbiters, a hole in the electrified atmosphere. Somersaulting head over heels, I stretched out my arms and dove into the emptiness, outrunning the acid raindrops.
2… 1…
Depths Teleportation!
Just as I was about to collide with the tip of a stone tree, the cast finished, the world lit up with a series of flashes and I found myself on the first floor of the Awoken castle. Without answering the greetings of the fortress’ inhabitants, and knocking over kobolds and Morena’s cultists blocking my path, I reached a gated passageway. The gate lifted and I ran into the inner courtyard.
Bands of Corrupted Adamantite gleamed on the castle’s sun-kissed eastern wall. The figure of the Sleeping God was clearly outlined against the darkened wall opposite. He was waiting.
“To the temple! Quickly!” Behemoth commanded.
I rushed up the carven steps of the pyramid of the Departed that had become the building’s foundation. The Sleeping God walked into the temple with long strides, waiting at the entrance and urging me on:
“Hurry!”
Before we reached the altar, the space around me twisted and tore and the Celestial Arbitration poured through once more. Ignoring the god’s presence, the Arbiters instantly bound me with their lashes of electricity.
The primary Eye pronounced its sentence without emotion:
“Scyth, you stand accused of colluding with the Destroying Plague. You have brought the undead to sentient lands. The Celestial Arbitration sentences you to eternal Banishment.”
Behemoth grew in size and swept the electric chains from me as if they were spiderwebs.
“You will not touch my Initial!” his voice boomed.
The Arbiters paid him no more mind than a Ravager would a moth — they just recast their binds. The Sleeping God removed them again. The electrified shackles were cast on me and removed another dozen times before the chief Eye suspected something was amiss.
It turned to Behemoth:
“The energy of the Celestial Arbitration
