Chapter 51: Fight the Darkness

Chapter 51: Fight the Darkness

Plants and flesh had overrun the courtyard.

When she arrived at the Institute, Lord Och had blessed Marianne with quarters giving her an impeccable view of its hedge maze. Drinking tea while gazing at the plants through the window had been among her favorite small pleasures.

Weeks after she left Paraplex for Sabaoth, Marianne realized that these happy days were over. Thick black roots had grown through the Institutes ground and risen as high as her window, shattering glass and stone alike.

The hedge had mutated into a forest of horrors. A bramble of thorny vines coexisted with dark trees covered in bloody-red eyes, their branches yielding beating hearts for fruits. Foul cysts and nauseous abscesses bloomed like flowers next to flesh lumps bloated with thick black blood. Blistering pustules released pus and fumes in the air everywhere she looked.

It took Marianne all of her strength not to vomit. Her enhanced senses picked up every foul flavor of this cancerous jungle. Nothing smelled as thick and strong as the scent of Ialdabaoths black blood, which suffused the entire structure. The stench of the Qlippoths was overwhelming.

A quick look at the blistering heart-fruits told her why. These are eggs, Marianne muttered as her enhanced eyes noticed the tentacles wiggling beneath the outer layers. Qlippoth eggs.

The Outer Darkness corrupts all that it touches, Valdemar replied as they stepped closer to the mutated forests outskirts. Our magical defenses protect us, but everyone else

Holstering her revolver to ration her remaining bullets, Marianne raised her rapier with one hand and kept the other free. She had heard screeches from the nearby roofs and rustling among the fleshy plants.

Theyre coming, she said before taking a deep breath. Hes coming.

The legions of the Outer Darkness emerged to devour life.

The heart-fruits hatched into a harvest of horrors. Each of them burst open to unleash a brood of tentacled Gnawers, of slimes with human faces or walking tumors with tongues for legs. The trees roots rose like legs to carry the abominable plants forward.

Dense flocks of vampire bats flew from the roofs in a red and black swarm. The foul power of Ialdabaoth had turned them into ravenous mutants with four wings and two mouths. Blood dripped from their sharp fangs.

Marianne faced the tide of horror without flinching by putting herself firmly in front of Valdemar. The overwhelming numbers did not frighten her. She had never faltered before evil and wouldnt start today.

Marianne. Valdemar crossed his forearms while keeping his hands raised. Blood particles erupted from his fingers and his familiars eyes shone with a bright red light. Stay close and cover me.

The sheer magical power coming off from her companion unsettled Marianne. Space itself bent around his person and the air simmered. What will you do?

Outnumber them.

Marianne would have bet a hand that Valdemar was smiling beneath his mask as he tore reality apart.

A wall of fire rose between the verminous tide and Marianne. Blue flames incinerated plants and Qlippoths alike in a devastating blaze, reducing their flesh to ashes in seconds. Marianne covered her eyes to protect herself from the sudden burst of light.

A dozen fire elementals had materialized before her in a battle line on the ground, and half as many of their air cousins right above them. Swirling living wind currents fanned smokeless bonfires. Bats flew into them as fleshy animals and came out as dead charbroiled husks.

You will set the Institute ablaze! Marianne warned Valdemar as the world around her went down in flames. Worse, the inferno failed to make the Qlippoths relent. The interdimensional monsters charged through the wall of fire with suicidal recklessness, trampling their own dead in their hurry to reach Valdemar. Their red princes presence drove them into a maddened frenzy.

Like moths to a flame they flocked, though none of the Qlippoths reached their target. Marianne slew the few who managed to get past the flames. She gutted one half-burnt beast with her rapier, then a second and a third.

Eventually, the sheer amount of blood the elementals victims left behind drenched the flames. As the elementals returned to their home plane, Valdemar called more. The blood particles swirling around his hands scattered through the air and opened rifts in the tapestry of space.

More soldiers answered Valdemars call. Four-armed humanoid beasts roared as they smashed trees apart while toads with more mouths than fingers caught mutant bats with their tongues. The Qlippoths fought back fiercely, crushing the newcomers under their weight or tearing them apart with fangs and tentacles. But for one summoned thrall that fell, two more rose to fill the gap. Valdemars blood swirled around him like a crimson vortex, each droplet a seed blooming into a new defender.

Though she did not lower her guard, Marianne stopped to thrust her weapon left and right. A vast field of ashes and embers surrounded her and Valdemar, one expanded step after step by soldiers from other worlds. Ten meters separated the summoned monsters from their general.

Valdemar was calling a small army.

Summoning required blood, either to create a circle or to fuel a familiars connection to the higher planes. The two limits to a spellcasters potential were their skill and resources. In fact, Marianne had heard rumors that cults usually sacrificed dozens of prisoners of war to summon their otherworldly patrons. A single magician simply didnt have enough blood to call more than a few servants at once.

But Valdemar Verney was no mere man. He was a demigod who regenerated blood almost as quickly as he spent it.

Marianne had seen her companion survive a dive into Lord Bethors boiling pools and heard even the Dark Lords call him unkillable. She now realized that he had never truly tapped into his full potential because he hadnt been aware of his limits. For most of his life, Valdemar had thought he was a human with human limitations; only now did he understand just how powerful he was. Valdemar gave his summoned allies no direction; their only order was to advance and overwhelm the Qlippoths with their numbers. The cancerous forest that had so easily spread across the Institute was shrinking with each passing second.

Marianne suddenly realized that Lord Ochs proposal of letting his apprentice inherit his post wasnt so far-fetched after all.

However, such an effort demanded considerable concentration; doubly so since Valdemar summoned creatures from different planes of existence altogether. He had not moved nor said a word in minutes, and though his allied creatures had established a vast defensive perimeter, keeping them anchored to Underland took all of his focus. Valdemar had made himself vulnerable.

Hes acting as bait, Marianne realized, and he trusts me to make use of it.

Their target made his presence known with a sneak attack.

A great shadow covered the duo as Bertrand descended upon them from behind. The vampire moved so swiftly that he would have looked like a blur to an untrained eye. The smoking remains of dead Qlippoths provided a cover of dust through which he moved, and his wings made no sound as he flew. Mariannes old retainer had become a vicious predator with sharp instincts.

The old Marianne wouldnt have noticed his approach. The new one didnt need to hear nor see to sense an enemy approach. She picked up the subtle differences in the air pressure in the vicinity, the slight changes in temperature, tiny hints that so few could notice.

Hes not like Valdemar, she realized to her horror as Bertrands regeneration slowed down. He cannot do this forever.

Unlike Valdemar, who drew blood from the very substance of Underland, Bertrand relied on finite reserves. How long could she keep him diminished but alive? At which point would his regeneration fail Bertrand and his wounds slay him? Marianne couldnt tell and it frightened her. Bertrand kept trying to get back up, the vile force that had enslaved him caring naught whether he lived or perished.

You have done enough, Marianne, said a thundering voice.

Lord Bethor made his presence known in a flash of crimson light as he teleported next to Marianne. The Dark Lords guests soon materialized at his side. Iren and Hermann stood in the shadow of an enormous canvas covered in painted runes and symbols, while Liliane had come wearing a bandolier full of herbs and potions.

Their arrival filled Marianne with relief.

Is that Bertrand? Liliane asked as she recoiled at the vampires sight. By the Light

Bertrand roared at her, making her step back in surprise. Lord Bethor merely glanced at the vampire and his telekinetic might pinned him to the ground more easily than Mariannes blade ever did.

Please, Lord Bethor! Marianne panicked at the sight. Do not slay him!

I will give you one chance to cure him as per your plan, the Dark Lord replied calmly.

Marianne knew from his tone that the one part was key. If they failed to cure Bertrand

Liliane, the noblewoman whispered. My hopes are in your hand.

Im your gal, Liliane replied as she grabbed an empty syringe from a pouch and a potion from her stock. The flask containing it was no bigger than a thumb, the liquid within a vibrant shade of red. Marianne would have called it a molten ruby at first glance, but she knew it was something far more precious.

A drop of the Elixir of Life. The potion that promised eternal life.

Valdy! Liliane shouted. I need your help!

I am ready. Valdemar emerged from his stillness as his summoned creatures vanished. Of the cancerous forest of Qlippoths, only dust and corpses remained. At your signal.

Marianne bit her lower lip. Valdemar

We wont fail, he reassured her. I swear.

Marianne held her breath as she watched Bertrands operation. Liliane carefully examined the mutated vampires neck to find an artery, whereas Valdemar grabbed the shoulders. Bertrand struggled back against Lord Bethors influence to no avail.

Ready, Valdy? Liliane asked as she removed Mariannes bone sword from Bertrand and filled her syringe with the elixir.

Since the day I was born, he replied.

Liliane stabbed Bertrand in the neck and pressed her syringe. Marianne watched in tense silence as the liquid flowed into the vampires veins, red elixir and black blood mixing together. Her heart skipped a beat as the latter appeared to subsume the former.

It happened again when Bertrands skin became whiter.

His body mutated before Mariannes eyes. The march of time turned back as Bertrand shed his wings and tentacles. His fingers grew back to normal size. His legs and manhood grew back along with his ears and eyes. Within less than a minute, the monster vanished. In his place slept an old friend Marianne had thought gone forever.

But the illness was still in him.

Valdemars fingers melded with Bertrands shoulders. Their flesh mixed together and their veins connected. Marianne watched anxiously as black blood traveled from her retainers body to that of her companion. Valdemar absorbed Ialdaboaths curse into himself. Marianne feared that it would corrupt him as it affected her retainer; that it would mutate him into a monster or give Ialdabaoth a foothold in his mind and flesh.

None of her fears materialized.

Valdemar absorbed the black blood into himself and then severed contact with Bertrand. He pulled back his hands from the vampires shoulders.

Are you alright? Marianne asked her companion with worry. Liliane, Iren, and Hermann looked at Valdemar, perhaps half-expecting him to grow wings of his own.

His answer filled them all with joy.

I feel drained but Im fine, he replied. And so is he.

A vampire didnt breathe nor produce a heartbeat. But as Lord Bethor released his grip and Bertrand opened his eyes, Marianne knew he was alive again.

Mi Bertrands throat was sore and his voice weak, but he said a word rather than a roar. Milady?

Marianne didnt hold back her tears of joy. Her retainer and friend, who she had thought lost forever to the horrors of Underland, had been brought back to her safe and sound.

She had run away from the darkness once before.

Tonight she fought back and won.