Chapter 56: Duel of the Archmages

Chapter 56: Duel of the Archmages

Not even the gods could dodge lightning, so Valdemar didnt bother.

Instead, he quickly reshaped his body before Lord Och could cast his spell. His skin had turned into an armored substance that was like thick iron, strong but inflexible. Two spikes of iron bones erupted from his shoulders and a pathway of nerves formed in his back.

Valdemar sensed Lord Ochs telekinetic might hit him at the same time as his lightning. The first time they met, the Dark Lords magic had powered through his apprentices defenses and brought him to his knees. Valdemar never stood a chance back then.

But a good spellcaster learned from his mistakes.

Lord Ochs telekinetic push bounced off his apprentices psychic defenses without getting past them. His lightning coiled around Valdemar's shoulder spikes and traveled down the nerve pathways prepared for it all the way to his heels. The redirected electricity harmlessly dissipated into the ground after missing his vital organs.

Valdemar had invented this defense to protect himself from the Derros lightning pylons after they incapacitated him in Astaphanos. He never thought he would need it to fight his own teacher, but it served him well all the same.

An interesting innovation. Lord Och sounded almost proud.

Fool me once, shame on you, Valdemar replied as he reshaped his hands fingers into organic barrels. Fool me twice, shame on me.

A volley of bone and blood bullets erupted from the summoners fingers.

Lord Och didnt bother dodging. Instead, he tore off his robes as his entire skeleton turned black as onyx. Organic bullets bounced off his bones as if it were made of the thickest steel.

Exploiting the lichs overconfidence, Valdemar tried a trick he once used against the Derros. He telekinetically commanded his own blood bullets to reshape into summoning circles and call allies when they hit Och.

Valdemar attempted to summon fire elementals and brutish gugs. He failed. Harmless flames flickered against Ochs reinforced bones, while the gugs manifested in a shower of organs and blood.

With Ktulu heavily wounded and the spatial anomaly altering reality inside the vault, Valdemar couldnt summon safely. His allies were torn apart before they could make their way to Underland.

Pitiful, Lord Och said as he stomped the ground with his right foot. A row of long bone spears rose from the earth and progressed towards Valdemar like a tidal wave.

Valdemar dodged the attack and charged straight at Lord Och. His nails turned into bone knives sharp enough to cut through steel. In a minute, he closed the gap with his master and aimed straight for the head.

Lord Och deftly stepped out of the way and deflected Valdemars arm with a push of his right hand. Did you mistake me for a feeble old man unwilling to get his hands dirty, my apprentice?

The steel skeletons left palm hit Valdemars chest at a bullets speed. Magic rippled from the lichs bones on contact into a mighty telekinetic blast.

If he hadnt cast his armor spell, the blow would have no doubt blown Valdemars organs to smithereens. It still had enough power to propel him backward against the vaults stone wall. Rock shattered against his back upon impact, and his iron skin peeled off to reveal the festering flesh underneath.

You dont live to my age without learning a few things about hand-to-hand combat! Lord Och taunted his apprentice as eldritch flames flared to life between his fingers.

Recognizing the spell his master was about to cast, Valdemar quickly disabled his armor spell and leaped to his left as fast as he could. A stream of searing fire erupted from Lord Ochs hands. Valdemar managed to avoid the lethal hit, the stone wall of the vault melting where the flames touched it.

Your strength is your weakness, my apprentice, Lord Och taunted Valdemar. The air in the room simmered from the heat. You rely so much on summoned soldiers to the point of neglecting your physical training!

Lord Och sustained his stream of flames, forcing his apprentice to stay on the move to escape it. Valdemar reshaped the bones of his legs for the purpose of digitigrade locomotion. The sole of his feet receded as his weight shifted to his distal and intermediate phalanges.

Like a cat.

Valdemar reshaped his bones to better improve his speed. His biomancy lessons had borne fruit. He quickly outpaced Lord Ochs flames and moved swiftly enough to reach the frontier of the lichs field of vision on the left.

Striking by surprise, Valdemar severed his bladed nails and threw them at his mentor from an angle he couldnt predict. Lord Och didnt even turn his head to face them. He simply interrupted his fire spell and snapped his fingers.

A cold wind blew in the underground vault.

Valdemar watched on with a shocked expression as a wall of ice rose from nowhere between teacher and apprentice. Valdemars projectiles went halfway through before the biting cold made their blades brittle.

It wasnt a teleportation spell it wasnt even a spell from the Blood.

The Cold, Valdemar whispered, astonished. The Whitemoon

Lord Och chuckled as the wall of ice collapsed into nothingness. My poor Valdemar, did you truly think I would limit myself to one field of magic?

Does he have eyes on the back of his head too? Valdemar wondered in silent frustration. The Dark Lords sensitivity to the Blood allowed him to sense attacks coming. I cant surprise him. Not this way at least.

The issue of our duel was decided before it even began, Valdemar. Lord Och joined his hands together and started making hand signs. His shadow grew darker, as black as the Light was radiant. I am older, wiser, more experienced.

Maybe, Valdemar admitted as he reshaped his body once again. The spikes on his shoulders turned into organic barrels. But Im a creative soul.

Valdemar remembered one of Lord Ochs comments; that he should be careful never to leave a piece of himself around due to his healing factor. He hadnt fully grasped the reason for the warning, but now he did.

His consciousness was spread across all of his cells. Much like Ialdabaoth, Valdemar could become the wellspring from which new life grew.

His shoulder cannons fired bits of concentrated flesh at Lord Och. As the projectiles crossed the gap between master and apprentice, the Dark Lords shadow rose from the ground into a three-dimensional shape. Valdemar briefly thought his teacher had summoned a Haunter, but the shadow appeared to answer Lord Ochs thoughts directly. It transformed into a hundred black hands and stopped all projectiles with an unnatural agility.

Valdemars fleshy bits revealed their true nature on impact. Tentacles burst out of them like worms gnawing their way out of a fruit. Lord Och recoiled as he found himself facing floating orbs with many eyes and mouths dripping with venom.

Although they looked like independent creatures, these monsters were nothing of the sort; they were extensions of Valdemar, fingers of a different shape. He watched through their eyes and spoke through their mouths.

His creations spat acid at a surprised Lord Och. The lichs shadowy hands protected him from most projectiles, but not all. Some droplets managed to hit his ribcage and rusted his bones.

Refined gastric acid? Lord Och observed. I forgot the taste so long ago

Is it in the room? Valdemar wondered as he scanned the area. His gaze wandered to the shining radiance at the center of the room and the truth hit him like a bullet to the head.

Back when Valdemar had examined the portal more closely, he had felt a soul inside. The sacrificed people used to power the archway had vanished into the ether, but this one had mysteriously remained behind

Its the portal, Valdemar realized. You turned the Pleromian portal into your phylactery.

Lord Och didnt answer, but the brief flicker in his fiery eyes confirmed his apprentices suspicions all the same.

That was why the Dark Lord refused to back down. He had wagered his eternal unlife in his last bid for godhood. Such was his obsession with the Light that he tied his very soul to its threshold.

Valdemar blasted his master once more and rushed at the portal. He used biomancy to stretch his left arm by more than three meters. He only had to touch the steel archway to suck Lord Ochs soul from its hiding place.

His hand turned to ashes before it could make contact. Magical energy rippled from the steel to incinerate his flesh and bones.

Valdemar gritted his teeth in frustration as his hand regenerated. Lord Ochs laughter echoed across the crumbling dome.

My phylactery has more protective spells shielding it than this fortress has stones. A layer of ice stronger than the thickest steel covered the lichs bones. Do you understand the pointlessness of your struggle now, Valdemar? The portal wont close. It will not obey your commands. Only when the veil has thinned will my soul depart its sanctuary and pass through with yours following, of course.

The world became cold.

I have humored you long enough, Valdemar. Eternity awaits us.

White mist seeped from Lord Ochs bones and dropped the temperature tenfold. A layer of frost covered the Painted Field. Valdemars skin froze and turned brittle. The summoner used biomancy to increase his bodys temperature, even as the water in his eyes turned to ice.

Ktulu, a voice said from within his ribcage.

Valdemars breath of relief turned to mist when it came out of his lungs. His familiar had recovered some of its strength within his body. Its childish mind brushed against Valdemars thoughts with a comforting presence.

Ktulhu ftahgna, the tiny Stranger said.

An idea traveled through the mental link Valdemar shared with his familiar, as clear as pure water.

It is time.

You are right. Valdemar joined his hands in prayer with Ktulu humming to itself. He ignored the chilling cold and the Lights radiance both. There is no other way.

His familiar became a conduit between his summoner and the cosmos.

In his dead house at the bottom of the sea, Valdemar chanted, his voice crossing the boundaries between the planes. The Old One lies dreaming

It didnt matter if Valdemar lacked the power to summon allies. The entity he contacted could reach the universe on their own, even with the spatial anomaly getting in its way.

They only needed to take notice.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, Valdemar finished his prayer, and with strange aeons even death may die!

Ktulus father answered the call.

Valdemar felt his brain boil in his skull as a crushing telepathic presence overwhelmed his thoughts. A cold alien mind ripped through his mental protections as if they didnt exist.

There was no warmth nor cruelty coming from the link. The entity didnt even acknowledge Valdemars existence. Humans were so small in comparison to its cosmic magnificence that as far as the creature was concerned, they did not even exist. Neither did it feel any affection for Ktulu. The entity didnt feel emotions the way humans did, if at all.

But it answered its star-spawns prayer all the same.

Valdemar only saw a brief glimpse of the entity through the veil between worlds. A human mind would have imploded from trying to comprehend its eldritch geometry. The sorcerers half-Stranger nature preserved his sanity, though he failed to properly process the entitys apocalyptic visage. Its form vaguely echoed that of Ktulu, but with gargantuan proportions. Its flesh existed in multiple universes at once, between the boundary of life and death.

Was it a Stranger? Or something else? This creature wasnt affiliated with Ialdabaoth, the Whitemoon, or the Silent King, yet its power rivaled their own. The entity embodied the uncaring nature of the cosmos, the apocalyptic power of gamma rays, and the inevitability of entropic annihilation. The fate of men inspired little more than apathy in its cold alien heart.

The chaotic fabric of spacetime weakened further as the entity peered through the veil on the other side. Lord Och recoiled as if struck, his cold aura swept away by an invisible force. The Lights radiance dimmed as a mighty interdimensional shadow covered the room.

You mad fool, you will destroy us both! The mocking confidence in Lord Ochs voice turned to an emotion Valdemar had never heard coming from his teacher.

Fear.

Ktulus father was too ancient and powerful for even Valdemar to summon properly. The stars were not right for it. Only the shadow of a colossal green hand took shape in the vault, so large that the Painted World looked no bigger than a nail in comparison. The Institute trembled with its terrible manifestation.

Lord Och unleashed a mighty thunderbolt at the monstrous fingers, the electricity shining bright as the stars. Spacetime curved the lightning around and dispersed it into nothingness. To Valdemars eyes, it seemed as if the spell had lost its way through mangled angles and bent lines.

This is the last Pleromian portal left in all of Underland! Lord Och shouted in genuine panic. Prayer was now his last refuge. If you destroy it, you will never reach Earth! Mankind will be condemned to languish in this ruin of a planet for all eternity!

I remember your lesson, my teacher, Valdemar replied. By now, he couldnt stop the entity if he wanted to. I will bear the weight of my dream.

No one should sacrifice others for their dream, if they werent willing to die themselves for it.

I will find another way.

The hand of the alien god shattered the portal and switched off the Light.

Dimensions collapsed with the vaults ceiling. Lord Och let out a scream of rage as space cracked and fell apart around him. Valdemar smiled as a surge of energy swallowed his world and blinded him with its radiance.

There was darkness, and then nothing.