Requiem Star
2009-09-10, 02:24 PM
Josef couldn't believe his luck. This had gone way past bad. In fact, he was inclined to believe that the Black Jester must have swapped his dice for this streak of bad luck. The three of them were going to die. The question was, of course, would it be at the hands of the witch hunter mob behind them or the vampire in the church ahead?
"They're close." Growled one of his companions, figuratively. He was glad for that. Very glad. Izzel was fearsome enough when she wasn't transformed into a six foot tall killing machine of fur and fangs. The diminuative woodcutter had all ready proved she could rip a man in two with little difficulty. True, Josef wasn't as soft as most of the enemies they had faced... but he really really didn't want to put it to the test.
"Close as in about to see us or close as in about to kill us?" Asked Renault in a bored voice as they continued to slog through the snow. The pale figure had little difficulty in this chill weather. Josef figured it didn't hurt that he was kin to the monster they were about to face.
"Close as in..." there was a rifle shot and a frozen pine tree thudded a foot from Josef's head. "That." Izzel finished. All ready she was changing. He hated to watch her go from a diminutive girl to that great hulking monster. "I'll buy you time."
"Izzel. They have silver." Renault said in a slightly less bored tone. "Blessed silver at that."
"Then I'll just have to kill them first." And with a roar she dropped to all fours and raced through the snowy underbrush towards the mob advancing behind them. Somewhere in the back the bishop was urging the men forward and trying to counter the fear inspired by the savage beast. More worrisome was the witch hunter... where the hell was she?
Still, she was admittedly an effective stalling tactic. One that Josef didn't mean to let pass up. The burly man clutched his huge shotgun to his chest with one hand while the other gripped the axe that battered aside obsticles. Behind him Renault glided behind as silent as death. One graceful hand holding the butt of his esquisite (and vastly overpriced) pistol. The other was empty... and it was the far more disturbing hand.
The church had been long ago transformed into an abattoir for the cardinal. Bring me your poor... your lost... your weak in need of strength. And the people here had bought it. Even Josef had for a while. At least until his daughter fell ill and he took her here for a miracle. All he got in return was a corpse... a corpse drained of all its blood. Then Renault had come and told him about the world of shadow and how the cardinal was one such monster. That must have been the time his dice were swapped.
"There's a side door..." Josef began. Renault looked insulted; of course that was the default expression for most Thembrians. The vampire blooded man walked casually towards the main entrance of the church. Josef gave a hiss of annoyance but followed. Who knew, maybe they could pull this off? Renault stood before the large front doors of the church and extended his empty hand. He began chanting words of power. Words that were heresy. Blasphemy. And not just a little bit intimidating. Josef's hairs stood up on the back of his neck... and that was quite a bit of hair... as black hands of shadow shot out and gripped the edifice. Stone, ice, and wood all popped and groaned as the dozen hands began to pull. Then there was a resounding pop and crash as the doors were not just pulled wide but were ripped off their hinges.
For one inkling of a second Josef had a hope that he might have his revenge and live to enjoy it too. Then the pistol shot rang out. Renault jerked once, his pale blue eyes wide as blood spurted out his mouth and nose. He fell to his knees as the wound in his back smoked and hissed and he hissed through clenched teeth, "Blessed... silver..."
Behind the two of them stood the witch hunter. Why in the name of the dark gods did she have to look so beautiful? In one hand she held the revolver, its barrel traced in dozens of prayers to the God of Light. In the other a sword, equally blessed. Was it his imagination or were both glowing faintly in the chill moonlight. "You abominations have spilled enough innocent blood and desecrated a house of God."
Yes! She was talking instead of finishing them off. "We told you in the village and you didn't listen. The cardinal... your man of mercy and kindness... he's the monster." The woman had also knocked out two of Josef's teeth for saying that. Back in the village he'd had only his word... here with the doors torn open to reveal the dark interior of the church he thought he saw a shiver of doubt across her fair features.
"You lie. I know the taint of death and evil. I've been in the presence of the cardinal. I've saved his life!" She retorted. He wished she moved the gun off Renault... but that would only mean that she would be pointing it at him.
Renault laughed softly, "Oh creatures of the night know all kinds of ways to hide ourselves. Shapeshifting. Glammours. And having some rogue 'feral' vampire attack him while there's a witch hunter in the room. After all, if she sensed anything, it could all be blamed on the patsy." He seemed to be recovering his strength. He was also looking a lot less human with his fangs showing like that and his eyes glowing yellow. "You never questioned the curious circumstance of your 'rescue'?"
She was hesitating. In the village it had been easy for her to rebuff Josef. "We're here to stop him. Different reasons... but we're here to stop him just the same." For a second he was sure that they were both death. Just a second though. His dice must have been spinning on points just then because she took the gun off of Renault and on to Josef. Her eyes narrowed. He started to dive for cover when she fired... and the slug passed by so close he could hear it buzz... right before it impacted with the ghoul's skull. The monster had no mortality to protect it from her blessing. It's rotting skull exploded like a melon and showered Josef with rotten brain matter. The gaunt headless body continued to claw randomly about it as it staggered away while more ghouls emerged from the door.
"Good choice." Renault said dryly as he aimed for the next monster racing towards the three of them. His spell didn't carry the blessing of the witch hunter. His was much more insideous. The bullet struck the closest ghoul, who immediately turned and tackled one of its undead breatheren. Josef raised his shotgun, aimed, and fired. The alchemist shot did its work beautifully, not just knocking them away but also turning them into burning pyres that should finish the job.
"The greater evil then." She replied as she advanced fearlessly through the doors. Her saber bit deep into the hide of the undead monsters, aided by her blessings that continued to chew at their bodies.
"I've been insulted." Renault replied as he finally stood on his shaky legs and followed her in. Black bolts of energy streaked from his hand and struck the ghouls in the rear, feeding off their undead power and turning it against them. Josef followed, reloading the shotgun with alchemist shot as he kept an eye out for monsters on their flanks. By the time they were halfway down the nave the witch hunter and renault had pushed their enemies into a tight knot. Josef laughed as he reached down to a brass canister on his belt, pulled the pin out, and threw the can into the midst of the monsters. A second later all of them were awash in fire.
In less than a minute the remainder were dead. Or redead. Josef was never quite sure the proper term. Then from the altar came a slow clapping. The Cardinal stood in his robes, the white cloth stained red and black with the frozen blood of dozens. He wasn't hiding himself now. He made Renault look positively human with the icy pallor of his skin. "Well done, my dear Beora. You've done the mother church proud."
She was shocked and enraged and horrified all at once. "Monster." She hissed in rage and fired two rounds at the monster. Both deflected off a shadowy disk of force in front of him. He arched a brow above his red eye as he grinned. "Monster? Monster! You dare!" He said as he pointed back at her. "Thousands of my subjects murdered in the name of your God. Thousands more forced to bend knee away from the lord they swore fealty to. My wife. My daughters! Murdered in questioning for refusing to betray me!"
He swept his hand over the pews where the dozens of corpses sat in a mockery of worship. His features disappeared behind the facade of a kindly old man as he gave a leer at Beora. "But I'm hardly bitter. If you can't beat them... join them. Isn't that the phrase?"
Beora started to charge when Renault stepped infront of her. For a moment Josef was sure that she would cut him down to get at the Cardinal. Renault only had eyes for the vampire before them. "Just what I'd expect of you, uncle. An eye for ten thousand eyes."
The Cardinal looked curious for a moment. "Renault? My word... it is you! I would have thought the crows would have been at you ages ago." He looked at the pair with mirth. "Please tell me you two aren't breeding. Such a scandal..."
"No uncle. You should rest assured that she shot me firmly in the back while I was planning how to rip her soul from her mortal shell." Beora took her eyes off the Cardinal for a moment, looking at the thin man with a touch of shock. Josef meanwhile moved to the side, trying to keep one eye on the corpses and another on the Cardinal and a third on the slippery ice patches filling the church.
"I see. Well a pity you didn't come under more civil circumstances. I would have made you an excellent offer. Power more true than your own little magics." The Cardinal sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Flattering, uncle, but I like my little magics. I earned them." He said as he reached into his shirt and pulled out the strange little clay statue Josef had seen when they'd met. There was just a moment. One moment before everything exploded into battle and murder. But on that moment the Cardinal wore a mask of pure and utter terror. And that was good enough for Josef.
The blast of black energy was enough to shatter the nave of the church, but it crashed off a shield of darkness identical to the one being wielded by the Cardinal. From the corpse congregation rose a small army of undead. Josef could imagine the dice tumbling from the cup as he fired again and again into the dead throng.
"Beora. If you would be so kind." Renault said as he tossed the ugly little clay doll at her. She caught it, looking at it questioningly. Renault sighed, "Break it with your lovely blessed sword, if you would?" With that launched himself into battle with the Cardinal. His fingers grew to points to counter the Cardinal's slashing and rending talons. Then the dice came up skulls. A ghoul leapt past Renault and slammed into her, knocking the little doll out of her grip. Then she had her own undead horde to deal with.
"You dare? You dare! You bring that thing here and then have her destroy it?" the Cardinal screamed as he ripped at Renault with his bone white talons.
"Yes uncle. I do dare. Next time, when you barrow some magic from the Dark gods, store the power in something a little more durable than your daughter's keepsake."
Josef spotted the little doll at the base of a pew. Well... it wasn't perfect but the game wasn't over yet. He fired the shotgun and blasted the little doll towards Beora. He'd hoped it would shatter, but the clay held some sort of magical resilience. Unfortunately the undead took advantage of his shift in attention and lept for him. Josef was a strong man, but the press of undead drove him to his knees.
Beora took her glowing blade and brought it down on the clay figure. Josef had no idea if he imagined the little doll raising its hands and giving out a child's scream before the sword shattered the doll in two. A dark wind rushed out of the building, and for a moment everything turned black. When it passed, the Cardinal appeared... tired. He sagged and seemed a bit shrunken and withered. "Nephew... how could you? You'd destroy your own on behalf of them and their worthless diety?"
"No uncle. But I'm afraid you've quite let yourself go. You're a disgrace to what you once were. To what our family means." He lunged forward, drawing from his other sleave the sleek tapered black wood stake. No shield appeared to block him as Renault drove the wood into the Cardinal's chest.
Josef wasn't sure what he expected to happen. The Cardnial threw back his head and vomited forth a bloody ichor. And then he appeared to undergo a century of rot in seconds. His skin blackened, slumped, and burst in gore. All the while he continued to scream until his chest cavity dropped rotting organs upon the floor. Finally a slimy skeleton fell to the ground, and that too liquified into something the consistency of steaming tar. Finally the scream trailed off with the gory mass... and nothing was left behind but a charred and broken stake. The corpses gave a final shutter and laid still.
"Well. That's that." Renault said, turning to find Beora's revolver pointed right at his face. She smiled that smile that made Josef's legs go weak as her eyes narrowed.
"Not quite." She said. Her mistake. Josef could have shouted out a warning. Perhaps he might have been allowed to live if he had. But before she could fire a bloody furred mass launched itself from the door and crashed into her from behind, knocking her weapons away. She screamed as one hand imbedded itself in her spine, another gripped her neck, and a huge wolven maw tore out her spine. Josef forced himself to look away as she gave a gurgle and expired.
Josef stood and saw Renault looking at him, stroking his chin in contemplation. "Me next?" He asked, hearing the final clatter of the dice being rolled.
"I'm shocked. Positively shocked you would think such a thing of me, my friend." He said in feigned injury as he examined Beora's revolver with approval. "Haven't we proved ourselves to each other? Are we not comrades equally damned?"
Josef just looked away as Renault went about scrubbing away the prayers on the barrel with his claws as Izzel reverted to her human appearance. She wrapped her naked body with Beora's bloodstained cloak as she walked over to him and smiled, her face smeared with blood and flecks of organ. "Don't worry, Josef. You are way too good for some one like her. And with that she joined Renault as the two of them headed for the crushed door.
Renault looked over his shoulder at him, his lips curling in amusement. "Coming?" He asked.
Josef would have liked to know how the dice had come up, but the Dark Jester wasn't letting him. If this was how his fate was going to end up, he certainly wasn't sure he liked it.
"They're close." Growled one of his companions, figuratively. He was glad for that. Very glad. Izzel was fearsome enough when she wasn't transformed into a six foot tall killing machine of fur and fangs. The diminuative woodcutter had all ready proved she could rip a man in two with little difficulty. True, Josef wasn't as soft as most of the enemies they had faced... but he really really didn't want to put it to the test.
"Close as in about to see us or close as in about to kill us?" Asked Renault in a bored voice as they continued to slog through the snow. The pale figure had little difficulty in this chill weather. Josef figured it didn't hurt that he was kin to the monster they were about to face.
"Close as in..." there was a rifle shot and a frozen pine tree thudded a foot from Josef's head. "That." Izzel finished. All ready she was changing. He hated to watch her go from a diminutive girl to that great hulking monster. "I'll buy you time."
"Izzel. They have silver." Renault said in a slightly less bored tone. "Blessed silver at that."
"Then I'll just have to kill them first." And with a roar she dropped to all fours and raced through the snowy underbrush towards the mob advancing behind them. Somewhere in the back the bishop was urging the men forward and trying to counter the fear inspired by the savage beast. More worrisome was the witch hunter... where the hell was she?
Still, she was admittedly an effective stalling tactic. One that Josef didn't mean to let pass up. The burly man clutched his huge shotgun to his chest with one hand while the other gripped the axe that battered aside obsticles. Behind him Renault glided behind as silent as death. One graceful hand holding the butt of his esquisite (and vastly overpriced) pistol. The other was empty... and it was the far more disturbing hand.
The church had been long ago transformed into an abattoir for the cardinal. Bring me your poor... your lost... your weak in need of strength. And the people here had bought it. Even Josef had for a while. At least until his daughter fell ill and he took her here for a miracle. All he got in return was a corpse... a corpse drained of all its blood. Then Renault had come and told him about the world of shadow and how the cardinal was one such monster. That must have been the time his dice were swapped.
"There's a side door..." Josef began. Renault looked insulted; of course that was the default expression for most Thembrians. The vampire blooded man walked casually towards the main entrance of the church. Josef gave a hiss of annoyance but followed. Who knew, maybe they could pull this off? Renault stood before the large front doors of the church and extended his empty hand. He began chanting words of power. Words that were heresy. Blasphemy. And not just a little bit intimidating. Josef's hairs stood up on the back of his neck... and that was quite a bit of hair... as black hands of shadow shot out and gripped the edifice. Stone, ice, and wood all popped and groaned as the dozen hands began to pull. Then there was a resounding pop and crash as the doors were not just pulled wide but were ripped off their hinges.
For one inkling of a second Josef had a hope that he might have his revenge and live to enjoy it too. Then the pistol shot rang out. Renault jerked once, his pale blue eyes wide as blood spurted out his mouth and nose. He fell to his knees as the wound in his back smoked and hissed and he hissed through clenched teeth, "Blessed... silver..."
Behind the two of them stood the witch hunter. Why in the name of the dark gods did she have to look so beautiful? In one hand she held the revolver, its barrel traced in dozens of prayers to the God of Light. In the other a sword, equally blessed. Was it his imagination or were both glowing faintly in the chill moonlight. "You abominations have spilled enough innocent blood and desecrated a house of God."
Yes! She was talking instead of finishing them off. "We told you in the village and you didn't listen. The cardinal... your man of mercy and kindness... he's the monster." The woman had also knocked out two of Josef's teeth for saying that. Back in the village he'd had only his word... here with the doors torn open to reveal the dark interior of the church he thought he saw a shiver of doubt across her fair features.
"You lie. I know the taint of death and evil. I've been in the presence of the cardinal. I've saved his life!" She retorted. He wished she moved the gun off Renault... but that would only mean that she would be pointing it at him.
Renault laughed softly, "Oh creatures of the night know all kinds of ways to hide ourselves. Shapeshifting. Glammours. And having some rogue 'feral' vampire attack him while there's a witch hunter in the room. After all, if she sensed anything, it could all be blamed on the patsy." He seemed to be recovering his strength. He was also looking a lot less human with his fangs showing like that and his eyes glowing yellow. "You never questioned the curious circumstance of your 'rescue'?"
She was hesitating. In the village it had been easy for her to rebuff Josef. "We're here to stop him. Different reasons... but we're here to stop him just the same." For a second he was sure that they were both death. Just a second though. His dice must have been spinning on points just then because she took the gun off of Renault and on to Josef. Her eyes narrowed. He started to dive for cover when she fired... and the slug passed by so close he could hear it buzz... right before it impacted with the ghoul's skull. The monster had no mortality to protect it from her blessing. It's rotting skull exploded like a melon and showered Josef with rotten brain matter. The gaunt headless body continued to claw randomly about it as it staggered away while more ghouls emerged from the door.
"Good choice." Renault said dryly as he aimed for the next monster racing towards the three of them. His spell didn't carry the blessing of the witch hunter. His was much more insideous. The bullet struck the closest ghoul, who immediately turned and tackled one of its undead breatheren. Josef raised his shotgun, aimed, and fired. The alchemist shot did its work beautifully, not just knocking them away but also turning them into burning pyres that should finish the job.
"The greater evil then." She replied as she advanced fearlessly through the doors. Her saber bit deep into the hide of the undead monsters, aided by her blessings that continued to chew at their bodies.
"I've been insulted." Renault replied as he finally stood on his shaky legs and followed her in. Black bolts of energy streaked from his hand and struck the ghouls in the rear, feeding off their undead power and turning it against them. Josef followed, reloading the shotgun with alchemist shot as he kept an eye out for monsters on their flanks. By the time they were halfway down the nave the witch hunter and renault had pushed their enemies into a tight knot. Josef laughed as he reached down to a brass canister on his belt, pulled the pin out, and threw the can into the midst of the monsters. A second later all of them were awash in fire.
In less than a minute the remainder were dead. Or redead. Josef was never quite sure the proper term. Then from the altar came a slow clapping. The Cardinal stood in his robes, the white cloth stained red and black with the frozen blood of dozens. He wasn't hiding himself now. He made Renault look positively human with the icy pallor of his skin. "Well done, my dear Beora. You've done the mother church proud."
She was shocked and enraged and horrified all at once. "Monster." She hissed in rage and fired two rounds at the monster. Both deflected off a shadowy disk of force in front of him. He arched a brow above his red eye as he grinned. "Monster? Monster! You dare!" He said as he pointed back at her. "Thousands of my subjects murdered in the name of your God. Thousands more forced to bend knee away from the lord they swore fealty to. My wife. My daughters! Murdered in questioning for refusing to betray me!"
He swept his hand over the pews where the dozens of corpses sat in a mockery of worship. His features disappeared behind the facade of a kindly old man as he gave a leer at Beora. "But I'm hardly bitter. If you can't beat them... join them. Isn't that the phrase?"
Beora started to charge when Renault stepped infront of her. For a moment Josef was sure that she would cut him down to get at the Cardinal. Renault only had eyes for the vampire before them. "Just what I'd expect of you, uncle. An eye for ten thousand eyes."
The Cardinal looked curious for a moment. "Renault? My word... it is you! I would have thought the crows would have been at you ages ago." He looked at the pair with mirth. "Please tell me you two aren't breeding. Such a scandal..."
"No uncle. You should rest assured that she shot me firmly in the back while I was planning how to rip her soul from her mortal shell." Beora took her eyes off the Cardinal for a moment, looking at the thin man with a touch of shock. Josef meanwhile moved to the side, trying to keep one eye on the corpses and another on the Cardinal and a third on the slippery ice patches filling the church.
"I see. Well a pity you didn't come under more civil circumstances. I would have made you an excellent offer. Power more true than your own little magics." The Cardinal sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Flattering, uncle, but I like my little magics. I earned them." He said as he reached into his shirt and pulled out the strange little clay statue Josef had seen when they'd met. There was just a moment. One moment before everything exploded into battle and murder. But on that moment the Cardinal wore a mask of pure and utter terror. And that was good enough for Josef.
The blast of black energy was enough to shatter the nave of the church, but it crashed off a shield of darkness identical to the one being wielded by the Cardinal. From the corpse congregation rose a small army of undead. Josef could imagine the dice tumbling from the cup as he fired again and again into the dead throng.
"Beora. If you would be so kind." Renault said as he tossed the ugly little clay doll at her. She caught it, looking at it questioningly. Renault sighed, "Break it with your lovely blessed sword, if you would?" With that launched himself into battle with the Cardinal. His fingers grew to points to counter the Cardinal's slashing and rending talons. Then the dice came up skulls. A ghoul leapt past Renault and slammed into her, knocking the little doll out of her grip. Then she had her own undead horde to deal with.
"You dare? You dare! You bring that thing here and then have her destroy it?" the Cardinal screamed as he ripped at Renault with his bone white talons.
"Yes uncle. I do dare. Next time, when you barrow some magic from the Dark gods, store the power in something a little more durable than your daughter's keepsake."
Josef spotted the little doll at the base of a pew. Well... it wasn't perfect but the game wasn't over yet. He fired the shotgun and blasted the little doll towards Beora. He'd hoped it would shatter, but the clay held some sort of magical resilience. Unfortunately the undead took advantage of his shift in attention and lept for him. Josef was a strong man, but the press of undead drove him to his knees.
Beora took her glowing blade and brought it down on the clay figure. Josef had no idea if he imagined the little doll raising its hands and giving out a child's scream before the sword shattered the doll in two. A dark wind rushed out of the building, and for a moment everything turned black. When it passed, the Cardinal appeared... tired. He sagged and seemed a bit shrunken and withered. "Nephew... how could you? You'd destroy your own on behalf of them and their worthless diety?"
"No uncle. But I'm afraid you've quite let yourself go. You're a disgrace to what you once were. To what our family means." He lunged forward, drawing from his other sleave the sleek tapered black wood stake. No shield appeared to block him as Renault drove the wood into the Cardinal's chest.
Josef wasn't sure what he expected to happen. The Cardnial threw back his head and vomited forth a bloody ichor. And then he appeared to undergo a century of rot in seconds. His skin blackened, slumped, and burst in gore. All the while he continued to scream until his chest cavity dropped rotting organs upon the floor. Finally a slimy skeleton fell to the ground, and that too liquified into something the consistency of steaming tar. Finally the scream trailed off with the gory mass... and nothing was left behind but a charred and broken stake. The corpses gave a final shutter and laid still.
"Well. That's that." Renault said, turning to find Beora's revolver pointed right at his face. She smiled that smile that made Josef's legs go weak as her eyes narrowed.
"Not quite." She said. Her mistake. Josef could have shouted out a warning. Perhaps he might have been allowed to live if he had. But before she could fire a bloody furred mass launched itself from the door and crashed into her from behind, knocking her weapons away. She screamed as one hand imbedded itself in her spine, another gripped her neck, and a huge wolven maw tore out her spine. Josef forced himself to look away as she gave a gurgle and expired.
Josef stood and saw Renault looking at him, stroking his chin in contemplation. "Me next?" He asked, hearing the final clatter of the dice being rolled.
"I'm shocked. Positively shocked you would think such a thing of me, my friend." He said in feigned injury as he examined Beora's revolver with approval. "Haven't we proved ourselves to each other? Are we not comrades equally damned?"
Josef just looked away as Renault went about scrubbing away the prayers on the barrel with his claws as Izzel reverted to her human appearance. She wrapped her naked body with Beora's bloodstained cloak as she walked over to him and smiled, her face smeared with blood and flecks of organ. "Don't worry, Josef. You are way too good for some one like her. And with that she joined Renault as the two of them headed for the crushed door.
Renault looked over his shoulder at him, his lips curling in amusement. "Coming?" He asked.
Josef would have liked to know how the dice had come up, but the Dark Jester wasn't letting him. If this was how his fate was going to end up, he certainly wasn't sure he liked it.