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Divine: Chapter 6

Ralos shivered intensely. He felt so cold, so tired as he struggled to remain standing and conscious. He was so close to finishing. Ending now would mean he would have lost so much for nothing. He had to keep pushing.

Focus. Focus on the task at hand. Concentrate on each second, count each on as it passed by. Ralos remembered the teachings of his master when he had been but a meager apprentice, only just grasping his abilities to manipulate the arcane winds that flowed across the lands. He had studied nearly fifty years. Half of it had been in secret, deep in the catacombs of Melur where magic was illegal. Only the holy miracles of the Church was allowed. He would live his life normally except for a few nights a weeks where he would scurry through the sewers, avoiding guards along the way to get to the ancient catacombs where he was practice.

When the split occurred, and Edwin Kelm called for the oppressed mages and users of the arcane to rise up with him, Ralos had answered the call and joined the ranks of the Resistance. For another twenty-five years, he loyally served and devoted his every being to their cause. The Church was old and dying. It persecuted those who were born with a gift that could be used to help the world. Instead, they rounded up and killed any that would threaten their holy order and their prophecies. He had seen it before in Melur. Hidden sects of mages would be rooted out of their hiding places before being executed for defiling the city with their unholy practices. It was heresy to do so in the city. Many a time, Ralos told himself that it could have been him or any of the others that had joined him in those dank catacombs. Not anymore.

The spell was dangerous. Teleportation was avoided by all, but the most experienced magic users for magic was not free. Each spell had a price to pay. Magic eroded the mind, slowly driving the mage insane over the course of years if they persisted in using their spells. It was called the Fel since it was no ordinary insanity. Those that became consumed by the Fel would descend into a magic-crazed state where their body would turn into something not human anymore, a demon.

Small spells were safe. The toll on the body from something such as lighting a candle or moving a small object could be healed naturally. Larger spells such as casting fire or manipulating the weather had a greater toll. It was a common practice for an avid user of magic to 'fast' for up to a year to allow their body to recover.

When Edwin Kelm had come to Ralos with the request for him to open a portal large enough to march an army through, the rat had put off all magic use, no matter how small, for two years. He made sure there was no Fel in him at all for a spell of this magnitude was certain to exact a toll beyond anything the experienced mage had ever encountered.

Now it was time. Ralos and a few loyal acolytes had snuck into the lands of the Church from the war-torn north where a stalemate had developed, disguised as travelers. They traveled all the way to just outside of Melur where Ralos prepared. He had his acolytes, all five of them conjure a storm, as large as they could while he made his own spell.

He had been chanting, drawing sigils and channeling as much arcane energy as he could for the better part of the day before his last acolyte passed out. The storm, which had masked his efforts, would break apart soon. He was almost done, but Ralos could feel his body and mind breaking down. He had to do this; he had come so far. If he stopped now, the war would forever be stuck in the north where the Chuch could outlast them. But if he succeeded, an army would lay siege to the holy city and turn the tide of the war.

A spasm shook the rain drenched rat as he forced himself to speak the last of the chants. He felt a rise of energy flowing through him and out his outstretched fingertips. A blue mist radiated from his body and seeped into the chalk sigils that lay on the stone of the casting circle he had erected with stone bricks. The sigils began to glow a dark blue and began to vibrate before lifting off the rock. Ralos allowed himself a smile through the intense pain he was in. It had worked.

The sigils went higher and higher, arranging themselves into a circle the stood twelve feet off of the ground. The sigils then uncoiled into strings of pure energy, connecting at the tips to create a full circle. There was a sputtering as the circle then filled in with a water-like substance that shimmered with power and reflected the old rat's face and the surrounding woods that were only a few miles away from the city. Close enough to march to within a day, but far enough away to not be quickly discovered.

Now it was time to set the desired destination of the other portal.

Ralos lifted his arms with the little strength he had. He put the image of the muster fields where the Resistance army awaited for their portal to open. He held the image of the location hard into his mind, burning it into the back of his closed eyelids. He focused on it until it seemed to be sucked from his mind and into the portal.

Ralos opened his eyes and saw that there was no longer a reflection of himself in the portal, but the image from his mind, except it, was real. He could see columns of armored soldiers and robed mages waiting on the other side.

He was about to wave them over when there was a loud crack over his head. Ralos looked up and saw a fiery ball soar over his head and farther into the woods, out of sight. He had never seen such a thing, and he was suddenly concerned that it could have been the church.

There was a distant boom in the direction of where the fiery ball had gone. Something was off, but whatever it was, it would have to wait. This was a plan two years in the making. It couldn't stop now.

Ralos was getting weaker by the second. He knew that he desperately to perform a cleansing ceremony to dispell the immense Fel that had accumulated in his body from the spell, but he needed to finish the job. The spell was bound to him at the moment. He needed another mage to come through and take control. Otherwise, if he left, the portal would close.

Ralos waved at people on the other side of the portal, and one of the mages waved back before turning to the rest of the army. There was close to seven thousand that were ready to march. It would be enough to take Melur since many of the Resistance's best mages were going to be coming as well. Siege golems would be erected, pulled straight from the earth and they would tear down the walls. The city would fall in days, long before any sizable resistance could be made.

Ralos was sweating now, more than he thought possible for his small body. He could feel the Fel in his body now, slowing creeping into his mind, clouding all coherent thought. He shook his head and focused on keeping the portal open. He could see his relief heading for it now, just a little longer before he could start the cleansing ceremony and dispell as much Fell as he could into the soil where it would cause no harm. In the Church lands where there was very little Fel, it would only take minutes to perform the ceremony versus in the Fel saturated north where too many mages were.

The mage came up to the portal and touched it. Ralos could feel him touch the portal, and it sapped his strength. This was unforeseen. He did not compensate on having to focus not only on keeping the portal open, but on carrying each passenger through as well. He had overlooked this. He shouldn't have, but he had been so excited to prove his true ability and show off that his pride had gotten the better of him.

The mage, a buck with long arcing antlers with the velvet still on them, pushed through the portal.

Ralos gasped as his vision left him. He was blind but still awake. He just had to keep focusing on the portal; he didn't need sight to do that.

He could feel the mage's body enter the void between the muster fields and where Ralos was now. The journey for the mage was instantaneous, but to Ralos it was an eternity as he tasted blood in his mouth and then a snap in his head as the Fel seemed to take on a mind of its own. Every time that Ralos faltered even slightly in concentration, the Fel stormed the breach in his mental defenses while skirting around the parts of his mind that he tried to reinforce. He needed to fend it off, but he couldn't. The spell had taken too high of a toll on the old mage. Perhaps in his prime, he would have been able to do it, but the rat had been in decline for some time now.

For the mage, stepping through the portal to the other side was instant, but in that instant, the Fel had already won and the mage he had seen on the other side of the portal, a hero to many now, was already gone.

Ralos, if he could still be called that, could now easily hold the portal open and allow passage. He drew upon the latent power of the Fel to augment his strength as the first mage finally came through, unaware that his fate had just been sealed.

"Ralos." The buck grinned. "You magnificent conjurer. You have truly outdone not only yourself, but even the expectations of Edwin Kelm, who already held you in such high esteem." He gave a courteous bow and Ralos returned it with a toothy smile.

"You flatter me." There was a tinge of something else in the rat's voice as he spoke, but the other mage was not well acquainted with Ralos to know how he normally spoke, so it went unnoticed. "Hurry and usher the rest through, the storm is no longer sustained." He looked over at the five acolytes that had fainted, not from Fel, but just from the physical exertion of maintaining the spell for so long. "It will only mask us for so much longer." At that moment, a flash of green went across his eyes, but again the other mage did not notice. He had turned around the wave the rest of army through.

Seeing that it was all clear, individual companies began to march towards the portal since it was only just wide enough to fit five individuals abreast.

Ralos smiled at the thought of having so many coming to him. The Fel wasn't considered a living entity, it was considered a corrupting force, but if the scholars knew of how it had affected Ralos, some would have called it a parasite with the goal of infecting a host and then spreading to more and more hosts and draining them, but not before causing chaos and destruction.

The buck did sense something. A change in the arcane winds, like a foul odor that seeped into his nose. He turned around and looked at the only possible source, Ralos.

The rat's fur had turned a darker color, from its light gray with hints of maroon around the neck to an oily purple. His teeth had grown into tusks, and claws sprouted from his fingers that bled a dark fluid under the nails. His eyes clouded over with a green haze.

"Fel." The buck said once. He knew the signs and should have noticed the moment he came through. He should have taken over holding the portal open immediately instead of wasting those few seconds to throw praises to the wind. Even though the buck could not have actually done anything to save Ralos, he did not know this and immediately placed all blame on himself. Now it was up to him to fix the mistake.

"Why do you look at me like that?" Corrupted Ralos asked, cocking his head to the side and smiling to reveal rotted gums. It was disgusting how fast Fel acted once it took a hold. Less than a minute ago, Ralos had appeared normal.

"I'm sorry," The other mage said and widened his stance and bent his knees to lower his center of gravity. He pulled his hands to his chest and focused. A flame began to manifest between his palms. He was going to get rid of the Fel the only way he knew how... with fire "I only hope the price was worth."

"The price is still being paid." Ralos laughed and pointed at the portal.

The mage looked and saw that the portal no longer had a blue shimmer to it, but a sickly green one and the first company was now walking through.

"No!" The buck screamed just as another mage and the company of soldiers passed to the other side. "STOP!" The flame between his hands faded, the casting process interrupted. "It's a trap!" They couldn't hear him on the other side, but they could see him and what happened to those that passed through.

There was screaming, and pained gasps as those that made it through were immediately corrupted by the Fel that had been planted into the fabric of the portal and was strewn across the unsuspecting victims, seeping into them instantly.

Thier minds were instantly taken. Not even the new mage that had just walked through with this group of soldiers stood a chance since he had no time to prepare a defense. His robes tore open as his body was twisted and transformed from that of an otter to something unnatural. Bone pushed through his skin, creating ridges, his chest expanded, and his laid grew spines. The effects of the Fel were different for each of them, but it turned them all into monstrous demons.

Those on the other side of the portal panicked at seeing their comrades turn into demons, lost forever to them.

Two mages, known as the Pillars of Kelm, an ox and a leopard in silken black robes, stepped up to the portal and channels a disruption spell to cull all magic in the area. The both stood on either side of the portal and raised their hands to the sky.

On the buck's side, he watched at the image of the Pillars faded and the portal closed successfully, preventing anymore from coming through. The plan had failed miserably and lives had been wasted.

There was a chuckle.

"No matter," Ralos said. "I've got more than enough."

The others, their transformations complete, made a circle the lone buck. They stared at him with hungry eyes and drooling mouths. They were no longer the brave soldiers of the Resistance that fought for a world free of the tyranny of the Church and their false messages. They were now slaves to the Fel, a force that desired nothing more than to cause chaos and destruction, to sow death and despair. That was it's only purpose.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." The buck knew that this was a fight that he couldn't win. He wasn't a strong magic user; he had only practiced extensively in channeling which was why he had been sent through first to take over holding the portal open. "We want to liberate the people of this poor land, but you're going to destroy it all."

"Only if I could let you watch your failures," Ralos said and clenched his fists together, letting his overgrown claws cut into his paws and deep into his palms. Blood dripped down his hands, but Ralos didn't seem to notice or care. "It would almost be as enjoyable as killing you. Almost." His blood began to glow and take shape as the Fel creature performed the taboo of blood magic, forbidden by all.

The buck looked in disbelief as the blood took the shape of a dagger and then hardened into some kind of crystal. "I can't stop you, but another can. I may not agree with the Church, but they'll stop you."

"They will eventually," Ralos admitted and slid the tip of his finger across the tip of the blade, letting it cut deep. The creature seemed to enjoy causing harm to itself. "But until they do, I will let them know what true fear is first." He looked at his underlings, the unfortunate that made it through the portal. "Make sure he doesn't run." The circle tightened as the corrupted Ralos stepped towards the buck who prepared to defend himself.

The fight was over in less than a minutes. The buck hadn't put up much of a fight, but it wasn't the fight that Ralos cared about, it was how he broke the mage. He could still hear the bleats and screams in his ears as he led his group towards Melur. It sent a satisfying shiver down his spine as he let his blood blade turn back into liquid, drenching his paws in his own lifeblood. Soon it would be the blood of the innocent.

Ralos could barely contain his excitement which seeped to his underlings that vibrated and chattered incoherently as they walked through the slowly ebbing rain. He could feel the innocence of this land, untouched by trouble. The war was so far away, and the citizens had grown accustomed to a peaceable lifestyle. They needed a proper education, but where to start. There were so many places to start.

Ralos wanted the fun to last as long as possible, and that meant drawing as little attention as possible at first. He would hold off on the city for a moment and start in the countryside where his attacks would most likely be told off as raiders. Yes, he would do that, extend the suffering for as long as possible before embracing that death that would be dealt by the vengeful Church.

"Which direction to go?" Ralos asked his underlings. "Unlike him, they had no coherency in their thoughts, not even the one mage he had ensnared into his grasp. They were simple beasts of labor to him, to be used and discarded when they had no use left. "Should I go south?" He mused and tapped a grotesque creature that used to be a goat, but now had skin that sagged and stretched like old leather over its body. "Maybe North? So many choices." He looked up at the sky and noticed a trail of smoke and then remembered from the memories of what used to be the real Ralos, which a fiery ball had streaked across the sky not long ago. He wasn't sure if it meant anything, but it was a direction to go and so Ralos slowly led his band of roughly one hundred Fel in the same direction as where the fiery ball went.

"What's going on?" An acolyte woke up.

Ralos hadn't forgotten about the five acolytes. He had then tied and carried with them. He could have just killed them, but where was the fun in that?

"What's going on?" Ralos walked past his underlings to get to the one that was carrying the now awake acolyte. The tabby looked around scared. "What's going on is that you're lucky enough to be the first to awake." He said, and the acolyte was let down, his bonds undone.

The acolyte, still young and learning, was confused. He looked around nervously at the beasts that surrounded him.

"Run," Ralos said. "Run fast, little one because it's more fun that way and who know?" He shrugged. "You might get away."

The acolyte looked around one more time before he realized that they had been corrupted by Fel. He gulped once before taking off in a dead sprint in a random direction.

Ralos then went over to a random underling. "Let him get to a village and let them see him. Hear him try to explain. Then you kill them all." He patted the underling on the face once before it turned and started to head off in the direction of the acolyte.

Ralos did this with three other acolytes as they woke up. The last one, he just killed right there, just because he could.