Book 3, Chapter 53 - A Successful Getaway (1/2)

“How the fuck is she controlling these animals?!” Ravenous Tiger watched helplessly as the army he labored to raise was viciously destroyed. His eyes were bloodshot, and his whole body shook from the rage in his voice. “What kind of demon relic is this!”

The Crimson One eventually returned to the ground, after his orb of Castigation fire had razed most of the Borough’s lower level. His mood was no better than the governor’s.

He’d held nothing back in his latest attempt, but the flock of birds that threw themselves at him ate away at the fires until there was nothing left. He was not spared from injury himself. The Crimson One was a man of supreme arrogance. None – outside of the highest levels of elysian hierarchy – gave him pause.

So what had happened? He’d been foiled by a little girl and her flute!

The Shepherd’s Call. A power the ancient gods had used in their infernal war of old. Not long before becoming a rebel deity and falling from grace, the Shepherd Goddess gifted this artifact to her people. Here it reemerged, more incredible than even the legends told, with a power that rivaled Castigation fire. Few relics of this quality existed in the elysian hands – it was rare even among the gods and demons themselves. The Shepherd’s flute counted itself among a class of artifacts that wielded unfathomable potency.

Of course, the more incredible the tool the more strict its limitations. Not just anyone could resonate with the flute. Autumn bore the blessing of her fallen goddess, manifesting as the talent needed for the flute to answer her will. If the sheer number of beasts she commanded was any indication, she had been born with a psychic capacity to rival veteran demonhunters!

But Autumn’s situation was unique. She couldn’t use even the most ordinary of relics, like an exorcist staff. Physically she was no different from any other woman. Yet with this artifact in hand she wielded staggering power.

Luck was also an undeniable factor.

In many places, even with the flute’s power she wouldn’t be able to call on the aid of so many animals. Due to the unique placement of Fishmonger’s Borough, along with its lake, the city was a gathering place for all beasts of the desert in search of comfort.

The power of Shepherd’s Call allowed Autumn to control creatures of low intelligence. Through a variety of circumstances and coincidences, she was able to manifest terrifying authority on this battlefield.

Because of her, Fishmonger’s Borough was gripped in fear and chaos!

Castigation indiscriminately devoured man and beast as it swept across the city. Even the buildings melted in the face of the green terror. Spreading like a prairie fire, the bustling city of Fishmonger’s Borough was reduced to ash.

Ravenous Tiger looked over the ruins of his kingdom with dull, disbelieving eyes. Buildings collapsed, people ran for their lives, screams filled the air. He was forced to watch as these streets and buildings, the fruits of his sweat and blood, were consigned to oblivion.

“M-master! Please stop these fires! They’re going to destroy the whole city!”

Castigation fire was a relic whose power corresponded with the psychic power of its invoker. The Crimson had to be able to dispel it at will.

Every second his city was in flames was a stab to the chest. He couldn’t return to the elysian lands, this place was everything to him. If Fishmonger’s Borough burned to the ground, he would be nothing but a ghost wandering the barrens.

Yet the Crimson One did not intend to give in. His hands shot up, and the fires responded by swirling together into dual pillars. Dragons of green flame writhed through the battlefield, turning every living thing it passed into blackened husks.

The Crimson One rose again into the air, crosier held aloft. His attention fixed on three figures amid the sea of flame.

He did not hesitate. As the fiery dragons coiled around him, the cardinal reeled back and let his staff fly. Screaming through the air, his ornate staff multiplied into hundreds of copies, ripping through all three figures before embedding itself in the ground behind. Nothing could survive such a barrage.

But something was wrong! The silhouettes didn’t react at all, even when the staff ran them through.

The Crimson One soared over the fires, robes flapping, like a being of the immortal realms. All hundred duplicates of his crosier were gone, leaving the one true staff jutting up from the ground. Holes and cavities peppered the ground, even beneath the feet of the three – entirely unharmed – fugitives.

Illusions?!

He’d been tricked. By the time he realized it and lifted his head, a group of sandsharks were already making their escape. The Crimson One narrowed his eyes as they slipped into the darkness of the tunnel leading out of Fishmonger’s Borough. Escaped – they’d slipped out of his reach. Chasing after them was not an option, for trying to ride a sandshark now would be asking for death.

Finally, the raging Castigation fires began to abate. Shepherd’s Call diminished then grew silent, and the lakes monsters returned to their watery home. The war that had embroiled Fishmonger’s Borough ended as quickly as it had begun.

Ravenous Tiger staggered through the aftermath. Over a thousand men, dead. His army in shambles. Where the Crimson One’s fires had burned, there was nothing but devastation. He had become the governor of ashes.

This was the power of the Crimson One. The fires at his command could level entire cities.

As bitterness gripped his heart, Ravenous Tiger asked himself if aligning himself with such a beast was the right decision. But could he run now? He was a goat, looking for a way to escape a hungry tiger. He didn’t have even of a fraction of the power his master commanded. He was uncomfortably aware that this goat could be sacrificed at a whim.

The red-robed cleric slowly walked back to Ravenous Tiger’s side. He was a clever man, and could see the bitterness and uncertainty in the beleaguered governor’s eyes. “Do not be disheartened by what has become of Fishmonger’s Borough. A great cache of resources has been revealed. We need only take it for ourselves. You will be given lordship over the Woodland Vale, a place even more defendable than your mountain and wealth a hundred- - no, a thousand-fold greater. You should understand the value.”

The Crimson One knew how to entice men’s hearts. A promise such as this would be enough to buy the zeal of many greedy men.