Paladin-Part 23

At long last, the White Tower warriors arrived at the foot of Silvertop Mountain. The Cult of Kogone did not react in time to their arrival, and so the White Tower warriors seized the initiative and assault their enemy's fortress and font of power. Meanwhile Torquil and Dezikon, already inside, swiftly slew the sentries that barred the gates to ensure easy access to their brothers.

"Follow me." Dezikon said, "I know the way."

James nodded, and lead Dezikon did. Through hidden passages and concealed caverns the party traveled, striking at ill-prepared cultists and slaying them before alarms went out, in a calculated plan of aggressive ambushes. At last, a patrol investigating a post gone silent did raise an alarm, but by then they were far too late. Resistance went from nothing to pathetic, and the ambushes escalated in frequency and brutality, but even with Thomas masking their presence they could not remain undetected for long.

Soon the patrols increased in number and strength, adding demons to their numbers of a variety of types and potency, and the assault turned into a game of cat and mouse- of hit and fade. The demons did not help the cultists; Dezikon's divine power smote them utterly, and the others sunk their steel deep into the cultists' flesh without much effort. This only enraged the remaining cultists, but again it availed them not- mightier demons still fell before Dezikon's divine might, and still their mortal managers met fates fitting for fools.

Hours passed as the band rampaged within the mountain fortress with impunity, slaying all opposition before them, until they had swept, cleared and sanctified the majority of the enemy's domain. Only the center, wherein the ritual room and the font of the cult's power resides, remained.

Within lay two figures. One, the master of the cult, lay slumped on the floor- and, by his posture, quite dead. The other, standing over his former master, is the new master of the Cult of Kogone: Nim the Warlock.

Neither side paused for pleasantries. Nim cast down a handful of pebble-sized things from his hands, and erupting out of the ground where they fell came forth an army of demons and infernal rockmen; they, in turn, ripped a hole in the fabric of reality to allow Nim's patron to show himself- Kogone himself.

But already the battle ardor seized the White Tower warriors and they crashed as one into their supernatural foes. With holy fire, utter-cold frost and magma-like fire at their backs the warriors cleaved a path of ruin that none could resist; the army of demons and rockmen shattered, sundered and crumbled. Just then, as they neared the hated foes all of them felt within them the presence of beings of such puissance and stature infuse their flesh.

Nim, not a fool, disappeared in a flash and quit his master. Kogone meant to follow, but an unseen force seized his supernatural form and held it just fast and long enough to slam shut the portal from Hell from which he emerged. Trapped, he turned to the body of young men and saw each possessed the glowing eyes that revealed to him the energizing of form that fleshless spirits leave to those with the sight to see it.

"Your end is now." the Archmage said, through James.

"Though we disagree," Sybil said, through Torquil, "on this we are as one."

Kogone tried to move, but found his form frozen. The other youths, staring intently at him, had some unknown power that held him down. Thomas's spell successfully cut his speech off, silencing him. Only Dezikon remained, and he suddenly burst forth into a gigantic form of raw angelic glory. Wordlessly, he unleashed a divine storm of holy fury and struck Kogone dead in a single cleaving blow with his sword.

"Nim remains." Dezikon said.

"We foresee his own fate." Mentor said, speaking through Thomas, "But before that time, we foresee much growth and development for the People of the Tower. Return with us, blessed one, and share your gifts with our people."

Without hesitation: "I would be honored."

And back at the summit of the White Tower, stoic David wept a tear of joy. Thus did the People of the White Tower come to prove their worth to the Creator, ensuring the survival of a renewed Mankind.