Drip-Fed Pt. 08

"The answer is the same person, but differing facets of him," Aclysia's answer immediately turned the hope Remezan felt into a knot of despair in his stomach. "Gizmo and Apotho." Upon hearing the names, the knot turned into a deep abyss, in which all the blessings he had felt were buried in absolute darkness.

"Gizmo also sent me here," Apexus added. "Told me to talk to you before you could get back to the church, to see Aclysia again... Are you not well, small, broad man?" the slime didn't know the name nor real significance of this priest, he had never met him before. That he was becoming as pale as a sheet of paper, however, was something even Apexus realized as a generally bad thing.

Because Remezan realized the true meaning behind all of this. 'Apotho would have never sent a beginner adventure after me as an assassin and these two were placed exactly so they would delay my return to the temple.' He turned to look at them intensely. The innocence in them was clear as day, they had been played like pawns, all because they did not know what was under the temple but he did.

Just before he could decide to disregard their existence for the moment and make a run back to the deepest secret under this church, something in the very fabric of the leaf cracked. A magical circle that had been affecting the entire forest that made up the centre of this world suddenly became unravelled. A glade without set location was rammed back into real space, a barrier set for generations burst open.

A gargantuan pillar of green fire exploded in the distant horizon, rose high into the sky and spread like a spiderweb. People were screaming, confused, although the phenomenon was happening in a massive distance, nobody thought this could be anything good.

"The seal is broken," Remezan gasped, causing Aclysia to understand, at least in rough terms, what had happened as well. Her eyes went wide as she realized that her very effort to play against Apotho's plan had made her play right into it. He had known what she would choose with the information she was given.

The Cardinal now had no more need to guide them back to the temple. Anything he wanted to ask them about Apotho was now redundant. One more hard look he took at them, wondering whether he should squash them right then and there. It was their fault that this was now happening. However, he had tilled the ground this seed had now grown on. The guilt in Aclysia's eyes and the raw confusion in Apexus' were too clear to be an act. To find and judge Reysha by the same standard, he didn't have the time.

The pillar of flame fizzled out, the cracks in the sky slowly mended themselves. An aura hung in the air, creeping anxiety clung to everyone, but people more or less started to relax and talk about this supernatural phenomenon. The Cardinal knew better than to be at ease, this was simply the sign of the storm to come.

There was just one more way this whole thing could be solved without any tragedy.

"Guards!" he shouted loud, so that everyone could hear him. "Run! Run to Heralry. Evacuate the city! Make the people leave behind everything, there is no time. Flee into the forests, run along the edge of the world, head as far east as you can and don't stop! Every man, woman and child. RUN!"

With that, the Cardinal stormed at speeds most people could barely even follow.

Apexus was soaring through the sky. Aclysia had explained everything to him, everything she knew about what was happening and everything that she had been told. Something inside the slime had tensed up throughout the entire explanation, then finally torn when she had finished. All he had told her to do was to search for Reysha.

Even though the metal fairy shouted questions after him, attempted to follow, her beloved was not answering and moving too fast to be caught up with. Soon, he had left her behind - and Apexus found no part of him that had the luxury to feel bad about treating her like that.

A cocktail of emotions was boiling within the chimeric creature. It was a new mixture, a new feeling, he didn't get to discover a lot of those anymore and he did not appreciate this one whatsoever.

The odd thing was that none of the emotions on their own were anything new. Anger: Apexus had been angry before. When Aclysia and Reysha had been fighting constantly, he had snapped. Foolish: Apexus had been foolish before. Numerous times, in small and big ways, he had looked like an idiot. Resigned, resentful: Apexus had been both of these things before. When he had gotten hunted across the entire leaf for simply existing, he had ample reason for those things.

Right now, he felt angrier than ever before, like a bigger idiot than ever before and more resentful than ever before. He had heard the word for this feeling and it was the second strongest thing he had ever felt, a very close second. Betrayal.

Apexus headed straight towards the charred scar in the forest where the hellfire had raged. He didn't have to look long for the person he was looking for. The old man in the plain brown robe, leaving behind a smouldering glade and the ruins of a metal fence that seemed to have exploded between the pillars.

Loudly landing in the canopies of a nearby tree, the slime already had his old mentor's attention. Well, the attention of the other person sharing the same body. Apotho looked up with a grin that was an artwork of ridicule, a paternal smile, missing all of the benevolence and warmth normally associated with that and replaced with belligerence.

It took what little of Apexus' reason wasn't buried under the cesspool of emotions to not jump at the Warlock immediately. Although everything he knew and everything Aclysia told him pointed towards Apotho being unable to suck the life out of the slime like he had out of other humanoids, he wasn't going to attack someone the Cardinal, who moved even faster than the Hunter that had 'killed' Apexus, was afraid off.

"You lied to me," Apexus instead hissed, from his safe place out of reach. Continuing to walk, Apotho started laughing, finding the slime's impotent rage to be the greatest joke he had heard in a decade. "YOU LIED TO ME!" the slime found himself shouting, hands clawing into the forever fresh bark of the tree. "With your eyes and your mouth... lied to me... you lied to me!"

Suddenly, the laughter stopped, the old man turned and looked up to the slime, his eyes glistening with rising tears. "I am so... so sorry, Apexus... you're right, I will head back into my containment and let it be repaired." One blink, and the cruel mockery of a fatherly expression was back. "Is that what you wish to hear, you hideous creature?"

It was remarkable how a mere change in tone and body language could change so much about a person. Apotho, however, had perfect control over both, and had learned how to imitate his splintered self completely. "You lied to me..." Apexus didn't know what he expected from repeating this statement over and over again, he felt helpless, could only jump to the next tree to follow the Warlock. He wanted answers, answers he didn't want to hear. Everything about these feelings made him feel like his core was getting hollowed out and the resulting vacuum threatened to make the remaining walls implode.

"And it was so wonderfully easy," Apotho mused, his self-pleased attitude only more irritating. "You were the second-best puppet I could have asked for. No, actually, you were the best puppet I could have asked for. Innocent, never betrayed before, with something you wanted and looking at a face you trusted. I expected you to be at least a little more questioning, but you must have convinced yourself that I was the one thing that could never deceive you. I mean, what else did you have?"

Just like that the Warlock began to laugh again. The cackling echoed through the nearby treeline, only to eventually be replaced by loud coughing, as the old age took its toll. His grey hair waves as his head shook with the violent spasms.

"Apexus..." a wailing whimper rung out, unmistakeably Gizmo. Too annoyed to feel the frailness of his own body first-hand, Apotho had simply shoved his alter-ego into the leading position until the fit subsided. "I couldn't stop him... I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..."

The slime now felt another emotion. Sadness, unfathomable sadness and regret. Not only did he now have first-hand confirmation that his mentor was succumbing to the malevolent being inside him, Apexus himself had also failed. Failed to recognize what was going on and what consequences it could have. What price would be paid was still to be seen.

"Don't stain my face with your useless tears," Apotho effortlessly took the reins back, growling as he blinked those pestering drops away before they could harass his sight further. "You know, you were my best puppet, but Reysha was a wonderful ally," the Warlock walked a long step forwards, crossing a hole in the grass. "With her, I could be completely honest about my intentions. Not that I didn't still make her dance on my strings."

Apexus growled as he took to the air, and had to fight against the resurfacing urge to jump at the Warlock. Many things could be said about the slime, but not that he was a slow learner. From the shape of his original body to his fundamental instincts, all of the slime had been made to evolve. Especially when it was something so practical and essential to survival as discarding naivety. Even more cautious because of how recent his mistakes were, he held back.

"The potions I handed her," Apotho giggled as he gleefully shook his head. "Ah, low-quality as it is, but a Remorseless Brew is nothing to be underestimated, you know? It finely cuts away everything, except for the one most urgent wish a person has. Amplifies it, until nothing can stop a person in fulfilling their mission but death. With good ingredients, I could have altered her memory permanently for the duration of those events. Could have made her forget them or make it so she wouldn't be able to discern the horrors she had wrought for a while." He grinned so wide that his teeth showed. "As it is, she will come face first with her own sins in a while. Who knows, maybe she'll break under it, like my weaker half has?"

Apexus leapt off the branch he was resting on. The mistake appeared to him immediately when he saw the raw anticipation in Apotho's eyes. Moments before he could collide with the Warlock, the slime's wing beat with fervent intensity, bringing him back into the air. Where he would have been a moment later... nothing appeared. Much to the Warlock's own surprise, although he hid it so well that Apexus barely saw any of it.

To assure himself of his power, Apotho turned to a wildcat that was watching these happening from the nearby underbrush. It wasn't stealthy enough to elude the Warlock's gaze, and an arc of red lightning struck the animal, only to return in a green colour. Lifeforce spilled into Apotho, a miserable amount. Animals weren't a good supply of humanoid lifeforce, their potential was too limited. This was especially true when looking at the vast Level difference between the Warlock and the creatures of this Safe Leaf.

He could have been draining energy from woodland critter for an entire year, and would still barely reverse his age. No, he needed something stronger and more fitting. For the moment, it was enough to know that he still had his powers. 'Which begs the question why I cannot hurt him,' Apotho thought, having the obvious answer inside him, dying, cowering, suppressed, but still present, 'I best avoid goading him into an attack then.'

Annoyed, the Warlock clicked his tongue. With more of his power returned, he could have plucked that pesky freak of creation out of the sky like it was nothing -- unique organism or not. His desire to find out what Apexus really was was only trumped by his annoyance towards past disobedience.

"You stay up there," Apotho mocked, giving himself confident and walking along, the trees becoming scarcer the closer they got to Heralry. "Watch as I tear down your last hope," he announced, as he suddenly stopped and looked up a cliff. It was the same cliffside that housed the cave that Apexus had hid in in the past. A cliff on top of which the Cardinal stood, watching the Warlock approach from the vantage point.

"You will try to tear me down, Voidspark, but I have the Gods on my side!" Remezan declared.

"Your gods taking sides doesn't matter, their blessings won't save you, only their direct help would," Apotho shouted back, his voice now devoid of any amusement, only hatred present. "I have reached the power of the gods and was denied the privilege I deserved. They didn't even have the guts to kill me when they made me fail. All because they're too afraid to wield the immortality they were given!"

Remezan didn't answer the blasphemy, only raised his hand. A golden spear appeared in his hand, a long silver edge curving straight out of the divinely sparkling metal. Although its brilliance was temporary, from the metal to the gems covering it, its was beautiful.

Apexus didn't know what to do and settled on a protrusion of the cliff, resigned to do nothing, for the moment. Maybe he could do something eventually, but for the moment, he was doomed to be helpless and watch.

Remezan's logic was quite simple; the only time he could hope to defeat Apotho was while the Warlock was still weakened. As a Level 57 Cardinal and an accomplished Walker, he was anything but weak. However, what he was facing had been archived well. Before Gizmo had retreated into the finished barrier, one unfalsifiable assessment of his power had been created. A simple card of Divinium, hidden deep in the archives of the local church, present to give every stationed Cardinal knowledge of what exactly they were guarding over.

A level 127 Master of the Roots. The highest title any Warlock could attain and a level at which godhood was just a question of desire, not ability. More than twice the level, with the vast array of higher strength spell and skills that came with it and a unique Art, something only those beyond Level 100 had access to.

Although Remezan had his own, common Art from being above Level 50, those two things were separated in power intensity by a massive margin. Only right where they were, with no other people around that Apotho could use to quickly regain his youth, did the Cardinal stand any chance of victory.

"Divine Materialization," Apotho clapped, sarcastically congratulating the man on the cliff above. "How befitting of a Cardinal. The liars in the Trunk have allowed you to wield one of their messenger's weapons. By all means, try your worst," a subtle difference in Apotho's voice made his next words a seductive offer, "come down."

Remezan had to strain his entire body to not fall prey to the unnatural charisma within those words. Even the Warlock's voice was a weapon, able to manipulate people into doing things they would normally put off as quite bad ideas. Rather than let these talks continue any longer, the Cardinal drew his arm back, his salt-and-pepper beard waving in a sudden breeze, then he tossed the weapon with as much force as he could muster.

Apotho turned his body at a speed nobody that had the physique of an eighty-year-old man should have been able to. His feet dug a semi-circle into the grass, the spear dug into the dirt not far from there, then dematerialized, leaving a perfectly straight line.

"Is that your plan? Try to throw your spear at me until I tire out or you score a lucky hit?" the man who had reached the pinnacle of Dark Arts mocked. "Do you take me for a fool? That I just ran here so I could have a little fight with you?" Raising a finger in a lecturing fashion, Apotho let out a series of demeaning sounds. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, I know perfectly that you would try to get people out of the firing range in case you failed here. The population of Haralry is currently being evacuated. Among the rim of the world, I bet. You would have sent them off the Leaf entirely if you thought people would survive that journey in such an unprepared mass."

It was exactly what Remezan had planned to do and what he had yelled at all the guards that he had come across on the way here. The accuracy didn't distract him. He materialized the spear again, drew back his arm and threw it. Again, Apotho dodged with ease, dragging his foot through the grass.

"Nothing forces me to fight you here," the Warlock continued, side-stepping a number of more spears while he talked. "I could just walk north or south and absorb the dim-witted population you swore to protect. It would be a mercy, really. Becoming part of me is a much greater gift than to live, sleep and die by the will of some uncaring creators. I could have done any number of things before facing you, my greatest obstacle here." Yawningly taking a step, this time without dragging his feet, Apotho dodged one last spear before threatening. "If you don't come down, then I will simply leave. You can't have that, now can you?"

Although the Cardinal could see that he was obviously being goaded, the fact was that Apotho also didn't leave him with any other choice. With a mighty leap, the Cardinal catapulted himself down the cliff. The tip of a new spear glinted in the sunlight.

There was a surprised look on the Warlock's face, as if he hadn't expected such speed. With hasty steps, he managed to dodge. Too hasty for proper footing. Remezan seized on the moment, whirled around the moment he landed -- and drew blood. A shallow cut along Apotho's arms, nothing that was cause for concern or jubilation, but a successful hit regardless. Invigorated by this first success, the Cardinal redoubled his assault.

Step for step, he forced Apotho back, who struggled to regain his balance. With dragging steps and desperate backwards stomps, the Warlock continued to dodge. Drops of his blood fell into the soil, dripping from ever-more shallow cuts.

Above, Apexus was watching the happenings intensely, trying to follow it. The movements were too quick for him, he could only really follow the slow moments between strikes, but the general direction of the fight seemed clear. Only a few times did it seem like Apotho had a fighting chance, throwing out an assault of green fire that forced the Cardinal back. Each time, it was a sloppy attempt, only hitting the floor and searing a circle into the grass. One, two, three, four times, such an attack was made. Each time it failed to give Apotho the breathing room to pull off something greater.

So entranced was the slime by the battle, so focused Remezan on his seeming success, that neither of them noticed what was really going on until it was too late. Although Apotho really had no chance of beating the Cardinal in close quarter combat, the wounds he took were genuine, his resistance was not as strong as it could have been. That was because the Warlock wasn't looking to win an exchange of blows, he was going to win the fight.

The surprise that he had displayed on his face suddenly turned into a renewed grin. Immediately put off by this, the Cardinal tried to put some distance between them, only playing once more into Apotho's hand by doing so.

The grass under Remezan's feet withered and crumbled into ash as the lines in ground, drawn with their feet and the slices of his spear, flared up in a bloody red. 'He drew a summoning circle with the fighting movements,' the Cardinal realized quickly, analysing the runes with his limited understanding in the short time he had. Even with that, he realized the impossible ambition of the circle.

Ethereal chains darted out of the four scorched marks from the 'missed' firebolts, wrapping themselves around Remezan's limbs and preventing any sort of counterattack. The endless dance of the fight was suddenly over, but the Cardinal felt relieved, even as he was immobilized. This was because of the fact that Apotho, as well, was inside the circle and the glow was too intense to escape it now.