Glory of the Fall Ch. 03

She'd found a handful, already. Mostly crushed or beaten, by brutal but human hands.

The orc paused as she stepped through into the next cavernous space, twisting her axe to the ready position. This space echoed with quiet tears, and it smelled of blood and bone.

Khild looked down in strange confusion, eyeing a dead and half-naked elf, and a human girl kneeling over the top of them. The elf was curious, embedded with shiny stones in some kind of ritualistic fashion, whilst the human did not seem to belong in this place.

How could the gods bring so timid and weak a creature to such a fight? It made Khild grip tightly to her axe, and decide to move even more quietly as she approached the young woman. Deception was a skill of many a human warrior.

Her Sai reminded her of this thing, in some small ways. A certain set to the shoulders, a certain weakness of emotion that could quickly flare into uncontrollable rage. It was the gift of the beserker.

"Wh-what's your name?" The woman whispered, wiping brilliant blue eyes on the back of her hand.

The orc smiled behind her tusks, "There goes stealth. I am called Khild, betrothed of Sai the Thunderstep. To whom do I have the honour of battle?"

"Do... Do we have to fight? I didn't want to fight." The girl wept, "I didn't... I didn't want this... I just... Wanted to meet him. My stepdad."

"Battle is not a loss. It is not something to shy from, or feel ashamed of." Khild spoke as a mother to their child, embracing the role once destined for her, "All things are war, whether we know them as such or not. There is no truth of blade that cannot be found in the hovels of every corner of every world. With metal, you at least are given opportunity to face it, rather than have it carve upon your soul."

The girl gave a bitter laugh, "I killed my wife. The only person I ever loved. Do you really think battle would make me anything... More... Than... Just a murderer? A selfish little cunt of a bitch?"

"If we must name failure, then I am." Khild spoke roughly, "Destroyed my race. Every single one. Found the birthplace of all orcs, the glory of the fucked Crucible. Shamed by it. Twisted magic. A sacrifice that forged us from the dark gods and their blood. So... Knowing the consequence... Destroyed it. I, and every orc of pure blood, died."

The blue eyes finally shifted from the fallen elf, staring up at her in abject horror, "You killed... Your family? Everyone?"

"Did, dat I did." Khild nodded, placing her waraxe against the ground and leaning on it casually. "Condemned to unlife, vague shadows 'n shit. Until... Even in death... Sai came for me. Gave offerings to Torruc, so I might take the test again. Fight for glory's sake. Become... More than had been in life."

"S-sai!?" The girl jumped to her feet, staring at her, "Lord Sai? You're one of... His? Toofy's lord?"

Khild chuckled deeply, "Ah, why not surprised? Aye. I was Sai's, as the cat was his. Didn't make it into the city, ran into Crucible along the way. Take it, you fought? For my lord?"

"My... Wife..." The girl glanced to the fallen figure, shivering, "Was the sister of the elf, who led the undead army. I died, after I broke one of the last pieces of Menes. Died beside her... And I still betrayed her... I'm useless. Last life. This one. No wonder Tai doesn't want anything to do with me."

"God of time." The orc was impressed, "He wouldn't have you as his champion, human. Not if he didn't see you as worthy. This whole battle? It's a chance to return. That's affront to Tai. An insult! Deserving of violent reparation! To do time over, again. He wouldn't let you, if he did not love you."

"I... Hadn't thought of it that way." The girl said, half in awe.

Khild shrugged, "You're a champion of a god, girl. Human or failure. Coward or hero. Don't matter shit. Right now, a god said he thinks you're worth fighting. Your life, worthy of song."

"Worth fighting... For?" The girl said nervously.

The orc chuckled, "That, too. More interested in what's beating on the walls, but if you offer challenge, then will. Honour to die at your hands."

Khild was instantly blinded as the tiny human girl thrust a hand skywards. She was deafened by the roar of the flowing magic that crashed down. Her sense of smell was obliterated by the air and everything around them burning in the raw and uncompressed magical flow. The orc tasted blood as her mortality rebelled at being so close to such overwhelming power.

The ground vibrated, screaming out violently.

The waraxe immediately swung upwards and through the overwhelming space. As the orc stepped into the blow, she could feel her existence being shredded simply by being so close to such a thing.

Muscles flexed and strained, pushing against the force of nature as the place they were in started to unravel. The magical existence being torn apart by the presence of a greater and unbound magical energy.

Khild was left with no more doubts about why this woman had been summoned into this war.

There was as much magic flowing into this mortal human girl, as Khild had felt when she took the Crucible, the birthplace of her people, and shattered it to pieces.

This was not a woman.

This was a hand-forged weapon of the gods. From the taste of the magic not making the orc bleed from every orifice, it was the self-same origin. This human woman was created by the Golden Kitsune. A weapon forged for a war already fought, and won.

Had the goddess dismissed them afterwards? Had she abandoned such a weapon? To some of Khild's heritage, that would have been nothing short of a sacrilege. To allow a weapon to break, fall or rot, when it was so well-carved by divine hands was... Wrong.

Yet, that was not the way that Khild saw it. This beautiful creation had achieved their purpose, won Toofy's war for her. Won Sai's glory for him. In doing so, it had earned a place in the annals of legend. No mortal hand was worthy of wielding it, guiding it.

Death alone had been justice for such a supreme creation of destruction.

The orc found her strength beginning to slip, as she pushed the axe onwards. Not for Torruc's glory. Not for her honour. She brought the divine blade towards this human with all her being, because the weapon before her should never have been unsheathed, again.

Khild gave the last of herself.

---

The wall before him exploded, spitting black and polished stone like an army of arrows. Even attempting to avoid them all was nothing but a foolish hope. The instinct of a lesser mind, one given to flights of fantasy, that might see this moment as something less than an opportunity.

Blood and magic go together like two sides of a coin. So, Kaden willingly accepted the blast of fragmentary stone that knocked him from his feet.

Yet, as he weakly leaned up to see his approaching threat, he also knew something else.

All creations of magic, like this accursed arena, were a reflection of the power that had created them. They were an anchor between those fearless enough to exploit them, ad the unimaginable power that had first forged them.

The magic was familiar to him.

Kaden recalled the loops and whorls of this particular magic. He could almost laugh as the fingerprints of the Golden Kitsune became apparent. Her quirks and tells, as vibrant in the stone now embedded into his flesh as they had been in the Crucible.

Laughter, however, was unwise.

"You!" The creature before him seethed, her tail striking the ground and cracking the perfectly smooth material. Her scales were glowing with heat, and black smoke was pouring from her mouth.

The scales were as he remembered them, in his final moments. A mixture of black and red, like no other salamander that had ever existed before her. Before the woman he had used, first for his own gratification, and then in a misguided attempt to free himself of the cat.

Kaden stood up slowly, pretending to calmly brush fragmentary black stones from his clothing. He adjusted his cuffs, and raised his gaze to meet her black eyes, "Well, this is a surprise. I hardly expected the gods to give you a second chance to foist your inadequateness upon the mortal world. Perhaps truly do hate it, lizard."

He had expected a little hateful banter.

He had fascinated her, fucked her, and killed her. He was the thing that had brought the most pain to the dragon's mistress. He had ruled over both the salamander and the neko, with an iron fist.

Meirakeillian didn't hesitate.