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Quest Objectives

- Gather survivors

- Navigate your way through the Citadel

- Slay Colmar

***

Note to Readers: Here's the link to try out Heroes & Legends (Choices Game) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.delightgames.legends&fbclid=IwAR3-j_ks1maumCDjNxXKHbRUYsSfCCq6DnPUBv3uWd0ury26q5CT3i5XPOA

Dumbfounded, Grey stared across the bridge at the woman that had taken Myrllis away from him and felt his heart quicken, and his mind darken with rage as he tried to stop himself from leaping across and strangling her with his bare hands. The words he had wanted to speak for so long, blurting out from his mouth, before he even had a chance to think.

“Where is she?! Tell me!”

Head thrown back in a dry laugh, the witch let out a chuckle, and raised an arm up to draw the blue bolts of energy that swirled through the air towards her diminutive form, surrounding her in otherworldly light. “Oh, my dear sweet child, how you have you changed. You look utterly magnificent now. I can almost taste your hatred like a bitter-sweet wine. Shall I assume then that you have chosen to follow that false god of yours? This bearer of light--”

“--I said--”

Sapphire blue eyes flashing steel, the witch curled her hand in the air, causing the sparks of energy to form together in her palm, creating a huge ball of blue fire that cast her immense shadow against the wall. “I heard what you said! Thrall of the light! If you do not wish to take your last breathes in agony! Than you would do well to curb that nasty tongue of yours! Or I shall be forced to remove it for you! I wouldn’t want you join those filthy friends of yours below would we now? And despite what you may think of me, I am not your enemy, nor I do I care to be. I simply serve my master and do as he bids,” she snapped, “Now as to that missing friend of yours? I know no one by that name, deary, so you’ll need to be a little bit more specific.”

Face fanned hot by flames that warmed his cheeks, Grey could feel the heat of the suns upon his skin as he tried to temper his rage, a part of him still able to feel Amaryllis’ eyes looking at him as they danced together by the lake, their wooden swords clacking together. The vivid memory causing a deep ache of longing that he had not felt for sometime.

Breathing harsh and ragged, he dropped his head low unable to see anything except for her face, and replied softly, “She was the temple priestess you captured in Shadow’s Bay.”

Lips curled into a smile of recognition, the witch nodded her head. “Aaaah, the pretty bull girl, is that who seek? Have you come to rescue her then?” she asked in a mocking tone.

Of course that’s why he had come! He wanted to roar back, but before he could say anything, Joral jerked him around, his expression feverish with anger. "What are you doing, fool?! She is a servant of the dark! We must slay her now while she’s still alone!”

Nazdrael, his form balanced on the balls of his feet, flexed his sword arm and nodded his head towards the blood red water brimming with naked corpses. “He is right, Grey. Her words are poison.”

Letting out an almost imperceptible hiss of frustration, he ripped himself free of Joral’s grip, and tried to clear his mind, but the urgent need to get the answers he had sought for so long was almost as overwhelming as his crippling fear that anything he did, would snatch away his last remaining hope of saving her.

Easily able to read their minds, the dark mage cackled again, her fingers sparkling with blue flames, and lifted up her arms. The water in the canal rising up to either side of her to build a wall of flesh, water, and blood, the writhing faces of the damned caught in a tsunami as they twitched suddenly with renewed life, their eyes snapping open to reveal bright blue pupils that glowed eerily in the darkness. The creatures leaping out of the dark red water to slam into the ground before them, their feet snapping on the hardened surface of the rock as they clawed their way towards them. The ground alive with their squirming bodies.

Appalled at the sight of so many of their kin, Sureen let out a scream and backed away with tears in her eyes while a young girl whose neck had been sliced open scrambled across the hard surface on all fours towards her. Nazdrael quick step in and drive the point of his blade into the girl’s skull, while Joral stared around himself horror struck, the young mino too afraid to move. The witch’s braying laughter cutting across from behind the roiling wall of flesh as their own people attacked them in swarms that covered the ground with their own blood, their wild crazed eyes full of unthinking rage as they lashed out with anything that could reach them. Grey forced defend to Joral who stared down at his feet at a dead Honor Blade who had one horn torn from his bleeding skull, the minotaur’s flailing arms, hacked apart by Tamrel, before he thrust the greatsword down its gullet, ending it’s life once again.

x 1

Sweat dripping down his neck at the strangeness of it all, Grey knew it would only be a matter of time before they would all overwhelmed, there were simply too many of the dead to pick apart, and with Joral, and Sureen useless to him, he needed to find a way through the crimson wall and face the mage directly. But how to do it was another question? He could see no way through without being utterly surrounded and drowned in a sea of limbs that clawed their way towards them.

(Click here to use Banishment and destroy the mind of your enemies? Cost 50 Health Points.)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Left hand raised upward, he focused his mind upon Tamrel, asking for his guidance, the dragon linking him images of a robed man using hand gestures.

Following each of his hand motions, Grey thrust out his palm, releasing a magical bolt of energy that shot through his arm, before bursting out of him in a brilliant flash of light. The undead that scrambled across the ground towards him, briefly pausing at the light, before pressing their assault.

x 3

Grey forced to defend himself as he backhanded a scarred young mino across the face, and hacked apart two more that tried to reach him. Nazdrael moving to aid him and clear a space for him to try again.

(Click here to use Army of Light and summon the heroes of old to aid you in battle? Cost 100 Health Points.)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Left hand raised upward, he focused his mind upon Tamrel, asking for his guidance, the dragon linking him images of a robed man using hand gestures.

Following each of his hand motions, Grey thrust out his palm, releasing a magical bolt of energy that shot through his arm, before bursting out of him in a brilliant flash of light. The undead that scrambled across the ground towards him, briefly pausing at the light, before an ethereal army of glowing warriors shone into existence. The heavily armed band of warriors, letting out a guttural roar at the sight of their enemies and charging headlong into battle, a scarred grizzled veteran pausing by Grey’s side to speak with him in a gravelly voice, “Stay by our side young Honor Blade, and we shall see through.”

Glorying in their presence, he felt his chest fill with hope as he bounded forward to join them, Joral and Sureen shaken out of their stupor, stared in amazement, before Nazdrael pushed them both along. The small party becoming encircled by ghostly warriors as they blazed a trail forward to the wall of blood.

(Click here to use Fire Shield and burn your enemies with a wall of fire? Cost 50 Health Points.)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Left hand raised upward, he focused his mind upon Tamrel, asking for his guidance, the dragon linking him images of a robed man using hand gestures.

Following each of his hand motions, Grey thrust out his palm, releasing a magical bolt of energy that shot through his arm, before bursting out of him in a brilliant flash of light. The undead that scrambled across the ground towards him, briefly pausing at the light, before being blasted back by an inferno of flames that quickly expanded outward to engulf Nazdrael, Sureen, and Joral in it’s protection.

Head turned to face them, he roared back, ”Move!” and pressed ahead without looking behind. As it was, he couldn’t risk waiting to see if they would stay close to his side, but as luck would have it, the spell managed to wake them from their stupor, and get them all moving again. The fire shield, Grey had summoned for them burning a path forward towards the wall of blood.

Then with one sideways glance back to his companions, he let out a grim smile and threw himself bodily into the water, his mouth clenched tight as the darkness closed in around him. The floating bodies that shot past him, trying to claw at him with their arms, before Grey erupted out the other side, dripping red with blood, his mouth and nose able to smell the dark magic that flowed through the air.

Quite now, the mage looked at him with that same knowing smile as though she had expected him all along. Her dark black robes almost alive with iridescent blue flames that rose up around her like a dark aura. Her magic drawing in the sparks of blue energy, and causing her to burn even more brightly. The air around her full of menace and ill foreboding as Joral and the others broke through to join his side. Sureen collapsing to her knees and vomiting out on the ground, while Nazdrael gazed back to scan the wall of flesh for signs the creatures would come after them. Joral the last to appear, his face hollow with shock as he stood there lost in his own thoughts.

For whatever reason the gods had ordained this moment, it seemed it would be just Grey and the witch that fought this next battle. Having never faced a mage before, he feared the magic that would be unleashed upon him before he could reach her, but that feeling was soon washed away by his desire for knowledge.

“Where is she?” he asked.

Blue eyes flaring with energy, the witch smiled, and held up both hands up in the air, summoning two swirling balls of flames in each palm. “Now, why would I tell you that my dear child?”

Fists clenched tight around Tamrel, Grey knew he was being goaded into another attack, but with the others unable to help him, he had no other choice but to go on the offensive.

(Click here to use Light Shield to drink in all magic? Cost 50 Health Points.)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Teeth gritted into a snarl, he hurled himself forward across the open space, Tamrel sending him an image of the greatsword pointed forward like a spear, the weapon gleaming with white light to shear through the balls of fire that screamed towards him, smacking against an invisible barrier that shimmered briefly with energy, before draining the two fireballs into nothing. His greatsword leaping forward to hack her down, when his arm jarred against her robes which had somehow turned to steel, and black daggers fired out of her sleeves to thrust him back. (- 80 Health Points. Magical Damage.)

(Click here to use Blinding Dawn to take away her sight? Cost 50 Health Points.)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Teeth gritted into a snarl, he hurled himself forward across the open space, Tamrel sending him an image of the greatsword swinging in a downward strike to unleash a slash of lightining, the weapon almost scorching his hands as he called forth the dawn. The two fireballs that screamed towards, slightly veered off course, allowing Grey to close the distance, when black daggers fired out from her sleeves, forcing him back. (- 70 Health Points. Magical Damage.)

Only able to deflect a few aside, he focused on protecting his vitals and tried to push on ahead, his feet driving him forward through a storm of steel, that cut and bit at him. (- 120 Health Points. Magical Damage.)

x 1

He must have been hit a hundred times over by those black daggers that flew out from her arms, before Grey was able to come face to face with her, the witch summoning a flaming black sword to meet his own as they fought back and forth. The dark mage, it seemed was no novice to battle, and had him backpedalling from the flames that licked the air, Grey pressing in to hammer his greatsword against her robes which seemed to absorb every blow.(- 240 Health Points. Magical Damage.)

Scarcely able to breath without his lungs burning, he made a final lunge forward, dodged the blade that flew for his skull, and used his fist the same way Winters had shown him, the powerful hit connecting cleanly with her cheek, and sending her flying through the air to smash up against the back wall. Her bruised and bleeding face, swollen by the punch as Grey closed in on her again, and grabbed a hold of her throat, thrusting her hard against the wall as he squeezed the life out of her, then stopped as he saw the blue fire die from her eyes.

Panting with effort, she smiled up at him with a broken lip, and thrust back the hood of her robes to reveal her ashen grey skin, the woman appearing both young and old at the same time with wide blue eyes that showed a thousands years and skin dry as winter ice.

“You’ve come far haven’t you, my poor minotaur, but it won’t mean much in the end my dear sweet child. This little war of ours is but a brief skirmish in the grander scheme of things. Have you never wondered why of all places that the Ash Lands struck here first? Why it only affects your people?

“I see the longing in your eyes, child of light, but perhaps it is better that you do not know yet. That friend of yours that you seek, she resides in the temple now, captured by our new allies the Glorious Fate. Deluded fools, much like yourselves. Colmar means to sacrifice them all, forever desecrating the Temple of Light. You’ll need to hurry if you wish to save her.”

(Click here if you kill Aalissa?)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sighing heavily, Grey nodded his head in acceptance, Tamrel able to sense the truth in her words and with one swift twist, he snapped her neck and let her body fall to the ground. One less enemy he had to deal with later.

(Click here to let her live?)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sighing heavily, Grey nodded his head in acceptance, Tamrel able to sense the truth in her words, and without really knowing why he released her, and walked away without another backward look. She was neither of the darkness or light, simply a pawn that had been used and discarded aside. She would be of no further use to Colmar now, and as far Grey was concerned, he saw no honor in killing her as she was. Let her defeat be reminder that even one such as she was vulnerable to flames of light. (+ 10 Honor.)

To be Continued...