Chapter 47, unthought revenge

(Ardivar)

Fueled by a lust for sustenance and lost in a trance, Ardivar circled the large chapel. The windows high on the walls of the building reflected light in torchlight in a flickering cadence, revealing his enemy was inside. He approached the front door of the building, wondering why it was already wide open?

Thoughts muddled by the intoxicating smell of essence, Ardivar pushed inside, his claws clanking ominously on the smooth marble floor. He entered the main church hall and was surrounded by smooth marble pillars lining each side of the room. His focus was immediately drawn to the flickering torches placed in a perfect circle. He caught a shuffle of movement out of the corner of his eye, but Ardivar couldn't pull his eyes from the center of the torches.

Ardivar couldn't help himself as his legs moved forwards on their own. He rounded a marble pillar, the oddly flickering shadows drawing his attention momentarily until he saw the vial in the center of the torches. His attention became glued to the item, now unable to focus on anything else. Ardivar was so focused on the vial of a dried red substance on the pedestal that he failed to notice the swirling red markings drawn in blood on the smooth marble floor. Ardivar approached the massive ritual, drawn by an unseen, ominous force.

Mouth watering from the smell of demonic essence filling his nose, Ardivar reached the edge of the ritual. One torch in the circle flickered, distracting his attention for a moment. Ardivar shook his head. Something in the back of his mind telling him to snap out of it. But no, all that was left was the vial of dried red blood on the pedestal in the center of the ritual. His right paw crossed the outer line of blood and the sensation of pulling grew now nearly overwhelming in the shocking silence of the church hall.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ardivar paused as a distracting sound tore through the city, washing over him and grating on his nerves.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ardivar shook his head as the sound brought his focus back to reality. He stared down at the bloody marks on the marble tiles in horror, wondering how in the nine hells he was in the middle of some ritual? Ardivar, knowing something was very wrong, whirled around only just then, noticing the near dozen soldiers slowly surrounding him. Each of the eleven soldiers had a shield and a spear that was pointed down at him, leaving him no way to escape.

" Damnit, who in the hell sounded the bell!" shouted a deep irritated male voice.

" My lord, that is the city alarm in case of the Darvas attack!" said one soldier. Other than a horsehair plume on the soldiers golden helm, the soldier's steel and leather armour was identical to the other ten soldiers.

"What! They shouldn't be ready to attack just yet!" said a clearly upset Kellar. Ardivar glanced around and hissed as he realized there was no way to escape. Ardivar used the humans brief confusion at the loud clanging to assess the large ritual. Scrawled on the marble floor in a red fluid with the texture of syrup and smelling of iron was the ritual. All the humans were standing just outside of the line, not one stepping over the outer line. There were three circles of runes. Ardivar was in the outer layer right next to the second layer. Ardivar grimaced, realizing that the last layer of the runes in the center gave off the feeling they were distinctly malicious..

Either the runes would kill him or the runes would bind him somehow. Ardivar hissed in annoyance at the realization he had fallen right into a trap. The shield wall of humans encased in steel braced their shields as Ardivar took a step towards them. Ardivar winced as he tried to approach, his body shaking as he fought the ritual. Each of the soldiers' spears glowed red around the points as a shocking torrent of mana flowed through one of the two human mages.

Ardivar channel mana and created a rune. One of the eleven guards was washed in an eye searing green fire, cooking him like a slab of meat in moments. The acrid smell of burning flesh and the man's terrified screams filled the air as the figure of Kellar sidled up next to the guards and a dome of red fire formed over the entire ritual in mere moments. Ardivar's attempts at burning more of the humans to a crisp came to an abrupt halt as he tried to break Kellar's seven layered dome. Ardivar hissed as his runes sparked against the thick dome layered by the master mage. To the normal human guards' credit, they were still standing in formation even after he had cooked one of them.

Ardivar swallowed, taking a step back at Kellar's deathly glare. Ardivar's back claw passed into the second ring of the ritual at the misstep.

Ardivar winced in pain as his claw refused to pass back outwards. Ardivar leaned his weight backwards as some flickered to shimmering dust. All ten of the remaining soldiers leaned their eight foot long spears in a thrust at Ardivar's chest. His back two legs crossed the second ring of the ritual. Ardivar winced as the second part of the ritual weighed on his bones, dragging him forcefully into the ring. Ardivar hissed at the humans and channel his mana again. Kellar was foolish to pull apart his own barrier. Or at least Kellar would have been if Ardivar could channel his mana. His mind exploded in pain as his mana refused to flow while his body was in the second ring of the ritual.

" Keep forcing him back, but don't step into the red circle of ritual. Lean over if you must, but do not cross the line!" order Kellar, gesturing the wall of soldiers and their spears glimmering with red runes.

Anger welled in Ardivar's chest. His enemy was so close and he could do nothing to the human. His heart raced as he searched for a way to escape. Ardivar would have been impressed by the fact that Kellar had channeled eleven runes at once on each of the soldiers' weapons if he wasn't so concerned. Ardivar channel once again, gritting his teeth through the agony flooding his mind in an attempt to escape.

His futile attempts came to a halt as a grey rune formed in front of him and wind gusted from the rune. Ardivar dug his claws into the marble in an attempt to halt himself from moving further into the ritual. Ardivar glared up at the stony face of the High priest in hateful challenge.

" Oh, you still have some resistance?" said the High Priest over the howling wind.

Ardivar squinted in horror as two more grey runes formed next to the first and the gale of wind turned into a screaming howl. Ardivar's claws slid bit by bit along the second ring of the ritual as clung to any hope of escape. His resolve waver as he glanced over the armoured humans, who were clearly waiting for him. Then he glanced at Kellar and the high Priest. Maybe Ardivar should have brought number two or the rest of his pack?

His body slid along the smooth floor, his claws carving gouges in the stone as he slid into the center ring of the ritual. Immediately, his limbs felt numb as a purple haze, distinctly malicious, swirled around him. Ardivar's mind whirled as he drifted in a haze of emptiness as something apart of him was blocked off. No matter how hard Ardivar tried, he couldn't sense the mages using their mana any more.

It was as if the ritual blocked all of his magical perception. Ardivar gave one attempt using the last his of anger. His futile attempts merely caused the stony Priest to crack a small smile. Before, the weight of the ritual made his vision blurry. Ardivar resisted, but something was terribly wrong. He couldn't hear anything? He could see Kellar's lips moving, but could hear nothing. Maybe the ritual was killing him. With no small amount of fear, Ardivar slowly fell into the darkness. Ardivar let out one last hiss of anger, letting his enemy know he would be back as all went black and Ardivar fell prey to the ritual. Ardivar passed out from the stabbing numbness covering his entire body.