Chapter 59 #2
“Do we agree on victory terms?” I asked again.
“We do.”
“Good. For the duel, no outside interference, and a barrier will be put in place to prevent that, as well as to protect spectators. A winner is declared when their opponent is confirmed to be dead. No yielding or forfeits. When the contest is over, so is the war. I will swear on my soul that my people will respect the outcome regardless of what it may be, and I expect you to swear the same. Similarly, our soul contract stipulates that all winnings are provided immediately. No delays.”
“You ask a divine being to stake their soul? Your insolence is boundless.”
“I don’t trust you, and you don’t trust me. The soul contract keeps us both honest.”
“Seraphim are not capable of lies.”
“Sure, if you say so. Regardless, I still want the soul contract.”
“Very well. The terms are set. I will see to it that history never remembers your name.”
“Fetch your champion,” I said.
“You are no better than Abaddon. Your souls are equally as black.”
I drew my fire crystal sword. “Are you the champion?”
Glaos turned and flew out of the arena, the seraphim champion soon taking his place.
The ground quaked when the platinum figure landed in the arena, the gust of his wings stirring a cloud of sand dust. He carried four polearms with blades as long as I was tall, and wore armor fashioned from stardust, a dazzling material that seemed to capture the enormity of a boundless starry night.
He tossed his helmet aside to show it was unnecessary in a fight with someone as weak as I was, but he didn’t smile or show any expression at all, for that matter. His face was flat and reserved, the absence of emotion making him look a little bored.
I cracked my neck and set my stance, preparing to meet the charge of my colossal celestial foe. A booming voice announced the start of the battle in a language I didn’t know.
The feeling I had in that moment was the same emotion I felt when Abaddon’s demons were inches away from the Sanctuary barrier.
I was mere blinks away from learning if my plan succeeded or failed, the enormity of the consequences perfectly clear to me.
Until they hit the barrier, I lived in that dreadful limbo.
For the battle in front of me, I was blinks away from learning if months of planning would bring me victory or defeat. If this plan would save me and my kingdom, or if this was where Byron of Zaglis finally met his end.
I pointed my sword at the seraphim, and I reached up. A charm the size of an orange hung from my neck on a golden chain. I tapped it.
Black lightning burst from my body in all directions, filling the arena, crackling and sparking when it ricocheted off the barrier. I heard sobs and cries of pain before I could see the source.
When the lightning dissipated, my opponent was on his knees, all six hands in the dirt to hold himself upright.
His wings smoldered as his skin melted, dripping like hot wax from his muscles and then his bones.
He pawed at himself, desperate to halt his demise, and he looked about the arena, searching for help.
All was quiet save for his screams and the sizzling of his flesh.
I stood by and watched for three minutes while he died. At one point, he attempted to crawl across the arena to me, as if begging for my mercy, strips of his flesh peeling away and leaving a trail of gore in his wake. Then the seraphim champion dropped into the dirt, still as death.
He lay in a puddle of his own melted flesh, his body still bubbling.
-15 Progress to Your Fall.
Progress to Your Fall: 14 / 100 (Abaddon, King of the Abyss)
“Praise to the Silk Goddess who granted me the power to defeat my enemies! Her divine judgment has been rendered, and her will has been made known.”
Purity helped make this possible, technically, but this was more the work of Solara and Podni. Packing the Seraphim Slayer spell into a bomb was a result of their dedication, and I was relieved to see it function as we intended.
“Glaos! Give me my winnings!”
The seraphim king stood from his seat of honor, seething with rage.
“In accordance with your terms, I give you Regulus, the seraphim son of the champion you slew, and I decree that all ascension gates be reopened and that the heavens will honor 1,000 years of peace with the kingdom of Sanctuary. Pick your second seraphim, Byron, God of Silk, God of Debauchery.”
I smiled. “Give me the Goddess.”
That broke the silence of the arena as hushed discussions immediately sparked to life.
“We did not agree to such a condition,” Glaos argued, an influx of panic leaking into his rage.
“Do you deny that she is a seraphim, and do you deny that she is in your possession?” I asked. “If you lie, your soul is forfeit.”
Glaos stared while his seraphim entourage looked to their leader, shocked and confused.
“Or you can delay and forfeit your soul that way,” I added.
With a snap of his fingers, a golden cage containing a beautiful woman with paper-white skin bound in shimmering platinum chains appeared before me. Glaos himself was gone when I looked back up. An incredible weight lifted from my shoulders. This was it. My campaign in the heavens had concluded.
To unlock Abaddon’s Bane, you must spend 10,000 good-aligned levels (one-time), forfeit 50 points of strength, sacrifice a living seraphim, and sacrifice a living sovereign.
One seraphim prisoner would have sufficed to meet the requirements of my Plague Master quest, but when we learned that the Goddess might be a captive on the seraphim plane, I knew I had to capitalize on that knowledge somehow.
Glaos believed her to be a true secret, so when he imagined who I might choose to drag back to the material plane with me, she never crossed his mind.
The Goddess appeared to be asleep in her cage, likely from a spell, if an arena descending into bedlam couldn’t wake her.
“Don’t tell anyone outside of the harem about the Goddess,” I told Purity and Solara. “Secure her beneath Sanctuary. Do not free or modify her restraints in any way. She’s strong enough to level the city if she decides we deserve it.”
“Yes, Father,” they dutifully replied.
Good. The last ingredient I needed was a sovereign sacrifice. Thanks to Ashley, I had a sovereign close by.