Chapter 39: Isekai Life & Divine Intervention

So, to recap, while I reflect on how massively fucked I was.

Katriana, Ashryn, Voss and I were lying on the floor of the arena, bound by Hold Person spells (or whatever stupid name that spell had in this universe). We were all still alive, but for how much longer was anyone’s guess.

The only other person still alive in the arena was Mariska, who had taken a hard right into mad religious nutcase territory and never looked back, cackling and capering with joy now that she had managed to unseal Malgarath the Firelord from the mountain he was imprisoned under for centuries or even millennia. I was a little hasty on the specifics there.

Enna and Calliope were ... somewhere. Probably dead, if they hadn’t shown up yet. They managed to keep the entire arena from burning all at once, for whatever good that did us. If they were lucky, they were fleeing.

All the allies we had hoped would pitch in- the arena guards, the competing knights, Ricard- were dead around us, having been burned or hacked to pieces by Gogol, Mariska’s mercenary companion who was more than happy to murder people on her behalf. Some party they turned out to be. At least Gogol was dead, too, having fallen victim to Ricard, Katriana and one of the dead knights.

Hell, casting a wider net, the only other three people who even liked me in this city were a guard captain who was way over by the docks, a jeweller, and a sullen innkeeper.

So yeah, we were fucked. Except maybe Enna and Calliope, if they survived.

Corgiel, I’d like to have a word with you, please!

Malgarath himself lighted, if something so large could even be said to “light” somewhere, on the unburnt part of the arena. He (it?) appeared to be a red dragon sculpted from flame, massive enough that the wood groaned, but all the same he appeared ... wan and indistinct, somehow. Most of his body was a suggestion, a distortion in the air, while the rest was made up mostly of pale orange flame. His core was bright red, but even that was faded compared to what you’d expect from a literal god of destruction.

But, still ... did we manage to have an impact, somehow? In spite of everything? And, he chose the unburned section of arena to sit on...

However, it seemed there was nothing to do so long as we remained bound. We were completely powerless, without a prayer to hope for survival.

MARISKA, his voice boomed inside our heads. It was something felt rather than heard, a psychic blast rather than a physical voice. YOU FOOL, he continued, SOMEONE WHO STILL CARRIES THE BLOOD OF THE DRAGONSLAYER YET LIVES.

The blood of the who now!? Did he mean the lord paramount’s family?

“That’s impossible, great Firelord!” Mariska pleaded, kneeled before the dragon, “The lord’s family was all in their box! I burned them all myself!”

SILENCE YOU WORM! That time the voice boomed loud enough to make me wince. YOU SLAUGHTERED ENOUGH TO WEAKEN THE SEAL SO I COULD ESCAPE, AND THAT IS WORTHY OF SOME COMMENDATION. BUT THE BLOODLINE OF THE DRAGONSLAYER STILL LIVES, AND YOU FAILED TO OFFER ENOUGH SOULS FOR ME TO ATTAIN MY FORMER POWER!

“Forgive me, my lord!” Mariska gestured back towards us, “Your servants have failed you, but I have brought those ultimately responsible to be the first sacrifices to your true greatness! You can sup on their souls and grow stronger!”

Wait.

Wait.

Perhaps ... I did have a prayer, after all?

Oh Malgarath, the Firelord, God of Destruction whose true name I am unworthy of knowing, hear my prayer!

Though your so-called servant, Mariska, appears to be merely incompetent, hear me! She intends to betray you, and use your weakness and the existence of the Dragonslayer’s line to maintain her control of you!

We were the adventurers her unknowing friend, Ricard Parett, hired to retrieve his ring from the same ruin she and your other servant, Lord Gauthi, were using as a dead drop for coded messages. She did so with the intention that we would intercept the messages, decode them, and use that information to stop your cult’s plans.

She also sent us Ashryn Milaneth, servant of the Ysiphene, to help protect us and heal our wounds. We would have died many times over in our quest were it not for her blessings.

Mariska also sent us to find Enna of Shafttown, who Mariska had hired earlier, and who just so happened to have exactly the knowledge we needed to invade Lord Gauthi’s manor later, slaughtering more of your servants and discovering the plans for the Purification ceremony, as well as the means to how your servants travelled about the city. Using this knowledge we could intercept them and disrupt the ceremony, denying you souls.

When our lives were in her hands, Mariska choose to dispatch her servants in small groups to ambush us, allowing us to overcome your mortal pawns piecemeal whereas one large ambush would have destroyed us utterly.

She knew where we slept, could have easily spied upon us or assassinated us and yet she did nothing, as we unravelled your plans just enough that you appear on this plane in a weakened state, with your great enemy still alive to threaten you.

She also allowed us here, with her, to be perfectly positioned to affect your ritual. She even brought along her much more skilled and experienced friend, Ricard, to join us when she had every excuse to deny us?