58 The Dark Mage
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
For ease of narration, this whole chapter is in Tatiana's POV, because the battle will be more focused on her. There's a short part with Mason's POV, but that's not that important.
Sorry, once again, and enjoy the chapter!
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Tatiana leads Athreos outside the Library, both of them staying silent. This was a serious matter, not one where she could relax as if she is within friends. Aslo, she doesn't want anyone to know that she and Athreos are.. friends? She doesn't know what they are.
She liked him, sure, and he was not exceedingly ugly either. And he is a strong mage! What else could she ask for?
Once outside the Library building, the pair are met by the other 6 Royal Mages, who had waited outside on Tatiana's orders. Leading the seemingly demure man named Athreos towards them, Tatiana nods at her subordinates to join them.
Tatiana turns towards Athreos, and asks, "So, what did the man look like? And where did the people meet him."
She had told the Royal Mages that Athreos is a natural at Offensive Mind Magics, a Mind Walker, as they're called. He didn't need to use spells to Mind Walk, but he didn't have much control over it. In addition, the Enchanted Earrings that protected their Minds from purposeful Mind Walking also save them from his Accidental Mind Walking.
Or so she cooked up, never knowing how right she was.
So it was, that the Royal Mages knew that Athreos had been inside the Prisoner's minds, seen some of their memories.
Athreos takes a moment to think, as all 7 people stare at him in expectation, and says, "His skin was a bit light, but not too light. So definitely of the Greek descent. His face was covered by a cloak at all times, so I don't know exactly how he looks. The weirdest thing about him would be the fact that he wore a full black cloak that left just his hands and feet naked. They met, as I said, in the Market behind the Palace."
'A black cloak in an atmosphere this hot? It is weird, as he said.' Tatiana thinks to herself.
Tatiana exchanges a look with the other Mages, and says, "That isn't going to be any help to us. Let's go to the Market, we'll see if we find anyone similar, or plan our next move then."
The Royal Mages surround the seemingly helpless untrained Mage, and their leader, with two staying at the back, two at the front, and one on each side. This way, if anyone attacks them, the Royal Mages can protect the witness, as well as their leader with their own bodies and lives.
It is how Tatiana was trained, and it is how she trained these new men. Defend the Pharoah first, then his family, then the High Mage, and then yourself. Civilians, of course, are not a priority.
Once they reach the Market behind the Palace, Tatiana realises that this won't be as quick a search as she had hoped. The Market was.. huge, in a word. It covered the entire back wall of the Palace, as well as the Library which was right next to it.
Stopping once at the centre of the Market, she turns towards her men, and says, "We should split up, so that we may cover more ground. Form pairs, and go in the North, West, and South directions. I will take the commoner East with me, I don't trust him completely."
At each direction, she points at two people, making them nod in understanding. As the six people disappear into their respective directions, Athreos looks at Tatiana, a faux offended look on his face.
Tatiana just rolls her eyes, as she leads him through the East side of the Market. She says, "I would rather not let it be known that we are anything but acquaintances, Athreos. Our.. relationship.. is better remained unknown."
She didn't want the Pharoah to go after Athreos, just because she slept with him one time, and people got to know about it. She also didn't want the Pharoah to look too closely at her lover, because then he will realise that Athreos is a Mage in need of training, and before she knows it, Athreos will be one of the Royal Mages, sworn to protect the Pharoah. Or dead.
No, she will keep it a secret as long as possible.
"Tatiana?" Athreos whispers, about a minute after starting their search. As Tatiana turns her head towards him in question, he asks, "How did the men die? Because I doubt you left them unguarded."
Tatiana glances behind for a second, frowning in frustration, and says, "That's the problem. We don't know. It was as if the years had been sucked out of their bodies. Their bodies had been aged up to at least a 100 years when we found them. The Guards that were responsible for guarding the Prisons were all dead, also aged up. No one saw anything suspicious, and those that did, weren't left alive."
Tatiana knew quite a lot of curses that could cause items, and people, to age up quickly, giving them a death by old age within seconds. But none of those spells had a purpose beyond killing.
And this massacre had a purpose beyond just getting rid of witnesses. The killer needed to kill them, for some reason, but she didn't know what.
For a few minutes they both stay silent, looking around for any person wearing a black cloak.
Suddenly though, Tatiana stops, causing Athreos to almost crash into her, and stares at her arm. Her hand had six bangles around them, tightly fit around her wrists. Two of the bangles, one on each hand, were glowing orange, and heating up.
She could feel the warmth of the glowing bangles on her arm, but it wasn't hot enough to harm her.
She hears Athreos ask, "What is it?" Already hearing the concern in his voice without even turning around.
Tatiana scowls, still staring at the bangles, and says, "Each of us Royal Mages wears 6 bangles like this, and a single piercing in our navel. The 6 bangles are connected to the Navel piercings of each of the remaining Mages, to allow us to know when one of us is in pain, or dies. The Orange glow means that they are injured."
Tatiana had invented these Enchanted objects herself, after she was forced to become the High Mage at the very young age of 14. Despite being the youngest of the Royal Mages of that time, Tatiana was also the strongest, thanks to her training in the Library, and under her Master, the previous High Mage.
And so, after the Pharoah bedded her the first time, she was forced to lead the Royal Mages, to care for their lives. When the previous Royal Mages died out in one battle or another, Tatiana created these Bangles and the Navel piercings to allow her to keep track of her Mages.
Alas, she is now forced to wait, and watch, as the bangle glows orange, unable to do anything.
Athreos then wonders out loud, "Is there a way to track down where they are?"
Tatiana shakes her head, frustrated that she didn't think about this, and says, "The only time we can track other Mages down is if they're.." the bangles go from orange, to brown, to black, within a single second, and then the two bangles break down, turning to dust. Tatiana clenches her fists, as her wrists burn a little, and continues, "..dead. Let's go, we don't have much time."
She could feel where the deaths had happened, and thankfully, both the deaths had occurred at the same place. She will mourn her subordinates later, but first, she needs to avenge them.
And then, holding Athreos's hand tightly, Tatiana apparates them away, taking him to the location she was sensing, knowing that the others will be coming here soon. As soon as they appear out of the tunnel, Athreos clenches his fists in anger, his hand still holding hers.
As Tatiana glances at him, she finds that Athreos was glaring at to her right in anger, his nose twitching as if he had smelled something exceedingly unpleasant. She decides to ask him about it later.
Tatiana turns her head, dropping Athreos's hand, and scowls, seeing the dead bodies of her subordinate Royal Mages. Both of them were now old, aged up till they died.
Standing above them, was a man wearing a Black robe, holding a staff in his left hand, made of some white coloured wood, with a skull on its head.
"So.. you're the one who hired the Mages to destroy the Library, and then killed them when they failed. In the name of the Pharoah, I order you to surrender. Resist, and.. well, please resist." Tatiana says, at the same time that the 4 remaining Royal Mages appear around the man, surrounding him.
His face was still hidden by the cowl, but his arms were a bit more open now, showing his forearms to all. Beside him, cowering from everyone there, was the surprising sight of an Elf, wearing just a single piece of cloth, that hung on its shoulder.
The crowd was parted, and already many people were fleeing after seeing the Royal Mages there. Some, however, seemed to be quite used to seeing such occurrences, and had stayed to watch.
'Morons,' Tatiana thinks.
She could feel Athreos glaring at the man.. no, his staff? Something about the Staff offended the man, and Tatiana was sure he won't explain it if she doesn't ask. She couldn't feel anything wrong about the staff, anything that might offend any Mage.
Well, the skull might, but it is the sign of an obvious Necromancer. Necromancy is not something uncommon in Misr, and even in Alexandria. There are dozens of Necromancers in the Temple of Osiris itself, not to forget those in the Temple of Anubis.
And Athreos didn't seem like someone who doesn't like Necromancers, since she had actually seen a Necromancy book in his Room that night, when they had slept together.
The cloaked man, to no one's surprise, doesn't surrender, and instead chuckles. His staff hand twitches, and Tatiana immediately pulls Athreos behind her. She raises her hand, casting a wandless shield in front of them.
She does it just in time, as a grey wave of smoke was let out by the man's staff, speeding towards them.
With a gong, the wave of Dark Magic hits the shield, sending her skidding backwards a bit. The shield holds, but she could feel the Magic of the man's attack breaking the shield.
She could see that the man hadn't just attacked her, but he had attacked all 6 of them at once, with the wave of dark Magic.
CRACK!
The wave of Magic was causing the shield to crack, the force too much for the shields to handle. If she tries to Disappear, the shield will break before she can escape. Fortunately, she doesn't need to do anything.
She feels a hand land on her shoulder, as she is forcefully dragged into the familiar tunnel of Apparition letting the Dark magic slam into the ground.
Tatiana pants, as Athreos and her appear out of the tunnel, and she sees the Dark Magic strike two of the other Royal Mages, the remaining two having apparated just like them. When the Magic touches the Wizards, they start growing old right in front of her eyes, as the Grey wave of Magic returns to the attacking wizard, now with a bit of Silver within it.
So, she was right. There was an actual purpose behind ageing these people up. He was stealing the Life force of the ones he attacked with a Necromantic Spell. But, it seems there aren't any other benefits to that, just an increased lifespan.
Athreos taps her shoulder once, and she feels something being stuck on her hip, right over her butt. It was a dagger and its sheath, she could feel. Before she can ask what that is for Athreos whispers, "If you get the opportunity, stab this into the Staff head. Don't ask questions, not yet, just trust me."
Tatiana gives him a look, but nods, hiding the dagger and its sheath from sight, using illusions. She will most definitely ask him questions later, she needs to.
"Of course, you survived." The man says, immediately making Tatiana freeze.
She recognised his voice, but.. that is not possible. It's not possible for him to be here, alive and well. She had seen him die, seen all signs of his Soul leave his body.
Horrified, Tatiana whispers, "That's.. impossible. You're dead, I saw you die with my own eyes."
The man chuckles, and says, "Of course you did, my love. But there are some things that I had kept secret from all, even you. One of them allowed me to.. return from death."
Tatiana, who had remained frozen for a second, finally shakes her head. She loudly says, "No matter, I will kill you again, and again, until you remain dead." Turning towards the other Mages, who had joined her, she looks Athreos in the eye, and says, "Do not try to fight him, he is a dangerous enemy. You will only get in the way."
Athreos frowns, obviously displeased, as another one of the Royal Mages asks, "Do you know this man, High Mage?"
Scoffing, Tatiana says, "I know him? Of course I do. He's the one that taught me almost everything I know. He was the last High Mage, Lord Herpo, who was supposed to have died 10 years ago."
Herpo had found her in the Library of Alexandria, studying Magic under the vigilant eyes of Priest Onuris. At the age of 9, he took her from the Library, as an apprentice.
And then, when she was strong enough, Herpo turned her into his Mistress, forced her into his bed. She was just 11 when it happened.
As if that wasn't enough, Herpo then offered her to the Pharoah, hinting at Tatiana that he wanted her to spy on the Pharoah, to fulfill his every wish until Herpo says not to.
Tatiana already hated Herpo, hated the Pharoah, hated her life. And when the Pharoah first.. took her, her anger knew no bounds. She concocted a poisonous Potion, one she had found in the Royal Mage Library, and fed it to Herpo.
He never expected it, and he died. The Priests of Osiris that took his body away confirmed that he had died, and took him away for the Final Rites. And now, he was back, somehow. Back from the dead.
She wanted to kill the Pharoah too, but she didn't believe herself ready to die, or even keep hiding from the Medjai yet. And so, she left him alone.
"If.. he is the last Royal Mage.. why is he attacking us?" The same Mage asks, causing Tatiana to look a bit uncomfortable.
She didn't want anyone to know that she had killed him just to get away from his hands. She says, "Who knows what his reasons are, he has already killed two of our fellow Mages, that is a crime punishable by death, in and of itself. We can ask him questions after we have captured him."
The Mage nods, and turns towards Athreos. He orders, "Leave now while you still have the chance, commoner. Your task is done. The battle is going to get a bit violent."
Tatiana notices, however, that Athreos hadn't moved his eye away from Herpo, making her turn her head towards the man herself. He had remained strangely still, not attacking them while they spoke.
It is then that Tatiana notices it, his hand was moving discreetly, in very small motions. Seeing his hand stop, she widens her eyes, and immediately yells, "SCATTER!"
Immediately, all four of the remaining mages apparate away, Athreos holding on to her hand once again. He brings them to the top of a nearby house, and she sees the spot they were just in get destroyed, without any hint of the cause.
The spell was so deadly, that everything in the space they were standing in was destroyed, with just a deep crater in the place.
Tatiana turns towards Athreos, about to yell at him about forcefully taking her away, when he whispers, "I didn't want anyone to know you taught me the spell. This way, they will think that you brought us here, wanting to save a civilian."
Tatiana nods, accepting the answer, and says, "Stay here, Athreos. Herpo is a dangerous man, and he won't hesitate to capture you to threaten me."
Athreos nods, looking a bit concerned. And he should be, even she wasn't sure she could take Herpo down herself. He says, "Take care, I owe you some answers that you won't get if you die."
Smiling softly, Tatiana disappears from the rooftop, and appears on the ground.
Tatiana, and the two remaining Royal Mages were now surrounding Herpo, their Wands now in their hands. He turns around, keeping his eyes on Tatiana, and says, "You've learned some new tricks, I see. Teleportation without the need of long drawn out spells? But.. is it fast enough?"
He then slams his staff on the ground, sending three blasts of dark magic towards the three Royal Mages. All three of them cast shields, and this time, they succeed in blocking the spells completely.
Tatiana doesn't take long to recover, and shoots wild flames out of her wand, keeping her left hand raised to keep the flames focused. At the same time, the two other mages shoot two different curses at the Dark Mage, one she recognises to be a flaying curse, and the other a bone summoning curse.
Herpo just waves his staff, allowing the flaying curse to hit his staff's skull harmlessly, while the bone summoning curse is slammed away by the staff's wood. For Tatiana's flames, he stops them with his right hand, wandlessly creating a Vacuum sphere to snuff them out.
Tatiana is shocked by the fact that her subordinates' curses had no effect on the staff. They should have at least harmed them a little, but it was as if the spells had hit.. nothing.
As the two wizards pull their wands back to cast more spells, Herpo just glances at them once. Immediately, a force of Magic hits them in their guts, sending them flying away into a house. The men get knocked out, bleeding from their heads before she can even move.
Tatiana glances at her soldiers, a bit morose at not being able to do anything to save them, but turns towards Herpo, who had his attention on her.
Tatiana sees Athreos, who was sitting on the rooftop still move a little, his face showing her exactly what he wanted to do. In answer, she just glares at him.
Whether he believes her unable to save herself or whether he believed Herpo too dangerous to let her face him alone, she was not some damsel in distress. She was not some delicate flower that needed rescuing. Herpo was her enemy, she made him the enemy, and while she doesn't regret it at all, she wants to kill him herself.
Athreos nods with a sigh, as he sits back down, her message having reached.
'Do not interfere, this is personal.' she wanted to say to him, without saying any words.
Internally sighing in relief, once she sees Athreos refrain from attacking, Tatiana brings her attention back to her enemy, who was observing her it seems. He probably did not notice the small exchange she just had with Athreos, or he would have spoken up about that.
"Why did you kill me?" He asks, after a few seconds of just intense staring.
Glaring at him hatefully, Tatiana says, "Why would I not kill you? You groomed me to be your mistress, trained me only enough to always be weaker than you, and you dared to offer me to the Pharoah as a concubine?!"
Herpo scoffs, and says, "You're a woman, your position was always going to be beneath me. And you were about the right age to become my mistress, a bit older for my tastes, but I wanted you to be perfectly grown first."
Considering she was just 11 when she was first bedded by this monster, and 13 when she was offered to the Pharoah, Tatiana was not in agreement with his words.
Tatiana simply points her wand at Herpo, and yells, "Ápeiros Pónos!"
Translation, Infinite Pain. When the spell that shows itself as a white coloured lightning touches a person, be it skin, or clothes, it causes their entire body to start hurting. Every body part goes through an infinite amount of pain, for a few seconds. Of course, the spell has limits. A strong enough shield can stop the spell, not to forget actually physical barriers. As well, the degree of pain the victim goes through is dependent on the strength of the Mage casting it.
Herpo waves his hand, summoning one of the observing civilians in the way of the curse. Tatiana, seing this immediately stops the curse, but it does get stuck for a second.
"Agkh!" The woman gasps, as she drops down on the ground, convulsing from the pain, unable to say anything else.
Just a single touch is enough for anyone to go through infinite white hot pain to stab into them, and it will stay for 10 seconds in the least. The woman wasn't made of any better material than flesh and blood.
'What kind of idiot stays when two Mages are fighting?' She thinks, frowning at the idiocy of the rabble.
Herpo points his hand at the woman, his hand turning a dark grey, but before he can do whatever he was aiming for, the woman gets pulled away by a force of Magic. She glances up at the building, where she knows Athreos is, and finds him just standing there.
But, she somehow knew, that it was Athreos that saved the woman from the same fate as the other aged up people.
'I need to see exactly how good he is at Magic before I sleep with him next.' Tatiana thinks, mentally thanking Athreos for saving the moronic woman, while also wondering what else he's hiding.
Herpo glances at Athreos too, causing Tatiana to take a step forward in aggression, which Herpo doesn't miss. He must've known that there aren't any other Mages around, and immediately suspected him.
He turns back towards Tatiana, and says, "Seriously? Him? You had the choice of 6 Royal Mages, dozens of Egyptian Priests, and you chose him, am untrained commoner?"
Or maybe he just saw her looking at him.
Tatiana doesn't grace that with an answer, since she herself didn't know what attracted her to Athreos. She just was.
Instead, she asks, "How did you come back to life, Herpo? I saw the Priests of Osiris do the Rites on your body, I saw them check for any signs of life."
Herpo chuckles, and says, "Herpo? I remember the day when you used to kiss my feet everyday in thanks to our lessons, calling me Master." He then shakes his head, seeing no reaction from Tatiana or the commoner, and says, "It took me a lot of time and efforts to gain this much strength, but as you can see, I still need to Steal decades from others, so I can live a few more years."
'So that's why he sucked the life out of these people? He's still not strong enough to stay here indefinitely. How did he come back from the Dead though? Is it related to that skull of his, and why Athreos asked me to destroy it?' Tatiana wonders, her head not even moving towards the staff.
If it is the source of his seeming immortality, then she didn't want to tip her hand too soon. She didn't want him to become suspicious.
Tatiana cracks her neck, and says, "Very well, don't tell me. I will take the answer from your mind itself once I'm through with you."
Herpo chuckles, and says, "It is amusing how you think you alone can defeat us."
Us?
"Who is us?" Tatiana asks, dismissing the Elf as a threat immediately.
In response, Herpo.. hisses? 'He's a Parselmouth?!' Tatiana thinks, amazed at how he had kept it a secret throughout their 5 years together.
After Herpo stops his hissing, the ground begins shaking, and he says, "While I would love to deal with you myself, my pet will suffice. It is my own creation, after all, and hence, it is completely loyal to me."
Tatiana points her wand at Herpo, and yells, "Psychí Katastréfoun."
A curse that shows itself to the world as just a transparent ripple in the air, the Soul Destruction Curse does exactly that, completely destroys the Soul within whoever it hits.
She sees the Magic fly through the air towards the man, who remains unmoving. Right before the curse can hit him, something comes out of the ground in front of him, and the curse splashes harmlessly against thick scales of.. something snake like.
Unfortunately, the curse doesn't believe Animals have Souls, and hence, it doesn't work on them.
It was some sort of snake, not one she had ever seen before, but its scales were definitely as magically resistant as that of Dragons. Just by looking at the dark green scales, she could tell that the animal will be a difficult foe to beat.
It was just a bit over 40 hands long, staying around Herpo, who had his eyes closed now, focusing on some spell.
She feels a spell hit her, Compelling her to close her eyes, and she does, not voluntarily.
She scowls, recognising the Magic of the spell as one cast by Athreos. But.. why did he do that, she wonders.
Another spell compells her to turn her back towards the snake, which makes her want to fight the Spell. However, something within her was telling her to trust Athreos, to trust his judgement.
When she turns her back to the snake and her former Master, she opens her eyes and sees a few people fallen on the ground, dead. The rest were screaming, running around in a panic, as one of them yells, "DON'T LOOK IT IN ITS EYES! CURSED EYES! CURSED EYES!"
Tatiana didn't know how Athreos knew about this secret ability of the Snake that even she didn't know. But, she can guess that it is something he had read about. Guess she needs to thank the cute scholar later.
Herpo hisses something else, and she hears the snake coming after her. Aiming blindly, Tatiana throws the spell, "Flegómeni Katára!" behind her.
The Cursed Flames of Hades flow out of her wand's tip, shaping into a serpent as big as her own size. The flames attack the Snake, and she hears screeching, as the snake burns. Unfortunately, the screeching stops within a few seconds, as the snake returns to attacking her, the flames snuffed out by the Elf.
Tatiana doesn't get afraid however, having already been prepared to some day, hopefully, fight a dragon. This was basically the same thing for her. Holding her wand in her fist tightly, Tatiana stops her run, and stabs it into the ground.
The ground underneath the snake lifts up so suddenly, that it sends the snake flying into the air. Waving the wand at the raised piece of land, Tatiana stabs her wand forward. The land separates from the Earth, and immediately goes flying at Herpo at great speeds.
Turning the wand over to the now dropping snake, Tatiana sends a blast of Grey Lightning out of her wand towards it. The Lightning hits the snake on its tongue, since its mouth was open.
The Cursed Lightning travels from the tongue, over to the rest of the Snake's body, and does its work. All the senses of the Snake, be it sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and even the sense of the temperature, get scrambled. Unless the counter curse is given, within 10 minutes, the snake will be completely blinded, without any of its other senses to rely on.
Before the snake can regain itself, Tatiana conjures a hail of arrows, and sends them all flying towards the beast's open mouth. The mouth of the beast is bombarded by a dozen arrows, all of them stabbing inside the roof of the snake's mouth, slowly killing it.
Tatiana turns towards Herpo, ignoring the snake now falling on the ground, and immediately gets thrown in the air by the Elf, who had managed to defend its Master from her attack from before.
Tatiana crashes into a tree, already feeling a few broken bones. She immediately rolls away, letting another bolt of Magic slam into the palm tree she was unwittingly resting on.
"Enough." Herpo says, his Staff and his right hand both pointed at the skies. The Elf immediately follows the order, and disappears from its location, appearing back to the side of the Dark Wizard.
Still with his arms raised up, Herpo looks over at her, his Cowl still disallowing her from seeing anything, and says, "This.. is the culmination of my patience, dearest Tatiana. You see, the body I'm currently inhabiting is not my own, it belongs to a helpful Priest of Osiris named Imhotep. His knowledge of Necromancy was very helpful to my cause, you know. One such spell.. one such spell, my love, allowed me to summon all the dead within Misr.. loyal completely to me."
And then, he slams the staff into the ground, stabbing it a few inches deep, and yells, "KALÉSTE TOUS NEKROÚS!"
From the head of the staff, from the eyes and mouth of the skull atop it, black smoke starts coming out, dropping down on the ground. The smoke rests there for barely a second, before it blows outwards in all directions, flying away from Herpo, and keeps expanding.
From the ports of Alexandria, all the way to the Great Pyramids of Giza, every inch of land is covered in the black smoke. And then, the smoke drops down, and starts digging into the Earth.
Tatiana looks horrified, seeing the Earth shaking due to what is obviously his Necromancy spell succeeding, and turns towards Herpo, still ready to fight him. However, his attention was not on her, he was looking at another direction. He was staring at Athreos, who in return was also staring defiantly at Herpo's face, his hands folded on his chest.
Herpo says, "Elf, go bring me that man. His Magic is strong despite him not being trained, he shall be a good next vessel."
Horrified, Tatiana sees the Elf disappear, and immediately snaps her head over to Athreos, only to sigh in relief a moment later. Athreos was still staring at Herpo, glaring more like, with the Elf held in his one hand, by its neck.
Tatiana can't help but be impressed, seeing the muscles on his arm. Elfs might be lighter than humans, very lighter, but they're not light enough to effortlessly hold in just a single hand.
"Fine, I will do it myself." Herpo says, turning towards Athreos with his hands raised.
Taking her sword off its sheath for the first time in a long time, Tatiana immediately Appears right in front of Herpo, and immediately slashes her sword at him. The man leans away, his training still ingrained even within his soul, but not enough.
The steel sword cuts through his neck, and Tatiana smirks, feeling her job done. Herpo disabises her of the belief when he punches at her stomach, while she's still in the air. Tatiana immediately Disappears, seeing that his hand was glowing a dark grey colour.
She did not want to risk being cursed by the Necromancer.
Necromancers have spells that can banish souls, summon souls, control souls, harm souls, curse souls, and of course as she just found out, suck the years out of souls. She did not know what else they're capable of, and she didn't want to find out first hand.
She appears, once again, in the opposite direction of Athreos, with Herpo in the middle. Herpo looks at her, and she sees the stab wound heal right in front of her eyes, the wound glowing with a blue light.
'So the absorbed Decades also give him a better healing.' Tatiana thinks, her mind going back to the Dagger that Athreos had fixed on her back. She now knew why Athreos had given it to her, but she didn't know how Athreos knew at first glance.
She glances at him, and finds him just staring at her, a reassuring smile on his face. The Elf was nowhere to be seen, so he probably killed it. She would have done the same, if an Elf had dared to attack her.
It is possible that he's an Oracle of the Goddess, or a descendant of one.
"You dare harm me?! After everything I did for you?! Even after all the success you got after killing me, you want to harm me?! Tatiana, I was willing to forgive your sins, and allow you back beside me once I become Pharoah, but now.. now you will be alive, forced for centuries upon centuries to watch me torture your lover." Herpo says, taking threatening steps towards her.
Meanwhile, the Soul Summoning spell was still working, and the ground was still shaking all around her. Right next to Tatiana, in fact, the first crack in the ground forms, as a hand appears out of it and grabs on to her hand.
"AAAAH!" Tatiana immediately yells, blowing it up on instinct.
The hand was just made of bones, with no flesh to speak of. She immediately stands up, as the skeleton keeps rising out of the ground, many more such skeletons joining it above ground. She turns her head left and right, seeing skeletons start rising from the dead, as they surround her. Even the two Royal Mages who had died before she even got here were now risen from death, their bodies holding their own swords up.
Herpo, who had spread his arms to embrace the feeling of power, says, "Do you see now, Tatiana? This.. is Power! First Alexandria, and then Misr, and then the whole World will be mine! I shall be the first and only Pharoah to rule the entire world! And my Army of the Dead will bring this victory to me. No mortal weapons will harm them, no Magic will keep them down!"
Every spell has a weakness, that is what she had always read. And right now, as she is surrounded by hundreds of skeletons, she could find just a single weakness. A Necromantic Spell only works as long as you power it, and you can't power a spell when you're dead.
So, she needs to kill Herpo to end the spell, to end the terror of the Army of the Dead.
As the Skeletons start approaching her, Tatiana takes her sword in her left hand, and begins cutting through them. With her Wand, she would fire spell after spell, element after element, while her sword took care of anyone that got too close.
Unfortunately, even when the skeletons and half decomposed corpses were cut into two, they kept approaching her, crawling on the ground.
"Is this your idea of a victory, Herpo?!" Tatiana yells, seeing Herpo start walking towards the Palace, no doubt to kill the Pharoah and take his place. As he stops, she asks, "Is this your idea of a revenge?! Have some corpses kill me by overwhelming me with numbers? I didn't take you for a foul coward, Herpo."
Herpo turns away, and she finally gets to see his face, the cowl now down. His face was not one she was familiar with, obviously. The body belongs to someone called Imhotep, and more likely than not, the Staff does as well.
He says, "Very well, your wish of dying by my hands will be granted, my love. I shall give you that much honour." He then turns towards the corpses, who were all staring at him in expectation, and yells, "Go! Kill every soldier or Mage you find, kill anyone that gets in your way! Start with the Library, and the Temples of the Egyptian Gods!"
Tatiana hoped that the guards, Mages, Priests, and even Athreos would be enough to deal with the thousands of corpses rising all over Misr, and that she succeeds in her plan. Or else.. all hope will be lost.
Tatiana puts her sword away, not needing it right now, and faces Herpo. Athreos was gone from his position on top of the house, probably to help the others deal with the Corpses.
Herpo holds his staff to his side, and asks, "Shall we begin, my love?"
"I'm not.. your anything." Tatiana grits out, and points both her palms at him, her wand held in one hand.
An enormous shockwave erupts from her palms, and speeds towards Herpo who was a very short distance from her. The shockwave slams into his staff, which he had brought in between, and the wind immediately turns into fire.
Herpo sends the flame after her, in a wave, and Tatiana stabs her wand at the flames, sending another curse through the flames. The curse strikes another curse, that Herpo had sent at her through the flames himself, and a wave of Tatiana's wand curses the flames, sending them back towards Herpo.
The flames, now similar to the Cursed Flames of Hades flow towards Herpo, as if it was a wave of water. Herpo stabs his Staff into the ground, creating a bubble of vacuum around himself. The flames then get sucked into the bubble, into Herpo's palm, and Tatiana readies herself.
Herpo throws the ball of condensed flames at her, and Tatiana casts her strongest Shield spell, The Indomitable Shield of Aegis. The flames slam into the shield, causing it to push her back.
Another similar ball of Magic, shaped and Willed into the form of the flames by Herpo, slam into the shield, and this causes the shield to break, sending Tatiana flying backwards.
As Tatiana falls down on the ground, her wand flies out of her hands, falling a very large distance away. As Tatiana begins getting up, she sees Herpo with his staff head pointed at her, and immediately raises her arms, casting a strong shield once again.
This time, however, thanks to not having the extra accuracy that her Wand grants her, the shield is not strong enough to stop even a single attack from Herpo.
A black coloured curse slams through the shield, and hits her in the shoulder, sending her skidding backwards even more.
Tatiana coughs, and once more starts getting up, but this time, she feels something wrong. Her hands.. her legs.. her entire body was weakening, the flesh itself was rotting, as if she had already been dead for centuries.
"The curse that just touched you is one of my own inventions. You see those corpses, those.. Inferi, that are running rampant around Misr with just a handful of defenders against them? This Curse turns any living person into that.. an Inferi under my own command. You have just a minute before you turn completely, so.. any last words?"
The annoying voice of Herpo was grating on her nerves, everything about him making her hate him even more. Still defiant, as her arms were shriveling up inch by inch, Tatiana looks up at Herpo, and says, "Yes.. Damn you, Herpo!"
And then, Tatiana disappears from her position. Herpo looks around, ready to kill her when she appears despite the curse. Unfortunately for him, Tatiana takes a short detour, stopping in another location to get something out.
When Tatiana appears, she does so right in front of Herpo, between him and his staff. In one swift motion, Tatiana immediately stabs her Dagger, the one Athreos had given her into the Skull that covered the staff head. Still mid fall, she sees the dagger break through the Skull's Magical protections as if they were butter.
And then, she takes the dagger out. She sees the skull turn black, at the point where she had stabbed it, and then.. BOOOM!
A loud explosion throws her and Herpo away, in the same direction. Tatiana lands on Herpo once, but the force of the explosion still causes her to go even further. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Tatiana takes aim, and banishes the dagger towards Herpo, hoping to kill him once and for all.
Unfortunately for her, she was not still when she did that, and she also wasn't entirely healthy. So it is, that the dagger flies over Herpo's fallen body, just grazing his skin on his exposed nose.
Tatiana drops down, now unable to move at all. The curse had already taken a lot out of her, and her efforts at destroying his Staff and killing him had taken even more. She was a guest of just a few seconds.
"You! Tatiana! You're a whore who should have stayed in her own place! Now that you're the High Mage, you believe you're above all?! No, I am still Herpo, an Immortal Mage! And I will have my Power!" Herpo yells, now struggling to stand up from his fall. "I taught you everything I know, Tatiana, my love. And you still betrayed m.."
He stops, frowning, and puts his hand on the wound on top of his nose. "What did you do?" He asks, his eyes widening when he sees his blood, darkened from whatever the Dagger did to it.
Tatiana, unable to even move her head, just stares at him, not saying anything.
His hands start trembling, stopping them from ever reaching the wound once again, and then.. he drops down on the ground, dead.
All around Misr, the corpses which had come back to life turn to black smoke, and then.. just the way they had come, the smoke gets pulled underneath the Earth. As the smoke disappears, the cracks do too, one by one, until nothing remains.
Tatiana smiles, her body now extremely shriveled up, as she starts dying. She thinks, 'It seems Herpo's Death does not stop the curse from spreading further into my body.'
Tatiana closes her eyes, accepting her death. She had already accepted it when she had planned the Dagger moves, and now.. she was ready, ready to die at the ripe old age of 24.
---
Mason's POV:
Feeling an enormous explosion of Magic go off, I smile, using my Magic to throw the remaining corpses away from me. Turning towards Master Onuris, who was fighting right beside me, I say, "The enemy is Mortal once again, the Soul Anchor he had created is no more."
I had told him about Herpo as soon as I had joined him and the other defenders, both muggle and Magical alike, in fighting the Inferi.
Inferi, corpses raised to fight the battles for a Wizard. And Herpo had summoned Millions of them to fight barely a few thousand actual fighters. The Mages were alright, once they had realised that fire works spectacularly against the monstrous corpses, but there was a significant amount of loss in muggle life.
Herpo, the Foul. The one to first create a Basilisk, as well as a Horcrux, and I had witness both these feats with my own eyes. Or nose, for the Horcrux.
My sense of smell was impressive, too damn impressive than even I had expected. Just like Victor, I could smell mutants. And now, probably thanks to my mutation.. evolving thanks to my Magic, I could also smell Magic.
I can tell when a person is a Wizard, Muggle, or even a Squib. But that's not important, it seems my sense of smell had now evolved to the point that I can smell the way the Magic leans. As soon as I had first appeared in front of Herpo, I had immediately smelled the Dark Magic that I was intimately familiar with.
Thank you, Tom Riddle.
I had immediately smelled the Horcrux, the skull that was placed on Herpo's staff. It was probably one of his relative's, placed as an addition to the Staff to make it more of a Match to him.
And now, the Horcrux was gone, Herpo was mortal again, and I really hope Tatiana is alright.
Master Onuris nods, banging his staff on the ground in front of the Library, and burns the Inferi all through a few dozen meters. He turns towards me, and says, "Go, I know you want to check on the High Mage."
I nod, thankful at his offer, and prepare to apparate. "Athreos," he says, stopping me from apparating. As I look towards him once more, he says, "I do not know what your relation with her is, but I hope you're careful. The Pharoah does not take anyone touching his Mistresses well."
I nod, already knowing it, and having plans in the ready for it, and then apparate over to the house. I immediately widen my eyes, seeing Herpo start falling down, the Dagger behind him leaving no doubt as to the cause.
I see Tatiana smile, her body strangely looking as if it has been dead for years, decomposed a little, and apparate next to her immediately.
Her eyes close, all her senses already shutting down. I could hear her heartbeat weaken, smell her blood drying up.
"No, no, no. I'm not letting you die, Tatiana." I mumble, and immediately place my hand on her chest, to cast the countercurse of what I think is the Inferi Curse.
My hands glow white, as two magic bands form around my wrist, stopping the countercurse from even forming. Fuck! The punishment for broken oath!
I don't think Tatiana is conscious enough to allow me to heal her, so..
Taking my sword out, Galadmagol, I place it in her hands, using the blade to cut into her palm while forcing her to hold on to it. The cut heals, the Sword making it so, and slowly, bit by bit.. the skin regains its life.
It takes a few seconds, but Tatiana becomes completely healthy once again. I once more thank myself for creating these swords, or even coming across the Light Sword.
Tatiana coughs, spitting a lot of mucus out, and then looks up at me, her eyes unfocused. "Athreos? I survived?" She asks, whispering slowly. I nod, and ask, "I broke the Healer's oath in my Past, Tatiana. I need your permission to heal you completely."
Tatiana frowns, a bit confused, but nods. I sigh in relief, seeing the bands around my wrists disappear, and begin casting spells on Tatiana's body. The sword still in her hands, helps my spells heal her body faster, and so it is, that within a single minute, Tatiana stands on her own legs once again, looking at the sword in amazement.
She then looks up at me, and says, "You.. Athreos.. have a lot of questions to answer."
I smile, and I just hug her. I might not have known her for long, but I was beginning to like her. She's wild, talented in Magic and fighting alike, and she has a thirst for knowledge just like me. But most of all, she's a survivor.
And I was glad that I met her.
I say, "I'll answer everything, but first.." I point my palm at the fallen Herpo's body, and shoot the cursed flames, Fiendfyre at him. The flames form in the shape of an eagle, and swoop in to swallow his corpse.
Then, I have the flames burn pieces of his staff, as well as the skull that once used to be his Horcrux. Better not take risk, in case there is a way to reform a Horcrux. Sure, there might be other Horcruxes, but it'll take him time to regain strength if he does have them.
For now, Herpo isn't a threat.
I then hold her hand, summon the fallen dagger, the one that killed Herpo back to me, and apparate Tatiana and I to my house in the Greek quarter of Alexandria.
I kiss her on the lips, once again relieved to have not lost her, and say, "I will be back within a few hours, and you will your answers. But first, I need to go and reassure the Priests that Herpo is dead, actually dead, and that the Inferi won't be coming back anytime soon."
Tatiana smiles, as her eyes begin drooping. She mumbles, "Tell them I died.. or something.. I'm through with the Pharoah."
I shake my head, smiling. She was the only Royal Mage alive anyway, the Inferi having killed the other two unconscious ones. Poor men.
Just like some of the muggles of my time had sympathised to my "desertion", I can't help but feel the same with Tatiana. So young, and already been through so much.
I just lay her on my bed, casting a few spells to warn me if she wakes, and apparate back into the spot which once held Herpo's corpse.
I sit down, and wait. It won't take long for Master Onuris to lead the Priests of Osiris here, so that they can deal with Herpo's body.. which they won't find. I wasn't going to take a risk with Herpo, not when I actually know how dangerous he is.
I can't help but chuckle, realising that this is the first battle that I've been a part of, where I didn't even face the big bad even once. Tatiana did it all on her own, and I'm once again glad I met someone like her.
She might have had a rough past, abusive superiors, but now.. she is the strongest girl I know.
Seeing Master Onuris walk towards me, an entire army of Wizards, muggles, and other Priests with him, I put on a sad face, forcing tears to appear out of my eyes.
Time to put on a show for them.
---
A/N: The next chapter will be a bit faster, with a timeskip somewhere in the middle, or right at the end. I've already taken a lot of time with the past arc, so I'm not going to focus on fillers too much. My goal is to have Mason back into the future by Ch 75, which.. is tough, but not impossible.
I want to begin canon MCU before Ch 100, so.. wish me luck!
Thank you for your support, understanding, and well wishes! Sorry for the inconveniences of sometime shitty chapters!
Tata!
