The Great Elim

The Great Elim

Lord Varesh, The Great Elim, stands alone, consumed by unforgiving darkness. He gives a relieved nod as Jain and Nubina disappear from his sight. His eyes ignite with growing power as cobalt plasma ripples around his body, crackling with arcane energy. Static charges the air, sparking against the heavy weight of dark oppression. He gazes upward with narrowed eyes at the harrowing demon, Azgorath.

Azgorath steps forward, and the anticipation of death consumes all. 

Metal grates as the demon drags its monstrous sword along the stone floor. The sound begins as a low, gritty scrape, until the air whistles with a heavy blast of wind as the cruel blade rises from the floor. The demon’s grotesque, faceless head looms over the mage.

The Great Elim gazes up through the coiling wall of shadows, his illuminated sword held high in a guard position. The sword pulsates, thrumming, in defiance as he channels his surging power into it.

Azgorath’s voice rumbles like scree clattering down a mountainside. “You will suffer, Elim, as will your son. He is of shadow, and all shadows loathe the light.” The demon spits his words like stinging hailstone. His blade parts the darkness with an overhead hew more suited to an axe cleaving a tree. The air whooshes with a blast of cold wind as his blade parts the unyielding darkness.

The Great Elim sidesteps the attack at the final moment, as the breath of the enormous blade kisses his cheek. He then spins in a tornado of azure energy, his blade humming as he counters the demon’s attack with swift and precise strikes. His blade bites the demon’s flesh, slicing through the darkness with lightning strikes of cerulean, cutting deep into Azgorath’s mucus-covered stomach. The Great Elim then cleaves into Azgorath’s right leg, before he cuts deep into the demon’s towering chest. 

Azgorath’s inky black blood spurts from the deep cut in his chest like a freshly struck well of oil. Gooey black blood rains down, covering the mage in a fountain of putrid, oily gore. The rank stench of death saturates the air. 

Azgorath roars in enraged agony, shaking the chamber to its deepest foundations. Shards of debris plummet down from the cavern’s ceiling, settling on the demon’s glistening black flesh.

Lord Varesh, The Great Elim, takes a confident stride backward, raising his blade back into a high guard, feet set like the roots of an oak tree. “I have not lived six hundred great cycles to toy with words. The abyss will welcome you home, Azgorath, defiler, guardian of the cursed gateways, demon of the deep.”

Azgorath spins to face The Great Elim, and the guttural rumbling in his chest vibrates throughout the chamber. His blade swings in a furious side cleave, slicing with unimaginable speed with a single purpose; to hew the mage in two.

The Great Elim instinctively changes his stance, stepping backward, his sword falling into a mid-defensive block. The clash of the blades resonates with a mighty ring as the metals collide. The bone-shattering blow sends violent vibrations through the mage’s entire body. He parries the attack, and in a swift motion, he retaliates with a thrusting upward slice, causing blue sparks to fly off the blades. 

Their blades lock as the demon leans with all his immense weight onto The Great Elim’s sword. Azgorath's blade, tall as a man, pushes the mage’s blade back against his own body, the flickering steel a hairbreadth from his face. 

The Great Elim, overwhelmed by the demon’s sheer strength, falls to one knee as Azgorath forces him down to the floor with all his might. Blood trickles down the mage’s cheek as his own razor-sharp blade bites his flesh.

“Weak, vile, sacks of meat,” Azgorath taunts, his voice dripping with wicked malice as he exerts relentless pressure on the buckling mage. “Mortal,” his blade sinks deeper into The Great Elim’s face, slicing into his cheek, drawing a line which floods with blood.

A faint whisper echoes through the cavern as The Great Elim summons his authority. The air ripples like a mirage on a scorching day as energy surges through his breaking body. Lord Varesh stands with a defiant roar, forcing Azgorath to stand upright. His legs become as unyielding as iron as he pushes the demon’s blade away from his face. The Great Elim stands like a pillar of immovable stone, Azgorath’s blade locked in a deathly black screech against his thrumming sword of glacial blue.

Azgorath takes a scuttling step backward, and in that moment, The Great Elim unleashes a torrent of ferocious attacks. His first slice cuts through the darkness like a lightning strike, cleaving another deep slice into the demon’s mucus-covered stomach, which spills a torrent of cloying black gore. Each swing is a symphony of power and fluid precision, and with each strike, he channels the full force of his arcane power into the electric blue blade. The sword hums with energy, leaving trails of cobalt light as it slices through the darkness.

The cavern echoes with the clash of steel as Azgorath counterattacks. A brutal force of demonic nature, his monstrous sword moves with incredible speed, leaving trails of fiery darkness in its wake. Sparks fly as the blades meet, and the air crackles with malignant power.

The Great Elim pivots, the momentum carrying him to Azgorath’s side, and with a ferocious cleave, he cuts through the demon’s spindly thigh, slicing through sloppy meat and foul shadow.

Azgorath bellows in rage, raising his sword for the killing blow. His blade falls, cutting the air like a coming storm on a suffocating day.

The Great Elim pops out of time, in a flash of explosive sapphire light, leaving the demon’s blade to strike at nothing but empty space. 

Lord Varesh travels through another time and space, flying through ethereal clouds of celestial white before popping back into time at the demon’s rear. His sword, silent and swift as a shooting star, slices down Azgorath’s exposed back, carving into his flesh like a hot knife through butter. 

The cavern falls into an eerie silence as the darkness holds its breath.

Azgorath stumbles forward, a maimed spider, before he crumples to his gangly knees. 

The Great Elim plunges his sword, deep to the hilt, into Azgorath’s back. His blade cracks through the demon’s spine, hewing through blubbery flesh, and then erupts through the demon’s stomach, spewing an angry tide of uncoiling guts. 

Azgorath drops his blade, floundering like a fish on dry land as his body convulses in wild spasms. The demon lets out a gurgling wail of agony, cursing in diabolical speech. He writhes like a serpent on his belly as the mage’s blade impales his body to the floor.

Power surges through The Great Elim, igniting in his hands like thunderbolts, ready to light up the night. He strides forward to end the fallen demon, but his advance comes to an abrupt halt as the sound of falling stones clatters behind him. Lord Varesh spins and confronts the stone dragon eye of Ana, which is inching open. 

Timeless shards of stone fall from Ana's awakening eyelid.

“Fool!” Ana’s raging voice blasts like a shockwave through the chamber. “You come to my sacred domain to undo my great works.” Ana’s voice bellows from the chamber’s depths with ferocious superiority: “The power of The One has no authority over me.” Malignant energy rushes around the cavern as the dragon lord tirades, “You are forsaken, mage, just as the creator forsake me.” Bitterness bites in Ana’s voice. “You are alone, and everything you’ve ever loved will come to love me.”

“Wrong, Ana. I’m not alone, and I’ll never be.” The Great Elim stands defiant, his electric eyes pulsating with power as he tightens his fists. Plasma energy surges around his body. “It is not my purpose to defeat you.”

Shadows collide, and a murderous storm cloud takes shape above the mage, sparking with amethyst power. The churning clouds rise like an angry ocean, giving birth to Ana’s formidable shadow dragon form. 

Wild screams echo as the Umbal flock from the shadows, amassing at their master’s taloned feet. The Umbal’s wicked fangs gnash, spitting their putrid speech. 

“I’ll enjoy watching you die, mortal mage. Death is the gateway to the eternity of torture that you will endure.” Ana’s voice rumbles with an evil maliciousness reserved only for the darkest of nightmares. His wispy cloud tongue snaps out at the mage’s face, while his molten eyes boil like an erupting volcano. 

Countless Umbal gather, slithering towards The Great Elim like a pack of wolves approaching a fresh kill. 

“Feed.” Ana commands with a vicious bark of shadow flame.

The Umbal encircle The Great Elim, their formless figures writhing and twisting in a single mass, before they explode forward in an untamed attack.

The Great Elim’s blood-soaked robes billow around him, and his eyes, a brilliant shade of sapphire, ripple with surging power. He extends his hands, and the ground beneath him quivers as he pours his force into the earth. Shards of stone rise, then explode in a storm of azure-blue projectiles. Then, with fluid motions, The Great Elim gestures for the Umbal to coil and twist around themselves, obeying his will, and he holds the Umbal captive in a suffocating grip. His grip tightens, crushing their umbra forms until they explode into fountains of argent dust. 

Lord Varesh’s eyes glow brighter than his hands, as he summons the raw power of the mountain. Large boulders break loose, levitating from the ground and sparking with electric indigo before they soar through the air, smashing through the Umbal like celestial comets hurtling through the void. 

The Umbal explode as their essence evaporates into the surrounding darkness. The innumerable Umbal pour like rats from the shadows, screaming with feral hate.

The Great Elim’s power surges, and with a sudden burst of energy, he defies gravity, rising into the air with arms spreadeagle. Lightning bolts erupt from his hands, transforming the attacking Umbal into clouds of shimmering celestial dust. He lifts his gaze to the cavern’s towering ceiling and pulls the stalactites free, sending them hurtling toward the Umbal horde like celestial spears. The stalactites find their marks, piercing through the demon’s shadow flesh, leaving ephemeral trails of luminous stardust in their wake. 

The mage snatches an Umbal by his neck, then smashes its body over his knee with bone-shattering force before tossing its shattered shadow carcass into the air. 

The Great Elim pops in and out of time, spinning and weaving amid the shadows, an indomitable force in the engulfing darkness. The cavern reverberates, the air humming with his power. He roars in defiance, and the air whistles, transforming into a deep, resonant thrum. The cavern inhales, consuming all sound, and then, with a thunderous clap, The Great Elim unleashes a blinding blast of light from his body. The ethereal tsunami wave of light smashes through the remaining Umbal, obliterating their bodies into balls of silvery dust. Bright blue bolts of lightning vaporize the fleeing Umbal, shattering them into torrents of otherworldly radiance.

The mage’s defiant gaze drifts towards the shadow dragon, Ana. Then, his world spins as he soars through the air and into the cavern far below him. Lord Varesh tumbles down, smashing face-first into the unforgiving stone floor. Stars explode in his vision, his bones shatter, and tiny bubbles of blood splutter from his mouth as he spits out broken teeth.

Azgorath, emerges from the shadows, and with his massive, sinewy hands, he reaches down, wrapping around the mage’s head with a vise-like grip. His razor-sharp claws gouging into the mage’s temples and cheeks, pulping him like overly ripe fruit. 

The Great Elim dangles like a bloodied rag doll before the demon roars in triumph as he hurls the mage’s body onto the floor. His body smashes against the stone with a bone-breaking impact. 

Azgorath pulls the still impaled blade from his own belly, his intestines spilling with a slithering squelch. “The void awaits you, Elim.” Azgorath sneers, raising the blade high above its head, the sword dripping with black gore, poised for the final killing blow.

The Great Elim lays broken, drowning in the impenetrable darkness as his lips mutter, counting the fleeing footsteps of Jain and Nubina. His narrowing eyes ripple with growing power, and the air whistles as Azgorath’s crude blade falls to cleave him in two. He raises one hand from the floor and forms a bright blue protective dome over his head. In that split moment, the blade hits the dome with a thunderous crack, splintering the plasma shield.

Azgorath shrieks with hate as it hurls all its malice and power into every killing stroke, blow after blow. The final blow smashes through the Elim’s ward, sending shards of cobalt plasma around the cavern like shattered glass. 

The Great Elim, The Protector of Avos, Guardian of Mankind, and the Wielder of the Light, Lord Varesh, looks up to Azgorath and smiles, laughing through bloodied teeth. He raises one hand from the cavern floor, reaching up to the heavens. His power latches onto a stalactite, and then he rips it from the chamber’s ceiling with a scream of defiance. He then hurls the crude needle of stone into the demon’s head, which explodes, raining inky black splatters of thick, oily gore. 

Azgorath's body crumples, like an octopus on dry land; its limbs go flaccid as it hits the cold stone with a rolling squelch.

Ana lunges forward to consume the mage, hatred burning in his eyes. Fire blazing from his storm mouth. 

A bright white heavenly light descends from above the mage, and the light grows until it forms an ethereal wall between Ana and The Great Elim.

Ana's shadow body smashes into the wall of white light and bounces back with a sound like thunder off the celestial barrier. Ana shrieks with hate as he hurls all his malice and power into every attack, his hatred boiling over into unbridled savagery. The protective wall holds without a single crack as the dragon hurls his enormous mass against the unyielding barrier.

The Great Elim peers up through the wall of heavenly light. “Ana,” his voice booms, “you are bound to mortality.” He presses his fingertips onto the cavern floor and pours every drop of his remaining power into the mountain. The world around him groans as the crumbling foundations give way. Sapphire light covers the cavern floor, cracking it like an eggshell. The cavern crumbles, scattering shards of rock like broken glass. Stalactites fall, plunging like giant needles and shattering on the chamber floor. The power builds, consuming the entire cavern. A magical blue light shines through every crack and rupture. The world quakes as the mountain disintegrates. 

The Great Elim sends out his final thoughts to Nubina as she races through the vast, dark depths of the cavern. “Look for me in the stars.” 

Nubina comes to a sudden and complete standstill. She turns to race back into the depths of the cave, screaming in agonizing remorse, tears flowing untamed as she falls, broken into Jain’s embrace. The cavern around them groans as the dust and debris start to fall.

The Great Elim’s force consumes all, cracking through stone and shattering the mountain’s core. Sweat streams from the mage’s body as he roars with untamed power. 

A moment of peace consumes him as the divine white light engulfs him. Love embraces him. Lord Varesh sheds a tear as the world inhales a silent breath and time creaks to a standstill, he sends a final thought to his son, Danan, “Ilest, my son, awaken.” 

The Great Elim explodes in a tsunami of pure starlight, and Eldriven, the gateway to the other realms, explodes with him.