Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

barrel chest and limbs like those of a tree. His dry skin stretched thin as parchment over a bony frame, the horns on his head poking through holes in his wide-brimmed wizard’s hat. This being was a demigod, granted the powers of all of the gods, equally, in a rare moment of agreement between them.

“Daelen!” he called out, “I am Ossian Miach Kaidool, and your prayers have been answered. The gods have seen your plight and sent me to stand at your side at your times of greatest need. We have made a pact with Alycia. She has become a friend to this world, and I will defend her. You deal with Kullos.”

Kullos was enraged, turning on Daelen.

“So even you betray me. You seek to use the so-called gods of this contemptible world to destroy me, but it won’t work. All of Creation is against me, but you shall not have your satisfaction!”

There ensued a terrible battle as Kullos sought to destroy Daelen. The younger shadow warrior bought the demigod the time he needed to kneel beside Alycia and use his powers to slowly, carefully revive her. Leaving Alycia to recover, the demigod moved to fight by Daelen’s side. Daelen and Kullos were too evenly matched. They could probably battle for hours without ever breaking the stalemate, but the demigod’s presence was enough to tip the balance of power in the younger shadow warrior’s favour. Kullos was beaten back until he was forced to retreat and Ascend. To aid his escape, he ripped energy from Ossian Miach Kaidool whose mortal body was slain by Kullos’ might. Daelen was saddened by his loss, but he knew that death was not the end, not for a demigod. Indeed, the gods sent Daelen the knowledge that this was Fated to be at the end of every Final Battle. Daelen wondered how many of those there would be.

He set aside the upper chamber of the temple he had built so long ago, where his friend and comrade would sleep, protected until needed once more. He knew that day would come, for Kullos was bound to return.

Over time, Daelen became increasingly aloof, setting himself above and apart from this world. Where it had once been an escape, now it was a prison, albeit one of his own making. He was a prisoner of conscience, but a prisoner, nonetheless. Despite Alycia’s efforts, one day Daelen chose to leave the world entirely. While he could not Ascend, he could use his power to move ‘sideways’ to another mortal world. He created a Prismatic Sphere, a portal to another world he had seen. A very different world, a world without magic. There to heal his scars and forge a life. It didn’t last; he supposed it never could.

Daelen received a distress call from Alycia. Kullos was once more Descending to rain death on Alycia’s world, and Daelen was honour-bound to answer the call to arms. He raised Ossian Miach Kaidool from his slumber and together they fought as they had before. For her part, Alycia would not fight but instead extended her powers to protect and shield the world she loved. Once more, Kullos was driven back, forced to retreat and Ascend, again killing the demigod in the process. Daelen returned his friend’s body to the crypt and when it was sealed, he once more left this world behind.

This dance became familiar over the centuries. Each time Kullos was defeated, but never utterly defeated and each time Ossian Miach Kaidool was slain. The demigod was weary of this and wished only to be allowed to remain in peaceful oblivion forever, but he knew this was the purpose for which he had been placed in this world.

Just when they believed nothing would ever change, once – just once – they danced to a different tune and the world was ripped asunder.

Kullos had by now completely lost control and this time he Descended while retaining more of himself than ever before. More than this realm could handle. Ossian Miach Kaidool was raised, Daelen fought, Alycia protected and shielded, but the power that Kullos commanded this time was unstable. He channelled the full force of his power at Daelen, ripping the shadow warrior’s shields apart. It slammed into his body, not destroying it, but changing it. Daelen tried to absorb as much of the power as he could, trying to use it, assimilate it so that it would not destroy him, but the power was not what it should be. He didn’t know why, but it seemed as if two incompatible powers had somehow been forced together. The two halves of the power were too different to assimilate. They were equal and opposite, containment of both was impossible, and the resulting reaction caused Daelen to split in two. Each a reverse copy of the other, light and dark clones, and as they separated, excess energy spilt out before they each managed to staunch the flow. They both fell unconscious.

Alycia had not Daelen’s power and knew she couldn’t fight Kullos the way he did, so instead, she tried to deflect it away to protect the mortal creatures of the world she loved. Trying to take advantage of this break in the pattern, Ossian Miach Kaidool implored her to rip away his power herself, rather than let Kullos do it. He would die the same as always, either way, but at least this way his death would do some good. So, with apologies, Alycia slew him and tried to use his power to force Kullos to Ascend. She didn’t quite manage to get rid of all of him, but a good-sized portion was ripped away. Caught in the backwash of all this power in his already drained state, his mortal form was thrown out into the void, floating somewhere between this realm and that of the gods.

Under the stress of such immense, unstable power, the void threatened to collapse. The combined forces would rip the world apart if something drastic wasn’t done to