Richard Knaak - Scales of the Serpent

Something formed just at the edge of the sphere’s light. It looked to Uldyssian like a grotesque, inhuman head made from the stone itself. A fissure opened, one that spread into a crude, bestial grin.

“Waant…” it said hungrily, then chuckled again.

Whatever held Uldyssian’s leg dragged him toward the ever-expanding maw. Two other, smaller fissures opened up behind the mouth, forming eyes of a sort.

“Huuuungrrryyy…” the demon rumbled merrily. “Waaant…”

Recovering from his astonishment, Uldyssian gritted his teeth and leaned forward. The demon chuckled again, perhaps thinking that its prey wanted to end this quickly. Uldyssian did, of course…just not the way the creature desired.

He slammed a fist into the watery stone. The power of the nephalem enabled him to send a shock wave that coursed over his macabre attacker much the way the spiders had over him. Uldyssian had not had any idea if what he intended would work; he only knew that focusing his will and determination on a goal had saved him more than once.

The demon let out a roar of outrage and pain as the wave of pure force finished sweeping across him. The mouth twisted into a sinister frown and the eyes glared.

“Gulag kills!” it rumbled needlessly.

The walls rushed in on Uldyssian, who only now understood that everything around him had become part of the bestial demon.

He let out a pained groan as the stone crushed against him. Pinned and with his bones already feeling as if they were breaking, Uldyssian almost gave in to his destruction. However, once again her visage appeared in his mind, beautiful but also monstrous…and utterly mocking his failure.

Straining every muscle, he pushed against the crushing forces, pushed against them…and finally won. The walls receded enough for him to get his hands in position, at which point Uldyssian shoved them apart as hard as he could.

From Gulag, there was a sound that Uldyssian could only guess had to be of consternation. It was doubtful that anyone had ever escaped the beast’s grasp.

Seizing upon the change in fortune, the son of Diomedes reached down and took hold of the liquid stone in both hands. It should have slipped through his fingers, but the power of the nephalem again prevailed over that of Gulag. To Uldyssian, the demon felt like a slithering serpent minus the bones. It writhed in his grip, but could not slip free.

“Is Gulag still hungry?” he mocked.

Although clearly confused, the creature was either still confident of his might or simply too dull witted to realize that he faced no mere human. Uldyssian hoped for the latter, but could not discount the former, which meant that the sooner this ended, the better.

With a titanic tug, he drew Gulag nearer. As the demon flowed toward Uldyssian, once more the man felt something clutch not only the one leg, but the other, too.

As this happened, Gulag let out another bestial roar. The walls and the rest of the nearby floor rose and poured toward Uldyssian in what was clearly a rush to smother the resisting prey. Uldyssian held his breath instinctively, then stared at the part of Gulag he held in his hands. It felt like skin or parchment…and that helped him decide what to do next.

As he had done before, Uldyssian pulled his hands as far apart as he could, only this time maintaining his grip on the sinister creature.

Like the parchment he had chosen to imagine it to be, the essence of the demon came apart with an awful ripping sound. Gulag let out a cry resembling the roar of a raging river. The walls and floor flailed about, finally causing Uldyssian to lose his grip and sending him falling.

But that was all that the demon could muster. Uldyssian’s attack had done him in. The rip continued to spread, running quickly along Gulag’s length and not even ceasing its momentum when it reached the deep maw and sinister orbs.

Gulag was literally torn in two. The halves quivered like pudding. A moan escaped both—

Then, with one last rumble…the demon melted.

His form lost all substance. Gulag completely liquified, puddling on the floor. A faint slime covered the walls and ceiling, but otherwise they were normal again.

The stone was once more solid beneath Uldyssian’s feet, solid, if sticky. An odor akin to rotting garbage assailed him.

Something else caught his attention. Where once the corridor ahead had seemed endless, now another bronze door beckoned but a short distance away.

Stepping cautiously through the sticky sludge that had once been the demon, Uldyssian advanced on the door. He waited for the next threat to strike him, but nothing happened. The embossed image of a gentle Dialon stared back at Uldyssian from the door.

Uldyssian frowned. Another image, almost so indistinct as to be invisible, seemed to lay beneath that of the benevolent spirit. He squinted—

With a gasp, Uldyssian looked away. Although he had just stared directly at it, he could not remember any exact detail of the awful vision, only that it had horrified him as nothing else had. He thought he recalled a glimpse of curled horns and of teeth as sharp as daggers…

Shaking his head, Uldyssian forced the disturbing memory away. He dared not concentrate on the fiendish vision. Somehow, as faint as it had been, it yet drew from deep within him some childhood sense of terror . Every nightmare that had ever haunted Uldyssian as a young boy had, at least for a moment, returned as fresh as ever.

Steeling himself anew, Uldyssian raised his hand toward the door. He knew better than to touch it. Even if Lilith had done nothing to it, surely the senior priests had cast some dire spell.

As if propelled by an angry ghost, the door flung open. Uldyssian stepped through.

The chamber was vast, possibly more so than even the great hall. Much of it was shadowed, the only illumination other than his sphere being torches set to best display a marble dais upon which stood a stone platform a little more than the length of a man and tilted slightly to the right.

And on that platform—that altar —lay a grisly sight that had once been a man when still it had owned its flesh and organs.

Uldyssian did not try to hold back his revulsion. Although it did not surprise him to find evidence of human sacrifice, the freshness of it shook him to the core. This very day, even as he and his followers had stormed the temple, a soul had been slaughtered in order to curry the favor of a demon.

Then, he noticed a slight movement in the far upper corner above the platform, movement by something that had been hidden from his immediate detection. From what little Uldyssian had seen of it, it was a creature reminiscent of a gigantic, furred spider…but also…also somehow a man . The second demon? Uldyssian recalled the swarm of spiders and suspected that this was the source. If so, it was a far more cautious and cunning beast than Gulag.

He started toward its location…then noticed the other figures moving toward him from the dark recesses in the back of the chamber. He had wondered when the senior priest would act. From what Uldyssian had gathered about the Triune’s inner workings, in all the lesser temples the three orders were overseen by one cleric chosen from either Mefis, Dialon, or Bala. Below him were three lesser priests who ministered for each the separate faiths. Only in the main temple by Kehjan could be found the three high priests— two now, with Malic recently dead—who governed the entire sect in the name of the Primus.

A heavyset, bald figure in gray and bloodred robes gestured almost indifferently at Uldyssian. Immediately, a dozen acolytes whose own garments represented all three orders raised their hands palm up and began chanting.

Uldyssian felt an incredible coldness surround him, but his mere desire for it to be gone quickly ended the problem. The priests faltered in their chanting, only their master seemingly unperturbed by their failure. He glanced with disdain at the nearest pair, who nervously took up the spellwork once more and were quickly joined by their brethren.