Richard Knaak - Scales of the Serpent

And then…and then there were no more morlu to fight.

It took Uldyssian nearly a minute to register this astounding fact. Around him lay the bodies. No part of the floor of the cavern seemed untouched by corpses or blood. Yet, the beasts of the temple did not rise to fight him again. The morlu were dead, this time forever.

Well played…Uldyssian ul-Diomed .

Uldyssian grunted, this the first time that he could sense respect in Malic’s voice. However, there was no time for congratulations. There was only the hunt for Lilith.

Seek above, to your right. There you will find the way …

Malic’s directions led Uldyssian to a door. No longer concerned about stealth, Uldyssian sent the door flying inward.

He found two more morlu within, both slain by the door’s explosion. Uldyssian trod over their bodies, already sensing that Lilith was close at hand.

With the aid of Malic’s ghost, Uldyssian emerged into what the spirit indicated was the Primus’s personal chambers. There was not much to see other than the elegant throne in the first and innermost chamber. The Primus, after all, had been only a facade for Lucion and his sister.

He reached the doorway leading out, but there Malic suddenly spoke again. Hold the bone high and ready! the ghost demanded. And be prepared to throw!

Uldyssian tensed. This extreme difference from previous instructions told him that Malic knew of some powerful threat without that even the son of Diomedes could not sense.

With his thoughts, Uldyssian flung open the doors—

Throw! commanded Malic urgently.

Guided by his power as well as his arm, Uldyssian unleashed the bone. It soared out of the Primus’s chambers and down the darkened corridor beyond. Then, just as Uldyssian was about to lose sight of it, the piece abruptly veered to the right.

He heard the bone strike something, followed immediately by a pained grunt. That, in turn, was followed by a heavy thud that Uldyssian recognized all too well.

Darting out, he sought for the location. Sure enough, a figure clad in the robes of a Dialon lay sprawled in the corner. Blood from a wound to his forehead marked where the fragment had hit.

Uldyssian started to reach for the bone—and then straightened. She was here .

“Poor, poor darling Durram! He so wanted to be of assistance to his Primus!”

Forgetting the fragment, he looked around. Try as he might, though, Uldyssian could not pinpoint exactly where she was. However, he finally thought he knew why. This was the main temple of the Triune, designed and built to Lucion’s expectations. Surely, like the ancient structure in which Lilith had planned to turn all the edyrem, this place was situated on a nexus , one of the points where the angels and demons had first begun to create the world. Lucion had usurped the forces of that nexus for his temple and manipulated them to mask the evil inherent in this place.

And in masking the evil of the Burning Hells, those forces now also masked Lilith from him.

“Ah, my dear, sweet Uldyssian!” the demoness mocked. “Always so near victory, always so willing to let it slip away from you…”

“Not this time, Lilith!” he returned, pushing his will to the limits in order to find her. “Not this time!”

“But, my love! Your brother and your friends are dead and your precious edyrem are even now being marched back here! How much greater a defeat can there be?”

For a moment, her words sparked fear and despair in him, but then Uldyssian recalled just who spoke. “No more of your lies. No more of your games.”

With that, he plunged toward where he believed she was.

Suddenly, there were heavy doors in his path. Uldyssian, prepared for any barrier, threw his power into a blast that decimated them. His momentum sent him through a second later.

He landed on all fours much like a cat…and then stared wide-eyed.

Uldyssian crouched in one of the entrances to the huge chamber where the faithful gathered prior to the sermons of their respective priests. He knew the design of the other temples enough to know that he should not have yet reached this place. Once again, Lilith had played him.

The towering statues of two of the false spirits loomed over him. That of Mefis—Lilith’s father, Mephisto—was oddly absent. The pedestal gave some indication that the statue had broken off at some point. Somehow, Uldyssian doubted that it had been an accident.

Recalling Toraja, he kept a wary eye on the remaining two figures. Lilith wanted him in this chamber for a reason. Therefore, everything within was suspect.

And just then, her laughter filled the room.

“The game is done, my dear, sweet Uldyssian!” she called from everywhere and nowhere. “You have been a marvel and all that I imagined you’d be, but I would be finished with this, for I’ve so much more to do!”

She was here…and yet, she was not. Uldyssian probed every direction. Each time, he felt that he had found her, but then some other location would then take prominence.

“Show yourself,” he growled. “Show me where you are!”

“Why, I am right here, my love.”

Lilith appeared…and appeared…and appeared over and over and over. A hundred visions of the demoness materialized, followed by hundreds more.

That they were merely illusion was the obvious thought to Uldyssian. Yet, when he sought to tell the true from the false, all of the figures seemed to him as the former. None were merely figments…

“Hold me in your arms one last time,” they mocked in unison. A thousand Lilith’s pursed their lips. “Kiss me one last time, my love.” They started toward him, hips swinging, bodies moving suggestively. “Come lay with me one more time…”

They could not all be real, yet they were. Uldyssian tried to focus, but the battle, his personal fight with the morlu…so much had happened to drain away his strength and concentration. He knew that the demoness had planned this. A weakened Uldyssian was less a threat to her and possibly, in her mind, more manageable. After all, she still wanted his edyrem and he was the easiest path to that.

Then, Uldyssian thought about the fact that Lilith had gone to the trouble of sending him through the maze and against the morlu below. She had expected him to somehow survive. He felt certain of it. That, and her shock when she had first materialized in the midst of the jungle battle, revealed to him that the demoness respected his abilities more than she let on. In fact, Uldyssian suddenly believed that she was even a little frightened. Why else go through all this elaborate spellwork? Could Lilith not have done with him as she wished after stealing him from the others?

Perhaps not…perhaps she had indeed needed him much weakened first…

The horde of Liliths converged upon him, all with arms outstretched. Uldyssian suspected that if he fell prey to her here, he was lost forever. Somehow, he had to find the one and only Lilith…

In his fogged mind, a question arose. This was the supreme temple, the focus for the life of the sect.

Where, then, were all those who should have been within? Lilith had sent only lesser priests, Peace Warders, and morlu into the jungle. Where were the acolytes, the high priests, the guards, and all the rest that kept the temple functioning but of whom many were not trained warriors? The only one that he had seen had been the one Malic’s bone had brought down.

He suddenly knew.

And knowing it, Uldyssian demanded in his mind to see the reality.

The Liliths melted away. In their place stood the faithful. Priests, priestesses, acolytes, Peace Warders, and more. The whole of the sect was represented.