"Heh, you promised a raise, but here you are to bail us out," Ulysses chuckled, "The drinks are on me. Besides, the cook said he made some inroads with the natives and they gave him a handful of the local harvest."
"They don't have much, but they're a hardy lot," Zaofan said, "all the same, they don't exactly have a voice here."
Ochazuke cracked his knuckles, and noticed Held observing the deposed Silver Knight.
"There's energies in the walls. From the bloody gutters of the battlefield below, feeding into the pinnacle before us."
The room they they stood in was steeped in the grisly produce, at this level and elevation the raw yet despite that, the sacrificial magic was given willingly. It was drawn from a collective mass cowed from those converted with The Gift, sculpted from their previous lives into faceless Threshling serfdom.
"You can see it too, can't you? It resonates with the very structure of this place, carried along the prayers of that dull-eyed throng of faithful massed in the upper terrace behind us. Their devotion is power, a font of belief coursing towards their descending gods." Ochazuke said. "I have no doubt that the Priestess, she called upon them to pray, stoking their faith for some sinister purpose."
The hissing residue Ochazuke had blasted to ashes, it too had carried the signature. They'd seen it like once before, though to a far greater degree and intensity when it had approached Earth those many years ago.
"We need to hurry."
Chik-chik-chik-chik. The four points upon the Herald's hand paused, the sharp clicks echoing in the hollow expanse of the great hall.The Nevadian could scarcely restrain the urge to roll his eyes. The time in his position had made the endless posturing and formalities, all immensely annoying to him. This throne room alone was a symbol of the hubris and excess of Auroc and his Ilk, so content to rule over a land of drones, and even worse, speaking of it as if it were an honor.
Held felt the almost reflexive temptation to toss his spear into the center of the being right then and there.
But, he did have a job to do, and allowing selfish impulses to flourish was in direct opposition to that.
"We're honored by your generosity, but is there a better fate for those who join willingly, as opposed to those you've enthralled? " Held replied, his patience obviously running thin, "Or is there no real difference?
Nevermind. I don't care.
"With that said, I would like to make an even more amiable offer." Held continued, not waiting to hear the reply of the Herald.
"You tell us the quickest way to reverse what you've done, and in return we will allow you to leave this planet in peace. Perhaps then we can discuss the obvious disagreements between The Nevadian Federation and the Thresling Empire on more diplomatic terms."
The point of Helds spear, previously pointed towards the ground, rose up slightly towards their enemy as light reflected off of it's glistening form.
"Refuse, and we will leave you in the same condition that we left the Knight who guarded the doors."
"A-ahhh. So even Canin fell," As Blacktongue bowed his head, a silhouette beneath his helmet could be seen, and with it a portion of his true fac, bearing a thin-lipped smile. "Impressive. Most impressive. Burnished Silver is hardly the pinnacle, yes, but you are indeed formidable to quell the Severing Sword."
The Herald of Auroc stepped forth, the radiance beneath his helm suddenly burning with a frightening intensity. It was a power they had not experienced since that day Auroc had split faithful Anula's visage from lip to crown, carrying his conveyance upon that dreaded eye and with it the power of his command.
"At a glance, I took you for Outworlders. There are some keen ones among such lowly stock, but you of Nevadia, that is a rare talent. To survey us rather than have our mission find you is a rarity."
Ulysses felt it first, the Guild Navigator suddenly prostrating even as his body racked with pain. The rest felt it too, pulsing from the walls of the Pinnacle, falling upon the group as a subliminal pressure that struck at their very spirits. The M Fighters, they'd grown hardier since that day, and there could be no question that those gathered here would stand steadfast against this enemy. Even so, to stand in the presence of this Herald was to remember the same powerlessness.
"But, you misunderstand. Accepting the Faith, this was the better fate," the Herald mused. "Nevadia has a Federation, you say? How fortunate that there are more, yours will make excellent convert stock."
Blacktongue steepled his fingers, the metal on metal of his gauntlets shearing, piercing their senses with an elevated intensity. What should happen if they let their guard down even for a moment?
"Steel bends before the flesh that forges it. The flesh makes way for the path the mind beckons," Lord Blacktongue continued, "Without Auroc's vision, this planetary fief would be no more than baked mud and stone in the undergrowth. You might say We gave them a taste of real civilization. All We have done is affirm to them the divinity they had already grown accustomed to. the difference is Our Lord Auroc is truthful in what he shall deliver."
The power from the Threshling was sourced from the same collective font that powered the obsidian ziggurat, but examining the matter at a deeper level, there was an important difference. Somehow Blacktongue's innate energy was entirely different from the Silver Knight's. The knight, he'd drew his power from that dark substance bequeathed to him, an innate quality that he'd used to augment a foundation of magically blessed weapons. It was what granted him a magnitude of power beyond the like they'd experienced with Luop.
"Refuse elevation...then you shall be reaped and discarded with the Withers."
In an instant they felt it fall upon them, a field of decay washing from the Herald and siphoning their very ki through the structures in the room, the bright tone of his words masked a killing intent that shaped itself as it rendered upon the walls. They'd walked into the trap.
Walked in, knowingly, of such a thing of ill intent.
Knowing that bartering in bad faith was, in every sense of the word, simply impure.