Chapter 38: Battle of Shadows (Part 2)
Casavir strode through the burning flames that crackled across the walkway between him and the Shadow Reaver, Qara. His enchanted weapon, Rift Hammer, taken from the forgotten halls of the archives of Arvahn, struck one of the blade golems in its chest piece with great force, tearing a gash in the metal creature. As soon as the blow landed full, the paladin reversed direction and swung back clockwise to land a second blow along the construct's flank. The metal blade golem had taken quite a beating from the paladin already and showed signs of beginning to malfunction with the extence of the damage done to it.
The second blade golem attempted to slash at Casavir while his body was exposed and he was up close, slipping an attack by the first construct that stuck the man's shoulders. But the two man-made metal warriors had no capacity for teamwork, and the poor angle the second attacked at only allowed it a glancing blow. The narrow walkway was certainly helping to limit pair of golem's ability to fight the paladin at the same time.
That wasn't to say that Casavir had gotten off unscathed. There was a pair of large gashes in his shining suit of armor where the massive blades wielded by the mechanical monstrosities had managed to get past his shield when he had moved too slowly. A trickle of blood from a thin cut on his neck stained the shoulders of the plate mail he wore. Surprisingly, though, there was not even a scorch mark on him despite the raging fires that burned around him from Qara's spells. Another fireball burst behind him, exploding with deadly force, but the paladin paid it no heed.
Sand was engaged in a magical duel with the Shadow Reaver who had once been a student at Neverwinter's Academy. The elf's brow was slick with perspiration as he tried to find some way to defeat his opponent. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.
Qara cackled mockingly as five small darts of magic struck her. "Oh, come on, Sand! I knew you were pathetic, but I didn't realize just how weak you really were. Simple missiles?" The blue flames of her eyes briefly turned to red. "I'll show you real power!"
With that, she uttered the arcane words to a spell Sand had only recently mastered. Spheres of flaming destruction blasted from the sorceress to strike at the elf and the paladin. A meteor swarm! To Casavir's credit, the impact only staggered him backwards. Sand, however, was not physically affected at all. The only visible change was that the azure glowing energy bubble around the wizard dimmed significantly.
Sand kept himself far enough back from the battle between Casavir and the golems so that Qara's attacks could not target both him and the paladin with her fire attacks. The Shadow Reaver, confident in her invulnerability, remained only a few meters away from the blade golems under her command. With careful aim, Sand sent his fireball just far enough that the blast would not strike his ally while it would catch both Qara and the golems in the blast. The explosion went off just as an equally powerful explosion detonated near him, causing the last of his spell mantle to collapse. It had absorbed several of the sorceress's most powerful spells, leaving Sand completely unscathed in the battle so far.
Sand quickly cast another spell mantle, completing the protection just before another blast of fire struck. The elven wizard frowned in disgust at Qara's tactics. The fool girl was expending her magic in an attempt to overwhelm his shields, ignoring that the spells she cast at Sand were simply being absorbed. She was wasting a large portion of her power to try to eat through his defenses while not even putting up any of her own. In terms of dueling skill, she was still just a novice.
The elven wizard knew that in a war, a battle between armies, that Qara would be the more powerful and more useful tool. Her affinity for fire spells and natural ability to cast them one after another made her an ideal weapon against an army of soldiers. But the girl was limited in the magic she had learned, all of her focus on using destructive evocations. Against another mage, she was rather ill-equipped. Worse, she had yet to realize that Casavir was protected from any elemental fire attack, or if she had, she had no way to counter the protection Sand had put on him at the outset of their battle.
Yet, still, Sand felt jealous of the once human girl. She had achieved a level of power that few in the Realms ever did, and certainly not anyone as young as her. She had always been naturally talented, and whatever else that ritual that Garius had used her for had done, it had unlocked an incredible well of power within her. She had long surpassed the level of power Sand had attained under the Luskan Host Tower and while living in the Neverwinter Docks.
But then again, he had improved by leaps and bounds as well. Between Daniel Jackson's amazing insights into the deeper meanings of ancient texts and Samantha Carter's instruction in the nature of the universe via what she called the science of physics, Sand had achieved a level of understanding of magic he had only ever dreamed of achieving. Together, they had unraveled mysteries of the Weave that few others in Faerûn had. They had done for his understanding of the universe at least as much as he had done in tutoring them in mage craft.
But that didn't change the fact that his missile storm attack seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever. Ten powerful magical energy bolts had torn into the Shadow Reaver, another ten striking the blade golem nearest her, and still she stood there as if nothing had even happened.
"Curse you, Sand! I will flay your skin from your bones with fire for that!"
The elf smirked. Apparently, she still felt the attacks, even if she healed rapidly from the wounds.
"Perhaps if you had spent your time studying at the Academy rather than getting into petty fights and burning things down, you might have known how to counter my spells rather than using that bony skeleton you call a body to catch it," Sand taunted.
"Ha! Books!" she screeched. "I don't need books to tell me what magic is. I know it better than a—"
Perfect. Sand unleashed one of his most devastating spells right at her as she moved into view in order to taunt him. The beam of energy should reduce her to nothing but dust. See if she can recover from that! Sand watched with growing satisfaction as her form started to break up, but was stunned to see that as quickly as she had disintegrated, her body re-integrated, reforming before even completely being destroyed.
Qara stood with a snarl on her face. "You're going to pay for that, Sand!"
And then the girl pulled a scroll from within her robes. "I hate using magic other than my own, but all you do is hide behind your stupid little shields. Let's see how you deal with this!"
Sand felt his heart jump up into his throat as she read off the spell. Though it was difficult, it wasn't a particularly devastating spell. In fact, unless you were a creature of made of magic, the spell itself wouldn't cause any damage at all. But the effect of what she was about to cast was something he couldn't afford, not when he had to defend himself from magical spells and she did not.
A disjunction!
He felt the magical protections he had cast on himself being stripped away by the power of that spell. Even just cast from a scroll rather than by a caster's own power, that disjunction had the power to rip apart all but the strongest of enchantments. Sand cursed, quickly casting his last spell mantle spell to protect himself.
But the damage was more than just a defeated spell mantle. Qara sent a massive fireball at Casavir, who was no longer protected from fire. That protection had been stripped away. The blast washed over the holy man, even as he finally destroyed the first of the constructs he faced with a final blow of his righteous arm. And then he collapsed on the floor, burns covering his face. Casavir struggled to rise, Sand rooting for his ally to make it with all his heart.
Sand did his best, sending a spell meant to blind an opponent towards Qara, but to no avail. And then time slowed down as Sand watched the Shadow Reaver sorceress cast the same spell Sand had cast on her on Casavir. The beam of destruction struck true. Sand watched in horror as the man turned to dust. Disintegrated.
There was no coming back from that, even if you were friends with someone favored of Tyr.
Sand was out of invisibility spells. The only defense he had up at the moment was a spell mantle. And that blade golem would be charging towards him momentarily, something a mantle would not help against. Worse yet, Sand felt his spell mantle buckle under yet another offensive spell.
Sand knew it was a lost cause now. He had no way of getting past Qara to help the others. If she didn't break through his magic and kill him, the blade golem would get him. He was no use to anyone now. The wizard calculated the length of time it would take the golem to reach him. He had just long enough. If he was lucky.
Sand wasn't trying to win now. It was all about seeing if he could delay his opponent. He loosed his next spell, and saw with satisfaction a gigantic hand appear and knock the Shadow Reaver to the ground and hold her there. Now, as long as that blade golem didn't skewer him before he could teleport away, the spell would hold her there for several minutes at least. It was a good thing they had gotten a hold of that Tome of Iltkazar, otherwise he would never have learned teleportation.
The wizard winked away just as Qara's blade golem swung its blade. The Shadow Reaver was left, pinned to the ground, cursing Sand with every breath. Qara swore she would get revenge on the elf for this humiliation.
.
Sweat soaked the warlock's body. Precious minutes were slipping by while he and those with him battled against the demoness and she-devil that had turned against him. The irony that the creatures he had summoned, whose loyalty he thought he had assured with infernal deals, had turned on him while the adventurers he had in ignorance attempted to destroy just a few months prior remained his staunchest allies was not lost on him. Eldritch energy curled in Ammon Jerro's hand in the form of an Utterdark blast and he sent it streaming into the body of the succubus. Blooden winced in pain from the magical blast, one of many she had been struck with since the battle had begun.
Hezebel and Blooden were not the physically most powerful or magically most dangerous of Ammon Jerro's collection of deadly creatures of the Hells and the Abyss. What made these two of particular danger to the Material Planes was their power among their own kind, which allowed them to summon other eyrines and succubi to serve them. They were queens of their respective kinds, of a sort. With dozens of the winged creatures at his command, the warlock had thought to neutralize the weaker, but more numerous undead serving the King of Shadows. Having these two turn against him had come as an unfortunate setback at the worst of times. Fortunately, he had tied their ability to summon other demons and devils to the portal within his Haven and had been able to cut them off from that power with a thought.
Still, these two had not gained their influence by being weak. They were still particularly strong for their kinds. It was taking some effort to bring them down.
"I will rip your eyes from their sockets and feed them to hellhounds, Jerro!" Blooden screeched.
But it was a hollow threat, at least for now. A final strike of Khelgar's powerful hammer sent damaging electricity through the demoness and cracked the bones of her form. She burst into flames and returned to her home layer of the Abyss where she would remain imprisoned for at least a century, barring some outside interference.
Once ago Ammon Jerro had to count himself lucky that he had the companions he did. Khelgar was a fierce warrior, a dwarf who lived for fighting whether it be bare knuckled in a tavern brawl or with hammer and shield against monsters. Having obtained a set of relics and thus the right to rule his clan, he was a true powerhouse and more than a match for almost anything they might encounter here in terms of raw physical damage. That had almost turned to disaster, however, when he had been briefly put in thrall to the succubus through her powerful enchantments.
Fortunately, the githzerai Zhjaeve, the warlock's only other companion down in this forgotten ruin, had been able to counteract the spell before the dwarf had done more than smash the skeleton Jerro had bound to his service. Now with the priestess, yet another undead minion called up by the warlock, and Khelgar all concentrating on destroying Hezebel, the battle would soon be over. Ammon Jerro sent a blast of power against his former servant devil and with a curse on his soul, she too was banished from this plane.
"It is done," Zhjaeve panted, clearly winded from the battle.
"Yes, so it is," Ammon agreed testily. What a waste. His own summons had delayed him further when they were meant to have cleared the way for him to make his way to the center of this place faster.
"You are fortunate, Ammon Jerro, that those two and I were the only of your Lower Planes allies you called to this place," an ominous voice sounded behind them.
"Mephasm!" the warlock spat.
His companions spun warily to see an elderly looking eladrin floating before them in the air. The creature, however, was clearly wearing a disguise. They could feel the power radiating off of it, and see its burning red eyes.
"I called you during the battle! Why did you not obey my command when I gave it to you?" Jerro growled.
"Indeed you did call. And I came, Ammon Jerro, only, I never made it to your side as I intended. I was caught in the magic of this place, as Hezebel and Blooden had been." The devil's stern visage wavered for a moment and the smallest hint of a smile touched its face. "You are fortunate that unlike them, I will not turn against you. Had you called any others from your Haven, they most certainly would have done so."
"How is it that they could disobey me? Or that any of those that I have bound could possibly turn against me. It is impossible!"
The devil shook its head. "There are rules and older rules, pacts and agreements far older and far more binding than those you have placed upon us. Those laws binding demons and devils who enter this place hold far more weight than that which you yoked upon us, and so we are bound to serve this place and do its masters no harm upon entering it. And the oldest master of this place was the warlock who became the Guardian of the Illefarn Empire and finally became the King of Shadows. He passed that knowledge on to his servant, Garius the Shadow Reaver. No demon or devil who enters here can aid you, once that ancient magic is enacted."
Ammon Jerro did not like what he was hearing. He had sacrificed so much in order to amass the power necessary to wage war against the King of Shadows. Only now, it seemed, his power would be useless. He wanted to know how it could be.
Mephasm explained the matter to him as if he knew the intents of the warlock's heart. "You are in the heart of what was once one of Illefarn's most secure and powerful temples. The very purpose of this place was to bind spirits to the service of the Illefarn. By bringing us into this place, you placed us under its domination, and nothing short of returning us to your binding circles within your Haven will restore your power over us."
"Then how is it that you are not attacking me?" Ammon Jerro snapped at the devil.
"As I said, there are laws and older laws. And I am subject to laws and rules more ancient than Abeir-Toril itself. What Garius commanded of me was in direct conflict with commands I must obey which are more powerful than all the bindings of this place put together." Mephasm let out a sigh. "There are events coming to pass now that were set in motion long ago, and they lay at the very heart of this ruin. You must make haste, Ammon Jerro, or you will be too late."
The warlock looked at the devil incredulously.
"I do not think we shall meet again. And if we do…it will not be well for you, I think," the devil said. Then with a bow and burst of hellfire, Mephasm was gone.
The githzerai was strangely quiet. The dwarf, however, was not. "Well, what are we waiting for!" Khelgar demanded. "We gotta get a move on!"
Ammon Jerro hesitated for just a moment. Of all the demons and devils he had bound to him, Mephasm was easily the most cunning and ancient. The thought of hurrying ahead to face whatever fated events that devil was alluding to sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. Then Ammon Jerro turned to the door leading inward further into the ruin and blasted it with his magic. He had lost too much, sacrificed too much to stop now. He would see the destruction of King of Shadows with his own eyes even if he was damned in doing so.
.
"Switch to cold iron rounds!" Sam shouted over the din of exploding fire.
"What?" Jack shouted his question back.
"The BLUE clips, Jack!" Daniel shouted back in answer before concentrating on his spell casting.
Colonel Jonathan J. (Jack) O'Neill nodded his head as he slid the cartridge from his FN P90 and slammed in one of the special clips Dr. Carter had developed. Blue clips were filled with cartridges containing cold iron rounds, yellow clips had alchemical silver, and red were filled with adamantine tipped rounds. The blue colored ammunition clip slid in place just in time.
Towering above him was a creature of nightmares. At least twelve feet tall, the demon stood with blood red skin covering its muscled torso and a head that resembled that of a bull… if the bull was shrouded in shadows and had eyes of molten lava. An oppressive aura of doom radiated from the creature. In one clawed hand it wielded a sword crackling with electricity and in the other a long flaming whip.
"You are one ugly son of a—" Jack began before the creature's unnaturally deep voice cut him off.
"I will rend your flesh and soul, mortals!" the creature bellowed.
"Yeah… about that," Jack said lifting his weapon. "Let's don't and say we did."
And then he opened fire.
"Grobnar!" Tamil Farlong called out to the gnomish bard. "Let's shut those Shadow Reavers up! You take the one on the left!" With that, the Knight Captain of Crossroads Keep began her chanting. The gnome followed suit, his fingers gesturing in the exact same patterns as his companion.
"The moment you and your pathetic band stepped foot in my domain, Knight Captain," Garius began, enunciating Tamil's title with contempt, "you were al—"
He was cut off mid-speech just as the other two Shadow Reavers with him were cut off mid-spell. Garius looked up to see a grin on the Knight Captain's face. Garius and his lieutenants had spaced themselves too closely together. Between the gnomish and the human bards all of the Shadow Reaver spellcasters in the chamber had been silenced until the undead, former-Luskan wizards left the area effected by the bard spells. It would only take a few seconds to leave the area, but a lot could happen in just a few seconds during a battle.
Of course, Garius had never intended to make it easy for them. Whatever he was, he was a cunning enemy. Dark shadows darted within the perimeter of the barrier, their less than substantial forms passing through the force barriers without any difficulty. Greater shadows and a pair of dread wraiths had joined the battle. They turned towards the members of SG-1 intent on stealing their life's breath.
"Teal'c!" Sam called out to the former Jaffa and priest of Tyr. "We have to keep them away from Daniel!"
"Understood, Major Carter," the Jaffa responded with a nod.
Sam immediately began targeting the dread wraiths with a spell designed specifically to end their existence. Teal'c focused the power given to him by his god away from Daniel's position, fearful of accidentally striking him, carefully focusing the energy on those further away from his long time friend and ally. A burst of disruptive energy struck the area around Daniel while a brilliant beam of light engulfed the remainder of the undead. Daniel paid it no attention, his full attention on one of the Shadow Reavers as he began speaking the sounds of its True Name.
The powerful balor demon roared in pain. It was grievously wounded, though thus far it had managed to avoid being shot with those cold iron rounds in the head. Mere seconds had passed since it had lain eyes on Jack O'Neill and already it had been struck by scores of bullets that tore through its demonic hide. It was beginning to hate him. Specifically. The beastial creature swung its massive sword at Jack and flicked its whip of flame his way. The whip barely grazed the human's back, but the vile creature could sense the pain of its adversary. The sensation was delicious to it.
Jack didn't find the sensation anywhere near as pleasant. The scorching sting on his back stung viciously and his back was already blistering from the heat. The colonel was forced to dodge another swing of the balor's sword, and in doing so lost his grip on his P90. The balor advanced, its massive foot smashing down on Jack's weapon, its malignant eyes glaring at the human who had dared to hurt it.
"My gun," Jack said, stunned. And then he shouted with a sudden anger, drawing his backup blade from its sheath on his left leg. "That was a gift from my uncle, you sorry son-of-a…" Jack paused in the middle of his insult, realizing what he was about to say probably wouldn't be insulting enough. So, he improvised "…succubus!"
Apparently, the creature felt fairly insulted as it roared in challenge and charged the human, swinging its weapon in a rage.
Tamil felt a pair of arrows bite into her and she winced in pain. She looked across the transparent barrier that had bottled up her team over to the man who had betrayed them all. Bishop stood there with is bow in hand and terribly smug look on his face.
"Should have been paying attention to me instead of Garius there, Knight Captain," the ranger mocked. He was already nocking the next arrow. "That was always your problem. You were always paying attention to everyone else, never giving me my due. We could have had something, you know. But now it's just too late."
"Oh, Bishop," the Knight Captain of Crossroads Keep said with a wry smile on her face. "I do sort of regret not giving you the attention you deserved... I would have enjoyed having you arrested, drawn, and quartered, but Major Carter insisted on using you to pinpoint this location. I do slightly regret that I didn't try and redeem you, though. I mean, you are at least human. But, really, the sad thing about this is," she turned her head away from the ranger as she finished speaking, "you're still not worth my time."
The ranger growled and loosed his arrow, then rapidly fired another. Again he found the joints in the Knight Captain's armor with one of his shots, the only place a blow had any chance of getting through. But this time, he could tell from her expression that she barely registered the hit at all. Her skin was covered with a familiar grayish sheen, her Ironskin chant having blunted the damage. The ranger felt a fury building within himself as the woman pointedly ignored him and began casting spells to protect the rest of the companions.
Samantha Carter's voice rang over the battlefield. With the shadows and wraiths dispatched and Jack seemingly on top of things with the demon, it was time to turn their attention to their foes beyond the barrier. "Teal'c, concentrate on Garius until Daniel is done. Keep him too busy to do anything. I'll handle the ranger."
Multiple bursts of energy from the zat'nik'tel quickly got the ranger's attention. He changed targets to fire his arrows at Sam, hoping to throw her off target, but it was futile. Her magical defenses stopped his attacks from having any effect and her aim with that weapon at this range was too good to miss for long. He was struck with a burst, stumbling in place. A second burst hit him and the man slumped to the ground, his eyes wide and unseeing.
Teal'c found that his ma'tok staff energy passed through the barrier which had them all trapped as easily as spells and arrows did. This did not bode well for Garius or the Shadow Reavers. The skeletal thralls of the King of Shadows had taken the time to scatter, leaving the areas of silence Tamil and Grobnar had used on them at the beginning of the battle. Garius was just beginning his own casting when the plasma blast exploded in his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground, disrupting his spell.
A green cloud of vapor suddenly formed in the center area where the companions had been trapped, spreading outwards towards the barriers keeping them all in place. Jack stepped away from the headless corpse of the massive balor he had just managed to destroy, cursing as he felt his skin beginning to burn. Neeshka backed away from the body, pulling her weapons from the creature's back. She gave Jack a wink, before coughing on the sickly cloud of vapor.
"Uh, guys, you might want to stay out of that green floating cloud, there. Feels like acid," Jack said choking. "And we might want to figure out a way out of this little force field trap thing?"
Daniel Jackson replied. "The barrier should come down if we use enough force. I guess we could just toss some grenades at it." The scholar adjusted his glasses. "Oh, and the Shadow Reaver on the left should be vulnerable now. I just finished reciting his True Name."
Sam, Jack, and Daniel each tossed a grenade at the center of the barrier while Teal'c added in blast from his staff weapon. The resulting explosion ripped a hole in the floor and the translucent wall in front of them simply ceased to exist. The small area Garius had trapped them in would hold them no longer. SG-1 and their companions were about to take the battle to the enemy. The seven of them quickly rushed out of the little spot in which they had been trapped, but not before a blast of electricity ripped through all of them.
"Oh, wow, that felt like the time I kissed that electric eel" Grobnar exclaimed excitedly. His small, smoking form emerged from the spell, a smile beaming on his face. But his smile disappeared when he looked over to the blade golem he had created. "Oh, my. The Construct!"
The golem was still standing, but large gashes and rents were in its armor. Just as Grobnar started watching, it managed to plunge its blade into the chest of the sole remaining opposing blade golem, piercing its chest. A second golem lay behind it, missing an arm and in worse shape than the first. Grobnar and Sam's Construct had overcome two of those created by Garius, but at a steep price. The metal fighting machine would need a large number of repairs. Grobnar was already running over to the thing, a look of deep concern in his eye.
"Don't worry Construct! Daddy is coming!"
Samantha Carter saw the Shadow Reaver without the dark aura. The one on the left, just as Daniel had said, had been stripped of its connection to the King of Shadows. In being named, it had been returned to a mortal state. She cast her spell and a beam of destructive energy flashed out to hit the creature. The Shadow Reaver shuddered with the force of the spell. Then it exploded into dust as it was struck by a ball of plasma from Teal'c, the effects of the disintegrate spell combining with the plasma blast to destroy the creature forever.
Over closer to the center of the room, Jack and Tamil were on Garius in moments. Colonel O'Neill's adamantine swords ripped into him, slashing at the Shadow Reaver's hands as the former "Master of the Fifth Tower" attempted, futilely, to cast spells. Tamil brought the shards of the Sword of Gith to materialize the power of that fabled blade in her hand and slashed away, her voice lifted up in a song, lending the pair of them strength. Unable to defend himself or even manage to cast a spell, the lead Shadow Reaver and the cause of so much misery vanished away from the colonel and Knight Captain to appear beside the growing portal into the Plane of Shadow at the center of the room.
Back on the right, a ball of flame plowed into Grobnar and the Construct, exploding as it struck them. Grobnar was thrown back, but remained on his feet. The blade golem, however, fell back heavily. It was simply too damaged to continue to function properly. Grobnar quickly ran to stand between his creation and the Shadow Reaver that still maintained its aura of invulnerability.
"Foolish gnome!" the twisted creature mocked. "You think to face me, one of the King of Shadows' servants? I will tear the flesh from your bones and bind your soul to eternal service to darkness."
"You don't scare me," the gnome declared, not backing down. "I won't let you hurt my Construct." The gnome stood there bravely, beginning the necessary signs to complete a silencing spell.
"Fool," the Shadow Reaver spat in answer. The dark creature cast its own spell before Grobnar could complete his. The area around the gnomish bard and the blade golem grew deathly black and a yellow corona formed around the dark space the gnome and golem occupied. Grobnar dived onto the Construct, trying to shield it from the blast. But it was too late. The space around the pair constricted.
Grobnar gave a last little yelp, and then fell silent, lying atop the wreckage of the blade golem.
"GROBNAR!" Tamil screamed, fury on her face. She charged the Shadow Reaver that had just harmed her friend.
That left Jack to charge towards Garius, who was attempting to cast spells while being pelted by 9mm rounds from Sam and explosive blasts from Teal'c. Neeshka beat him to the spot and buried her sword into the man's back. A look of shock appeared on the creature's face.
"Payback's a bitch, isn't it?" the tiefling said quietly, Just as Jack arrived and began striking with his own blades. Despite the massive wound, however, Garius still managed to fight back, but it was impossible for him to cast any more spells.
With the tiefling and the colonel in melee range of Garius, Sam and Teal'c stopped firing and turned their attention towards the remaining Shadow Reaver. They needed to hold it off until Daniel completed reciting its name. Daniel was nowhere to be seen, though his voice could be heard echoing through the hall. Carter and Teal'c sent some minor spells against the Shadow Reaver, knowing whatever damage they did would be repaired until—
A stream of magical energy began flashing out of empty air and slamming into the Shadow Reaver. There was a look of shock and sudden fear on the skull face as the aura around it drained away. Daniel Jackson, reappearing from invisibility, stood with a furious look on his face and with his hands outstretched. And then another barrage of magical energy and a ma'tok staff blast slammed into the minion of the King of Shadows. It crumpled to the ground, the blue fire around its skull vanishing into nothing. Without the power of the King of Shadows to revive it, its wounds were too much for it.
"No! This cannot be!" He had scene is fellow Shadow Reaver fall and now a similar fate awaited him. Garius cried out, his body pierced repeatedly by Jack and Neeshka's weapons. "I am immortal! Immortal!"
Jack swung his sword once more, decapitating the most powerful thrall of the King of Shadows. "Why do the bad guys always have to be so melodramatic? Would it kill them not to say such lame things? Geez, those guys."
"I take it that was the signal that the last one is vulnerable?" Sam smirked, referring to his magical missile storm blast.
Daniel wasn't listening. Instead, he was rushing over to where Grobnar lay. "Teal'c! Get over here. I think Grobnar is dead."
The entire group quickly rushed over towards their fallen friend. The former Jaffa knelt beside him and began a prayer. A glow surrounded the small form of the bard for a few seconds, but nothing happened.
"Come on, Teal'c, try and revive him if healing doesn't work," Daniel urged.
"I am sorry, Daniel Jackson. I just attempted to do so, but failed. It appears that the spirit of Grobnar Gnomehands either cannot return to his body, or does not wish to." The favored of Tyr bowed his head. "I am afraid there is no more that I can do for him through the power of Tyr."
The group stood in silence for a moment. The cost of their victory weighed heavily on them. Not knowing where the rest of their group was made it feel as if they had lost them all. And with Grobnar lying there lifeless on top of the broken blade golem, it really hit home. Unfortunately, they did not have time to stop and mourn.
"Uh, guys," Jack said in a half-worried tone, "didn't that portal in the middle of the room look smaller a minute ago?"
Jack was right. The portal was growing. After a frantic first few moments as they all watched what had been but a small crackle of energy surrounding a circle of shadow slowly expanding into a crackle of energy surrounding a much larger oval of shadow, now the size of a man, things settled down. Without any active hostile force trying to kill them, they finally had a chance to look around the room. And think.
The chamber was huge, Daniel surmised the massive space was to accommodate the exceptionally large size of some of the beings that could be summoned within it. The walls and floors were cobbled in shades of blue and gray, with white swirling patterns on the floor forming rings and curved designs around the central floor space. The most prominent feature of the room was five statues spaced in a ring around the room, each in the shape of a female figure in robes. In the back of the room was a large carving of a female goddess's face along the back wall with her hands extending up through the floor.
"I feel like I've seen these statues somewhere before…" Colonel O'Neill said as he looked around.
"Ruins of Arvahn, Jack," Carter supplied. "The place with the ghosts and the big tree?"
"Oh… right. I hated that place. Come to think of it, I think I hate this place, too."
"Join the club," Daniel answered back, but his eyes were tracing over the runes covering the statues. He could only half hate it. Any place with ancient writing and the remains of a long dead empire for him to study couldn't be all bad.
"So, figured anything out yet, Daniel?" Tamil asked conversationally.
"Well," Daniel began.
Jack rolled his eyes and immediately began tuning out whatever was going to come next. He knew from experience that whenever Daniel said that word with that kind of tone, in any language, that what was to follow would be some sort of technical mumbo jumbo probably based on a half-forgotten myth in some long dead culture. It was not the sort of thing he needed to remember. They'd give him the "for Dummies" version soon enough.
Daniel continued, paying no attention to Jack's lack of paying attention. "This is apparently the source of the powers the Ritual of Purification grants. The statues themselves are made of some rare meteor rock, called star metal, mixed in with marble, which apparently makes them a natural source of magic. The statues in Arvahn cause the recipient of the ritual to synch with this source of power and, huh," Daniel paused as he continued reading, "if in direct contact with the statues, the power can be constantly renewed without limitation rather than just daily."
"And that means…" Jack prompted.
"That we can use the powers designed to defeat the King of Shadows more easily here."
"What about the portal?" Tamil asked. "Any idea why it's continuing to expand even though Garius is no longer around?"
Samantha Carter sighed and answered the bardess's question. "From what I can tell, the portal is drawing power from the ruins themselves, particularly from the statues. Whatever spells Garius cast to achieve this effect are surviving his death."
Daniel turned to Sam, "What about using the Tome of Iltkazar to change the endpoints of the portal?"
"I could, theoretically, do that, but we would need a fixed destination to tie it to or it would just swing back to the Plane of Shadow…"
"You mean, you can make that portal go somewhere else?" Jack asked, suddenly interested. "Like, say, Earth?"
Sam shook her head. "No, Earth's point on the plane wouldn't intersect with the target tesseract in space time between the planes. I've been able to locate the endpoint in our home plane, but we can't get there directly from here. In fact, we'd need to target an active wormhole in our universe to be able to cross over back to our own plane, but the chances of actually interacting with such an event are infinitesimally miniscule."
Jack gave her a blank look.
Daniel provided an interpretation. "We'd have to go when someone was activating a gate, and it would have to be on a planet in a specific place. Like, say, P8F-202?" Daniel looked over at Sam thoughtfully. "We know that gate intersects…"
"But we don't know when the gate will be used. Unless we had some sort of foreknowledge of when a person will use the gate, there is no way for us to target it. But the argument is moot. So long as the King of Shadows controls the portal, I won't be able to manipulate the portal, even with the tome."
"Why do we not simply destroy the statues powering the portal in the first place and prevent the King of Shadows from entering this world?" Teal'c asked.
"That would only delay him," Daniel responded simply. "It's true, the King of Shadows has concentrated a lot of his power here, and if we prevent him from entering this plane through this portal it will stall him for at least a few years. But his power on this plane is already strong. It's like Zhjaeve said when we first met her. Now that he has this much power here, it's only a matter of time."
"So, what then?" Tamil asked. "We just let him show up?"
"Exactly," Sam answered with a smile stretching across her face. "And we give him a warm welcome."
.
The King of Shadows stepped out from his long exile on the Shadow Plane once more onto his home: the Prime Material Plane on the world of Toril and the continent of Faerûn. The Guardian of Illefarn hard returned to re-establish the old borders of the empire he served and protect the land as he had sworn to do. It was what he existed for. What the man he had been long before had ended his own existence to bring about. He felt the life in the world before him and sucked the energy into himself to strengthen him for the task ahead. The land would be purged and the Illefarn Empire would rise again in shadow and darkness. Then the King of Shadows looked down at the tiny mortals who foolishly stood before it, their intent to disrupt his return plainly evident. They would be the first to be crushed and raised again to serve the Illefarn.
Jack O'Neill summed up everyone's first impression of the massive figure that had just stepped through the portal. "He would make a fantastic center for the Denver Nuggets. I bet General Hammond could get him a tryout."
The King of Shadows was huge, towering high above the heroes.
"Are you saying that because he's black, Jack? A bit racist, isn't it?" Sam teased.
The King of Shadows was indeed black, but not the color of anyone's skin tone. Rather, it was the color of the night sky on a moonless, starless night. The giant was armored with shining silver greaves, silver sandals, and a silver mask that partially covered the massive white horns that curled behind his head.
"Nope, not at all. He could be white human, black human, moon elf, dark elf, dwarf, gnome, or halfling, and I'd still say: shoot him!"
Jack, Sam, and Daniel all opened fire, each targeting a separate point on the monstrous figure's body. Jack fired his M9 while Daniel and Sam used their FN P90's. After a few seconds, it became clear that only Sam's attacks were having any effect at all. "Switch to silver ammo… yellow clips!"
And then the massive figure warped across the room, draining energy from the entire area. Targeting the huge brute suddenly became more difficult as they were forced to scatter while the huge black figure swung a massive sword through their ranks and randomly teleport about every time they got a fix on him.
"It's either now or never on those ritual powers we risked our lives over!" Sam shouted.
Tamil nodded, then stepped forward and raised her hands upwards. "Shining shield!"
Teal'c then did the same, "Soothing light!"
"Aurora Chain!"
"Web of Purity!"
"Cleansing Nova!"
All four members of SG-1 stood with their arms upraised alongside Tamil Farlong, the power of the ritual infusing them and their weapons while holding the King of Shadows in place with orange strands of power. They felt strengthened, and the black icy chill of the King of Shadows had been wiped away. The massive figure himself cringed from exposure to the power designed specifically to weaken him.
Teal'c looked at Sam, a sudden knowledge filling him. "Dr. Carter, you must begin using the Tome to control the portal. We will handle the King of Shadows."
"But Teal'c—"
"Trust in Tyr, and in us. Now, begin while the power of the ritual is holding him."
Sam shook her head, but found herself backing away from the King of Shadows and heading towards the portal, pulling the Tome of Iltkazar from her pack. She would trust Teal'c with her life, but some supposed deity? Even after experiencing being healed and brought back to life, it was still difficult for her.
Jack and Daniel continued firing their alchemical silver rounds while Teal'c blasted away with his staff weapon. Tamil attacked with the shards of the Silver Sword of Gith forming the blade in her hands, and Neeshka was at her side slashing away. For several long seconds, the King of Shadows was held immobile by the glowing strands of energy. And then the massive shadow king was loose and turning its malice in one direction: Samantha Carter.
"I'm out!" Daniel yelled, tossing his P90 to Jack who still had a yellow clip for the firearm. Daniel had other weapons to use as he began casting the most devastating offensive spells he knew. Large streaking blue missiles flew from his outstretching fingers to slam into the back of the creature rapidly approaching Dr. Carter. It was enough to stagger the behemoth, but not enough to bring it down.
The power remaining from the Web of Purity was still preventing the dark creature from simply warping through the shadows to her directly, but its long strides had broken most of the power's hold and it would be upon her in seconds. Even with Jack firing silver rounds into its back and both Tamil and Neeshka tearing into its legs, they weren't going to stop it in time. It would reach Sam.
And then another figure charged into the fray. The large metal figure of the Construct gave a salute with its bladed arm and began whacking away at the King of Shadows. Most importantly, it was standing in the way, preventing the creature of darkness from reaching the astrophysicist-turned-wizard while she stood vulnerable, holding onto a book and concentrating on the portal.
Blast after blast from Teal'c's staff weapon slammed into the back of the King of Shadows. Scores of slashes and gashes from Neeshka and Tamil burned through its legs. Hundreds of tiny pinpricks where Jack continued to fire away into the creature scoured its back. A near continuous torrent of magical blasts erupted from Daniel's outstretched fingertips. And then finally, the Silver Sword of Gith plunged straight through being's chest and its massive form exploded into shadow.
The group looked around for a few heartbeats. Was the King of Shadows destroyed?
"This doesn't feel right," Daniel mouthed. Then he saw the five statues of the ritual turn to darkness. "Jack, NOW!"
Jack O'Neill pushed the button on the detonator inside his jacket. The explosive charges they had set on each of the statues after realizing that they were a potential power source for their enemy blew all at once. The power the King of Shadows had sought was gone as the strange statues shattered into thousands of pieces.
"I've got it!" Samantha Carter cried out. "The King of Shadows has lost control of the portal and now… I think…" she beamed, "I've got it!"
There was a sudden rumbling sound emanating from the ruins.
"Oh, that can't be good," Daniel said looking around. Rocks began falling, the exits to the chamber already beginning to be sealed off by splintering stone falling from the walls and ceilings.
"Through the portal?" SG-1 said to each other at the same time.
"No way you're leaving me behind!" Neeshka shouted.
The group looked at the Knight Captain. Who grinned. "Count me in. I can always enjoy another adventure." It didn't matter where the magical gateway would take them.
The group charged through the rapidly closing portal.
.
Qara broke free of the massive hand binding her in place with a final snarl. She could feel her master, feel him on this plane! And then something was suddenly wrong. The power she felt so close to her was suddenly... less.
She had to go to him. Forgetting her vengeance on Sand, she turned back towards the chamber where Garius and her Master, the King of Shadows were waiting for her. And then the ceiling began rumbling. No!
The former sorceress hurried down into the chamber while rocks fell all around her. A large stone fell on her shoulder. She felt pain again. But to her horror, now it was not healing. Her connection to the King of Shadows! It was gone. In the middle of the chamber was the portal through which her master would come… but it was shrinking rather than growing. And the darkness, instead of pouring out of the portal, it was rapidly pouring back into it. Her master was leaving her.
Qara ran, casting aside the black robes. She was starting to feel weak. As if the power that had sustained her after becoming a Shadow Reaver was running out. She had to make it through before the protal closed! Qara jumped through the magical gateway at full speed, joining the shadowy fog that was pouring through into the unknown.
A moment before she disappeared into the portal, there was a quick flash of white light. Ammon Jerro stood just a few feet away from the rapidly closing portal. He looked around, seeing the devastation from the battle that had just taken place. He had felt the fracturing of the power of the Illefarn ruins, the power preventing him from simply teleporting where he needed to go rapidly fading away. He had left the other two where they had been, eager to join the battle against his mortal enemy.
"The gith and the dwarf will find their own way out," he muttered to himself. "There is no doubt about that. My destiny lies beyond that portal." The warlock eyed the doorway in the air leading to a destination he was not certain of.
Before he could step through, however, the gateway shrunk even further. It was now too small for him to fit through. "No! I will not be denied seeing the end of my foe!"
And then, as if in answer to his prayer, the portal widened once more. Not hesitating, the warlock quickly stepped through. And then there was a brief flash of hellfire burning through the portal before it collapsed along with the entire ceiling of the ruins. The sound of the stones falling upon each other was the sound of dark laughter.
.
P8F-202. An abandoned ice planet. SG-1 had arrived there in sight of the Stargate. Seeing the ring standing there on an alien planet was reassuring to the humans from Earth. They hadn't arrived at their planet yet, but at least this was the right universe.
Daniel was a short ways ahead of the rest of SG-1, Neeshka by his side.
"So, this is your home?" Neeshka ventured to ask. "Cold as Cania here, she commented! But, I guess it's not so bad. I mean, not like it has evil warlocks or a Shadow King, right?"
They arrived at the Dial Home Device. "Uh, no, this is eh… hold on a moment," Daniel began dialing Earth. He locked in the last of the symbols and watched as the familiar whoosh of blue wormhole energy rushed outward.
"Oh, wow, it's like a Song Portal, but without the songs," Neeshka commented.
Several blasts erupted from behind him.
"What the hells?" Daniel asked. Staff weapon blasts? But why would Teal'c…
More blasts continued to go off around them. That wasn't Teal'c. They were back in their home universe. There were evil bad guys here, too.
"Dial us out, Daniel! Some place away from here!" Jack yelled back.
"Uh, I just finished dialing Earth!"
"What? We can't go through there, the iris will be closed! We don't have a GDO and our codes would be obsolete anyway!"
"I know! I was trying to establish initial contact so Stargate Command would initiate protocol to send teams out to locate us. I didn't expect a Jaffa attack here!"
"Well hurry and shut it down and dial a new—"
A blast from a stray Jaffa attack struck just to the side of the device, frying the DHD controls. The wormhole remained open. Apparently the power source was unharmed, but the there was no way to dial another address.
"Well," Jack said looking at the destroyed device. "I guess now our only hope is to defeat the legion of Jaffa on this planet and hope they happen to have a spaceship. And then get ourselves on said spaceship and take it over from the inside."
Tamil looked at Jack with a grin. "Seriously? That sounds like an adventure!"
Jack shook his head. "No, not seriously." Tamil gave a pouting frown before firing an arrow off at their attackers as Teal'c, Jack, and Sam were doing with their firearms.
That was when Daniel turned towards the rest of the group, taking cover near the Stargate. "Give me two minutes, then follow me through the gate."
"Do what?" Sam asked.
Daniel quickly cast a spell and then darted through the wormhole.
INSERTBREAK
"Unscheduled off-world activation!" came the warning sound and sirens began going off across the base. The iris of the Stargate closed automatically. Marines poured into the room, their weapons trained on the event horizon.
General Hammond stepped into the control room with a look of concern on his face. "Do they have a valid code?"
"No transmission of any kind," the technician responded. After several seconds of nothing happening, there was a sudden spike in the energy coming through. "Something is coming through the wormhole."
That was when one of several monitors observing the room showed what looked like a ghost passing through the iris and coming out the gate.
"What the hell?" General Hammond asked. He looked at the room and saw nothing.
The ghostly being floated through the air on the monitor, while in the room itself, nothing was visible. Infrared, ultraviolet, and sonic detection showed nothing. Only one camera designed to observe EM effects picked up the strange being, which floated down the ramp as if unaffected by gravity. General Hammond called an order for the Marines to ready their weapons. He had no idea what this was or whether or not it was hostile.
Then when the ghostly figure reached the floor on the monitor, it suddenly appeared on all the monitors and to the naked eye and gave a quick yell of, "Whoah, hold your fire, guys!"
The voice was familiar, but the clothing was certainly not. General Hammond knew he needed to place that voice, and quickly. Standing before them was a figure in a long, hooded robe, its face covered by cloth. The man carried a long staff in one hand.
"Who are you?" General Hammond demanded angrily, "and why did you come through the gate without—"
"General," the figure began, and George Hammond knew the voice was incredibly familiar. But the voice he thought he was hearing was impossible. "Please, open the iris. SG-1 is on the other side and they'll be coming through any second. They're pinned down by Jaffa and the gate is the only way out."
"SG-1 is in the mess hall eating their lunch. So if you want to tell me…"
"It's me. Daniel," the figure pulled his hood down. Several of the Marines cocked their weapons, prepared to fire at the motion. The hood fell away, though. It was indeed Daniel Jackson.
"My word," the general said, recognizing him. "You mean, Colonel O'Neill… Dr. Carter… Teal'c… the original SG-1."
"All still alive, sir. But not for long if you don't open the iris."
"How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?"
"Sir, you saw how I got in here. If I was part of an invading gou'ald army, why wouldn't I send an entire army in the same way?" Daniel's eyes pleaded, as his hands prepared to begin a desperate spell casting. "Please, trust me. If this turns out to be a trick, shoot me later."
General Hammond hesitated for just a second. But that sounded so much like Daniel. And just the chance of getting SG-1 back… "Open the iris!"
The metal plate covering the wormhole parted. It was seconds later when, one after another, six more forms barreled through the Stargate and down the ramp. The first was Samantha Carter, her blond head and bright eyes easily recognizable, despite wearing what looked to be a combination of a Kevlar vest and medieval armor. Teal'c followed, then Colonel O'Neill. At the arrival of each of these familiar faces, the General's eyes brightened.
And then the first unexpected figure arrived. It was a striking woman wearing what looked to be a full suit of knight's armor. She walked quickly behind the group and stood directly behind Colonel O'Neill. Then a second figure emerged, and this one elicited a gasp. It was another woman, but this one had a tail waving behind her and horns on top of her head. And then the last figure stepped through and General Hammond was reconsidering whether he had made the right decision or not. The last through was a giant metal man with what looked like a sword for an arm.
"Close the iris now!" rang the authoritative voice of Colonel Jack O'Neill. General Hammond nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with the order.
"Now all of you stay where you are. You've got a lot of explaining to do, even if you are who you say you are. And I find that highly doubtful," the general ordered.
Jack looked at all the Marines pointing automatic weapons at him and the dour look of the bald general and smiled. "Ah it's good to be back."
"Yep," Daniel said with a smile, looking to each of his companions. "We're back, and better than ever."
General Hammond half wanted to scowl and half wanted to jump for joy. But it was much too early for him to accept this miracle at face value. "You will all be put in isolation and thoroughly checked out. And then, if you are proven to really be SG-1, you will be debriefed."
"Looking forward to it, sir," Major Carter said with a grin.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed with a slight bow of his head.
"I'm sure you'll want to know what all happened while we were gone," Jack said with a serious face. "And boy have we ever have a story to tell you."
The End of this Adventure
But the Start of a New One