Chapter 8 Part 9

Morteous had just released the Darkwind spell and he felt the familiar numbing of his consciousness as the merged mind of all those he had consumed joined his own. He stretched forth his tentacles, hungry for the raw power and knowledge of Armegon, when suddenly Tyson appeared at his side. The distraction cost him his quarry as Armegon ducked back out of reach of the long tentacles.

In the raptured half madness that was the Darkwind, Morteous turned on Tyson instead. The Darkwind had to be fed and Tyson had interfered at the wrong time. Perhaps if Morteous' consciousness were totally in control, the monk might have been spared, but that was not the case, and Tyson experienced only shock and surprise as the tentacles coiled about him. The monk was too shaken to even scream as his life force, knowledge, and magic were drained from him totally.

Armegon watched the display in horror. Tyson had chosen the wrong time to interfere. The tentacles pierced deeply into Tyson's body and the obscene appendages pulsed as they fed. Before his eyes, Armegon saw the body of the once powerful monk shrivel to a husk.

Armegon recoiled from the nightmarish scene and fell to his hands and knees. His stomach emptied itself on the dead ash flats while the vampiric anathema feasted on the flesh of what had at one time been a comrade.

Armegon was not so ill, however, that he failed to take note when the creature that Morteous had become concluded its business with the lifeless lump of flesh and moved towards him as well. The tentacles reached out beckoning as they tried to outflank him.

Fear caused the fury magic to erupt within him and Armegon blazed into incandescence. He slung a bolt of white fire smashing into the creature, but the beast only slowed slightly.

Where the head of Morteous Blackheart had once been there was a gaping toothless maw. For a moment, Armegon thought he saw the thing smile with a knowing smirk like the one Tyson used to use.

Armegon leaped into the air and rose above the ground riding a pillar of magic fire. From above, he rained blast after blast of magic upon the thing. No amount of pure force seemed to have any effect.

Armegon landed many meters away, and the thing promptly pursued him. Armegon calmed his mind and brought the fury magic under control. He tried a spell. Dictating the preamble of a powerful level of magic, he summoned a series of ice darts and pelted the thing with them. Each near absolute zero dart impacted and shattered to afflict a generous area of the creature's body, but the writhing mass of dark gray flesh and tendrils simply absorbed the attack.

Armegon did not need to be a genius to realize that he was in deep trouble. The transformed Morteous Blackheart thing was absorbing his magic. And, it was evident that that was not all it wanted to absorb.