The Demons of Rome

XX - Soulbound

Iatus stepped off the merchant vessel that had taken them to Latin shores, into the remains of another burnt city.

"Again," Iatus cursed, "We were too late again."

Aelith flew over and landed on his shoulder.

"We cannot be that far behind, Rome will not have fallen yet. Are we within teleportation distance?"

Iatus nodded, then turned back to Ates.

"Ates, we are going to teleport to Rome, we can't take you with us. Stay with these merchants and we will come back for you afterwards."

With that, Aelith translated the instructions to Ates and Iatus told the merchants to look after Ates, and that they would be richly rewarded afterwards.

The merchants were too busy being awestruck by the devastation to really argue.

Iatus steadied himself, and cast the teleportation spell.

The scene around them changed in a blur. They found themselves on top of a hill, looking down at the outskirts of Rome as thousands of red and bronze clad soldiers did furious battle with the oncoming horde.

"Looks like the Romans are losing," Aelith said bitterly, "And quite badly at that."

"We just need to find Harzu and kill him. He has to be here, this is his moment of triumph, surely, he must be here."

They scanned about, looking for any sign of the Ancient One.

"There!" Aelith said, pointing with a wing to a hill just behind the clashing armies.

Watching on was a figure clad in black metal armour, watching the battle unfurl.

"Come on," Iatus said and they began running towards him.

Iatus stopped in his tracks as he sensed an enormously powerful spell being cast.

He looked over to Harzu, but he was looking about, confused as well.

Storm clouds slowly began to gather overhead, swirling until they formed a perfect circle above the battlefield, raining lightning down on the horde.

Then the hydra started to emerge.

"What is that?" Iatus asked.

"It's a chromatic hydra..." Aelith gawped, "It's a demon, but it has an aspect of every conceivable element. They are ridiculously hard to summon, even for mages with dual or triple elemental affinities. You hardly ever see them as there is no real benefit from the additional elements, its far better to stick with demons of an element you have an affinity for. Whoever summoned it did so just to show off."

It slammed into the earth, kicking up a massive dust cloud and the screams of dying demons filled the air.

Iatus tore his gaze away and focused back on his task. He readied an attack spell and charged at Harzu.

A massive blast of dark magic flew from Iatus, smashing into the top of the hill, disintegrating it instantly. The foul magics writhing about as if in pain, searching out everything living and tearing into it.

Harzu turned slowly, with a snap of his wrist the magic was gone and he stood facing Iatus.

Energy coursed through the ground around Iatus. It twisted and flowed upwards, creeping up his legs. It was hot, burning the inside of his legs. He quickly spoke a dismissal spell but the magic remained. It clawed at him, pulling him into the ground.

Aelith tore his eyes away from the scene below and changed into his crowman form, calling a storm of feathers to slice into Harzu.

But he remained unaffected, looking calmly on as Aelith and Iatus hurled spell after spell at him.