The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Fated: Final Words

"Qul'Dwə" Shouted the Quillian.

"Volta!" shouted Garvhoz. A grand pulse of energy exploded from behind the Quillian shattering the ground. The debris from the blast would have hit both combatants if Core hadn't created a wall to block most of it. The two fighters backed away from each other with great leaps that left a good 20 yards of space between them.

"Who taught you the old magic?" screamed the Quillian. "No one but the gods and the bloodlines they deemed worthy know it!" The Quillian was now visibly shaking with rage.

"I thought you wanted to defy the gods!" clamored Garvhoz. "To prove that you didn't need them. Why use something that they chose to let you do? That doesn't sound like the god defying person you claimed you were. And now being offended by someone defying their rules right in front of you with supposed forbidden knowledge? You really aren't Quil Everstrong, are you?"

"You disgrace me." The Quillian recomposed herself. "Of course I am. I was not always the man I was when I challenged the gods, and I'm not truly that man anymore. I just want my fate to come faster. So please, come here and let me kill you."

"What made you change your mind? About the gods?" asked Garvhoz.

"The power I now hold. I am now leagues beyond anything that I thought was possible for us men. I could probably kill all who stand in my way now, and the experience that I now hold with my countless deaths has given me a courage that I didn't know existed. I am not afraid of dying or of making mistakes, I am now only afraid of living too long.

"Whatever power you may think you hold is just barely more than I am." retorted Garvhoz. "Any kill you take here will have to be earned with every fiber of your being."

"Yes, you are strong. Much stronger than I thought at first, but you are by no means able to beat me like this." 

"We'll see about that." 

"Zhûr'est!" spoke the Quillian. Arrows still flew towards her and the ground attacked her, but her hold over the spell never wavered.

"Vol-" The air for the word could not make it out of Garvhoz's mouth. It felt as though the pressure of a thousand oceans had at once weighed down on him. It felt like his lungs held no air and could no longer do so anymore. He could feel the blood in his body stop pumping even though his heart started to beat harder and faster. He couldn't move. He could hardly feel anything else anymore.

"Volta!" yelled Noromac. The Gray Prodigy stood tall with both his dagger and knife at the ready. The spell redirected to some odd destination. Noromac couldn't tell what kind of spell it was, but he could feel the immense power of the effect. It sent shivers down his spine and left a feeling of pure dread. "What was is that you just cast?"

"It was death. And surprisingly, he didn't die immediately. You warriors are quite something else. Are any of you Chosen?"

"None of us are." replied Noromac.

"Very strange indeed." The Quillian rushed Noromac, clearing the distance of at least 30 yards in just over a 2 seconds. Speed like this was obscene, even to Noromac. Training kicked in and his muscles moved on their own. Years of fighting his mentor, his fellow Jack Prodigies, and the sparring he's had recently with Garvhoz and Jasper has shaped his body to be able to react to attack without thinking about it. He dodged the lightning quick strike to his head barely in time by cocking it to the side. He placed one hand on the inside of the Quillian's striking wrist and the other violently smacked into the elbow of the same arm. Before the Quillian and Noromac could even notice what was going on, Noromac had rendered the Quillian's arm useless.

"Purt!" screamed the Quillian as the other arm rocketed an uppercut towards Noromac. Normac stepped back and shoved his dagger into the armpit of the Quillian, and stabbed the same side of her ribs. The spell hadn't finished before she had gotten stabbed, and her flesh fused around the blades leaving them inside her body to slice her with every movement she made. An arrow had finally made it's mark on the Quillian's body before she could speak any other words.

The arrow hit her directly in the spine and caused her to slump forward. She started to cough up blood after she hit the ground. Her breathing became labored and her skin started to turn a sickly blue color. Noromac turned her over and started to halt the effects of the poison with magic. He needed answers.

"Why choose her? What did she do?" Noromac yelled.

"She had the weakest body. If I would have killed her by using one of you it would have been a waste of strength."

"She only wanted to see what life was like outside her town! She only wanted to experience the world!"

"I do not care. I don't care for anybody. You are all fuel for my revenge."

"Did Gorund really steal the home of the dwarves away from them?" Noromac was surprised by Garvhoz's voice. He didn't expect to hear it so soon.

"Why do you care?"

"Did he, or didn't he?" he said through gritted teeth. The Quillian chuckled for a moment before coughing out blood.

"He did, I remember killing dwarves in search of a home. They talked about maybe finally finding a home a little to the southwest. I had killed around a quarter of them. Something like fifteen of them."

"Do you know how he did it?"

"I remember little of who I possess, but the memory was so strong I couldn't forget. He claimed right to the mountain and slew at least a few hundred dwarves before they fled. It filled the dwarf with such a fear. It was so familiar." Garvhoz walked away without saying a word. 

"Is that true?" asked Noromac.

"Every word. But don't worry. Kids like that always find another hero to idolize. If he doesn't, well lets just say he's not too smart a kid." Noromac ended his spell then and there. The Quillian started to choke and gargle on a mixture of drool and blood. Noromac couldn't find it in himself to forgive what the Quillian had done, or what he had done by letting Riah join them.

She didn't deserve this.

None of them did.

Maybe the gods were unworthy of worship.