Illuminating the Dark Prince

When a God Bows to the Swords (Pt.2)

Massive curved claws gleamed in the amber glow as eight bony and decayed black arms insidiously emerged from within the impenetrable darkness. Anxiety and fear seemed to coil up my body like a seizing serpent and constricted my movements. The mighty abyssal god of darkness grotesquely manifested before me, primordial repugnance flowing from his grad yet hideous form. Dark decaying scales rippled over stringy muscle within the thinning clouds, bending as his enormous clawed foot stepped forth to shake the ground with a paralyzing timbre.

Within his soulless black eyes swam enough animosity to shrivel the louring trees of the forest and dry the rushing rivers leading into the sea with a single glance alone. A low lizardy growl thrummed from his puffed-out throat while his malevolent gaze honed in on my place upon the wall. His height was so great that we were practically face to face with one another, with only the stretch of destruction between us... I suddenly felt like an ant. 

"And you will be squished like one too..." The crown whispered in delight.

The sulfuric winds blowing my hair off to the side and the blood slowly dripping down my face was the only movement my paralyzed body could manage. Anxiety constricted my chest and I remained still as death, while a single nerve-wracking moment stretched by. The raging battle became mere background noise as we stared at one another, tension building like the stretching of a band ready to snap. Then a deeply eldritch voice telepathically boomed into my mind like a sudden clap of thunder, the silent rumble seeping deeply into my bones.

"O' wretched Prince of Tenveriel, thou art but a piteous inconvenience to my dark sovereignty." He slowly bared his sharp black teeth with a long growl. They glistened with dark drool and cosmic filth, thick strings of it menacingly dripping from their dagger-like points. Putrid breath fanned my face like the mighty gales of death, yet I stared the abyssal god dead in the eyes without flinching once, not showing him any signs of fear. A few demons attempted to rain fireballs down upon him, yet they were immediately extinguished by the miasma of darkness whirling within his scales. "Does thou truly believe that you can defeat mine own kind by calling upon those whom hast already once been defeated by my sovereignty!? By summoning forth the fiery beings of that treacherous enlightened one!? By restoring the odious serpent whom hast already fallen!? Does thou attempt to mocketh me!?"

My swords flashed as they twirled in my grasp, while I instinctually bared my much less intimidating teeth at him. "In fact I do." My glower darkened and I bravely squared my shoulders. "Your ensnarement over this world is weakening, Hsarohpem! The armies you claim to have defeated were never so, for you were never powerful enough to fully eradicate their spirits! And now they rise once more from their place of dormancy and decay, marching to the tune of vengeance for all that you have taken from them! The mighty serpent you cast away has been restored and fights alongside them! And now I, Prince Valarendrik, shall seek vengeance for the royal bloodline whom you've deceived and devoured!"

A deafening roar bellowed out from the fathomless depths of his chasmic chest, furiously thundering as he abruptly lunged forward, snapping his sickly jaws in my direction. Using my shadows and strength, I swiftly leapt to the side, just barely making it out of the way in time. His enormous drool-coated teeth violently sank into the wall exactly where I had been standing. The stonework cracked with a deafening boom and clouds of dust suffocated the air. His head rabidly thrashed in fury, causing large chunks of stone to fly out and destructively landed all around.

My shadows carried me up onto one of the jagged spikes on the wall with my claws wrapping around it for extra balance. I was tempted to jump down to ground level, but I knew that would make it easy for him to bite me out of the air if I did so. I'd lived long enough in the forest and fought enough formidable beasts to understand how to avoid becoming slaughtered like prey. Instead, lightning surrounded my being and shadows whirled around my frame like a shroud of storms, creating a protective shield. I fearlessly jumped at the back of his spiny neck in a swift attack, his black eye eerily shifting up to meet mine as I did so.