The next afternoon, a blast shook the fortress of Tenebra Rock. Throughout the morning the Alliance's marines had fought their way under cannon- and spell-fire to the front gate of the fortress, and their entrance into the second level gave the Order of Lordain, across the hall, the opportunity to strike. Lifting the portcullis, they charged down the few Damned that stood between them and the stairs to the next level.
While their allies cleared out the Cult of the Damned below, the Order progressed higher into the fort. They were immediately met by demons - so scarred, so veteran that their foul flesh was misshapen, and their strength was greater than any that had stood beside Lord Gorridon, in Outland, months ago. Nevertheless, they bore upon their chests the brand of the Hand of Kharduum, now a deep violet in colour instead of the fel green that the many of the Order knew. It was to be the first sign that their prey, the dreadlord, was nearby.
Where the third floor of the fort had been dull, dark and damp, the third was a nightmarish scene of blood, blasphemous icons and demonic runes etched into the walls. Herein, however, the demons had turned against their cowardly mortal allies, and the Order paid the warring fiends little heed, leaving them to their allies.
The fort's lower defences were in ruins, and the Order pressed higher. Breaching into the Officer's Quarters, they found nothing, at first - no enemies, no signs of the corrupted. However, setting forth to cross the floor, their path was soon blocked by two winged figures. Their wicked, spiked armour glimmered in the dim stormlight that shone through the center of the fort, and their skull faceplates obscured their faces. On black wings they came, darkness and death seeping from their otherworldly armour. They were the lieutenants of Diathonix, last and first seen upon the ridgeline above Moa'ki Harbour, from where they commanded the ghoulish horde to assault the Order and their Tuskarr hosts.
A vicious battle ensued, and the twin lieutenants, Adrastas and Ferralon, exchanged places throughout the battle. While one was borne aloft on their dark wings, the other obstructed the Order's passage, yet both fell together, alone and separated from one another. It wasn't without injury on the Order's behalf, however, and so a day's rest was ordered while the marines continued to clear the path ahead.
. . .
On the fourth day of the siege of Tenebra Rock, the Order was called back to the front by Captain Hullard of the Northern Stalwart. The marines had cleared the ramparts beyond the Officer's Quarters, reaching a sealed, frosty door at the far end. Beyond it, they believed, lay the lich, Kelmir, and so they believed this was a task best suited for the Holy Order.
Therein, Kelmir awaited them at last. Before entering, Sir Renald took the blessed haft of Arduran's old warhammer and shattered the staff that they had brought with them to Tenebra Rock, which they had stolen in Duskwood nearly a month ago. This, they believed, was the phylactery, for Arduran had told them of how Kelmir's spirit would return to the staff to which he was bound, and the Cult of the Damned covetted it dearly.
The battle to bring Kelmir low was one of sorcery and faith. The lich sought to entrap the Order there, freezing the walls and the entrances of the hall that they did battle in, just as he had sealed Arduran and To'toni in hundreds of years prior. Through razor ice and powerful necrotic magics, the Order eventually brought Kelmir to heel, and with no phylactery to regenerate in when he fell, Sir Renald briefly manifested a warhammer of brilliant, golden light from the haft of Arduran's own. Driving it through the lich's skull, the wizard's body and soul was almost entirely obliterated, purged from the world by the Light's wrath.
Yet something remained of him - a haunting vestige that wailed in the night from the rooftop of Tenebra Rock, which was still occupied by cultists and demons alike. Some darkness still held sway over him, denying him passage to the pits of hell that awaited him. There was one more battle still to come...
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