Chương 9: The Exiled Moon

Several days ago, in the lair of the Cultists of the Exiled Moon The ancient vampire gloated before them, pacing back and forth across a raised dais containing a stained grotesque altar piled high with skulls. The altar's face was carved in an effigy of Irien, former goddess of moonlit nights and twin to the goddess of moonless nights, Serilye. Irien the Exiled Moon, banished from the heavens by the other gods and goddesses for her jealous attempts to murder her twin sister and usurp the night entirely.

Behind the altar lay a whirlpool of foaming crimson blood, sparks of moon-corrupted magic dancing across its surface. The Summoning Pool, according to the undead creature who was eagerly spilling his entire life's story. Bella rolled her fingers along the warm golden shaft of her staff impatiently and shared a look with Robin, the party's rogue; both clearly wished that Gemma would let them start the fight already.

But Robin knew that Bella was tied around Gemma's finger, and Gemma would never pass up an opportunity to submerse herself in the game's lore. And so, the trio waited, listened.

"It was when her banishment became a potential threat that I, High Priest Gadiel Moonsbreath, was chosen by the loving Moon to carry forth her final plan. Her resurrection! The rebirth of the Moonlit Night!" He paused to bare his fangs at them in triumph, basking in their stillness that he perceived as fear and defeat.

"For these hundreds of years I've carried out my great work. Bringing nobles into our fold. Awakening entire clans to the abuse our loving mother suffered. Raising more precious moonspawn. Harvesting the lifeblood and magic of those that walk the day. All for tonight, that she will rejoin us here and the pitiful masses will come to know her love, that she can take her rightful place in our sky once more!"

The whirlpool continued crackling menacingly behind him, the waves of foul energy rolling off stronger as they stood and listened.

"And now, you foolish adventurers, you will be the final sacrifice. The Moon shall rise tonight, and I will be the one to summon her mortal avatar so she can regain her power!" As his speech finally concluded, the elder vampire launched himself forward towards the trio with an ear-splitting screech. Finally! Bella raised her staff and started summoning the energy within her for a powerful sun spell, counting on the eternal weakness of all vampires.

Before she could finish Gadiel smashed into Gemma's raised tower shield, ineffectively attempting to break her guard with a sword carved of cursed blackened moonstone. The attack slid off the shield in a shower of sparks. To her side Robin's wrist flicked as they threw an enchanted dagger – their favorite opening move. A riotous quiver of prismatic cobras sprung forth from the dagger as it sunk deep into the vampire's shoulder, each serpent coiling and constricting his movements.

The snakes' sunk in their fangs to inflict a paralyzing poison. Gemma took the opportunity to push their offensive, shoving the vampire with her massive shield. He stumbled backwards, crashing into the altar. And gave Bella a clear shot. Her spell coalesced, daybreak shattering the darkness that had clouded the cave housing the Exiled Moon's shrine. It pooled at the tip of her staff, radiant and resplendent, before lasering forward and burning a gaping hole through Gadriel's abdomen.

The vampire broke into wheezing laughter despite his apparent defeat.

"It seems that I shall have the honor instead!" He plunged backwards, tumbling into the whirlpool of devouring energy, flesh sloughing off his form. The crackling corruption peaked into a fevered crescendo. Bella winced away from the sight, nose wrinkling. She was never one for any kind of over-the-top gore.

"Don't look, keep your eyes shut! Whatever you do, don't look!" Robin crowed with a short laugh.

"You're not suave enough to pull off Indy," Gemma shot back at the rogue, eyes rolling but mouth quirking up with amusement at the reference.

"We should use our boons. They're meant for this fight." She was already pulling a small statuette from her storage. Earlier in their journey, the trio had communed several times with the pantheon of gods and goddesses that ruled over the world. The deities were unable to interfere directly with mortal affairs without expending a great deal of their divine energy to manifest an avatar, like Irien was doing here.

Instead, they had asked the adventurers to complete a series of trials to link themselves to the heavenly realm so they could be granted artifacts and then wield divine power in the mortal realm. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The statue the elf had pulled was one of a great gust of supporting wind.

The Order of the Uplifting Spirit held to no singular deity, instead spreading their favor across the entire pantheon in their efforts to raise up the beleaguered and downtrodden. Similarly, Robin held in their hands a statue of a crescent moon, gleaming like a blade in the dark. The symbol of Serilye, the Moonless Night. A fitting patron for one of the heroes sent to exterminate the Exiled Moon. For herself, Bella's artifact held the shape of a great bursting star.

Incandia, the genderless patron deity of spellcasting and magical study, had deemed her fit for blessing. All three of them shared a look, then activated their boons by channeling a thread of magic into their artifacts. Divine power swelled within them, clinging to their bones and suffusing through their veins. In game terms, the items were listed to give them each a flat 25% boost to their stats.

Bella had read about how there had been a riot on the forums when the developers had patched it in the game as a lazy last-ditch effort to combat the overly difficult boss battle that was supposed to finish the campaign. With their already grossly overpowered stats, the effect was… absurd. Bella could feel her already massive mana pool swell and let out a giddy laugh; Gemma and Robin were similarly marveling at just how much more strength they'd gathered. And luckily for them, a new challenger approached.

The pool of moon-corrupted blood had ceased to swirl, coagulating together like viscous ferrofluid magnetized into a central spike. Its liquid slowly thickened, molting into the shape of a slender, ethereal woman with body-length straight hair in ghostly silver, draping twirls of woven moonlight covering skin pallid and ashen. Everything about her was an imitation of perfection, uncannily flawless, ever so slightly wrong in a way that set Bella's teeth on edge.

"Finally," rasped Irien, The Exiled Moon. Fog wept from her mouth and cascaded towards the floor as she took several long breaths. The party stood on a hair trigger, weapons poised to strike, as the goddess spent a moment testing her new form.

"A body worthy of a goddess. It took far too long for that worm Gadriel to summon me, and breaking through my banishment was far too costly. Though you mortals only have so much power to give me, you should be honored to be my first feast in the mortal realm." She stretched her too-long fingers, tapered into knife-edged claws, then broke into a vicious smile.

"Your ascendence into the light of my false family will not save you here. Rejoice, children of the day. And die." The goddess vanished from her pedestal in a billowing cloud of fog that choked the room with a frigid haze and the stench of death, appearing in front of Bella. Her long claws raked down on the catkin, only to bounce harmlessly off of the archmage's skin – or rather, the glowing purple shield spell that flared into vision upon impact, something she maintained on the party at all times.

Before Irien could vanish again a dagger drove into her back, glowing snakes springing forth. Bella could almost hear Robin quipping, Good ol' Binding Snakes. Nothing beats that! Unfortunately for the rogue, the moonlit goddess quickly shook the snakes off herself before they could bind her in place - but not before some of them managed to inject their venom. She roared in frustration, scrabbling at the knife and ripping it out.

Its removal forced the snakes to vanish in glowing puffs of smoke but left a jagged gash in her back. Fortunately for Robin, even if she hadn't been rooted her reaction seemed slightly more sluggish. Sluggish enough that Bella had time to cast a spell to gain some distance from the cursed goddess's avatar, teleporting across the room with an amethyst-purple portal. In her place leapt Gemma, the paladin's sword flashing with divine light as it struck forth.

It carved a glowing line into Irien's chest, from which more freezing fog belched forth. Her agonized screaming shook the entire cavern. The paladin raised her giant tower shield, bashing away the flurry of frenzied claws like she was batting aside a doll and not a raging goddess. With attention drawn away from her, Bella took her time preparing one of the most devastating spells in her arsenal.

Mana infused darts formed by the dozen in the fog-choked air around her staff, each one trembling with the ferocity of a caged killer hornet. Once over two hundred of the flechettes had formed she released them and they arced to their target. Each moved so fast they left streaks of icy-blue light in the air behind them. They slammed into the goddess with enough force to split the hardest stone, thunderous impacts burying into her skin with the screech of rending metal. The goddess shattered.

Like a mirror thrown from a balcony, her entire form exploded into shards of magic that rocketed in every which direction, shredding the cavern walls and ricocheting harmlessly against the party's shield spells and enchanted armor. After a moment the magic calmed, seeping into them like water to thirsty plants. Their mana reservoirs refilled and overflowed, filling them with an even more powerful sense of strength. Three adventurers stared, eyes wide, at the remnants of the Exiled Moon.

Where she was standing was left a small statuette, much like the ones they'd just absorbed, though this one held the shape of a glowing full moon.

"Are you kidding? I only got one attack in!" Robin stomped forward and kicked the artifact in frustration, shattering it into pieces.