Part Eight:Guardians of the triad gardens

"Tueri anima signifer!" The command was a psychic transmission. I heard it like the chimes clinking from a sudden wind in a silent morning. When did I become part of the collective? 

Three commanders entered the closing gate first followed by the king. I was fifth, the treasure I presumed, why was I treasured by the undead?-that was something more disturbing. The last of the commanders followed as the rear guard. What I entered into was a tempest raging so fast it was blur of flying shards and blaring flashes, of moving giants and falling ones, the quicken motions of the seven lords surrounding me reacting like thunder, reactions that echoed the ferocity and power of battle, what we had entered was war...

A face of glass broke through the dusty haze, it was one of the giant soldiers, a guardian of the crystal garden. He turned to me and all his facial fragments engaged to show his ire, the terminator had found its target. A white spear exploded in the place where I had just been pulled from by some external force. Whether the spear was crystalline like its thrower or pure light I could not tell. Nor was an opportunity for clarification granted as a Lich Lord propelled him self off my shoulders and fell upon my foe, violently shattering his head with three fulminate strikes from his staff. He moved as if the air was his ground and the winds were his wings and my heart drummed its terror undecided in which petrified it more: its enemy or its defenders.

There was a scream from the Lich King after which a tremor shook the ring and the combative veil of explosive clouds and dusts was briefly set alight. It was from the use of substantial magic somewhere. We were being enclosed, this was a trap, the sister rings had also engaged us in combat, the guardians of gold and silver were descending upon us...their thoughts invariably flitted through me...the body of a crystal colossus disintegrated at my feet...these were soldiers of Heaven, only the flames of perdition could truly destroy them. The clamor of the battle faded far into the deep, my body moved in a dream of sleep, madness, there must be away out...music rose in me, building to an apogee, a bridge opened to my soul, there, I felt it, a galaxy within a stone...Five silver spears pinned the King, a golden Guardian moved to finish him, so I entered the light that flowed through the deiform warrior of gold...

The light of the aureate guardian was erratic as if some impurity had corrupted it, and the longer I lingered the harder it became to control him, still I captured his eyes and guided his spear. It was the first time I saw the Lich King expressed shock as the spear annihilated a silver guardian. Their arsenal powers were limitless so I remade my spear and destroyed the others holding the king. Together we cleared the arch to the golden bridge, but there were more marching towards us. I saw the Lich King Looked up:" Close the gate, soul bearer!", he shouted, "the command is within them, Hurry!" My shock was brief and I did not take the time to contemplate how he Knew I had possessed it. So ignoring the battle shouts coming from behind me or the guardian I was within I focused on synchronizing his lines of memory with mine. It was difficult, my head ached from the effort, his force had become even more unstable, when I found them I could hardly bear the power of the command such that they came in pulses, electrocuting pulses. Holding the two pillars the dictum reverberated: "Per caelum autem pacis...the advancing rank recognized the corrupted guardian and threw six spears through him... sit transitus cessabis!" As its body shattered I was flung back into mine. 

My brain throbbed, I felt a hammer in my head and a clamp on my chest. I crawled to the top of the stairway, away from the ensuing battle with the silver bridge and rested my hand upon a pillar for support, a demon fell besides me and an angel savagely drove a gleaming sword through it, the flames fade from its eyes, its blood flowed down his golden chest. He looked at me, for a moment forgetting the battle, his eyes glowing intensely blue in his breathtaking face, then that face was at my feet as another demon flew down. He grabbed me by hair and drove his sword through my chest...