Xanthippe (Chapter 25)

Template:Xanthippe nav Even though she knew time could not be wasted, Xanthippe insisted that she and Kasim get a good night's sleep. Invading Diablo's sanctum was not going to be easy. Despite Tyrael's dire warnings, she wasn't about to go anywhere without plenty of rest, a good breakfast (herbal tea, sausages, and buttered bread, toasted very nicely over one of the fortress's eternal flames) and a thorough check-over for all their equipment. The armor was strong, the weapons all sharpened. Her stock of full rejuvenation potions overflowed her trunk. The waypoint waited.

From the waypoint on the river of flame, they advanced slowly, and found... an angel? Hovering over the path was an angel, smaller-looking than Tyrael, and his (her?) armor was silvery instead of golden. The angel's voice sounded male, but Xanthippe wasn't sure how much that mattered. According to him, Diablo was in his Chaos Sanctuary with his greatest generals and officials, in an inner chamber protected by five seals. Each of these infernal officials in turn had an assortment of lesser officers, hangers-on, and other bureaucratic vermin in the Sanctuary itself.

Of course, the instant the angel stopped speaking, Xanthippe burst out with questions. Who are you, and what are you doing here? How did Diablo get these generals together so fast? Supposedly, it was a huge rebellion in Hell that exiled The Three to the mortal realms; had these officials been waiting for Diablo's return? The angel did not reply. Xanthippe wanted to whack him with her poleaxe, but Kasim wouldn't let her.

Before they reached the Sanctuary, they had to go through a maze of paved paths set in the river. The convoluted twists and turns were frustrating; was this meant to forestall invasion of the Sanctuary? Xanthippe doubted it: angels could just fly in. Even she could teleport. The twists and turns did give the undead mages plenty of opportunity to blast away at them, but the grotesques and spitters had to wait until they approached.

As they advanced, the Chaos Sanctuary loomed into view, black and huge, covered with spiky turrets and toothed spires. The front gates were open; in fact, there did not seem to be any gates in the frame. Much of the ceiling and pieces of the walls were gone too. Yet, there was no wreckage or ruin inside; had the missing pieces ever been there? This was the closest thing to an intact building she'd seen in Hell, and the construction seemed confusing and impractical. It almost seemed to have been built to make it easy to enter.

The minute Xanthippe and Kasim entered the gate, she felt weak and slow, and her vision dimmed. A crowd of undead knights advanced on them, with an armored skeleton in green and purple behind, making strange gestures. This had to be a spell of some kind... oh, of course, it was necromancy. Primitive magic like necromancy needs those elaborate movements and finger twining to harness and shape the mana. Altering the magical field of the body is not easy, and the effect of inefficient necromantic "curses" is subtle at best. The final result was a general weakness; no actual damage was inflicted. However, it did make that crowd of dead knights more difficult to deal with.

Xanthippe called for a retreat, and they decrepitly creaked their way out the Sanctuary door. Standing on either side of the doorway, they smashed an chopped the knights as they came out, killing quickly with little risk. The strange construction of this demon fortress confused Xanthippe even more; it seemed easier to attack the defenders, to get them in a bottleneck, than any sensible architect should allow. After the knights were dead, they went back and charged the necromancer skeleton; it retreated to a group of balrogs, then cursed them again.

Several times, they retreated to the gates, killed a horde of demons, then ran in again to try and catch the necromancer. Stupid necromancer. The dead bastard just wouldn't stay still until he found a group of like-minded friends. Together, the group of them started churning out curses and gibbering, flying skulls. It took forever, three more hasty retreats, and two full rejuvenation potions to corner them all and beat them back to death. After clearing the entrance hall, the rest of the Sanctuary was easy. Dealing with the curses was simple; just get away from the necromancer. The fighters will follow you, but the necro won't, so they're easy to separate; after dealing with the fighters, corner the necromancer.

Oddly enough, the layout of the Sanctuary resembled the four-pointed star of the Zakarumite church. In the center was a huge pentagram, surrounded by pools of flame and hundreds of burnt human skulls. Obviously, a place of importance. The pentagram's center was a single slab of stone, held down by huge clamps. When Xanthippe stood on it, she could feel some irregular vibration, rising and falling. She took her crown off and lay down with her ear to the stone; it was definitely a voice, but she could not discern the language. That had to be Diablo's inner sanctum. She wasn't going to try entering now, there was still more Sanctuary to clear, but Xanthippe was pleased to see a combat shrine right next to it. Shrines are useful things, even if they involve praying; Xanthippe was sure they had to predate the coming of demons to Hell.

At the end of one wing of the Sanctuary, there were two circular disks set in the floor. Their function was unclear, but when Xanthippe tapped the first one, it sank an inch into the floor and glowing glyphs appeared on it. Xanthippe hadn't paid much attention to runes and glyphs when she was studying, and was really starting to regret it. Old-fashioned symbol magic should be unimportant when you could simply harness raw magical power, but knowing them might help her figure out what another spell-caster was up to. Then, that strange angel's words came back to her; five seals held Diablo's sanctuary shut. She hit the second disk, and it did the same thing; two out of five?

As the seal lit up, a feeling of disquiet came over Xanthippe; a low, almost subsonic rumbling that had pervaded the Sanctuary rose to a shout, then died away. A sparkling light shot out from the center pentagram, and a group of insectile creatures appeared next to her. These things drain mana with their lightning touch, but Xanthippe made sure both she and Kasim had all the lightning resistance they could get, and she had mana to spare. On the opposite side of the Sanctuary were two more seals, which released an extremely fast balrog and his friends. They were even easier to deal with than the insects.

When she went back to the central pentagram, most of the clamps had opened. But the slab still wouldn't budge. The voice underneath was silent. Xanthippe wondered if Diablo had run out of generals yet. There was still one more seal, so Xanthippe ran off and tripped it. She should have known; the Sanctuary had been full of necromancers, mana bugs, and balrogs. At the first set of seals, Diablo sent the lord of the mana bugs to kill her. On the second set, it was the lord of the balrogs. This last one summoned up the lord of the necromancers, who heralded his arrival with a wave of curses and gibbering ghosts.

Not wanting to take that much punishment at once, Xanthippe teleported away. These guys proved smarter than their rank-and-file: the whole group stayed in a tight bunch, slinging death magic, no matter how much Xanthippe and Kasim tried to draw individuals away to deal with alone. Eventually, they had to charge right into the middle of them and start swinging. After a healing potion for each of them, one necro finally died; two more healings and a full rejuve got the second. Xanthippe cornered the necromancer lord, while Kasim chopped up the last two. When they were all dead, a burst of heat and flame erupted from the center of the Sanctuary. It must be their boy, and he was mad. Good.

Then she remembered; the combat shrine she wanted to hit was on the west side of Diablo's sanctuary, and they were on the east. "Ok, Kasim, we have to get past him."

"Just run by him?"

"Sure, why not?"

Kasim looked doubtful. "Hoped you'd teleport. That's kind of fun."

"We're not here to have fun. This is it, the big guy."

Kasim nodded. "Ok. Let's do it."

Together, they skirted the edge of the central pentagram, and Xanthippe got the shrine. The walls of flame that blasted out of the pentagram hurt Kasim some, so Xanthippe tossed him a potion, before they charged into the flames. There was Diablo, huge and terrible, with a shard of glowing red crystal stuck in his forehead. "Ok, we've got him!"

Diablo's laugh shook the Sanctuary. He crouched down, and red and white lightning arced from his fingertips, straight through Kasim. He died almost instantly, sliced in half by the bolt. "MORTAL... WHO IS THIS 'WE'?"

Ulp. This called for an immediate change in strategy. Xanthippe hid behind a corner and counted her potions; would she be able to get them fast enough? Diablo came out of his pentagram, all of Hell shaking with his footsteps, and stomped what was left of Kasim's head into jelly. Xanthippe tried to think: should she switch to the shield? She could hide behind it, and the sword had life leeching. And she could hide behind it. Diablo was coming over for her, trampling Kasim's thoughts and memories on the floor; they went up in smoke from the heat. She was still trying to decide what to do when Diablo looked around the corner, his face not a foot from hers and... licked... her... cheek...

The teleport spell came to mind instantly; she was on the opposite side of the pentagram in a thought. Diablo didn't seem to care; a wave of his hand, and a wave of fire blasted her off her feet, completely obliterating her mana shield. "TO COME SO FAR, AND FAIL SO MISERABLY. YOU WILL BE A DELIGHT." Xanthippe hid behind another corner, chugging a mana potion and recasting mana shield. She could cast a portal from here, and get back to the fortress...

Xanthippe looked out from her hiding place. Slowly, Diablo was coming for her again. When she showed her face, he licked his lips, then shot his lightning right through her. EEEAAHH!! She scampered like a frightened rabbit, the ground shaking under her trembling legs. Dammit, Kasim had always done most of the killing! She hated it, but he did, she was almost just a support unit for her own mercenary... and now he was a splat on the floor! Spinning fire and lightning in waves, Diablo blasted her into corners and off of walls, laughing. "AH... YOU SCREAM WELL, TINY GIRL. I WILL CHERISH YOU LONG AFTER YOUR DEATH."

In the back of her mind, a tiny voice told her, he's the Lord of Terror: he's trying to scare you. A much louder voice answered, he's succeeding! She didn't want to die down here, in his hands. There really is life after death, and she did NOT want hers to be in here! Running around the pentagram, keeping the flame pits between herself and Diablo, Xanthippe tried to think. What could she do? A portal! Just get out of here!

Xanthippe cast the town portal... and didn't go through. She could see Him out of the corner of her eye, grinning and slowly stomping his way over, in no hurry at all. But the voice in the back of her head was saying, you won't be scared. Little girls are scared, and run away. You never ran away before, and I'll be damned if I let you run now. Bony spines sprang up from the floor, surrounding her portal, but Xanthippe still just stood there.

Then Diablo was there beside her. "STOPPED RUNNING? DON'T. IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I COULD REALLY ENJOY MYSELF." She looked up at him. He swatted her, like a cat playing with a helpless mouse. Spinning across the floor, the arrogance of the act suddenly thrust itself into her mind. Yes... an arrogant, conceited, murderous BASTARD who's dragged her halfway across the world and straight into Hell just so he can have a little fun! Springing to her feet, her indignation wiping away all fear, Xanthippe screamed "How DARE you!!!" She charged straight at him, swinging straight for his smug, ugly face.

The swing was magnificent. It would have been great if it had actually hit Diablo. But the Lord of Terror was quick enough when he wanted to be, and sliced into her with his lightning again. Chopping almost at random, Xanthippe drew a bit of demonic blood, then paused to take a full rejuve and recast mana shield. A quick mental calculation, comparing her supply of potions to the damage he seemed to be suffering, yielded an unpleasant result: she would run out of rejuves long before he ran out of life. There had to be some way to really hurt him, something that would not depend on her mediocre combat skills...

As another stream of lightning arced through her, Xanthippe realized that was the answer. Lightning! Not her Thunderstorm, which was doing a only little bit, but another spell perfect for softening up big targets: Static Field! She cast, zapping Diablo; unlike the swats from her poleaxe, he actually seemed to feel it. As waves of fire poured out of him, she cast again and again and again, watching him slowly burn. And just like that, the tables turned; he started running away from her! "Oh, no you don't, you bastard! Do you think I'm gonna let you get away?"

Quaffing potions as she slowly pursued the fleeing demon lord, Xanthippe filled the air with static charges. Sparks poured off of Diablo's claws, but not ones of his own making. Howling with pain and anger, he clawed and smashed at Xanthippe, but her Thunderstorm and the crackle in the air were draining his life energy to a sliver. Finally, he collapsed to the ground, twitching and squealing like a dying pig. Xanthippe raised her poleaxe, and with a single stroke, hacked his head from his body. The corpse burst into flame. A raging red spirit rose from the charring flesh, and was sucked into the soulstone. Then, silence.

Xanthippe pulled the stone out of the burning skull. The corrupted shard flickered with an angry red light, full of eons worth of fury... and complete helplessness. The smith's hammer should be next to the Hellforge where she'd left it. This is it, you bastard, she thought. Get ready for oblivion. I got you.

Concluding Thoughts:

1. I suppose Static Fielding Diablo to the brink of death, then using the poleaxe, isn't quite playing the melee sorceress to the hilt. But damn, Kasim died fast, and I did spend a lot of time celebrating his death by running around screaming like a little girl. Maybe I should have switched to players 1, just for the big D.
2. There were a few conversations I'd planned between Xanthippe and Kasim, which I didn't get around to writing. I want death to be final in this game. It doesn't make real sense that the merc captains should be able to resurrect people, that's just an in-game convenience.
3. On the other hand... we have an angel here. If he can't resurrect people, who can? There are still useful observations and viewpoints I can get out of Kasim's mouth. Besides, he's funny.