Melog lurched carefully behind me, my wife nestled in his massive rocky arms like a slumbering child. His thundering feet trod the path behind us as I lead the way to our ritual site. A small cairn deep in one of the parks that nestled between the towering heights of Paragon City.
The stars twinkled above, setting the stage for sorceries of a rare sort. A backdrop to my hubris manifest.
The Circle of Thorns number among some of the most dedicated and depraved practitioners you’ll ever read about. Readily known for kidnapping select bloodlines and robbing museums of antiquities, their antics have become so common it borders on comical were it not so dire. Possession of any part of the Malleus Mundi is prone to attract their attention and it did just that. As I slid into the third hour of my incantation they sprung to attack.
Energies had been coalescing around me for some time, the very essence of elemental forces seeping off the stone as it hung suspended in air above my prone wife. As the night moved into morning and the witching hours chimed, I could feel something slip free, the stone was releasing more than simple earthen motes, some inner nuance was coming loose. This revelation invigorated me and renewed my stamina for the last phase of the spell. Then they struck.
Melog was craft of one purpose, to serve me. His instincts mirrored my desire and as the hooded malcontents crawled up the hillside he rushed to meet them head on. He is but one servitor and the Circle never travel alone. As a handful of lessor acolyte were countered by Melog’s rigid girth, a more seasoned wizard circumvented his physique and snaked his way to my shrine.
This was all it took, my attention was pulled at a crucial moment and while for a time I thought I could hold the energies in suspension, I was proven wrong. The light released as my grip lessened was blinding, the roar deafening. I never know what happened next. The spell spiraled out of control and tendrils of unrestrained energy snaked around the hillside eradicating acolytes, Melog and finally.. me..