>>5583740You stare, feeling a cold pit in your stomach.
“The demon that emerged in her death was weakened, too. The sword’s magic, or the death of your mother, must have left it desperate. It pled for life with me, promising anything I could want in exchange. But I only wanted one thing…”
His gaze floats up, to his ‘Kinslayer’ sword, bound form the demon Irinnile, clutched in your talons… the form she took, you now understand, in response to his will. He and the demon had made a pact: he spared the succubus, and she became a bane-weapon designed to seek and destroy the Reptilian Master Race.
“I took up the armour—your mother hadn’t yet destroyed it—and the sword made in mockery of ours by that devil-witch. I made her my slave. She taught me of your language, your conspiracies and heresies, your methods and abilities. I rooted out your scaly bastards wherever I found you, exposed you to the scouring light of day…”
He meets your eyes then, and speaks with a dread certainty in his cracking voice:
“This isn’t over yet. I have done damage, monster. The world—Hawksong, the Paladins—they know about you. My death will not be ruled an accident, body or no, and everyone will KNOW what killed me. I have made sure of that.”
“Maybe” you shrug. “But the status quo that the demon taught you of… It I not long for this world. The Age of Conspiracy is nearing its end. A Dark Crusade is coming. If the world above knows that the Green Knight finally fell to the sons of the dragons of old… Then they will know this event as the beginning of the New Age of Darkness, when those dragons returned, reborn!”
You lift Kinslayer high, and the Green Knight takes a deep breath. You recognize his posture: he is willing himself to face death with honour and dignity. You suppose you can grant him that, since he was so forthcoming.
“You may join your mother and father now, and all your doomed kin. Your age is over.”
You bring the blade down, hard, in a decapitating stroke…
But it stops before drawing blood.
