Breaking the Rules takes place in an RPG universe, and is the sequel to Bending the Rules. To understand the characters and how the world works, please start from Part 1 of either series. Not based on any particular gaming franchise or storyline, but there have been guest appearances.
It's finally here - the grand finale of Breaking the Rules! I hope you will all indulge me in a longer release, I did not want to divide up any smaller than this even if there's a lot to take in. More to follow in the afterword.
*****
"And you're sure we can't just bring her in through the front door?" Nuru said. "She's strong now. Scary strong."
"Listen, I know you haven't been to a lot of temples, but let me tell you something," Ace said. "There are a lot of wards there. Big ones, the strongest that exist are at temples, by most accounts, and the demon protections are the most powerfully crafted of them all. Faction headquarters are usually considered temples, as are the homes of archons, and demons intruding are a total sacrilege. You remember how upset people got about what you did at the temple in Home Town. So no, not even a berzerker archdemon could walk in that front door without an army; it's going to be hard enough to do from inside, and that's why she wanted Dayo to act as a diversion."
"They are not making an exception for her," Dayo said. "That was made abundantly clear to me during my training; the demon alarm is an all-hands event, no excuses. They don't care what we do outside of Chosen territory, but if any of us get caught on the premises with even a lesser demon, we're all gonna be in big trouble."
"So, middle of the night it is," Furaha said cheerfully.
"Valkyries are up the latest, usually wrapping up by 3 AM, and I've got a plan for dealing with Chibale. He never truly sleeps, if he's a reaver," Dayo said. "I just need a crap-ton of Fire Hand scrolls."
"You've got it," the thief replied. "What are you thinking?"
"Undead have one weakness we can exploit. I'm going to tell him to die in a fire, and make it compulsory," the valkyrie said.
Ace shook his head. "We'll have to keep him from running away. He's strong, he won't go down immediately. You need something he can't shake off."
"So, a power I don't use often is Scroll Infusion. Specters can take on buffs from scrolls I send them through when I summon them, just like if they used the scroll themselves, except there's a lower stack penalty in volume. It's expensive for temporary effect is why I don't usually bother, but if we get enough of them together, they can all do fire damage and grapple-attack until he hits Full Immolation status. We also need a trap to hold him so he can't reach water to save himself."
"I can arrange that, should be a simple modification of a standard ghoul repellant ward since he'd technically dead." Furaha said. "Damn. Closure at last."
"Win or lose, this one's going in the history books," Dayo said. "I know where I can get a bunch of high-level souls to make it stick, but we only get one shot at this."
"And you've got that ring taken care of?" Furaha said.
Nuru patted his spellbook. "I think I'll be able to get in without being limited to the frequency-pinned path."
"What can I do?" Ace said.
Nuru flipped the spellbook past the last scrolls he'd integrated before closing off the connection with his demon, and tore out the rest. "Why, you're going to make sure nobody in Chosen HQ gets up in the night when the alarm goes off."
"Make sure you start with Onyekachi," Dayo said.
Ace took the stack of Sleep Paralysis scrolls, and grinned.
*****
"So where's the altar go when Onyekachi turns in, if he doesn't just leave it there?" Nuru said, jogging alongside Dayo well past midnight, and they came up on the Faction HQ entrance.
"The vault, in what used to be the inner sanctum, but no one else is allowed in there without Onyekachi anymore. Except Chibale."
"And you think we can just walk in there and use it?"
"We can with a challenge coin."
"A what?"
Dayo pulled out her faction recognition amulet. "Challenge coin, rune coin, whatever. Mine won't get you into the inner chambers, but... well, leave that to me.!Tona Asirin Da Ka Zaba Dayo!" the valkyrie intoned, and the purple symbols appeared on its face. "That will get you and Ace past the basic wards for a few minutes, into the ceremonial storage area. I'm going to be... busy for a little bit, collecting those high-level souls. I'll come find you as soon as I can after I find Chibale and lure him outside. Good luck!"
So saying, the valkyrie took off down the corridor. With no time to waste, Nuru went down the hallways exactly as Dayo had described them. He reached a great door with a curious sort of lock in it, into which the amulet fit exactly, and the door unlocked with a loud series of clunks and metallic scrapes. He pushed the door open and looked around. There were a great many knicknacks, but the only thing standing out as untouched by clutter was the table with a velvet tablecloth, and the vault door which had no visible lock. Nuru walked over and pulled at the tablecloth. It came away easily, but covered a flat table with nothing obvious showing underneath the thin fabric - no engraving, no summoning sigil, nothing. He frowned, started looking around at the ceremonial objects cluttering the floor and shelves. He tore the tablecloth off impatiently. Out of the corner of his eye he spied something and turned back. He looked at the tabletop which was discolored in a particular shape. As a carpenter's son, he was sensitive to these details, even in the dim torchlight.
(Someone's not very good at matching wood grains.)
He probed the edges of the shape with his fingers, and found a notch he could pry against. The discolored shape pulled up and away, revealing another socket for an amulet. He put Dayo's amulet in it, but nothing happened.
"Damn, they were right," he muttered.
The sound of rapid footsteps caught his attention. Dayo popped in through the door, threw something at him, and dashed back away.
"I hope you know what to do with that! Guards are coming- I'll try to hold them off, but I'm running low on souls! Sorry about the smell!"
"Gods above and below!" Nuru said, gagging and holding the amulet as far away as he could. "Roasted undead is the worst."
He put it in the socket in the table, and the skeleton chasing its own head appeared. A rune lit up on the floor, and the vault door began to slowly draw upwards. He pulled out the Summoning Circle and a Full Summon scroll. The door slammed fully open, and Onyekachi stalked in, taller than Nuru remembered, with his own amulet dangling from a chain and with a glowing purple skull projecting out of it that strained as if trying to burst out and slay them both. He loomed over Nuru.
"Goddamn creaky bones... Gotcha, little thief! Wait. Nuru? Are you... lost?" Onyekachi said, squinting at him in confusion. "How... did you get in here? Weren't you cursed?"
There was commotion in the hall and Dayo came flying in through the door and crashed into a pile of the things that didn't break. Nuru cringed to watch it.
"You OK? What happ-" Nuru started to say.
Factioners crowded around the doorway, armed for a fight: the guards who were awake at night, from the faces Nuru remembered.
"Exalted old one, she's drained the Elders. Every last one of them."
"None other may enter! Bar the front gate! So, this is how you repay my generosity after all these years," Onyekachi said. "Dayo, I am so very disappointed. It wasn't enough to be equal to the men, oh no, even after your little word games of being neither man nor woman. You had to go and get *greedy*."
Dayo struggled to their feet, and the archon grabbed the valkyrie by the throat, to flail helplessly in the air, gasping for breath.
"Our prize collection, I gave you access to in order to learn the lessons of the past, to learn what proper behavior should be. And you break it, collecting all the souls together like a common parade of beasts to go questing with, to spend their priceless lives like so many arrows in your quiver. Everything the faction has worked so hard to achieve, the knowledge we have acquired - ruined!"
Onyekachi slammed Dayo up against the wall, dislodging books and more detritus to the floor.
"H-hurry... Nuru!" they gasped out. "Don't... worry about... me!"
Onyekachi looked over, seeing the rising vault door for the first time.
"Yeah, uh, no offense but there's something I have to do. It's kind of important," Nuru said, grimacing.
"What's this... you have turned my faction pet against me? And now you would take our most prized possession, the altar of Tumelo himself! CHIBALE!" Onyekachi howled. "YOU ARE SUMMONED WITH THE HIGHEST PRIORITY!"
He gestured, and a spectral parrot went flying out directly through the wall echoing the words.
Onyekachi dropped Dayo, who fell to the floor in a heap, coughing and wheezing. He turned to Nuru and stepped forward, in one pace reaching out and pincering at Nuru with his thumb and fingers as if to put a hole in Nuru with his fingernails. Nuru ducked and dodged, making full use of his evasion skills, holding carefully onto his shirt with his carefully-practiced misdirection firmly in mind.
"Come on, what's that you've got there?" Onyekachi said.
"You... all this time, I was just a pet to you!?" Dayo wailed.
"Did you ever think you would ever truly be equal?" Onyekachi hissed, not turning to face the valkyrie. "Of course you were a pet! We took bets on how long it would take you to break, and take one of us as your husband. No escape for you!"
Onyekachi lunged forward, fists smashing into the wall between Nuru and the door. He swept to the side, closing the door with a thunderous BOOM, right in the faces of the other Chosen. Onyekachi pressed Nuru to the wall, ignoring Dayo's attempts to batter him with their staff. Nuru fought a losing battle to hold onto his amulet.
"I'll deal with you in a moment, you traitorous bitch. But you, two-faced little bard... your time ends now."
Onyekachi smashed the amulet against the floor under his heel and stood back to watch, clearly expecting Nuru to be torn to pieces or something similarly dramatic. Nuru fell to the floor hearing Sanaa scream with passionate rage in his head, as she had apparently been doing for some time.
