The forces of Sapience massed upon Mount Nicator, rallied there by the
party returned from their audience with Ugrach. Warriors hailing from
all cities, all affiliations, gathered together with a single mission:
destroy Slith. The consequences of failing to return Slith's corpse to
Ugrach were explained to all, and all pledged to see that it was done.

Once preparations were complete, Riashain knelt close to the dome-shaped
ward of power there around Tavarius-Slith, shielding his eyes from the
brilliant light penetrating its apex. With trembling fingers, he held
the shadowed blood ruby before the ward. Prisms of red light coalesced
and refracted through the flawless surface of the ruby, dancing wildly
over the gathered crowd and falling across the face of the unicorn.

Bending a knee and lowering her slender neck, the unicorn angled the
tapered length of her spiralling horn directly towards the gemstone. As
she braced herself firmly upon the icy ground with silvered hooves,
tendrils of crackling energy whirled and expanded around the base of her
horn.

With a sudden 'CRACK', the unicorn released the chaotically surging
patterns of interwoven light in a single focused beam, directing it
straight at the centre of the blood ruby with tremendous force. A
shockwave of energy rippled across the ward as it slowly began to turn
crimson.

Steadfast, the unicorn's coat glistened with a fine sheen of sweat from
the exertion, muscles aquiver as the man within the ever-reddening
shield of light faltered, his face suddenly awash in shock and
disbelief. As the powerful beam of energy continued to penetrate the
ward, the man standing within threw his head back and screamed with
fury. Swaths of darkness dematerialised all around him, unveiling a
great skeletal form armoured in a masterwork of black steel plate - the
true form of Slith!

Snorting small bursts of white smoke as her hooves scraped and sparked
against the ground in attempt to maintain her purchase, the unicorn
strained against the energy surging through her radiant form and
coursing out the tip of her horn. A bright-hot wave of energy pulsed up
the single ray of sunlight cascading down from the centrepoint of the
eclipsing planets and down into the ward around Slith.

With slow, majestic precision, the triune planets of Noxtra, Lunastra,
and Somnustra began to glide apart upon their natural trajectories,
gradually unveiling the shining face of the sun once more. The golden
sun's radiance enveloped the three planets, and their rotating outlines
wavered dramatically. For the briefest of moments, all became hushed and
still.

With a thunderous, deafening crack that cleaved the heavy silence
asunder, the planetary orbs collapsed into themselves and exploded, each
followed by an immensely unstable shockwave. Millions of planetary
fragments diffused upon the wake of the powerful interstellar wave in
all directions, either hurtling into the sun to be consumed or flung at
breakneck speed into the depths of space.

With a great peal of sound, oscillating red and golden waves of light
encircled the ward atop Mount Nicator, then burst and diffused in a
dazzling cascade of colour and crackling sound.

Maniacal laughter roared down Mount Nicator and echoed through the
Southern Vashnars. Bound no longer by the ward he had woven with the
sun's energy, Slith lay about him in a fury with blades and spells,
cutting down the armies of Sapience as easily as ripened stalks of
wheat. Many claimed later that they heard a horrible whispering within
their minds that caused them to run in fear against their wishes,
breaking rank and leaving others to die.

Though many blows did land upon Slith and weaken him, the battle was
already done: after breaking their first charge, Slith had broken the
army's spirit, and they did not regroup for a second. According to some
tacticians, a second charge more organised to prevent breaking ranks in
fear may have overcome the undead prince. The truth of that claim, the
world will never know for certain.

Slith sprang into the air with his batlike wings and flew towards the
Pash valley, where he entered the temple of Mithraea, the Goddess of the
Sun. He stalked through the temple in a rage, slaying several sentinels
and Aerilius, the Priestess of the Solstar as well as followers of the
Sun Goddess. As a final gesture, the undead prince contemptuously set
the entire valley of the Pash aflame, then vanished.

Though Slith remains unvanquished, and the Mitrans mourn for the deaths
in their temple and the continued imprisonment of their goddess upon
another plane, still, rejoice: the eternal night has passed at long
last, and the shining face of the sun graces the earth with her
life-nurturing light once more.


Penned by my hand on the 4th of Mayan, in the year 428 AF.