Murphy, Sabastian, and Melock stood over the burnt mark where the Necromancer turned to ash. Melock focused on the two iron forearm bracers left behind on the scorched earth.
"So what are they?" asked Sabastian.
"Power gauntlets. They have a very dark aura," said Melock examining them closely without touching them.
"Do you think you can wear them?" asked Sabastian.
"I suspect they affect the wearer. But there is only one way to find out for sure."
Melock picked up the gauntlets and slide his hand into one and then the other. They dug into his forearms like someone was screwing them into his bones. He felt a rush of power jolt through his body.
Sabastian and Murphy watched the wizard put on the gauntlets. At first, his face winced in pain, then the wind picked up and his eyes went white with no pupils at all. He held out his arms and floated off the ground. A whirlwind of a tornado formed over his head and reached up to the clouds stirring up a massive dark thunderstorm. Melock rose higher into the air and spoke with a sonic boom of a voice.
"The cursed gauntlets of the demon god harness the power of the universe!"
Lightning flashed overhead and Melock's brain was flooded with thoughts of cruelty, sadism, and a set of thirteen curses that would render any opponent helpless in their wake.
Dim the vision (for instant blindness)
Knot the tongue (to remove of ability to speak or eat)
Dizzy the soul (shatter the inner ear for loss of balance)
Invert knuckles (flip inner skeletal and tendon structure around)
Scoliosis (inflict extreme spine bending)
Break bones (zero in on specific bones or shatter them all)
Bent feet (bend appendages at the halfway point to a permanent 45-degree angle)
Boil the blood (to a bubbling explosion)
Twisted mind (to destroy the memory)
Break the heart (to inflict sadness)
Confuse reality (and cause hallucinatory schizophrenia)
Despair (to remove the will to act)
Suicide solution (motivate an enemy to rid you of themselves)
A maniacal craze took over Melock and he let the desires for conquest and destruction run wild in his imagination. He looked at the two humans below looking up at him and at the third lying on the ground behind him.
"Tykö?" he said in a melancholic question.
While the gauntlets empowered him to know he could easily subjugate Murphy and Sabastian, they also tempted him to do more awful things to Tykö's body. He knew the gauntlets had other powers and that they helped the Necromancer twist his organs, break his bones, and zap his will to live. The storm faded as quickly as it came. Melock floated back down to earth and removed the gauntlets.
He walked past his two stunned friends and returned Tykö's side. A few minutes ago he was certain Tykö would recover but there he was dead on the ground. His ancient experiential life finally brought to an end. He should have been able to fight against his physical wounds but the gauntlets did far more than physical damage.
Consumed by the intrigue of the Necromancer's possessions, they had all ignored Tykö while he died. Melock couldn't help but fear he might go out in such an unnoticed way.
"I'm sorry I let you slip away. It was foolish to have done so," said Melock.
"Is he dead?" asked de Martín.
"He looks asleep," said Murphy.
"He was, but now he's gone."
Melock conjured up his trunk of necessity. The old steamer chest appeared next to Tykö. Melock opened it, removed a clear plastic body bag, and opened it next to his body.
"Would you mind getting his feet?"
"You're going to bag him? And stuff him in that trunk?" asked Sabastian.
"Unless you want to carry him?" said Melock.
Murphy prayed that Tykö's soul would transcend this dead world and find its way back to a heaven somewhere near the Green Star he called home. She shed a tear for the loss of such a strange fellow.
Melock and de Martín zipped him in plastic, folded him into the trunk, and shoved the lid closed. Melock dismissed the box with a wave and it vanished. He held the cursed gauntlets in his hands.
"If there's nothing else, shall we return?"
Murphy held out the black mace. "What about this bad boy?"
Melock looked at it and touched one of the spiked points. A horrific flash of memory zapped into his mind like a railroad spike of information. This mace had killed countless beings. He shook off the bloody images the weapon inspired.
"It's made of a peculiar alloy. I've never seen its like. The density of its molecules must make it nearly unbreakable. Is it heavy?"
Murphy twirled it like a baton, tossed it spinning overhead, and caught it by the handle on the way down. "No. In fact, it's rather light and finely balanced."
"Do you sense any evil or corrupt intent while holding it?"
She thought about it looking at the darkly designed weapon. "Other than the way it looks, not really. Shall I leave it here?"
"May I?" he asked holding out a hand.
"Of course." She offered him the handle.
The moment Melock took the mace he dropped the gauntlets and held the weapons with both hands. Again, it felt like it was being painfully attached to him. It felt like nails being hammered through his fingers and palms, making it near impossible for him to let go. And again, he felt a rush of power. The wicked mace was also a powerful magical item. The ball burst into an orange and blue flame. For Melock, the weapon was mysterious and deadly. It tempted him to try it out on his friends. When he looked at them, the mace showed him exactly where to hit them to cause instant death. He dropped the weapon and stepped away from it.
"It doesn't hurt your hands?" he asked.
Murphy bent down and picked it back up. "No, not at all. It hurts yours?"
She looked at it, turning it over in her grip. She saw the same pained and disturbed look on Melock's face when he held it as she saw when he put on the gauntlets. She quietly asked the gods of steel if the weapon was suitable for her to wield and asked the god of wisdom why it would hurt a wizard to hold?
Melock rubbed his hands together to relieve the soreness and watched Murphy light-heartedly spin the mace around like it was just another weapon. Had she found a flipside to its evil? The Necromancer used Sid's spellbook for evil and he wrote it as a guide to the power of light. Maybe Sister Murphy was so good she turned the weapon? Maybe she was so good she spanned the spectrum and met supreme evil on the other side? He didn't believe in good or evil as philosophical goalposts, nor as a moral compass. Maybe he had about as much in common with the Necromancer as he did with his holy warrior bodyguard?
"I suspect you attuned to the weapon after defeating the Necromancer in battle. When I hold the handle it feels like I'm grabbing nails," said Melock.
"Let me try."
Murphy handed the mace to Sabastian.
"Ah! No no no no, mon dieu, no," he said dropping it immediately.
Sabastian de Martín had some wickedness in him, that was clear enough. He rubbed his hands vigorously and shook them as if they had become numb. An idea occurred to Melock.
"Melody, if I may be so bold, would you be brave enough to try on the bracers?"
"You said they were cursed? You called them cursed gauntlets. The cursed gauntlets of the demon lord. I should not be interested in that. Plus, my armor already has forearm protection."
"You could try them on over your armor. I'm curious," he said, "I suspect they'll not affect you like the mace doesn't."
This line of logic made sense to her. "Your judgment has not led me astray, thus far. I'll try them."
Murphy clamped the gauntlets over her forearms. This time she felt them. They gripped her arms by the bone, right through her armor like it wasn't even there. It did feel like they were being bolted to her with set screws. The pain quickly receded and was replaced with a feeling of protection, safety, and power.
"Well?"
Her deadpan stoicism hid whatever may or may not have been happening to her. Murphy jumped a good seven feet into the air, swinging the mace, kicking her leg, and landing like a cat. She stuck her toe under a big rock and kicked it into the air, only to swat with the mace and smash it into tiny pieces.
"I admit, these give me a feeling," she said looking energized.
"How so?"
"They did hurt when I put them on and even now they seem attached to me, like it may hurt to removed them."
"It hurt when I took them off," said Melock. "I'm sorry I asked you to try them. Please do—"
"But now they make me feel stronger, quicker, more agile. I don't have any fear or negative emotions associated with them. Other than I think it might hurt to take them off," she said.
"And you feel no pull toward darkness or wrongdoing?"
"The opposite. I feel righteous. Let's go back and find Øregård and Grimble. They might need my help in the fight."