Grrrrrr....
 
Trying again. Hopefully this time it comes out legible. 
 
 
Deathless
 
By 
 
Jeremy Harper
 
Note – The Astonishing X-Men are the property of Marvel Comics, and are  used 
without 
permission. 
 
For OldPrydeFan, though she knows me not. 
 
Prologue One – The Sorcerer Contemplates His Creation
 

In his hall deep beneath Mother Damp Earth the sorcerer leaned  back in his 
malachite throne and with cold, agate eyes considered the force  arrayed in 
darkling glory 
before him. His gaze quickly passed over the  bandit-troubadour clad in 
crimson and gold, 
the great apotheosis of all  bears, and the scintillating Chaos Demon before 
settling on the 
last of his  assembled champions. The sorcerer's thin, black lips peeled 
back, revealing  
rotting fangs barred in the mockery of a smile. Fierce, greedy pride welled  
in his hollow 
breast as he looked at his son, armed and armored for his  first foray into 
the mortal world. 
His son, brought to him by fortuitous  circumstance, re-forged by his 
ancient, matchless 
craft, his penultimate  achievement, who would deliver to him his ultimate 
triumph. 
 
    His son stood tall – far taller than an ordinary man,  his shoulders 
broad and his 
limbs heroic in proportion. A deep-blue great  coat wrapped about his body, 
embroidered 
with rearing golden dragons,  trimmed with sable. Golden serpents on black 
cloth coiled 
up his legs. He  wore knee-high, hard leather boots, and leather gauntlets 
encased his large  
hands. A hood and steel skullcap covered his head and a golden mask, wrought  
like the 
face of a beautiful youth, lips curved upwards with a mocking  devil's smile, 
concealed 
his face. A broad belt, etched with gold and  buckled with silver, wound 
around his hips. 
A broadsword hung at his left  hip, a great knife rested on his right thigh. 
He stared back 
at his father  with shining, pupil-less, golden eyes, fierce fires burning in 
their fathomless  
depths. The sorcerer smiled and nodded at his son. With his son's awesome  
might, 
dominion would be theirs. 
 
 Behind the sorcerer's champions, the zahlozhniy – the unhallowed dead  – 
stood in 
neat, precise rows. Clad in filthy tatters, sabers, muskets and  axes gripped 
in their bony 
fingers, ready to fight, to reave, to slay, they  were his army and their 
numbers were 
inexhaustible.
 
 The sorcerer rose, lifted his arms in benediction, and spoke, his  thin, 
hissing voice 
echoing through the silence of the hall. "I have waited  five hundred years, 
and now our 
time has come. The spheres are aligned, the  stars are right, the key calls 
to me. It is time 
to begin. I will swallow my  doom and set myself beyond all woe." He gestured 
at his son. 
"My beautiful  creation, my darling childe, you are my eyes and my fist. In 
the New 
World,  in the city of New York, the first segment of the key awaits, 
concealed from my  
sight. Go there, find it, retrieve it. Sweep aside all who oppose  you."
 
 His son placed a clenched fist over his heart and bowed his head. His  voice 
was a 
whisper of thunder. "As you will it, so it shall be done." 
 
 The sorcerer settled back down on his malachite throne and prepared  to 
wrench 
open the gate, his death's head grin gleaming in the faint  light.     



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'